Articles
by Heather Ash, Isis Ward (astrology),
Others in the Spiritweaver's community,
and a series of meditations
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Notes
From The Blonde Experiment The experiment began in a circle of spiritual warriors. The question I posed to the group: What mask or persona would be the most difficult for you to step in to? What image would you never want to portray? Who do you most judge outside of yourself? From an independent, rebellious, struggling artist: Becoming a business person. Wearing a suit and tie everyday and having abundance. From a butch, comfortably masculine lesbian: Shaving my legs and wearing dresses and makeup. From a successful business woman: Being a street person, unkept and dirty. And from me: Being a stereotypical ditzy, sexy blonde....
On Rainbows And Dancing Llamas Kneeling to touch the earth, I picked up a stone near my feet. Tiny crystals completely covered the large, oval shaped rock in my hands. As I held it, I felt the worlds open and time shift into neutral. In an instant there was no past or future, only my energetic body, the energy of the tiny-crystals rock, and the living being of Machu Picchu. All three merged into one for a shimmering moment, and then I dissolved back into myself......
Since the advent of mirrors, we are all more or less in touch with our outward, physical appearance. Some people barely give their own appearance a second thought, while others obsess about their own and others physical covering: too fat or too thin; hair the wrong color, or too curly, or too straight; skin that is wrinkling, or too light, or too dark, or not quite right in some way. We can physically see our outer shell, and so this captures our attention, especially when we are surrounded by advertising and agreements that tell us what physical beauty is, and how important it is to have it......
May marks the time of fertility and rapid growth. The flowers open and sing their nectar, the bees and butterflies respond with long tongues and pollened feet. The days lengthen and hormones surge as we shake off the last vestiges of the darkness and isolation of winter. Mirroring, as without, so within. We mirror what is reflected back to us, and as the light grows and the birds and bees play, our bodies begin to open and respond to the increased warmth and growth. Pre Christian Europeans often celebrated Beltane with a May Pole, balancing the earth with the sky in a beautiful dance. After the community May Day celebration, couples would make love in the fields to fertilize the soil and honor the Divine within each other.....
A breakthrough of understanding ourselves comes when we learn to perceive as shamans do: not only with my mind, but from an energetic standpoint. Through working directly with the life force, and with the four basic energies of air, fire, water, and earth, we reclaim the keys to healing and opening ourselves to deep connection with all life.....
Here in the desert the moon curls around itself, playing in the shadows of the sandstone rocks. I hear the wind smoothing the jutting points of the solidified sand walls, caressing the rounded corners. Sagebrush and pinon mix their scent with the stars. Here each sandy footfall leaves an imprint to catch moonbeams. I grasp hold of a crag of sandstone, familiar roughness pushing into my palm, and pull my weight up to the ledge hidden behind. I have come here to die....
The mitote book is a place for us to write out the chaos in our mind.
For the Toltecs, taking a inventory of our agreements is an important
step toward personal freedom. All the conflicts in the mind are often
hidden from our conscious self. We may see the results of these agreements
in our lives, but we do not realize how many voices and agreements we
actually carry until we begin to catalog them. By writing out our own
mitote, we begin to clearly hear the distinct voices of the judge and
the victim. We begin to see the rules in our book of law. And we uncover
the conflicts these different voices have created..... The magic of Teo, as we affectionately call Teotihuacan, is the energy that imbues the land and pyramids. This site 45 minutes outside of Mexico City was used by the Toltecs thousands of years ago as a University. Today, don Miguel and the Toltec teachers continue the tradition of bringing groups to Teo to learn directly from the ancient, silent knowledge of the stones. Traditionally, we begin in "hell," looking with honesty deep into the ways we have created our own dream based out of fear or scarcity. From this place of awareness we commit to dying to our old dream and embracing the new....
We emerge into the silence of awe, the stillness of the world holding its breath while new life is birthed. As babies we are seeped in the silence between the spiritual realm and the physical realm. We are open vessels, expressing our joys and pains without any static or interference from the mind. We do not question whether it is right or wrong to have a particular emotion, we simply are....
At many classes I teach a common question is, "How can I stop my mind?"
Instead of focusing on stopping the activity of the mind, I encourage
people to redirect the energy of their mind to help them gain rather than
deplete energy. First, what is the natural function of the mind? One of
my dear teachers Cerridwen points out that the mind was an important tool
for helping our ancestors remember which plants heal and which plants
cause illness or death. The mind helps us make choices by sorting through
information we have gathered and stored.... At the moment of our conception, the life force begins to push through
us, teaching us what we need to survive. This force shows us how to breathe,
suckle, grab, hold our head. We instinctively reach towards our true needs:
food, the need to be loved and nurtured, the desire to move and explore.
Our eyes gradually learn to focus. We grow and transform, balanced between
the earth and the sky. We live each moment being held and guided by a
greater force than ourselves..... This is a paradoxical time of year: The cloak of darkness is at its farthest
reach, and the energy of the Earth and her creatures goes inward, to settle
for the winter in silence and rest. In the human realm this is the time
of community, a time to gather with friends and family and celebrate the
return of the light at Winter Solstice. In the time of deepest darkness,
the seed of new light is born...... Imagine you have new eyes. From this new point of perception you see
human beings not as skin and hair and form, but as energy. Physically,
we have two hands. But in an energetic sense we each have thousands of
hands, each grasping at different agreements and beliefs. Each agreement
is an energetic handshake. The hand at the other end may be attached to
another human's energetic hand, or even to an imaginary force... The Sun joins this New Moon to form a full solar eclipse (visible nowhere around here) in Sagittarius, conjunct Pluto and the South Node of the Moon. We can expect intensity with bells on all month, especially since this lineup of planets trines Jupiter in Leo.... Past Astrology Articles by Isis Ward
Meeting Pele Eleven of us greeted the sun at 5:45 a.m. on the rim of the volcano.
The twelfth member of our group, don Miguel Ruiz, was with us in spirit,
and as totally present as anyone else. It was very cold, with a sharp
wind cutting through our clothing and blankets --the only one not freezing
was don Miguel, who, being in spirit, was immune from the bitter cold
winds at 10,000 feet...
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