Posts Tagged ‘inner landscape’
Thursday, September 22nd, 2011
I’m at the beach right now, so I am seeing scenes like this and reveling in being near the ocean, which I have loved deeply all my life.
When I was little, I “found God” at the ocean. When I looked out at the horizon, I thought it was so wide an infinite that God must live there. The ocean is still a wonderful place for self-reflection.
Have you noticed the dark streaks in the sand made from iron filings? I’ve always loved their patterns. Have you seen how these streaks are particularly strong above and below and around stones at the water’s edge? When the waves come in and then recede, they leave streaks in various shapes.
That’s what I noticed the day I discovered that the combination of stones, streaks and other natural objects created forms and figures! And even more amazing, they seemed to come alive and speak to me.
That was back in 2000, and since then the Sand Spirit images have spoken to people all over the world, revealing the power of their intuition in moments!
If you haven’t learned about these images, look for them at your local shoreline. Or, just join us for a free webinar where you can be introduced. (Email me at pam@ThroughADifferentLens.com)
You’ll love this magic tool that will help you gain insight on any issue in your work or life.
What do you see in the image below? What does this form or figure say to you?
I look forward to sharing the story and the images with you!
Sand Spirit image #28
Tags: beauty, Being, creative imagination, inner landscape, Nature and the soul, perception, Photography, Sand Spirit Insight Cards
Posted in consciousness, creative imagination, healing, Imagination, inner landscape, nature as mirror, Photography, Sand Spirit Insight Cards, seeing oneself, self-healing, shifting how we see, Tools for seeing ourselves | No Comments »
Saturday, January 1st, 2011
Happy 2011!
How interesting this experiment is becoming. I’m taking the Sand Spirits images in order, putting one up each week and reflecting on how each one might give guidance to our lives. So here we are on the first day of 2011, and up comes Sand Spirit #4, one of my favorites.
For me, this one has always been a guardian angel. She was the first one who really taught me to communicate with these Sand Spirits–back in 2000 when I was newly diagnosed with breast cancer. Shocked by the news on a Friday that I would be having surgery on Monday, I was cleaning my house and getting ready. My new photographs of curious forms I had found on a Baja beach were spread out on the dining room table. Gathering them together to put them away, I stopped when I saw this guardian angel. Maybe I would put this photograph by my bed, I thought. Perhaps she could help me bring in spiritual guidance and give me peace, confidence and comfort.
She did. When I returned to my house the following Monday, my recovery was marred by the alarming news that the lumpectomy had not been enough. Now I would face the decision about further treatment. A single or perhaps a double mastectomy. Chemo. Would I survive it all? Now we had entered the land of mystery, where even the doctors could not give me an answer. I would need guidance now to help me recover and reclaim my best chance for health.
Today–11 years later–I am so grateful to have excellent health and also a strong relationship with the world of spirit. Trying to thrive while being a spiritual being in a body remains a constant adventure. I need daily doses of grounding to stay in my body and respond to its needs, and also inspiration from the spiritual realm. This Sand Spirit guardian angel helps me do both.
So what does the guardian angel say to you today? As you begin whatever challenges, adventures and blessings 2011 will present, what guidance and blessings to you seek? What does the angel say to you about how to maintain contact this year with the realms we cannot see? Is the spiritual realm real to you even though it is invisible? How do you “see in the dark” and experience the invisible? What is its guidance today?
I wish you countless blessings, health, abundance and the fulfillment of your dreams in 2011. May we all experience the kind of peace in the inner world that will create peace in the outer one.
Pam
Tags: creative imagination, inner landscape, inner peace, Nature and the soul, perception, Photography, Sand Spirit Insight Cards
Posted in Guided imagery, Imagination, inner landscape, Photography, Sand Spirit Insight Cards, shifting how we see, Tools for seeing ourselves | No Comments »
Monday, December 20th, 2010
Sand Spirit Insight Card #3
I look at this Sand Spirit and see a woman with a brilliant head, with energy emanating from it, and a left breast, arm and side that are much more prominent than the right. She tells me she is “leading with her left side.” This would mean she is right-brained and intuitive.
I ask her what message she has for me about myself and my life. (I am thinking, “I’m already right-brained enough! Sometimes I’m not practical enough–so what is it you are advising?”
She responds, “Well, in some sense you’re right brained–when you are deep in the creative process. But when you’re figuring something out, you go right ‘into your head’ and get strategic and logical. That’s fine up to a point, but right now in this changing world, the old strategies aren’t working so well. So you need to pay more attention to what your body feels about various issues, and trust your intuition.”
This kind of shuts me up, since I keep getting this same guidance about these times. It seems to be about expanding our brain power by using more of it. We think our logic “makes sense,” but logic fails to explain much of what is happening in the world. In times of crisis, we use our gut and respond intuitively. That’s what’s called for now, my Sand Spirit says.
What do you think? How could your intuition expand your options and clarify what is going on and show you better options for yourself. And what do you see in this card? I love reading your comments!
Tags: consciousness, creative imagination, inner landscape, managing change, Nature and the soul, perception, Photography, Sand Spirit Insight Cards, transitions
Posted in consciousness, creative imagination, Creativity, creativity and empowerment, Imagination, inner landscape, managing change, nature as mirror, Photography, Sand Spirit Insight Cards, seeing oneself, shifting how we see, Tools for seeing ourselves | No Comments »
Monday, October 11th, 2010
Nature and the Human Soul
I just enjoyed another weekend at our Rocking X Ranch in the Sierra Ancha mountains of Arizona. The time in nature always relaxes my body and mind, and leaves plenty of room for my soul to speak and to listen. My favorite sound is the wind through the Ponderosa pines, that sounds like the ocean. My favorite feeling this time was the cool air that was so refreshing after record-breaking heat in Tucson. And my favorite sights are too many to name. But I liked the way the sun came through this old glass that held my iced tea as I read by the stream.
I finished Bill Plotkin’s big and important book, Nature and the Human Soul. How right he is that our culture (which he calls “patho-adolescent,” is not what makes us true adults. We grow instead, by our immersion in the wild, natural forces that are akin to our souls. Then our task is to harvest what we learn from outer nature and our inner one, and bring it back into the world. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if more of us could do this?
My reading and musing made me feel so fortunate that I have a place to remember who I truly am, and how lovely the universe is that birthed me and this life I love. Experiences like this nourish my passionate desire to bring tools into the world that help us “see the shape of the soul,” “make the invisible visible” and make the “unconscious conscious.”
How do you chase the image, or the shape, or the flavor or sound of your soul? Where do you go to remember the wild, natural part within you? And how do you long to bring that essence into your world?
Tags: Bill Plotkin, consciousness, Essence, inner landscape, living today, Nature and the soul, perception, Photography, Self, soul
Posted in consciousness, inner landscape, nature as mirror, nourishing ourselves, Photography, returning to essence, seeing oneself, self image, shifting how we see, shifting paradigms, Tools for seeing ourselves | No Comments »
Monday, September 27th, 2010
This weekend I was at the Rocking X Ranch, having my own retreat with my husband. Across the creek from this group of chairs is a long and wide patch of blackberry bushes, partly visible in this photo. The blackberries were ripe, and so of course we picked all we could reach.
I always learn from picking blackberries. Here were the lessons they taught me this time:
1. Blackberry juice is a powerful and brilliant dye.
2. Greed can hurt you.
3. Overreaching is not always a wise idea.
4. Cost benefit analysis can be done very quickly. (Are there enough berries in there to justify climbing in and risking more scratches?)
5. Sometimes your harvest falls apart in your hands, and in such cases the best move is to eat and enjoy.
6. You may think you’ve looked hard, but coming back in the other direction, more abundance may be revealed.
7. You never know what planting one vine may create down the line. (Jon’s mother swears the whole patch started from one she planted years ago.)
8. On a given day your crop may look meager, but by the very next day you may have abundance.
9. Gratitude makes the eating sweeter.
10. Look under. Look up. Look between. Look around. Look ahead and look back. Expect to find and bring a large container.
11. Persistence pays.
12. A pie made from what you pick will be the very best.
13. Nature gives and gives and gives.
Tags: abundance, gratitude, inner landscape, Nature and the soul, Photography, The Beauty Way
Posted in nature as mirror, Photography, seeing oneself, shifting how we see, The Beauty Path | No Comments »
Tuesday, September 21st, 2010
Sand Spirit Insight card #1
It doesn’t feel at all like fall yet in Tucson, but they tell us that the fall equinox is Wednesday, September 22. This marks the beginning of fall in the northern hemisphere. So I drew a Sand Spirit card, asking the question in the title: how do I best get ready for fall?
I drew card #1, which looks to me like a being who is very still and focused inside. I see the hands in prayer, and I see another being or energy in the lower right hand corner–perhaps another person or issue that is in the outer world. What do you see in this image?
This being tells me this is a good time for me to be focused inward, to remain calm and remember who I truly am. What does your image have to say to you?
Fall is a new beginning for many of us who grew accustomed to school beginning, and thus entering a “new year.” I used to buy day timers that went from September to September. Does a new chapter begin for you in fall?
I’ve recently gotten a little more interested in numerology and how it relates to the Sand Spirits. #1 is all about new beginnings. And September, being the 9th month, is all about completions, prior to October, being a #10, which reduces to a #1. So the message I get is, focus inside and find that still place, that place of reverence and prayer and solid ground–so that you can be calm as you complete things this month and prepare for new beginnings next month.
Finding the still place resonates with me, because I’m finishing the editing of the first of the seven lessons in my book, Flying Lessons. The first lesson is “Know Where You’re Going to Land.” It’s all about finding solid ground inside.
What is your safe landing space in life? Do you look to relationships? To your job? Do you have a still place inside that is there despite outer circumstances? Surely we all need this in times like these.
I wish for you that you see something inspiring in this message and that you use it to get yourself ready for fall, for new beginnings, and for strengthening that place within you that represents solid ground.
Tags: autumn equinox, centering, centering techniques, consciousness, Flying metaphor, inner landscape, inner peace, meditation, Photography, Sand Spirit Insight Cards, transitions
Posted in centering techniques, coaching, conscious evolution, consciousness, Flying, Imagination, inner landscape, managing change, meditation, nourishing ourselves, Photography, returning to essence, Sand Spirit Insight Cards, self-healing, shifting how we see, shifting paradigms, spiritual practices, Tools for seeing ourselves | No Comments »
Tuesday, September 7th, 2010
I’m listening again to Ekhart Tolle’s The Power of Now, and remember why it’s such a classic. It is so dense and full of truth, that if I could implement 1/10 of it, I know my life would change.
Of course I love the points he makes about seeing, since that’s what my own interest is. We don’t usually stop to really SEE a leaf, Tolle reminds us. And when we do stop long enough to “get out of time,” our perception shifts. Suddenly everything is vibrant and alive. We are seeing and being in a pure way, observing without the usual filters of judgment and labeling.
This is what photography has always done for me. It brings me back to my senses. It helps me see the light–in more ways than one. It is a medium that invites me to discover beauty where I might have settled for a passing glance.
And Tolle makes the point that when we perceive beauty, we are perceiving essence. And when we perceive essence, we are also perceiving ourselves. We are essence just like the leaf. We are beauty just like all of nature. And that is surely worth remembering.
Tags: beauty, consciousness, inner landscape, Photography, The Beauty Way
Posted in consciousness, inner landscape, nature as mirror, Photography, returning to essence, seeing oneself, shifting how we see, shifting paradigms, The Beauty Path, Tools for seeing ourselves | No Comments »
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 »
