At the time of the next new moon, plant something–a shrub, a tree, a seedling, or bulb–whatever you choose. Give the gift of this planting to the earth in a special way and for a special reason. Spring is the season of rebirth and renewal. The new moon is always the optimal time to initiate the new: new projects, dreams …
A Mid-Spring Night’s Dream
This visual exercise can be done either as a self-guided meditation or as a shamanic journey: I invite you to step into a dream: Allow your imagination to follow the prompting of the words. Take a deep breath. Let go of your awareness of your room and any present concerns that weigh upon you. See yourself setting down the worries …
The Days of Miracle and Wonder
This entry is part of a sermon given at the Mattatuck Unitarian Universalist Church in Woodbury, CT during April of 2012: “The Poet Dreams of the Mountain” by Mary Oliver speaks of the longing—and need—to step out of human time and live according to the time and purpose of the Earth itself. To emerge from an urgent personal agenda and …
Creation is Never Done
We are creators for sure. We have heard this said in many different ways, but the bottom line is that the world as we know it is our ongoing creation. Though we are not genies from a bottle—we cannot simply cross our arms and blink things into being—it is probably best that we aren’t capable of instant manifestation. Folk tales …
And the Beat Goes On
During a recent journey, I had an opportunity to meet and speak with my client's great-great grandmother, a Cherokee woman who had walked the Trail of Tears. She told me that the shamanic journey is a way of bringing what is inside us to the outside where we can see it and hear it, and that the drumbeat is an …
Dead Giveaway
These past months have brought unexpected deaths to my family. Two cousins of mine, both named Joseph, departed suddenly, one from my mother’s side of the family and one from my father’s side. Both died young by modern standards. Both departed from large and closely-knit families that still reel from their gaping absence—an absence that does not seem repairable or …
Crowing Pains
These days, I am often met by crows when I walk from the house to the barn and back again. I find crow feathers flowering the yard and the walkway. I bring them in and stick them into the holes of the deer vertebra that graces my altar. Crows cluster outside the windows of the barn as I work and …
I’m Going In!
Whenever I find myself in the dark and difficult place of self-doubt, I need to be reminded once more of how imperative it is to be constantly fed and filled by spirit. Whenever I feel dispirited, it’s because I quite literally am. I’m not sure why I have to be reminded of this from time to time. I find myself …
Dreaming the World into Being
I have heard it said that the dream world is the real world and our waking world is but a dream. That’s a strange notion, isn’t it? Dreamtime was what the Aboriginal tribes called non-ordinary reality—or the journey world. There is some sense that the ancients saw journeying as another form of dreaming, and they weren’t wrong. Certainly, there are …
All That Is About to Be Born
I feel like I am coming into being. The barn, where I will create a new workspace, is almost finished. Spring has finally taken hold and the flowers are popping—bluebells, lilies of the valley, wisteria, and lilac—all my favorites. The warm breezy afternoons are a glorious backdrop for gardening and walking in the woods. A long time of hibernation is …