Have you been trying to move forward in your life but feel held back from something within yourself? For example, when you think of accomplishing a new goal, does fear or anxiety pull you back? It’s as if a wave of awareness is thrusting up the beach toward new territory but is immediately dragged back down by a strong undertow.

Another way of experiencing this kind of stalemate is to viewit as a result of conflict between parts of the Self or inner selves. The higher self is trying to lead the way to growth and development, but one or more parts of the self are stuck in old emotional patterns and will not follow the leadership of the higher self until they have been worked with. You need to get your inner ducks in a row!

There are many ways to conceptualize who your inner selves might be. Healer and Teacher, Rosalyn Bruyere (https://www.rosalynlbruyere.org, identifies a separate personality or self for each of the major chakras (energy centers). For example, if you have a fear of not having all you need to survive, you could work on clearing congestion from the root chakra and create a clear channel for vital earth energies in order to get the root chakra personality on board with your higher goals. If you like the chakra system as a framework for accessing the parts of the Self, it can be an excellent way to discover wayward ducks and showing them the way.

For those who have incarnated into many lives on this planet, past lives and the old selves that are still alive within can be rich sources of wayward ducks. I was first introduced to working with inner selves during a time of healing in the countryside. My healing challenges at that time primarily involved recovering from past life trauma. I wanted to feel confident and free, and little of the current life was holding me back.

      Through a meditation that I now share below, I became aware of a frightened, intimidated past-life self that cringed in some remote place within me. I couldn’t even get her to come to the temple of my higher self , I needed to fly over inner terrain until I found her in her safe space. She was cringing and frightened because of the abuse she had endured. I talked gently with her and asked her what she needed in order to feel confident and free. She told me she needed me to be a strong protector of my Self, to have healthy boundaries. Once I agreed to do that for her, we embraced and I returned from my inner journey feeling an inner shift, a transmutation, a greater wholeness and peace. I followed up on my agreement with her by using affirmations and mindfulness and protective lightwork to guard my healthy boundaries. Even as I continued my healing journey, I was able to reach out to others and teach classes and workshops, feeling more confident and free to follow the promptings of my true Self. My agreement with her led to a new lifestyle, a way of living that guaranteed I would avoid martyring myself and that I would protect my psychic space.

Many spiritual traditions speak of the need to be in the present moment and to develop inner tranquility. I doubt there is anyone who at the outset of becoming mindful of these things does not feel frustrated in the attempt to achieve them. In order to achieve them, you must heal troubled inner selves. Without healing and transformation, these inner selves will be forever stuck in emotional congestion, repeating thought patterns, and traumatized energy fields. They will make their presence known in whatever ways they can in order to get your attention, dragging at you, interrupting your meditations, and thwarting your goals.

       It is very important to resist the temptation to brow beat a wayward self into submission. As people thrive in democratic environments where there is freedom and lack of tyranny, so do our inner selves thrive when they are free to choose and are treated with respect. The best technique in the alchemy of wholeness is to negotiate with the troubled self, to ask what that self needs and, if it be harmless, to give that self what is needed. It is also important to follow through on your agreement. Otherwise the problem may persist.

I find a potent image for this process of achieving wholeness in the Tarot, major arcana IV, known as “The Lovers.” Although many readers may interpret this card only in regard to loving partnerships, I see another deeper, hidden meaning, as well. Two inner selves that had been separate and going in different directions are finally united. Inner peace thus becomes a reality.

Many spiritual teachers emphasize that humanity as a whole will advance toward peace as each of us, one by one, achieves our own inner peace. We can view humanity as one larger Self, and each of us are little selves within that larger human consciousness. We must converse with those who have been unable to  move forward toward higher consciousness and find out what they need in order to do so. The process of becoming whole is operating on both the microcosmic, personal level and the macrocosmic, interpersonal level. The paradigm of negotiating with our inner selves can thus be a core process of evolution, the root of not only individual transformation but societal transformation as well.

I like to call this technique of uniting inner selves “alchemy for wholeness” because the word alchemy is a magical word conjuring the Medieval practitioners who attempted to transform common metals into gold. In this case, the process of transformation is within the human being. The gold is the achievement of our highest being. An alchemical process for achieving this state is the meditation work described in the adjacent box. In the world of professional hypnosis, this process is called “Parts Therapy.”

The Meditation Work: Alchemy for Wholeness

With a journal or paper and pen by your side, take time to protect, relax, and enter the Land of the Heart, traveling to the Temple of the Highest Self.

        Once you have entered the temple of your Highest Self, ascend the spiral stairway to the communication room. There is a round discussion area there. Seat yourself and call in your Highest Self. Sit for a moment in reflection. With a current goal for your personal growth in mind, sense what emotions or other inner forces have been keeping you from moving forward toward that goal. Soon you are aware that there is an inner self that is unable to move toward that goal. Call that self to the table.

        Once that self has arrived, begin a conversation with her/him by asking, “What’s going on with you?” Listen with love and acceptance. Then ask, “What can I do so that you can work with me toward this goal?” Listen with love and acceptance. If you feel you can agree to the requirement of this self, do so. You will probably feel a shift in your inner flow as you do so. Let there be a group hug between your personality, your Highest Self, and the self with whom you have been negotiating. Then, all merge together as one.

Leave your Temple the way you came in. Once you have left the Land of your Heart, let your consciousness fill your body completely. Open your eyes and take your pen in hand. Write down the agreement you have made with your inner self and keep that agreement! Bring your awareness fully back to the present moment by looking at your surroundings and noticing the date and time.

Getting Our Ducks in a Row: Alchemy for Wholeness or Parts-of-the-Self Therap

True, we are experiencing the onset of a seasonal quickening. In the Northern Hemisphere, February 2 is the halfway point between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox. This turning of the Wheel of the Year is celebrated in traditions of Nature Spirituality, prominently in Celtic communities as “Imbolg," as “Candlemas” in other pagan traditions, as well as by the Catholic Church. In secular U.S.A. and Canadian culture, it is Groundhog Day.

If one consults a wildlife calendar for my region (Virginia, U.S.A.), it seems very obvious that all these traditions are grounded in a seasonal quickening that begins at this time, predominantly in the animal realm (though there are uplifting signs of spring in the plant kingdom as well) and continues through the Spring. February in my wildlife calendar contains a listing of delightful events like “Woodcocks moving North into Virginia; Song sparrows, cardinals, and doves singing their spring songs; Mating season for skunks; Doves begin courtship; Robins, redwings, and grackles congregating in large flocks; Spring peepers calling in wet areas as night temperatures rise . . . Bear cub births begin.”

But There is An Even Greater Quickening in Process

As I wrote in a previous blog (see below), a divine intervention is triggering a quantum leap in human consciousness. Waves of energies coming in through the sun are profoundly affecting our biology as well as our consciousness.

The same goes for the animals!

Perhaps you have noticed changes in your pets physical bodies and behavior. If you feel that these changes are a sign of disease, please do consult a veterinarian. However, minor issues may be explained by the fact that our animal friends are transforming physically and spiritually along with us. For example, I have noticed one of my cats now reacts to petting with a seeming sensory overload, she finds it annoying and doesn’t want as much of that as she used to. Another cat developed a skin rash very similar to a rash I had. Some pets may feel anxious, but others are just changing their routines. (I would love to hear from you about any changes you are observing. Click on the mail icon at the bottom of the page to email me.)

Some techniques I have used to assist my cats are: (1) meditation (when I meditate, they calm down and either sleep or meditate with me) (2) homeopathic skin itch remedy and anxiety remedy (3) Reiki, especially the calming Reiki symbol, Se Hei Ki (4) Catnip for cats, more play time (5) checking in one-on-one (5) having crystals placed around the house (6) Earthing, providing extra opportunities for getting their feet on the ground. I also use muscle testing to help me assess what is going on with them (people who use pendulums effectively can use them in this way.)

On a spiritual level, I have noticed that I am communicating both verbally and telepathically way more effectively with my pets. It’s really amazing me. Making the effort to talk to them really pays off.

Wild Ones, Too

I have noticed that the creatures outside my house are coming closer to me. I feel I am increasing my communications with them. Being influenced by shamanic traditions, I always looked to the creatures that cross my path for their medicine teachings. With recent increases in my perceptive abilities, the messages are coming in with ever more clarity.

As we humans awaken more and more and tune-in to the true nature of reality, we can experience that we are all part of One Quantum Field of Manifestation. Daily life can become an ever more magical relationship with Creation, and of course that includes our beloved animal companions, domestic and wild.

Present times were foreseen in various religions, philosophical movements, and Indigenous prophetic traditions. For example, in Biblical prophecy, this era was described as the “Time of Revelation”; in Deep Ecology, as “The Great Turning”*; in Mayan Calendars, as a “cycle of great changes”**, and in Hopi prophecies***, as the “Closing of the 4th World.”

When I was a young woman in the 1970’s, I had visions that dramatic change was coming. Since then, my understanding of these visions has deepened by studying Nature Spirituality and by exploring the evolutionary potential of natural cycles. I am especially grateful to Native American teachers who not only have prophesied these times of transformation, but who have explained the reasons behind them. They also have described an “Ark” we can ride through them, so we can survive, thrive, and co-create together a new world of peace and harmony.

Unbeknownst to me at the time, during the 1970’s, the Bear Tribe Medicine Society spread the message of the teacher, Sun Bear, who had a more detailed vision of coming Earth Changes. He asserted “...that the dominant society has created imbalances because of ignorance and irresponsibility.”* These imbalances must be healed and harmony restored through Earth Changes.

Sun Bear’s vision inspired a group of people to come together as The Bear Tribe, to “re-learn their proper relationship with the Earth Mother, the Great Spirit, and all [our] relations in the animal, mineral, plant, and human kingdoms.” They published The Bear Tribe’s Self Reliance Book (1977), with practical ideas for co-creating small, self-sustaining communities of like-minded individuals that would make it possible to survive such changes.

In the 1980’s, I was blessed to be present when the Medicine Man, Rolling Thunder spoke in Virginia. At that time, he predicted the coming of the “Cleansing Times”, when fire and water would  purify the Mother Earth. I believe we have seen the beginning of this Cleansing in recent years.

“Blend with the Earth and Celebrate Life”

I have learned that the  visions and prophecies mentioned above echo the thousand year old prophecies and instructions preserved by Hopi Traditionalists. Thanks to a wise and fortuitous recommendation from a Comanche friend to read The Hopi Survival Kit (1997) by Thomas E. Mails, I discovered that an Earth Guardian, Maasaw, emissary of the Creator, interacted with the Hopi a Millennia ago.  Maasaw not only foretold the closing of the current “4th World” of human civilization due to corruption and imbalance, but recommended ways of being that would help people live through a necessary purification. These balanced ways of living would actually mitigate the intensity of earth changes and cleansings necessary to heal and re-balance Earth Mother. The Hopi instructions recommend living in self-sustaining communities of like-minded people who “Blend with the Earth and celebrate life.”

The attitudes, feelings, and rhythms of a life of celebration and blending with the Earth comprises what Mails (with the permission of the Traditionalist Hopi Elders) called a “Spiritual Ark”--a way of being we need to get on board if we want to survive into the next Golden Age.

The Hopi Survival Kit gives further, detailed instructions that I recommend readers study in depth.  One instruction is to live “a simple life.” Living a simple life, close to the Earth, resulted in joyful, 100+ year lifespans among the Traditionalist Hopi Elders still alive in the 1990’s. This feat was accomplished despite the harsh oppression and disruptions brought about by the destructive intrusion of U.S. government into their lives.  Maasaw assured the Hopi that if they followed the instructions provided they would keep the balance on Mother Earth. The Elders taught that anyone who lives in these ways, no matter what her or his religion or skin color, helps keep and restore balance and thus lessens the need for extreme cleansings and/or changes!

“Celebrating life” involves attuning with the seasonal cycles of the year as one blends with the Land.  Summer, the coming of which we celebrated at  the Summer Solstice here in the Northern Hemisphere (June 21, 2023),  is the season for tending the plants.  The plants in our gardens,  “... newly born infants” that were birthed in the Spring, are now our growing children, facing “all the challenges of nature, wind, animals, and insects.” Caring for the plants also involves singing to them and working with the unseen beings who are part of the growing process.

Hopi ceremonies in summer include dramas with Kachinas who appear as clowns “to check if there are any corruptions.” To me, this represents their community’s effort to remind everyone that individual actions effect the larger community and are seen by others.  In my mind, this advises us that a community needs to “reboot” regularly, to check for corruptions, and review the original template (a process I believe our nation has now begun).

I have steadily grown within the wombs of communities of like-minded people and today focus on co-creating earth-loving, life-affirming, egalitarian, and spiritually aware community.  In my personal path of interfaith nature spirituality****, I recognize that the height of the sun’s energies bring people out into the world more, reinforcing our community connections and nurturing our individual and communal growth potential. It is a good time to think about the value of community, especially what some call “intentional communities”  and to make plans, if so inspired, to co-create or board a Spiritual Ark, to blend with the Earth, and celebrate life in community, as we ride the through the Great Turning into a Golden Age of a healed Earth of Peace and Harmony.

There are many Intentional Communities thriving across our country! Many are open to new members and give tours. Check out: https://www.ic.org/community-bookstore/product/communities-directory-book-new-7th-edition/ Or connect with people of like mind and start one. Wherever you dwell, you can live with the intention of contributing to the community around you!

References

*Macy, Joanna. “The Great Turning.”http://ecoliteracy.org June 29, 2009

**Nodjiwon, Kevin. “Mayan Time, Prophecy and the Tzolk’in in Mayan Timekeeper Gerardo Barrios Kaanek’.” https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/mayan-time-prophecy-tzolkin-timekeeper-gerardo-barrios-kevin-nadjiwon December 10, 2017

***Mails, Thomas E. (1997) The Hopi Survival Kit. NY: Stewart, Tabori & Chang.

see also, http://traditionalhopi.org and I ask non-native friends to please consider doing what you can to right the wrongs of our government against the native peoples of our continent.

Sun Bear, Wabun, and Nimimosha. (1977) The Bear Tribe’s Self Reliance Book. Spokane Washington: Bear Tribe Publishing.

****Spiral Grove, An Interpath Community of Nature Spirituality. (We don’t have our own land, but we do celebrate together regularly and do our best to blend with the earth and create community. New folks are welcome.

Starhawk (2011). The Empowerment Manual: A Guide for Collaborative Groups. Canada: New Society Publishers.