ceremony

Ceremony is a conscious act performed, uniting in ritual and purpose, the specialness of an event or occasion. Cultural or traditional, religious or civil, communal or private - a ceremony is a creative, powerful, and impactful means of communication and connectivity. 

Canterbury Cathedral Altar

Adding ceremony to our daily prayer is valuable because it consciously directs our purpose and intent. Prayers are universal and every individual prays one way or another. Prayer is deliberate communication issued or action taken to connect with spirit, the divine, all that is, source, the God of our heart. 

A Shinto Kamidana [home altar]

When we pray we are either naming, asking, or declaring with prayers of invocation, petition or decree. The idea expressed or action taken are an expression of honour, worship, or devotion. 

The Opferstein or sacrificial rock, Austria

hope is a discipline

Each year the International Day of Peace is observed around the world on September 21. The UN General Assembly has declared this as a day devoted to strengthening the ideals of peace, through observing 24 hours of non-violence and cease-fire.

The 2020 theme for the International Day of Peace is Shaping Peace Together. Celebrate the day by spreading compassion, kindness and hope in the face of the pandemic.

While many join together to spread peace, there are those who sow divisiveness and dissent, using the current crisis to promote their agenda of discrimination and hatred.

It is a sad and sorrow filled day for Filipinos around the world who recall the atrocities of the Marcos regime and dictatorship on the anniversary of the declaration of martial law in the Philippines.

It’s an act of rebellion to show up as someone trying to be whole and — I would add — as someone who believes that there is a hidden wholeness beneath the very evident brokenness of our world. ~ Parker Palmer

let our spirit soar

The past decade has liberated me - bringing final closure to a cycle that took longer than I ever imagined and invested more energy than expected.

Sand Dunes and Moon by Regimantas Cieška

This last year of accumulation, of accreditation, and of study has served me well. It has fattened and filled my spirit. A fat moon full and filled with new understanding and a deepened consciousness. So big it bursts open to spill over. Rich with magic and resources, with offerings and boons - for all to witness and enjoy.

music for the soul

There is geometry in the humming of the strings. There is music in the spacing of the spheres. ~ Pythagoras (569–490 BCE)

Oxidizing Space by Bernhard Rohne

The discovery of the precise relation between the pitch of the musical note and the length of the string that produces it is attributed to Pythagoras.

a poetic idea of music in the cosmos

welcome to my world

August is the ideal month to bask under the night sky and dance with the stars. Meteor showers, comet trails, lunar phases, planetary alignments, asteroids and their near misses. The skies are putting on a stellar show.

concept art by BHAKTI creative design

The August full moon has been called the Sturgeon Moon, Red Moon, Green Corn Moon, and Grain Moon. It is a harvest moon that appears at the time of the year's first harvest, always shining by the stars of Aquarius or Capricorn. This year the full moon falls on August 3.

rest easy

Have you heard of Trisha Hersey - self proclaimed nap bishop, founder of the Nap Ministry and advocator of radical rest as resistance? Either way, it's time for all of us to join her global movement and nap temple where we can rest in righteous sleep.

Who can fail to love the idea of rest as resistance? Especially in this world where life is such a grind our wheels fail to stop even face with this deadly worldwide pandemic?

In her latest course, Dark Night of the Soul, Sandra Ingerman instructs us in creating a personal altar that changes as we go through changes as well. My altar for the week sits on an old hand embroidered Bedouin tribal cover.

In dreamtime I join its travels up and down the old Silk Road from ancient lowlands of our mother river deltas in Egypt to the distant aerial peaks of the Himalayas. Moving back and forth between East and West, trading knowledge, histories, art and other treasures.

ancient & ageless

In the early 70s I was a rebellious teenager in an all girls Catholic school run by German Benedictine nuns. Lucky for me a young nun came to be our high school principal and she was more open to having us express our new found angst in more productive ways.

We had much to vent as it was not just the birth of flower power and the all too controversial contraceptive pill, it was also the coming of age of the infamous Philippine dictator, Ferdinand Marcos. But that is a long and sordid tale I shall save for the more appropriate telling in my Change Warrior blog instead.

Jesus & Horus

Back then I thought being a hippie chick was the coolest thing. I loved beading my own headbands, wristbands and chokers. Embellishing and embroidering my clothes with thread, leather, cords and fringes would just put me in my creative zone.

#endHUMANtrafficking

What in the world are we to do when stuff like this is still going on in our world? Wake up humans!

As if our caregivers and first responders did not have enough challenges in this time of COVID-19. Life in the time of corona is an on going, full speed, ran away emotional roller coaster.

When the rich and infamous like Prince Andrew, Donald Trump and Bill Clinton are involved -including lawyers William Barr and Kenneth Stark - we truly have to question, what the f*ck? ! ?

Can there be any reason for them to be at a party with dozens of underaged females hosted by a known sex trafficker? Flaunting their salivating feral mugs in well documented press photos? WOW!

This is the first couple of the United States - how sick is that?

We all need to do whatever it takes to end this. How to get involved:

• Highlight the work of first responders in your country, community or organization.
• Share, like and comment on the social media messages for the World Day.
• Donate to the United Nations Voluntary Trust Fund for Victims of Human Trafficking, which provides on-the-ground assistance and protection to victims of trafficking.

transmutation with Sandra Ingerman

intention + harmony + love + concentration + focus + union + imagination = transmutation

Sandra Ingerman offers this formula to recall our light and let it shine forth. 

In Shamanism we are taught that everything is connected. Everything that is alive has a spirit and is connected in a web of life. 

Begin to get in touch with your true nature which is light by putting on some relaxing soothing music and allow yourself to get into a quiet place. 

• Take some deep breaths bringing you to a centered place where you will be able to experience a state of harmony and love. 
• Allow yourself to go inside holding the intention that you want to experience the light that shines within your being.
• This will bring you into a state of union with your creator or the power of the universe. 
• Keep your focus and concentrate on your intention. 
• Allow your imagination to help you feel and see your internal light. 
• Give yourself permission to let your light shine fully through you. 

This light is always there and cannot be used up.  The capacity to share your light and be filled by it yourself is endless. Your light cannot be destroyed or taken from you. You do not have to worry about becoming depleted, as the source of this light is infinitely abundant.

Should you wish to continue this practice and share it Sandra has also been generous enough to share this incredible transfiguration ceremony.

May you be filled with light and love and radiate it in your daily life. Blessings always!

wisdom of the stars

It has been a cosmic roller coaster of a week - starting with the full moon and closing with my birthday and the NEOWISE comet peaking on July 12. Happy Birthday to me and what a special gift it is to have my very own stellar fireworks.

Newcomer Comet Neowise, North Wildwood NJ on July 8, 2020 by Chris Bakley

Formally named Comet C2020 F3 NEOWISE by NASA, the newly-discovered comet has been visible in the early hours before sunrise this July. And now it will also be visible in the night sky for the next ten days. Check out this Comet Watch site to track it in your area.

The event is truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience - NASA estimates the comet takes about 6,800 years to complete its path around the sun. Starting this weekend it will be visible to viewers in the Northern Hemisphere in the evening just after sunset. 

How wonderful to have this year's birthday marked by such a spectacular event. Seeded from the stars and lighting up the heavens to shine down on us. Glory be to me! to me! to me!

What a delight it is to have this perfectly timed happy event to mark my auspicious day when the heavens are most closely aligned to my original date of birth. Blessings and gratitude always.