Winding Down and Gearing Up

By Sandy Penny, WritingMuse


As this year ends, many are cheering the fact that it’s finally over. It has been the most challenging year in my 58-year memory for more people than I’ve ever seen. For me, it has been a big zero (on the surface, but don’t be too hasty to judge it, fallow fields restore their rich minerals and grow better crops.). That being said, it has also been the best year ever for some who have been able to find the new plug-in for their Aquarian Age energy. They are prospering and thriving and sharing the wealth and their knowledge.

This past week, I’ve dealt with many powerful, spiritual people who are experiencing depression, anxiety, frustration, lethargy, and just plain anger with their circumstances. The laws of the Universe seem to have changed. My guides used to love to say, “Everything has changed, nothing is what you thought it would be.” Who are those mystical beings who voted for the changes and put new rules into effect? Geez, did they mess up our lives in so many ways or what?

Well, the truth is that we are those powerful spiritual beings who chose to be here for this amazing change. We saw it coming, and we signed up to be part of the process. What many of us did not know was how difficult it would be to make these changes once we were in human bodies indoctrinated to an outdated system, the Piscean Age. I am really tired of talking about the Piscean Age. Why can’t it just die out quietly and let the new age take over? Night and day do not struggle with each other, they easily flow from one to the other in a cycle of change that allows us to balance our lives.

But isn’t that what is actually happening? Old systems are failing and dropping away, making way for the new and better ones. Old ways no longer work. Only the best practices that fit into the new age systems can be funded by that energy. It’s a real dilemma for us. We want the new and better to prosper and grow, but we’re not willing to suffer through the shift. It’s hard right now to get our footing. The earth beneath us keeps falling away, like an earthquake. It can be very difficult to embrace so many new ideas and systems when we’ve just learned how to get what we want out of the old ones.

It reminds me of W. Edwards Demming’s Quality Process. Demming was the man who went to Japan and turned their image around from the idea that Japanese-built meant shoddy work to Japanese products having a high quality manufacturing process in place. He actually took the ideas from earlier American business ethics and got a whole country to embrace them through honoring the grass roots ideas from all levels of manufacturing. It was a bottom-up philosophy.

He brought the completely developed and proven system back to the US and reintroduced it into the American corporate world where they gave it lip service but kept undercutting it. Why? Because it took power away from the upper executive echelons. And, why wouldn’t they resist? They fought long and hard to climb that ladder, and to get to the top only to be told they have to share that power with all the lower level workers. It just flew in the face of their whole life of striving and clawing their way up. That’s what we’re witnessing now. The world at large is welcoming the power back to the people while the execs are fighting to get the last ounce of gold from a disintegrating system. The new age is less upward hierarchy and more circular, nuclear flow. Anyone can introduce something new and have a chance to develop it. The smartest money people are looking for the opportunities of the future that are sustainable in this new energy.

In the coming year, along with our president, we’ve got a lot of work to do to bring ourselves up to speed for the Aquarian Age life model. “Everything has changed, nothing is what we thought it would be.” It’s a powerful time, and a difficult time, a frustrating, hope filled, wonderful time.

The good news is that we who have wanted to be of service to this world have ample opportunities to claim our personal power and develop a niche that funds our lifestyle choices and fulfills our destinies. What do you want NOW? Where do you want to invest your time, energy and money?

I predict that Obama will introduce lots of incentives to small businesses during the next four years. There will be small business loans for sustainable technologies and services. Mental health services will start expanding their models of dealing with the stress of all this change and those who want to work to create new types of communities will find money available that was not there previously. Obama is the first New Age president in this country. He’s a forward thinker, a problem solver, and a caring human being who wants to truly improve this world. I know that’s a tall order, and it won’t happen through one man, but he is the symbol of the changes. It’s time to refocus on the people instead of the system. Systems have to serve the people, not the other way around.

So, gather together your ideas, desires, and inspirations and get started on your fast unfolding path this year. Jump in and make it happen. The time for talk is done. The time for action has come.

For those of you who don’t yet know what you want to do, I suggest rereading my article on the Aquarian Age Business Model (click on 2005 on the right side of this page). It specifies some areas that will be successfully funded in this time period, for the next 1000 years.

Peace, love, joy, abundance and lots of high energy for 2009. Happy New Age!!!

A Few Small Steps for Me, A Giant Leap in Consciousness

by Sandy Penny

I circled the fire with a tambourine in my hand, striking the instrument on my thigh in time with the chant, "My body does whatever it takes to protect itself." I gazed into the glowing red and orange eyes of the twelve foot by four foot bed of coals and watched a coating of white ash begin to form. The fire pit looked back, studying me with its many eyes. "Will you walk tonight?" it silently asked. Would I cast aside caution and logic and make a tremendous leap of faith with a few small steps on a 1200 degree bed of coals?

The chant changed to "I am the light, I am the love" and then swelled around me with "The fire and I are one," and I thought about how I came to be standing here on the edge of eternity, a 42-year old woman, questioning the very nature of reality.

It was only a few weeks ago as I entered the Chapel of Prayer with fifty or so people to listen to a Hindu Guru tell traditional Indian parables, that I met Charmaine McGhie and Tore Fossum. We were seated next to each other and connected so quickly that they invited me to a New Year's Eve Party and Firewalk.

I was intrigued. I had seen firewalking on TV and read about it in National Geographics, but never had I witnessed it in person. Meanwhile, they gave me a book called "Firewalk" by Jonathon Seinfeld which I read with interest. It talked about firewalking as an empowerment tool and a subcultural movement in the U.S. since the 1970s. The U.S. has more firewalkers than the rest of the world put together. I couldn't believe it! How could I have missed it? I had done every "new age" experience I had run into. How could such a phenomenon have slipped by me? My excitement grew as the days passed.

The book helped keep me occupied and gave me a lot to think about. It told stories of firewalking in every culture. It quoted scriptures about firewalking and discussed the unsatisfactory research that has been done. I was primed for the experience - to watch the experience, at least.

I arrived early at the suburban house in a nice Friendswood Texas neighborhood. Not really where you'd expect to see a firewalk. The preparations looked like any other New Year's Eve party. Guests arrived with covered dishes, and someone played piano - 50s hits to sing along with. Not even any alcohol present.

At about 9:00 p.m. everyone gathered in the back yard. A cool front was moving through, and the air was cooling down. The grass was soaked with a hose as a safety precaution, and the evening began.

We each took turns carrying logs to build the fire. We were instructed to think of the logs like children, and focus loving attention on them. A firewalk instructor took the logs from us and built an impressive "boy scout" style teepee-shaped structure which would become a large bonfire using about a half cord of wood. We took turns stuffing newspaper in the cracks, and the fire was lit with great ceremony. A blaze reached skyward as a word of thanks and protection was intoned by a lady wearing a long full skirt. Surely that skirt was not a good thing to walk on fire in. When the fire was blazing violet and gold, we went to the patio to try out some other phenomenal activities. It would be two to three hours before the coals were ready.

Someone asked if we wanted to play the "rebar game" and a chorus of assent rang out. I had no idea what that meant. Rebars are 3/4" x 6' steel reinforcement bars used to reinforce concrete. Two people stand face to face six feet apart and a rebar is suspended between them by placing the tip of the metal rod in the hollow of the throat. The two people are told to focus their energy and see the rod bending. When they feel focused, the walk toward each other. The rod could either pierce your throat, cut off your breathing, or it could bend. All of them bent. There were no tracheotomies. It is impossible to use force to bend the rod in this position as it causes tremendous pain. I know that through experience. But when focusing properly the rod just sort of melts, and you are suddenly catching your partner in your arms as you fall toward each other.

Yes, I did it!

Next, we broke boards like so many karate experts. Only we weren't. One inch thick by 24 inches wide pine boards set on bricks. When focused, the board almost breaks itself. That was a tremendous energy rush for me. I didn't know I could do that.

Finally, the coals were ready. We returned to the back yard. The fire was so hot, it was difficult to stand close to it for more than a few minutes. The coals were raked out smooth, and the temperature was measured at 1200 degrees. How could we hope to walk on this? It was too preposterous. I was glad I'd only come to watch.

We circled the fire pit and chanted. No one wanted to be first. I wondered if anyone would find the courage. Suddenly Charmaine was at the top of the pit quietly chanting and focusing on the far end of the coals. Then it happened. She stepped onto the coals and kept walking, slowly, not rushing, the full twelve feet. As she stepped off, a cheer went up, and she went around and repeated it. She was followed by Tore and another, and another. A line of people followed, and no injuries. The lady in the long, full skirt walked eight times, and the fabric did not catch fire. Everyone had walked, except me and one other person. I had only come to watch anyway.

Some people walked slow, some people ran, some people danced. One person cartwheeled through the coals, and then he did the most amazing thing. He stepped onto the coals and stood there in one place, reached down and lifted up a handful of coals and threw them into the air. Then he quietly walked off the fire pit - unharmed.

This went on for a couple of hours. It was like a dream. My mind had no place to file this scene. Could I do it too? Did I have enough faith and concentration? I didn't know. I did not feel afraid. But I also did not feel compelled to walk. Even so, I had removed my shoes and socks. Was that significant?

Then a voice was calling out "last call It's time to go in and dance." Charmaine stepped up to the pit again, and this time I stepped out beside her and took her hand. We looked briefly at each other. She squeezed my hand, and I began to walk. We moved together, not too fast, casually.

The coals crunched under my feet, and I was about to step off the pit, already at the other end. I did it! I had actually walked on 1200 degree coals, and my feet were intact - not even a blister. Now everyone was cheering for ME! I knew I was about to begin rethinking reality. There was no other choice.

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