Co-Creating A Life

My life’s purpose has literally unfolded by real magic. Synchronicities abound, opportunities open out in an organic fashion, miracles happen that confirm inner communications, dreams arise unbidden, the right people appear at the right time.

It wasn’t always like this. For years I knew that I needed to teach, give workshops, write, and put together artistic and ritualistic events. Some of these I did in a small way as I worked and homeschooled three children, but I always had an inner feeling telling me that there was a lot more I had come to do.

After years of study in various spiritual and human potential paths, I finally found my home in the Western Mystery Tradition. Besides teaching the inner truths that come out of ancient Celtic, Norse, Greek and Egyptian civilizations, this tradition works on an energetic level, transmitting streams of energy and contact from inner realms that have been variously given names such as astral, mythic, etheric, causal, or imaginative. After the first workshop I attended in 1995, with author and teacher RJ Stewart, I remembered dreams from my 20s and 30s in which I had contacted these energies. This was the first sign that I was indeed on my true path.

As I studied and practiced this work, my awareness of the world began to shift. I started to realize that all form—both seen and unseen—is energy and that all form has consciousness. I learned to contact the consciousness of other life forms, such as plants and animals, as well as various nonphysical beings: faery beings or nature spirits (which are not at all like cute little Tinkerbells), gods and goddesses, the ancestors, angelic beings, power animals, inner teachers, spirit beings. These nonphysical beings are all around, inhabiting expanded dimensions of reality, and forming the world we live in; indeed, the natural world is an outer expression of energies in the inner world, known in some traditions as the Primal Land. All form, including our own existence, starts as formless awareness and intent that comes into manifestation through the creative power of nonphysical beings. This means that everything, from atoms to people to galaxies, is already in partnership with these beings.

Why not, then, make the partnership conscious? I learned to use creative visualization to dialogue with these unseen beings and to feel, sense, and see them in my visualizations. As I became more adept with communication between the worlds, the energy was so exhilarating and the contact with the inner beings was so deeply transformative that I became immersed. I worked with faery beings, inner teachers, the Earth Goddess, and many others as I explored the inner landscape of the planet. Learning how to mediate healing and balancing energies to the outer world, I became a teacher for Stewart’s work and conducted occasional classes to bring people into their own understanding of how to make contact with the inner realms.

My path also led me to read works by Machaelle Small Wright, which taught me yet a different way to work with inner beings. Machaelle explains a method of intentionally creating a team to work in partnership with Nature, both for healing and for manifesting specific projects. I opened my first project team with the intent of co-creating a weekend workshop. I soon discovered, however, that my new team had other ideas. They suggested that I create a 10-session class, and if that wasn’t enough of a surprise, they proceeded to provide an excellent outline of what to cover in each session!

Learning to set the intent and then step out of the way to let my inner team bring the concept to fruition was, and still is, an amazing, magical, and profound experience. As my inner team reveals one step at a time (rather than the whole picture), the journey becomes a miraculous unfolding as I take the steps they suggest. I’ve learned to let go of my own pushing and to allow things to happen according to my team’s timing, because their timing is always right. My inner partners have a better sense of natural flow than I do. I have learned to recognize when I am taking over (and usually messing up) a job that my inner team knows best how to do. This has led me to a deep realization of how incredibly helpful it would be for humanity to let go of trying to run everything, and to learn again to communicate with the inner beings who have the innate knowledge and answers as to what is necessary to restore the world to ecological balance and bring about peace and social justice.

These insights have led me to my purpose. In 2004, my inner team told me that I needed to form an educational nonprofit to expand my teaching work and to get the message to more people about the importance and accessibility of partnering with inner beings. The team showed me that there is already an Inner Board of Directors, and the job of the outer nonprofit Board is to bring this organization out into the world. I spent many months researching and creating this legal structure while I maintained a full-time job as well as a busy family, and then at last with a few colleagues, I formed The Institute of Co-Creative Arts (TICCA). We have begun to offer classes through this organization, and we have great plans for expanding our activities.

After producing our first fundraising event in 2005, I had a further realization: I needed to retire early from my job in order to devote all of my time to this work. I was terrified—how would I survive financially? But I trusted my inner partners, so I went ahead and followed through. Although I am now living on about 1/4 of what I had been making, I have experienced such abundant blessings as being offered a stunningly beautiful place to live for a very low rent (in one of the most expensive counties in the U.S.), being gifted with trips to England and New Zealand, and connecting with the people who are helping me take the work to a different level of public awareness.

One of the most important lessons I’ve learned from working co-creatively is that it’s not about me. I’ve become part of something much larger; something that has been ongoing for millennia, which is often referred to in the Western Mysteries as The Great Work. My life purpose has finally become clear: it’s to apply all of my time, intention, skills and knowledge to further this work. For me, this means teaching people how to make their own inner connections, so that they can learn to co-creatively restore balance and harmony in their own lives and so that, in their own unique ways, each person can help to bring the Primal Land into the outer world, or to put it another way, bring Heaven to Earth.

Opening Sacred Space--The Seven Directions

The idea behind opening sacred space is to create an area for ritual, meditation, celebration or working with the Other world. It is a way of saying this time and place is different than everyday places and times – here we are acting with heightened intention, devotion or reverence and creating a container for spiritual power and exploration. There are many ways of opening Sacred Space – the outline that follows is similar to ones often used by Neo-Pagan rituals.

The first thing that is important is that you have a purpose for opening Sacred Space – it can be as simple as a short, silent meditation or as complicated as an elaborate ritual.

First, using a compass, ascertain where North, South, East and West actually are in the place you are going to be working. If it is appropriate and desirable you can create alters in the four directions –a candle in each direction is the simplest, but you can include other appropriate items as well if you wish, or if your ritual calls for them. For ideas see the correspondences below.

Whether or not you place anything in the cardinal directions it is good, but not necessary to have a single candle to place in the center of the space. You can light all the candles to begin with or you can light them as you place your attention on each direction.

The directions that are opened are East, South, West, North, Above, Below, and Center.

Begin by closing your eyes and centering your awareness in your own body. Feel it for a moment as you allow yourself to become very present.

Inwardly in silent and still meditation or outwardly in a physically moving meditation begin to open the directions. Turn first to the East. Allow in your imagination a gateway to form in the East – this might be two standing stones, two columns, or some other image. Through that doorway feel the power of the East flow into the circle. The correspondences below suggest some qualities of that power from the Celtic/Neo-Pagan Tradition but if there are other qualities in your own tradition focus on those.

When you feel the gateway to the East is open and the power is flowing into the circle, turn your attention to the South, then the West, then the North.

When you have finished the four cardinal directions put your attention down into Below, into the Earth – the Sacred Land that supports us, and feel the power well up. Then turn your attention Above to the Cosmos, the Heavens and feel the power pour down. Finally put your attention on the Center of the circle, and the center of yourself, into that place of stillness and silence and let that power hang shimmering in the core of the sacred circle.

Imagine that all the powers of the Seven Directions create a sphere, enclosing you in a bubble of protection, power and intention. If it is appropriate you may invite spirit guides and visitors into your Sacred Space saying something to the effect of: “Those who mean no harm and wish to come are welcome here.”

Sacred Space is open and you can proceed with your meditation or ritual.

When you are finished it is vitally important to close Sacred Space. This is like opening it, but in reverse. Start by thanking all spirits and participants in the work completed. Then center yourself and turn your attention to the power of the Center. Feel you connection with that power fade to its every day level. Feel the power of Above withdraw into the Heavens, the power of Below sink back into the Earth. Revisit each direction in turn and see the power fading back and the gateway closing or disappearing. When all the power has withdrawn, sit for a moment and allow yourself to reconnect with your body and your everyday awareness. Thus Sacred Space is closed.

Some Correspondences for the Seven Directions:

Cardinal Directions

Direction	Element	Power/Quality	Season/Time	Animals	Colors
East	Air	Life; Intelligence; Development	Spring/Dawn	Birds	light blue, yellow, white
South	Fire	Light; Will; Idea	Summer/Noon	Lion, Horse, Dragon	gold, oranges, pinks, reds, yellows
West	Water	Love; Wisdom; Reception	Autumn/Twilight	Aquatic Animals	blues, greens, grays, silver
North	Earth	Law/Truth; Memory; Form	Winter/Midnight	Bear, Bison, Cow, Snake, Stag	black, browns, grays, greens, olive, russet, white

Direction	Power/Quality	Symbolic Representations
Below	Sacred Land, Feminine, Goddess, Ancestral Knowledge, Intuition, Mythic Time, Memory and History, The Faery Races	Caverns, stone, green Earthlight, labyrinth, Faery Land, Realm of the Ancestors
Above	The Universe, Transcendent Power, Masculine, God, Cosmic Time, Memory and History, The Angelic Races	Sun, Moon, Galaxies, Space, Heaven, Stars
Center	The Void, Timeless, Spaceless, Creation and Disintegration, Stillness, Silence, Coming into being, Flowing out of Being, Unity, One	Emptiness, focus on the emergent candle flame or the stillness between moments and the space between the atoms of your body.

Holiday Stress?

Do you get stressed at holiday time? There are many reasons why people don't like this time of year. Cultural expectations are high for everyone to be surrounded with loved ones, having a great time, and of course, lots of stuff. This isn't everyone's reality. The expectation can bring up feelings of anger, loneliness, avoidance, lack, cynicism, and just about any other negative feeling. But what if none of it mattered? What if being happy and feeling fulfilled didn't depend on what was going on in your life, what your past was, what the outside world is doing around you?

That's one of the big things that Awakeability teaches. And it isn't so much teaching as pointing the way, because absolutely everyone has peace, freedom and wholeness inside them, whether or not they are feeling it at the moment! Those qualities aren't just feelings, they are components of who we are, along with absolute freedom and wisdom. The trouble comes when we cover up this wholeness that is us with layers and layers of thoughts and feelings, and then think that they are us, are the truth, are real. We take on opinions, beliefs, and attitudes that limit who we think we are, and who we think others are. Yet with awareness, we can be free of all of the limitations.

This doesn't happen overnight, but it does happen when people learn to distinguish the difference between limiting thoughts and thoughts that are coming from that more connected place. We've all had both kinds, many times. Learning to tell the difference becomes easier with practice. Here's a suggestion: draw a line down the middle of a piece of paper and write "limiting" on one side and "freeing" on the other side. Then think of any topic that is coming up for you these days, whether or not that topic is related to the holidays. It could be your work, your body, relationships, money--anything that you have a lot of thought about. Write down what you believe and what your opinions are on the topic, sorting the thoughts into the two columns depending on whether they make you feel good or bad when you think them. Check that they actually are limiting or freeing for you, according to whether they feel good or bad. See how the lists stack up.

Now just sit and notice who is thinking all these thoughts. Are those thoughts you? If you don't like the results you're getting on this topic you've picked, can't you choose to change the thoughts? Why "manage" your stress? Why not reduce or eliminate it? Just noticing your limiting thoughts and beliefs is a start to letting go of them. The next time you catch yourself thinking them, even if it's after the fact, you can say, "Oh yeah--I decided that thought isn't working for me," and give it the boot by putting in a thought that you like better! You can choose the alternative thoughts beforehand, but be sure to choose ones that you can believe. This works even if the negative thoughts bring up strong emotions. It may take longer, the thoughts might not shift quickly. If you allow them but keep your distance by just being present and noticing them, eventually they will flow into something different. The key is realizing that you are not the thoughts, you are the thinker, and you can take charge.

So whatever your circumstances, I wish you a holiday time filled with peace and happiness, and a new year that brings abundance and deep fulfillment.

Book to Bestseller List!

It has happened: the book in which I'm a co-author rocketed yesterday, 10/18/07, to the top 100 bestseller list on barnesandnoble.com! It made it all the way to #1 in the Entrepreneurship category, and is still sitting there today. This book, "Wake Up, Live the Life You Love: A Search for Purpose," has over 40 co-authors, including people such as Dr. Wayne Dyer, Anthony Robbins, Brian Tracy and Holosync meditation guru Bill Harris. Articles range from meditation and awareness, to tips for success, to inspirational stories of overcoming major obstacles.

My article in this book relates how I worked with the inner intelligence of nature to define my passion and find my purpose in life. I still work in this way, finding it the most powerful, supportive and meaningful way to relate to the world around me. This isn't to say that I don't love people! But when you learn to open your awareness to also include the nonphysical intelligence that is all around us, life takes on a much deeper, wider dimension and meaning. You come to realize experientially--not just intellectually--that we truly are vibrational beings living in a vibrational physical dimension, surrounded by many other vibrational dimensions that we normally filter out. Talk about expansion! Inner space is as infinite as outer space.

Now back to the book: if you are interested, you can order it on amazon.com. I'm hoping it stays on the bestseller list for a while: we'll see!

Global Awakenings Offerings

What I do:

Although everyone's personal awakenings come in many forms, when taken all together, they feed into one huge event that's happening in the world today. This event has been called the Global Awakening, the Great Turning, Global Mind Shift, and Conscious Evolution. The way I am tapped into this incredibly exciting, empowering and transformative worldwide event is twofold:

• I work with people to come to a deeper experience of themselves and their creative power of thought

• I work with people to re-connect and co-create with the inner intelligence of nature: the land, seas, elements, plants, animals, spirit beings, sun, moon and stars.
  

Together, these two strands of deepening awareness result in a radical, holistic redefinition of ourselves and our place in the wholeness of the world. They bring a broader awareness than personal awakening; touching into interaction with the mythic dimensions that are the consciousness of the planet itself.

My Background:

• Various practices of meditation since the late 1960s
• 13 years of Celtic indigenous practices sometimes called Celtic Shamanism, the Faery Tradition, the Western Mysteries, the Merlin tradition or Western Mysticism; based largely on the work of RJ Stewart
  
• Health Realization, an awareness understanding based on the work of Sydney Banks
• Nature Intelligence partnering, based on the work of Machaelle Small Wright
• Study of many other mentors and teachers, including Enlightenment Intensives, the Seth Material, the women's movement, Findhorn, Goddess work, hatha and bhakti yoga, theater, Mara Freeman's Avalon teachings, Caitlin Matthews' work with the ancestors, Hank Wesselman's shamanic and spiritual garden work, Jack Canfield's success work, Hale Dwoskin's Sedona Method of releasing, The Abraham-Hicks work, and more.

Class Topics Offered:

• Human/Faery contact and partnering
  
• Earth Healing
• Interacting with the energies that emerge as Gods and Goddesses
  
• The Three Worlds (Upper World of angelic consciousness, Mid-World of nature consciousness, and Under World of faery, ancestor and planetary consciousness)
• Restoring the Future (envisioning and co-creating a world where humans are again partnering with the spirits of the land, in an even deeper and more powerfully conscious way than ever before)
• Vision Boards (an art collage technique for manifesting goals and dreams)
• The Inner Temples
• The Power of the Directions
  

• The Three Principles of Mind, Thought and Consciousness

Please go to the website for our nonprofit The Institute of Co-Creative Arts (www.cocreativearts.org) for more information about the human/nature intelligence classes, and upcoming events. I am in the process of developing my versions of the Three Principles talks and trainings and will post a separate website and notice when they are ready. To inquire about scheduling a weekend workshop, please email me at director@cocreativearts.org.

May your magnificence shine out! The world needs you. The shift is worldwide, and grassroots; it is thriving everywhere. Together we will bring about the transformation.