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ROSEMARY’S EXPLORATION: Who is Your WHO?
WHO are you serving?
When you do whatever you do, are you conscious of the person or people for whom you are doing that? This isn’t just about your job or career or business, but even the family for whom you are cooking dinner, or the person you hold the door open for at the mall, or the charity that you are supporting with your donation.
WHO is it that you are serving?
There are plenty of answers when you look outside yourself at the examples above. But in all of those, are you serving yourself first? Remember that the airlines instruct you to put your oxygen mask on FIRST and then turn to help a companion or child. What good are you to that other passenger if you pass out from lack of oxygen before you can help them? Take care of yourself first so that you are better able to serve.
We think of that on airplanes but the same principle applies all throughout our days and our lives.
If you don’t take care of your own health, no one else can do it. You know this. You accept this. But what about your spiritual and psychological health? Your emotional health? Your mental health? Are you serving yourself by taking care of yourself in those areas?
If you are an entrepreneur or you work in an office, are you clear about the customers or clients that you serve? Are they real people to you or are you focused on tasks and not people?
As an entrepreneur I am very focused on the clients in my business. My work is to build a relationship in which I support them. If I were a secretary, I would be supporting a boss and needing to accomplish certain tasks for her. How much use would I be if I weren’t taking good care of myself and if I was thinking about the computer instead of the project that creates info that she needs? A teacher who thinks only about what he is teaching and not about the kids and what they are learning is not a very good teacher. A musician or actor or artist who isn’t thinking about how the audience is receiving their art isn’t sharing much of themselves.
We’ve all heard that ‘Energy flows where attention goes.’ If your attention is on accomplishing your to-do list, on everybody else’s to-do list, on getting things done and over with instead of on the people and the relationships, what do you think will happen to the people (including you) and the relationships?
Take some time this week to ask yourself the question, “Who is my WHO? For whom am I doing this? And have I taken care of myself first so that I can serve at my best level?”
Entrepreneurs are taught to identify their ‘target market’ or ‘audience’ early in their training, but most of us don’t get this lesson and broaden the perspective into everything that we do. Next time you are fixing food, ask about your ‘Who.’ Next time you hold a door, think about the person walking through it and smile. Smile before you answer the phone because there is (usually) a human being on the other end of the line. Think about the tasks on your to-do list in terms of the person/people impacted.
Who is your WHO?
ROSEMARY’S INSPIRATION: Spring is for Change!
Rosemary’s “Two-Minute” Video for this Week: Spring is for Change!
New Moon in Aries I Ching Divination
As I have been doing over the past few years I have cast an I Ching Gua – a six-line hexagram consisting of open, yin, lines and solid, yang, lines. I was particularly motivated to cast this gua to see where the Aries energies coming in with the spring equinox were going to lead, especially with the last gua for the Pisces New Moon which was all about “Keeping Still.” (Pisces New Moon Gua)
I was not disappointed and did cast an interesting hexagram. I’ve pictured it here on the right. It has two changing lines at the third position and the top; these two 9 lines are changing lines which means the solid line of 9 (odd numbered lines are yang lines and even numbered lines are yin lines) can change to 6 lines or yin lines. Master Alfred Huang, whose text, The Complete I Ching, I use, suggests consulting the lower of the two changing lines. This yields the “approached” gua, a new gua representing the movement of the energies through the month.
So, what does all this mean? The “initial” gua is named Gu which means “Remedying.” Master Huang equates this with “making a fresh start.” This is a great way to break out of the energy of “keeping still” from last month. This feels in right; it is time to begin, maybe even over again. We are two months into the Lunar New Year. For the year the gua I cast was “advance.” (New Year Gua) We got the year off to a fast paced start. A month later the gua advised to “keep still” – in other words pause, reflect, consider. Now here we are in Aries energy, spring is here and it’s time for a “fresh start.”
But there is a cautionary note in this gua, because the third line changes to a yin line. The interpretation here is to take small steps forward and not be overly impetuous. Aries energy can be fiery and highly energetic. This “new beginning” needs to be a thoughtful one.
King Wen’s decision for this gua advises “Before starting, three days. After starting, three days.” This is part of the cautionary emphasis in this gua; I believe care needs to be taken during this first week, up to the first quarter of the moon cycle.
The approached qua is Meng or “Childhood” pictured here with the changed line in place. The two trigrams (three-line diagrams) are Kan or Stream on the bottom and Gen or Mountain on top. The image here is of a spring flowing out from the base of a mountain. There is a freshness, a newness about this image. It is like the innocence of childhood; Master Huang uses the image of “uncarved jade” to describe the sense of this gua. The interpretation here is to carefully mold the child through an education process to bring out the original wisdom hidden in the child. This is a slow and deliberate process; again impetuosity needs to be tempered with deliberation.
In summary we move this month through the energy of a “fresh start” and cautious, studied steps forward. Study, do some research and act thoughtfully.
My astrologer friend, Gloria Hesseloff, offers this advice for the month: I particularly align with the idea that this is a time of preparation for a new beginning. This seems to echo the I Ching preacisely!
MONDAY’S POEM: Aligning Breath of Peace
On Saturday I was feeling out of sorts, disconnected, and uneasy. I did notice that the Moon was squaring the Sun, First Quarter. This may have had some influence. And I decided, whatever the source of my unease, to take some action. In writing my “morning pages” for the day I went into a meditation which did help me realign my energies. I wrote today’s poem in that energy to capture my methods of aligning with the environment rather than struggle with it.
I am now practicing with this breath when I feel I need to connect. I breathe this long slow poem and then follow it with three deep breaths, repeating this connecting breath three times.
Aligning Breath of Peace
Inhaling
From the far reaches of the Universe,
Source,
Through the grand curve of the All
To the Galaxy, Solar Ellipse,
Earth, Community,
Village, Home
Into skin, viscera,
Senses, feelings,
Mental mechanics
To High Consciousness.
Exhaling
From that high place
Through the inner curve of Mind
Deep feelings, settling flow
Of gut mechanics to surface;
Out to room,
Neighborhood, town,
Planet, Moon,
Sun, Milky Way
Through the grand curve of the All,
To Source.
©2014 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
Dream a Big Dream! – Richard’s Commentary
Rosemary begins her message with a question:
Do you know your Heart’s Desire? Do you have a Big Wish?
Well, do you? The very first step in moving forward with your life is to visualize it, see it, dream it! As humans we are good at making pictures. We are an extremely visual species. Consider the simplest of things we do; if we want to go out to the store, in the snow, to get that last loaf of bread, we first make a picture of the store, the way to get there, the car, the road conditions, and a thousand other images that pop into our minds just to accomplish this simplest of tasks. We create a “map” of the task to “see” us through to successful completion. No matter how simple the action we visualize it before acting.
And what if the task is bigger; what if we are talking about a “heart desire”? Then the visualization needs to scale to the level of the desire.
I’m using a visual perspective here because we are strongly visual. But if we engage all of our senses, our emotions, our intuitive senses and even our spirit in creating a dream-environment how much more powerful the “map” becomes to get us there. If we begin to hear the desire, smell how it might be, taste the flavors anticipated, feel the quality of the air and imagine being in the midst of that desired condition we can actualize the dream that much more powerfully.
Let me give you a personal example: my Big Wish for 2014 is to travel to India to participate in the Kalachakra Tantra Rite of Initiation being offered by His Holiness the Dalai Lama this year. He is offering it in Ladakh, in the north of India in the Himalayans. This dream touches on many of my wishes – travel back to India, travel to the Himalayan Mountains, visiting Buddhist Monasteries, participating in Buddhist rituals – the list is quite long. And as I begin to picture this dream it becomes very large, almost to the point of overwhelm. But I am taking my own advice:
The first thing I have done is to read more deeply about the Kalachakra Tantra Rite of Initiation. I have read Jeffrey Hopkins’ translation of His Holiness’ work by that title. And now I am practicing the Six Session Yoga as a prerequisite of the Initiation. I am visualizing the practice, visualizing Kalchakra and Vajradhara and beginning to get a deep, heart and soul understanding of this Tantra.
I am also reading about Ladakh. And I am remembering the sights, sounds, smells, tastes, feelings and wonders of being in India. I have only visited three cities before, Mumbai, Bangalore and New Delhi. I have not been to the north or anywhere near the mountains. But I have been above 14,000 feet in Colorado and I have been above 19,000 feet in Africa; I can combine my various experiences to begin to form a picture of what it might be like in the highest mountains in the world.
I have also visited Buddhist monasteries, practiced Buddhism there, enjoyed the beautiful art, heard the bells, chanted the mantras, smelled the incense, tasted the simple fare, felt the cold hard floor of early morning meditations in the middle of winter and shivered not with the cold but with the moving spirit of the sangha.
I am putting lots of pictures, experiences of all the senses, and deep feelings of my past into as complete a picture as I can of my Big Wish, what it might be like. I am energizing this wish. I am empowering it and sending it into the cosmos as something already done. And I let go of the particulars of how; I leave that to the Universe. I am doing my part!
Rosemary asks another question in her message:
So what do you want? What is your Heart’s Desire?
Answer that question, and the rest is up to you to paint the picture of your Heart’s Desire. Go for it!
Settling In
This phrase has been popping into my life since the New Moon and New Lunar Year. It seems it comes to mind every day as I write my Morning Pages. I catch myself writing it and wonder, what’s this about…
And I realized today, as I wrote it once again, that I am settling in. There are many aspects to this, not the least of which is settling in to the new energies coming in with the New Moon and New Year. It’s different. Is it just me who is feeling and sensing the difference? Do you sense it?
So, I am settling in to this New Year, the Year of the Wood Horse, or Green Horse. In the Chinese Medicine Five-Element system one of my dominant elements is Wood. With the New Moon we left the Water Snake Year of 2013 behind and moved into Wood Horse. There is an energy about this Horse coming in; some have said it is galloping in! And the Wood energy is hitting right on top of my Wood tendencies. What this means is lots of energy for me and I am finding myself needing to dampen it down; adjust. I am settling in to this New Year and I expect it to take more time. After all the Chinese celebrate the New Year for two weeks, until the Full Moon, which is still a week away. Maybe it takes the two weeks to settle in to the new energy.
We are also still setting in to our new home. We spent some time yesterday moving filling cabinets so we can more easily file and re-file paperwork for the business, church and personal lives we lead. We are still finding places to put things and still looking for things misplaced! Settling in.
And it occurs to me that this is what life is really about. We are always settling in. Do you feel this way? And it’s a good thing. Settling in is becoming present. It is sensing our environment and getting comfortable with it. It is getting in touch with our bodies and settling in. It is examining our emotions, our heart-feelings and settling in to whatever arises: joy, sadness, grief, gratitude.
There is also a settling in of our mental state as it ebbs and flows from alert awareness and high functionality to drowsy calmness as we get ready for sleep. I even find myself settling in to the rhythm of time, adjusting to what seems to be shortening days (can they really still be 24 hours long?).
And spiritually I am becoming very settled. No, not complacent nor dogmatic, not fixed in anyway but very open and always questioning. Yet at some level I am accepting that I will likely not find the answers to my all my questions in this life. I’m not settling for this as a final conclusion, but I am settling in to this possibility.
I have a greater sense of calm around this notion of settling in. I’m in this for the long haul – and it could be very long, if the reincarnationists have it right! So, why not settle in and enjoy the journey!
This phrase seems to be following me everywhere. Even in my yoga class last evening we were led to “settle in” to our bodies during shavasana. And I knew just what to do.
I hope you are not settling for anything. But do find some peace and settle in to your life; it’s so much easier that way!
Have a great weekend!
MONDAY’S POEM: Heaven and Earth
I don’t know about you but I’m still basking in the energy of the New Moon and the New Year! And it’s going to be a great year; just look at my post last Friday: ADVANCE!
I wrote today’s poem on Lunar New Year’s Day, the 31st, with references to the I Ching Gua I cast for the year and the “moonth.”
Heaven and Earth
Six line, three strong
Heaven below, Heaven on Earth?
Support for the Way
Wood Horse gallops forward.
Six lines, three weak
Earth above, Earth on Heaven?
Lifted upward, floating on water,
Flowing peacefully ever onward.
Six lines, auspicious Gua;
First Gua for the New Year.
Tidal Gua in its rightful place;
Rough ways smooth, returning.
Six lines, Advancing;
Auspicious for prosperity and peace.
Remember, Advancing leads to
Hindrance, Heaven above, returning.
©2014 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
I Ching Gua for the New Moon and New Wood Horse Year: Tai-Advance!
I love my new “habit” of casting an I Ching Gua just after the new moon of every month (moonth). And with this new moon that we experienced yesterday (4:38 pm Eastern time), the new moon in Aquarius, we also ushered in the Lunar New Year, the Chinese New Year which is the year of the Wood Horse. What better time to do a divination using the I Ching and the yarrow stalks I manipulate to cast a Gua or six-line hexagram to help sense the energies coming in to support our journeys?
And I am very excited by the Gua I cast. It is pictured here as three solid, yang lines on the bottom, the trigram for Heaven, and three broken, yin lines on the top, the trigram for Earth.
The Chinese word, Tai, is very auspicious. In fact Alfred Huang, author of The Complete I Ching writes: “Tai is one of the most auspicious words in the Chinese language.” It has many meanings, including peace, safety, security and good health. It originally meant “more than” or “most.” It indicates the condition of being “more than great.” Master Huang chose the meaning “advance” for Tai. The image he paints from the ideograph for Tai is one of “running water proceeding forward smoothly and with great ease.”
There were no changing lines in this Gua. Sometimes this can be inauspicious indicating stagnation in the energy. In this case I think what it means is we can expect the energy of advancement in a peaceful way for the entire year! It is a Wood Horse year after all with lots of energy coming to us for strong support.
Another indication that this Gua extends for the entire year is that it is a “tidal” Gua, which means it is associated with a particular lunar month of the year, the first month; in other words the exact month for which I cast it! Not only is the Gua itself auspicious, it is in an auspicious place, its natural place, for the year.
There is also a strong meaning of cooperation held in this Gua. Heaven, the lower trigram seems to be in the opposite place, below Earth, the upper trigram. The meaning here is that Heaven and Earth are working together to support humanity, just as Horse and Human work together for great productivity, advancement!
This energy is already beginning to play out in my life. Last weekend Rosemary held her first annual Possibilities Playshop, a gathering to create a guide book for the lunar 2014. She and I worked together to conduct and video the Playshop so we could share it with people who couldn’t attend in person. It was a great success and people who did attend gained great benefit, clearing blocks, gaining a guide for the year and laying out the lunar year, all 13 moonths, beginning with today. We are letting the moon energy guide us through the year!
And with this tremendously auspicious Gua, I am ready for a fantastic year!
Do you feel this “advancing” energy?
Get Ready for the Big Shift! – Richard’s Commentary
You’ve been hearing about this “big shift” from Rosemary, many others and me for a long time. We talked about it leading up to that momentous pivot point of the Winter Solstice of 2012. And we have been talking about it for more than a year since that point. Is it coming? Is it here? And most importantly:
Are you excited about taking a quantum leap forward in your life?
I am excited! And I do sense this is the time. Rosemary says this:
Now is the time! The world around you is showing you in not-too-subtle ways that you have turned the corner into the place where you are facing the biggest shift of your life. Are you willing to shift?
But notice something here: she is not talking about something on the outside; this is not necessarily a change that is coming at you. She says, “you have turned the corner.” Indeed we have all turned a corner and we now have to embrace what we have generated.
This “change energy” is an internal potential. The calendar has little to do with it other than to focus our attention and intention on a specific time. Yes, there are many factors pointing to this time as important: a Mayan calendar change, a rotation of the wheel of the Zodiac through to a new sign, other calendars, other potential physical shifts in galactic space, even a potential shift in the Earth’s magnetic poles.
But the shift Rosemary and I are talking about is a shift in consciousness. Yes, this shift may be influenced by one or more of these external factors. But, the important shift comes from within. This is a shift in awareness. This is a shift in who we think, and feel, we are as conscious beings.
So, the question of being ready does not motivate building a bomb shelter, stocking the basement with a year’s supply of food and water, getting all of our affairs in order or preparing in some physical way for impending earth changes. Preparation is an internal check-in; it is a matter of preparing our bodies, emotions, minds and spirits for the next phase of human evolution.
If you are reading this post you are a “cultural creative”, you are on the leading edge of expanding human consciousness. And you are key to this coming shift!
How do you get ready? That may be a personal question you must answer for yourself; you are likely already preparing, may even be fully prepared. Here’s what I’m doing:
I am meditating more – more frequently through the day and for longer periods of time. I am reading through the Kalachakra Tantra Rite of Initiation by His Holiness The Dalai Lama and Jeffery Hopkins. I am practicing yoga and qigong. I am practicing the six Transcendent Perfections of Buddhism (as best I can). I am attending to my body, speech and mind. And I am planning to attend the Kalachakra Initiation of 2014 in Ladakh, India this July.
I may not be ready for the “big shift” but I am “being the big shift.” I am practicing what I can to be prepared. And I am excited!
The Moon is new today at 4:38 pm Eastern Time. This marks the end of the old Lunar year and a shift into the Year of the Horse. I feel the energy gathering and galloping in. I am as ready as I can be for this shift and the bigger shifts to come.
I hope you are ready with me!
The Last of the Water Snake
I don’t know about you but I’m glad we have a New Moon and a Chinese New Year coming in a week from today. Yes, this is the last week for the year of the Water Snake and I’m not sorry to see him slither away!
We are soon moving into Wood Horse, or Green Horse energy. The New Year begins on January 31 and I am sensing some very good energy coming our way. I’ve hinted at this before and will expand a bit on my thoughts today. For next week’s Friday post I will report my I Ching Gua cast and reading, not just for the new month but for the entire New Year. Stay tuned.
Meanwhile here’s what I think we can expect for the Wood Horse Year. First Horse aspects: from Wikipedia we can read the characteristics of Horse energy and people:
Idealistic and impulsive, the Tiger, Horse and Dog [note Horse is a member of this trine] follow the beat of their own drum. Defiant against injustice, these three signs wilt without large amounts of physical affection and loyal support for causes. They are productive, enthusiastic, independent, engaging, dynamic and honorable. They can also be rash, rebellious, quarrelsome, hot-headed, reckless, anxious, moody, disagreeable, and stubborn. Although these three signs are loyal, they can be very protective when lied to.
I sense a lot of energy coming in with the Horse Year; “productive, enthusiastic, independent, engaging, dynamic and honorable” are excellent energy descriptions for what is coming.
Furthermore, it is a Wood Horse Year we are coming into. Not to get too technical here, but the fixed element for the Horse is Fire. Wood feeds Fire, naturally, so a Wood Horse Year will be all “fired up.” Fire is of the heart; Wood will feed the “enthusiastic, engaging, dynamic” characteristics of the Horse.
I am particularly looking forward to this Wood Horse Year because I am a Wood Rooster. First, Horses and Roosters get along well. Second, my Wood element will feed the fiery Horse with even more Wood element. What I have to watch for is not to “burn my energy” too brightly or hot (no “hot-headedness” for me).
I am not one to put a lot of trust in predictions. What I do enjoy is sensing the energies intuitively through the various tools I use, from drawing and reading cards of various decks to casting I Ching Gua (hexagrams) for the New Year and each of the subsequent New Moon. It’s working with these intuited energies that can make a difference rather than relying on a reading of astrological signs. That said I do believe that the overall energy of the Chinese Zodiac can have an impact on events. Why? Because we are always at choice; our choices are influenced and made based on what we believe. If I choose to believe the incoming Wood Horse Year has good, plentiful, helpful, productive energy in store for us, then I will tend to look for and feel these positive effects.
What is your birth sign and element? How do you think you may interact with the Wood Horse energy? Do a little research; have fun with it! Here is a link to the Wikipedia page to get you started: Chinese Zodiac.
And say goodbye to Water Snake!
Men and The Goddess 