Tag Archives: feminine

Chuck’s Place: Hillary, The Pope & Ken Wilber

Excavating the feminine... - Photo by Jan Ketchel
Excavating the feminine…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

Ken Wilber, one of the greatest philosophers of this century and one of the leading transpersonal theorists, reflected back in 1993: “And is not the alienation of women precisely parallel to the alienation of the body…and nature? And is not global alienation what we now see in the environmental crisis? Far from “saving” us, aren’t the Great Traditions the root of a crisis that very well might kill us?” *

The Great Traditions Wilber refers to are the world religions; Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism. What Wilber points to is the negation of the feminine, at least in part, in all these religious traditions. Woman, body, nature, reflect matter and instinct. It is the degradation of the feminine that now threatens the survival of the planet, yet also points the way to its cure.

This week, on Thursday, Pope Francis is set to release his encyclical on climate change, which reportedly calls for an ethical and economic revolution to prevent catastrophic climactic destruction. Here, one of the Great Traditions is turning its attention to the Great Feminine, asking for the world spirit to humble itself to the true needs of the earth.

Senator Jim Inhofe, global warming denier, has already rebutted the Pope’s encyclical: “The Pope ought to stay with his job, and we’ll stay with ours.” Well, the Pope has already crossed over and asserted that resuscitating the feminine is the job of the Great Traditions and, in fact, everyone’s job. When the encyclical, leaked on Tuesday, is further unveiled, the Pope has arranged for three speakers to participate: a Vatican Cardinal, a Greek Orthodox Theologian, and an Atheist scientist. The Pope is elevating Mother Nature over even spiritual belief!

When I view the upcoming US Presidential race, I can’t help but be drawn to the possibility of a Hillary Clinton presidency. The truth is that Bernie Sanders is far more progressive and speaking the necessary truth. Hillary is still way too attached to Bill’s old world manipulative strategy that seeks to placate the wealthy and the powerful. But the truth also is that Hillary became New York’s Senator through a collective support for the degraded feminine subsequent to Bill’s faux pas a la Monica Lewinsky.

Hillary’s power grew as she proved her independent ability, nearly becoming President of the United States seven years ago. Although Obama won, he acknowledged Hillary’s abilities by appointing her Secretary of State, a position that she mastered despite the Republican attempt to make Benghazi a failure in her leadership. I could see a course of Hillary as President as representative of the transformative symbol of the healing of the feminine, just the thing that Ken Wilber hints at.

The work of nature... - Photo by Jan Ketchel
The work of nature…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

At present, Hillary is still quite tainted by the power of the manipulative masculine. She must undergo her own journey of feminine mystique, even while the world mirrors a similarly necessary transformative process. She, like the world, is a work in progress, only the “work” is more one of shedding third chakra control and allowing for heart-centered leadership instead.

In heart-centered leadership the feminine assumes its rightful throne, next to and in union with its masculine partner: action based on truth, nature’s truth. This is the necessary corrective implied by Ken Wilber back in 1993: action based on true need, not on power and greed.

Whether Hillary goes the distance is anyone’s guess. Whether the Pope’s encyclical will have the desired effect is also anyone’s guess. However, the elevation of and healing of the feminine is the winning ticket for world salvation—and we’re already well along in that race!

Hoping for the best results,
Chuck

* Quote from: Paths Beyond Ego, 1993, Ken Wilber contributor.

Chuck’s Place: Receptive

Together in accordance with nature...
Together in accordance with nature…

I dream. I’m in a country setting. Three female figures stand facing each other at three cardinal points, each with a tombstone in front of them with the same inscribed message: RECEPTIVE. There is no sense of death associated with the stones; it is not a cemetery. The dream message is emphatic: BE RECEPTIVE!

The receptive is the archetype of the feminine, hexagram #2 in the I Ching. Six yin lines piled upon each other to form the image of the earth, matter, manifestation.

The receptive is the completion of hexagram #1, the masculine creative, spirit, six yang lines piled to form the image of heaven. The creative and the receptive are completely equal and complimentary. Spirit finds a home in matter, matter finds its purpose in spirit.

Intent is spirit. We set intent and must allow for its manifestation. Manifestation is the receptive. The receptive is primal energy that acts of its own volition; we cannot control it, but we can get in its way, though only partially.

How often the ego gets impatient, or doubts the receptive and engages the mind to implement intent. “Oh yes, I must exercise, follow this regimen—this will allow me to reach my goal.” Then perhaps we fail or fall off course and become embroiled in self-hate or self-discipline with promises of better behavior in the future.

Such drama provides a major distraction, taking the focus away from the energetic manifestation of intent through the magical power of the receptive. The ego, doubting the receptive—the completer—actually opposes the manifestation of intent by contradicting the process through its interference. The ego identifies with the masculine creative—spirit—and barks orders at the body for change. This is slavery. The manifested body—the creation of the receptive—shuts down and refuses to budge. Its message to the ego: “Get out of the way and allow the receptive to complete its creation.”

Nature will take over and do as it will... - Photo by Jan Ketchel
Nature will take over and do as it will…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

Indeed, the receptive may require the ego to accept the role of subcontractor in the project, for the receptive is the contractor, the one that directs and manifests the concrete, substantial, actual physical realization of the intent.

The receptive is an extremely active energy. How deceiving it is to conceive of the feminine as inert or passive! The power of the receptive is so intense that the world ego shudders as we are now poised for the symbolic feminine in human form, woman, to assume the position of world leadership. Perhaps that woman will be Hillary Clinton or Elizabeth Warren, or maybe a ticket of both.

The world is prepared now for the ascension of the feminine. The raising of Mary in the Catholic Church to Godly status with the Assumption in 1950 was the first modern Western sign of the ascension of the feminine, the valuing of the feminine on equal par with the masculine trinity of heavenly status, which Jung predicted, at the time, to be inevitable. He foresaw that it was going to happen; we are there now. Even in the midst of the power of war and mass confusion, change is on the horizon; the feminine is rising.

The manifestation of the power of the feminine receptive marched 300,000+ strong through New York City this past Sunday in support of protecting the planet, Mother Earth. This is feminine energy, a flowing river of energy gathering power, manifesting a new intent. This intent will be realized completely now as the world is reshaped to continue to live. That is the intent of spirit, life, and the receptive is manifesting the changes needed to complete that intent, the feminine working hand in hand with the masculine.

The issue has little to do with man or woman per se. All beings are composed of the creative and the receptive, the masculine and the feminine energies of spirit and matter. The challenge now is to realign the ego to support the receptive’s manifestation of needed change. Only the receptive can manifest, and boy is there manifesting going on! By all accounts that means we are in for real change. Intent is spirit, and it is powerful, but the receptive is the active energy that is bringing needed change to our world and to the self.

The receptive manifests the intent of the seed... - Photo by Jan Ketchel
The receptive manifests the intent of the seed…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

It is time for the ego to step back and allow the receptive to manifest the needed change. We can all participate by following the dictates of the manifested body, as it guides, nourishes, and heals in accordance with the true purpose and intent of spirit: Life!

Being receptive,
Chuck

A Day in a Life: Out Of The Shadows

Female energy in hordes, laying eggs in hordes, unstoppable... - Photo by Chuck Ketchel
Female energy in hordes, laying eggs in hordes, unstoppable…
– Photo by Chuck Ketchel

We have been and continue to be in a time of great feminine energy. The birth of the cicadas after seventeen years underground is only one sign of the emergence of long-suppressed female energy. Once emerged, the main intent of the cicadas, male and female alike, is to reproduce another crop of eggs that will lie dormant deep inside the earth until they too emerge in seventeen years and do the same.

The moon, the ultimate female symbol, is equally important now. The masculine sun has ruled for a long time. We know how important the sun is for life on earth; without it we’d perish pretty quickly. The feminine moon is just as important, ruler of the tides and time, linked to the seasons, to birth and death. She lights up the darkness, revealing things in a different light, while other entities not accustomed to light emerge and live. I always think of the moon in correlation with the oceans, with the ebb and flow of life, especially affecting the female body, its menses and moods, the salt of the oceans and the salt of our human bodies inextricably linked.

The Supreme Court knocked us back a few decades with their repeal of the Voting Rights Act. Texas wanted to close all abortion clinics, but the bill was filibustered by State Senator Wendy Davis, for 11 hours, and failed! My first reaction is an exasperated, “Woe! What is this world coming to!” But I see these things as last ditch efforts by the ruling male energy to suppress the emerging female energy. But they won’t be able to—just think of those cicadas. Nothing is going to stop this energy from coming out of the shadows now. It’s the time of the feminine. At least that’s the way I see it.

The Republicans don’t want Hillary to be President of the United States in 2016, but she will be. Even the Dalai Lama has spoken of the possibility of the next Dalai Lama being a woman, that it would be good because “females have more potential to develop affection or love…” Basically, it’s time. The world is badly in need of help. It needs a healing balm like no other. It needs the soothing energy of Mother, of nurturing energy, a new set of rules to play by. It needs a shift away from the male/masculine domination of our times to a new time of female/feminine intervention. The sun cycle is over; the moon cycle is about to begin. As the Dalai Lama also said, we need a compassionate approach to world leadership and women offer this.

I observe the cicadas. I can’t help it. They are everywhere in our yard, their carcasses littering the deck, the walkways, piled at the bases of trees, crunching beneath the wheels of our cars. I watch the birds swoop down and catch them in mid-air. Even the tiny wren easily grabs them. The cicadas, I notice, are a little clumsy. They flutter and buzz about with great determination but they often land on their faces and flop over onto their backs. They lie there inert, perhaps catching their breath before expending a lot of energy trying to turn over. Eventually they flip onto their prickly legs and stand dazed and unsure. I don’t think they really know what to make of this world that they are in for so short a period of time. Having lived in darkness for so long, they must struggle to get their bearings. In spite of this they attack life with great gusto. With their loud whirring, cheering, and piping sounds those little critters are having an impact!

Poppies popping up all over the place...more of that natural feminine energy! -Photo by Jan Ketchel
Poppies popping up all over the place…more of that natural feminine energy!
-Photo by Jan Ketchel

I think we’re going to have to be patient with ourselves as we move into a new cycle of moon energy. As I see it, it’s going to happen. There is no stopping it, just like there is no stopping the cicadas. But we all have to take full responsibility for where we’ve been and where we’re going. As human beings—not as male and female, but as an embodiment of both energies—we will have to learn how to navigate in a changing world. We may find ourselves as clumsy as the cicadas, but eventually we’ll get ourselves sorted out. We’ll align with the intent of now, which surely is that we correct what has been wrought by our dependence on the masculine energy of our society, as well as the masculine energy of our individual selves, on the suppression of our feminine, from outside and inside. Our egos have ruled for too long. Now it’s time for our hearts to take over and guide us forward into a new world.

We must pull our hearts out of the shadows and let them live and lead us to do what is right for all human beings, for the planet and all of life. Many of us are already there, doing it our entire lives. We must not be afraid to continue being the loving and tender beings we truly are, no matter what kind of backlash comes to stomp on us—and it will come, again and again. But just as we expect Hillary to go the distance, so must we. Just as we wish for a kinder, gentler nation, so must we accept that hatred, bigotry and racism abound, but we cannot allow them to harden our hearts and make us mean too.

We must not dismiss the lessons of the cicadas. They are here because it is their time. Their energy is decidedly feminine, their mission one that only females can enact. Yesterday, as I sat on the deck, a cicada suddenly dropped from the sky and landed with a plunk. “Wow, look at that,” I thought. “Just dropped dead from the sky.” I bent over to look at it and noticed that its back end was missing. “It must be a female,” I thought, “her reproductive cavity worn off with all that work of getting her eggs laid. This one’s mission is accomplished.” But just as I thought that thought, she suddenly turned over. Still alive! And then she got up and flew away! Wow, half dead, half her body gone and still flying! Not done yet! And so I say, we must not forget the cicadas!

Our own time to fly is now. Are we going to forget the cicadas as we move forward? Are we going to forget that we all have feminine energy inside us, just waiting to burst forth out of the shadows and finally live? We all know how good it feels to love, how good it feels to soften our edges, drop our ego pretenses and just be REAL. Why not do this all the time?

We must embrace and live by a new feminine paradigm. We are all charged with emerging from the shadows to change the world in a very new and untried way. We must challenge the status quo all over again. We must get up and fly again, no matter how exhausted we are. We may have to redo a lot of things we thought were already securely embedded in our American psyches. We may have to march again for our basic Civil Rights. Abortion rights, voting rights, and marriage rights are seminal to our growth and freedom as healthy masculine/feminine human beings. A female president of the United States and a female Dalai Lama are seminal if we are to not only heal the ills that we have all created, but move on in a totally new direction.

He died with his boots on, as they say! - Photo by Jan Ketchel
He died with his boots on, as they say!
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

Oh, by the way, I noticed that the male cicadas die with their reproductive parts intact. Once again, it’s the female who gives her all. Take that into consideration as we go into the new moon phase of life, rife with powerful and unstoppable female energy!

Just my opinion,
Jan

A Day in a Life: Disruption Leads To Mature Balance

Time for new growth…

We work in the garden in the early morning, weeding and clearing the summer’s growth. Time for fall plantings now. Time for a change. The energy is with us as we work in the early morning light, in the cool air and companionable silence. Our task done, we prepare breakfast and sit on the deck, content in our togetherness. Suddenly I have an urge. I want to go out to a restaurant that I like. It has a nice outdoor garden.

“Why don’t we go there for dinner tonight?” I suggest.

We discuss the possibility. After a while it doesn’t seem like the right thing to do. I acquiesce to the energy that says to take it slow, be patient, and stay put. It’s a day to be calm and to rejuvenate.

We sit and read. The air is calm, the day sunny and still. The birds are busy around us. I hear a fluttering of wings overhead and a zinging sound, like a jolt of electricity. Something has just been caught midair, right above our heads. A bird flies off with something big in it’s beak. I worry that it might be the hummingbird that had just hovered busily nearby.

We read for a few more minutes. Suddenly Chuck is restless. “I have such creative energy brewing inside me,” he says. “I have to do something with it.” I wonder if I can match it, if I can join him in this creative spurt, but no, my energy is utterly calm. I just want to sit and read. Chuck heads off to do some more yard work, shaping the hedges and ornamental trees, a good project for such energy.

While he works in the yard, I read and contemplate the energy of the day. A hurricane is brewing, and the Republicans are gathering for their convention, saying they will go ahead with it no matter what. I sense masculine energy stirring all around me. I don’t get attached, but stay in my inner calmness. I remember my own pull earlier to go out into the world and do something, yet I know I made the right decision to stay at home today.

Creative energies stir…

Soon Chuck returns, his energy spent. Contented and calm, he sits beside me and we enjoy a quiet few hours. The energy stirs repeatedly throughout the day, however, both inside us and outside us and we must make decisions about whether to acquiesce to it or wrestle it down. It just seems to be the way it is at the moment.

Things progress, the hurricane continues to gather energy, the Republicans begin their convention, the masculine energy continues to stir. Aggressive and controlling, I see it playing out in many instances over the next few days. Suddenly, I realize it isn’t masculine energy at all that I’ve been feeling all around me, but feminine energy, the energy of nature, the creative unleashed.

My urge to go out to dinner was the romantic feminine stirring in me. The bird snatching food from the air above our heads was Mother Nature in raw form. Chuck’s creative urge was also the feminine urge to give birth to some new creation. The feminine was stirred in us throughout the day, offering the possibility of new adventures, new desires, new experiences.

Now I understand the energy of the hurricane as it slowly amassed and headed into land as the creative force of the feminine unleashing, no man or woman able to hold such power back. This got me to thinking about whether or not we really have any control at all, over anything. Are we just fooling ourselves in thinking we make our own decisions? Are we all just subject to acquiescence, in spite of our best efforts to control and direct our lives?

I dream. I have no control in my dreams. The feminine energy of the unconscious emerges and takes me on nightly adventures while my ego is asleep. Ego is masculine; the controlling self in everyday life, thinking it has the upper hand, thinking it’s in charge. But is it really? I don’t think so. It tries hard, it asks me to conform and abide by its tenets, yet underneath other truths have been stirring for a long time now, truths that I have learned to pay attention to. And I know from paying attention to those inner truths that I am more like the hurricane, that I am nature, the creative.

We are all this force…

We are all this creative force, yet we must be accountable for it within ourselves if we are to live as mature beings. I must not let the creative feminine energy rule me anymore than I let the masculine force rule. I must learn to acquiesce to each of them when appropriate so that I am not overwhelmed or controlled by either. This is where I believe we do have power, the power to gain balance over the powers within us that constantly seek expression. This is how we become mature spiritual beings able to flow in the universe.

If we allow ourselves to be overly controlled by either force, we are not only out of balance, but we are not our true mature and evolving selves either. We become automatons to the powers that be, to the outside energy and the inside energy. In order to gain equilibrium within, we must attentively weigh the energy outside of us, making decisions on how to act and how we want to be in the world.

Do I want to control everything in my life? No, I don’t. I want to be available to flow with what comes, but I also know from previous experiences that I don’t need to be taken over anymore either. However, it’s appropriate at times to be overtaken, to allow both the masculine controlling energy and the unleashed feminine to teach us what we must learn. And so I have allowed myself to indulge in both kinds of energy, sometimes unknowingly and often intentionally. But there comes a time when it’s enough. There comes a time for living in the world in balance, as a mature and whole being.

As human beings, we have the opportunity to make choices. We are surrounded by nature in the raw, we have it inside us, and yes, it can unleash at any time. But in mature balance we learn to detach from and attach to it as feels right. We make decisions based on what is right for us at the moment. We can choose to maintain the calmness and contentedness we have so desperately sought and fought for our entire lives.

Inner and outer forces in balance…

In always saying no, we shut the door to life. In always saying yes, we leave it open to being overwhelmed by life. When in balance we offer ourselves possibility, the door always half open, and yet our choices become ones made in awareness, knowing what we are choosing and why. In choosing recapitulation—yes, I do have to mention it because it’s my life’s work and offering—we allow ourselves to gain the mature balance that leads to calmness, contentment, and access to the awareness of knowing what is right for us, at all times.

So, my lessons this week have been a growing awareness of what it means to be in mature balance, which is really a constant shifting in awareness, as if one were on a balance beam, making slight adjustments in inner balance to meet the outer energy that seeks always to upset the ego-dominated self. It’s just the way it is; the job of the creative feminine energy is to make new life, both within and without, and new life only comes from disrupting stasis. We all need a jolt of raw nature every now and then to catapult us into new life.

Sending love…

Here’s hoping that Hurricane Isaac, the feminine unleashed, doesn’t do too much damage and that it leads us all to opportunity for new mature life. And here’s to my lovely daughter who is living through it at this very moment, in her little house in New Orleans. May everyone be safe.

Sending love,
Jan

A Day in a Life: Tap Into The Feminine Source

I perceive a triangle...

I wake up each morning and directly out the window I see a triangular shape of branches. I see this every morning and every morning I wonder what it means. The triangle is important, significant, and its image hovers in my thoughts throughout the day. This morning I noticed something else. I saw a cluster of leaves and light creating a wheel at the top of the triangle in the way the light was hitting the tree. “Oh, the dharma,” I thought, the wheel representing the teachings of Buddha. I knew I was being asked, as I often am, to spread the dharma, that which I have been learning. “Okay,” I thought, “today is the day I write my blog. What will it be about?” And so, since then, it has evolved into the following message.

An old idea has come circling around again, into my conscious thoughts, appropriately so, for it is nature itself calling. It is Mother Earth calling out to the women of the world, asking us to remember who we are, for we are the source.

As a channel, I cannot ignore what comes through me; it would be neglectful and perhaps even disastrous to do so. I’ve had enough experience to know that it’s important to speak of what comes. I am not being inflated. I have learned over the past decade that what comes through me energetically is usually right on the money, it has value, and so I ask: Who are we? Do the women of the world truly value and utilize all that we hold inside us? Do the women of the world realize how intimately connected we are to nature, to the flow of energy, to the innate powers of healing and nurturance?

Thyme...from the earth...

Last night, as I was preparing dinner, Chuck asked: “Is this all ours?” Meaning, did we grow this? “Yes, it’s all ours,” I said. “Wow, you did this!” he said. “This is all you!” And I had to acknowledge that, yes, the food we are eating these days is all due to the efforts I put into making a garden so that we may eat directly from our own soil. At that moment, I realized that we all have the power within us to bring forth healthy goodness, to nurture ourselves and others in so many ways. Men and women alike, we are all capable of creating a beautiful, peaceful, healthy world, for I will not leave men out of my message today. However, I direct my words to women, because I feel that we have increasingly gotten distracted from, and discouraged from being, who we truly are.

In truth, we women are deeply connected to the source of all life, to the rhythms and flow of nature, to the moon and stars, to the deep rumblings of the earth, to the mystical, ethereal realms of the heavens. We are the beings who have the greatest opportunity to bring interconnectedness back into life, into everyday life. We are many, and we are fully capable of changing the world, but our power is, as of yet, largely untapped. Though many women are already aware and involved in awakening feminine energy, many more women need to get involved, in whatever way feels right and comfortable.

We all want the world to be a better, safer place. We can start to make that happen in small ways, simply by letting our spirits speak through us, by letting ourselves channel the good energy inherent in all of us. As we send our children and those nearest to us out into the world every day, as we meet people every day, we must not forget to tell them that they are good, kind beings, and that they should live their lives that way too, because life itself deserves this kind of energy, life is calling all of us to be this way.

We must remind ourselves of this goodness and kindness within ourselves and live it fully as well. We must all discover that we are all the same and that we all want the same things. Not money, not riches, not more stuff, but that we all want to love and be loved, to feel good about ourselves and others, to feel happy and contented. But how many people can really say that they are those things? How many people can truly say they are happy and contented in their lives?

Happiness, as we all know, does not come from having more. Greed, as we see all over the nation and the world, has wreaked havoc for decades, spoiling our earth, our water, our food, our bodies, our politics, our religions, our educational systems, and so much more. We are all out of balance because of greed, whether we have been directly involved or not.

Greed is definitely masculine energy unleashed, overpowering the feminine. It’s time for the feminine to rise up in a new way now, not in the masculine way, not by turning into that which we have learned does not work, but in an energetic way. We women, and men too, must turn to energetic interconnectedness on a conscious and deeply spiritual level, bringing change into the world in whatever way we have at our fingertips, for I believe we all have the power of interconnectedness at our fingertips right now.

The dharma...the teachings of spirit and life itself...

I realized that I made the choice many years ago to bring what I am learning to others, what I might call the dharma one day, which is really just about discovering what it means that we are all energetic, interconnected beings. I spend a good deal of my time each week writing blogs, not because my ego needs the work, but because the spirit inside me and the energy of that which I channel challenges me to be open and giving. After a lifetime of hiding behind shyness—which is another side of ego too, I might add—I now know that the rest of my life is taking me in a new direction and I am letting it guide me. I will not stand in its way. And I can tell you, it’s never too late to change. It’s really all about allowing the energy of change, connected to the flow of nature, the energy of all things, to take over, and daring to go with it.

I notice, especially over the past few months, how strikingly desperate we all are for change and how many people feel helpless, lost, and even hopeless in the face of what we have done to our planet and our species. Have we indeed turned into zombie creatures that just roam the earth destroying uncontrollably, without any connection to the sacredness of life? Have we come so far from caring about others that we cannot see that we are all in the same boat, desperately fighting for our next clean breath of air, our next sip of clear water, our next bite of pure food? Are we so far gone that we do not care if our earth gets fracked and drained of its resources, further destroying that which we have already destroyed to the point of no return?

So what do we do now? Where do we go from here? Well, I have a few ideas, simple ideas that I’ve been utilizing myself for a long time. I know they work. It all depends on who you are and how you personally decide to investigate changing your own lifestyle. Each of us must make personal decisions to change how we live in order for others to do the same. We can’t ask of others what we are not willing to do ourselves. But I can attest that making even simple changes begins a process of change. Keep in mind, however, that although change can happen on a simple scale, even the most simple of changes requires discipline, but not so much that balance is lost. Balance, as we see in nature, is of utmost importance.

Learning to do simple meditation on the conditions of the earth and humanity, breathing in the pain and destruction that we see and breathing out healing, nurturing energy is extremely easy. Everyone breathes. So what if we all set the intention to breathe in a new way, asking that each inhale we take be a breath focused on what is wrong in the world and each exhale be a breath of healing energy? Can we do it?

Try it. Set the intent that each normal breath, whether consciously focused on or not, have meaning. Set the intent for the self first, then for those closest, then for the world. Ask that the energy of healing and nurturance flow through you and that it heal you, those closest to you, and that it flow beyond you to the rest of the world. Watch what happens as you set this intent and then go into your day and just breath naturally.

We all have it...Can we dare to use it for good, for all beings?

For a more focused meditation, breathe in personal issues and conflicts and breathe out healing, for the self and others. Breathe in fear and greed, and breathe out compassion and balance. This is a very simple energetic act of kindness, love, and compassion for all beings. Breathe in sorrow and grief, and breathe out happiness and contentment, for self, those closest, even those you are at odds with, and then to the greater world, and see what happens.

To those who are gardeners, as I am, send this same kind of good and nurturing energy into your soil, even into the pots on your balcony or deck. Ask the earth to heal by spreading healing energy from your little plot of ground, down into its interconnected byways, spreading to your neighbors’ yards and beyond. Ask your earth to provide you with what you need to heal your body and your soul and ask that it go outward to others as you garden, as you put your hands into it, as you walk barefoot upon it.

Do this in water as well. If you have access to streams, river, or ocean, ask the waters to interconnect with healing energy, bringing it far beyond your own dipping spot. You can even do this in the shower and bathtub. Send your healing energy around the world. In these simple askings—in intending that the air we breathe, the earth we grow our food in, the water we drink, be interconnected channels of energy—we implement an energetic intent to change, offering it to everyone.

As simple as these things may seem, as naive as they may sound, anyone who has experienced energetic interaction knows that this is not hogwash. It is what the great healers, saints, and holy people have been teaching us forever. Love heals, love changes, love is the way. Love begins within each of us. It is feminine energy, the deep pool residing inside all of us, waiting to be tapped into, not just in women, though I send a plea to all women to return to it now and use it to change the self, and then the world. We all have this source within us, and though it may feel distant and unfamiliar, I ask you to tap into it again. Like an innocent child, bring it back into your life.

It has become increasingly clear to me that all of us women must step up now. We must take over the energy of change, shifting it in a new direction. As much as the men of the world have struggled to change the world, they too must admit that things are not looking too good. We have to all tap into the feminine source now, and return to our deeper roots. We must all become humanitarians and utilize our full human potential to love, to heal, to evolve our species to a new level of interconnectedness.

Breathing for all of you, with humbleness and love,
Jan