01.08.07

Big News!

Posted in Hero's Journey, Minnesota at 8:52 pm by Administrator

Salutations to you all, dear readers.  I wish you a happy and productive year in 2007.  It has been a while since my last post but much has been going on behind the scenes here.  I have major big news!

If you had been reading my earlier postings you know that I have been struggling to find a new job.  I can now report that my search is over.  I have accepted a new position as a librarian at a university in Minnesota.  I am so pleased and excited.  I thank the Goddess for this new blessing in my life.

My new job appears to be everything I have been looking for.  The university is progressive.  My coworkers are intelligent and kind.  I will be a member of a union.  And best of all I only have to work nine months out of the year. 

My other big news is that I bought my first house!  It is an amazing house built in 1962.  The sweet people I bought it from are the original owners, who took very good care of it.  Again it is exactly what I was looking for in a house.  

I will be moving to Minnesota in March and starting my new job on March 19.  I feel so much better knowing that I have a wonderful place to live.  My SO will be moving in later in the year.  In the meantime I will be getting the place ready for my four cat children.  This means that I need to install a fence.  I am sure I will have more to say about that later.

I am looking forward to following the principles of permaculture as I landscape my backyard.   Again I will be writing more on that later.

I don’t have the words to describe to you how exicted I am to be moving into my own house in the amazingly wonderful state of Minnesota.  I have been praying and working for this moment for over 10 years.  But I wasn’t ready for it until this year.  Everything fell in place easily because it was the right time for it to happen. 

I thank the Goddess for her guidance in my life.  I lay these blessings at her feet.  For it was through her that I was able to manifest this dream.  All things are possible when we connect to the Divine force that flows within us.  May your dreams also come true this year.

Nameste,
Swan

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09.15.06

Further Down the Path I find my Muse

Posted in Hero's Journey, Screenplay at 11:42 pm by Administrator

I have reached a turning point since my last posting.  I am now meditating on a daily basis.  I rise at dawn and begin my day with a grounding and centering meditation exercise.   My intention is to spend about 20 minutes each morning but these sessions tend to actually last 50 minutes to an hour.  I find this pretty amazing because I use to have trouble sitting still for five minutes.

I am using a basic chakra meditation, a modified version that I learned from Kathy Jones’ new book, “Priestess of Avalon, Priestess of the Goddess”.  The exercise starts with bringing your focus to the heart chakra and then traveling down through the lower chakras until you rich the root chakra.  At this point I feel myself sending roots down into the earth then connecting to the plant life on the planet.  I then bring my focus back to my root chakra traveling back up the body to heart chakra and then up through the upper chakras until I connect with the crown chakra.  I send my energy out my crown chakra to the edges of the Universe while at the same time remaining fully connected with the Earth.  In closing I find myself surrounded by a ball of energy and connected to the energy of the planet.  I bring this energy back to my heart chakra and end the exercise.

During these sessions I discovered that I do better feeling the exercise than trying to visualize the exercise.  What I also discovered is that I am starting to feel a strong connection to the plant life on the planet.  I had a realization that all of the plants are connected by their roots and that they communicate and share information between themselves. This is probably going to sound strange, but they are aware of us.  They are watching us and they want us to connect with them.  This is especially true for the trees. They want us both to work together.  They offer shelter to us with their outstretched branches and they ask that we tend to them since they are stationary.  They need our help, especially in the drought ridden areas of the country.

During my meditiations I also have been feeling a call to start working on the screenplay again.  I put it down when I completed the Second Act at page 90.  I felt that I had lost my Muse and was forcing the story forward.  So I have let it sit for almost two months.  But this time has not been unproductive. I have been doing research to recharge my creative batteries.  I read David Korten’s “The Great Turning” and am now reading James Lovelock’s “The Revenge of Gaia,” which is a truly frightening book.  

On a much lighter and more artistic note, I did literally find my Muse.  I stumbled onto a band out of England called Muse.  It was an act of serendipity.  I was playing around with the web site MySpace and found their web page http://www.myspace.com/muse .  So now I am going gaga over a bunch of Brits again.  It has been years, maybe a decade or longer since I went crazy over a rock album but check out these music videos by Muse:

Supermassive Black Hole
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Xs1EM2_O3pU

Knights of Cydonia video
http://youtube.com/watch?v=YygyHCRrKho

Knights of Cydonia live
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myc9aEOxqJk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNJMOY4K7Ro

Is that cool or what?  They remind me of bands like Queen, Styx and Pink Floyd.  How can you not like a band that has lyrics like this?

Don’t be afraid
What your mind conceives
You should make a stand
Stand up for what you believe
And tonight
We can truly say
Together we’re invincible

That was from a song called Invincible from their Black Holes & Revelations CD.  You have got to check them out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hquAGsExAQ

Rock on,
Swan

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09.01.06

When the People Lead, the Leaders will Follow

Posted in Hero's Journey at 4:28 pm by Administrator

Last night I watched this online video of Salt Lake City Mayor Ross C. “Rocky” Anderson giving an address to a rally of 2500 people on August 30, 2006. <http://kutv.com/video/?id=18850@kutv.dayport.com>.  You can read the speech also here. 

Here are some of the things Mayor “Rocky” Anderson had to say:

 “A patriot is a person who loves his or her country.”

“Blind faith in bad leaders is not patriotism. A patriot does not tell people who are intensely concerned about their country to just sit down and be quiet; to refrain from speaking out in the name of politeness or for the sake of being a good host; to show slavish, blind obedience  and deference to a dishonest, war-mongering, human-rights-violating president.That is not a patriot.

Rather, that person is a sycophant. That person is a member of a frightening culture of obedience – a culture where falling in line with authority is more important than choosing what is right, even if it is not easy, safe, or popular. And, I suspect, that person is afraid – afraid we are right, afraid of the  truth (even to the point of denying it), afraid he or she has put in with an oppressive, inhumane, regime that does not respect the laws and traditions of our country, and that history will rank as the worst presidency our nation has ever hadto endure.”

This is inspirational stuff!  According to Wikipedia “Anderson has a strong American liberal agenda. Under his mayorship, the city has purchased wind power, increased recycling, and is converting its fleet of city vehicles to alternative fuels. Anderson has supported initial measures to make the city more bicycle-friendly and pedestrian-friendly while opposing “monster” home rebuilding projects” in the historic districts.

Anderson has stated he will not run for another term as Mayor.  Gee maybe would should run this guy for President.  If you think that is a good idea too contact the Mayor’s Office and let him know by sending him an email at mayor@slcgov.com . For more information check out the Mayor Anderson’s official bio and Rocky Anderson’s Wikipedia page.

Peace,
Swan

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08.31.06

I’m Back…

Posted in Musings..., Hero's Journey at 1:06 am by Administrator

I apologize for not posting for awhile.  I had a lot on my plate, including another job interview which it turns out I did not get.  That is fine with me. I do not think it was the right fit, although the town and surrounding countryside were lovely.

On another note things are starting to shift for me. I have finally identified the name of my Goddess.  It is Gaia, the Earth Mother.  Now that I have a name I have a focus.  I want to serve Gaia as her Priestess.

Also in my meditations I realized that I am a leader.  My true nature is to be a loving leader.  I don’t need people to follow me, it is leadership enough just to be myself in the world of Empire.  I believe I have a role to play in the Great Turning.  The difficult part is staying focus and remaining awake. 

Namaste,
Swan

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08.05.06

The Great Turning is Upon Us

Posted in Hero's Journey at 5:40 am by Administrator

I want to bring to your attention an important article that was recently published in Yes! Magazine.  It is by the David C. Korten and is from his new book, The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community.  Korten is also the author of When Corporations Rule the World. 

You can find the article here: The Great Turning.

The Great Turning article informs us that we have a choice before us.  There are two major ways our civilization can go.  We can choose the path of Empire or of Earth community.  One of these paths has a very unhappy ending. 

The path we are on is the path of Empire.  The people of the planet Earth and the Earth herself have reached their limit of exploitation.  In Korten’s words, “A mounting perfect economic storm born of a convergence of peak oil, climate change, and an imbalanced US economy dependent on debts it can never repay is poised to bring a dramatic restructuring of every aspect of modern life.”

Pretty scary stuff.  And if you have been reading my blog you will know that I posted a similar message in my June 15, 2006 posting The Coming Challenges.

Korten tells us that is time for a Global Awakening.  “The lower, more narcissistic, orders of consciousness are perfectly normal for young children, but become sociopathic in adults and are easily encouraged and manipulated by advertisers and demagogues.  The higher orders of consciousness are a necessary foundation of mature democracy.”  (I.e. If you want to wake up you have to turn off your TV and quite watching the mainstream news.  See my posting, Caught in a Spell.)

The answer to this enormous problem begins in changing the cultural stories that we tell ourselves.  We must create a new story to live if we want the planet and the life on it to live.  “We must infuse the mainstream culture with stories of Earth Community.  As the stories of Empire nurture a culture of domination, the stories of Earth Community nurture a culture of partnership.”

Over 5,000 years ago our ancestors lived within a cultural and institutional frame of the Earth Community.  They met their needs through cooperation instead of domination.  The Bible tells of this story.  It is the story of the Garden of Eden.  But our ancestors turned away “from a reverence for the generative power of life - represented by female gods or nature spirits - to a reverence for hierarchy and the power of the sword - represented by distant, usually male, gods.”  Our ancestors ate from the Tree of Knowledge and learned to dominate the Earth and other people through unsustainable economic growth and warfare.

Korten goes on to say, “Our nation is on the wrong course not because Americans have the wrong values.  It is on the wrong course because of remnant imperial institutions that give unaccountable power to a small alliance of right-wing extremists who call themselves conservative and claim to support family and community values, but who preferred economic and social policies constitute a ruthless war against children, families, communities and the environment.”

But I, like Korten, feel blessed to be living in this turbulent time because this is the “most exciting moment in the whole of the human experience.”  We are the ones who can create the new world.  A world where all life is sacred, from the smallest microbe to the tallest mountain.  A world where all people are respected and treated with compassion.   A world where no child is hungry.  A world without war.  A world filled with art and spiritual meaning.   This is the world I want to live in.  And I know we can create it, if we work together.  For as Korten tells us in his closing statement, “We are the ones we have been waiting for.” 

Nameste,
Swan

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08.04.06

More on Medea Benjamin’s Protest

Posted in Hero's Journey, War at 1:22 am by Administrator

Check out this website for the inside scoop on Medea Benjamin’s arrest.  You can watch a video clip of the incident on CNN and CBS.

Click here to see a CNN  live video clip of the action!   

Click here to see CBS footage of the disruption.

According to the press release, after witnessing Benjamin’s disruption, Congresswoman Maxine Waters, stated  “We are going to witness more and more public outrage as the violence in Iraq escalates in this ongoing occupation.”

A recent Truthout article covering the incident cited a World Public Poll which shows that 87% of Iraqis want a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.

Medea is one gutsy lady.  She deserves our thanks for having the courage to stand up and speak the truth.  May we all learn from her example. 

Namaste,
Swan

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07.26.06

Iraqi PM Heckler is Medea Benjamin from Code Pink

Posted in Hero's Journey, War at 5:09 pm by Administrator

I was watching the Iraqi prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki give his speech on CNN.  When a woman begins chanting, ““Troops Home Now” and ”Listen to the Iraqis”  I turned to my Mom, who I was visiting, and said, “That’s Medea Benjamin!”  Sure enough CNN flashed her picture later and it was Medea dressed up in Code Pink pink.  You can read all about the event on the Internet.  

I am also posting some links to pictures of Medea.  Here is another person who is making a difference.  Medea is a good example of someone speaking Truth to Power.  I am amazed that she was able to get into the galley.  That being said the Force is with her.  People are helping Medea so she can confront the Power Elite. 

It is small moments like this that give me hope.

Shalom,
Swan

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07.05.06

On Being Spiritually and Politically Active

Posted in Hero's Journey at 4:49 pm by Administrator

As July 4th came and went I pondered the question, “What does it mean to be spiritually and politically active?”

A well-known saying states that “the personal is political and the political is personal.”  How we live our lives, whether we are aware of it or not, is a political as well as a spiritual choice.   Every choice we make, every action we take reverberates across the cosmos.  Nonaction is also a choice.  Every time we act we pluck the cosmic web. Our life’s song is played out on the choices we make or choose not to make.  I believe as people following a spiritual path we need to strive to walk lightly on this earth.  And that we also need to be politically active so that we can influence our political leaders to do the same.

As a person striving to walk their talk, I have made conscious choices in my life to reflect my values.  For example choosing:

*  To buy organic produce whenever possible.
*  To support small businesses and artists by purchasing products through them or from them.
*  A career as a librarian.
*  To monetarily supporting organizations like Truthout.org and Common Ground.
*  To foster homeless cats.
*  Not to have children.
*  To work in the town where I live.
*  To replace conventional light bulbs with energy saving light bulbs.

These choices both big and small are political.  Together they add up to be significant.  The way I live my life does makes a difference in the world.  

But the difficult part comes as being a citizen of the Empire. If you are like me, you probably feel like you are not doing enough, because the strength and the influence of the False Gods in the world are so dominate, and the light we shine into the world is so small.  We are like butterflies beating our wings against the bulldozers of the Market Place, Reckless Science, Greed and Power Lust.

“Am I doing enough?” is a question I ask myself from time after time.  And the answer is always, “No.”  This is a depressing observation, but again in order to change and grow first one must become aware; aware of both the positive and the negative factors.

As a spiritual person and a priestess of the Mother Goddess, I believe the response to overcoming the feelings of hopelessness is to stay in contact with the Divine Source.  Again it is important to listen to her voice.  She will let us know how to act, how to grow, and how to change. We need to keep doing our best and be aware that there is always more we can do.

For example, cars are one the most destructive forces in the world for our climate and the planet.  That being the case, I posed the question to myself, “Can I give up my car?”  And to be honest I am not ready to make that commitment.  I think I am ready to start walking to work one day a week. This smaller step takes me forward on my path, but there is always more that I can do.  And one day I believe I will be able to give up my car.

As another step forward on my path, I am trying to learn how to garden.  My efforts currently won’t sustain me, but each time I plant my garden I learn a little more and I get a little better.  This year I was able to start and transfer some wonderful organic yellow pear tomatoes.  I also learned that growing a garden plot at the edge of a shade tree’s canopy can protect the plot from being burned up by the sun. 

Everything we do if we live consciously can be spiritual. And everything we do is also political.  We can live as if each day really mattered.  Or we can escape into fantasy.  We can zone out on television, sports, mood altering drugs, the internet, sex, shopping, and over-eating, to name just a few of America’s favorite activities.

Open your eyes to the moment.  Live as if each step you take today brings you one step closer to the God(dess).  What would your life look like?  How would your life make you feel?

Walking towards the Goddess makes me feel alive.

Blessings on your path,
Swan

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07.03.06

The Role of Fear on the Creative Path

Posted in Hero's Journey, Screenplay at 7:47 pm by Administrator

As I posted earlier I am at the 60 page mark in my screenplay.  This morning in meditation I acknowledged to myself that I am now terrified.  I wrote down the two main items I was afraid of.  First, that the screenplay is not any good.  And second, that I won’t finish it.

As I named my fears this morning I felt a release within my body.  By not saying anything previously, I had been holding tight to those beliefs.  Speaking them aloud allowed them to diminish.

What is one of the worse things a person can be?  A coward.  Especially a yellow coward.  As Americans we are taught to keep a stiff upper lip when it comes to fear.  We are taught to ignore our fear by whistling in the dark. We are also taught to be self-sufficient, to be the rugged individual who doesn’t need anyone’s help.   Is it a coincidence that the emotion of fear is typically felt in the body in the area of the solar plexus and that the color associated with our solar plexus is yellow?

As I acknowledged and listened to my fear, it told me that I would not finish my screenplay.  Well how does my fear know that?  What makes this cranky little emotion think it is an expert on what I will and will not do?  If I keep going forward step-by-step I will finish my screenplay.  All I have to do is not give up and baby step my way to completion.

It also told me that even if I did finish my screenplay it won’t be any good.  Don’t you just love the rationale of the guardian at the gate?  If it can’t get you to stop one way it tries another extreme argument.  My fear tells me it won’t be any good so why bother.  Just give up and go back to watching television.  Why even try when you know you are only going to be a failure.

Well this is a first draft.  It doesn’t have to be perfect.  Would I expect anyone else’s first draft of a screenplay to be perfect?  No.  I am not expecting Shakespearian quality.  What I hope to have when I am done is good structure, well developed characters, believable dialogue, and an interesting story.  And I believe those things are already there, at least in part.  I can rework the screenplay after I finish the first draft if I need to add more highs and lows to the story.

After examining and working with my fear this morning I finished my meditation by praying to the Goddess to help me with my screenplay.  I asked her to help it grow and develop, because I felt I was running on empty.  That I was relying too much on myself instead of being open to the Divine Source.   Afterwards I felt I had opened myself to the creative flow.

I see now that fear is part of the cycle of creation.  Fear is the inner critic, trying to keep me safe, trying to maintain the status quo.  Fear is the Tower card in the Tarot.  Walking through fear allows us to break down and destroy old beliefs, patterns, habits, and attitudes.  When I am feeling fear I am at the bottom of the cycle.  I am at the bottom of the wheel.  This means I have no where to go but up.

Earlier this morning I felt unworthy of the task I had set for myself.  But that is an old belief.  And like the lighting in the Tower card we should burn those old beliefs down.  Burn them away so that new beliefs can grow, can arise from the ashes like a phoenix.   From the ashes of destruction comes fertility.   And from the releasing of old fears comes radiant energy.

At the end of my meditation I felt again the releasing of energy from my solar plexus.  The fear had diminished. And I now instead of fear I felt a glowing inside me.  I felt a radiant light, like a yellow sun, shining out of my core.  So the shedding of fear is a process of letting go of the old.  Like a snake sheds it skin, we shed our fears, because those beliefs no longer fit in our life.  We shed our fears so that we may grow.

Many blessings on your path,
Swan

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06.27.06

Believe, Listen, Love, Trust

Posted in Hero's Journey, Screenplay at 9:34 pm by Administrator

Sometimes I feel I have nothing to say or nothing to write about it.  And then I take one step forward.  I write one word.  And then I wait for the next word.  I write one sentence.  And then I write the next sentence.

Step by step, I work at my writing.  My screenplay and my blog are not cut from whole cloth but woven together thread by thread.  Word by word.  Sentence by sentence.

The Spiritual path is also walked step by step.  Most of us do not arrive in this world fully actualized, fully knowing what it is we are suppose to be doing here in this crazy wonderful world.  We have to dig for the answer.  We have to dig deep within, sifting through the dust and rubble of our past to find the gold nuggets that are within us.

Believe, Listen, Love and Trust are good companions to take on a Spiritual journey.  Believe is the magic spark that starts the journey.  I started on my path because I believed there was more waiting for me.  I believed that I had a part to play in this drama we call Life.  Believe is the spark and fuel that feeds the fire within.

But to continue on our Spiritual path we need to have more inside than just believing in ourselves.  We need guidance.  And to find that guidance you have to look within and Listen.  Be very still and Listen.  What do you hear?  Do you hear anything or are you unable to hear because your mind is chattering away?

If you are unable to hear your guiding voice embrace this information for this is what you need to know.  This is where you are right now.   You can’t change and grow unless you know what needs to be changed.  Love your shortcomings.  Love your flaws.  For within them you will find your greatest strength.

Love is the key to unlocking the door to your True Self and Trust is the Divine Answer.   In order to grow on our Spiritual Path we must embrace our Shadow.  Those traits that you cannot stand in others will be found within yourself.  Love and Forgive yourself for not being Perfect so that you can Love and Forgive others.  This is the path we all must walk.

In my opinion the hardest lesson to learn is to Trust.  We cannot know the Divine Spirit intellectually.  God(dess) is not found in our heads but in our hearts.  We must learn to Trust our experiences with the Divine.  We must learn to Trust that everything is connected, that the wings of a butterfly in a rainforest can effect change on the other side of the world.  We must learn to Trust that small voice that speaks within our heart.  We must be able to trust that voice when the world tells us we are mad, for when the world is insane, sane people will appear to be mad.

Believe, Listen, Love, and Trust, for you are a Child of the Divine Source.  The Answers and the Way are within you.

Namaste,
Swan

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