Samhain

the celtic holiday in which we honor the ancestors and keep the children locked up tight for fear they will be taken by the fey folk. where a person dons a mask so as not to be recognized as human or fey and can therefore move between the veils with grace and ease.

since the veils of communication between the spirit world, the middle or faery world and our world are thin it is a wonderful time to communicate.

for the next couple of days if you have problems which need solving or advice from someone not of this place put it out there in written and spoken for. ask for ideas or suggestion to come to you in a dream, meditation or oracle of some sort.

be sure to listen carefully to what people are saying as your answer might come through them, also in forms like a flier on the ground.

it is a beautiful time to thank your ancestors as well. light a candle and be filled with gratitude.

if you want to leave a treat milk, butter, buttermilk, hazelnuts are all nice offering for the fey.

blessed be

Manifestation

So there is this craze happening in the world about a little thing called manifestation. Apparently it's a secret. I'm having an issue with The Secret.

Now I haven't yet read the book, nor seen the DVD because it is so bloody popular I can't get my hands on it (and well I refuse to buy it). This makes me incredibly happy on one level. Why? Because people are reading a book about how to manifest a great life for themselves. On the other hand it makes me cringe.

Life according to Amy goes something like this... I believe that we are amazingly powerful beings. I believe that we can in fact manifest anything we desire. The yucky places in your life are a product of your manifestation and are areas that need to be healed, strengthened, or shifted. In my reality Ego is that little piece of you that asks for things to be true and them promptly tells you that you can't get/do it for reasons x,y and z. The Ego must be continuously rewired to understand that we are spiritual beings having a human experience and that reality is "not real." I believe life is an experience we are all having, kind of like the Matrix, only once you pull out you don't go back in with super powers per se just with more information which means you can let it slide, move stuff around to your liking, and manifest better things for yourself. I don't think we end here in this little planet, in this little life, because we are made of bits and pieces from all over the universe and when we fall apart into our most basic elements we will just be recycled into something new. I believe we are here to learn, and that our most important job in the 80 some odd years we are gifted with here as this person is to learn to live in the present moment and savor each beautiful experience that comes our way. From this place of presence we can't help but fall madly in love with life, the earth and every thing around us. Every single thing is precious in some amazing way and it is here for a reason. That reason is balance. Even the annoying things serve a purpose.

So the stories I have been hearing about The Secret scare me. They involve rewiring the Ego to understand that all you have to do is believe you can have what ever you want and it will happen. This is a good thing. What one must remember are two very important things and it doesn't seem this book and DVD address them. They are:
1) Do not fall into the roll of victim when things aren't going the way you want them to. Victims are helpless creatures and can't do things, they are powerless to react or change situations. You do not want to be here. Unfortunately we are trained to live here. The Ego proudly proclaims it isn't my fault, it's theirs, or my parents, or the governments. You get the idea. When things are crappy it is probably because you have a broken piece that needs some reassurance/ rewiring. I suggest a good life coach, counselor or shaman to help you extract these wounded bits and replace them with lovely shiny bits.
2) Everything you take/ receive/ manifest must be paid for energetically. You now make lots of money Great! you now have a responsibility to use that money wisely and give back to the planet/ community. Why? Balance. How do you think the world got so messed up? People stole resources from the Earth without giving back and look where it has lead us. Pollution/ climate crisis/ war in Iraq/ poverty/ materialism/ greed. I trained in faery doctoring and the most valuable lesson I learned its that nothing in this world is free. You must give back, whether it be to create music, art, or a beautiful garden you must give back. Dis-ease like fibromyalgia, chronic pain, cancers and aids are running rampant. It is my belief that the fae steal part of our essence in order to balance the Earth this leaves people vulnerable and ill. No the fae aren't evil, they are trying to keep the world in check, which is a very hard job currently so they steal from us because we have stolen so much from them. Pick up trash, sing a song, play and laugh, it's really easy and mostly fun to give back. As a child you were probably trained to say "Thank You" this is exactly the same thing.

So manifest, live abundantly and create your own reality, but give back through service/ goods/ money/ or time. It will make you feel better and will help to restore balance. All you have to do is increase the beauty, love, or strength of the world. Take all of this with a grain of salt... keep what helps and throw thw rest away

Here are a few books that have helped me on my way...
Your Heart's Desire: Instructions for Creating the Life You Really Want

The Power of Intention

The Art of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal Life

The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success: A Practical Guide to the Fulfillment of Your Dreams (based on Creating Affluence)

Cinderella (shoes part 1)

So due to my work as a reflexologist I will be attacking shoes a lot in this blog. Please do not take offense and understand that from where I sit, at your feet, it is my job to tell you how damaging shoes are to you so that you can go forward in life and make a decision based on fact and fashion.

In the last post I was going on about this book Spinning Straw into Gold: What Fairy Tales Reveal About the Transformations in a Woman's Life and I needed to address the Cinderella shoe thing. If for no other reason then it made me look at shoes from a totally new perspective.

In the book she described the sexual relation to shoes and how for women it is a role reversal of sorts. The shoe becomes the vagina enclosing the foot. She makes a connection between the power women often surrender in daily life and how one simple action makes them dominate over something, slipping your foot into a shoe gives an illusion of control. AHH HA! I have finally got the reason for shoe fetishes. Now I am not Freud so I won't be analyzing you at our next session or in conversation, I just found it a fascinating way to think. This from a woman who currently owns 5 pairs of shoes. I never got why anyone would want to make their feet fit in the art pieces that are supposed to act as foot protection. Shoes as art I get, but please put them on display in your bookshelf and stop trying to walk in them.

I find it also interesting that the author points out the prince running around the country side putting shoes on all these women trying to find his mate. Naughty *grin* And in the original Grimm's fairy tale version the step-sisters actually carve up their feet to get their shoes to fit. *ugh* The scary thing is it's happening now as well, removal of the 5th toe is becoming a trend. Self mutilation to fit in. Wow.

So really this post has no point except to say that shoes that scream disfunctional, sex, grab me I can't run away, are truly serving their purpose and should therefore only be used in situations where the aforementioned is desired. Otherwise treat your feet and your body a bit kinder and where the clunky old shoes that provide comfort, support, and good running advantage.

Sleep

So I am reading this book entitled Spinning Straw into Gold: What Fairy Tales Reveal About the Transformations in a Woman's Life and there is a section on sleep. Basically the book links the transformations of a woman's life and relates them to different fairy tales. In the section about sleeping beauty she talks a lot about how we as a culture avoid sleep because it isn't "doing something".

Here are some of the physiological thing that actually occur in your body when sleeping. In REM the inner organs wake up and start working at full steam. The blood flow to the brain increase by 40%, the heart speeds up and slows with no apparent reason, and your metabolism increases.

In deep sleep or slow wave, the lightest time of sleeping where no dreams occur, very important things happen. This is the time when links are forged in your brain. The short-term memory talks to the long-term memory and associations and connections are forged. In this period of sleep consolidation of significant memories is completed and the information is becomes available to you in a more accessible form.

So in fact hard work is NOT enough. *phew* I can stop running around like a chicken with it's head cut off in the attempt to do more. The author Joan Gould makes this great point that Sleeping Beauty goes to sleep a girl and wakes into a woman. Instead of suffering through the pain and agony of growing up she simply slept and let her mind and body sort things out. So on those days when life really is too hard to get out of bed for, maybe we shouldn't. Maybe it'd be ok to let ourselves dream our way out of the depression we are caught in.

Also when I say to my beginning students to sleep on the material and it will be easier in the morning there is some scientifically documented proof that this is true.