Posts Tagged ‘Nature and the soul’

Use your intuition to expand your brain power

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!

Advice for Week #2

Monday, December 6th, 2010

I’m going to go through the Sand Spirits Insight Cards in order, so you’ll get one per week to think about. This is week #2 and card #2. See how this relates to what’s up for you and add your comment!

First of all, the number 2 is all about relationships. How are your personal and professional partnerships? This number speaks about communication, interdependence and right relationships.

Now, what do you see in this image? I see a figure who looks androgynous, and who is dressed in a robe. S/he has her hands in prayer and light around her head. If I look closely, I see her left eye open and her right eye closed. It appears that she’s standing in water.

I ask her who she is. She says she is a spiritual energy, an archetype who could help me this week.

Tell me what message you have for me about myself and my life, I say. She says I am to keep my left eye open–that is, be sure my right brain is activated. That means using my intuition more than my logic. She says I could find myself “in hot water” in some way, and if that happens, her advice is to focus on what is right, and on my gratitude for all I have and for all that is going well. That will keep me “en-lightened.”

How do I translate this into actions and attitudes I can start right now? Well, technological things are driving me a bit crazy at the moment, so I guess I’m to bypass logic and use my intuition about what to tackle and how. I don’t see any “hot water” yet, but I’ll be on the lookout and be ready to focus on the positive. And I’ll pay special attention to nourishing and strengthening partnerships on every level.

How about for you? What does this Sand Spirit say to you about yourself and your life? How does that advice pertain to this week, and particularly to partnership and relationship?

Nature and the Human Soul

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?

Lessons from nature

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.