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Tag: holidays

Inspiration

A Winter Solstice: Angels Among Us

Posted on December 23, 2017

Late last December, still ensconced in a small 1950’s, down-at-heel rented cottage in Carmel By The Sea, on a bright winter’s day I sat to write wha...

L.R. Heartsong
L.R. Heartsong

Recent Posts

  • Ayahuasca, the Vine of Souls: Part 2
  • Ayahuasca, the Vine of Souls: Part 1
  • A Mountain Path: Coming Home
  • A Winter Solstice: Angels Among Us
  • Cooking the Bones: A Broth of Gratitude

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Ayahuasca, the Vine of Souls: Part 2
Ayahuasca, the Vine of Souls: Part 1
A Mountain Path: Coming Home
A Winter Solstice: Angels Among Us

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  • Newly posted at TendingSacred, “Ayahuasca, the Vine of Souls: Part 2”:
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“Three months have passed since my initial ceremony with ayahuasca, the entheogenic medicine from the Amazon; an initiatory experience wherein I was ritually dismembered by the plant’s spirit embodied as a powerful black jaguar, and then restored on a deep, core level—catapulted into multidimensional realms hitherto unimagined and unexplored.
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Profound and continuing changes have unfurled in me since that night—the single most powerful healing I have ever experienced, and this I say as a healer of more than two decades. Several physical patterns of restriction and holding in my body (neck, shoulder, hip), that I had attempted for years to resolve with all sorts of therapies and modalities, have entirely shifted and released. Yet perhaps the most noticeable and dramatic transformation is that the dark clouds of depression, a sullen greyness that I have lived under for most of my life, have lifted and not returned. Really, it borders on miraculous. Beyond the body or moods, my whole life feels different these days, suffused with a gentle luminosity rather than lingering shadows.
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Thus again, I have traveled north to a remote location on the Pacific coast where fragrant conifers stand watch over a ceremonial kiva, a great round chamber excavated in the earth where an elderly medicine man, wearing a headdress of blue macaw feathers, presides over a circle of roughly fourteen participants—all of whom have come in search of some type of deep healing, mystical guidance, or renewal in their lives.
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In the candlelit cave-like room, the air thickly perfumed with smoke from burning white sage, from a Dixie cup handed to me by the shaman I’ve swallowed a small amount of dark brown liquid that tastes something like molasses mixed with kerosine...” (Read the full post on the TendingSacred site)
  • Still appreciating the soft, verdant lushness of the Pacific Northwest, so many bright flowers and painted trees in bloom. I could just walk around all day taking photos of beauty! ~
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I’m reminded how we are all so different, each with our own unique shape, colour, scent, season, tolerance and preferred climate... a truly individual blueprint. ~
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May everything you see remind you to honour your own becoming, to trust in that slow, often unfathomable process. We are each the creativity of the Universe embodied... and perhaps the best way to honour and celebrate that is to be as only YOU can be with your talents, magic and medicine. Fully and authentically. Shamelessly.~
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Grow.
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#grow #openyoursenses #gooutside #natureheals #tulip #flowersofinstagram #breathe #trusttheprocess #youaretheuniverse
  • Away from the bright clear sky of the desert, in a land of mists and cool rain, this little cluster of little succulents growing in a driftwood planter caught my eye. Such beautiful symmetry, causing me to pause, take a breath, and crouch down to examine more closely... appreciating life and its sweet mystery. ~
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May you too be seduced unexpectedly by beauty today, somewhere along the path, opening your heart to something much greater. You ARE nature. ~
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#succulents #gooutside #openyoursenses #breathe #natureheals #garden #gratitude #gardenblooms #youarenature #greenman #heal #healer #greenwitch #gaia #earthlover #growwhereyouareplanted
  • Show me the shape of your heart. ~
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A morning walk through the neighbourhood, before the day grew too hot and the sun too fierce (here in the desert it’s already 97F/36C in April). Passing this stone wall, I stopped and smiled, thinking, yes... open your heart to everything that surrounds. Birdsong. Bright flowers. Sunbathing lizard. Unusual rocks and stones. Spiky ocotillo and furtive road runner. The woman watering her plants and the stranger passing me, head down, sweating on his power walk. ~
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This heart is made of hand prints... how very true a metaphor. Exquisite, really. ~
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Breathe into your heart, unlocking it, flooding the path with light, reaching out to all things. Come down from your head, back into the bodysoul with its deep, wordless, sensual knowing and wisdom. The heart is the portal – between the lower chakras and higher modes of awareness that connect us with all that enfolds and interpenetrates, both seen and unseen.~
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Lay down your sword, brave warrior, and be the sacred lover instead: the one who brings awareness, compassion, God-consciousness, and healing. ~
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#heart #heartrock #garden #walking #showmeyourheart #love #nature #openyoursenses #openyourheart #greenman #healer #healing #gooutside #natureheals #gratitude #breathe #sacredmasculine #compassion
  • A marvelous friend in the garden... and I confess again, an an earth-loving Green Man, my unwavering affection for the ‘other-than-human’ world, for all creatures great and small. ~
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I once had the privilege, whilst living in Spain, to observe two different praying mantis egg sacks in the grape arbor, develop over some weeks until one day they finally ruptured, releasing hundreds of ant-sized, translucent little mantises everywhere across the terrace and garden. What a delight! ~
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Encountering the visible, embodied others I share space with – whether emerald hummingbird, purple blossom, honeybee, desert falcon, or praying mantis – almost daily I am reminded of my soul’s true vocation, expressed so aptly by the poet Mary Oliver: “My work is loving the world... which is mostly standing still and learning to be astonished.”
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#gratitude #nature #gooutside #openyoursenses #openyourheart #greenman #hommedeterre #healer #hedgewitch #sacredmasculine #prayingmantis #gardenfriends #allcreaturesgreatandsmall #maryoliver #beastonished #wonder #awe #kindness
  • A medicine man needs good jewelry. This: my one-of-a-kind ceremonial cuff, a vintage Navajo ketoh. ~
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Ketohs are Native American bowguards used to protect an archer’s wrist from the snap of the bowstring or sinew. By the late 1870’s, silver plaques began to be attached to the wide leather strap, and these embellished ketohs were associated with prominent members of the Native American community. In the early 1900’s, turquoise began to be set into the designs. As guns replaced bow and arrows, ketohs became ceremonial in nature, worn by elders and tribal leaders. ~ ....
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The leather on this piece is new, but the vintage silver is made with the labour-intensive process of sandcasting, which involves hand carving a design in sandstone, then pouring in molten silver. The mold or cast is destroyed in the process of removal, making each sandcast piece truly one of a kind. ~
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Though I am of European ancestry rather than Native American, wearing this piece in my ceremonies somehow imparts a sense of working with the ancestors, as well as being bound to culture(s) more intimately connected to the earth and its spiritual nature – those who recognize that everything is alive and connected. Repeated blessings to the unknown artisan who fashioned such enduring beauty. ~
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We are all related. ~
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#navajojewelry #ketoh #sandcasting #nativeamericanjewelry #oneofakind #oneofakindjewelry #ceremony #vintage #handcarved #metalwork #silver #turquoise #newmexico #taos #medicineman #shaman #healer #heal #hedgewitch #gratitude #ancestors #pagansofinstagram #weareallconnected
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