August issue 2015 by Maryam Morrison

T h e

EDEN

MAGAZINE

ASHKAN TABIBNIA Master life Strategist, Realist, Futurist

HOW WE ARE CONNECTED by J. L. Kimmel

The Shamanic Way Of Healing by Raymond Hill

August 2015 Volume 5 Issue 8

CONTENTS ASHKAN TABIBNIA

ARE YOU READY......... by Roxana Jones

DEVELOPING YOUR YOGIC SUPERPOWER by James Conner

HOW TO AVOID A NEVER ENDING MAELSTORM by Sherri Cortland

WHAT IS THE ESSENCE OF FENG SHUI by Michael WhiteRyan

WANT TO MEASURE YOUR CONSCIOUSNESS by Richard Barett

A NEW PERSPECTIVE OF LIFE by Jan Dianna

LOSS & PIVOTING by Ellen Angelica Penergast

FOREVER MORE CHOOSE TO LIVE... by Heike Stenzel

THE SHAMANIC WAY OF HEALING by Raymond Hill

HOW WE ARE ALL CONNCETED by J. L. Kimmel

Spreading compassion to all sentient beings and Living in healing and peaceful world Maryam Morrison Editor-in Chief maryammorrison@theedenmagazine.com WEBSITE www.theedenmagazine.com FACEBOOK https://www.facebook.com/TheEdenmagazine CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Sherri Cortland Jan Diana Roxana Jones & Arnaud Saint-Paul Ellen Angelica Pendergast Heike Stenzel Michael WhiteRyan COVER ASHKAN TABIBNIA

Eden Magazine is an independent monthly online magazine. Our aim is to create a better environment where we live among other living being in peace and harmony. We support artists that their work match our criteria. If you would like to submit your artwork, article or/and your Photography For our future issues please contact Maryam Morrison at; maryammorrison@theedenmagazine.com or www.theedenmagazine.com 3 THEDENMAGAZINE.COM â&#x2122;Ľ August 2015

ASHKAN TABIBNIA Master life Strategist, Realist, Futurist Founder of Higher Connections Network Executive Vice President of Family Film Awards and Olympia Awards

photo by Cerdan Designs Art/Entertainment MEDIA

6 THEDENMAGAZINE.COM â&#x2122;Ľ July 2015

Say I Am You I am dust particles in sunlight. I am the round sun. To the bits of dust I say, Stay. To the sun, Keep moving. I am morning mist, and the breathing of evening. I am wind in the top of a grove, and surf on the cliff. Mast, rudder, helmsman, and keel, I am also the coral reef they founder on. I am a tree with a trained parrot in its branches. Silence, thought, and voice. The musical air coming through a flute, a spark off a stone, a flickering in metal. Both candle and the moth crazy around it. Rose and nightingale lost in the fragrance. I am all orders of being, the circling galaxy, the evolutionary intelligence, the lift and the falling away. What is and what is not. You who know Jelaluddin, You are the one in all, say who I am. Say I am you. ~RUMI

photo by Cerdan Designs Art/Entertainment MEDIA I had the privilege to meet Ashkan Tabibnia a couple of years ago, and we got connected with our spiritual path, it was years after that I learned about his successful business side.

“THE ELEMENTS OF MARKETING ARE WITHIN EACH ONE OF US, IT JUST NEEDS TO BE BROUGHT OUT THROUGH A RIGHT PLATFORM, AND THAT IS WHAT WE AT HIGHER CONNECTION NETWORK ARE HERE FOR.”

Ashkan left his country Iran 25 years ago when he was a young boy and moved with his parents to California. He started with getting a scholarship to go to a private school for business. His journey was a quiet adventure through the years, but with all the ups and downs he found his path soon by starting his first business when he was only 18 years old, as the CEO and founder of 7 Elephants, importer and distributor of high quality car audio and video equipment, digital media, players, cameras, and personal electronics in 1992. Within a few years his business grew to over 50 employees, five million dollars in annual sales and a 40,000 sq. ft. warehouse. Ashkan developed a reputation for top quality products, as well as excellent service. 7 Elephants special-

8 THEDENMAGAZINE.COM ♥ August 2015

ized in 5 major brands: Konaki, MD Sound, NT Power, Konaki Digital and Yoshima. 7 Elephants was a featured exhibitor at consumer electronics expos such as Magic, SEMA and the CES shows in Las Vegas. Business was great, but something was missing he said; until one day he realized he wanted to do more. A lifelong dream of his was to develop a social platform where he could share ideas and business strategies with great minds and visionaries, learn additional skills to aid in his personal and business growth, mastermind with other powerful business people and collaborate. And so the birth of Higher Connections Network on February 12, 2009. A core element of his vision was developing an environment where there are NO RULES, NO LIMITATIONS. HCN has helped hundreds of individuals and businesses to find their niche and help to turn their dreams into reality.

www.higher.org www.higherconnectionsnetwork.com

www.higherexperts.com www.higherventure.com www.higherlivinginstitue.com www.higherxperience.com

9 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM â&#x2122;Ľ August 2015

Founder of Higher Connections Network Executive Vice President of Family Film Awards and Olympia Awards The sense of Marketing and PR starts as early as childhood Ashkan says; “this element is within each one of us, it just needs to be brought out through a right platform, and that is what we at Higher Connections Network are here for.”

“THE JOY OF HAVING IS TO SERVING AS WELL TO KEEP THE BALANCE THAT IS WHY WE ARE HERE”

But Ashkan believes not only to follow our dreams is enough, as our universe is designed for everything we receive we need to give back, this is the simple cycle of life. “The joy of having is to be serving, as well to keep the balance, that is why we are here” Ashkan says. With HCN this is possible too. Most of us forget this area to give back. This is the most important part of business. So, in every area to make money, there is an area to be spiritual. We help people to keep this harmony. Through HCN Ashkan was able to develop multiple alliances and projects. The most ambitious to date is the Ascent Expo, recently held at the Los Angeles Convention Center. The 2015 Ascent Expo is the biggest conscious and empowerment expo in the USA. It was the first to showcase consciousness, philanthropy, innovation and commerce in one event with more than 100 speakers, 100 music artists, multiple fashion

shows on five stages on 144,000 sq. ft. Among the guests and keynote speakers were Michael Beckwith, Patch Adams, MD., Dannion Brinkley, Frank Shankwitz, Greg Reid, Sharon Lechter, and David Fagan. Ashkan, as humble as he is, always remembers and acknowledges his success from the help of his family and his partners. “ I want to thank my parents who taught me to be who I am, my dad who is 84 years old now, was born blind, but this never stopped him to achieve what he dreamed in his life. He is a master of Philosophy, geology and much more, he never learned Braille. I would like to thank my mother who stood next to my dad through the years, my lovely wife Madlen who is right behind me in the past years. I truly think I couldn’t do it without her, and my three amazing children Ariel, Shaunna and Noah. And last but not least Pia Azores my co-founder, and now president of HCN, who tirelessly and incessantly helped me achieve this great network. Eden Magazine is proud to announce the collaboration with Ashkan Tabibnia and Higher Connections Network in the future.

WE OFFER Higher Living Institute 1. Life Mastery Plan (better known as MLP) 2. Personal Motivation and Inspiration Seminars 3. Creation of a centralized “Personal Universe” 4. Teachings on the five elements that every person has and how to create synergy and balance between them and learn the art of giving: a. Time b. Talent and Skills c. Contacts d. Money e. Resources 5. Contact Management course 6. Ideas of how to create your inner circle to maximize your efficiency and output 7. 12 Steps to a life of mastery (with simplicity, clarity & balance) Higher Experts 1. Exclusive and tailored personal management and PR for personal branding, service, product or business 2. Exclusive referral services Higher Ventures 1. Wold class real estate 2. Financing 3. Project management 4. Investments Higher Xperience 1. How to create and operate social network in the 21st century 2. How to have access to world-class speakers and utilize their expertise and message to impact and influence your community 3. How to create and maintain world-class empowering content and knowledge and how to distribute it into your database 4. How to create a personal organizational master mind group and tools to maintain and deliver at the highest level Higher.org 1. Ideas of how to create the world’s first perfect organization that helps the users by teaching them the best way to create, to grow and to flourish and last but not least to help them understand their life purpose and mission and the best way to utilize their God-given purpose to serve, give and to help the humanity and the world.

11 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM ♥ August 2015

Art by Maryam Morrison https://www.facebook.com/maryammarts 12 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM â&#x2122;Ľ August 2015

Are you Ready to find your Life Purpose? Roxana Jones roxanajones.com

After writing the article “Conquering Depression and Suicidal Thoughts” some members of the community asked how they could find their life purpose, so I thought I should share a little bit about how I found mine. To be honest, I only found my life purpose five years ago. Doing the math, this means that it took me FORTY THREE YEARS to find out what was that which made me feel completely realized, happy and fulfilled. Do I regret the fact it took me ‘sooo’ long? Of course not, because not even one second of those forty three years were wasted or lost. Simply put, this was the time I required to finally accept that I had to stop searching for my life purpose WITHOUT myself. The way I see it, finding our life purpose is a process that cannot be taught by anyone or learned from anyone but YOU. Does this mean that you must stop searching for answers through books, videos, workshops, teachers, healers, coaches and any method or technique that you have been practicing until now? The answer again is: of course not. You see, the tools and facilitators I just mentioned are the ones that can take you to the final step of the process where you are ready to go within yourself and find your life purpose, or personal legend and personal calling, as Paulo Coelho and Oprah Winfrey, two of my favorite people on Earth, prefer to call it,

respectively. As in every process, you are going to need several steps before reaching the goal, and you won’t be able to avoid any of them. There are no elevators that can take you faster and effortlessly to your life purpose. So, if you are truly committed to connect with this calling of yours, a great way to begin is by: 1.Observing all you can from others who have already found theirs. 2.Humbly accepting that you are the only one who can do the work others have already achieved for themselves. 3.Becoming fully devoted to it, because NO OTHER MATTER in life is as important as finding what fuels you with permanent passion and enthusiasm. When I was finding my life purpose and trying to answer the questions: who I am? what I have come here for? I was so confused with my outer reality, – completely identified with the material world – that I didn’t truly believe the answers could be found inside of me, after all, who was I – this little and insignificant human being – to think I had all the answers to my dilemmas, right? For many years, the outer reality kept belittling me and it was just too real to me. At the same time, my inner reality felt so…unreal and even fictional!

13 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM ♥ August 2015

But life KNEW I wanted and needed to find my purpose! So it acted accordingly and took away from me all that was distracting and keeping me away from my purpose. When my outer reality was almost completely emptied, I had no other choice than to start listening to my inner voice, the voice of my heart. This was how I began to comprehend that there were ‘two realities’ happening at the same time, and that my outer reality was not so real after all, as it was ONLY a reflection of my inner heaven or…hell! My heart was the one that revealed my purpose, not my mind. It began whispering all the reminders I needed to realize I had known my calling since a child. I had forgotten what it was because I had gotten distracted by my outer reality, you see. Since I began experiencing my life purpose, every day that I wake up is magical. Why? Because every single cell of my being is LOVING what I do, and there are no excuses (health, wealth, or relationships excuses) that could keep me away from feeling my passion and enthusiasm. I want magical days for you too. If you still don’t feel you have found your life purpose and you would like not only to find it but live it, please ask yourself and respond in the most honest way: 1. If you’re ready to stop putting your children, husband, partner or any other member of your family before you; 2. If you’re ready to stop believing bills or debts must get paid before you can begin discovering who you are and what you are here for; 3. If you’re ready to stop believing in ALL limiting beliefs that are not allowing you to experience the life you deserve. You must become aware of the excuses you might be reproducing in auto-pilot. It is important to understand that the time for it is now, because your past is gone and your whole future depends on the decision you make today, right now. Until next time and don’t forget to be love,

14 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM ♥ August 2015

Roxana Jones and Arnaud Saint-Paul devote themselves to their life purpose: To open as many hearts as possible and to help shifting the consciousness of the planet. As spiritual healers and teachers, life and business partners, their intent is to “help millions around the world to embrace change and start living the type of love, happiness and abundance both of them now know exists for everyone once they are healed.” Together, they work enthusiastically in bringing to their audience the best of themselves so that everyone can connect to their own Truth and unveil who they truly are: divine beings enlightening the world in their own unique ways, even when darkness makes it hard to believe it is so.

15 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM ♥ August 2015

Developing Your Yogic Superpowers to Make the World a Better Place by James Connor

16 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM â&#x2122;Ľ August 2015

Anyone who casually skims the verses of The Yoga Sutra, the third century root text available in nearly every yoga studio, bumps into a most perplexing fact. The third chapter on Mystical Powers describes specific causes for supernormal abilities like mind reading, invisibility, and flying.

nize that we are all the same in this way, we can begin to wish happiness for everyone.

2. Recognize a tendency of mind to think more about yourself. Here’s the thing: villains are always trying to get stuff for themselves So what exactly are the causes for superpowers? at the expense of others. Heroes are always And how can we develop them within ourselves to willing to sacrifice themselves to protect even total strangers. As you go about your day, do make the world a better place? you want to be a hero or a villain? Fortunately, superpowers don’t come from radioactive spider bites or laboratory mishaps. Instead, Master Patanjali tells us in The Yoga Sutra that “The powers are found in love and the rest.” He’s referring to the Four Immeasurables: Immeasurable Equanimity, Immeasurable Compassion, Immeasurable Love, and Immeasurable Joy. These attitudes are immeasurable because they are aimed at every living being and because the merit they generate is immeasurable. Indeed, as Patanjali tells us, the merit from these attitudes of heart are so powerful they lead to miraculous abilities. The Buddha first taught the Four Immeasurables around 500 B.C.E. These attitudes were so well known in ancient India during Patanjali’s time that he could simply say “the powers are found in love and the rest” and everyone who was supposed to know, would understand the code.

Just watch your mind. Do you spend more time worrying about your own problems and challenges or worrying about someone else’s? Think about these two choices like black and white rocks on an ancient scale. Every time you worry about yourself, stack a black rock on one tray. And every time you think about making someone else happy, stack a white rock. At the end of the day, which way does the balance tip?

3. Watch for what other people want. Now wherever you go, use your eyes, ears, and mind to pay attention to what other people want. Try to stand in their shoes and see how they see the world. Maybe someone just wants So how can you can you develop these attitudes their talents recognized with a little praise. Or in your own heart? One of the most effective ways maybe someone is having a hard time on a is to follow the Buddhist heart-opening practice project and could use an extra hand. Or mayof Exchanging Self and Others. This essential be someone wants a friend to treat them to a practice was taught by the eighth century master nice dinner and listen to their stories. Stay on Shantideva. After giving this teaching, a hall full of the look out for a chance to help like a hero, monks reported Shantideva flew out of the temple without wanting anything in return. into the sky. This practice has four simple steps that you can put into practice immediately in your daily life.

4. Make the exchange. When you see some way to help someone, act. Decide that you will make efforts using whatever skills and abilities 1. Recognize that everyone wants to be hap- you have to help that person get what they py. We are all bliss seekers and pain avoid- want to feel happier (as long as it’s not hurters. Give anyone even the simplest of choices ing someone else, of course). When you are and people will always choose what that they totally focused on ensuring another person’s believe will lead to happiness. Even when happiness, you are transforming a habitual, people act out or act badly it’s because they human tendency to be self-centered--that vilare trying to get something that they believe lain energy--into gaining a supernormal habit will make them happy. When we can recog- to serve other people’s happiness first.

17 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM ♥ August 2015

Just start small and build up. Anything can become a habit of mind if you keep at it. And we are talking about going from a normal person to a superyogi. A most curious thing happens if you keep this practice up. Watch as you become happier and the people in your world become happier. As Master Shantideva explains in one of the most important teachings ever given: The total amount of happiness That exists in the world has come from Wanting to make others happy. The total amount of suffering That exists in the world has come from Wanting to make yourself happy. So there is a reason that villains never get happy endings. They are only thinking about themselves. If you keep this practice of Exchanging Self and Others going for a while, another curious thing can happen. You’ll get so good at getting your small self out of the way--and serving others as if they were you--that according to ancient Buddhist and Yoga texts, you can begin to be able to read minds. As Master Patanjali explains in The Yoga Sutra, “With the necessary cause, one can read the minds of others.” One fortunate thing about yogic superpowers is that they usually only come to people who can get their small self out of the way and care for everyone. This is why miracles in history are usually performed by saints who are focused on alleviating the suffering of others. True, an occasional villain slips in because powers can be gained and then corrupted, but generally supernormal abilities belong to saints who want to serve others. Let’s just hope you will use your yogic supernormal powers for good.

18 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM ♥ August 2015

James Connor recently completed an isolated three-year meditation retreat. He is the author of The Superyogi Scenario, a pageturning thriller that allows readers to experience authentic wisdom that creates superheroes. He is also the founder of GoBeyond.org a non-profit that teaches people how to meditate from authentic scriptural sources in the Buddhist and Yoga lineages. For more visit: www.byjamesconnor.com www.gobeyond.org.

To Advertise your business, or your products please contact us at: maryammorrison@theedenmagazine. or www.theedenmagazine.com 19 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM â&#x2122;Ľ August 2015

FIVE REASONS FOR TAKING UP MEDITATION by Joseph Eme

Many people start to meditate in order to find peace and serenity, or to reduce their stress level. These are two very good reasons, and research validates them. The Buddhist tradition also supports them. Serenity Meditation, or calming the mind, is an essential part of Vipassana, a basic Buddhist meditation practice, and we have Buddha’s own words in support of the use of meditation for stress reduction: ”I teach only two things: suffering and the end of suffering.“ The original word he used for suffering, Dukkha, has many connotations, and is now translated by some scholars as stress. Here are three other reasons I have discovered in the course of my thirty-year adventure with meditation: ● Meditation can help you sleep better. The same basic mindfulness practices such as calming the mind and “being here and now” are also things you need for going to sleep and staying asleep. At bedtime, the body may be in bed, it may be comfortable and quiet, but if the mind is somewhere else, perhaps having an argument with your partner or boss, sleep may evade you. The body does not know the difference between a real argument and an imagined one; in both cases, it raises your blood pressure, increases your heartbeat and your muscle tension. Calming the overthinking mind is helpful for sleeping better. As we get better at it with meditation, our sleep also improves. We can be sure that Buddha himself was serene and peaceful not only during the day, but also at night when he went to bed. ● Meditation can make you more creative. It does this in two ways. First, by calming surface thoughts, it makes room for intuition, inspiration, and insight. Thinking is the mind talking. Meditation is the mind listen-

ing. When we are quiet, we can hear more. In a busy mind, the voice of our inner self is drowned out. Second, by making us less stressed and more positive-minded, it broadens our vision. In contrast, when we are burdened with negative thoughts, our field of vision narrows. True creativity is a whole-brain thing. Ideas that move a poem, a song, or a scientific problem forward often seem to come “out of the blue.” Blue, in this context, means the unconscious mind. One cannot force the unconscious mind, but one can engage with it. The way to engage with it is to always have a question in mind. This is the enquiring mind, the “don’t know mind,” the open mind. This mind often has a childlike quality much prized in Zen. You do not have to be a poet or a scientist to benefit from creativity. Everyday living provides us with plenty of puzzles that can be better solved with a touch of creativity. ● Meditation can help you deal with your own aggressiveness, and to under stand the aggressiveness of sothers. Do you ever wonder why there is so much violence and so many wars in the world? So much bullying, organized crime, and road rage? In Old Path, White Clouds, his interpretive story of Buddha’s life, Thich Nhat Hanh describes Buddha’s awakening as the realization that all his previous lives were in him now—they were not merely past history. The Buddha saw that he was also all those beings in the present moment. Note that what Buddhists call “previous lives” can also be understood as “evolutionary past” in the context of evolutionary psychology.

21 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM ♥ August 2015

The animal that fights and kills in order to become the alpha male, the cat who kills a songbird just to play with it even though it is not hungry (cats kill three and a half billion songbirds a year), and the lion who attacks a cub just because it is not a member of the same pride, are still in us. The schoolyard bully, the hockey player who knowingly inflicted a concussion on a member of the opposing team, and the bankers who caused the recent financial crisis for personal profit were obeying evolutionary urges. With mindfulness, the past colors the present; it colors our understanding of the present, but it does not dictate our actions. On the contrary, knowing the past can be a warning that without mindfulness, the same urges of our evolutionary ancestors can overwhelm us at any moment. Buddha’s awakening can be an inspiration for psychodynamic psychotherapies as well. Understanding the personal past, the events and the traumas of childhood, brings insight, but in the end, it is mindfulness practice that liberates a person from the grip of the past. The past influences the present mostly through habit. We automatically think or react in a certain way now because of our past conditioning. Without mindfulness, we can just continue thinking the same way, feeling the same way, and blaming it all on past events. Mindfulness makes it possible to make fresh tracks. At first, we gingerly walk on those fresh tracks. With time, the tracks deepen, new and more beneficial habits form, and change becomes a reality. The valuable effects of meditation I described above are progressive. Mindfulness practice begins with observing the breath and calming the mind. It is only by observing these basics and going into them deeply that the additional fruits of meditation are realized. Start there, but do not stop too soon. New vistas open up as you continue practicing.

22 22THEDENMAGAZINE.COM THEDENMAGAZINE.COM ♥ ♥August August 2015 2015

Joseph Emet is the author of Buddha’s Book of Meditation, Buddha’s Book of Stress Reduction, and the award winning Buddha’s Book of Sleep. ( Tarcher Penguin) Available everywhere books are sold. Joseph Emet’s website is http://www.mindfulnessmeditationcentre.org/.

www.mindfulfitnessfestival.com

How to avo a never-ending ma of the same-old, s By Sherri Cortland

24 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM â&#x2122;Ľ August 2015

Spiritual Growth Checkpoint

Author Gloria Naylor once said, “I don’t believe life is supposed to make you feel good, or to make you feel miserable, either. Life is just supposed to make you feel.”

oid aelstrom same old www.sherricortland.com

I love this quote because so many of us talk and write about being here to have experiences and to learn lessons, but something that we don’t talk about enough is that at the core of every experience is a feeling—and some feelings can be difficult to deal with. It’s the hurt feelings, the feelings of guilt, and the feelings of pain and heartache that affect us the most, don’t you think? Sometimes to the point that we have a hard time recovering from them, which can cause us to waste a lot of time and countless windows of opportunity to do what we came here to do and learn what we came here to learn. When crappy things happen to us, or when tragedy strikes us or a loved one, it is very easy to blame others for our misfortune. As we begin to wake up, one of the most difficult things to wrap our heads around is the understanding that we are the ones who create the situations we find ourselves dealing with—be they happy or sad.

25 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM ♥ August 2015

We plan nearly everything that happens to us during our lifetimes, just like we choose our immediate family and our friends.

action from my Guides to help us get ourselves unstuck:

And that means that the responsibility for what’s going on in our lives, and how we handle what’s going on in our lives, ultimately belongs to us. There’s no getting around it, and this is one of the reasons why waking up can be hard. It’s unquestionably easier to be asleep, keep our eyes closed to the truth, blame other people for what happens to us, accept whatever “fate” throws our way, and swirl through life like a leaf caught in a whirlpool.

sible for planning our lives. And that means making the choice to move from ‘Poor Me’ Avenue over to ‘Take Responsibility’ Court. This is a big move for us, and not an easy one at all, because there’s a lot of stuff we have to throw out as we’re getting ready for this move: Not the least of which are (1) the tendency to blame others for our perceived misfortunes and (2) the propensity to react to crappy situations by spewing negative energy all over the place.

But when we are awake, we can’t blindly swirl around anymore—if we continue to swirl, it’s because we choose to swirl. As we wake up and learn that we are truly responsible for our own lives, the alternative to churning aimlessly is to put on our big lightworker pants and start making better choices for ourselves: Choices that will allow us to learn our lessons faster, easier and with less drama and pain, and means recognizing windows of opportunities. Being awake means that once we’ve had an experience and felt the feelings that go along with it, we don’t have to keep repeating that same experience over and over to the point where we’ve created a relentless life script. Instead, we can take the bull by the horns and take a reflective look at a specific experience, figure out what we did right, what we could have done better, and prepare ourselves for the next time a similar window of opportunity to learn that lesson comes around. And another opportunity will emerge in the future because we have designed windows upon windows upon windows to make sure we meet our goals for this lifetime. As we wake up and learn about windows, we have a decision to make: Are we going to make time to master the skill of spotting windows so we can make better choices and have less drama, pain and suffering in our lives or are we going to repeat patterns of behavior that create life scripts? I’m guessing that everyone reading this article would rather end a life script than continue to repeat it and so I have a three-step plan of

26 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM ♥ August 2015

• Step one is to accept the fact that we’re respon-

• Step Two is to take the time to master the skill

of spotting our windows of opportunity as they begin to open or while they’re open rather than after they’ve already closed. Learning to spot windows is like learning any other skill—it just takes practice. • Step Two is to take the time to master the skill of spotting our windows of opportunity as they begin to open or while they’re open rather than after they’ve already closed. Learning to spot windows is like learning any other skill—it just takes practice. And the best way to start seeing windows in the present is to examine our past and look for the patterns that make up our life scripts. Once we discover a pattern or life script, we can apply that knowledge to what’s going on in our lives right now. Is there a similarity between situations we find ourselves in now and what we’ve been through in the past? If yes, then we’ve discovered a life script and a window. Comparing the present to the past will help us identify windows that are open for us right now. It will also help us recognize the signs of a new window opening early.

• Step Three is to take action. When we recog-

nize an open window, we can draw on how handled similar situations in the past---and do something different this time. We know that what we’ve done previously didn’t work because we continue to attract parallel circumstances or opportunities into our lives, so we have to find a way to change things up this time: Maybe we change our attitude, maybe the way we react, our behavior—it depends on the situation and what we’ve done to handle it in the past. This is a highly personal plan of action that only we can create for ourselves.

If you’re ready to start developing your windowspotting skills, here’s what to do: Set aside even just 10 minutes a day a couple of times a week to meditate, examine what’s going in your life and work on connecting the dots to past experiences to discover the patterns in your life. Then, take the appropriate action that only you can formulate. It’s as simple as that and as hard as that. We are all sparks of the Source/Creator/God, and it is not only possible, but very much within our power to make the changes that will allow us to feel the feelings we came here to feel, and have the experiences we planned for ourselves. We don’t need to create a never-ending maelstrom of the same-old, same-old that wastes our time and attracts preventable drama, pain and suffering into our lives. We can learn what we want to learn closer to the ground floor instead of in the penthouse. THAT is the power of us!

Originally from New York State, Sherri Cortland lives in Orlando, Florida with her husband, Ted Dylewski and their many cats. In addition to writing books for Ozark Mountain Publishing, Sherri is also the Orlando Metaphysical Columnist for Examiner.com, where publishes new columns twice weekly, and she also shares messages from her Guides on her Facebook Author Page.

Photo by: Heidi Winkler www.HeidiWinkler.com

And you know what? If we recognize a window after it’s already closed, that’s okay. The first thing to do in this case is to give yourself a congratulatory slap on the back for noticing it! Then look at how you dealt with the situation and figure out NOW what to do differently when the next window opens. And another window will open—you can be sure of that. Learning from an experience and making a plan of action so we’re ready for the next window of opportunity is how we master the skill and how we accelerate our spiritual growth.

For information about Sherri’s new book, please visit her website at www.sherricortland.com and click on the link for Guide Group Fridays.

Namaste. Dear Readers, THANK YOU for being part of this column with me for the last two years! This will be my last column for a little while as I’m taking a six-month hiatus from writing in order to spend more time meditating and studying. And a huge THANK YOU to my beloved editor, Maryam Morrison, for allowing me to be part of the The Eden Magazine family! Much love, peace, and happiness to you all.

27 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM ♥ August 2015

An excerpt from A Mosaic Heart

art by Ricardo Fernandez Ortega, Musetouch

28 THEDENMAGAZINE.COM â&#x2122;Ľ August 2015

Reshaping the Shards of a Shattered Life By Terry Jones-Brady

29 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM â&#x2122;Ľ August 2015

I BEGAN TO STUDY THE STORY OF PERSEPHONE AND HER MOTHER, DEMETER, SAID TO BE ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT IN HELLENIC MYTHOLOGY. THE STORY, WHICH SPOKE TO MY HEART, FOLLOWS HERE IN AN ABBREVIATED FORM: ONE DAY PERSEPHONE, A BEAUTIFUL YOUNG WOMAN, WAS OUT PICKING FLOWERS. HADES, THE GOD OF THE DEAD, ABDUCTED HER AND TOSSED HER INTO HIS CHARIOT. HE HURLED THE CHARIOT DOWN INTO HIS UNDERWORLD KINGDOM BEFORE THE OTHER GODS AND GODDESSES COULD STOP HIM. STRICKEN WITH GRIEF FOR HER LOST DAUGHTER, DEMETER, WHO WAS THE VIBRANT GODDESS OF AGRICULTURE, REFUSED TO LET THE CROPS GROW. THE HARVEST WITHERED. DEMETER DISGUISED HERSELF AS AN OLD CRONE AND ROAMED THE EARTH SEARCHING FOR PERSEPHONE. THE OLYMPIAN GODS EVENTUALLY INTERVENED, ALLOWING PERSEPHONE TO RISE FROM THE NETHERWORLD AND REJOIN HER MOTHER FOR SIX MONTHS OUT OF EVERY YEAR. I traveled to Greece with some friends and visited Eleusis, the spot where the disguised Demeter is said to have ended up and where the Greeks held an annual festival in pre-Christian times. In explanations of the central myth of Demeter, as it was apparently played out in the Eleusinian Mysteries, Persephone is Demeter’s daughter as well as Demeter’s own younger self. In philosophical moments I had asked of myself: Who is the mother, who the daughter? According to mythology, I could be both. That was oddly comforting. Being both, teacher and student, reinforced my belief in Oneness, Connectedness, non-Fragmentation. All abstract terms that popped into my head and helped me when I yearned to understand the incomprehensible. I knew that my tiny and helpless infants came to teach their birth mother the secrets of loving fully and unconditionally. In mythological explanations of the netherworld, we don’t stay there forever. That was a comfort to

30 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM ♥ August 2015

know I would emerge into fresh air and new life. And so it was. They were gone. They were all gone, having taught their tender, tough lessons. Was I an unwilling student, a slow learner? Did I grasp the message embedded in my loves’ lifetimes? I hope so, but it was hard learning. Later, still alone, I began to feel that I was being reincarnated in the same body within this lifetime. Although I was certainly aware of the process of reincarnation, I had never heard of this phenomenon, of reincarnation into one’s present body. As the saying goes, “When the student is willing, the teacher appears.” The words of a teacher came to my attention, to elucidate my gleanings and lend credibility to my expanding awareness—a woman no longer living on the earth who had been a respected spiritual teacher during her time here. Eva Broch Pierrakos was her name. She spoke in her teachings and lectures of exactly this concept, in Pathwork Guide Lecture No. 230 (1996 edition). She stated in her lecture, “But there is one phenomenon that I would like to discuss here and that is usually neglected or denied in spiritual teachings: A person who is truly on a path of accelerated development can, and frequently does, literally reincarnate in the same lifetime.” I’d been convinced of this occurrence in my own life, but I’d been reluctant to mention it because of bizarre associations. “Ordinary” reincarnation is sufficiently out of the mainstream that I hesitated to take the concept a single mystical, metaphysical, or esoteric step further. So I was excited to read of Eva Pierrakos and her work. Other writers and researchers in past-life regression have pointed out that a near-death experience (NDE) can be a catalyst for similar transformation within one lifetime. In my own experience, the catalyst was not my own NDE but the vicarious experience of death as I traveled with my children and husband on their journeys.

My purpose in writing about intra-life reincarnation, my belief in the Oneness of life and that death is not to be feared, is twofold. First, I’m setting the stage for a later chapter, when I’ll write much more about my new life. Second, I need to emphasize the paradox of recognizing my daughters’ deaths as the acceptable outworking of their lives’ plans, juxtaposed against my huge need for the consolation that could only come and then just partially from moving and memorable memorial services. Writing about funerals thrust me into remembrance of encounters with core truths and experiences of things unseen that occur during the darkest nights of the soul.his is where we enter the place of heart knowing that existed before and beyond the intellect. Soon after I turned forty, and continuing over the next twenty years, I lived through the deaths and funerals of my daughters, my husband, and my parents. Five deaths and five ritualized memorials. My father was eulogized in a small Episcopal chapel in Oregon. My mother’s very simple and private ceremony took place in the front yard of a home where we had lived during my childhood. There were the splendid Episcopal liturgies for my daughters. Finally, there was the elaborately staged community memorial service for my husband held in Town Point Park in Norfolk, normally a venue for festivals and fun. Funerary rites are absolutely necessary for the bereaved, and I think also for the deceased as they transition into the afterlife, their gossamer spirits hovering around their services of final tribute.

A Mosaic Heart ISBN 978-0615-51720-9, Quartet Books order from Amazon.com for kindle version print orders, www.terryjones-brady.com A native of Virginia, Terry discovered and nourished her acting talent growing up in California and majoring in dramatic art at UC Berkeley. In pursuit of a career in the theater, she threw herself into acting, dancing and voice instruction in New York with some of the luminaries of the day and went on to many promising roles as she traveled the country performing. A chance engagement with a repertory theater in Virginia brought Terry back to her home state, where she settled into domestic life with the husband and family about whom this book was written. Former teacher of students with learning disabilities, poet, master gardener, certified spiritual director and recipient of the prestigious William Brenner Nonfiction Prize at the Hampton Roads Annual Writers’ Conference in 2010, Terry now lives in the bucolic woods of southeastern Virginia with husband Kevin Brady, their English bulldog, Mia, and Johnnie, a feisty cockatiel.

There was an exhibit of funerary urns at the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Virginia, during the summer of 2002. The exhibit, Cinerary Urns, featured the works of glass artist William Morris. Exquisitely textured, vibrantly colored, these urns of amazing beauty and spirituality stood empty upon display stands, as the artist’s tribute to personal and collective grief following September 11, 2001. In an introductory piece to the exhibit, Morris wrote: “It is beyond our ideas and thoughts about death that the true mystery and beauty begin.” I agree.

31 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM ♥ August 2015

32 THEDENMAGAZINE.COM ♥ August 2015

WHAT IS THE ESSENCE

OF FENG SHUI The 9 Ways WE PROCESS CHANGE by Michael WhiteRyan

The essence of Feng Shui is broad and deep, is complicated and simple. Today I would like to talk about the feedback we have been receiving form many clients attempting to deal with the changing face of how to interact in relationships, business and with the self in 2015.. If the world is in constant change …what are we doing and how can we be in alignment with that constant evolving change? Feng Shui is a universal metaphysic which is involved in all aspects of human and world affairs through the process of alignment relationships. The theme “we are all connected” is at last beginning, fortunately to rise above the surface of our conceptual mindset!!! We experience change at every corner of daily life and yet in order to interface with these changes, are we still functioning from past ideas, knowledge, strategies, ideals or existing emotional states of being? If so we are flogging the preverbal horse to a dead end! In an evolving world we are constantly challenged to evolve with it. A question we are constantly asked is there a process, some way of being where we can still keep our head and emotions above water, and escape the agony of not knowing what to do, or at best cross our fingers and hope all will be good when we finally arrive at some sort of ending.

Remember in this universal time frame, traditional methods fail when you are confronted by something you have never dealt with before!!! There are the existing 5 ELEMENTS which everything including us is made up of, EARTH, METAL. WATER. WOOD and FIRE. Then there are the NINE functions of how these 5 ELEMENTS interplay in us and the world at large. As with everything NEW that transforms us in some way…(1) we break through a comfort zone, we burst forth like water and find ourselves reconnecting to people and the world around us. (2) This is where we then pause, ground ourselves with a new sense of foundation understanding. What happens next, (3) we explore, move forward with this new found knowledge of being and play/ experiment with it, knowingly or otherwise. From the experiences gained, (4) we now evaluate the lessons understood and solidly this into added knowledge of our existing knowledge bank. And incorporate this into our daily behaviors, use this to the betterment of our journey-path in all the different facets of our life. This is the TIME of the “GATHERING OF KNOWLEDGE” found, learnt, experienced, solidified, becomes me!!!

33 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM ♥ August 2015

Next after a period of time (5) we pause once again to discover new ways of how to use this new ground breaking knowledge to further ourselves in this mistaken dualistic world. (6) I envision all the opportunities lay down a path of action before me. I now channel this new knowledge into every area of my life. As it is in life, nothing exists by itself, therefore (7) now I go forth and communicate with the masses, create relationships, find my tribe, build my resources, expand my personal comforts and re-invent my-new-self. Mix with new friends and acquaintances, educate beyond my horizons. This is the time of “THE HUNTER” action. Expansion, risk, discovery, renewal. It may appear to be a never ending cycle, and it is. After a period of time (8) we pause and soak up the experiences, emotions, self-doubts, the sense of discovery, with much delight a new evolved self, yes yes yes,! (9) I am that I am playing in a new found pond of life, no boundaries, life with new breath, I play across the expansiveness which life has always offered, but may have been blind to its parameters. After a period of time when new now moves into usual (1) arrives at our doorstep begging to begin the journey, once again. The ESSENCE of FENG SHUI applies to humans, time, buildings, design, relationships, partnerships, when to move in, groundbreaking, time of marriage, signing contracts, personal assessments, building the right team, who to hire, the list is endless. I would hope that for those of you who are uncertain about the changes occurring around us, it appears every day, find comfort in the words above. Life is the playground to experiment, experience and evolve the self, have fun. Blessings.

www.languageofspace.com

34 THEDENMAGAZINE.COM ♥ August 2015

Michael White Ryan is a co-founder with his wife Pamela Edwards of Language of Space. They are leaders in sustainable business growth via Performance Design and Performance Code. Sustainable design encompasses both Western and Eastern philosophies including advanced Feng Shui principles, Environmental Design, Buildings, Alternative Health, Business Advisory Consultants and 20 plus years as entrepreneurs. Recognized in the top 100 globally and are Americas Leading Feng Shui Business Consultants. They are on faculty at CEO Space International one of the oldest business organizations in America today, currently operate in 7 countries and reside in Henderson NV. http://www.languageofspace.com/ case-studies.html

Worry is a waste of imagination.â&#x20AC;? ~ Walt Disney

Tearing my hair out, loosing sleep, what a waste lest my imagination reap, the ideals of creation, and to know the truth, granting appreciation, and lost eyes of youth. Art & Poem by Rich Okun

Want to Measure Your Consciousness? By Richard Barrett

Art by Maryam Morrison https://www.facebook.com/maryammarts 36 THEDENMAGAZINE.COM â&#x2122;Ľ August 2015

Everyone talks about consciousness as if it is something difficult to measure. But is it? I started work on defining a metric for measuring human consciousness around 1995. It was an accident really; I was trying to bring together the ideas of Vedic philosophy regarding the higher levels of consciousness and Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. It struck me that the different graduations of higher levels of consciousness, as expressed in the Vedic tradition, corresponded to the varying degrees of self-actualization expressed by Maslow. From this research came the idea for the Seven Levels of Consciousness Model. Once I had defined the model, I quickly realized that specific values and behaviours could be associated with each level of consciousness, and consequently, if you could ascertain the values of an individual or group you could identify what levels of consciousness they were operating from. The measuring system I developed became known as the Cultural Transformation Tools (CTT). In 1997, I formed a company, the Barrett Values Centre (BVC), and began to use this measuring system to map the consciousness of leaders and organizations all over the world. To date BVC has measured the consciousness of more than 5,000 organizations, 4,000 leaders and 24 nations. In recent years, I began to recognize that in addition to mapping human consciousness, the Seven Levels Model could also be used as a template to describe the stages of human psychological development. Figure 1 shows the stages of psychological development and their correspondence with the seven levels of consciousness.

circumstances or a situation that you believe could threaten your internal stability or external equilibrium—anything that brings up fear—you may temporarily shift to one of the three lower levels of consciousness. Alternatively, if you have a “peak” experience—an experience of euphoria, harmony or connectedness of a mystical or spiritual nature— you may temporarily “jump” to a higher level of consciousness. When the threat or peak experience has passed, you will return to the level of consciousness that corresponds to the stage of psychological development you were at before the experience occurred. In rare situations, a peak experience may have a lasting impact, causing you to shift to a higher stage of psychological development and operate from a higher level of consciousness. Similarly a “negative” experience, if it is traumatic enough, and particularly if it occurs in your childhood and teenage years, can impede your future psychological development by causing you to be anchored, through frequent triggering of the traumatic memory, into in one of the three lower levels of consciousness.

Figure 1: Stages of psychological development and levels of consciousness

We grow in stages (of psychological development) and we operate at levels of consciousness. The Seven Levels Model differs from most other models in one important way: It looks at personal development through the lens of the ego-soul dynamic—the progressive, and normally subtle, influence of the motivations of the soul over the motivations of the ego. Under normal circumstances, the level of consciousness you are operating from will be the same as the stage of psychological development you have reached. However, no matter what stage of psychological development you are at, when you are faced with what you consider to be a potentially negative change in your

37 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM ♥ August 2015

Measuring Your Consciousness Want to measure your consciousness? Well you can do so right away. Simply follow this link—www. valuescentre.com/pva—and do the free assessment like more than 100,000 people have done. A few minutes after completing the assessment, you will receive a personalized feedback report. Look over the report and if you want to dig deeper, take some time to do the exercises you will find at the back of your report. Levels of Consciousness In order to understand the model, and what you have just done (if you have obtained your assessment), I would like to briefly describe the seven levels of consciousness. Level 1: Survival consciousness The first level of personal consciousness is concerned with your body’s physiological survival and your ego’s self-preservation. We need clean air, food, and water to keep our bodies alive and healthy. We also need to keep ourselves safe from harm and injury and defend ourselves from physical or verbal attacks. Whenever you feel threatened or insecure, physically or financially, you shift into survival consciousness. Level 2: Relationship consciousness The second level of personal consciousness is concerned with establishing and preserving relationships that engender a sense of emotional belonging. As young children, we learn very quickly that, if we don’t belong, we cannot survive. We also learn that, in order to belong, we need to be loved. When you are loved unconditionally, you develop a healthy sense of relationship consciousness. You feel secure in yourself because you grew up feeling loved for who you are. Level 3: Self-esteem consciousness The third level of personal consciousness is concerned with establishing and maintaining your sense of self-worth. In order to feel good about ourselves we need to feel recognized and acknowledged by others, not just our immediate family, but also by our peers and the authority figures in our lives. You build a healthy sense of self-worth when you are young by spending quality time with your parents; being praised for your accomplishments no matter what they are,

38 THEDENMAGAZINE.COM ♥ August 2015

and encouraged to keep trying even when things go wrong. Level 4: Transformation consciousness The fourth level of human consciousness is concerned with the search for your true identity. At this stage of development the questions you are asking yourself are “Who am I?”, “Who is the ‘I’ that lies beyond my parental and cultural conditioning?”, and “Who is the ‘I’ that wants to break out and be seen in the world?” Only when you answer these questions, can you discover your authentic self. The prize that comes with the pursuit of selfknowledge is freedom: The freedom to express yourself with honesty and integrity. When you discover and express who you really are, you no longer have to hide behind the façade constructed by your ego. You will be able to march to your own tune, not the tune others have imposed on you. To find out who you are, you will want to embrace adventure; you will want to discover and hone your skills and talents: you will want to become all you can become. You will want to embrace your soul self. Level 5: Internal cohesion consciousness The fifth level of human consciousness is concerned with finding meaning in your life—what you came into the world to do. At this level of consciousness, the question is no longer “Who am I?” but “Why am I here in this body, and in this situation?” For some, those who do not feel any sense of purpose, this is a daunting inquiry. For others, who are gifted with a particular talent, your purpose may seem more obvious. If you are not sure of your purpose, simply focus on what you love to do and pay attention to what is immediately in front of you. Do it to the best of your ability. Alternatively just follow your joy, develop your talents, and pursue your passion. This will lead you eventually to where you need to be to fulfil your soul’s destiny. Level 6: Making a difference consciousness The sixth level of human consciousness is to make a difference in the world—in the immediate world that surrounds you, in your community or nation, or in the global society. Once you have found a purpose that gives your life meaning,

you quickly learn that the difference you can make is much bigger if you collaborate with others who share a similar purpose or are aligned with your cause. This is where all the work you have done in learning how to manage, master, or release the emotions associated with your subconscious fears pays off. The more easily you are able to connect and empathize with others, the easier it is to collaborate and thereby leverage your impact in the world. Level 7: Service consciousness The seventh level of human consciousness is selfless service to the cause that is the object of your soul purpose. You reach this level when making a difference becomes a way of life. You are now fully imbued with your soul purpose and living the life of a soul-infused personality. You are at ease with uncertainty and embrace whatever comes your way, without judgement. You are always looking for opportunities to grow and develop.

• They master their internal cohesion needs by uncovering their soul’s purpose and aligning the beliefs of their ego with the values of their soul. • They master their making a difference needs by actualising their sense of purpose and leveraging their actions, and by collaborating with others who have a similar purpose or are aligned with the same cause. • They master their service needs by leading a life of selfless service for the good of humanity and the planet. Conclusion What the Seven Levels Model enables us to do is make the evolution of consciousness, conscious: If you can measure something, you can manage it. If you want to find out more about the stages of psychological development, the Seven Levels of Consciousness and how the Cultural Transformation Tools are used to measure consciousness of individuals, leaders, organizations and nations please read The Metrics of Human Consciousness.

Full spectrum consciousness It is important to recognize that higher is not necessarily better. Ideally, you should learn how to master all levels of consciousness. Individuals who are able to do this are said to be operating from full spectrum consciousness. Richard Barrett, Founder and They display all the positive attributes of the seven Chairman of the levels of personal consciousness: Barrett Values Centre, is an • They master their survival needs by staying internationally healthy, assuring their physiological survival recongnised thought and their financial security and keeping safe leader on values, culfrom harm and injury. ture and leadership in business and society. • They master their relationship needs by He is a Fellow of the World Business Academy, building friendships and family connections Member of the Wisdom Council of the Center that create a sense of emotional belonging for Integral Wisdom, Honorary Board Member based on unconditional love. of the Spirit of Humanity Forum, and Former Values Coordinator at the World Bank. • They master their self-esteem needs by building a sense of pride in themselves and His books include: Evolutionary Coaching their performance and acting responsibly and (2014), The Values-Driven Organization (2013), reliably in everything they do. What My Soul Told Me (2012), Love, Fear and • They master their transformation needs by having the courage to embrace their authentic selves and letting go of the fears that keep them focused on their deficiency needs.

the Destiny of Nations (2011) and The New Leadership Paradigm (2010). www.richardbarrett.net www.valuescentre.com/pva

39 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM ♥ August 2015

excerpt from Reclaim the Magic

The Magic of Owning Your Own Divinity by LEE MILTEER PART !

40 THEDENMAGAZINE.COM ♥ August 2015

41 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM ♥ August 2015

very single soul on the earth has a king or queen within them who wants to reign over their own life. The word majesty means greatness, bestowing the highest rank of sovereign power or dignity upon someone. Everyone has the ability to let their soul’s greatness shine; it is our natural inheritance. It is your divine inheritance to be a powerful manifestor, and now is the time for you to wake up and claim the true nature of your powers. You have the ability to create and achieve anything you want in life if you are willing to go for it with all your heart and soul and dedicate the appropriate spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical actions to your desires. Our real power in life is 99 percent spiritual and 1 percent physical, yet most people only use 1 percent of their true natural powers. Most people spend 99 percent of their energy trying to change their life or circumstances using only their physical, mental, emotional, or financial energy or power. They deplete their energy trying to do it all themselves instead of tapping into the assistance that is accessible when we ask for it. As the Bible says: “Ask and it will be given to you.” If you ask and then allow yourself to listen to your inner guidance, you will know there is an invisible connection to assist you no matter what challenge you are faced with in the physical world. We all have what I call “spiritual helpers” and we must ask our helpers to assist us to make sure we are using all of our resources and making the best decisions possible. These helpers come to our aid with intuitive suggestions and other people, and information sources that help us solve our challenges, find resources, or be inspired with new ideas we could not have come up with on our own. We’re now living in a world that is shifting to a new level of consciousness which is why spiritual information has become so much more mainstream. Money and success are still super important to us, but we also want to live our lives with integrity, to achieve peace of mind, and to feel that life has a truly deep meaning and that we are contributing to it. We want our work to not only be profitable, but also to be rewarding and satisfying. We long to integrate our spiritual self with all parts of our life, including our business practices.

42 THEDENMAGAZINE.COM ♥ August 2015

Sadly the majority of people have fallen off their true path in life and have stopped themselves from doing what their heart wants them to do. They allow their culturally programmed logi- cal mind to step in and prevent them from using their own guidance and spiritual assistance. Our present reality, our civilization, is dependent on you staying a victim of the past, other people, the media, and fear of the future. You were born with a great internal power to influence the universe around you to manifest the life you deeply want to experience. It is important that you accept your power and release all traces of victimhood. To release the old victimhood, you must develop an entirely new level of perception of your power to experience love, light, beauty, prosperity, joy, creativity, and grace. Your first job is to awaken to who you really are and accept this new view of yourself to be able to raise your own consciousness. So Who Are You Really? The true essence of who you are is divine energy that has temporarily projected itself into your existing physical body. The real you is the source of your majesty, greatness, and power. As a soul, you are always eternally evolving, expanding, and adding to your repertoire of spiritual tools to help you manifest the life purpose you came to the earth to experience. You have mas- sive creative and manifesting powers built within you to achieve whatever your heart sincerely calls for in your life. All of your power is within you. To claim the ability to bring forth the king and queen within you, it is imperative that you give yourself permission to release your old programming and life, and put them behind you. One of our lessons at this time is to realize our own God- hood, our connectedness with the prime creator and with all that exists. To reclaim the magic, you must realize that everything and everyone is connected, and that you are part of it. Your existence matters; you are an important aspect of the big picture of life. Once your mind opens to a new and deeper awareness, you can’t go back to not knowing the truth about Infinite Intel- ligence.

You understand that you are more than your physical body and that you’re connected to spirit—to something that is so much more advanced than your human self. When you know this, you also know that you can let go of the drama, self-doubt, fear, and uncertainly about the future. When you’re connected to your source, you have access to resources, knowledge, and assistance that only Infinite Intelligence can provide. The truth is, you are a magnificent being and a member of the family of light. You came to the earth at this time to create a shift, to make a change, to assist in the transition of consciousness. Your purpose is to raise consciousness through love so the human race can evolve. We’re at such a crucial time and you are one of the triggers and catalysts to help raise the earth’s consciousness to a new place. The true key for you to do that is to understand that the universe is made up of love energy. Love is the basic building block. When you have love, all possibilities exist. As the king or queen of your life, your real job is to love yourself enough to get into integrity with your soul’s purpose. When you’re able to live in this capacity you will become an inspiration to all those who encounter you. Light is knowledge and ignorance is darkness, so think of yourself as an ambassador of light—a light worker. There is a consciousness in all things and as a member of the family of light, you can implement and insert new probabilities in the chain of realities, which is how your personal transformation can occur. No matter what situation you may find yourself in right now, it is the power of your thoughts that got you there. You must start to remember who you really are and fully understand that you can create your own reality. You must accept that you have the power to alter the frequency of your own life and future. Thought creates, and in that way you have the power to transform your experience. Your frequency affects everyone and every place you go. Your real job is to be a conscious creator. You have to take responsibility for the fact that you are co-creating your own experience on earth. When you take it upon yourself to understand that you are the one creating your reality with your thoughts and beliefs, your entire life will change. Your ability to manifest will truly astonish you.

LEE MILTEER is an internationally known and celebrated bestselling author, award-winning professional speaker, TV personality, entrepreneur, visionary, and intuitive business mentor. Lee is that rare soul who lives and thrives in both the business world and the metaphysical world. She is also a Reiki healer, a shaman, and runs Lee Milteer’s School of Wisdom, where she teaches students how to manifest on levels that mainstream education or business schools cannot teach. Lee has created and hosted educational programs airing on PBS and other cable networks throughout the U.S. and Canada. She is the author of Success is an Inside Job and Spiritual Power Tools, and her latest book Reclaim the Magic as well as the co-author of ten books. Lee speaks all over the world, and has counseled and trained over a million people in her speeches. She has authored over 150 training, entrepreneurial, spiritual, and educational products, and is the founder of the Millionaire Smarts® Coaching program, in which she provides success and spiritual advice and resources to people worldwide. You can find her at www.Leemilteer.com

∞

43 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM ♥ August 2015

Message from the Goddess Mother

NEW PERSPECTIVE OF LIFE By Jan Diana

44 THEDENMAGAZINE.COM ♥ August 2015

My Beloved Children, “Greetings, My Dear Sweet Beloved Ones, it is with great delight that I share these moments with you. I am excited to share with you that now is a time where you can more easily embrace a greater vision of yourself and for your life. As you look at your life, perhaps there are times in which all you see is what can be considered as travails. Whether there are issues of health, money or relationships, you may feel unrest, disharmony, struggle and suffering. Like thorns in your side, you desire to remove these issues. Please take them away and let them be no more, you say. I am tired of this struggling. I truly desire my life to be easier.

Your many prayers, your desires of your heart have been heard My Dear Ones, for the time is now. Within the new energies on Earth, you can easily release from the struggles of the past, while you embrace living in the present moment. This allows the opportunity for you to begin to create a new vision of your life’s journey, to prepare to embrace the idea of stepping into a new beginning of your life’s journey filled with possibilities that will excite your mind and delight your heart. As you may be aware, even more so now, you are living on a world that is changing. This time is filled with the changes your many hearts have called out to be. Take a moment to ponder on this thought. As you do, your heart will witness to you of this truth.

45 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM ♥ August

2015

And yet you may wonder as you look at your life, why everything seems much the same. There are elements of issues and struggles which seem to still be a part of your reality and the reality of others. Take heart Dear Ones, for you are making shifts on many levels. There is a new energy on Earth, a lighter energy which supports elevating change into realms of greater possibilities. You can ride the waves of change with openness, embracing each elevation, and celebrating it with joyful hearts. With this new elevated energy, there is an opportunity present for you to shift with a greater ease and grace into these higher realms by making a consciousness choice to do so. You can begin this process by shifting your focus to noticing all of the wonder in your life. What is bringing you into moments of joyfulness, and sweet pleasures? As you notice each joyful moment, you will feel a sense of deep gratitude and appreciation. With your focus on these joyful moments, you will discover that the feelings of joy will begin to multiply and magnify, leading you into many more moments of joy and wonder. Focusing on joy expands and elevates the heart into greater awareness of hope and possibilities. Begin to flavor your life experiences with joy, doing so on purpose. Shifting your perspective into joy, changes your view of your life, aligning you with your divine truth and nature. Where there is struggle, release the energy cords attached to the topics. Set them down and look upon whatever was the source of struggle as having been seeded in the past. Let go of the ropes, the old stories, the past experiences of struggle and suffering and perceptions that you are less than your sweet truth. Begin to bring your focus of being in the new energy, consciously. Live in the moment, free of the past, choosing new thoughts from a new perspective. As you consciously focus your choices

46 THEDENMAGAZINE.COM â&#x2122;Ľ August 2015

to support a new beginning of your life experiences, those with a new flavor of joyfulness and unlimited potentials, you will feel a great sense of excitement. Your passion for life and living will expand as you begin to feel your personal power of choice in action. You will entertain thoughts of what is possible, free of the old stories of limitations and begin to open to the many dreams held in your heart. You are ready to embrace more fully your great value as an evolving being on this blessed Earth. Imagine the possibilities of living all the dreams of your heart! It is your time to shine ever so brightly. You are blessed with the gifts and abilities to move through these times of change into the realms of great and greater joy. There is a treasure of experiences you have been dreamed about, and now preparing to express and experience. Be in joy My Beloveds. Take your steps on your journey, knowing you are lovingly supported. You are always being guided. Listen to the sweet whispers of your heart and allow yourself to receive. As you recognize your personal power within your divine right of choice, know that you and your choices are always honored. You have the power to shift with the winds of change into the New World. A New World filled with opportunities of new beginnings for your life experience. A world of peace and plenty awaits you, where all your life experiences will be free from the past of limiting thoughts. You and all of humanity have been dreaming and preparing for this time. Celebrate this accomplishment for it is the family of humanity which has made this possible. Make choices which bring you joy. Flavoring your life with joy will open up pathways of such a lightness your heart will truly sing. With a new perspective of life, you will become passionate about living each moment. With new excitement and a heart filled with joy, you will move forward, living the grand adventure of your life to the fullest.

I celebrate each of you. You are my champions of heart, moving forward into the sweet tomorrows with a greater awareness of your wonder. It is time to live your dreams and remember the vision of your truth. Great joy awaits you as embrace that truth, for in that truth lies the greatest of joy.” With great love, Your Beloved Mother As a Gift I am offering you a Free Tele- Class, “Flavor your Life with Joy” Learn how to shift your life from struggle into joy by changing your focus and releasing from the limiting energies of the past. Take a journey to a Palace of Joy, where you will experience the vibration of joy in a new sweet way, opening up greater possibilities for personal empowerment in consciously creating the joyful dreams of your heart. Dance in the wonder of your true nature, joy. Note: Register by subscribing by email at www.sunshineinyourheart.com (if the time is not convenient, register to receive the recording when available)

Jan Diana is an intuitive healer, spiritual teacher, and master practitioner. Her mission is to assist clients and students in creating harmony, balance, heightened levels of clarity, develop innate gifts and abilities, empowering them on their personal evolution to create the dreams of their heart. She utilizes several modalities including SVH L3M, Animal healing, GHM, Language of love, Reiki Master, and more. Sessions and Classes by phone. If you have questions or would like to set up a session, you can reach her at website www.sunshineinyourheart.com or by email sunsinyourheart@aol.com SPECIAL offer 20% discount for new clients. Free meditation journeys, articles, & classes. http://www.sunshineinyourheart.com/free_ telecasts.html

47 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM ♥ August 2015

Seven Sim of Sp Advan

THEDENMAGAZINE.COM ♥ August 2015

mple Signs piritual ncement by Donald L. Hicks

49 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM â&#x2122;Ľ August 2015

“Am I spiritually advancing?” “Am I taking the right steps to raise my spiritual vibrations and make the shift?” “Am I reading the right books? Is this meditation or yoga course really helping me?” From time to time, many of us find ourselves asking these questions. With all the books, workshops, and the plethora of spiritual growth courses that are now available, it’s sometimes hard to determine if we’re making progress along our spiritual path, or are just walking in place. To help, here are seven simple guideposts that can help you gauge your spiritual growth and determine whether you’ve moved ahead, or are standing still. 1. Inner peace and contentment: The first sign should resonate with anyone who’s experiencing spiritual growth. Throughout our lives, many of us can identify with feeling a “void” or “emptiness” inside. In the past, and especially before turning to spirituality, most of us temporarily filled this emptiness through activities like purchasing a new car, a new home, buying some new gizmo, or indulging in food, or watching TV. As a person spiritually develops, however, we find that buying a new flat screen or the latest-greatest new espresso machine doesn’t have the same sense of fulfillment it once held. Instead, when we feel that emptiness beginning to return, we turn to activities that connect us to our Higher Self and the Divine. Spiritual pursuits ground us and provide a sense of completeness that fill the void. It’s worth mentioning here, that these activities will vary for each of us. For some people, inner peace and fulfillment is found through peaceful meditation or yoga. Others will turn to Nature, engaging in gardening or walks through the woods or the local park. And others will find fulfillment by volunteering at local shelters or food banks, or tapping into their creativity through

THEDENMAGAZINE.COM ♥ August 2015

writing, cooking, or setting up an easel on the beach. There is no wrong path to spiritual fulfillment; simply different paths. But there is a common denominator: “material” things have become “immaterial”, and the “the things of Earth will grow strangely dim…”. 2. Empathy for others: The second sign of spiritual advancement is feeling a greater empathy for animals. Where we once viewed animals as “family pets”, we begin to view them more as simply “family”. We feel a greater empathy and love toward wildlife, and are quick to not only “stop and smell the roses”, but also to water them. We also feel more sympathy and empathy toward people facing hardship, and may have difficulty viewing disasters or wars on the news. This is tightly connected with all the other seven signs because, as we recognize and embrace Oneness and Nature, we begin feeling a deeper sense of sympathy and empathy toward all other souls. 3. Changing diet: Because of this same connection and the spiritual change occurring within our complete being -spiritually, emotionally, and physically -- we often find ourselves changing our diet and decreasing the amount of meat we eat, or abstaining from it completely. Where we once craved sweets or processed foods, we begin to seek natural foods and fresh fruits or vegetables (which may lead to activities such as gardening). Our body may also become less tolerant to man-made medications, and encourage us to seek out homeopathic remedies or healing through natural sources. 4. Becoming less judgmental: The fourth sign is marked by becoming less judgmental. We recognize that all people walk their own path, and even others may be spiritually asleep, and there is no benefit in judging them. Instead of condemning, we strive to spread Light and Love and live as an example.

5. New friends: We also may end old friendships, and merge new ones with people who lift each other up, rather than cutting others down. As our awareness increases, we find it difficult to be around people who submerge themselves in fear and drama. Instead, we seek others who carry the Light. 6. Violent aversions: As our spiritual growth progresses, we find ourselves avoiding violence and loud or chaotic environments that decrease our growth. We may find that TV shows that we once enjoyed (such as the news) or violent movies or video games are no longer palatable to us. We begin to avoid social settings that focus on division, and instead seek environments that encourage unity.

Donald L. Hicks is the author of “The Divinity Factor” and the recently released spiritual odyssey: “Look into the stillness”. For more information, or to contact this author, please visit: https://www.facebook.com/ DonaldLHicksAuthor?fref=ts

7. Spiritual gifts: Last (but far from least), we likely develop and commonly use intuition, and may develop other psychic abilities such as clairvoyance, clairaudience, telepathy or others. We also develop the ability to observe ourselves from outside of ourselves… and observe how we are interacting with Creation. And through this, we become aware that we aware. How did you do? If you identified with just 1 of these 7 steps, you’ve started your journey. If you identified with 2 to 4, you’ve found your path but your journey is still young. If you identified with 5-6, you’re well on your way to enlightenment. And if you identified with all 7, you already bear the Light, and might just change the world. Namaste,

♥ 51 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM ♥ August 2015

52 THEDENMAGAZINE.COM ♥ August 2015

Loss and Pivoting by Ellen Angelica Pendergast

Discouraged? Heart-broken? Shocked at someone whom you thought would always be there for you, and seems so alien you hardly recognize them? How do we handle that? When these situations arise, it can be so hard...so challenging to go through. We remember all the Love that was there and wonder (if already aware that we bring to ourselves EVERYTHING) what were we thinking??? And most importantly....What were we FEELING? We must remember foremost before anything else that we did nothing wrong in terms of our thoughts and feelings; we are where we are in our own evolution, and everything is for our grander good. It is all a process, so to speak, and most importantly a grand and glorious opportunity to display and experience who we REALLY ARE, which is a Spirit, having a human experience. And what we wish to BE in relation to it all, is the whole purpose of any relationship, whether platonic or romantic. But we do all understand that there is pain, and how to address this ‘opportunity,’ as it sure doesn’t feel like that when it is going on, does it!? We must first address the feeling from all these negative emotions brought about by what we perceive as someone else’s actions; it ultimately brings about a feeling of LOSS. We feel empty, alone, and sadly; hence, very unloved. Unity seems shattered, as does hope of it ever being better, or that feeling of connection ever restored. What DO we DO? It is more a question of what do we wish to BE about all of it! So many offer encouragement such as it will pass; give it time, and probably the one we fear to hear the most, which is that we just must accept that things changed. How hard it is to hear that or conceive that it will never be the same again?

53 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM ♥ August

2015

Neale Donald Walsch wrote a wonderful book, ‘When Everything Changes, Change Everything.’ Basically, it is offered that Change is ALWAYS GOOD, no exceptions to this rule. Change is growth; change is evolution, and thus, Change is LIFE. I no longer believe that we must heal from anything, as if one looks closely, VERY CLOSELY at EVERYTHING, there is nothing to heal because we cannot truly ever be damaged. It is all an illusion coming from a perception of how we CHOOSE to view any situation we may find hurtful.

to recognize the pain; that usually is all it takes to move away from it. Pivot your emotions during this trial by asking oneself, what one truly desires, and focus on that. (Information from Abraham-Hicks) The transform will and always does eventually occur. Blessings!

Is change necessary? Absolutely! It is the one constant...truly a Divine Dichotomy, as change must happen for us to grow AND, it is the only thing that we can truly depend on. Consequently, that is where we find our Peace. Whatever is happening in our life, we must embrace it; no matter how painful; it is leading us somewhere, and that place is evolution. Even being hurt, we are to remember, no one can experience forgiveness, unless there is someone to forgive. (From another wonderful book by Walsch, ‘The Little Soul and the Sun’). Moving forward is just that...we must MOVE; move in the direction of our dreams; choose JOY, no matter where we are or with whom. We will eventually experience another change; a change that will bring hope, peace, and always Love. It just is the way it is, as there is really only Love. We sometimes can pinch ourselves off from it pretty well, but it is always there, as the Sun sits behind a cloud. Wait for that ‘cloud to pass;’ never give up hope, for remember, change is always good, and truly Loss once again will transform into gain. That is Universal law; for as Issac Newton, the great physicist stated, for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Therefore, wait for that opposite reaction from the change and the pain that has happened, to occur. Change IS always good! Embrace that, and fear, pain, sadness WILL transform. Remember

54 THEDENMAGAZINE.COM ♥ August 2015

Ellen Angelica Pendergast received a B.A. in Education in 1978; four major fields of study: English, Art, Social Studies, and Psychology. Received her M.S. in Clinical Psychology in 1997. Has treated patients in a locked psych ward, held a two office private practice, and currently is starting a private practice in Arizona. Taught Psychology classes at a University in the Chicago area, and has just completed a children’s book. She is currently writing another book for young adults and the general public. Contact Ellen; spiritmindedblog@gmail.com

Q&A

Ask Ellen Angelica Pendergast

Spirit-Minded (Advice Column)

“All questions can be sent to: spiritmindedblog@gmail.com

Question: Dear Spirit-MInded: Everyone tells me to think positive because my ‘thoughts create Reality..’ I don’t get it…there is only one reality, so how can my thoughts change it..? Doesn’t that mean no one else has any power??? Help! Signed, Reality Check Signed: Reality Check Answer: Reality is subjective meaning it is based on ones’ perception. The best way to understand this is to give an example: Picture a building with many floors with each floor having a different office, performing different tasks, with many differ-

ent people. Now you get on an elevator and get off at the floor you ‘feel’ is the one you wish to reach. Time is like that as is reality. Everything and (countless realities and outcomes) for each situation is going on at once…time is truly spiral, not linear. Therefore, your feelings and thoughts bring you to that particular reality FOR YOU (or ‘floor’)…that is why perception is so important…it will literally create the reality you are choosing with your thoughts and feelings…and thus, different outcomes to situations are possible and do occur, based on your feelings. In other words, they ’show up.’ For more information, research quantum physics, which is the science of possibilities. Blessings! 55 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM ♥ August 2015

THE ALIEN GAME:

The Value of Passionate Curiosity by Gregg Levoy

In his book Corner Office, author Adam Bryant interviewed 700 CEO’s and asked them, “What qualities do you see most often in those who succeed?” Number one on their collective lists--passionate curiosity---is more than a recipe for success. It’s a survival mechanism, because our attachment to life depends on our interest in it, our willingness to cultivate the sense of wonder that Buddhists call beginner’s mind. This mindset views life with the eyes of children, who unabashedly let their tails wag and eagerly sit in the splash zone at the dolphin show, keep all sensors and receptors in the ON position, a runway cleared at all times for incoming adventure and mystery, and who haven’t yet learned the grossly overrated art of being cool and nonchalant, of being the knower rather than the wonderer.

The psychologist Abraham Maslow, who popularized the term “self-actualization,” didn’t generally believe in a big bang theory of it, in which peak experiences suddenly bring us into being as the people we’ve always imagined ourselves to be. Toward the end of his life, he talked about a kind of time-release version of the peak experience that he called the plateau experience. This is a sort of ongoing peak experience that’s more calm and less climactic, more a discipline than an event, and something we only slowly and painstakingly teach ourselves to experience by choosing to sacralize life. To witness it in the deepest and most mindful ways by paying exquisite attention to it, exposing ourselves to inspiring people and places, great music and art, and the raptures of nature---by living in a more or less permanent state of fascination. Malsow called it “holding classes in miraculousness.” With beginner’s mind, we’re well on our way to becoming lifelong learners, always poking into things and wondering what makes it all tick. We’re on intimate terms with search engines, consider ignorance bliss because it’s the beginning of discovery, and continually remind ourselves that the world is dynamic, not static, and that we’re a part of the world. It not only helps keep us engaged with life over the long haul, but makes us more likely to have a long haul, since we’re more likely to want to stick around if we take a keen interest in life. I myself learned the value of passionate curiosity, and the beginner’s mind that sustains it, at the altar of my father knee, and I consider it the greatest gift he ever gave me. His favorite game to play with me and my two brothers while we were growing up was something he invented called The Alien Game. In it, he was a visitor from another planet (which we had suspected all along), and we were his guides on Earth. We would go out into the neighborhood, down by the shore, or into the city, and he would ask questions about the planet he saw, and we had to try to answer them. He’d point up into the sky, for instance, and ask, “What are the white formations that move through your atmosphere?” We’d all say “Clouds!” And he’d ask, “What are they made of?”

And we’d all say “Water!” Then he’d ask, “How does the water get up there, and what holds it up, and what makes it move?” In no time at all it would become apparent to us Earthlings that clouds weren’t only things over our heads. What the Alien Game taught me---and what I keep trying to remember---is to see life with the eyes of a child, who, after all, is in most ways an alien to this world. In A Private History of Awe, Scott Russell Sanders says that we enter the world empty of ideas and full of sensation, and if we live long enough to lose memory and language, we’ll leave the world the same way---but in between we should aspire to be like small children who, when they aren’t asleep, are utterly awake, all instruments turned on. Trying to sustain beginner’s mind past the beginner stage of life, though, is like trying to live each day as if it could be our last. True, the mundane is miraculous and we could die today---and they’re both excellent meditations that would undoubtedly enrich our lives---but they’re both hard to pull off for more than a little while at a time. We’re habituated to take things for granted. They don’t call it the force of habit for nothing. Forgetfulness, on the other hand, is no discipline at all. The Alien Game has shown me that the more we persist with our questions about life, the more marvels and mysteries open themselves to our curiosity and confusion, and the more vistas open before us, both in the outer world and the inner. The word mirror and the word miracle share the same Latin root, which means to wonder at, and it’s important to locate wonder and fascination not just out there but in here, within ourselves. By turning exclamatory wonder in our own direction---toward the questions that animate our days, toward our passions, even toward the fact that we’re here at all---we help wonder condense into wisdom and bloom into gratitude. www.gregglevoy.com

57 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM ♥ August 2015

You Can’t

Expect Something Different

by Doing the

SameThing by Joel Fotinos

It’s easy to get in a rut, easy to stay in the same place, to tread water. We can easily keep ourselves small by doing the very actions that keep us small. It takes a bit of courage, a bit of true lucidity, and a bit of curiosity to take that first positive action that will move us forward. And then, when we keep taking those positive actions, we create a positive momentum – which in turn causes us to look back and wonder what we were waiting for. A friend of mine told me a story about how she would go to dinners with friends each week, complain about how broke she was all the time, how much debt she was in, how difficult that debt made her life, and how she couldn’t seem to get ahead. She told me that she would pay for these weekly dinners with her credit card, and her friends would give her their portion of the bill in cash, or sometimes she would treat her friends to the dinner and pay for the whole thing. This went on for several years, she said, and her debt continued to grow. Money always seemed to elude her, and she lived in a constant state of financial fear. Then, she had a realization, one of those “a-ha” moments that changed things for her. She realized these weekly dinners were part of the problem, not helping her to find a solution. Complaining about stifling debt while creating more debt wasn’t moving her forward, it was keeping her stuck. She knew then what we all must come to grips with at one time or another: you can’t expect something different if you keep doing the same things. Like my friend, I can still remember the fear that huge debt created in my life. I can remember how oppressive debt felt, how much it felt like life was pressing in on me, suffocating me If you have heavy debt – or anything that feels heavy and impossible to solve – then you might be able to relate.

58 THEDENMAGAZINE.COM ♥ August 2015

It took all of my effort and focus and concentration to take each positive step forward. But each step I took seemed to make the next step a little bit easier.That friend of mine? After she had her realization, she continued to have those weekly dinners with friends, but with a twist. Instead of paying by credit card at a restaurant, she began having potluck dinners at her apartment. Each of her friends would bring a different dish, often around a theme or special occasion, and they had a great time. After a while, she noticed that she had stopped complaining about her finances to her friends. She realized she didn’t need to add to her debt to have a great time. Changing the weekly dinners was the first positive change she made, but it wasn’t the last. It began a process of healing and change that eventually saw her go from mired in debt to debt-free in just a few years. What’s more, that first positive change started a journey of awakening that helped her go from a job that she barely tolerated, to a career that she loves. It helped her to realize that she was able to live a deeper and richer life than she could ever imagine. She became a more positive person, and encouraged others to become financially free. It wasn’t easy at first, but it got easier as time went on.

Joel Fotinos is the author of the justreleased book My Life Contract: 90 Day Program for Prioritizing Goals, Staying on Track, Keeping Focused, and Getting Results (Hampton Roads). He is also a vicepresident at Penguin Random House, and publisher of the Tarcher/Penguin imprint. For more information, go to www.joelfotinos.com

If you can relate to any of this, then you have nothing to lose (and everything to gain) by taking one positive step today. Maybe it means not using a credit card today, or not hanging out with that person who has negative energy, or not procrastinating writing that book. Whatever it means, take at least one positive action today. It doesn’t matter if the action is big or small; any positive action will begin to create positivity in your life. Then, tomorrow, take another positive action. And keep going. Your amazing life is awaiting you. But your amazing life can’t come to fruition if you keep doing the same thing. Today is the day that you can change your life from the same old thing, to a great adventure. I believe in you, and I know that many others do, too. And as you begin to create positive momentum in your life, you’ll start to believe in yourself as well.

59 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM ♥ August 2015

Forever more, choose to live in the Now now! 60

THEDENMAGAZINE.COM â&#x2122;Ľ August 2015

The Masters of the light of God wants you to know by Heike Stenzel

61 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM â&#x2122;Ľ August 2015

From the light of god we want you to know that you are entering a very special time and that all events taking place will be in resonance to your highest good and best. We are going to hold your space to give you the full capacity to move forward. You will receive the energy transfer to be become more aligned with your true Self. Simple ask your higher Self to enter your personality here on earth “I call upon my higher self and ask my higher self to merge with my personality here on earth and beyond. Together we walk in complete faith and confidence and know that our prayers will be answered in timely manner.” Even every single time you step into your heart and hold the space; the light will grow stronger and stronger and the inflicted pain you have put upon yourself will fade and will only be a memory of time and remember your personality that this was a lesson for your growth with your higher self merging with you on earth. Allow the past to be the past and free your mind. The NOW is something that becomes more and more the presence, being awakened of what you hold in your true self existence. The now is what you feel when you are connected to your heart - the heart is the alignment to the higher self, that goes straight and directly to God source. Be brave and choose for your Soul´s good to be in the NOW. We ask you with full consciousness and awareness to look at what is going on within your inner world as this may manifest in your outer world as your reality. All upon this, is the courage been given by the Angels with Archangel Michael overlooking and supporting your bravery to choose the path of living more and more in the now! Living with full consciousness and awareness in loving kindness in the NOW can give you such a profound uplift in your beingness that you will ever ask and question why you have dwelled for such a long time in the PAST.

62 THEDENMAGAZINE.COM ♥ August 2015

Doing in undoing events, happenings and situations when they actually reside already in the past and wasting pure and divine energy to use it for something better you will find when you choose to live in the NOW! The very same applies to those who always wonder what the future will bring. If you give yourself the permission to live in the NOW, the breath of God’s presence will disperse, flaws that have been created by the Ego to immaterialize the essence of feeling once again aligned with your true beingness, your true Self that God has created in its beauty and love to mankind for here and now.

This is the existence that will give you all the faith back on your own true beingness and will enter the love and joy of Gods light. It will allow you that your heart becomes once and again the point of light that connects to the light of God and we will rejoin more and more to assist humankind on Earth and beyond. Allowing more light beings serving the Heart of Source of Divinity and coming forward to serve planet Earth. The stream of light of love and Joy will multiply and mother earth is able to sway a sound that has been waiting to unfold, set motion and increase the vibration of any being living on earth. Not only mankind, but also every so beautiful being we call animals, plants, flowers and trees; element of Water, Earth, Air and Ether. If you come closer and connect back to the joy of living in the “Here and Now” we pleasantly will give you the strength and courage to move forward without fear. You only have to call upon and invoke us! We are the messenger of god, waiting for you to move forward without anxiety so that the love of God will infuse you with so much joy that you will embrace each one on your path. With this we are sending you the love we feel for you and your braveness in being here on earth at that particular moment in time we call the NOW. We give you the beautiful affirmation of the Now which you can use at any time you see and feel your mind is creating a flaw that is only the illusion of the Ego. “And herewith, I embrace Gods love for me to live in the HERE and NOW. I have all the faith that will bring God´s love for me and my whole beingness. I am safe at all times. And so it is. Amen!

63 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM ♥ August 2015

64 THEDENMAGAZINE.COM ♥ August 2015

The Shamanic Way Of Healing By Raymond Thomas Hill

Shamanic healing is fundamentally a beneficial force for growth and change. It deepens awareness of both the causes of problems within one’s life and sheds light on the path forward to a greater well-being and wholeness. Shamanic healing is a means of activating one’s own inner potential and inherit healing abilities. Shamanic Healing is a profound means to self-empowerment and works by: • Unblocking stuck energies in ones auric field, restoring flow, and returning power and energy to their rightful places. Power retrieval to one’s aura restores our personal power, which we may have lost connection to and reconnects us with our power animals and spirit guides. • Soul retrieval returns soul essence; whilst extraction and dispossession _ healing removes and transmutes energies within ones auric space which we have collected along the way that are not ours and belong elsewhere. This way of healing brings profound change, and should only be undertaken only if you are in full agreement of allowing change to happen, to complete the healing. To fully understand the above concept we must take a look at Shamanic cosmetology and the mindset of a Shaman.

The Mindset Of A Shaman The Shamanic view of the world is that all things are inter-connected in a web of beingness, everything affects everything else. The Shaman honors’ all kingdoms mineral, plants, animal and human, the four elements earth, air, fire and water, and develops the four aspects of ourselves, physical, emotional, mental and spiritual. With the celebrations of the seasons the shaman attuned themselves to the natural ebb and flow of the Wyrd (fate) the energy of life. The maintenance of one’s personal power is essential to the Shamans well-being. The Shaman must stay centered and balanced this is achieved by remaining rooted in personal connection to the earth, and from this earth connection the Shaman is then able to reach into the spirit realms. In this way, the Shaman becomes a channel between the energies of the earth, nature and the energies of the spirit world. In engaging in the Shamanic practice the Shaman must move between what is termed the ordinary state of consciousness and the Shamanic state of consciousness. It is in this Shamanic state of consciousness that the Shaman contacts ones power animal, spirit guides and helpers.

65 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM ♥ August 2015

Shamanic State Of Consciousness So what is this Shamanic state of consciousness? To explain fully let’s take a look at the process of how the human body actually sees in its every day to day environment. Normal sight relies on three components: • The eyes, • The optic nerve • The visual cortex in the brain. The eyes convert light into electrical signals. These signals are carried by the optic nerve into the visual cortex, which acts like a 3D HD plasma screening room in the brain. The optic nerve transports a stream of electrons from the eyes to the brain just like that of a television cable which carries a signal to a TV set. The visual cortex is located behind the ears in the back of the head then generates an image. All seeing, in effect, happens inside the head, although it appears that we see the world outside. However, the eyes are of little use when it comes to perceiving the world of energy and spirit. The retinas in our eyes only register a narrow band of an electromagnetic spectrum and cannot register the inferred and ultraviolet, for example, which our skin readily responds to. The optic nerve cannot help us either, as it is only a one-way cable that connects the eyes to our 3D HD plasma screening room. This screening room, however, is extraordinary. The visual cortex can translate energy (electrical impulses from the optic nerve) into living images. The way to perceive energy and spirit are already in place we only need to change the source of the signal and allow the visual cortex to do what nature intended it to do- to create images. To see the world of energy and spirit, the Shaman consciously disengages the sensors (the eyes) and the cable (optic nerve) but keeps the recorder, the visual cortex which translates a signal into an image on our 3D HD plasma screening room. We naturally have a system already in place by using the brow and heart energy centres in our own personal energy matrix. By connecting with our heart and brow Chakras to the visual cortex

66 THEDENMAGAZINE.COM ♥ August 2015

we can see with the eyes of the mind and the heart and can begin to explore, and experience our own subtle energy field or Aura and see into the world of the Shaman. When C.G. Jung, the psychiatrist and mythologist, visited the Pueblo Indians, he wrote of ‘discovering new approaches to age-old knowledge that has been almost forgotten’. In his conversations with Ochwiay Biano (Mountain Lake), he encountered the ‘Red Man’ who spoke from the heart, who spoke with what the American Indians called ‘Perfect Speaking’. ‘See how cruel the whites look,’ said Ochwiay Biano. ‘They are always seeking something... We think that they are mad’ Jung asked him why he thought the whites were all mad. ‘They think with their heads,’ he replied. ‘Why of course. What do you think with?’ Jung asked him in surprise. ‘We think here,’ he said indicating his heart. The Way Of The Wyrd As mentioned before we are all connected in a sea of energy “the Wyrd”(fate), a sea of universal potentiality it contains everything that ever was and everything that shall ever be. How we interact with this sea of energy depends upon our individual perceptions of it and this then becomes our own individualized perception of reality life as we know it. As we become more proficient in our spiritual development from a shamanistic perspective we realize that we are multidimensional beings having a mind, a body, and spirit. The Universe and all that’s in it is in a constant state of expansion, creation and evolution because that’s the nature of all things. Whether we like it on not we are all on a personal adventure like a hero in a film we set off on a quest to discover our true nature. However, to find our life’s purpose the universe will only share its secrets to the worthy, so we are tested all the way so that we can master the lessons that the Universe gives us. The universe shows us the heart of our soul so that we may become the heroes that we are meant to be and to live the life, we were bone to have.

In quantum physics, it is suggested that objective reality does not exist, the apparent solidity of our universe is a gigantic holographic illusion. The interesting thing about a hologram is that if you cut a hologram into pieces each piece of the hologram would contain the entire image; therefore, the whole is in every part. Scientists have decided that the universe is made up of particles, at some deeper level of reality; such particles are not individual entities but are actually extensions of the same fundamental whole, a kind of quantum energy field of pure possibility where everything is somehow connected. When we are born, we are like perfect little diamonds in the rough ready to shine our light out into this world and into our life’s dreams. However, for most of us as soon as we are born someone picks us up smacks us on the butt and says “Get on with it” and its down hill from there. Right from the word go, we get conditioned by our parents, our pairs, schools, education systems, work, religion, and politics you name it, and before we know it all these layers of conditioning have built up and have hidden our true light from our heart, and so we begin to identify ourselves as the layers, and so we stop listening to our hearts true purpose, and we begin to live our lives through the good intentions and expectations of others, on how we should be. We unconsciously allow other peoples energies, thought and ideas influence and change our direction to such a degree that we consciously forget our true life’s purpose. We create internal conflict with our inner wisdom competing with the social conditioning of our up bringing. We follow the heard of others afraid of trying to change and conforming to the accepted mantra “But what will they think” keeping us in place because that how it’s always been. So we begin to feed the desire to have the fast cars, the biggest houses the latest fads, and the “I need it now” attitude because of the fear of, there’s not enough of it for everyone and its mine. So we begin the game of the Ego. As a Shaman we become consciously aware of our spiritual growth and through practice, we develop awareness of our several subtle ener-

gy bodies, which come into play when we reach certain levels of spiritual awareness. Through the Shamanic Healing process, we begin to: • Disassociate with energies that are not our own. • Not to take life so seriously, • To be more playful in our lives • To pay more attention to our own inner wisdom. We learn: • Where thoughts go Energy flows. • To be playful with our imagination • The unconscious mind communicates through analogies, symbols, and metaphors. Ironically the only thing that separates us from consciously understanding this Shamanic state of consciousness and the world of spirit and energy is our perceptions of it. For if the essence of who we are is a holographic pinprick of the Creator, which is internal, then surely that must mean we are in fact an individualized expression of that source. When we realign our lives through the Shamanic Healing process we get inspired or in spirit. We instinctively find that hero within and live our life automatically on purpose, acknowledging our own inner wisdom and the spirit that moves in all things.

Raymond Hill from the http://www.thepadmicsystem.com, is an experienced Shamanic life Coach/ Therapist; practicing in London since 2001. Being brought up in a shamanic environment and with over the past 35 year experience Raymond has combine ancient shamanic teachings with NLP to produce the the the Padmic System™ This is a solution focused approach to personal development that can assist clients to make lasting changes in all areas of their life. Article Source: http://EzineArticles. com/?expert=Raymond_Thomas_Hill

67 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM ♥ August 2015

68 THEDENMAGAZINE.COM ♥ August 2015

How We Are All Connected by J.L. Kimmel

Janine L. Kimmel shares how, in the great circle of life, we are all connected. Now I think I know the answer; it’s simple really, you know? I think. . . well, I think we’re all here just to be good to one another. Just that. This is a passage from the end of my fiction book for young adult readers, which tells a complex story spanning over hundreds of years about an enchanted river, its heroes (both human and animal), and our intrinsic connection to Nature. From my very earliest memories, I have had a love affair with Nature. I have stayed in touch with that love and know that there is a deep benefit that comes from an ongoing relationship with Nature. I tap into this love every day in my work as a poet, an artist, a writer, a therapist, mother of two sons, and a teacher of creativity. I am such an advocate of the importance of encouraging our children to have a relationship with nature because I attribute much of my strength and creativity to that connection. The best way to share this love with our children, beginning at the earliest of ages, is by modeling it OURSELVES. By connecting with the simplicity and authenticity of our natural surroundings, we instinctively slow to a more natural and saner rhythm or pace

and begin to see the emergence of our own authentic, creative, and true nature – to be more open. As this opening occurs, I like to say, our inner landscape becomes spectacular by transforming to reflect the beauty and wonder of the natural world. We also realize that, like our inner selves, nature is fragile and in need of care and love and respect. And, like the great circle of life, one thing leads into another and back again. We are inspired and we inspire others to be good to each other. It is you and me, at our best. Like Robert W. Fuller, Ph.D. says, “Dignity is not negotiable.”

Janine is an artist and the awardwinning author of the children’s book The Magic Gown and the young adult classic The Yawning Rabbit River Chronicle. http://jlkimmel. com/

69 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM ♥ August 2015

Vafa Shelter

Needs your help, many beautiful animals waiting for a loving home.

For adoption please contact: http://www.cal.ir/ ~ http://cal.ir/main/fa/contact ~ http://cal.ir/main/en/contact 69 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM ♥ June 2015 32 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM April 2015 25 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM ♥♥♥ June April 2015 67