Posts Tagged ‘Sand Spirit Insight Cards’
Saturday, October 2nd, 2010
I see a funny figure in this Sand Spirit image– a dog or weasel standing on two legs,with its head in profile, looking to the left and showing us a huge black left eye. Do you see this? Its body has a stone at the waist or midpoint and another one near the feet. This seems to be a very grounded figure to me–one who sees and feels in its body and has its feet on the ground in a solid way. I think when I speak with this figure, what it says will make sense.
And how do I come up with what I see in this abstract photograph that began by being an abstract, natural arrangement of stones and streaks in the sand? How do you come up with whatever you see?
I see this way just by opening my active imagination, by using my intuition and my right brain, that non-linear, non-logical way of knowing. This way of seeing is called by some people “second sight.” Another way to look at it is that it’s our 6th sense. Our “common sense.”
What we see through the inner eye is just as valid as what we see with the outer one. And sometimes, even when we’re confused by what we see with the outer eye, the inner one makes sense.
When we are told, “Oh, that’s just your imagination,” one response might be, “What do you mean by just?” Why denegrate the inner eye? It has been responsible for everything creative in the human-made world. Our vision is the beginning of actions we call genius. Without seeing it first inside, we wouldn’t do much.
What are you going to do as soon as you finish reading this? Imagine doing it. See the inner movie? Doesn’t that happen all the time? You run a quick version of what you’re planning through the inner eye, and then you “see” how to go about it.
Now that is just common sense.
What do you think? I welcome your comments!
Tags: consciousness, creative imagination, Imagination, living today, musings, perception, Sand Spirit Insight Cards
Posted in conscious evolution, consciousness, creative imagination, Creativity, creativity and empowerment, Imagination, inner landscape, nature as mirror, Photography, Sand Spirit Insight Cards, seeing oneself, shifting how we see, shifting paradigms, Tools for seeing ourselves | 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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
Friday, June 4th, 2010
This is Sand Spirit Insight Card #26. I “drew” it for today by just picking a number and clicking on it without knowing which image would come up. This one has morphed over time. I used to see a woman in it, offering a gift to the heavens. I still can see her today, but more often now I see a face of a male figure who appears to be a wizard. He tells me he can see the invisible, see below the surface. He is warning us about the necessity for humankind to move away from the personal and the ego into the realm of greater consciousness and responsibility to the earth. He is talking about the tragedy of the oil spill as the most recent example. His left eye (his more feminine or intuitive side, connected to his right brain) is his more active eye. His right eye is focused on the heavens. This is his doing side, and he has surrendered to divine guidance for all his decision-making.
This is serious stuff, but how else can we respond to all that is happening now? A volcano erupts in Guatemala, followed by floods and the appearance of a giant sinkhole in the capital. Oil threatens our ocean, our sea animals and a whole way of life on the southern coast. Whatever actions we must take, this looks like the time to begin them.
The card I drew coincides with my finishing Craig Hamilton’s course in integral enlightenment and moving beyond the ego. The shift we must make requires a new kind of effort–one that begins with surrender to forces greater than ourselves. We live within the Great Mystery, and it looks like it’s time to respect it again.
How will we each begin?
Tags: consciousness, living today, managing change, musings, new life, Photography, Sand Spirit Insight Cards, transitions, ups and downs
Posted in authenticity, caring for the earth, conscious evolution, consciousness, death and new life, shifting paradigms | No 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, March 23rd, 2010
Two minds
What do you see in this image? I see a figure with two minds squeezed into one head. I guess, since the Sand Spirit I draw always reflects me, that I have two minds.
Of course this is true. I probably have more than two. But certainly living in a world of duality, I have two. One thinks everything should be logical, fit into categories and judged according to my criteria. (We could call that my left brain.) The other thinks everything is part of something else and that all things are connected, and looks for relationships and creative solutions. (We could call that my right brain.) This would be one way to describe my two minds. Are you aware that you have these both within you?
The Sand Spirit named Two Minds is telling me today that having two minds is actually fine, as long as I am conscious that I have them. Both logic and non-linear thought are helpful–both analytical and feeling-oriented. When I’m in one, I don’t have the other, and so I’m missing something. But when I am aware of my two minds, I am inside a third one–an aware, awake one that can observe myself. This is what we are capable of as evolving humans–at least at certain moments.
What do you think about your own right and left brain capabilities? And what about the objective observer, the third mind? Are you aware that you can switch from one lens to another?
Try choosing an issue that challenges you and observing it from the viewpoint of these three minds and see if some new ideas or ways of approaching the problem emerge.
Has this Sand Spirit helped you?
Tags: consciousness, non-attachment, perception, Photography, Sand Spirit Insight Cards, Self, switching lenses
Posted in conscious evolution, consciousness, Guided imagery, Imagination, inner landscape, Photography, returning to essence, seeing oneself, shifting paradigms, spiritual practices | No Comments »
Friday, March 5th, 2010
Sand Spirit Insight card #21
I love this card. Sometimes I see a parental figure whose head is the peachy-apricot color, just radiating love on to the smaller one being held. Other times I see the higher Self holding the smaller self, and the smaller self feeling so good, so protected, so seen and so loved. Today it’s all of that: the soul within me holding me, loving me and me remembering that soul IS me, and so the two become one. Ahhh, it feels so good.
Sometimes it isn’t that we don’t think we are loved or protected. Maybe we believe in God loving us, or angels or guides who protect and care about us. But belief is in our heads. What is it that allows us to actually experience love? To receive it into every cell of our being?
What are your experiences of being able to open up in this way? Was it a result of meditation? A relationship? A teacher’s inspiration? Or was it mystery and grace?
For me, it has been all of them. And since I am a seeker of love, as I’ll bet you are, I collect these experiences. After enough of them collect within me, a tipping point is reached, and suddenly I no longer believe. I experience. And real life begins again.
Tags: inner peace, love, new life, Photography, relationship, Sand Spirit Insight Cards, Self
Posted in Guided imagery, loving ourselves, nature as mirror, Photography, returning to essence | No Comments »
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010
Sand Spirit Insight card #4
I’m continuing my experiment of asking a question about a personal issue of mine, and then thinking of a number between 1 and 36, since that’s how many Sand Spirit Insight cards there are in the set. Today I asked about my lingering laryngitis. What do I need to know or do to get completely well?
Two numbers came to mind: 31 and 4. Interesting, since 4 is the sum of 3 and 1—so 4 seems to be up with this issue. The section on numerology and the Sand Spirits in my own workbook lists these words for the number 4: Work, foundation, order, health, service, practicality, application, loyalty, struggle against limtis, steady growth, rigidity and repression. Some words having to do with the light side of me and some referring to the shadow.
The Sand Spirit image looks like a guardian angel to me, and always makes me feel I am surrounded by protection and support. That’s a comfort. So I ask this angelic advisor, what words apply to me now, and what can I do to improve my health and my immune system?
The Sand Spirit points out that there’s a whole back story here about me not wanting to slow down, fighting limitations, not listening to my inner voice, and suffering health issues as a result. But I’ve been working on this. So now what?
“Still more layers,” she answers. “Loyalty…to others or to yourself? You’re still making your way toward equality in this department. Be willing to slow even more. Be very practical. You want to serve, and that is great. But some of your own needs are still being repressed. Look for them in your body…”
“So, would you say this has to do with speaking up for myself, or feeling I have no voice to do that?” I ask.
“Remember the little one at the bottom of the image who is the younger, smaller you?” the Sand Spirit asks. “You need to be her guardian angel and prompt her to speak up for herself. She needs to feel equal to the aspects of yourself you consider more worthy, more together, more of an achiever. When you accept the shadow as equal to the light, all will be well.”
And so, once again, the Sand Spirit has more wisdom that I know how to live out. So I am off to give that a try.
What did you see in this Sand Spirit image? What message does the figure have for you today?
Tags: centering techniques, Essence, inner peace, living today, meditation, musings, Photography, Sand Spirit Insight Cards, Self, spiritual practice, transitions
Posted in centering techniques, coaching, divine feminine, Guided imagery, Imagination, meditation, nature as mirror, Photography, returning to essence, self-healing, spiritual practices, Uncategorized, women's empowerment | No Comments »
