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The Heart of Humanity – Richard’s Commentary
Yesterday’s post was a message, as channeled by Rosemary, from The Divine Feminine. There is little I can say that will enhance their powerful message. But I do want to offer some thoughts and examples, perhaps in my way to amplify the message.
My first thought in encountering the words of The Divine Feminine comes from my training and work in indigenous cultures and their understanding of this “Heart” especially as it relates to ancestors. We, as living humans, stand on the bones of our ancestors; but their hearts beat right beside our own. Many of you know Rosemary as a medium who can speak directly to our ancestors, those who have transitioned in the near past and even ancestors from generations past. They are right here with us! So, when The Divine Feminine speak of The Heart of Humanity and say: “This is not about the individual heart of a single person but, rather, the collective heart of the humans both alive and in spirit” they include our ancestors in this Heart. Why is this important? They are right here with us, watching us, cheering us on. So often their messages through Rosemary are words of pride in our achievements, words of encouragement to continue to learn the lessons and evolve, words of comfort that they are with us! Their hearts beat within The Heart of Humanity just as ours do. Live and love within this energy!
My second reaction to the message is a recall of a divination card I often receive from the Goddess Guidance Oracle Cards by Doreen Virtue, PhD. Maat is a Goddess in the deck that 
carries the message of “fairness.” (I’ve pictured the card here.) The key to understanding the message of this card is in the definition Dr. Virtue offers for fairness: “It’s when all parties involved surrender their personal agendas in favor of the greater good for the entirety of the group. This requires trust in the wisdom of the group.” And I add this requires trust in The Heart of Humanity.
I like this definition of fairness a lot. And it is little wonder that I receive this card a lot! What if our justice system were based on fairness: what’s good for everyone, the common good? How did The Divine Feminine put it? – “For the good of all.” With no qualifiers. We are all in this together. Sometimes we may not like this inclusive approach to “all.” But we are all members of The Heart of Humanity!
My third thought goes to our “community supported agriculture” (CSA) farm. As I write this, today is pick-up day. Each week we get a box of organic produce fresh from the fields. During this past winter we purchased a family share in the farm. Now we are getting our return on that investment. We paid our local organic farmer in advance and now receive a share. This share means we are part of a community, part of the common good; and we are sharing now in the results, good harvest or poor harvest (and so far it’s been very good!); we share the benefit as well as the risk. Our community farm is part of The Heart of Humanity.
The Heart of Humanity is about our Ancestors and what they worked hard for, it’s about fairness, and it’s about sharing in the common good. I hope you are enjoying your share in this Heart!
PS: Come speak with your ancestors! They are alive in The Heart of Humanity. Your next opportunity to participate in a Conversation with The Other Side is July 13 at 7:00 pm Eastern. You can join the Conversation online via a video internet connection, or voice/phone; and if you can come to Annapolis, join Rosemary live! Get the details here.
ROSEMARY’S EXPLORATION: Storm Surge in Your Life!
Are you surrounded by storms in your life? It seems as if everyone has something going on that feels like a big storm or a series of little storms, but this is how people are describing the transitions and transformations that they are experiencing.
‘Maelstrom’ might be a better word to use, for there seems to be a lot of turbulence associated with the lessons we are all learning these days.
You might not believe it but being in this turmoil is not as bad as it seems, when you look at the big picture of your life. Of course, when you are in the midst of a storm, it’s difficult to focus on anything but the storm. However, if you lift your thoughts and consciousness to a higher level, you will see that there is a lesson to learn in every storm.
In the physical world, storms often come during the hottest part of the day and serve to break the unrelenting heat with a bit of a cool down. The air can be clearer after a storm. Some people relish a good storm with thunder and lightning and others hide in fear. Certainly there are physical storms that must be respected for the force of Nature is very powerful.
In the meta-physical world, the storms of your life are inviting you to shift into that higher consciousness so that you can complete the lesson presented and move on with your life. After the lesson is learned you no longer need the storm!
Look around you and notice where the energy feels turbulent. Is it in a relationship? A job or business? A living situation? Your finances? Your family? Your health?
Then ask yourself if you are focusing on the storm or on the lesson to be learned. They are two different things.
If you find that you are able to see only the storm then you might need to ask for help from someone who can help you get a different perspective. There is no shame in this. In fact, it is only the strong person, who is ready to evolve and grow, who is willing to seek assistance in that growth. The storm can blind one to the other possibilities that are around. It can be helpful to have a guide.
If, however, you are focused on the lesson that is being presented to you through the storm, then you will not be distracted by the storm and will continue to move forward in your personal growth and the evolution of your consciousness. The more you practice keeping your focus on the lesson, the less will be the impact of each storm that invites your growth.
Time is speeding up for humans on a path of evolution and the storms seem to be more frequent and more turbulent. This signals that our growth is happening in huge leaps, not in tiny steps. Think of a baby chick who has developed inside a nice, secure eggshell environment. There comes a time when the chick must work hard to emerge and continue its growth in the harsher outside world. And, yet, the real growth happens after pecking its way through that shell.
You are pecking your way through the shell of old patterns of thought, limiting beliefs, behaviors that will not serve the new you. Keep working at it. You will break through!
See each lesson as guidance about the next step for you. Each storm is clearing the air so that you can see the way forward. Keep working on yourself and your growth will be in quantum leaps and the reward will be great.
Weather the storm today by looking for the lesson that leads you to your best tomorrow.
PS: Are you ready for a shift? Are you prepared for the next storm surge headed your way? If you need answers for questions like “what is my next step?” Rosemary can help. Schedule a FREE Discovery Session with her to be sure you are ready to handle the next storm-cycle in your life! Schedule Here
INSPIRATION FROM ROSEMARY: The Cycles of Life: Promotions, Breaks, Lessons
My video for the week: The Cycles of Life: Promotions, Breaks, Lessons
PS: Are you ready to graduate? Are you prepared for the new lessons headed your way? If you need answers for questions like “what is my next step?” Rosemary can help. Schedule a FREE Discovery Session with her to be sure you are ready to handle the next cycle in your life! Schedule Here
Doorways of Opportunity—Richard’s Commentary
I always enjoy these messages from The Divine Feminine. I’ve heard and read many over the years I’ve spent at Rosemary’s side. They are always rich with wisdom yet well grounded and practical. And because I’ve heard so many I also know they are genuine. So I pay attention when they speak through Rosemary!
The key to this message is in the very first lines: The flames are licking at the Doors of Change. Those who fear change are trying to engulf the opportunities in flames so that you and others will not walk through them. Do not let these fear-mongers paralyze you.
Fear is one of the chief emotions that impacts our willingness, even our very ability to change. We fear change because we don’t know what is on the other side of that door. We know what is on this side and too often we are either too comfortable or too complacent with the status quo to consider what may be on the other side, even if it could be wonderful!
The trouble with comfort and complacency is the inevitability of change. The Divine Feminine say: The evolutionary forces of the Universe are not static. They are always and forever moving forward, taking with them those who are connected to growth and leaving behind those who wish to go backward, which is the same as attempting to stand still. There is no standing still. There is only moving forward or being swamped by the Tides of Change.
The status quo cannot stand against these formidable tides. Consider some of the Hubble pictures Rosemary posts in her Ezine! I’ve included one here (Galaxy M106) to illustrate this point. Imagine the immensity and the enormous energy represented in this galactic “whirlpool.” This is the energy of change alive in the Universe! Yes, “resistance is futile”! We live in a dynamic Universe and The Divine Feminine are suggesting, warning, that if we try to stand still we will be inundated.
There is another force that works to keep us in fear of change; that force is greed. For many the status quo means continued profits; change may impact those profits. Again, the opportunity on the other side of the doorway is veiled; there may be risk involved. There is less risk in the status quo, right? Yes, if the only concern is for the short term; this quarter’s over last quarter’s and last year’s quarter returns. But can the forces of greed resist the coming changes any better than the forces of fear?
Just as change and opportunity are two sides of the same coin, we can look at fear and greed in the same way. Greed is a fear of not having enough; it is born from a sense of lack. Much is never enough. Too much is better but still not enough! There is a strong resemblance here among change, fear and greed.
We have to step through this doorway, even as the flames of fear and greed lick the frame and turn us away. Opportunity is the only way to approach change. Yes, there are unknowns beyond the doorway; yes, there are risks that must be faced. But the changes are coming, are here, whether we resist them or not. It is far better to ride the tide of this transformative time and rise with the opportunities that flow our way. Seize them, not as life lines, not out of greed or the need for gain, but for advancement, for the evolution of humanity, of the Universe. The force of evolution is here and will press on with us or without us.
Are you ready for the evolutionary ride of your life? Grab hold!
Are You Ready? – Richard’s Commentary
Rosemary’s opening to her MuseLetter article this week was certainly provocative:
Did you think you could relax because you made it through December 21, 2012? Think again!
The Shift has begun. Time has been speeding up for years and we’re moving ahead at an amazing pace. It’s time to grow, to transform, to evolve. Hold onto your hat!
Yes, the time is now. And I can certainly feel the urgency of the moment. I have been impacted a lot this week as we are in this very old moon energy in Taurus. My body hurts, my mind isn’t functioning at peak performance and my emotions tend to rule my tongue more often than I’d like! Is it just this old moon, impending new moon and solar eclipse coming our way that has me in such a state? And what can I do to “be ready”?
Then we came across this from one of our astrologer friends; we have trusted Steve Nelson’s readings for us and his deep writing for years! Here’s what Steve says about this time in May:
Karma is fate, dharma is destiny. Karma is in the body as chronic muscle tension that holds encoded past emotional memory. Dharma is our divine purpose to be revealed and realized as karma is let go. Past world patterning or karma can be released through exercise (especially yoga), deep breathing and ritual celebration. Collective karma, the shadow of the age, is up for clearing now. As we clear personal karma we clear world karma. Karma is cleared cosmically by New Moons and by eclipses of the Sun and Moon.
…
A solar eclipse is Mother Nature’s most powerful instrument for transformation. When an eclipse occurs above, things get eclipsed and are transformed here below. Whatever needs eclipsing comes up in the days/weeks before a solar eclipse. An eclipse is an opportunity to eliminate patterns of thought and behavior that trouble our world. This is an ideal time to clear away what stands in the way of dreams being realized. The May 9/10 solar eclipse is the subject of another prophecy by Nostradamus in Century 9 Quatrain 83: ”Sun twentieth of Taurus, the Earth will tremble mightily; It will ruin the great theater filled: And so darken and trouble air, sky and land, the unbeliever will call upon God and the saints.”
The May 9/10 solar eclipse in the 20th degree of Taurus may bring a great earthquake as Nostradamus predicted. We’re advised to stay away from crowded theaters on this day. Our old world patterns are broken one way or another; we can hope and pray for the kinder gentler way.
It sounds to me that all the energy I’m feeling is definitely part of this New Moon/Solar Eclipse energy. It may be a doozy. I’ll definitely “hold on to my hat”!
But what does this mean; how do we prepare and “be ready” for major events that may occur? Steve Nelson recommends ritual work. Ritual is a wonderful way to heighten our awareness and bring consciousness and intention to our plans and actions.
And Steve mentions yoga and deep breathing – no surprise here! As you know from my previous posts I am all about yoga, qigong and breath-work!
I am doing everything in my power to be ready for this New Moon/Eclipse this evening (it occurs here on the east coast at 8:29 pm). Here’s what Rosemary has said about it:
This Solar Eclipse ends a cycle and begins a new one. Look back at what was happening in your life on May 10, 1994 for some clues about your personal evolution. We are being invited to release the past, clear negative thought patterns and whatever else might be holding us back from expanded consciousness and evolution. According to The Mountain Astrologer magazine, Eclipses also affect cellular memory, facilitating our awakening and remembrance of our soul’s blueprint.
Karma and dharma: release the past and awaken to your soul’s blueprint!
With Steve I wish you a “kinder and gentler” experience of this powerful energy. May you use it for growth!
Spiritual Practices: from Qigong to Prayer
The theme for the week has been Spiritual Practices, so I thought it would be good to close out the week with a laundry list of the possible. I’ll offer as examples my current practices that I do on a regular basis:
Qigong: Daily. I’m spending anywhere from 20 to 40 minutes every day doing either 5-Element Form or Jeff Primack’s Level 1 Form (which I’m also certified to teach and will be starting my classes very soon).
Yoga: At least every other day, at least 20 minutes. I also just returned from my Svaroopa Yoga class with my good friend Dharma, an excellent teacher. This is nearly a two hour class each week in this new to me style of gentle, yet very effective (I can feel tonight’s work already!) yoga.
Morning Pages: Daily. I write three long-hand pages every day in the style recommended by Julia Cameron in The Artist’s Way. I find this practice to be incredibly grounding, a way to purge, a way to jump start the day, a way to record feelings, events, dreams, visions, plans, hopes, basically just about anything that comes to mind (or heart). I sometimes channel consciousness that just comes.
Poetry: I often write a poem or two through each week. I publish one here on the blog every Monday. And I read poetry often. I love this other-dimensional way of writing and expressing.
Divination: Daily. Currently I draw two cards, one from the Goddess Guidance Oracle Cards by Doreen Virtue, and one from the Crowley Tarot Thoth Deck. I use these cards to get an intuitive sense of the energies of the day. I write a page of notes about what they mean to me and how they relate to one-another.
As another form of divination, on new moons I cast an I Ching Gua for the moonth to gain intuitive insight on the energies for the upcoming moon cycle.
Chanting: I wrote in yesterday’s post about Mantra Meditation. I do this frequently, currently daily following Deva Premal & Miten’s 21-Day Journey.
These are my current daily practices. I spend about two hours each morning on these practices. And I consider them all forms of prayer. They are definitely forms of an invocation or act that seeks to activate a rapport with a deity, an object of worship, or a spiritual entity through deliberate communication. (from the Wikipedia definition of prayer).
OK, I may be stretching a point a bit here, but the “spiritual entity” I communicate with is the Universe, Source, the All, and other ways of expressing or labeling something greater than I and yet also inside me!
I do sometimes wonder if I am over-doing it; if I am spending too much time at my practices. But they do serve me in many ways. I feel we are all on a path of expansion, evolution and transformation. Why else bother with all these sometimes hard lessons we keep encountering and, hopefully, learning! My practices help me through the changes, support my struggles, offer ways to feel my feelings, stretch my intuitive sensibilities, open me to embrace the greatness of human consciousness and the Divine Consciousness that is there for immediate access if we sharpen our methods to encounter and listen to the wisdom available.
How much time is this worth? For me it is priceless. Maybe I am not devoting enough time to my practices!
Enjoy your weekend. Find time to practice!
What Is Your Spiritual Practice? –Richard’s Commentary
We just got back from our local Spiritual Exploration Group here in Maryland. This is a monthly meeting of like-minded folks who we bring together to discuss spiritual topics of many colors. Our mantra is we get together for Discussion, not Dogma.
Tonight’s topic was Prayer. And we explored the many dimensions of what this means for people both as a word and as a practice. We began with our childhood remembrances of what prayer meant to us and our experience of prayer. We considered the Wikipedia definition:
Prayer is an invocation or act that seeks to activate a rapport with a deity, an object of worship, or a spiritual entity through deliberate communication.
And we discussed where we are now with prayer as a way of “connecting” to something greater than ourselves but that we find inside ourselves. We spoke of prayer as a way of generating and offering our energy for positive connection and transformation, or “lifting to a higher vibrational frequency.”
We even discussed the possible existence of “dark prayer” – negatively focused energy to counter the evolutionary path of human consciousness; and we wondered if prayer can be judged in this way if it is truly a “deliberate communication with a deity”! Is a negative prayer even a true prayer?
I bring this up because prayer is certainly a spiritual practice. For me the word sometimes has a negative impact because it is overloaded with memories of childhood when reciting the “Lord’s Prayer” seemed so rote and lifeless. As a young child required to memorize the prayer I wasn’t even clear on the meanings of the words.
Then it hit me! I, with 46-thousand of my closest friends, am tuning into Deva Premal & Miten every day to chant ancient verses from Holy Scriptures. They are offering a 21-Day Mantra Meditation Journey that began April 23. Today is Day-10. (You can sign up for this free daily practice here: Deva & Premal. And you can catch up because all of the chants they have shared so far are still posted.
So, I sit, eyes closed, each morning in a very open and loving state to chant, often Sanskrit, words I am not familiar with, over and over in a “rote-like” way. How is this so different from my childhood experience of reciting the Lord’s Prayer in a rote-like way?
OK, here’s the thing about that: I am in an altered state when I chant “Om Shanti Om” 108 times. I move into that state of true inner peace invoked by this mantra. I remember where my mind was when I “prayed” the Lord’s prayer as a kid – anywhere but on “Our Father”! I wasn’t seeking to develop “rapport” with “Him”; but with these mantras I am seeking to develop a rapport with the energies invoked by their vibrations, their words composed of sacred syllables, the transcendent quality of the constructs and how they sound when chanted, whispered, or just thought and felt as they vibrate through my being.
One of my Spiritual Practices is to chant. I have learned a number of chants from different traditions using languages from Sanskrit to Navaho. I have been ritually initiated into several. And they all transport me to another “place” where I can transcend this physical dimension of time, space and my body and commune with Spirit. And for me this is the best form of prayer to which I can aspire.
If you are at all interested in chanting and mantra meditation as a form of prayer I invite you with all my good wishes to tune in to Deva Premal & Miten. Here’s the link again:
21-Day Mantra Meditation Journey
All blessings!
INSPIRATION FROM ROSEMARY: Who Are You REALLY?
Rosemary’s video for the week: Who Are You REALLY?
PS: Book sale! Spring Book Special: Get Your Woman On! Embracing Beauty, Grace and the Power of Women – The Amazon Best Selling book that Rosemary co-authored with some amazing women – is available this month at a very special price –$12 with free shipping in the US and some great bonuses! This would be an inspirational gift for Mother’s Day for a woman who would like to read 39 stories of transformation. Here’s how to get your copy: Book Sale
Monday’s Poem: Faith
It was a tough week in many ways. Natural and unnatural disasters, a breakdown in the democratic experiment, even numbers don’t seem to hold much truth these days! I wrote this hanging out there somewhere between hope and despair:
Faith
A sense of the intrinsic goodness
of Life.
A connection to the evolving nature
of Consciousness.
A belief in something beyond the reach
of Humanity.
Are these tricks of the human mind?
Is there something beyond the matrix
We have built to protect our faith?
When we peer through the holes in
that matrix, the glitches that disrupt our
Flow, our faith
Grow large.
Faith in the matrix of military might
is not Life.
Faith that there is no connection between
drones and guns
is Unconsciousness.
Faith that someone or something out there
will save humanity
is naive.
Breathe down to your belly.
Feel there the vibrations of hope.
They quicken one’s own intrinsic goodness.
Find there the source of New Faith.
©2013 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
The Story is Not the Person! – Richard’s Commentary-Part 2
“The story is not the person.” But the person is part of the human story, as I wrote in my post yesterday. There is so much to Rosemary’s article posted Wednesday that I wanted to come at it from another angle.
She wrote of boundaries that people have that must be respected. We have them to protect our inner vulnerabilities. We all have these soft spots that can cause us great harm if exposed (at least that’s what we believe). But these boundaries can also become barriers to growth, to expansion, to the evolution of human consciousness I wrote about yesterday. There is a balance needed here that I want to explore today.
Rosemary writes: “Each of us has a responsibility to ourselves and to others to learn how to live in community with the people around us. We are not private islands with ‘No Trespassing’ signs on our foreheads! The most important lesson to learn about living in a civilized society is to learn what healthy boundaries are. Learn what to let in and what belongs to the other person.”
The question this begs is what are these healthy boundaries? Until we gain the answer here we may be hiding behind unhealthy boundaries (barriers) and blocking our own growth.
We all have secrets. We are human, we grow up in human families with foibles, stresses and all the baggage of generations of growing up in human families. Some secrets like those from our youth don’t necessarily need to see the light of day. If they served their purpose in teaching us then they can remain hidden; no harm done.
But if we have not yet learned the lessons from these secrets then perhaps they do need to be aired, to see the light. This is particularly true if the secrets, the unlearned lessons, are blocking our growth in some way.
Another form of boundary is the façade we erect to pretend we are someone other than the person we know on the inside. This is our persona; and we all have them. In fact we likely have several of them we “wear” in different situations. And this too is OK. We don’t necessarily want to expose the “real” person behind the persona in every social situation.
But if we always hide behind a persona in every situation we may be hiding something even from ourselves that needs to be examined. Our persona may form a barrier to our own true story that we need to understand. That story is the base for our expansion, growth, evolution.
The healthy boundary comes from a balance between over-exposure and hiding, between blurting out old, irrelevant information and withholding information that might help us better understand ourselves and others. With healthy boundaries in place we can move easily in society, learn as we interact with others and grow beyond those boundaries.
As Rosemary concludes: “Own your story but do not be governed by it. Be conscious of your responsibility to continue to grow. Help others to grow by allowing them to have their own stories while keeping healthy boundaries for yourself.”
Do you “own your story”? Does it set up healthy boundaries or barriers to your growth? The place to begin to answer these questions is to write your story down. It may have some lessons, some hidden gems that need to be mined!
Men and The Goddess 