Compassion and Chaos

The Full Moon Labyrinth Walk pretty much kicked my butt. It was beautiful and wonderful and magical, and a tornado in a volcano of energy for me. The magic began as we spread rose petals around the center circle of the labyrinth. A large white dog came into the circle, symbolic of the male energy, the light, the sun. He walked around the circle, introduced himself to each of us and then left. After creating a sacred spiral in the field outside the labyrinth, we gathered to sing the oneness affirmation song. As we sang, a black cat came up to us and walked completely around the outer circle and then moved into the inner circle and walked around the spiral of crystals. It then came and lay down behind me as I conducted the beginning of the ceremony (symbolic of the arrival of the moon which just showed its lovely face above the horizon). Now, that's the way to begin a ceremony.

There are deep and compassionate levels we don't even know we have that, when accessed, bring up our deepest sorrows and our highest abilities to love and be loved. My personal challenge is the last vestige of poverty consciousness left over from my childhood of not being able to give those I love what I believe they deserve. It's not even anything they expect. It is my own desire to be generous and to recognize their accomplishments and contributions to my life. I'm moving through it slowly but surely, and I give myself permission to finish it and move forward into my new level of being.

If you need a change in your life, and you want to experience it the power for yourself. Here's a ceremony for releasing, claiming and invoking compassion for you.

--

CEREMONY TO RELEASE, CLAIM AND INVOKE COMPASSION

I call forth the beings of compassion from all directions,
From all time and space and
From all dimensions and planes of existence.
Be with me here and now.
I stand in my own darkness with only the inner light to guide me.

(I light a candle as a symbol of the light within.)

Be with me, bringers of compassion.
Unite my light with the greater light once again.
Restore the memory of my divinity and my connection.
Open my inner eyes that I may see who I truly am.
Whisper in my inner ears with the voice of love.
Remind me of my mission here that I may continue to serve.
Restore my voice that I may speak your truth.
Open my heart that I may feel your unconditional love.
Open my mind that your thoughts may become my wisdom.
Clear and strengthen my emotions and my relationships.
Spread the wealth of your compassion through me and my life.
Restore my physical body to the perfection in which it was created.
Manifest my highest and best good through my life.

Divine spirit, enlighten me as I walk your path,
I release all that does not serve me and remember my true nature:
I release my fears and claim courage.
I release jealousy and claim celebration.
I release gluttony and claim joyful abundance.
I release competition and claim cooperation.
I release judgement and claim discernment.
I release criticism and claim acceptance.
I release loneliness and claim companionship.
I release hatred and claim love.
I release bitterness and claim joy and restore my inner child.
I release poverty and claim abundance, and financial flow.
I release negativity and claim trust.
I release despair and claim jubilation.
I release depression and claim excitement.
I release failures and claim success.
I release old patterns that no longer serve me and claim new positive habits.
I release anxiety and claim faith.
I release stress and claim inner and outer peace.
I release anger and claim compassion.
I release darkness and claim rebirth.
I release myself from earthly limitations and claim my divine power.
I release pride and claim divine humility.

I am the Power. I am the Presence. I am Compassion.
I am love. I am Peace. I am joy. I am abundance.
I am light. I am magic. I am health. I am wholeness.
I am all the gods and goddesses who ever were and ever will be.
I am the manifestation of oneness, I am the great spirit walking this earth. I am the embodiment of communion. I serve the divine plan in my own way.

I enter my sanctuary with an open heart and in harmony with body – mind – and spirit.
I Release and claim what I personally want to release and claim with each step on my inner journey, knowing that there is no right or wrong in this place of compassion, acceptance and power. All things are possible if I only believe. If I have but the faith of a grain of mustard seed, I can move mountains.

(You can create a spiral of stones, crystals or runes if you like.)

I spiral through the universe to find my answers, to seek my truth, to claim my manifestations.
I invoke compassion for the world and all its people, including myself, and I claim enlightenment through all my personal chakras.

I invoke from the centerof my heart…

I am the spiral fueled by wisdom and compassion. I set aside my daily concerns.
I acknowledge my connection to the All.

The All and I are one. Through the All, All thing are done.
I am a drop of water from the ocean of love, raining blessing from above.
I am a ray of divine light, shining hope in the darkest night.
I am a breath of air, the winds of change, the keeper of wisdom, the forgiver of all blame.
I am a leaf upon the tree of life, releasing all struggle and strife.

You who lights our darkness, you who illuminates our way,
shine your light into my shadows and release me this day.
You who shines in the night sky, whose cycles I follow.
Restore my connection, fill my spaces that are hollow.
You who shines in the darkest night. Illuminate my vision, and give me your sight.
You who shows me where my shadow lies.
Restore my voice and hear my cries.
You who comes and goes and is born again.
Open my heart and end my pain.
You who walks beside me always on my path.
Clear my emotions and quell my wrath.
You who creates and destroys your creations.
Let my life serve you and people of all nations.

Enlighten me. Enlighten me. Enlighten me.
Let me know in order to serve. Let me serve from a place of joy.
Let me live in peace and gratitude. Let me be strong.
Let me be powerful. Let me be free. Let me be joyful.
Let me be honest. Let me be faithful. Let me be honorable.
Let me be wise. Let my life be a testament to my creator.

I am the Power. I am the Presence.
I am Compassion. I am Love.
I am Peace. I am Joy.
I am Abundance. I am Light.
I am Magic. I am Health. I am Wholeness.
I am all the gods and goddesses who ever were and ever will be.
I am the manifestation of oneness.
I am the Great Spirit walking on this earth.
I am the embodiment of communion.
I serve the divine plan in my own way.

And so it is. I declare it. I own it. I make it manifest. I live it.


I AM. I AM. I AM.

Full Moon Labyrinth Walk - April 23, 2005

On Saturday night, April 23, 7:00 pm, I will conduct a full moon labyrinth walk and candle light ceremony honoring the full moon of compassion. If there is an area of life in which you need more compassion, this is the time to call it forth in harmony with the wheel of life.

There is a little Aquarian Age spiritual church on the south side of Houston called Carmel Temple (www.carmeltemple.org) that has one of only a few labyrinths in the area. It is located across the street from the church beyond the parking lot. Based on the sacred geometry used in the ancient labyrinth at the Cathedral of Chartres, it is outdoors, well lit 24 hours a day, and available anytime you want to walk away your cares.

A labyrinth is an ancient symbol that relates to wholeness. It combines the imagery of the circle and the spiral into a meandering but purposeful path. It represents a journey to our own center and back again out into the world. Labyrinths have long been used as meditation and prayer tools.

The experience can be very powerful if you enter the labyrinth in a spirit of honoring, openness and receptivity. It allows you to do something active with your body while freeing your mind to receive images and information from the cosmos. At the center of the labyrinth is a grounded, quiet place of peace and power. It is the center of the universe, the place where all access can be made. You can stand in your universal power out of time and space at the center of your wholeness.

I have walked the labyrinth for personal clarity, for the release of my spiritual teacher's soul from his broken body, and for solutions to my problems, and I have accomplished my intention every time.

The labyrinth is a metaphor for life, winding its way to the center of oneness and back again. You may not be able to see how it accomplishes its mission, but it does offer you a personal journey and a different experience each time you undertake the walk. When you feel lost in life, the labyrinth reminds you that you are not lost, you are following the path you chose to walk, and just because you cannot see how it unwinds, you will always reach your destination and return home again. Unlike a maze, a labyrinth does not have blockages or dead ends, it is one continuous path that leads you in and out again, another metaphor for life to contemplate.

Join me and few friends for an amazing experience of walking the labyrinth under the loving eye of the full moon, the goddess, the feminine self, the light that illumines our dark night of the soul. And be reborn into the world, renewed by the power, the presence and the love. Love donations shared with Carmel Temple.

----I look forward to seeing you there. --sandy

coming out of your spiritual closet...

Whatever your spiritual persuasion, traditional or new age, talking about your beliefs can be incredibly difficult. And, particularly when someone else is spouting their beliefs, and they are in opposition to yours, it's difficult to speak up and say, "I have a different belief."

You have a right to speak your truth. It's one of the United State's constitutional rights, protected for all time. And if you want to change what's bothering you in your culture, someone has to speak up about it.

It's not always safe to do it. Life is not always safe, but we have to feel the fear and do it anyway. Of course, you also have a right not to speak up, but if you don't you'll never know that there are others who feel the same way that you feel.

This is a time for huge awakenings for people in all cultures. Beliefs are changing, people are awakening to their divine connection, and they want to share it, but they feel threatened, by family, by church, by governments.

Are you in or out of your metaphysical closet?

breakthrough

Well, I said goodbye to the Lexus today and got practical. I bought the 2002 Mazda Protege after all. I just couldn't justify the note, the insurance and the gas in the long run. With gas prices escalating, I finally just went for it. Now I'm happily driving my little red car with the cute little sun roof and a pretty decent cd player and stereo. It has power windows and door locks too. With my short arms, I especially appreciate the door locks. I had to go through the angst of letting go of the luxury though, and it was not easy. It was kind of depressing. I tossed and turned and spent a pretty sleepless night last night. On top of that, I was trying to write a politically correct press release for a breast cancer survivor with background materials that were totally not p.c. Added to that, I'm struggling to get the money together to pay for the trip for me and my son to my daughter's college graduation. Can you feel my tension level rising along with my blood pressure?

But, as often happens, while I was out making the deal, I got an e-mail from my main client asking me to come into their office for a few days. (Wheww, she said, wiping the sweat from her brow, maybe I'll be able to get those plane tickets for my daughter's graduation taken care of after all.) And this developer friend of mine offered me a ricidulously low rent on a small house in my neighborhood, beginning in June, perfect timing for me. And I actually got an idea for an approach for the press release I've been struggling with for two days.

When the energetic breakthrough happens, it happens all at once. So, there. That's all I've got today. I'm now too busy to say anything more.

Peace and prosperity to all. ---sandy

I'm so spoiled...

Yesterday, I went to visit my "car guy," the one who sold me my used Lexus a year or so ago. I had just begun a cushy new job, and I thought, "What a great affirmation for my new prosperity." So, I bought it. It is comfy, starts without fail and is extremely quiet - no road noise. Ahh, the silence.

A few months later, the cushy job went away, and I was back to freelancing with a much larger car note than I would like to have, especially considering my previous car was paid off. But, I struggled through for more than a year now, paying it, and paying a premium for the full-coverage insurance required by the bank, and paying larger gasoline bills than I'm accustomed to.

Well, the last few weeks I've been thinking I'd like to scale back into a fuel-efficient economy car with a lower car note, a newer model, and get back to basics. So that brings us to yesterday's trip to the car broker - I use a broker, not a car dealer. It's my laziness. He does everything for me, and he's in the neighborhood. So I discussed my options, and he said he had a 2002 Mazda 4-cylinder with all the bells and whistles for about half my current car note. What the heck, I'm not keen on Mazdas, but I should at least drive it and see.

It was very clean with power everything (like my spoiled butt likes it). It started right up, and had a nice quiet motor. Then I pulled out of the driveway and drove it around a few blocks. Only one problem, it rode pretty rough, but not too bad - however, the road noise was horrible.

Now I can't decide if my peace and quiet is worth the extra money or not. It's depressing. I love my Lexus, but champagne taste on a cheap merlot writer's budget takes its toll on me. I like to think of myself as a simple girl, but I can't help liking my comforts.

Maybe I can get a cheaper apartment and keep my Lexus. No, it's not really practical, and I barely drive anyway. It's just transportation.

Want to buy a nice 98 Lexus EX? Only $10,000. Only 75,000 miles on it. Come on, any takers? I really want to sell it, but I am really spoiled to the comfort.

Sighhhhh.