Thursday, June 23, 2005

Ascension to the Balance of Male/Female

Summer Solstice – Full Moon Marriage of the Male and Female within.
An ascension process.

Tuesday night, June 21, 2005 was the summer solstice and full moon. It was the night of the Marriage of the Male and Female within.

It is rare when both the Sun and Moon are at their greatest power at the same time, so we were privileged to participate in a powerful union of the archetypal male and female energies, and benefit from what is ignited and what is received and embraced. This is also a time when there is a great alignment that supports and represents the exact ceremony we were conducting. That is the alignment of three planets which are now visible is a straight line on the Western horizon at dusk – Saturn (the dark and hidden aspects within us), Venus (the heart, the earth, love), and Mercury (the messenger, communication). At this time, we reach into our hearts and recover what we have buried, restore what we have denied and embrace what we have hidden from ourselves. In order to benefit from this energy, we must choose to receive it. This is the time of choosing.

We are also challenged to recognize and own that the Sun is not what changes how much light and energy we receive. It is the earth on which we live and move and have our being that turns its face toward and away from our one source of light, love and power, and it is the earth that moves closer and further away in its orbit around the source who is always present, always available. Many people call the Earth “Mother,” however the Earth is a wise and balanced being who knows the value of both genders, a being of perfect duality, the manifestation born of light and dark, male and female, active and receptive, action and rest, creation and gestation.

The earth is our example for perfect love and perfect balance for us as individual expressions of oneness to emulate. The earth turns its face away from the source of light, action and growth, not because it forgets that the Sun is always available, not because it rejects or judges the Sun, but because rest, reception, gestation must rightly occur for a full expression of its highest and best good. We humans sometimes forget that the light is always available to us. We are the ones who move away from the light and judge ourselves as imperfect for doing so. And we are also the ones who subject ourselves to too much sunlight, and then become overstimulated or burned by it, resulting in anger and judgement.

We are challenged to recognize the rightness of being in our darkness and embracing it as a cycle that contributes to our health, completion and oneness. The Full Moon reminds us of those cycles and calls us into the dark to receive, gestate and integrate. We are called to stop judging ourselves for having our light and dark times, our active and passive times, our growing and resting times. The Earth is not at war with the environment in which it lives, the natural cycles that sustain it. It does not judge the darkness or the light. It embraces each in its proper time, and the Earth does not struggle to hold onto the light when the darkness is upon its face. And in this natural acceptance there is harmony. This is our example, our greatest teacher.

This cycle happens to the earth and to us every day. We exchange energy back and forth between the male and female, the active and the passive, the giver and the receiver within us moment to moment with every choice we make. If we Recognize, Experience, Accept and Love this natural process, we activate our REAL life. Recognize, Experience, Accept and Love – REAL life. That’s what it means to get REAL. We can choose to stop the war inside, to honor the male and female and to declare a marriage of the opposing forces that keep us from our divine passion, joy and the highest expression of our true selves.

Honoring the Male and Female aspects through each chakra:

Bring the energy through yourself from the crown of your head to the soles of your feet as you repeat the honoring of all these elements within you…Speak the words from your heart – Feel the words radiate their power inside you. Own your wholeness.


The Crown
Male to Female: I honor your Stillness and Divine Openness
Female to Male: I honor your Active pursuit of Divine Flow

Male to Female: I honor your Boundless Potential
Female to Male: I honor your Magical Actions

The 3RD Eye
Male to Female: I honor your Expansive Vision
Female to Male: I honor your Focused Intention

Male to Female: I honor your Ability to See All Sides of an Issue
Female to Male: I honor your Ability to Define the Details

The Throat
Male to Female: I honor your Encouraging Words
Female to Male: I honor your Ability to Speak Your Truth

Male to Female: I honor your Beautiful Music and Song
Female to Male: I honor your Powerful Voice of Authority

The Heart
Male to Female: I honor your Unconditional Love
Female to Male: I honor your Loving Expectations

Male to Female: I honor your Nurturing Spirit & Compassion
Female to Male: I honor your Courage and Strength

Solar Plexus
Male to Female: I honor your Creative Ideas and Inspiration
Female to Male: I honor your Problem Solving Mastery

Male to Female: I honor your Acceptance of All People
Female to Male: I honor your Discernment and Boundaries

Sacral Chakra
Male to Female: I honor your vulnerability & deepest emotions
Female to Male: I honor your protective nature

Male to Female: I honor your fertility, sensuality and trust
Female to Male: I honor your passion and sexual freedom

Root Chakra
Male to Female: I honor your innocence and idealism
Female to Male: I honor your manifesting skills

Male to Female: I honor your community spirit and family commitment
Female to Male: I honor your ability to negotiate & get what you want

Life-Earth Grounding & Anchoring
Male to Female: I honor your ability to receive gratefully
Female to Male: I honor your ability to make it happen

Male to Female: I honor your patience and constant presence
Female to Male: I honor your stability and structure

Male to Female: I honor your inclusive acceptance of life
Female to Male: I honor your discrimination and goals

THE WEDDING

This is the wedding, the ascension of Yin and Yang, the male and female within you. We call together all the men and women who have interacted with us and touched our lives through all time, space and dimensions to acknowledge our ONENESS, to declare harmony within and without.

Each I AM statement adds to the invocation of oneness. Notice your reactions as you say each I am for yourself. If you find resistance, examine it and correct the statement to reflect your wholeness.

I AM both male and female and capable of honoring my wholeness!

I AM the perfect manifestation of a loving divine mother and father!

I AM ready to express the highest and best of all the male and female attributes within me!

I AM ready to stop judging myself and others!

I AM capable of recognizing and embracing my true power through the blending of my heart and mind!

I AM ready to love myself unconditionally and share that love with others!

I AM honoring the needs of all the diverse elements within me!

I AM ready to embrace and live my own perfect life!

I AM open to receiving and generating divine flow!

I AM aware of a greater vision while focusing my personal intention!

I AM willing to look at all sides of an issue while paying attention to the details!

I AM offering gentle encouragement while speaking my truth!

I AM nurturing myself as I take courageous steps in my life!

I AM embracing creative ideas and inspiration to help solve challenges!

I AM embracing diversity while I choose my greater good!

I AM feeling deeply while setting boundaries!

I AM trusting and sensual in expressing my passion and sexual freedom!

I AM honoring the community as I make it happen!

I AM receiving with gratitude while giving generously to others!

I AM inclusive and accepting while I build and manifest!

I AM one with the sun, the moon and the earth, the universe!

I AM in Love – living in the midst of love!

THIS IS MY PROUNCEMENT…
By the power I have chosen to place in me,
and by the power I have claimed for myself
and in the blazing radiance and passion of the Sun,
and in the fertile, creative potential of the void,
and through the dynamic expression of the Earth,
I now pronounce myself THE ONE.

I AM THE ONE!
I AM THE ONE!
I AM truly THE ONE!
So it is! So it ever shall be. Arisen - Ascended - Complete!

If you have personal vows, commitments or affirmations to offer on your own behalf, write them down and repeat them!

These vows being heard, acknowledged and accepted by this gathering within myself and by the universe at large, I now declare this ceremony complete.

Monday, June 13, 2005

The Invocation of Passion

Marriage of the Male and Female Within

Summer Solstice, Full Moon, Labyrinth Walk

Tuesday, June 21, 2005
- 7:30 pm
Place: Carmel Temple Labyrinth (www.carmeltemple.org)
-------- South Houston, Texas
Cost: Love Donation

Last week I meditated and had a chat with the personified male and female within me. I explained to them that I have some needs that are not being well met, and I would like their help to change that situation. Having already established a working relationship with them, it was easy to come to some terms. I agreed to dress more femininely to satisfy my feminine side's need for honoring. And I agreed to honor the men who come into my life as representatives of my male side. In exchange for this conscious activity of honoring, I would be rewarded with a spiritual writing project that financially supports me, and a relationship with a man that is for my highest and best good and my great joy and pleasure.

The very next day, things began to shift for me. A new man showed up on my life, and I am determined to honor him. and fully explore what we have to offer each other, even if it's only friendship. Also my male side agreed to stop being so critical of every person and situation that shows up that is brought in by my female side.

It sounds simple and maybe a little silly, but the agreement creates intention, the intention creates action, and action creates results. It's amazing what a different feeling I have after doing this process.

As a result of that discussion, I began considering the ceremony for the Summer Soltice, Full Moon Labyrinth Walk, and I asked Jim Miles, a long-time friend of mine to join me in creating a ceremony that would truly express the marriage of the male and female within and that would honor the traditions associated with the natural cycles of the sun and moon at this time of the year. Since he had just written an article for the Indigo Sun on the Summer Soltice, he agreed that it would be a good thing to do. I'm not surehe understood all he signed up for. It's a big process for him that he didn't even know he was taking on.

We met at Onion Creek in the Heights of Houston for coffee Saturday morning and began to formulate the plan for the ceremony. He was a bit perplexed about how we would accomplish such a feat and what would come from it. We planned to include an honoring of the male and female with him honoring the Moon and the feminine as the yielding male (the sun now at its most powerful on the longest day of the year yields to the feminine which begins to grow in power until the shortest day of the year in December. And I would honor the sun as male in all it power and radiant magnificence.

But we realized something else, the true cycles that we experience are centered not in the sun and moon, but in the earth and its rotation on its axis and its orbit around the sun. We often experience the polarity of the male and female within us as chaotic or combative, but if we observe the greater cycle we live in on this planet, we see that light and dark are not at war, but complement each other, and move effortlessles from one to the other every day in the cycles of light and dark, giving and receiving, activity and rest, ebb and flow, birth and gestation. So, the model we have for the exchange of energy between man and woman (male and female energies) is one of ease that complements each other and creates wholeness.

The marriage of the male and female within will be a psychodrama (a ritual) that balances the duality within us and creates our own internal cycle of harmony, honoring and life beyond struggle. Think what the world would be like if we recognized ourselves as being in harmony with this greater cycle, the gender war would cease, and we would all empower ourselves to use the energies and the tools that are naturally ours to create a perfect creative exchange from our wholeness. And, the outer world reflecting the inner world so perfectly would relax into this cosmic rhythm, yin and yang, light and dark, action and rest, creation and gestation.

If you are ready to cease the struggles within you and create a more peaceful, loving place for yourself in this world, it's time to be the change you want to see. This ceremony could be the first step in making a commitment to your future, your peace, yourself, and from that wholeness and place of balance, you might create the perfect relationship outside yourself, a reflection of all you hold dear, a reflection or your cosmic loving perfection.

This is your invitation to join me and Jim Miles on this journey to wholeness.

Peace - Sandy Penny - the writingmuse.

Saturday, May 28, 2005

Missing in Action

It's been a while since I wrote anything for my blog, almost a month. I started doing some work for Art Squad, and it has kept me busy. I also went to my daughter's graduation from college. I'm so proud of her. She graduated cum laude, national honor society and got awards for her honors thesis. All in all, a great performance. It was beautiful weather too. Nice to get out of town.

I finally just started redoing my business writing site. My friend Thomas Dorsch, a wonderful artist and graphic/web designer (www.7thgraphics.com) is creating a great site for me. I've been immersed today in sorting out my samples. When I get started on them, I find I have many more than I remember. I'd hire me if I were looking for a writer. I've been so immersed I haven't even eaten today.

Oh well, I just wanted to sayI haven't abandoned my site. More to come.

---sandy

Tuesday, April 26, 2005

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.

Saturday, April 16, 2005

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

Sunday, April 10, 2005

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?

Wednesday, April 06, 2005

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

Tuesday, April 05, 2005

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.

Tuesday, March 22, 2005

Blogging the Muse

I am using my blog to keep my Muse engaged. After last weekend's major production, I'm feeling a little blocked. Every time I sit down at the computer to write something, I just say, oh what's the use? Instead of a blog, I'm just writing a blahg.

However, I do think it's fun to just write any old thing and have it available for those who are interested in reading it. I wonder if anyone is reading it that I haven't sent an e-mail to. I haven't even figured out how to search blogs properly in this program. I have searched for topics, and I don't find them, none of them. So I don't know how anyone would find me except by accident.

Still, if I can get my mind thinking along the lines of writing instead of just griping, even a blahg is better than writer's block.

I have to just keep on keeping on. That's as much of a pep talk as I can muster right now.

---sandy

Sunday, March 20, 2005

Muse on Speed

My writing muse has been in high gear this weekend.

I started writing a story for my Sanctuary novel yesterday, and finished it today with over 7500 words. I think that is a good day's work. I felt good about it too.

The story is based on a true event that happened in 1974, the summer the comet hit Jupiter. It unfolded at Sanctuary House, my home for spiritual emergencies. It is the story of a shy young woman who compulsively follows a man all over the world, only to end up charged with stalking in a foreign country. It is a case of a past life karmic agreement impacting current time. The discovery of this dynamic and the resolution of that agreement are very interesting indeed. It's not your every day run-of-the-mill case of stalking. And, it has many facets normally hidden from the average therapist trying to treat compulsions.

Anyway, it felt good writing it and having the words pour from me like water from Aquarius' pitcher. I found out that the Aquarian Age is all about communication through the media for me, and now I'm engaged in making that happen.

That's all for today. Have a great last night of the weekend on this the vernal equinox. May your light continue to grow stronger as each day passes.