Were you feeling the squeeze of the three eclipses this summer? Did you feel like you had to take a serious re-look at Why You Are Here and What You Are Supposed to be Doing? Many of us have been delving more fully into our Soul Purpose this summer, asking those questions as well as considering how we can collaborate, elevate and serve our communities and the planet as a whole.

We are doing loads of inner work and realizing that now IS the time to step up and take a deep look at those limiting beliefs and behaviors we’ve been lugging around most our lives. There is no more putting it off, and we are stepping up to question and release what no longer serves us.  And we are having clarity about what we can compost and what we can harvest. One needs the other. Compost transforms into nutrients when it has something to feed, and it is only with soil enriched by decaying and rotten matter that our can gardens grow the bountiful harvest. 

How can you tell if what you have let go of and cleared and shed has nourished the soil of your inner landscape and your life? Look at what is blooming in your life right now. 

What are you grateful for at this very moment? Are your relationships with others fulfilling and reciprocal so that you want to spend time with those people? Are you creating harmony in your workplace, your community? Are you involved in creative projects that you are excited about; art, networks, business plans? Are you spending enough time being in places and doing things that feed your soul?

Your harvest of blooms today reflect all you have carefully tended inside yourself yesterday. May your harvest be beautiful and bountiful!

The Divine Feminine is the innate essence of the earth we live on, the Mother from which all we are and all we have was created. She is also Shakti; the fundamental creative power of the universe.

She is in all of us, she's in our right brain hemisphere, and the left side of our body. She's in how we listen, forgive, intuit and empath.  She’s there when we feel compassion and gratitude.  When we nurture our silence, going within to meditate or pray, we are connecting to the deep Divine Feminine inside all of us.

As we step outside onto the ground with our bare feet, we are connecting with her, skin to skin.

As we tend to our garden; planting seeds, pulling weeds, harvesting, and composting we are working with her and her rhythms.

As we watch the moon change nightly in the sky, we are connecting with her cycle of birth, growth, completion, and renewal.

There are a myriad of Goddesses, archetypes, and stories that describe her, these are windows into working with her as a primal force. Some may resonate strongly with us from our cultural upbringing, others have come to us from outside our knowledge base as emissaries to draw us purposefully into her energy.  As we open ourselves to her flowing grace and power, she will teach us how best to connect with her.

If we have worked with MariEL, we have amplified our connection to the Divine Feminine to be a conscious conduit for her primal energy.  Our vibration resonates with hers, and we will find ourselves being drawn into places and situations that are in need of that energy to come into balance, or healing or harmony. Many times we won’t realize that, we’ll just be living our day-to-day life, going where we need to go and doing what we need to do. But if we apply our spiritual practice; through meditation, prayer, shamanic journey, we begin to tap into another level of being, and we will be able to intuitively know when we are being called into service.

Once attuned to MariEL, we are radiating that energy 24/7 and when we work consciously with our intuition, we may often know how to be of service. Sometimes it is simply to BE, to radiate the light that we are into the area, the group, the situation. Other times we may be out in nature and are drawn to take off our shoes and form a conduit directly with our body to the land, channeling MariEL to the area.

If we find ourselves in a difficult situation with other people, wondering what THAT is all about, consider the possibility that we were drawn there in Divine perfection to add the light of our being to the situation to raise consciousness. And also of course to shine light upon the shadows of our own issues that are coming up to be healed - that’s the “practice” part of our spiritual practice.

No matter what form of spiritual practice we use; MariEL, Usui Reiki, Shamanic journey, meditation, prayer, kirtan, dance, if we set our intention to connect to the Divine Feminine, she will be there. By setting a second intention to allow our intuition to be open and receptive, we will be consciously interacting with and embodying her Divine essence.

Goddess knowledge card deck by Susan Seddon-Boulet

Do you talk to trees?

Do you feel closeness with one special tree, one that you feel speaks to you or even hugs you with its loving energy when you are around it?

Many people feel a kinship with trees, a sacred gratitude in their presence. They can have the aura of a wise guide, a loving grandparent, a mystical sentinel. They are as individual as people. Many folks that work in the spirit realms work with a tree or trees, and many also work with a special place in nature that becomes sacred with the work.

My friend Lawrence Birch, who facilitates the shamanic healing circle with me, had an inspired idea for our circle to work with a “shaman tree”. He shared a great book with me by Evelyn Rysdyk, A Spirit Walker’s guide to Shamanic Tools, in which she talks in great detail about how to create a sacred prayer tree for offerings, prayers, and ceremony. At our May healing circle we asked attendees to bring ideas of trees they know in local places that would be accessible to our group. We asked each person to journey to the tree beforehand to make sure they had their permission to bring them as a nominee. Five trees were brought as possible candidates. Lawrence had a brilliant idea to be the neutral organizer and labeled the trees anonymously A – E.  He then led us on short journeys to our helping spirits to choose between two letters, A or B. Afterwards we went around the circle and reported the letter we got, then the one who received the majority went on to the next round, and so on, until only one was left. It was amazing in the last round that almost all of us got the same one. This one became our “shaman tree”, a huge, elder Douglas Fir in Willamette Park at the edge of a quiet, but public clearing.

Our shamanic healing circle met at the tree last weekend. We brought offerings to place in the tall grass and blackberry vines entwining its base, we joined hands around it and sang songs of gratitude, gave it poems and prayers.  We journeyed to it and to the surrounding nature spirits. We received messages that were powerful and profound. I was moved very deeply by the experience, as were others. After our circle, I was nudged to the edge of the clearing to take a picture of our tree. The next day I looked at the picture and saw that spirit had honored us in turn by becoming visible light in the photo.

Imagine if a group of people in every city and town came together in community to honor the spirits of nature in all realms. Imagine the pure light of spirit emanating in every one of those circles. Imagine the possibilities for healing our world.