Archive for the ‘nature as mirror’ Category
Thursday, September 2nd, 2010
I love using the Sand Spirit Insight cards to reveal a personal myth that might give you insight into a theme in your own life.
Choose three cards from the pile face down, or just think of three numbers between 1 and 36 and pick those. I chose #33, #16 and #11.
From a completely intuitive place, use the three “illustrations” to stimulate a story that pours out with the least amount of thinking possible. Here’s mine:
One day a mother was thinking hard about how to juggle all the activity and all the dynamics in her family. She had a very colorful, very vibrant family, but sometimes they all were confused and troubled by the changes among them and in the world. They were looking for signs about the Divine path they all might follow.
At times the mother despaired, feeling the grief that surrounded her own helplessness, and wondered if all her experience counted for anything.
Into her dreamtime flew a strange and comical bird, who in his serious form showed her how hunched over she might become if she took all the weight of the world upon her shoulders. Another way, he pointed out, would be to take it all lightly, like a sweet and funny story that was really based on love and on how alike we all are.
See how this story might have helped me? What do you see in the three cards? What story would you tell? Myths, especially when they come from ourselves, give us the gift of the big picture, the universal. This takes us out of the small world that entraps us when we forget that we are all connected and part of one Creation. The spirits from the sea evidently want us to remember that while we are all drops, we are part of the great ocean!
Tags: consciousness, Flying metaphor, inner landscape, living today, managing change, musings, perception, Photography, Sand Spirit Insight Cards, transitions, ups and downs
Posted in bringing out your gifts, coaching, conscious evolution, consciousness, creative imagination, creativity and empowerment, Guided imagery, happiness, healing, Imagination, inner landscape, managing change, nature as mirror, Sand Spirit Insight Cards, seeing oneself, self-healing, shifting how we see, shifting paradigms, Tools for seeing ourselves | No Comments »
Tuesday, August 24th, 2010
Are you familiar with fractals?
This flower might not technically qualify, but it’s close. We can look at the whole thing and say it’s a flower. Then if we look at each section, it’s made of…miniature flowers. Flowers within flowers. Other more “exact” fractals might include a cauliflower.
Mini-worlds. That’s what fractals remind me of. The macro and the micro.
Our bodies are, of course, magnificent examples of the macro and the micro, of mini-worlds contained in a framework that is contained in a macro world that is contained in a galaxy…cells within cells. Bodies within bodies.
What worlds do you contain within you? What physical ones and what examples of cosmic consciousness?
I believe that in some sense, we contain everything, just as we are contained.
And what do you think?
Tags: inner landscape, musings, perception, Photography
Posted in Being, creative imagination, Gaia, Imagination, inner landscape, nature as mirror, Photography, seeing oneself, shifting how we see, shifting paradigms | No Comments »
Thursday, August 19th, 2010
Sand Spirit #13
Today I drew this Sand Spirit, and had this dialogue with it. First, I asked, “Who are you?”
And I “heard” it answer, “I am a reflection of your essence, which is similar to the essence of every human, but also unique.”
“And why, out of all the images I could have chosen, did I choose you today?” I asked.
“Well, because this is a day when it would be good for you to remember your true essence and to recognize the true essence in all others. That way you can forgive your own limitations and the limitations of others, just by remembering who we all really are.”
“Thank you!” I say back. And then I ask, “Do you have any other message for me?”
“Yes, I think it would be great to concentrate most on the gift you see me holding in my left hand. This is a reflection of the unique gifts you have to offer the world, and the unique gifts everyone has to offer. Keep asking yourself what yours might be, and what each person’s might be also.”
“I will, Sand Spirit. Thank you for your wisdom.”
And what do you see in this Sand Spirit? What would your answers be to the questions? I would love to hear some.
Tags: beauty, Essence, inner landscape, Photography, Sand Spirit Insight Cards, Self, spiritual practice
Posted in bringing out your gifts, conscious evolution, creative imagination, Guided imagery, Imagination, inner landscape, loving ourselves, nature as mirror, Photography, returning to essence, seeing oneself, self image, self-healing, shifting how we see | No Comments »
Tuesday, August 10th, 2010
Guanacaste sunset
When we were in Costa Rica last month, I had some heavy things on my mind. Despite the fact that we were so fortunate, despite the profusion of juicy jungle life all around us, I was burdened. (I’m probably not the only one who has had things changing, falling apart and challenging me lately!) So my vacation To Do list had just one thing on it. It was one of the 7 Flying Lessons from my forthcoming book. It was easy to pick the appropriate one: Remember Why You Long to Fly.
As if I had called on her, Nature helped me with this lesson. For most of the first week it had been too cloudy for any sunsets. So when we had a clear evening, we planted ourselves on the beach. It was quite a show. The cloud blanket that had been providing the overcast lifted just enough to be completely lit up, creating a rose glow on everything and everybody. Nothing to do here but point, laugh, exclaim. Pure, unadulterated beauty.
Being on that beach was like flying. I felt lifted, transported. In the presence of something wondrous and magical. It rendered any of my own concerns small…or perhaps it just bathed them in a rosy light and made me see that all will be well. All is already well, I remembered.
What do you think happened in this scene? I believe I finally re-opened my heart. The beauty had been all around me the whole time, but this overwhelming scene just cracked my heart open, and I remembered.
I want that feeling of flying, that ecstatic feeling, because it re-connects me with the truth. The truth that I am a spiritual being capable of great flights, and that I am connected to everyone and everything.
What makes you remember why you long to fly? What lifts you and transports you and opens your heart and causes you to remember All That Is?
I wish you that experience of soaring. Why not remember today?
Tags: beauty, consciousness, Flying, Flying metaphor, inner peace, living today, perception, Photography, The Beauty Way
Posted in aviation, consciousness, Flying, Imagination, nature as mirror, nourishing ourselves, Photography, returning to essence, seeing oneself, shifting how we see, shifting paradigms, The Beauty Path | No Comments »
Thursday, August 5th, 2010
Have you seen sand spirits like this? Surely you’ve walked on a beach where the iron filings leave streaks in the sand. And where the tide reveals shells and rocks that sit perched on top of the pattern like a head on top of a robe. Have you imagined that these faceless robed ones are spirits?
If you’ve seen my Sand Spirit cards, you know that I’ve spent a lot of time imagining this, and working with people willing to dialogue with these “spirits” to see what wisdom emerges. (If you haven’t seen them, consider going to throughadifferentlens.com and hit the Sand Spirits tab.)
These spirits, now long-time friends of mine, are proving themselves international. I discovered the original images in Mexico, and this photo is from a recent trip to Costa Rica. Where else have you seen the “faeries of the sea,” as shamanic teacher, Tom Cowan, referred to them?
Perhaps there are colonies of spirits hidden within nature, just as the Celtic celebrants believed. We can regard these invisible ones as friends who help us live in and understand more than one level of experience at a time. Kind of like multi-tasking in this “middle world,” we can experience the spirit world while walking “on practical feet,” as teacher Angeles Arrien puts it.
Look around you now, wherever you are. What elements of nature are nearby? Even if you’re in the middle of a city, you have sky and clouds. Can you see figures in these elements of nature? What if you played with them as if they were “signs” meant to help you walk in more joy and peace and wisdom? What might they say, then? And how would you respond?
Everywhere in the world, we have the earth, and her spirits. We simply need to open our eyes.
Tags: consciousness, perception, Photography, Sand Spirit Insight Cards, spiritual practice, The Beauty Way
Posted in consciousness, creative imagination, Imagination, nature as mirror, Photography, seeing oneself, shifting how we see, shifting paradigms | No Comments »
Thursday, July 29th, 2010
Blue Morpho
This is my favorite Costa Rican Butterfly, which I got to see again at a Butterfly farm, where the trained guide held this one in his hand for us to see and appreciate. The butterfly facts of life he shared were stunning to me, and made me think again about the subject of transformation.
Did you know that caterpillars have within them “imaginal cells” that carry the blueprints of their future lives as butterflies? I think of these almost like photographic negatives, and also like the luminous field that surrounds us all. This energy carries a blueprint of what we might become as well, and that’s why it’s so important to “clean” this field as often as possible and to keep gathering light energy around and within us. We want those blueprints or negatives to carry the highest and best possibility that we will then manifest in form.
Are we like imaginal cells in our society, who all carry blueprints of transformational possibilities for the planet? I like to think so. What do you think?
I found it amazing to hear that caterpillars also have wings! They aren’t visible, but they are incorporated into the caterpillar’s body. During their stay in the chrysalis, the wings begin to unfold so they can be available when the chrysalis breaks down and the butterfly emerges.
Perhaps we too have wings of sorts–forgotten angelic parts that are within us. When our time come to break out of this form, I like to picture those wings unfolding and presto! Flight!
Finally, one more fact about the Blue Morpho delighted me. The wings are not really the beautiful sky blue they appear to be; they are transparent. From ground level, one can look up at the morpho and see that the wings are transparent. But the top part of the wing reflects the sky, and so appears to us to be exactly the sky’s color.
So we too may not be the “color” we appear to be to others. We are really light beings, and so we reflect what is around us. In reality, we are transparent, light-filled. And all our colors, though beautiful, may be illusions.
And so how is all this butterfly stuff useful? Well, for me it helps me to remember that there is “more than meets the eye” in every person and every situation. If much of what I see is illusion, then I must continue to train my inner eye to see the invisible, and to bring that vision into my life that I might see more clearly and use that vision to become a wiser, clearer, more loving human being.
Tags: beauty, consciousness, Flying, Photography, The Beauty Way
Posted in bringing out your gifts, conscious evolution, consciousness, creative imagination, death and new life, Flying, Imagination, inner landscape, nature as mirror, seeing oneself, shifting how we see | 4 Comments »
Tuesday, April 13th, 2010
Sand Spirit insight card #14 looks like a medicine person to me, an important tribal person wearing a headdress and cloaked in mystery. When I ask this figure what he has to say to me, he says that he is here to remind me that we each have what Angeles Arrien calls our “original medicine.” Whatever cluster of gifts we have is a unique mix. If we don’t offer it to the world, it will be lost forever. What a great motivation to bring out all the potential that lies within you!
What is your unique cluster of gifts? And how do all your life experiences, dreams, longings and “failures” come together to form a package that could help others? You might think, for example, of what has broken your heart about the world. Author and minister Frederick Beuchner urges us to find our calling by matching what breaks our heart with what our deepest longings are. At that intersection, perhaps you can find your “original medicine.”
And how will you bring that out into the world? The Sand Spirit tells me there are a thousand ways, a thousand versions. They are all just like flavors of ice cream. They are all sweet, delicious. Just choose the one that delights you the most, and go for it.
Your comments? I’d love to hear from you!
Tags: bringing out your gifts, calling, living today, musings, perception, Photography, Sand Spirit Insight Cards, Self
Posted in bringing out your gifts, calling, coaching, creative imagination, Guided imagery, Imagination, nature as mirror, Photography, seeing oneself | No Comments »
Tuesday, April 6th, 2010
Are you a woman leader looking for affordable, practical tools for women at a crossroads? You already have a tool you can teach them that is absolutely free and accessible by birthright. Surprise! It’s the creative imagination!
You want tools of hope for women facing the gravity of life’s challenges, and what I’ve seen is the best approach to that is to show people how to let the creative imagination take flight. When you learn how to speak the language of metaphors, symbols and images, you are learning the language of the soul. When the woman who feels victimized by outer circumstances connects with her soul’s true power, a door opens. Are you willing to help her open that door?
The creative imagination has so many benefits, both for you and for those you serve. Not only is it free, but the more you use it the more powerful it becomes. And, it’s easily accessible. Just try accessing it by looking at the photo above and then closing your eyes and seeing if you can “see” the image. Now allow the image to change. The woman with white hair appears to be helping the other woman open the door. Does she succeed? What happens next? What is inside that door?
The stories we tell in our creative imagination determine our reality. When we can expand what we see and shift the lens we use, our lives expand and change. This is a practice everyone can learn.
The final benefit is for you as a leader. People spend a lot of effort trying to step into a greater role as a woman leader, when often they could be better served by focusing on embodying their soul’s true power. That way they not only accelerate their progress, but they end up being authentic and able to connect in a deep way with others.
How do you open the door to your creative imagination? Nature is one great portal. Guided meditation. Poetry. What are your favorites?
Tags: consciousness, creative imagination, Flying metaphor, inner landscape, perception, Photography, poetry, practical tools for spiritual leadership, Self, shifting paradigms, soul, spiritual practice, women leaders
Posted in authenticity, conscious evolution, consciousness, creative imagination, feminine leadership, Guided imagery, Imagination, inner landscape, nature as mirror, Photography, self-healing, shifting paradigms, spiritual practices, women's empowerment | No Comments »
Wednesday, March 31st, 2010
the poppy trail
What is spring if it isn’t about new life? And why not new life with wild abandon, with an abundance that makes you laugh out loud? This time Spring has really done it in Tucson.
I couldn’t walk this path through Catalina State Park without wanting to sing, to howl, to do cartwheels! We aren’t in Kansas any more. And how many times do we get experiences that are simply amazing, pure surprise and joy?
We are beings evolving as surely as this desert meadow. And so we contain the same life force that produced that riot of poppies, so close to each other that they are touching. We have the blooms within us.
And what is it that contributes to our blooming? Certainly timing and the right conditions. But unlike the poppies, we aren’t completely dependent on rain and sun. We can nourish ourselves. We are conscious. We can choose to align with the life force that pushes up through our bodies, erupting in a blaze of color and beauty.
What do you do to nourish the blooming within you? How do you give yourself the moisture, the flow of nourishment you need? How do you summon the sun, the light you need for life to be sustained?
Just as I felt high just from poppies without opium, you can have ecstatic experiences every day just by venturing into nature–outside and within your own being.
Bloom on.
Tags: beauty, blooming, consciousness, inner landscape, new life, perception, Photography, Self, spring, The Beauty Way
Posted in conscious evolution, consciousness, inner landscape, loving ourselves, nature as mirror, new life, nourishing ourselves, Photography, seeing oneself, self-healing, spring, The Beauty Path, weather | No Comments »
Saturday, March 20th, 2010
Ever heard of photographic vision boards? I hadn’t either, so I invented them. Now others may have invented them as well–I don’t know. But I held an experimental vision board class, and here is one of the results: mine!
We went out into the desert together, where we found a lot of water after all the recent rains. We took photos of the things nature does best. Thinks like flowing, regenerating, combining life and death, blooming, bending, growing, holding, creating texture and color, and many other things. Then we met again with our prints and created vision boards about the experiences and feeling states we wish to cultivate in our lives. To see more photos and a longer explanation of our process, go to: http://web.me.com/pamelahale/Through_A_Different_LensGalleries/Photo_Vison_Board_class.html
What do you see in this vision board? Of course it’s different viewing the 20″ x 30″ piece up close, but you can probably see a lot of flow. A lot of presence of the element of water. A lot of texture and shadow. Do you see me seeking beauty in nature? Do you see the heart I unconsciously created in the center? What else to you see?
Now when you go outside wherever you live, you might think about what nature is showing you about yourself, your own longings for what you’d like to manifest, and about your own human potential.
Vision on, and share your observations!
Tags: Essence, inner landscape, inner peace, living today, managing change, musings, new life, perception, photographic vision boards, Photography, The Beauty Way
Posted in conscious evolution, Imagination, inner landscape, managing change, nature as mirror, new life, photographic vision boards, Photography, seeing oneself, shifting paradigms, The Beauty Path | No Comments »
