As we move around the medicine wheel of the year, we also move through the different energies of each direction/season. In many lineages, we have shifted from the feminine half of the year into the masculine half. In this month's "Deepen Your Personal Practice" column in the Luminous Wisdom magazine, I write about how we can align with this natural energy and draw on it to support our day-to-day living.
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With Spring Break this month I pulled from reader suggestions for a topic relating to children and our personal spiritual practices. I find parenting is often seen as a barrier to navigate and fit around our personal ways of soul tending - many cling to this idea so much they will halt or stunt their own needed expressions. Truly, from my own experiences raising 3 solo, I view it rather as an invitation to let go a little more, get creative, and consider them as our valuable teachers in humour, wildness, and unabashed honesty.
Here are a few ideas on how you can bring your children closer into your practice, rather than trying to keep them out or that perpetual "waiting for a quiet moment or better timing" before tending to your soul work. Sweetly timed for release on the Eve of Imbolc (Feb 1st) - a long standing, cross cultural, time for divination. Here are 3 easy methods of Divination absolutely everyone can step into. If this peaks your interest, "Divination Techniques ~ Introduction" is an experiential workshop offered February 16th (register here https://www.facebook.com/events/984373698385103/) and if you are keen for more on Imbolc, along with its associated Celtic practices of healing, protection, and divination, have a look here http://www.3foldbalance.com/support-your…/celebrating-imbolc
BLESS! Energy Update for January 2018 is ready! On The Wheel are excerpts from our monthly shamanic journey circles that touch in on the natural influences in our lives that we may, or may not, realize are at play and how we can tap into them rather than accidentally going "against the current" Our circles have grown so big that we have now separated them into 2 offerings each month. The first is for current Shamanic Living Immersion Members and the second one will always be open to the community. This On The Wheel excerpt is taken from the SLI circle - you are most welcome to join us January 20th 2018 where we have 1 shamanic journey before stepping into ceremony for planting our "seeds of intentions" into medicine pouches. I don't make new year resolutions anymore, but I do take my cues from the natural world and plant the most viable seeds of intentions during January's journey circle. We will be doing this again this year and working with the "garden" of our medicine pouches over the months ahead - tending to the sprouts, weeding out what needs to compost, and feeding those projects, dreams, and ways of being in life - just as the seasons show us. This month's Deepen Your Practice article is support for those who are unable to join us but wish they could.
I invite you to co-create what you want to harvest this year. People often say to me, "wow you manifested x,y,z!" No. No I didn't. I couldn't possibly take all the credit for such things. But I do try work in alignment with nature, I aim to make space for Spirit to intervene, I do the leg-work of walking through the doors of opportunity that open, and of course am surrounded by an incredible clan of people. This process here of planting seeds is a major aspect to this <3 Bless! Winter Solstice Blessings to you! We don't have a Journey Circle in December, but I do put out a quarterly newsletter called On the Medicine Wheel that includes an energy update portion (and spiritual practice suggestions, event details, articles, sometimes videos). Here I read from that newsletter. If you would like to see the steps for a fire ceremony that I mention, here is a link ow.ly/XLLW30hji5y Journey circle dates are posted here if you would like to join us in Squamish BC, www.facebook.com/groups/3FoldBalance Fire ceremonies are a time tested ritual for marking certain points of the year, for energetic maintanance, and honouring vital forces in Nature. A common practice is to hold a fire ceremony at the "4 fire festivals" Samhain (Halloween), Imbolc (Groundhog Day), Bealtaine (May Day), and Lughnassad (1st Harvest) as well as at Winter Solstice (the longest night), Vernal Equinox (Equal day/night), Summer Solstice (Longest Day), and Autumnal Equinox (Equal day/night) as opportunities for a deeply personal soul tending experience. Truly, incorporating fire ceremonies into one's energetic maintanance routine can become a beautiful and profound support.
Not everyone can attend a community ceremony however, so here I share the basic steps, as I know them, to support others in holding their own fire ceremonies - from great outdoor bon fires to a single indoor candle flame. *Please use the utmost fire safety practices and take your inner work as deeply as you are ready for - perhaps even a little deeper ;) Bless! On The Wheel is the energy update portion of our monthly shamanic journey circles held in Squamish BC. Based on the natural energies influencing us from the seasons, celestial activity, and community collective experiences - this portion of our evenings help us consciously work "with" the natural flow rather than being buffeted about or inadvertently trying to go "against the grain". A short text version of On The Wheel is also included in the 3 Fold Balance quarterly newsletter timed with Solstices & Equinoxes. Please note we are in the Northern Hemisphere - sorry about that southern friends November's Deepen Your Practice column is a call to tend to our personal work for bringing about change in the greater collective. It doesn't need to be daunting. It doesn't need to be overwhelming. But we do need to set the stage for our healing work, to face what we must, in easy to handle steps. Here is "How to Heal the World in 500 words or less" Shout out to Ann Marie McKenzie for the challenge! If you'd like to read the full magazine - have a look here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/467fey6xr0txrwo/NOVEMBER%202017%20-%20LUMINOUS%20WISDOM%20%7C%20SOPHIA%20.pdf?dl=0
Many women are really working with the different energetic aspects of each phase of their menstrual cycle, and many men are being invited into this world as well - to do so brings enormous clarity, efficient use of these qualities, an unfolding instead of struggling against, and deepens our connection with ourselves, each other, and the natural world. Reclaiming this women's medicine may be considered as vital for whole-being health that inherently impacts the societies we live in and world around us. August's Deepen Your Practice column introduces readers to bringing our moontime cycle to our medicine wheel as another layer of wisdom to guide and orient us.
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Juliette JarvisA bean feasa of Gaelic heritage shares stories & insights from her animist and 'shamanic' practice on the West Coast of Canada. Categories
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