Madame Mim and Native Americans

The little Mademoiselle on the left is me, aged three (I think), the photo in the middle is me, 60 years later, and the drawings (not mine!) are of Madame Mim, of Walt Disney fame.

Madame Mim is of course another funny archetype with which I have worked. She is the zany side of me, the “animated” Miss Marple in me. I love her dearly.

…The two comments on yesterday´s post don´t sound odd to me : I have a very keen inner relationship with the cosmos of Native Americans. Being such a nut about Ecopsychology (= the relationship of Humankind with Nature), I have this same…errr…sort of disinterested (questing ?) look on the Crazy White Man (the photographer)? Lol.The “heatmap” tech thingie and the colours no doubt emphasize the perception, but the energy is there, that´s true. It´s the Warrior of Shamballa in me that comes to the foreground through the “heatmap” thing. And yes, it´s the very same picture! (See how you can play?)

I am working in a journal with the original picture, in all sorts of nutty ways. What looks Native American can also look very ladylike with another option of the same programme. I´m working with all options, including an Andy Warhol-like pop painting type of collage.

Psychosynthesis calls these aspects of oneself “subpersonalities”, or “subs” (lol). All of us have lots of facets, and PS gives us the tools to make a true Mandala out of all of them, so that we can see that they are all fragments of the same Self, each semi-detached piece being a path in itself towards “center”. Some of these fragments are quite independent from the central ego-structure (what we generally call “me”), for example the Shadow realm on one “side” or on one hand, and then the spiritual side of our basic nature on the other.Very often these two aspects are not contained within the ego structure, and are “projected” onto other people. PS is the Path to reclaim all these projected aspects of ourselves (of our selves) and bring them into harmony, “owning” them, maybe for the first time in our life.

I think that PS, or any Path that practices “soul retrieval”, is especially good for ladies of “our age” (mmm…) because in a way our lives are behind us, we have already made our choices, and lived through the consequences, for good or for bad. At least that was my experience when I worked for my PS diploma with Will Parfitt (you´ll find a link on the side).

So yes, thank you, Susannah and Jill, I really appreciated the sharing of your perception.

The Mystical Experience

(Image : Soul card,  SG, 2009)

“The real meaning of enlightenment is to gaze with undimmed eyes on all darknesses.” (N. Kazantzakis)

“God has no religion.” (Mahatma Gandhi)

…I had several deep mystical experiences from the age of 8 to the age of 30, “peak moments” as they came to be called in Humanistic Psychology; all of them, each one of them, changed my life in a profound way.

I´m over 60 now, so it took me at least 30 years to completely integrate what happened when I was younger.

The first difficulty, as one can imagine, is how to remain rooted in reality when one just had the realization with all one´s senses and with absolute certainty that one is a conscious part of what other people have been calling “God”. I never ever said that I was “God”, but I said that I was an awakened part of what people call “God”, the same as us all. You really get to have to make sense of what you´re saying, and that wasn´t easy. Fortunately for me the contents of the experiences and the Vision that I slowly acquired also showed me that there were ways to say what happened without offending anyone! My experiences never inflated the ego, as they so often do. The heart of the mystical experience is too beautiful to be mistaken for something that an ego could produce, that much was clear from the start.

After that, after having been shown the interconnectedness of all, of the Great Chain of LIFE, of which I was now a conscious link, I really studied hard to get a sense of normalcy again. Except for a certain dancing light in my eyes, I functioned in the most normal way. Being “enlightened”, as they say, is no guarantee for being a balanced human being. And it is so, point-blank right on the nose! Hard work on oneself does that. I understood that very early on. And I did work hard on the person that I also was.

The sense of awe and the certainty that “all-is-Light” never left me. But I came to understand what the experience meant in contrast to what we are being fed through “education”. I studied hard then to be, one day, able to help others out of the dark tunnel of ignorance.

I also learned – sometimes quite painfully – that not everyone wants to hear the good news.

All in all, and with all, my life was changed forever and the more I understood, the more my view of the human plight changed, became more precise, more defined. The process of enlightenment is a gradual one, a continuous one, though the experience itself is more like a flash, out of time. If you think that it is a “wambam thank you m´am!” (lol)type of thing and you´re done, no, that´s not it at all. It is a long process of becoming more and more able to contain the Light, and to reflect it in a safe way. Progressively all functions align to the inner Light, until you are completely “normal” again, and seen as normal by others. The difference is just that you are being awake where most people seem to be fast asleep. This sleep being an illusion, as I learned going through the process of becoming a guide.

Enlightenment, my dears, is the basis of the normal human state of affairs, so you can measure how far we have strayed, as a species, from Home.

The ranting grandmother

(Image : Last Ray of Hope, collage on cardboard, SG 08)

…The image that people have of Druids is usually of white-bearded old men, doddering through the forest, with laurel in their long hair and a golden sickle to gather mistletoe or, more likely, to open the heart of a beautiful and willing virgin (I mean, litterally). Ridiculous. Truly, it´s time to do away with the cobwebs!

When I say that I am a Druid, I get this weird look, and then the question… Aaaah…Do you…err…cut mistletoe with a golden sickle, at midnight on full moons? *discreet chuckle,chukle* …Well, I can´t really see you doing that! Although …with you, one never knows…*more cackle*

Well, no. I don´t waltz through the trees in a white robe on dark nights, with wolves howling at my heels. Though…mmm…I like the image.

 You might see my involvement with Druidry as an ecopsychological stance. In my opinion it is urgent that we try to get to understand – to “grok” – the planet that we infest, lol. To understand, we have to observe. To observe we have to dedicate time and energy. To dedicate time and energy, we have to set priorities. And yes, for me, being with Nature, understanding Nature, including and first of all my very own inner one, wholeheartedly, is a priority.

What prompted my rant today? I just read an article saying that if we go on with our habits of consumption we will need another planet by 2030. That´s in 22 years. My grand´son will not even be 25, and the planet will be in such a disastrous state that we will probably have gone back to the caves(if we get to 2030, that is). Not a very nice perspective, to say the least.

 I am a woman, I am a grand´mother, and I am a Druid. I will speak for the trees (and for my unborn grandchildren, unto the seventh generation…). And no, I will not put on white robes – I will just be myself, jeans, a sweatshirt and my good old walking shoes. Have you hugged a tree, lately?

Damn it, is everyone sleeping???

PS.- Yeah, I have looked up the word consumption, and it means exactly what I want to say : the act of consuming, as by use, decay, or destruction, Pathology : progressive wasting of the body.

Yeah, yeah.

Double

H.O.P.E

(Image : Shamballa, soul card 1, SG 2002)

…Did you know that H.O.P.E is an acronym that means :

H-elp O-ur P-lanet E-volve…? (Anon)

PS.- Though I´m sure Mother Earth doesn´t need our help, thunk you very much (pun intended), so what about…

H-umanity…O-h, P-lease E-volve !…???

Pay me, pal!

 

(Image : Master El Morya, source unknown)

I have a rather bubbly, lightly sarcastic, view of the new-agey crowd (been there, done that). And what I found a few days back must be the weirdest among the pearls that I am collecting. There are some really funky zany views on the spiritual Hierarchy in the Net, but the extract below must well be the golden cherry on the glitzy purple cake :

(…)How To Win a PERSONAL Q&A SESSION With Master Kuthumi

Each month when you register for the Galactic Activation Conference via our Paypal link, you have a chance to win a personal Questions and Answers session with Master Kuthumi by choosing a number between 1 and 700 and typing it in the place on the Paypal invoice at checkout where it says : “MY RAFFLE CHOICE”.

If the number you choose is closest to the number that has been pre chosen that month by Master Kuthumi, you will win a chance to ask Master Kuthumi a question and receive his answer and any guidance he has for you at that time, at the end of that nights activation before the call ends.(…)

Let me smile. Ain´t that quaint or what! What is the chance that an elevated Being like that will know if Rita Sunshine, of Sacramento Landing, has to have a gluten-free diet – or if Bulagungule Okongole, of Kenya, really needs to sell that chicken to his mother-in-law?… *kewkewkew, the Lady Dragon, chuckling*

Hey! If you want to know anything at all about the spiritual Hierarchy, you put your money in my Paypal, and I´ll give you the real dirt about the subject!

No offense meant, to anybody, and especially not to Master Kuthumi.

Having said that, if the Masters really look anything like the drawing I also found on another site…I could..well… become a fan in two seconds flat!

*The Lady Dragon, preening herself before her mirror*

 

 

Conjunctio : The Lovers

(Image : Conjunctio, soul card, SG, 2005)

Each one of them: complete.

Each one of them, a perfect jewel.

Neither only man, neither only woman.

They are what each one is. Just that. They will cry and they will bleed, and they will share the gift of life.

As they touch they feel the same life force

 flowing in their veins, like living fire.

And so they shine, perfect jewels in a perfect necklace,

Glowing ruby-red on the throat of the Goddess.

Alchemy, practiced throughout the ancient world, is a science or art through which material is subjected to a serie of operations in order to produce gold or the so-called philosopher´s stone, the key to understanding everything. This latter was to be reached by the union of opposites in the final process called the conjunctio, normally imaged as the union of male and female in the form of the divine androgyne. Although alchemy was practiced as literal chemistry, it was also imaged metaphorically as a process of psychospiritual growth. In this sense, even the literal chemical process was imagined to hold the mental projections of the alchemist. It was Jung´s metaphor for the process of individuation whereby opposites are held in tension and brought into harmony through the constellation of a third possibility. The Lovers of Tarot come to mind, too, in which a couple is seen looking up at the blessing hands of an angel (Rider Waite).

Oh Hidden Life, vibrant in every atom,

Oh Hidden Light, shining in every creature,

Oh Hidden Love, embracing all in oneness,

May all who feel themselves as one with thee,

Know they are therefore one with each other.

(Annie Besant)

Shamballa

(Image : “Costa cantábrica”, MG, November 08),

“Out beyond understanding

At a pivotal point in remembering,

the spark burns.”

(Al-jioun´s Story, Swan, 2002)

The city with the golden domes lies before her eyes. The air is clear, the sky a crystalline azure, with wide beaches of cerulean and cyan colours. The high mountains roll down towards the west; snow-capped, ancient, powerful. An icy wind blown from the heights makes her shiver, time to go down, towards the temple-city.

It feels so good walking down the rocky path that she smiles. This could be another planet, she thinks, another time, another dimension, perhaps.

The yaks, like woolly packages, stand in the grey-green early autumn meadows. Time for tsampa, it seems. She hates tsampa, but she takes it when the monks offer it to her. Anyway, she tells herself, it´s something warm in the sub-zero temperature, and her fingers are grateful to close around a steaming bowl.

Shamballa lies against a high cliff, nestled at the end of the valley, the monks washing lines clearly visible on the ochre terraces. Or are these pieces of cloth swinging in the cold wind prayer scarves? No, they are dark red, not white. So, the monks robes, drying in the sun, like flags of a faraway country.

She takes it all in, the beauty of it all, the golden domes, the red robes, the ochre buildings, the blue sky, white clouds dancing by, the sun warming her skin. She herself looks like a bundle too, with the heavy layers of red and gold and turquoise damask superimposed against the cold. A bundle of love, she jokingly muses, squinting her eyes against the sun that now, at midday, is shining like hell itself over the pristine mountains.

Oh I wouldn´t like to be anywhere else. This is home.

Then she hunches her shoulders a bit, and enters through the magnificent dragon-carved door, into the forbidden city.

 

*tsampa*  – roasted barley flour. It is Tibet´s staple food, usually mixed with Tibetan tea, or po-cha, a salty yak-milk tea.

My religion

(Image : “Shamballa”, Shakti G., ´02)

My religion is the open sky, and its sacred music is the sound of water over rocks.
My religion, friends, Is the one that embraces all life,
And truly honours it.
My religion is the one that has forests as cathedrals, air as communion and every human being as priest and priestess.
My religion is the one that sees the Universe in a grain of sand,
and the smile of Divinity in every flower.
My religion is the one that does fear neither death nor light, because it is fully fulfilled in every in-taking breath.
My religion is one that does not exist yet, and still, is recreated in every shining sunrise.