Quantum change is magic every moment

A quantum change, a miracle, is a rapid personal change, a sudden, profound and enduring positive change that is instantly life-affirming.  Sounds big, doesn't it?  Like something that only happens once, or rarely, or to others more gifted or tuned in.

 Like being chosen to stand in the sun instead of struggle along in the snow and cold.

   

But what if such moments happen all the time?  What if it is not only the miraculous moment happening TO us, but our self-aware and conscious intention recognizing the stream of discontinuous positive change available around us at every moment.  What if it is our intention that makes space IN us for miracles to become routine.  These thoughts are all thanks to Dawson Church in his book, The Genie in your Genes.  

Here are some modest examples of recognizing this flow of positive change, illustrated with images from my Journey Oracle cards.

I am feeling swamped with too many commitments.  Stress is mounting and last night I did not sleep very well.  This oracle card seems to convey exactly the sensation of a too busy mind at 2 am.

Lying in bed in the early morning I decide to let my agitation go, "just stop"  I say to myself.  "In this moment I am comfortable, warm, and at ease. This moment is all there is."  My partner then says, "I guess you don't need to come to work this morning, I'm not going to be doing something you can help with."

Suddenly the sensation is one of brightening, as if the sun came from behind the clouds.  I realize with an aha! that its not that I  have so much I can't get it finished, but that I have been building an energy field of unbalance around the tasks, letting them loom over me like rain clouds.  This oracle card shows that I have a choice to look to the dark, or to the light.

A student calls to book an appointment.  I only have this afternoon available so we set a time.  After the call I spend some time wondering what shall we do?  She is asking for magic to come into her spiritual practice so it can be re-energized, and what we usually do is talk about what is going on in her life. This oracle card image seems to pose the question: how is talking to an old woman going to be magic?

 My student calls back to say she has to cancel because she has been asked to do child care instead.  A young family needs her help and she could use the money.

What a moment of recognizing the flow of positive change!   Time with three children on the beach and in the forest of Cortes Island will have magic in every moment.

We talk about how to pay shamanic attention to the experience because it is taking her on a journey into revelation about energizing her life.  This oracle card image captures the electricity of  such a magical focus.

I just now turned to the end of  Dawson Church's book to read about the ten principles of Epigenetic medicine, and did not get any further than this amazing quote:

The winds of grace are always blowing, but you have to raise the sail.  Ramakrishna.

I think I'll go sailing more often.

Drive the Olympic Peninsula as an oracle journey

I just returned from driving the Olympic Peninsula, but instead of reading tourist maps I read the adventure as a journey into my inner wisdom, just like doing an oracle reading with my Journey Oracle deck.

I began by thinking of the trip as a situation, just like the Journey Oracle asks me to focus on a situation or question for which I want advice.  This road trip reading was about driving to Oregon to visit family and friends whom I haven't seen for several years.

Returning to my hometown has choices and actions that are tangled, just like the old growth forests of the Peninsula are difficult to move through.   Yet both hold the reward of depth and revelation by following a good path.

The Journey Oracle cards use visual and verbal symbols and analogies to stimulate self-discovery. By translating the 4 categories of an oracle reading into aspects of nature during our drive, my anxieties, fears and desires emerged  to be recognized and resolved.   Certainly one of my emotional energies to untangle were my strong feelings that my family and I would have disagreements regarding our differing political views.  This tributary of the Elwha River seemed a perfect metaphor.

The Journey Oracle next asked me to focus on my experience of the situation, to unveil the forces that are moving beneath my experience.  The perspective of this scene near the Hoh River is quite confusing, yet the detail of small twigs and lichen is very beautiful.

Perhaps by focusing on each moment, and staying present to my emotional tone,  I will be able to feel the aspects of each interaction that are worthy of  kindly and respectful attention.  This image of Madison Falls, with its easily accessible self-guiding trail, is a much better oracle card image for spending time with family.

The third oracle card in a reading represents the change that is calling me in the situation.  We had a shift of plans and found ourselves not camping, but staying at the Bishop Victorian Hotel in Port Townsend on our return trip.

What a change of plans!

I found myself reflecting on how oldest friends, and siblings, have the longest story about how I have become who I am.  There were no awkward moments, but regular kindness and careful attention to steer away from topics that would cause discord.  Like finding a comfortable room filled with warm light and antiques.   Certainly the furniture is delicate, but also well made and capable of lasting for decades more.

The last card of a Journey Oracle reading is the resolution of the situation.  Old relationships have value, and although times and choices change, shared memories and stories can be a dock that creates safe harbour.

Ways to create Oracle card readings

A woman purchased my Journey Oracle cards, and recently sent me an interesting question: how to use the cards for a general inquiry, rather than for a specific situation?  More particularly, how do the oracle cards representing change and the resolution contribute if the reading is not about a problem.

Here are some ways of creating Oracle card readings.

I draw one card and describe its image as a theme that is moving in my life: the colors and shapes and what I associate with these.  This oracle card certainly underlines a constant pattern in my life of joining—my shamanic path with my Buddhist practice, my quiet island home combined with my travelling to give oracle card and drum-making workshops.  

I then turn to the Resolution page for this oracle card, which is a fairy tale, and read this like a metaphor or analogy giving insight about the theme.  Sometimes the entire story applies, sometimes only a sentence or phrase brings revelation. In the fairy tale for this oracle card, titled Meeting the Wolf, this last sentence jumps out.

         Later, when the woman told others of the experience, she discovered that during the encounter, she had no thoughts about the symbolic meaning of wolves and no noticing of spiritual messages; there had only been meeting the wolf.

I understand that my joining of different interests and practices does not require being split.  the image is whole at the mouth, which can speak the beauty of both ways together.

 

 Sometimes I draw several cards that I name with stages of a journey I am on in some part of my life.  The first oracle card may be called, “Where I am now” while the next is named, “Watch for this sign as a good way to go”.  Perhaps next is an oracle card I name “Avoid this danger” and the last is called “This is where I am going.” 

 

I also create a shamanic journey by choosing a group of cards to work with.  I like to let these literally fall from the deck as I begin to mix the oracle cards up.  I arrange the cards in a line, circle, or other significant shape to my situation. 

I gaze at the first card allowing it to flow through my awareness. I see/feel myself going into the picture.

I continue slowly to the next oracle card, entering the landscape and meeting the creatures and people.

I let the images move and speak.  I speak aloud or journal impressions and insights as I travel along the cards.

 I journey into the last card, asking my speech to be eloquent and my words to be poetry. 

I return to this reality by spontaneously turning over any card in this journey spread.  I notice its number and symbol of either a diamond or a circle.  I turn to he pages titled Meet the Oracle / Receive Messages in the Journey Oracle book of pronouncements.  Depending on the symbol, I read either the phrase or the question for insight from spirit to conclude my journey.

Do you realize you have your own story to write?

As I hope is evident from these examples, there is no one or correct way to use the Journey Oracle.  However, I do follow a code of reciprocity.  When I do a reading, I give a gift to the Oracle when I finish.  This might be a song or a sweet breath of incense.  I may pour water on the ground, or put bread crumbs outside in a little hollow cup of moss.  In this way, I give food to the Oracle in Nature, because I have received the food of this ancient wisdom.

Heal a broken heart with plant helpers

Here is a ceremony to heal a broken heart with 4 medicine plant helpers: Cedar, Tobacco, Sweetgrass and Sage.

I begin by finding a beautiful tree, one that will allow me to sit at its base with my back against the trunk.  Here on the Canadian northwest coast, the Western Red Cedar is Mother Cedar who helps all her human and other than human children by making every part of herself useful.  In this ceremony it is her powerful healing energy that will flow into my broken heart.  She is the wise mother who knows that what is born must also pass away.

If my broken heart is from a lost, departed or betrayed love, I find married trees, who will know my feelings of loss deep in their roots.

I find a flat sided stone about the size of my open palm and put this near me as I sit on the ground in the scented needle duff.  I bring a bottle of water that I place nearby.  I lean back against the tree and be kind to my heart by acknowledging my present emotions, whatever these may be.

I bring tobacco with me in a form that has the least chemical additives I can find.

When I  use tobacco in a ceremonial way it does not result in my addiction since three factors are present:  moderation, respect for its organic source, and a positive regard for this sacred teacher that brings humans wisdom while it also feeds spirit powers in the alternate realities.

I light a cigarette and with the first exhalation I offer a good thought for myself and for everyone in my broken-hearted situation.  With a second puff I try to just rest in stillness, and with a third exhalation I look to receive insight about my situation from an inner image or words, or an intuitive feeling.

I then break off the still burning end of the cigarette, peel away its paper, and leave the tobacco on the flat rock so the smoke can carry my respect and gratitude to all who are willing to help me.  I make sure the smoldering ash is fully out before continuing with my ceremony.

I next pick up a sage bundle.  I light the tip and wash in the smoke, pulling the smoke into my heart and over my head, then along my torso and around my feet.  I wash away my anger and confusion, and the imbalance that comes with fear and loneliness. I make sure any smoldering tips of the sage plant are broken off and added to the tobacco ash on the flat stone. Again I wait until the sacred smoke is finished before continuing.

I last take up a sweegrass braid that has been given to me rather than purchased by me.  I understand it is important to not sell the sacred healing plants that the earth freely gives to us.  Sweetgrass is the teacher of kindness and forgiveness who gives her compassion to all in need.  I light the tip of the sweetgrass braid, again pulling the smoke into my heart and over my head and speak a prayer of well being.

May I be safe and protected from inner and outer harm.

May I be happy and peaceful in my heart.

May I be strong and healthy in my body.

May I make my way joyfully in the world.

I say this prayer of loving-kindness from Ahjan Sona, the Abbot of Birken Forest Monastery, because it brings my Buddhist practice into this shamanic healing ceremony with such simple beauty.

I add any still burning stems of sweetgrass and ash to the stone. I sit quietly with whatever feelings arise, refocusing on the strength of Mother Cedar at my back in this time of growth and transformation.  To finish I wash the ash from the three plant helpers into the soil beneath the stone.

And I do this simple ceremony again the next day, and the next, and the next.  Until I realize I am safe and strong, making my way joyfully with a peaceful heart, thankful for these sacred plant helpers.

Make a frame drum with four directions teachings

I have just returned from a drum making workshop in the West Kootenay region of British Columbia, where the four directions were our teachers.

When I invite the four directions to come and sit with us, the first to arrive is the West.  This is because to build a drum the deer must pass through Death,

The tree also must transform through many versions of rough wood to a smoothly shaped and sanded hoop.

We also must pass through the unknown of preparing a hide and working with our hands in a powerful way.

The North is next to arrive with its medicine lessons as we learn the stories of the deer's life, written in the size and thickness of the hide, and in the colours, scars and marks on the animal's skin.

The East comes next with knowledge.  The East brings teachers and the experience of having to make choices that cannot be reversed.

We also learn from the East that gratitude is shown for the gifts given by the Earth by not naming anything "garbage."  Every part of the skin finds a purpose or is returned respectfully to nature.

The South is the direction of birth and growth.  Once the hoop is laid onto the hide and trimmed to fit, a drum is born.

Just like the young of every form of life, a drum goes through many stages of growth as it slowly takes its finished form.

Perhaps the greatest gift from the South is our own growing into relationship with this spiritual companion; our drum that has come to give a voice to spirit through the teachings of the four directions and our good hands.

Thanks for three magical days from the Journey Oracle.