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You are a Multi-Dimensional Being! – Richard’s Commentary
Rosemary’s post begins with a message from The Divine Feminine in which they say:
We are The Divine Feminine and speak to you from the Realm of The Divine Feminine. This is one of the Dimensions that you have been hearing about.
There is nothing scary about dimensions or the beings that inhabit them. Our role in coming into your life is to assist you in your path of personal growth.
So, in casting about for my response today, to this message about being “multi-dimensional” I decided to take them at their word to see if I could hear a message from them. Actually I have received one or two messages from this “realm” in the past when I ask them for help, guidance or support. So, why not ask them to comment, through me, on their own message with additional illumination?
And I received a very interesting message of my own from this realm. I repeat much of it here because it demonstrates my own multi-dimensionality and perhaps it can model for you how you, too, can access this or other extra-dimensional realms if you ask!
From The Divine Feminine:
Dear one, of course we will speak to you! You are our beloved. You care for us as you care for Rosemary. You know there is a male component to us, just as there is to Rosemary. You mirror that component for us just as we mirror the feminine component of you. This is what your blog, Men and the Goddess, is all about. You men need us as that mirror. We are the Yin to your Yang, the Moon to your Sun. You need us to absorb, reflect, soften and affirm your very being. We need you for your strength, your action, your sending out the energy that animates it all.
The Goddess is in you just as the God is in us. We are inseparable yet dual. We inter-penetrate one another, affirm one another, in fact, manifest one another. And there is the problem with the dual nature of existence, of consciousness, just as there is a necessity to it. Often there is an imbalance in our natures. In you men, when the masculine over-powers the feminine, there is too much action, too much aggression. When the feminine over-powers the masculine there is too much inaction, too much passivity. The mirror image of this imbalance is true for women.
Balanced men offer the greatest hope for human survival and the evolution of consciousness. Balanced women offer the same hope. Partnership between such men and women offer extraordinary gifts to humanity. You, in partnership with Rosemary, model this balanced duality of purpose and power. Together you begin to restore balance in the energetic realm.
Now, this is not to dismiss The Divine Masculine. They too need their outlet and their balance. It is true that we are now in the forefront because the balance toward the masculine power has been so over-weighted as to almost lose sight of purpose! But as the work proceeds to restore this balance a restoration of appropriate masculine power will be needed for right action to emerge. This is your work. This is your calling. The work you envision with men is part of this restoration of balance. Working with the Tao and Qi is a way to help with balance. The ancient wisdom of China holds the keys to balance. They, the Taoists knew the importance of The Feminine, The Divine Feminine.
Keep to the path. Always return to balance.
And so it is.
Well, I did ask! Now I have to be congruent with the message I received! How does this message speak to you?
NEW MOON I CHING GUA: Little Exceeding
As I’ve been doing for some time now I cast an I Ching Gua just after the New Moon (and we had one, in Libra, this past Friday at 8:34 pm Eastern Time). These hexagrams, or gua, always seem to come up pointing in the right direction for the time. I especially find this to be true when I look back over the past month and reread the meaning of the gua cast for that month on the previous New Moon. You may want to do this for yourself, and look back on the I Ching I cast when the New Moon was in Leo last month. Then review the past month to see if any of the direction the gua indicated actually had a bearing on the way the month unfolded.
But now let’s look ahead to this remaining time for us in Libra and what the next four weeks ahead might 
have in store. Here is the hexagram I cast:
This is Xiao Guo, which means Little Exceeding according to Master Alfred Huang in his The Complete I Ching. This is composed of two trigrams, zhen, or Thunder over Gen, or Mountain. My first reaction to this picture is that the sound of thunder can be dampened or muffled in the mountains. And in keeping with the picture the meaning of this gua points to a time of reduced activity, a time of holding back and reserving energy for a more auspicious time.
I also like the image offered in the Decision of this gua written by King Wen; here is part of the decision:
The flying bird leaves a message;
Not appropriate to ascend,
Appropriate to descend,
Great good fortune!
It is said the gua resembles a flying bird with the middle yang lines as the body and the upper and lower pair of yin lines as the wings.
So the message here is “take it easy.” Don’t over-do anything at this time. This does not mean to not take any action. But when you do be cautious of over-doing it. Or, extending the image of the flying bird, don’t fly too high; there is good fortune in flying low, maybe “under the radar.”
And we are in the astrological sign of Libra, in this month of October between harvest time and winter. It is a time of balance. In the Celtic cycle we are approaching the end of the year when activities begin to wind down for the long rest during winter months. It is an auspicious time to begin to “muffle” outer activity and begin to take time for inner reflection.
This gua is also about “the middle way.” It advises to neither over-do nor under-do. I look at this as the Buddha Way, the path between the extremes of over-indulgence and excessive asceticism.
There were no changing lines when I cast this gua. It is a whole month of “little exceeding.” So, I plan to take it easy, to reflect on the middle way and assess how things stand in my life. This time between seasons as the year winds to a close may be an opportune time to shift gears and begin the inner work of the long, dark winter months ahead.
A POEM FOR FRIDAY: Red Lion
I am publishing a poem today because we are moving rapidly into the New Moon in Libra; it occurs at 8:34 pm Eastern Daylight Time this evening. And with the New Moon I will cast an I Ching Gua (hexagram) to shed some light on the coming month. I’ll publish that here on Monday in lieu of the usual “Monday’s Poem”.
I published this poem not long ago in these pages. But given the context of the posts from this week I think it bears repeating. This week has been about alchemy and how we are all agents of transformation for ourselves and for everyone we come in contact with. Transformation does not come easily. It requires our attention, our effort and certainly our awareness. And sometimes it requires a catalyst, a philosopher’s stone, a Red Lion!
So, in this context of the alchemical transformation of human consciousness I repeat:
Red Lion
Some days the beast requires a leash,
Some ways the body must seek release.
There’s no chance of change in full control,
Transformation comes through Red Lion’s role.
Remember this warning, keep to the path.
Control the creature or suffer his wrath.
Don’t bind him too tightly, there’s energy need.
Give him his head, he wants to be freed.
There’s a delicate balance of domestic and wild:
Too much domestic, the mix is too mild:
Too much wild, the mix goes astray;
Isis knew the secret of this precious way!
PS: If you are in the Annapolis, Maryland area, I am beginning a new series of Qigong classes next Monday, October 7. Check details here.
You Are The Alchemist—Richard’s Commentary
The message from The Divine Feminine Rosemary posted yesterday is a heavy one. It lays on each and every one of us a substantial responsibility. Being an Alchemist is no trivial undertaking. And the statement here is we are all Alchemists in our very beingness, in every thought, word and deed!
Here’s the responsibility The Divine Feminine hand us:
Each of you who sees these words is a transformation artist in every moment. Every word that you speak has the power to transform the hearer in some way. You can speak with love and concern and em-power the other person, or you can speak harshly and increase their feelings of low self-worth or self-esteem.
Even your thoughts have the power to affect another person. If someone speaks to you, and your thoughts are not supportive, you are sending that lower energy vibration to the speaker. If, on the other hand, you really listen and see the essence of the person and not the circumstance they are describing, then your thoughts can help that person to experience a higher vibrational energy and feel that support.
Heavy! But anyone of us who reads these words knows they are true. Anyone who trusts in the power of manifestation, the ability to turn thoughts into things, the Law of Attraction must realize that these powers apply to our relationship with others just as The Divine Feminine point out in clear terms.
Now I know my thoughts, words and deeds are not always of the purest form. In fact I am going through some moody moments in these last few days as the Moon wanes to the extreme just before conjoining the Sun exactly at 8:34 pm Eastern tomorrow, Friday, October 4. At that exact time the Moon becomes new, reborn. But now as I write she is in her Waning Crescent Phase and nearly “gone” from the sky. What does this mean? For me I get lethargic, heavy, I feel a little under the weather, not ill really but not well either. It’s as if as the Moon goes into the shadow of the Sun I move into my shadow time. And my mood reflects this shadow.
I write from this shadow time and ask “how am I to be a catalyst for the uplifting of others; how am I, even in my thoughts, to help another experience a higher vibrational energy?
Fortunately The Message not only states the challenge to be The Alchemist, it offers the solution to my concern:
Your first obligation, however, is to transform yourself into the person you were born to be. Are you living the life that your essence is asking for? Are you being your true self and not a persona required by others around you?
And:
As your consciousness evolves, so will your vibrational frequencies. Keep reaching for greater awareness, greater understanding of the world around you and where humanity is evolving. Pay attention to your thoughts and ask about the ‘light content’ of those thoughts. Are you thinking at a high frequency of light or do your thoughts feel heavy and dark?
Well, my thoughts may feel heavy and dark at the moment as the Moon “dies” into the Sun. But at least I am aware of this. And with this awareness I can perform some alchemical magic around this time: I can honor the Moon, let the experience of the final phase of her waning wash through me, and look forward to celebrating the New Moon as she is born tomorrow evening. I can meditate on the cycles of the Moon as they represent all the cycles in our lives. And I can reflect on these cycles as they mirror all the cycles within me, even the waxing and waning of moods!
Awareness is the key. It is the first step forward as The Alchemist to bring more light into the world!
MONDAY’S POEM: Karma
Through the past few posts I have written of my travels to Wisconsin for the annual “homecoming” pagent in my home-town of Blanchardville. All experiences have their lessons. All paths and destinies are driven by karma. With my experience of traveling back to the family farm of my youth still fresh, I reflect some of my musings in the following:
Karma
There’s always more to burn:
Fuel to feed the great fire.
Travels through life in the mire
Lead to more lessons to learn.
Brothers of three generations
Differ in extraordinary ways.
Their life-paths twist through a maze;
Destinies driven by their limitations.
Karma is complex to unwind;
The source is a tangle of lives.
The weaving together of so many tribes
Forms a patchwork, one of a kind.
When love is the thread for the stitches,
The patterns emerge in fine hues.
The patchwork of reds, purples, blues
Renders a tapestry depicting life’s riches.
©2013 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
PS: If you are in the Annapolis, Maryland area, I am beginning a new series of Qigong classes next Monday, October 7. Check details here.
An Appreciation of Goddesses
I have noticed I am not writing about The Goddess much lately. I have to get back to the reason for this blog; for men to get in touch with The Goddess!
I offer you three stories from the last few days:
Story 1: I met my youngest niece for the first time this week. My youngest brother had a daughter last year. I hadn’t been back to Wisconsin, where they live, until my return for “homecoming” (as I’ve written extensively about these past few posts). She is now about a year and a half and every bit a Bredeson! She is cute, precocious, both shy and full of energy and life. It was a joy to meet her!
And I learned from her, this young goddess with all the makings of a beautiful Venus. She taught me the joys of innocence; her smile was brilliant and unaffected. She taught me about simple pleasures; picking grass and examining it with intense curiosity. She taught me to play; her relaxed approach was filled with fun and laughter. As I think of her now I smile recalling her initial reticence and her final warm hug and kiss for Uncle Rich.
Story 2: I returned from Wisconsin to an empty house. Rosemary was off to a conference/retreat in Baltimore. While I had another “goddess” to keep me company, Tara, our Lhasa Apso, my human goddess didn’t return until Wednesday evening. And when she did I experienced a new radiance and a bright smile that I had missed while away. She was full of light from the conference, brimming with ideas and a renewed enthusiasm for the work we share. There was more to this than just a short absence and a week’s separation. There was a glow, a lightness of being that I was delighted to reconnect with. My goddess was not only home again, but revved up and ready.
Story 3: Rosemary and I attended a concert last evening. The Mediaeval Baebes are in Maryland for the Renaissance Festival this weekend. As a special treat they appeared in concert in Annapolis Thursday evening. We have been fans of this group from London for a number of years and make an extra effort to see them when they are near.
These six women have voices of goddesses! They sing incredible, originally arranged and orchestrated, carefully researched songs from the ages. They are a truly gifted group; their songs run the range from deeply spiritual to the highly sensual. They are fun, witty, exuberant and talented. They are not only “baebes” they are goddesses!
Three stories, three encounters with goddesses. I am truly blessed! I offer these stories as both reminder and enjoinder: look for the goddesses in your life and honor them. They are beautiful, loving, kind, compassionate, brilliant and strong. They deserve your attention and your affection! The Divine Feminine is truly coming into her power as we move deeper into Aquarius.
And don’t forget about your Inner Goddess. Nurture Her!
What’s the Message? – Richard’s Commentary
As if to emphasize both Rosemary’s and my recent posts, The Divine Feminine offer a message urging us to look for the messages!
One of the take-aways I have is there are messages available to us in everything; everything we see, hear, say, feel, think, even in what we write! Rosemary channels The Divine Feminine and she writes it down as it comes. I write myMorning Pages as part of my practice; and sometimes they write themselves with little or no conscious control on my part. These too are signs and messages we need to attend to.
And sometimes these messages are hard to take; sometimes we would rather ignore them than absorb and act on them! The Divine Feminine say this about that:
Sometimes the messages are blatant and are held in your face so that you cannot miss them. At other times the messages are subtle and might be repeated many times before you realize that they are, indeed, messages for you to interpret. When you are aware that there are messages available constantly you can notice the many forms in which they come to you.
Whether the messages are blatant and we ignore them or subtle and we miss them they will be repeated! We are here to get the messages and to act on them. This is transformation.
In my previous two posts last Thursday and Friday I wrote about “home” as in homecoming and my family farm in Wisconsin. I was hit by blatant messages every moment of my trip there last week. And I got the message! The home farm has been transformed by my two brothers who still live there. Of course this is their right; I gave up all physical and fiscal ties to the farm when our mother passed over five years ago. But until this past week there was a vestige of home for me there, residing in my heart. That was my boyhood heart. But experiencing the transformation of the farm well beyond what I remember growing up has had a profound effect on me.
I have experienced my memories of the home farm has a kind of longing; there seemed to be a rather small but significant empty corner in my heart reserved for the wonderful times I had there as a kid. Perhaps I held on to that emptiness so I could fill it, replenish it when I returned there. But this trip “home” there was nothing to fill; and I quickly realized there was no emptiness to fill either. There was no subtlety to this message. And there is no need to repeat it.
I am so grateful I not only received this message but got it. I am “home” now; I’m back in Maryland with my wife, my dog and my stuff. And I am complete! I left no part of me in Wisconsin and there is no hole in my heart for anything I may have once thought I left there. It is all transformed; all for the better!
Sometimes the messages are blatant and sometimes subtle; they are always there. And they keep coming at us until we “get it.” When we do get it and act on the messages there is a sense of freedom and expansion that is wonderful.
Are the messages you receive blatant or subtle? Do you act on the blatant ones and work to interpret the subtle ones? They will keep coming until you do; and then new ones will follow! It’s part of life.
MONDAY’S POEM: Balance
During this time of the Autumnal Equinox it is good to look for balance in our lives. I published this poem before, during another equinox. But it continues to speak to me and I hope it helps bring balance to your life during this time of equal light and dark. And the last line of this poem is fully in harmony with my last couple of blogs about “home” and “sense of place.”
Balance
Breathe in freshness,
The power of life in the Universe.
Breathe out love,
The acceptance of All in the Universe.
Consume deliciousness,
Every dish alive with energy.
Purge the waste without grief;
It is a meal for another.
Bring into the Universe all of You;
Your unique gifts are essential.
Let go of everything that is not yours;
There are others ready to serve.
Live your Life Purpose;
Your karmic journey is open.
Die as a Natural Human,
Fully embracing your sense of place.
©2013 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
Harvest Full Moon, Autumnal Equinox, Homecoming and More
As I wrote in yesterday’s post I am visiting my brothers on the family farm in Wisconsin. I was here for yesterday’s full moon; it was huge and bright here as only it can be in the countryside where it still gets much darker at night than what I usually experience on the east coast. Here is where I got part of my starry-eyed wanderlust when I was a kid looking up at the brilliant night sky, the dense and bright Milky Way streaking overhead and the astounding constellations of the Wheel revolving through the seasons. I was thrilled to see the aurora borealis occasionally in the cold winter nights. And I always loved the rising of Sirius around the time of my birthday. The sky part of being back here hasn’t changed over the years; I can still come back to that.
To celebrate the Full Moon we were out in my brother’s garden bringing in a pail full of green beans, a few remaining peas, an awesome head of cauliflower and some still sweat lettuce coming back after welcome rain. So we did our harvesting for the day and are now enjoying the bounty.
And I’ll be here for the Equinox on Sunday – equal parts night and day. This will be a time for reflecting on balance. And it is good to be here in the place I grew up to ponder the balance in my life: the maturing urbanite and the farm-boy, the world traveler and the small-town bumpkin, the spiritual seeker with the grounded and earthy dirt-farmer son. It is always a good thing to look for balance, not just at equinoxes, but all through the year. Balance begins with inner reflection; the inner is always reflected outwardly. Outer signs of balance, like Sunday’s Equinox, are there to remind us to go inside to find the balance.
I must admit I am somewhat unbalanced by this visit to the family farm; as I wrote yesterday I have discovered it is no longer “home” for me; not even a little bit. I continue to reconcile, or balance, this finding for myself. I think I will be doing some grounding work when I get back to Maryland; the grounding that may have been a vestige of my youth here in Wisconsin needs to be transplanted once and for all. Or maybe it just needs to be replanted in my heart as the physical grounding to place recedes as an important element in my life.
Sandwiched between Full Moon and Equinox is my 50th High School reunion! I will be joining my former classmates for a dinner tonight. Will I recognize anyone? Yesterday my brother and I had breakfast in the hometown café; a couple was also in the restaurant; I knew I knew them but could not place faces with names. The wife recognized me not by my looks but by my voice! And I thought I had worked so hard to neutralize my Wisconsin accent! Betty Lou, three years my senior, looks much the same as when we rode the school bus together the seven miles into town. But recalling names is quite another matter. I hope they give us nametags so I’m not guessing wrong!
Saturday is the big Homecoming event: parade (my class will have a float of some kind since we are one of the honored classes), football (one of my nephews will play) and the evening “banquet” (I put this in quotes because it is probably not what you think; substitute glasses of milk for a fine offering of wine and you’ll get the picture!)
I’ll spend Sunday visiting and catching up with family. I fly home on Monday to get back to routines, qigong classes and a re-balancing. And I’ll take a piece of my old “home” with me in my heart.
Where do you call home? Do you attend school reunions? How do you balance all the experiences of “home” with your life now? Take a peak inside for the answers.
What’s Hiding in Plain Sight? – Richard’s Commentary
Rosemary’s messages always contain truth for me. And they often challenge me to go deeper, to examine, to look for the hidden message, often staring directly at me when I “have the eyes to see.”
Tonight as I write this I am spending it in my family farmhouse in Wisconsin. I’m not sleeping in my old room but in the guest room just adjacent to that room I spent hours in and dreamed my boyhood dreams. And with every experience on this visit, I am looking deeply for the lessons.
I am particularly struck tonight by these words from Rosemary: “Sometimes people think they are missing something, or broken and need to be fixed. Sometimes they feel they are not complete and are looking for someone/something to complete them.” I’ve often felt that I left part of me in Wisconsin when I moved away more than 40 years ago. I first left “home” right after graduating from the University of Wisconsin; I traveled to Ethiopia as a Peace Corps volunteer and stayed away for two years. I returned “home” for a couple of years but then left for good in 1972.
Of course there were many visits back “home” while my parents were alive. I now have two brothers who still live here on the family farm; I’m staying with my middle brother on this visit. And here’s what I have found: this is not my “home” and I can find no piece, not even the smallest piece of me here anymore. Does this mean I’ve grown up? Well, many would say I’ll never grow up; but perhaps I’ve finally, after all these years, found my true home. It was hiding all this time in plain sight!
This does not mean I no longer have a part of a Wisconsin farm in my heart. It does not mean the memories of growing up wild and free and at home on this then sprawling dairy farm are gone and forgotten. What it does mean is my home is inside me. It’s not a place, nor a time, not even relationships. It’s a beingness that was, is and always will be there as an integral part of who I am. It’s a home I can experience anywhere and any time. It’s always with me, right there in front of my eyes.
And this confirms another piece of Rosemary’s article. She wrote: “You are complete RIGHT NOW!!! You don’t need to be fixed or completed. Everything you NEED is inside you now.” My home is inside me right now; all of it. I don’t have a piece in Wisconsin, a piece in Colorado and a piece in Maryland. It’s right here.
This gets at wholeness. Home is only one part of that wholeness. Relationships are another part and that begins with the relationship we have with ourselves. Can we find the home inside if we never visit there? If we avoid an inner examination of who we really are, can we find any form of completeness? If we don’t have a good relationship with ourselves we may never find home!
It’s taken me 68 years to come “home” and discover I’ve been home for all of those 68 years! Do you know where your home is? Can you come home again?
Men and The Goddess 