Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Let us Be Gaia Together

A person is a complex system, made up of smaller complex systems, things like the circulatory system or the digestion system. You are also participating in larger complex systems, things like your family, your community, your nation. You are, of course, conscious of being a person. There is a type of intelligence in all systems, ants are simpler than cats, cats are simpler than people... and the national economy is more complex than your family budget.

The more complex any system is, the more consciousness available to it. Here's some simple crude math to show you what I mean. If brains were units of consciousness, and there was one brain per person, then your family of 12 would posess 12 units... whereas the company you work for has 300 units.

But it obviously isn't that simplistic. Some individuals have reached a higher level of consciousness through personal growth and development. It wouldn't be fair to compare it brain to brain.

Anyway - why am I saying all of this right now? To help me make the case that there is a form of consciousness at the level of the planet. You can think of this as an over-soul, which is how Ralph Waldo Emerson framed it. You can think of the collective consciousness, the way Carl Jung explained it. I think of it as Gaia Consciousness, but at this point the words don't matter as much as the awareness you experience. The sense of ONENESS and connection.

You can consciously participate in your family, your local or national politics, and you can consciously participate in being the planetary consciousness - Gaia. And the good news is, you can participate regardless of your IQ, spiritual beliefs, cultural norms, level of consciousness, etc. In fact, the more diversity in those who consciously choose to be Gaia, the more healthy She becomes.

How can you start participating in Gaia Consciousness right there at home?
  1. Choose to believe that you are both your individual self and you are part of the planetary body/mind known as Gaia.
  2. Notice the way that all sorts of information and resources circulate around the planet. Think of those as Her systems, things like digestive, respiratory, circulatory.
  3. When you make any choice, consider how She would answer in addition to how you would answer. (And it is up to you whether or not you go with Her way... just know that when everyone goes their own way without thinking about the well-being of the planet we get exactly the sort of planet we have today.)
  4. Don't THINK about what she would do... that's WAY to complex for one human to grasp or decide. Rather, connect with your heart and attempt to FEEL which answer is better for Your Planetary Self. There will be some kind of sign in your body/mind. Trust that.

And that's it. Easy, huh? And you can join a monthly telephone dialogue if you want to share your experience in trying this. There are already so many people who are considering the whole in a decision, rather than just the parts... choosing to hold the mind-set that you are participating in being the consciousness of the entire planet is just another step.

This doesn't have to be a magical, mythical, religious, or spiritual thing. This can be an "evolution of consciousness" thing. There are plenty of scientific terms which can be used to describe this phenomenon. Pick the vocabulary that best suits you and let's become Gaia together!

~Tree of Terrapin Hollow

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Fear and Grace

It seems that there are layers upon layers of fear in my path toward enlightenment. I've grown through so many fears and doubts and processing each layer of fear has been such a huge gift. It's a bit like Grace is the sweet gooey center wrapped in a gob stopper of fear.

My process has gone something like this:
  1. I notice that I'm fearful or doubtful about something.
  2. I quietly connect with my guides.
  3. I name the fear and ask whether it is better to transform it or embrace it.
  4. I quietly sense the answer and then ask the guides to help me with whichever action was recommended.

Transform It - I transform fear by asking my guides to help me shift it into my heart. I then use my hands to energetically pull the fear from my gut to my heart. Once the fear is in my heart I appreciate my self in as deep a way possible, so that the electromagnetic frequency of my heart will be in the "coherent - positive emotion" range and this shifts my entire vibration to loving coherence from fearful incoherence.

Embrace It - I embrace my fear by wallowing in it for a bit. I choose to amplify and exagerate the feeling so that I can explore it and understand it. This can take several hours or even a few days. It's scary because once I surrender and dive into my fear I feel like it will consume me completely. But here's the really interesting thing... somewhere in the pits of my own despair I find Grace. I find love, light, and healing down in the darkness.

It is this Grace, this sweetness that I long for at all times. This is what drives me to continue to grow and learn. This is what drives me to be deeply present to my fear, my doubt, my anger, or whatever negative emotional experience might come up in the course of every day living. In some ways I think of myself as a warrior, ever on the quest for a new deamon to slay so that I can revel in the healing and release.

Now that I've intellectualized about my fear (thereby Avoiding processing it) for a few paragraphs. Let me begin to embrace my fear by exposing some of it here.

For three consecutive full moons, I spent 3 evenings feeling wakeful and deeply connected with the Divine Mother, Gaia. During these times I had the experience of chatting with her and hearing her responses as words in my mind. (I often have an internal dialogue with my spirit guides - Pan, Michael, and others). During these conversations Gaia asked me to do several things for her, which I have done. Those include starting a Facebook group called Gaia Rising, planning and hosting monthly phone dialogues for Gaia Rising, and the like.

These evenings were fun and magical and made me feel very special. But on another level, and from another view, I was experiencing insomnia. After three days with much too little sleep a person looses the ability to do regular daily activities... like driving a car or going to work. Only I was feeling good and I didn't realize that I was lacking in those capacities until after getting a little bit of a scare. Thankfully there were no car wrecks, no one got hurt, no jobs were lost... but it was scary because for a few hours I felt out of control.

It made me feel a little crazy. It made my husband wonder. And that called up for me the biggest wound from my current life. In 1995 I lost my mind. I was 20 and I delved very deeply into the expansion of my consciousness. I invited and experienced a number of psychic gifts including telepathy, clairvoyance, clairaudience, etc. But I was doing all that in the most unhealthy ways possible. I was not getting enough food, rest, sunshine, or excercise and I was experimenting with substances which altered my biochemistry. For a period of several months I was really confused and unhealthy. For some of those months I was totally flipping mad. I was insane.

Thank Goddess for my parents who put me in a hospital and got me the help I needed. And thank Goddess for the nurse at the hospital who told me that they weren't interested in changing my spirituallity, they just wanted to make sure that I could take care of my basic needs - like food, shelter, clothing, and interacting with regular people in a regular way. And thank Goddess that I told my husband all about this on our very first date and he fell in love with me anyway.

But ever since then I've had a quantum entanglement between spirituality and sanity. I have predicted plane crashes, heard people's thoughts as if they were speaking outloud, and seen beyond that which is considered ordinary. And I've always wanted to possess these abilities... but for some unfortunate reason on several occassions when my psychic abilities have expanded, it has resulted in my appearing to be, temporarily, completely batty.

With the exception of about 5 hours, I've felt solidly sane for the past 15 years. Yet the scar tissue is immensely out of proportion. While I'm certain that I'm sane, I am fearful that additional spiritual growth might result in me appearing to be temporarily insane again. It puts me right to the place of WHAT IFs. What if I really am crazy? What if I lose everything I care about? What if I lose my job and my family and become homeless and smelly?

And then the other side of me weighs in:

How did you imagine this would look? You believe that all people can expand their consciousness and develop higher sense perception. You have invited this exploration into your life, since childhood. You've spent your entire life experimenting with your consciousness. Your favorite conversations are made of these very topics. Which would be scarier? Waking up to realize that we're all growing these abilities, or waking up and realizing that there is no magic at all?

And with no true sense of resolution I prepare to publish this blog post. I notice that it is scary to be authentic and vulnerable. Yet I press 'publish' with deep trust that my guides would not steer me astray by encouraging me to show this aspect of myself to you.

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Letter from Gaia ~ A Poem by Kate Rose Bast

Letter from Gaia

In your living spaces, watch
for the mirror of movements
of global breadth. Respond

as if every small movement
of twig or feather
mattered to every being.

This is the way of all my moving:
all effects and constructs,
all destructs and rebuilds:
ant hill, turtle egg,
avalanche.

And what will you birth?
For you, I will open
my deep chasms of fire
and microbial pools, groan
my mothering womb
chorus of species
song to bring the you
of all you are
into Be.

Wear green, spring green
thoughts, eat green at every
meal, bleed green blood,
photosynthesize
the green shift of life
into your deepest cell.

Sleep green in and under
green. Feed your eyes
with green. Breathe
the new of green.
Tell others.

By Kate Rose Bast, 2008

Monday, March 1, 2010

Know Thyself

Nosce te Ipsum

The greater your knowledge and appreciation of your Self, the greater the resilience you have in times of change. Knowing my Self has really saved my ass on more than one occassion. I reckon that the guy who got rich writing "Chicken Soup for the Soul" was just taking excerpts from his own journal... that those were all pieces of advice he'd picked given himself for how be more successful living his life. Or that guy who wrote "Conversations with God," wasn't he also getting to know himself in the presence of God and the reader?

That's probably the appeal for blogging and tweeting and the like. Who doesn't enjoy talking to them Self? And why not learn things in the presence of others? Martin Buber's philosophy was that God only exists between I and thou. According to him, there is no divine if there is no unfolding relationship. So why not have a super healthy relationship with your Self? And if you believe that we are all ONE, then there are billions of different faces of your Self. Like a kaliedescopic funhouse mirror. "I am you and you are me and we are we, come together right now, over me!"

Today I feel compelled to try and distill all the most valuable things I've learned into 5 or less points. The truth of the matter is I'm doing it just for me. I don't think it's selfish to be Self serving on occassion. Especially if you're the kind of person who cares deeply about others and spends lots of time trying to serve and support others.
  1. My experience and emotions change in cycles with the moon and the sun seasons. I like it like that.
  2. My roots run deep. If I get plenty of rest, sunshine, fresh veggies, and fresh air then I can handle just about anything.
  3. I am vulnerable. Being Hungry, Angry, Lonely or Tired is feedback which deserves instant self-care. If I'm ever any two of these at the same time I HALT and care for myself.
  4. The best way to instantly shift a negative emotional experience is to truly feel care or appreciation for someone or something in my life. Facebook has made that really efficient for me!
  5. All bullshit is an opportunity to grow. Dig in and turn the shit around. It all makes great compost! Can't grow without it!

There's another thing that I can't seem to boil down to a pithy little statement. It has to do with being real and trusting other people. There are months in the spring and summer when I feel deeply serene and my capacity to love and care for others is really expansive. In fall I'm feeling a natural contraction and movement inward. And then sometime every winter I feel lousy and fragile. Sometimes I am afraid to admit it because maybe the people who love the leafy green summer tree will think the scraggly winter tree is ugly or even broken. But thankfully I've been through this winter thing 35 times and I've figured out that it is okay to be a real person. Hell, it's better than okay because most of the time the people who love leafy green summer trees can appreciate that seasons change and some of them actually enjoy being able to nurture and support a scraggly and wind blown nekked winter tree!

It takes a village to raise a child. A tree needs the whole universe... earth, wind, sunlight, water, moonlight, gardeners, apple-eaters, aphids, worms, termites, owls, bullshit, and even a LOGGER and a CARPENTER now and then!