Layers of Consciousness and the Local Self

Pain and discomfort in the Local Self interrupts your blissful connection to your Higher Self. This sparks a spiral pattern in which the Local Self engages in self healing in order to reconnect with the infinite love of the Higher Self.

Your primary operating consciousness from child hood is the Local Self. My local self was born in 1975 under the name of Toni. Beyond the local self, and seperated by a veil for most of us, is the Higher Self. I think of my higher self as Mama Tree. In my teens I had a sense of some future version of myself which was offering loving support and guidance from beyond. In my early twenties I experienced a dawning of consciousness in which my perception took a developmental leap.

During that phase there were periods in which my consicousness expanded to that of Higher Self. You could say that for some brief periods I merged with my higher self. Many people refer to these as peak moments. Each peak moment, however brief, was pure bliss and peace. Each peak moment cleansed and healed me in such a deep way that I became hooked and began to seek these moments of enlightenment as often as possible.

As I aged I moved from having moments of being one with Higher Self to having phases of being one with Higher Self. The longer I inhabited and embodied the Higher Self in a particular phase, the more I learned about what it takes to sustain that level of consciousness. Perhaps the most important insight is that my body is a vessel and the experience of Higher Self is a powerful river of energy flowing through my vessel. In order to contain that energy for any length of time I had to purify that vessel.

Here's a plain example. When I embody the full energy of Higher Self, all sensation includes with it a direct knowledge. When I felt a tummy ache I became aware of how there were certain foods which were no longer appropriate for my body. Then the tummy ache "knocked" me out of oneness with the Higher Self because the physical pain was a Local Self issue which demanded attention and repair. Figuring out how to resolve my digestive issues was necessary in order to again merge with Higher Self.

The phases of merging with Higher Self each brought an opportunity for healing and cleansing the vessel - my body - so that the river of energy could flow through me again for a time. Each time I discovered an illness or injury I lost the Higher Self connection. It was depressing and painful because Higher Self is bathed in a sea of love. But that depression and pain propelled me into healing and recovery, and the carrot at the end of that stick is that each time I heal a wound I am again reunited with the full embodiment of my Higher Self.

It is a spiral shaped growth. I wrote about that in my book, The Transpiral Model for Social Change, which is in bad need of a revision because since writing it I've understood so much more about it!

Lately my local self is struggling in learning and adapting to a new level in my career. During the struggle, I do not embody the Higher Self. That is, I don't feel like I am large and blissful and connected to the ALL. Instead I feel really crummy and stressed.

The interesting thing is that even though I cannot embody the Higher Self, I can still connect with her perspective and engage in an internal dialogue in which I ask for and receive guidance. AND thankfully, even in my pain I can connect with Gaia's voice and continue to do the service of updating her Facebook status posts.

Here's an example from this morning. My local self writes:

I read yesterday on a church sign that "Success is often disguised as hard work." And since I'm exhausted and about to work overtime on a Sunday, I've decided: "TO HELL WITH SUCCESS!" I want to retire!

and

[Toni] is sooooo tired and overwhelmed. I feel like I've been running a race and there's no one to pass the baton to. When will it be my turn to rest?

But when I changed profiles, logged into Facebook as Gaia Rising, and connected with HER, this is the status post which comes through:

All of the challenges we face today can be transcended by simply expanding our consciousness. If your local self is struggling, gently expand to fill the space of higher self. From this vantage point, the struggle of the local self is diminushed by the infinite sea of love in which the higher self is bathed. ♥ Mama

To me, this proves that I'm still connected to the divine no matter how shitty I feel. Some days I feel like a Goddess, but most days I'm just a Newby with a life line to Goddess. And I am one grateful Newby because no matter how shitty I feel, SHE still loves me enough to talk directly to me and through me. What a gift!

With love, Toni

The Pre-healing Funk

When you choose to consciously co-create your life with Spirit and Nature, your daily dialogue with your guides will produce numerous healing opportunities. If you intend to change a thing about your self, then you can bet that it will rear its ugly head just before you transform it.



Let me give you a concrete example. Before releasing the need to control situations in the work place you experience a three day run of observing your self as VERY CONTROLLING. This is not at all fun, we never really like that aspect of ourselves we are trying to change. The good news is that when this behavioral pattern or thought construct is amplified, you can be certain that you are transforming it for the last time.



All you need to do is consciously embrace any challenge which comes into your life. Any bullshit which arrises... say to yourself "thank you for this opportunity to transform another aspect of my self." Then simply watch your emotions and reactions over the next few days. I am certain that after a few days of observation you will have seen and released several habits and thought patterns which were no longer serving you.



My motto is that chaos signals an opportunity. Because I believe it so thoroughly,80% of the time I am able to roll with chaos in real time. The other 20% of the time I struggle for a period and then embrace the chaos, trusting that I was about to reach a higher ground.

Create a list of the things which you'd like to learn or transform about yourself. Imagine that your guides or angels are watching you write the list and are ready to create actions and opportunities to help you manifest these visions. Then watch as the pre-healing funk hits you. As soon as you notice that you are living an amplfied version of that which you sought to transform you will relax into peaceful acceptance.

Namaste
Tree of Terrapin Hollow

Gaia Consciousness

Purpura Saga by Jean Herzel

http://www.naturespiritart.com/prints/Page%20Bunchberry.html

All people are both individuals as well as participating in a higher order of consciousness which has been named integral consciousness, Christ consciousness, unity consciousness, etc. I personally like to think of it as Gaia Consciousness because the physical location of this consciousness is Mother Earth.



It is important that our sense of collective consciousness be intertwined with the earth. It is like the benefit of holding a body/mind view over a mind only view. People are like neurons in the body/mind of the planetary organism, Gaia. As we connect with one another we form Her neural networks. This is where our collective wisdom and intelligence lies - in our positive relationships.

All the matter in your reality is comprised of earth. You are the living exhalation of Spirit embracing Nature. The reason manifestation works so well is that you are participating in the unfoldment of God. Or Goddess, or the universe, or the Great Spirit, or whatever you wish to call it. You are the Creator!

You have experienced success in manifesting things in your own life. Imagine the power of groups of people working together to manifest a shared vision. Gaia Rising seeks to be an intentional neural network in the body/mind of the planetary organism ~ Gaia. We are an interfaith coalition because people of any faith can choose to recognize this form of unity consciousness.

To engage in Gaia Consciousness, cultivate a healthy and whole local self. Local self is the name I've given to the individual consciousness which is tied to a human body. When the local self is happy, healthy, and whole the ego can be overshadowed by a deep heart opening. This deep heart perspective affords you a glimpse of unity. At first you will continue to experience the perspective of the local self for the majority of the time. If you choose to continue to engaging in Gaia Consciousness, you can consider yourself a part of Gaia Rising ~ a movement to raise Gaia Consciousness.

Namaste!
Mama Tree

Co-creative Partnerships with the Divine

I think of the divine as both Nature and Spirit. Nature, of course, being all matter including our bodies. And Spirit as something which descends from on high to animate the matter in a divine partnership. As humans, we are like bridges between heaven and earth. Our existence is miraculous.

Over time our views of divinity have changed. For two thousand years the western world thought of God as a parent, both benevolent and wrathful. Today both science and spirituality have led us to the view of being connected to divinity as part of a grand unified field, ever emerging and unfolding.

When you set a clear intention both Nature and Spirit reorder your world in order to deliver that which you expect. If you expect bad news... you get bad news. If you expect abundance, you get abundance. I have seen this time and time. Manifestation is a very popular topic, I don't need to explain it here now. However, what I don't think many folks realize is that it all goes much more smoothly if you engage in conversation with both Nature and Spirit.

I'll tell you how I've done it. I ask to connect with Pan and the Deva of Healing - who represent the Nature side of the partnership. They lead the creation and unfoldment of my physical and energetic bodies. Then I ask to connect to the Council of Light. They are the ascended masters, arch-angels, dieties, etc. I don't connect with all of them at once, we each have our own little team of guides. Lastly I ask to connect to my higher self.

From here I either talk directly to them with my voice, or by writing in my journal. I speak about the things I want to heal or learn. Being able to talk about it demonstrates that we're to work on a thing. Most of the time within two or three days some sort of event or drama occurs in my life which appears to be an amplification of that which I've asked to learn or heal. Sometimes it's a re-enactment of something highly emotional. This is an opportunity to live through an event while making new choices and thereby releasing old karma.

Provided I step through the drama with consciousness and care, it then becomes released and I experience an expansion of consciousness as that energy is cleared and re-integrated into my core.

We can work with Nature and Spirit as frequently or infrequently as we like. I generally have a short list of things that I want to work on. There have been periods of time when I healed and released something just about every week. It was a time of rapid growth and change, and it was positive so I let it roll at that faster pace.

Now, there are multiple ways to experience receiving information from the divine. Some of the ways include free writing, painting, art of any kind, channelling, dreaming, meditation, muscle testing, I-ching, runes, tarot, bibliomancy, etc. I have dabbled with most of these but lately I just experience a direct dialogue. The format that works best for you depends upon your learning style. Consider how you would go about learning a new skill such as knitting. Would you get a book, watch a video, have someone show you, hear about it from a friend, etc. After you identify your top two favorite ways to learn, then apply that to communicating with the divine. My primary learning styles are verbal/auditory, and kinestetic. That means that when I'm on a vision quest I actually don't "see" anything. Rather I hear information and I simply know it by a feeling in my body.

I encourage you to invite your guides, either in the way described above or in your own way. Create some sacred space and make a list of what you'd like to work on. Lie still and let Nature and Spirit do energy work in your body. Journal or engage in some form of communication so that you can gain guidance on how to work through your learning list.

Then hang on and enjoy the ride to wholeness and vibrant loving presence!

Much love,
Tree of Terrapin Hollow

The Gift of Service

When we are committed to serving Love and Light we transform not only ourselves but also the world around us. Sandra Ingerman, an accomplished shaman, writes:

In quantum physics, there is a teaching that has meaning for us here: lower frequencies entrain to higher frequencies. In other words, if you choose to live and act, think and speak, emote and express your feelings as a true visionary, you must transfigure yourself so that you exist in your divine light and perfection -- and then it will be effortless to project that experience onto all life. In this way, you as the inspired visionary will help the radiance of life around you to shine strong.

When we seek to be kind and loving to all of creation, we amplify the resonant field of Love and Light. Other souls, especially anyone who is suffering, are attracted to the health and balance created. It's not merely that Light Workers are role models, but rather that we are raising the vibration of the spaces in whcih we dwell. Friends, family, and even strangers can sense the difference.

BE LOVE and LIGHT!

Gaia and the Local Self

When you decide to embrace Gaia Consciousness, meaning that you consciously choose to participate in being the consciousness of the One Planetary Being, you do not surrender your local self. On the contrary, your local self is an important avatar for the Lady.

First, let me describe what I mean by the local self. When you are in your most ordinary state of waking consciousness, complete with a job, family, identification papers, etc; that is the domain of the local self. I call it the local self as opposed to a larger self, or a metaphysical non-local collective consciousness.

Since it is now possible to have the experience of being both yourself and something distinctly larger than yourself, it is now important to name these states of being and even consider mapping their locations.

Let me give you an example: my local self is sitting at her desk in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas. It is 8:10 am, Central United States time. The local self exists in one place at one time. My higher self is contained within a much larger domain. It extends back in time thousands of years to all the places and times my higher self has ever lived or even only read about. Still, my higher self is not the highest singular expression of consciousness. Gaia, the planet herself, has an even broader domain. Yet Gaia is not the highest singular expression of consciousness, she participates in a solar system, galaxy, and universe full of other kinds of beings.

The local self is a crucial component in Gaia's health and well being. The collection of local selves who participate in Gaia Consciousness are comparable to the collection of all the neurons in your brain. The relationships between and among the local selves represent the neural network connections in your brain. Even though the actual awareness and experience of Gaia Consciousness transcends locality, it cannot exist without the local selves.

This is really important, so I'll restate it again: You will FEEL like you are GAIA. You must also strive to still FEEL like and BE Joe, Eddie, Susan, or whoever. It is not necessary that you surrender your individuality and participate only at the meta self level. On the contrary, it is much more important that each one of us maintain a robust and healthy local self.

When you choose to be healthy, happy, and whole, you create a resonant frequency of health and healing with which those around you may chose to atune. When individuals around you atune to the healthy frequency (aka coherent heart frequency) then Gaia's awareness of herself increases.

When you choose to fulfill your deepest sense of purpose, which is very gratifying to the ego, you are also improving the health and happiness of the entire planet. So do not surrender your local self. No matter how appealing and fun it is to participate in group consciousness, the local self is of the upmost importance. The ego, then, is a gift to be nurtured and protected as you explore your world.

In love and light,
Tree of Terrapin Hollow

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