The Hidden Blessing of Grief

Grief sucks.

There is no way around it, really.  When someone dies, whom you love deeply, it hurts in a way that punctures your soul and leaves it weeping... sometimes permanently.  

I want you to know, however, there is a hidden blessing and wisdom in the process of grief.  I also know that you want to tell me to "shove it" about hidden blessings and wisdom while you are in deep grief.  Of course you do, but it doesn't make it less true... and eventually, you will have the choice to let your sense of loss continue to be defined as a dark void within you, or if you will fill that new empty space with something miraculous that affirms YOUR life.  

My life path completely changed when my father was sick with cancer for 5 years before his death. He knew it was coming. We all did.  He had done his job already. I was a grown woman in my early 30's with my own life, but I think that anyone who has lost a parent will agree that there is never an age when you feel you don't need them. There is never an age when it feels okay.

In my circumstance, my father and I were always very similar.  I remember thinking that I was more like my father than perhaps any other human being on the planet.  He had an uncommon gift in the way he processed information.  Some would have called him a genius, or inventive, or creative... or whatever, you get my drift.  He had it within him to do something new and different, to chart some new course, to define or explain something in a new and unusual way that would matter to the world.  He knew in his bones that he had this looming, overwhelming potential.  And ultimately, his deepest struggle and regret at the end of his life was that he felt he did not accomplish whatever it was that he was put on the planet to do.     

That's the ticket, isn't it?  Are we here to do something?  Is there some unremembered life purpose that we have, which is written in the marrow of our being, that haunts us with some familiar song we can barely hear?

 I think the answer to that is, "yes". 

My father's sickness and death made the song of my own life path so loud that I'm not sure how much of a choice I actually had to ignore it.  Death has a way of clearing the dross, and bits of silly nonsense, which we seem to think is important, right out of the way.  I mean... totally.  Mortality also seems to make it necessary to consider a ~spiritual reality~ as something authentic.  So, without much background or framework in formal religion, I found that when I reached out to a spiritual reality... that it absolutely reached back to me.  It didn't just reach out to touch me.  It swallowed me whole, chewed me up, and spit me back out onto a completely different course.  It felt like that too.  It wasn't gentle.  It was a "holy-shit-get-the-license-plate-number-of-the-truck-that-just-hit-me" kind of not subtle.  

It was the most important "path correction" I hope I will ever need.  I don't want to do it again.  It hurt like a Mo Fo and I'm still finding places within me that require healing and care because of it.  Always a process, this evolving stuff, eh?  Chip, chip, chip away at it.  Eventually, the Art in the Stone will emerge from all the trimmings.  I believe that, even if the process leaves me exhausted sometimes.  Who am I to question the way it is done?  I just wish it didn't hurt so much sometimes.  I wish that for me, I wish that for you... but we have to work with what we have.  Sometimes what we have in front of us is a world of pain.  It is our choice what we do with it.

Grief offers us a choice to examine the course of our own life path, to ask the question, "At the end of my life, what will I regret?" 

The answer to that, I believe, is that you will regret not doing what you were put on this planet to do.  You will regret not making amends, not forgiving others, not expressing your love and passions, not expressing your unique potential as God gave you. 

So, the most important thing you can do to honor the person you love who has died and left you this precious gift of crisis and trauma...is to find out what you were put on this planet to do, then get to the business of doing it.

In the cocoon of pain and loss, you have a clear line to your own spiritual reality.  There is such tremendous power and support here.  Reach out for it... surrender to it... let it consume you completely and cast you on whatever strange shore Divine Wisdom knows is right for you.

It's going to be a bumpy ride.  You will feel unhinged, and at times, crazy as hell.  Just keep reaching.  Keep surrendering.  Keep putting one foot in front of the other and fight with every ounce of your being to have courage when you want to run screaming from the building.  

I can't tell you where you will end up... that is between you and God. 

I can't tell you that you will feel endless waves of bliss and peace, even if you do find your life's path and follow it as sincerely as you can.  Pain is one of the best catalysts, it seems, for change and evolution.  The Divine can wield this tool with brutal precision when we aren't listening to more gentle persuasion.  

I can tell you that your life will never be boring again and that the fire in your belly, the passion that fuels your ride, will have its own rewards.  You will need very little from others that you cannot access from within.  You will care much less about what other people think.  Score.  You will be living a life that is authentic for you... and the normal human duck-and-hide from what is important.... just falls away.

Allow your grief to give your life back to you.  The window of opportunity is greatest in the moments of your greatest pain.  Reach for it.  Ask for help.  Surrender. 

Thanks Dad, for giving me the gift of living this wild and weird, but authentic life... of being on a path that I know I will not regret at the end of it.  I may not be doing it perfectly, but I am doing it.  I'm doing it with every ounce of my heart and soul...and every once and awhile, I discover more of myself hidden in some corner I didn't know existed, until it did. 

It has not been easy... but it has been worth it. 

May you be comforted and cared for in the Highest Possible way. May all those who suffer find solace. May your grief bless you with whatever shift in perspective you may need to truly live your life's purpose. May you receive what you need to support you in your Highest Good with as much Ease, Grace, Mercy, Compassion, and Love as possible.

Amen.




 













   

Manifesting a Luscious Life

Mmm... A luscious life.

Yep, I want one of those.  I bet you do too.

Luscious.  Hmm.  What is that exactly?  I know I really like the word and how it rolls off the tongue.  It has substance and texture. 

According to Oxford
Luscious: having a pleasingly rich, sweet taste, richly verdant or opulent, or very sexually attractive.  (Ooo, la, la!)

There are a lot of other terms going on here, so I want to go ahead and define some of those too:
Verdant:green with grass or other rich vegetation, of the bright green color of lush grass.
Opulent:ostentatiously rich and luxurious or lavish.
Luxurious: extremely comfortable, elegant, or enjoyable, especially in a way that involves great expense.
Lavish: sumptuously rich, elaborate, or luxurious, very generous or extravagant:, spent or given in profusion, such as lavish praise.
Sumptuous: splendid and expensive-looking.
Splendid: magnificent; very impressive, excellent; very good.

~~In my humble opinion, I think that a "luscious life" is one that is sweet and magnificent in a way that is valuable to you personally.~~

My idea of a luscious life might be radically different than the luscious life of others.  Though, I think that human beings tend to need some of the same things on a general basis.

Christopher Lee Mathhews and I facilitated a workshop the other weekend called, "Luscious Life: Abundance, Good Luck, and Manifestation", and while we did discuss the stones that are traditionally linked to these concepts, and some techniques to use to activate those energies, we linked some fairly zoomy direct energy work protocols into the fun.  Our workshops seem to be quickly morphing into informative healing sessions, instead of just technique/concept lessons.  I dig it.   

 

Chris is a sound healer, a pretty darn good one at that, and I can't recreate that here in the blog for you, but I'm the intention set artist and energy download weaver, and I can do my best to weave the work into an easy to use format that you should be able to simply "call in" once we do the appropriate set up.  Game? :) 

 

<I stole some text from my Solar Storm Mitigation article below, so if this looks familiar, you aren't having a psychic moment.  I just wrote up the process of what I do well enough in that article that I snagged it for this one too, and just tweaked it to apply to this specific work.  The technique is the technique is the technique.  Only the details change depending on the type of assistance you are trying to set up.>

 

Some of you are familiar with the way I set up energy work, like in my book, Awake in Angelscape. It's kind of the "easy button" way of creating energy weaves of useful assistance. It is like creating a download or process within one action command. I used to call these "moments", now I just call the phrase to call the energy set an "action statement". Umm, think it of like a prayer that is set up so all you have to do is call it by name, instead of reciting the whole thing to connect in with the energies. I've also described it as calling into a pre-recorded message, but the message is an energy download intended to deal with a specific issue. It is a spiritually based "ask and receive" system, as it does absolutely require spiritual cooperation to work. In fact, I call this kind of work "Cooperative Spiritual Energy Work" cause.. well, I don't know what else to call it and it fits.

 

Anyway, the process isn't that difficult, but it does require some up front time-on-task. I essentially articulate the goal that I want from the work. In this instance, I have called it "Manifesting a Luscious Life". That is the goal. We want to manifest a Luscious Life for ourselves in whatever way makes sense to us as individuals.  I'm going to use a longer concept goal or objective in this instance, instead of just a simple phrase.  I do it both ways, short phrase goal v. long winded goal, depending on what kind of work I'm doing.   

 

<Note: For this work, I am going to use MY idea of a Luscious Life. I will articulate both the goal/objective and the intention set details that make sense to ME...which you can use as a template to edit and tweak as you see fit. "Stacie's Luscious Life" may suck ass to some of you, so don't be lazy about this, you will have to actually do some thinking and considering about what YOU want for your own life.  There are some technical support details that you should keep "as is", such as the creation of a Guide Team, and so on, but I will clearly mark the technical intentions.>

 

Stacie's "Luscious Life" Goal/Objective Statement

 

I would like to manifest and maintain a Luscious Life.  To me, this means to live a spiritually guided and Divinely Aligned life that is lived with courage, joy, passion, purpose, and gratitude, in which I have everything I need to evolve, sustain, nurture, inspire, and share my unique gifts, skills, talents, and abilities with the world, and to empower others to do the same.

 

OK, now it's your turn. What is your goal/objective statement for your Luscious Life?  If you like mine so much you want to use it, fine with me.  If you want to scrap it and start over, fine with me.  Just ~own it~.

 

The next step is to list the intention set that I think supports the goal of the work. 

 

I try to put as much thought into this part because it seems to matter that I articulate my "free will" in a specific way. However, since I am aware that I'm a tiny, little, limited human (at the moment), I then take what I think I need and kick it up to the spiritual level to be corrected in perfection and brought within Divine Will. I call this "Spiritual CYA" (Cover Your Ass) because, well, just because you can throw your free will around in the manifestation process, doesn't mean you should. I give God/Divine Will overriding editing rights over every utterance I make, every intention I assemble, because... well, I'm not interested in working against Divine Will. Once it's been kicked up to the Big Guy/Gal for correction and editing, then I seal the work so it maintains its integrity in perpetuity.

 

Intention Set Supporting Goal

 

Stacie's Luscious Life is one...

*in which I feel supported, guided, protected, safe, nurtured, and loved to be the best version of myself through God as possible, which means that I continually cultivate and evolve into what I call my “Sacred Self” or “Divine Self”.

*where I am physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually healthy, vital, and fit.

*where my loved ones are safe, healthy, and thriving.

*where I get to apply my God-given talents, skills, abilities, and passions, in productive and prosperous ways, in service to the Highest Possible Outcome to Unfold on Earth with as much Ease, Grace, Mercy, Compassion, and Love as possible. 
 
*where I have enough material resources to meet my real world needs, as well as to engage in opportunities and experiences that bring me joy, or in some way enhance my life in the Highest Good, such as travel, educational experiences, and so on.

*where I have enough material, emotional, and spiritual resources to share freely in whatever way I believe increases joy in others.

*in which I can express myself creatively through whatever medium I care to play with at any given time. 

*in which I have trust, faith, and courage to experience things beyond my comfort zone and to release that which no longer serves me with as much Ease and Grace as possible.

*where there is mutual love, respect, support, and empowerment in my close and personal relationships. 

*where I have a passionate, loving, and mutually supportive relationship with a life-partner.

*that, barring the opportunity to be supported and loved by friends, family, or an intimate life-partner, that I still feel supported and loved by the Divine, and that I consistently endeavor to fill my need for love and acceptance at the Divine Level first.

*where I accept myself in all my Divinely Imperfect Humanness, and where I can forgive myself when I don’t always accept myself in all my Divine Imperfect Humanness.

*where I continue to grow, experience new things, and explore, both my inner and outer worlds, and where there is always challenge to my perceived limits, with Ease and Grace.

*that takes unavoidable events of pain, loss, and discomfort and allows them to refine, improve, and move me beyond my own attachments, distortions, and limitations, with as much Ease and Grace as possible.

*that continually brings me to a place of fewer and fewer limits, of any kind, with Ease and Grace, until I am able to responsibly wield and purposefully engage having no limits at all. 

*that, at its conclusion, has left the world a better place for having lived it, and which leaves no regrets worth mentioning, no mistakes unforgiven, and no authentic and deep love or passion unexpressed.

OK, now it's your turn. What are your intentions supporting your goal/objective statement for your Luscious Life?  Yes, I did give mine some thought and I have been at this "intention creation" stuff for many, many years.  Still, that doesn't mean I got them all.  I'm not "all that and a bag of chips" of intentions.  If you have some good intentions, leave them as a comment so you can share your insight with others. 

<Note: I think this has been said before, but you need to edit and tweak the intention set above, unless my Luscious Life looks Luscious to you too.  If you like my intentions, but have more of your own, add them.  If you want to scrap it all and make your own, scrap them.  I don't care.  You have to put your back into defining your own Luscious Life.>

<Note #2: OK, below are the technical intentions, which I recommend you leave intact, unless you have an ideological issue with any of it and need to tweak it to fit your belief system.  This sets up the spiritual guide team (consistent to your own religious and spiritual reality) and gives "God/The Divine" permission to do the heavy lifting, aka "Divine Intervention".  Groovy? >

*I request the creation of an authentic and Divinely Aligned "Guidance Team" for immediate and ongoing support for me to consistently be guided and supported to make the most appropriate choices, and to take advantage of the most appropriate opportunities and circumstances, which will manifest a Luscious Life, as defined by me.

*I give permission for God/my Guide Team to assist me in any way that is appropriate and in Divine Alignment/Will to support me in acknowledging, defining, and achieving as Luscious of a Life as possible, within my personal level of development. 

*I give my Guide Team permission to faciliate, on my behalf, any appropriate and Divinely Aligned energy healing, or other appropriate shifts, known or unknown, as needed, to support my living a Luscious Life, with Ease and Grace.

*I give permission for the Divine to intervene, correct, and provide me with perfected integrity in life, such that I may function, receive, and manifest above and beyond my limits and personal level of development, when appropriate and in the Highest Good.

*I give permission for the Divine to make improvements to my vision and understanding of a Luscious Life, to include opportunities, events, and experiences so wonderful that I may not be able to envision them myself at this time.

*I request the purification and removal of any obstacles, known or unknown, to living a Luscious Life now; such as the correction of perceptual distortions of any kind, the removal of incoherent, contrary, or subversive patterns of any kind, the neutralization and removal of inappropriate influence of any kind, and the removal of energetic blockages of any kind that hinders the Divine Flow that supports a Luscious Life. 

*I request ongoing support to understand, heal, and shift any other obstacles to living a Luscious Life, which cannot be shifted at this time, because it serves a purpose as part of my spiritual growth and evolution.

*I request all lessons and growth events to be initiated with Ease and Grace. 

*I request to Hold Space to anchor the energies of living a Luscious Life outward into larger systems, as appropriate, when appropriate, for Humanity in general. (Think of it like a positive domino effect on a global level.) 

<Note: This last intention is the Grand Poo Bah of technical CYA elements.  This puts everything back in Divine Hands for correction and tweaking.  If you aren't willing to be edited by the Divine/God, please don't do this work.  Seriously. Dude.  You are too little to be throwing your Free Will around without some Divine Rectification and Oversight.>

 

*I request for all intentions of this Cooperative Spiritual Contract to be corrected in perfection, brought within Divine Will, and then Blessed, Optimized, Stabilized, Amplified, and Sealed under God/the Divine, such that it can be called in full potency by using the action statement below, and that it maintains its integrity, support, and potency in perpetuity. 

 

Amen, Aho, So Be It, Make it So... or whatever you say at the end of a prayer.

 

And hey, how about a hearty round of "Thank You. Thank You. Thank You." to go with it? :)

 

Alrighty then.  Hard part over.  Setting up the "easy button" requires some up front work, but once it is articulated and "signed off" on, getting the assistance pretty much depends on your staying conscious and attentive enough that you can acknowledge and receive the support you need.

 

Are you ready for the fun part?  Let's hit the easy button together by saying the action statement below.  All together now.....

 

"I request to manifest my Luscious Life, now please!"

 

Just close your eyes and allow yourself to experience whatever you experience.  If you want, you can go into a visualization and go and meet your Guide Team.  They may have some wisdom to share with you, or may do some energy work on you to release blockages to living a Luscious Life.   

 

I usually follow up the Cooperative Contract with a guided meditation, but it isn't necessary if you aren't terribly hot for visualizations.  It can be a powerful way to punctuate the direct energy downloads, however, so if you are good at visualization, do try to add it to your process.

 

I recommend reaffirming the action statement above every night before going to sleep, then allowing your Guide Team to do whatever tinkering and assisting is needed while you are in la la land. Then... by golly, follow your prompts, say your prayers, be grateful, and start living that Luscious Life now! :) 

 

The Luscious Life Workshop Recap

 

Now, of course, we also have all sorts of stone resources that support "Luscious Life".  In fact, it was a grid that Chris and I worked on weeks ago that inspired the whole of this work.  During the workshop, we used the Luscious Life Crystalline Stone Grid, among several others, to create a Super Grid to support the work.  The other grids were "Root Chakra", for grounding into the physical, "Chakra Whirlwind Whirly Gig", for clearing blockages in the energy field to free flow, and an Abundance Grid, which supports abundance (duh) and prosperity energies.  We created a vibraional elixir that everyone got to drink during the guided meditation, as well as using Holy Water to help cleanse the auric field and anywhere blockages showed up during the toning work. 

"Luscious Life" Crystalline Stone Grid

 

Super Grid used during the workshop.



As soon as the Luscious Life Crystalline Stone Grid is ready for purchase on eBay, I'll post it in here.  The stones, and Dear God...there are a lot of them, are: Turqouise center, pyrite, golden quartz, amethyst, jade, Quantum Quattro Silica, rose quartz, lodolite, emeralds, rubies, and sapphires.  We also will have a pouch with singles.  Chris is working on the pictures for them and then I'll post it on eBay. :)

 

The Root Chakra and Abundance Grids and Synergy Stone Pouches are already up in our eBay store.  To visit it, just click here.

 

Other Links:

To visit us on eBay: ETE's Metaphysical Department AND Enter the Earth, Inc
To go the the website: Enter the Earth
To see my book on Amazon.com: Awake in Angelscape
To go to Christopher Matthew's Blog: House of Daedalus
To download a free gridding template: Crystalline Grid Template

To join our Facebook Group: The Metaphysical Corner

If you are local and want to be on our newsletter list to hear about upcoming workshops, just email me: stacie@entertheearth.com

 

 

Hugs to all! :)

 

 

Mercury Retrograde Mitigation

I am not an astrologer. It was just too much math for me to want to master, but some of my closest spiritual friends are way deep into astrology. That helped me to have a somewhat better than absolute beginner grasp on it, but only by association. :)

I pay attention to just 4 astrological influences/events, which are: solar return (aka: birthday), the moon (full/new), Saturn Return (because it kicks your ass- if you would like to look up yours, go here) and Mercury Retrograde. I'm sure there are other things that smack me upside my head and I just haven't figured out the pattern yet. 

The uber simple explanation is that when something astrological is in “retrograde”, it basically means that it seems to be going backwards in the heavens. Bass Akward, in this instance.

Mercury rules technology, communication, travel, mental/thought processes, and a bunch of things that we take for granted in the course of a normal day. These are things that we immediately miss when it gets yanked out from under us, such as during a retro.

If for some reason, I have forgotten to mark the approximately 3 week period of Mercury Retrograde on my calendar, I almost always know when it is happening after about a week... by simply measuring how close I am to throwing my computer out of a window. I recommend giving yourself some heads up so that you know ahead of time to be in a more chill frame of mind when things start going kabloowie around you.

This year, 2013, the periods of Mercury Retrograde are as follows:
February 23–March 17
June 26–July 20
October 21–November 10

Christopher reminded me that the effects of Mercury Retro are felt strongest at the start and end date of the cycle, when the planet is motionless.  It can also be felt a couple of weeks before and after as the planet is slower.  So, we have to be aware even before the dates.  *sigh* 

Oh, Mercury Retro, how do you bug me? Let me count the ways...
1. It makes me stupid.
2. It messes with my computer and any programs I care to use on it.
3. I cannot find my way out of a box, or something happens with my car, or my GPS decides that it is also stupid.
4. It takes 5 times longer to get something done.
5. I can't get words to do anything useful or to come out right.
6. It makes me stupid. Right, I said that already, but I can count it twice.

Some things that you can do to ride out the Merc Retro with as much grace as possible:
*Plan all travel well. Don't just rely on your GPS, but get written directions too and leave plenty of time to get where you want to be going.
*Service your car before going anywhere and make sure it's functioning well! Gas up!
*Don't sign any contracts or make final decisions on anything important.
*Don't throw your computer out of a window. It can't help being a butt head during this time frame.
*Try not to do any big projects or proposals, but if you do, do 3 times more prep work than usual and practice your butt off so that communicating what you mean to say is automatic.
*Spend time dreaming, thinking, introspecting, journaling, considering, sorting, meditating, and going within... but do NOT chart any active course, action, or decision. Just kinda let it all hang out and get jiggy in your head. Let it wash over you without attaching to an outcome yet.
*Tend to creative and artsy projects that you have begun, but that have ended up collecting dust in some corner of your hobby area.
*Doodle mindlessly and then get a symbol book to decipher what the heck you captured on the page.
*If you want to write, Dear God, let it be poetry instead of an instruction manual. Then, do not show your poetry to anyone until you have re-read it after Mercury goes direct. :)
*Do not drunk dial, text, or Facebook old lovers. (Word!)
*Do things that mitigate the areas of your world that are most affected by Mercury being Bass Ackward, such as things that assist clear thinking and communicating with gemstone support, flower essences, nutrition, and asking for plenty of assistance.

Since we like our rocks up in here, that is usually my go to “mitigation” support, though I do love me some flower/gem essences too. It probably wouldn't hurt to take some gingko biloba and eat some fresh salmon either. I mean really, throw your back into it.

Christopher, my ETE workmate, and I spent time batting rock selections back and forth to come up with a grouping of stones for grids or pouches that we would recommend for Mercury Retro Mitigation.We included historical and traditional stones that are directly linked to Mercury as well as stones that are good for mental clarity, communication, introspection, and safe travel.

Chris has a great article his blog about the gemstones of Mercury, which you can find here: http://houseofdaedalus.blogspot.com/2012/06/planetary-gemstones-of-mercury.html

Chris also has a blog article that describes retrograde planetary effects, in general. You can read that here:  http://www.houseofdaedalus.blogspot.com/2012/07/meaning-of-retrograde-motion.html

This stones selected have the intention to counter balance the astral influence of Mercury, like:
-Mercury retrograde and other transits of Mercury, when the planet interacts with an element in a person's birth chart
-Transits of other planets through Gemini and Virgo, ruled by Mercury, or the Third and Sixth House, associated with Mercury
-A challenging placement of Mercury in a person's birth chart

The Mercury Retrograde Mitigation Crystalline Grid on Ebay

We chose the following stones for the Mercury Retrograde Mitigation:

Magnetitzed Hematite

Magnetic hematite is a ferromagnetic ceramic, meaning a man made magnet produced by combining iron oxide minerals like hematite with a ceramic. Hematite is associated with Mercury because it resembles the liquid metal mercury and man made materials were traditionally ruled by Mercury, because of its associations with innovation. Hematite is one of the most grounding stones you can work with. It stabilizes chaotic energies and brings upper level congestion down through the system to be moved out. It helps restore proper flow and brings greater clarity to the system. It is associated with the planet/energies of Mercury because it has the physical appearance of mercury, as well as being a stone that is good for mental clarity.

Emerald

Emerald's deep green color has been associated with abundance, royalty, and Divine Love. It is also a stone that is sacred to Venus, for its connection with fertility, beauty, and love. They tend to grow as small stones, but for their small size, they have a extraordinary energy. It is regal and dignified and personifies the luxury and opulence of the Earth. It embodies the energies that connect us to Heart Wisdom and to all else in the Web of Life. The legendary figure Hermes Trismegistus, who combines traits of the Greek God Mercury and the Egyptian god Thoth, is also associated with emeralds through the “Emerald Tablet” associated with him. It was often used to “cure” Mercury type afflictions.

Fluorite

Fluorite is a mentally centering and balancing stone. It brings one to a meditative and even state of mind, or brings one from a place of mental chaos and activity to greater order and concentration. It is one of the few 'dreamy' stones that isn't ungrounding. In fact, in many ways Fluorite is one of the best stabilizers of all the stones that could be used. It's balancing and stabilizing properties enhances the capacity for one to be grounded within the activity of choice; whether that is getting work done at the office, attending to soccer game schedules, recovering after a hectic day, or doing spiritual or meditative work. It also is particularly well suited to provide additional protection and integrity to dreams or other altered states of consciousness.

Moonstone

Moonstone is all about mother love and is often used to assist new mothers through pregnancy and childbirth. It has its pulse on the very energies that wrap us up in a comforter and attend to us when we scrape our knees or hearts. It is also the embodiment of the mystery of the night and the magic of womanhood. It helps us to connect with the Divine Feminine, our own inner Goddess Power, as well as connecting us to meditative, introspective, and periods of “going within”. Moonstone has also traditionally been used to provide safety during travel, particularly over water.

Kyanite

Kyanite is one of my favorite stones as it is protective, aligning to the chakra system, meditative, and it does all of those things well. It has been connected to Archangel Michael and the Blue Flaming Sword of Truth. It stimulates both the 3rd Eye and Throat Chakras, so it assists in both mental clarity as well as supporting clear communication.

Labradorite

Labradorite is said to act upon the entire auric field as it has a near full spectrum of colors represented within it. It fills in places within your auric field that are weaker, thereby making you more resilient to inappropriate energetic influences. It is full of magic and mystery, revealing truth and beauty to those who have the wisdom to look beyond the surface to the divinity within. It represents flashes of insight, clarity, and wisdom.

Blue Lace Agate

Blue Lace Agate is a spiritual stone that assists in connecting one with Higher Aspects of ones expanded self. It does this by clearing blockages or interference from the communication channels at the Throat Chakra. It is one of the best cleansers to clear up energetic congestion clogging up direct links to higher guidance.  Agates are traditionally linked to Mercury and are used as a cure for astrological influences involving that planet.

Sodalite

Sodalite has a rich deep blue color with streaks of white. It is the color of the night sky and full of hidden charms. It is a stone of respite and care. It helps us to restore ourselves when we have pushed too far and traveled too hard. It brings a sense of quiet anchor to a beleaguered soul and moves this spirit into a balanced openness with its Higher Self. It is enriching and empowering to the psychic senses and calming and cooling to the system that has been stretched thin in obvious or non-obvious ways. It assists to calm intense reactions and emotions to situations and allows us to function in a more structured and intentional way. It helps us to do this without being sidetracked by the intensity and impact of an overly emotional perspective. I consider sodalite to be an “anti-drama” stone because of the support it provides to have an objective mental view point, instead of being emotional reactive to something.

The Mercury Mitigation Stone Synergy Pouch on Ebay

If you are making your own grid, or wish to assemble a medicine pouch of single stones, you will want to consider stones that are multi-colored, dark blue, light blue, or that cover the areas of clear thinking, safety in travel, good luck, and clear communication, or any of the stones that Christopher wrote about in his Planetary Gemstones of Mercury blog article.

Good luck to all during Mercury Retrograde....and my your computers not be butt heads!!

To visit us on eBay: ETE's Metaphysical Department AND Enter the Earth, Inc
To go the the website: Enter the Earth
To see my book on Amazon.com: Awake in Angelscape
To go to Christopher Matthew's Blog: House of Daedalus
To download a free gridding template: Crystalline Grid Template

Rocks for Lovers

Not just love, love... but bow chicka wow wow, blow your mind, curl your toes, red hot passion, put your back into it, kinda love.  Do I have your attention yet? ;)

OK.  Maybe we've lost enough of that holiday weight at this point that we can muster up enough give-a-bleep about having a super sexy evening with our respective Snuggle Bunnies.  Groovy.  I'm in.  (If you aren't into it this year, no worries, just flip Hallmark the bird and put your sweats on and have some chocolate anyway. :) 

If you are an energy baby, like I am, and would like something buzzy to support love, passion, and intimacy events, well by golly, you've come to the right place.

 

I bent Christopher's ear, my ETE work-mate, to see what he considered to be "rocks for love", and we constructed a crystalline grid that we both thought would do the trick, so to speak.  He's really good with the historical and traditional body of knowledge about rocks, and I am more a "do and learn" kind of person, so it's always interesting to see in what ways we come up with the same things and in what way we don't. 

 

So, let's begin. 

 

When you think love and passion, there are several types of energy centers/colors that come up.  Obviously, red.  Red is a root chakra color and we definitely want to tickle that area.  Orange is next, that is the belly/sacral chakra that actually is directly related to sexuality, creativity, and other zesty things.  However, while things are all hot and bothered "down below", you also want to cultivate a whole lot of heart and emotional support "above". (Let's be honest, without soulful, meaningful love... you might as well just invest in a really good toy and have lots of batteries.)  The heart center is tickled by both pink and green. 

 

When you consider the larger picture, the entire system is involved in true love making.  So there is a lot of wiggle room when considering what stones you might wish to select in any love support combination.  Make sure you pay attention to what is calling you on a personal level, eh? 

 

Christopher turned me on to some other stones too, which I wouldn't have necessarily known were love stones, but it made perfect sense to me when he explained it.  Stones that have a traditional connection to love goddess/planetary energies, like Venus, were considered to be love stones.  When we were first playing with the grid energies, he said the version that I liked was a little "butch", so he added some Venusian influences, like a layer of emerald and a copper rich center stone that is a chrysocolla in matrix, also known by the trade name of "Quantum Quattro Silica".  It is afterall, a grid meant for two genders, at least this one, though it makes sense I responded to a more butch model at first. (Yee haw.)  Both the emerald and the chrysocolla in matrix would correspond to traditional "Venus" associated rocks.  He also has introduced me to the "attraction" of magnetite and lodestone, which are natural magnets, when it comes to attracting to you what you want, such as in an abundance grid, or just in "attracting" in general, like in a love grid.  He's such a smart boy, that one. 

 

Chris wrote a whole blog article on the planetary gemstones of Venus linked rocks, which you can find here: Planetary Gemstones of Venus

 

Crystalline Grid for Lovers  aka: Valentines Grid

 

OK, so here is what we put together for a seductive Valentines Grid that has a little something-something for both male and female participants.  Keep in mind we have a warehouse full of rocks from which to choose, and this is the combination that seemed to pop the best.  It isn't the only combination, by a long shot.  If you are constructing your own,  have fun with it. ;)

If you would like to see the Crystalline Grid for Lovers/Valentine's Grid in our new eBay store, please click here!

 

Center Stone

Chrysocolla in Matrix (may also have: shattuckite, ajoite, malachite, smoky quartz, dioptase): This adds the Venus energy with copper, but the blue would correspond to communication as well as stimulating the psychic and spiritual centers.

 

Outside Layers from Inside to Outside

Magenta Rose Quartz: This would help to open the heart, which is always a good thing.

Garnet: I call garnets "happy marriage" stones because they are known for passion and intimacy. 

Emerald: For deep love, also a Venus linked stone.

Starry Jasper: This is a red jasper that has both pyrite and hematite inclusions.  I love this stone because it pulls complex duty; release, vitality, spirituality, warmth, groundedness.

Magnetite: For attraction!

River Carnelian: This tickles the belly chakra, but I also like that they were in a river. Flow, rush, gush. 

 

Crystalline grids can be set up and activated under a bed or on a nightstand next to the bed since they radiate a nice broad energy field when they are up and running.  If you aren't familiar with crystalline grids, you can watch a quick tutorial, starring my funny hands, here:

 

 

 

There are other options, of course.  You could simply get 4 rocks and do a four-stone bed grid, if you don't want too much fuss.  The only question in this instance is what single rock would you want to amplify under your bed for rockin' love making?  I asked Chris which type of rock he would want to use to grid his bed, if he could only choose one.  I thought he'd say Shiva Lingam, but I was wrong.  He actually selected carnelian because he said it would be good for stamina, activating the sexual centers, and that kind of thing.  He said stamina twice.  (Boys.)  It's a solid selection, really.  I particularly like the river tumbled carnelian because it is fire and water at the same time.

 

If I had to select a single stone to grid my bed, hmmm... that is a tough one.  I might actually select shungite because it is all about alchemical blending of elements, which is pretty sexy, but it is also about melting into the primal pulse of creation.  Umm, yeah, Mamma like.  It also isn't a very subtle energy and seems quite competent to get a party started and move some serious energy.  You can read my blog article about shungite here. 

 

If I were going to make a gem elixir of various stones to drop into my pre-love libations, hmmm... rose quartz, moonstone, sunstone, shungite, garnet, ruby, carnelian, heck, why choose.  Throw them all in the pool and make it a free-for-all. 

 

If you aren't familiar with gem elixirs, you can read my blog article about them here.

 

So there you go.  Rocks for Lovers.  :)  Happy Valentine's Day, y'all!!

 

To visit us on eBay:  ETE's Metaphysical Department AND Enter the Earth, Inc
To go the the website: Enter the Earth
To see my book on Amazon.com: Awake in Angelscape
To go to Christopher Matthew's Blog: House of Daedalus
To download a free gridding template: Crystalline Grid Template






 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How to Write a Book if You are Wooey

 

Wooey is an affectionate description for being spiritual, eclectic, sensitive, artsy, metaphysical, and “Ashevilley”. Wooey is organic flow, star-kissed dew, and inspirational gush. Wooey is right-brained, feminine, intuitive, and receptive. I am a wooey woman. I am also an author that almost never was because “wooey” and “book writing” are opposite actions. I have always known I had a book inside of me, waiting patiently for me to acquire the necessary maturity to be born. What was not in me, however, was one ounce of left-brain structure or organization—that I had to develop (aka: beat into myself). It was not enough for me to take the tantric ride of my own creative “gush rush”. Creative inspiration has a purpose beyond the luscious “potential new life” sensation that feels so good. It also charges us with a sacred opportunity of bringing forth that life to do its happy little thing in the world. The gush, however, only takes us so far, and often deposits us in a perpetual state of half-completed projects. That’s fine for scrapbooking, artwork, and knitting, but creative writing—a book project—is a mess left in your head if you don’t bring it to completion.

I knew I needed to find a cistern for my gush, to capture it, structure it, and allow it to be translated into English. I knew I could not take the chaos of my creativity, share it in draft form, and expect anyone to be able to understand me. It had to be hammered into a linear reality, or else it would merely be the ramblings of a potentially lunatic mind. (Not that there is anything wrong with that.) I had to learn to value and utilize my left-brain functions in a right-brain way. I know there are so many wooey folks out there with a book inside of them too, struggling with structure, the antithesis to creativity. I want to share the strategies I developed to complete my book, which is sitting its pretty self on Amazon.com. If I can do it, you can do it, but it does take determination, courage, and being a little crazy is also helpful. 

I tried to write while still in the “gathering” stage, but that was as pointless as trying to ride two different trains at the same time. Ideas never came in any kind of order to make sense right away, but rather would drop into my head in degrees of emotional importance and intensity. I needed the organization to emerge from the pieces themselves once there were enough to order. The first strategy was to document the individual pieces, catch the drops, without trying to force them to make sense prematurely. I used a spiral bound set of index cards that had a perforated edge. The spiral kept them together, but the perforation allowed me to remove the cards when I was ready. I spent months letting the individual pieces drop, gush, and flow—one concept to one card. Bliss. I carried this index card “notebook” in my purse, because the spontaneous bits and pieces would come in any time they dang well pleased, not necessarily when I was looking for them. I didn’t try to analyze the data yet; the cards were just a collection of pure, random thoughts and ideas. This part was easy. The only left-brain thing I had to do was to remember to write the ideas down on the cards.

One day, I was finally prompted to play with the cards. I ripped them from the spiral notebooks and began to sort through them. I arranged the cards into piles of ideas that seemed related to one another. A dim sense of main supporting themes began to emerge the more I played, sorted, and rearranged my piles. The piles grew as the conspicuously missing pieces easily dropped into my mind. It was almost hypnotic, because if I allowed myself to look loosely and without force, a pattern absolutely began to reveal itself. I spent weeks in this stage, somewhere between chaos and order, allowing the book to tell me what main ideas it wanted to express. I had never thought that applying an intuitive flow to organization would be so effective, but it really was. This part was much more fun than I expected. I was accessing left-brain functions, but in a “practical” wooey way. I began to warm to the idea of structure.

The next part was about sequencing the piles into a logical, linear flow. I needed the activities in the book to have a start, middle, and end. I had to ask myself what made the most intuitive sense to introduce first, second, third, and so on. This was harder for me because the activities felt similarly “important”, which is how I usually sort my “to do” list in life. That strategy just didn’t work with the book because everything felt important. I found myself trying to say too much at once in a loud heap of urgency. I had to step back and find a way to unravel the knot so I could lay out the activities in a balanced progression. The steps needed to flow into one another, to make sense in a linear time line. This part never felt natural to me. If you are like me, it will never feel natural to you either. Wooey people don’t process information in “sequence”, which is a line. We process information “holographically”, which is a sphere. You have to unravel the sphere into a line in order to write a book, there is no getting around it. My strategy was to settle on the best order I could and simply keep going. You have to get tough with yourself here. Give yourself permission to feel uncomfortable, decide on a sequence anyway, and move forward. The book will tell you if you need to shuffle things around later. Once this part is done, even though I promise you it will never feel right (because it’s left!), you will have a rough map to begin writing the details of your book. It will be okay. I promise.

The next strategy I used was a Focus Group of about a dozen people to try out the activities in the book as written text. It wasn’t intended as a support group for me to get the writing done, but it ended up that way because once I set the schedule with them, I showed up for it. The group gave me the gift of accountability to have a certain amount of work accomplished each week. It wasn’t their primary purpose, but it ended up being critical support for developing good permanent work habits. I highly recommend joining a writer’s support group that meets regularly, or find an on-line group where you swap and comment on each others work. Create a solid, but “doable” writing schedule with clear goals. I sent the Focus Group new activities each Monday. They did the activities as independent homework and turned in descriptions of their experiences when they were finished. This system worked great and helped me produce the equivalent of one activity section each week. I started to see the heart of the book take form over the 15 weeks that I worked with the Focus Group on the activities. Things started to fall into place and the momentum of “maybe I really can do this” soared in me like the Little Engine that Could, which is good, because even though I had some sense of “gush closure” after writing the activities, the book was far from being complete.

I began a new phase of index cards to help me figure out the structure of the rest of the book. I started to “catch the drops” about what information I needed to explain in order for the activities in the book to make sense. Drop, drop, drop—pile, pile, pile—sort, sort, sort—grumble, sequence, sequence, grumble, sequence. I took the map that was left (pun intended) and began to write the actual text of the book. I had to belt myself into my computer chair and fight through the fatigue. Thankfully, the four months with the Focus Group helped me to develop productive writing habits. I did not permit myself to sit and spin in wooey spirals of unstructured la-la time during the workweek. I dropped off my daughter, gave myself until 8:30am to get my unstructured computer time out of the way, and then I parked myself in the manuscript word document. While I was writing, everything else was off. I wrote on good days, bad days, and blah days, even if it meant that I spun my wheels for a while. I discovered one thing that might be the most important tip I can give you; momentum matters. Staying in the motion of writing was sometimes enough to start a new flow of text that I didn’t expect would come that day. Remember to stay in motion and the text will come.

It was mentally exhausting. I coped by taking the weekends off and not touching the computer until Monday morning. During the week, when I “hit a wall” after a few hours of productive writing, I honored that and got away from the computer for a little while. The periods of short rest were good, but I always forced myself to go back to the computer to finish up for the day. I tried not to take more than a 45-minute break at any one time because momentum matters enough to say twice. I had to vigilantly balance the need to let my brain cool off with my inclination to grind to an “all stop” if I am still for too long. Thankfully, little bits of encouragement would show up when I was scraping bottom. I always got the much-needed gusts of second wind right before my head was about to hit the keyboard. I found that if I just kept putting one foot in front of the other and refused to quit, the universal support would make itself known and I would feel that surge of energy bring my dog-tired noodle back into commission for yet another round of writing.

The home stretch is always the hardest. After writing the full draft of the book, it was time to edit. My use of language is okay, but I knew the editing would be the biggest left-brain challenge of all. There is almost nothing right-brained about editing. I gave myself a couple weeks to rest and change “hats” by reading, The Elements of Style, by Strunk and White. I decided to be creative with this part too, so I requested for Strunk and White to be added to my spiritual guide team through the editing process (both are dead). Yes, I know, that’s a little strange (to you non-wooey people), but it was my way of attuning myself to the unemotional, logical inner voice necessary to rip my poetic blather down to a concise bundle. And you know what? It worked. As I weeded through the words, I saw grammar, structure, punctuation, spelling, and the places where I went off into an irrelevant, but warm and fuzzy tangent. I cut, slashed, and simplified without sentiment, attachment, and sometimes, without mercy. I could not have done that without a ceremonial change of perspective from right to left. Dead editors, or not, find a creative way to shift from thinking like an intuitive, wooey person to thinking like an unemotional editor. Strunk and White get 5-stars in the helpful dead editor department, if such a thing exists. One of them has a wicked sense of dry humor too, helpful on dreary left-brain days.

Deciding when the manuscript was finished being edited was more difficult than you might think. I fiddled, refined, reworded, double guessed myself, over thought, under thought, fiddle, fiddle, and fiddle. My husband, who is logic personified, had to intervene because I must have looked like Gollum hunched over the pages, whispering, “My Precious”. I wanted it to be perfect, but there is no such thing. You can, quite literally, edit through any manuscript forever and find something that you might want to keep tweaking, rewording, or cutting. This never felt natural to me either, the idea of being finished. You will want to keep going, and going, and going. Give yourself an editing deadline or you will drive yourself wonky. Don’t be sloppy about it, of course, you still need to hand in as clean of a manuscript as possible, but feel when you should stop. Sometimes more fiddling is just more fiddling. If it doesn’t make the book better, stop. Publishers use their own editors as well, so even when it leaves your hands, it has more filters through which to pass. If you don’t have a publisher yet, go to your favorite left-brain friends and beg them to proof your work before you attempt to send it out. 

Writing my book was like participating in a triathlon because each part was grueling, long, and had new skills to master in order to finish that particular segment. It took sheer, stubborn grit for me to ride through to the finish line. I mean, seriously. Brain dead, burnt out—but taking the next step anyway—kind of grit. I couldn’t conceive that it would ever truly be finished, but one incredible morning it actually was super-duper-absolutely-final-book-draft.doc done. I began writing in September of 2006. The book was ready on Amazon.com at the end of March 2009. I wish I could say that the story ends with my book being on the NY Times Best Sellers list, but writing the book was just the beginning. (What?!) Once a book is written and on the market, you actually have to communicate about its existence. There goes a brand spanking new set of skills to learn and “not fun” things to figure out, but I am going forth far better equipped than I used to be. I have made friends with my left-brain, my logical and orderly “inner dude”. He’s not so bad after all. Going “left” has made me more of myself, if that is possible. It wasn’t the foreign land that I had feared it would be, even though some of it was rocky. It’s also not the stuffy, business-suit wearing ‘Gent’ that I thought it would be. My left-brain is more like a deliciously flamboyant, impeccably dressed gay man who knows how to tidy me up and send me off into the world feeling fabulous. He is the cistern to my fount and the yang to my yin, which is a fancy way of saying; I can get more stuff done now. Bliss.

About my Book: Awake in Angelscape: The Scenic Route to the Sacred Self

This is the "official" description of my book on Amazon:

The greatest journey you will ever take begins with a leap of faith...

Awake in Angelscape is a guided meditation book that uses a journey through an imaginary landscape to initiate a progression of 30 self-healing and wholeness activities. The book activities seek to provide the Reader with deeply moving experiences and inner tools that respect the way the brain responds to internally generated imagery. The work in the book uses a synergy of the Reader's imagination, clear intentions, and personal spiritual faith to weave a potent interactive journey to the Sacred Self. The book's activities provide protocols to address the major processes of self-healing and wholeness work. These processes are: 1) flushing the system of accumulated energetic and emotional congestion, 2) fortifying the system to be resilient against harmful or negative influence, 3) rectifying negative perceptions and patterns, 4) restoring a sense of wholeness and harmony within the system 5) empowering the Self to identify, cultivate, and express the most sacred and evolved aspects of itself as an individual and as a member of larger systems, 6) embracing and having compassion for "being human", so that forward progress is viewed as a cumulative journey instead of a destination.

The real skinny of it is this:

The book I wrote is my “mitzvah” to the world, which is Jewish for, “a kind deed performed as a religious duty”. I wrote it because I was supposed to. Who is supposed to read it? Heck if I know. Hopefully, I didn't spend 2 years of my life writing a book that only 6 people needed to read, but I admit that it's entirely possible. I'm better for having given birth to it and now it's out there doing its own thing. Once and awhile, I get a postcard. I'm good with that and already on to other projects.

Awake in Angelscape is an activity book that details energy work protocols that were developed and refined over more than a decade of near hermitage up on my mountain outside of Asheville, North Carolina. Like many authors, I wrote the book that I personally needed earlier in my life. The work was developed the honest way; by slogging through the foreign terrain of rapid spiritual expansion, while desperately and persistently insisting that the process not turn me into an ungrounded mystic who was unable to actually live in this world and ~get to work~. I utterly submerged in higher dimensions with very little foothold in this one for quite a long time. There was wisdom there to drag back, hammer into some kind of linear format, and share. So that is what I did. 

Many people find the book very complex, and I guess that is true, but it is as simple as I could have made it. It is just as thorough and deep as it should to be to fill a need for people who are ready to do significant and substantive inner-work that uses a strong spiritual base. It is not easy reading. It is an ass load of work. I did not write it with my typically humorous slant and often irreverent nod to behavioral language. I wish I could have without diluting the potency of the work itself. I'm not saying this is channeled work, because it's not, but I guarantee you that I am not capable of what it took to write that book without a very hefty dose of Divine Intervention and support. Sometimes I open it and read a random page and think, “Day-um. That was definitely not all me.”

Maybe some day I'll write a fluffy and entertaining book, but this one ain’t it. If you are, however, ready to do some serious soul level work, the book may be a good tool for you to move on to a higher level. It is a process book. It doesn't just give you the work, it shows you how the work is done. By the time you finish the book, you will have solid skill sets to go off in your own direction of service, which was always the point. You don't start first with global service, even though I know you want to. You start first by taking care of yourself and making sure you have the necessary skill set and integrity to do the larger work. First within, then without. There is no short-cut. Well, you can try, but it will get beaten out of you soon enough. Good luck with that. 

Anyway, if you want to read more about the book, you can click on the book cover or click here.  If any of you have read it already or have an opinion one way or another, I would appreciate a “like”, or shout out on Amazon, since it is clear that the only way that people will learn about this book is through word-of-mouth. It is a niche book for spiritual seekers who know they have work to do, but who are at a loss for finding a practical way to do that work. You can always just plug in with your personal guidance and ask, “Would this book be helpful to me?” If you get a bunch of goosebumps or some kind of energy rush, perhaps you should consider taking the plunge.

 

To visit us on eBay: ETE's Metaphysical Department AND Enter the Earth, Inc
To go the the website: Enter the Earth
To see my book on Amazon.com: Awake in Angelscape
To go to Christopher Matthew's Blog: House of Daedalus
To download a free gridding template: Crystalline Grid Template