Kundalini Splendor

Still Stunned

I ask myself over and over:
What happened?

A flame burned a hole in my being,
and I am grasping for insight into
this undeniable transformation.

Sometimes words help,
like a soothing ointment:
the infinite, silence,
the designing spirit, God.

Sometimes words fail.
They can't tell me
what, how, why now, why me.

If only I could surrender to the
sweeping movement of the
music, and, in the arms of my
Beloved, dance until the end of time.

Jan Elvee

Zen Poem


Long journey.

No guide.

Lots of deserts and mountains,
peaks and valleys.

Finally made it home.

Almost remembered
where I was.

Dorothy Walters
July 27, 2014

Poetry

Its door opens near. It's a shrine
by the road, it's a flower in the parking lot
of The Pentagon, it says, "Look around,
listen. Feel the air." It interrupts
international telephone lines with a tune.
When traffic lines jam, it gets out
and dances on the bridge. If great people
get distracted by fame they forget
this essential kind of breathing
and they die inside their gold shell.
When caravans cross deserts
It is the secret treasure hidden under the jewels.

Sometimes commanders take us over, and they
try to impose their whole universe,
how to succeed by daily calculation:
I can't eat that bread.


William Stafford

(image found on internet)

As many of you know, my friend Patricia Lay-Dorsey has received high national and international recognition for her outstanding work as a photographer.  Here is her latest accolade:

Dear friends and family

A quick note to let you know that today (July 28) the Arts section of the Huffington Post is headlining a feature about my self-portrait project, Falling Into Place. It is written by Priscilla Frank, the Arts editor, who found my work online and emailed to ask if she could feature it. Of course I said yes! I am very pleased with the sensitivity and understanding she brought to the writing of her article.

These are amazing times in which to live, times when your work can be seen by people all over the world without even leaving your home or studio. I am so grateful for opportunities like these that seem to drop into my lap.

The link is:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/28/patricia-lay-dorsey_n_5611147.html?utm_hp_ref=arts

Sending warm wishes to you all,
Patricia

This is an entry in Jung's Red Book (journal) in which he is speaking to his soul.
The voice, he says,  is from the spirit of the depths, as opposed to the spirit of the times.

On the second night, I called out to my soul:  I am weary, my soul, my wandering has lasted too long, my search for myself outside of myself.  Now I have gone through events and find you behind all of them.  For I made discoveries on my erring through events, humanity and the world.  I found men.  And you, my soul, I found again, first in images within men and then you yourself.  I found you where I least expected you.  You climbed out of a dark shaft.  You announced yourself to me in advance in dreams.  They burned in my heart and drove me to all the boldest acts of daring and forced me to rise above myself.  You let me see truths of which I had no previous inkling.  You let me undertake journeys, whose endless length would have scared me, if the knowledge of them had not been secure in you.
I wandered for many years, so long that I forgot that I possessed a soul.  Where were you all this time?  Which Beyond sheltered you and gave you sanctuary?  Oh, that you must speak through me, that my speech and I are your symbol and expression.  How should I decipher you?
Who are you, child?  My dreams have represented you as a child and as a maiden.  I am ignorant of your mystery.  Forgive me if I speak as in a dream, like a drunkard--are you God?  Is God a child, a maiden? Forgive me if I babble.  No one else hears me.  I speak to you quietly, and you know that I am neither a drunkard nor someone deranged, and that my heart twists in pain from the wound, whose darkness delivers speeches full of mockery: 'You are lying to yourself!  You spoke so as to deceive others and make them believe in you.  You want to be a prophet and chase after your ambition.' The wound still bleeds and I am far from being able to pretend that I do not hear the mockery.
How strange it sounds to me to call you a child, you who still hold the all-without-end in your hand.  I went on the way of the day and you invisibly with me, putting the pieces together meaningfully and letting me see the whole in each part.
You took away where I thought to take hold and you gave me where I did not expect anything and time and again you brought about fate from new and unexpected quarters.  Where I sowed, you robbed me of the harvest and where I did not sow, you give me fruit a hundredfold.  And time and again I lost the path and found it again where I would never have foreseen it.  You upheld my belief, when I was alone and near despair.  At every decisive moment you let me believe in myself.
Like a tired wanderer who had sought nothing in the world apart from her, shall I come closer to my soul.  I shall learn that my soul finally lies behind everything, and if I cross the world, I am ultimately doing this to find my soul.  Even the dearest are themselves not the goal and end of the love that goes on seeking, they are symbols of their own souls.
My friends, do you guess to what solitude we ascend?
I must learn that the dregs of my thought, my dreams are the speech of my soul.  I must carry them in my heart, and go back and forth over them in my mind, like the words of the person dearest to me.  Dreams are the guiding words of the soul.  Why should I henceforth not love my dreams and not make their riddling images into objects of my daily consideration?

Pages 130-132, Reader's Edition, The Red Book

History tells us that Copernicus (l6h century) was the first to offer a computational model of the universe which presented the sun, not the earth, as the center of the solar system.  Later Galileo proposed and refined this same theory and was called to account by the Church authorities, who clung to the old Ptolemaic view that the earth was the center of the universe, as the Bible appeared to claim.

Oddly, in the Rig Veda the following observation is presented:

Rig Veda 10.22.14
“This earth is devoid of hands and legs, yet it moves ahead. All the objects over the earth also move with it. It moves around the sun."

The Rig Veda was  composed in India approximately 1500-1200 BCE.  One wonders how the "rishis" received such information, since they lacked telescopes or computational equipment to discover such knowledge.  The ancients felt that such information came from the gods (alien visitors?)  One also wonders if modern scientists and historians are aware that these early people knew what was only discovered by  Europeans many centuries later.

Recently I watched a television show which asserted that recent analyses of ancient meteorites revealed that certain components necessary to the emergence of life were contained in these materials from outer space.  Thus one would conclude that this is how life began on earth, since these "seeds" were received early on.  This discovery seems to settle the long standing argument as to how life on earth came to be.  In other words, we are, in fact, all from another "planetary"or outer space source, just as many claim today.

(Image found on internet)

The following announcement is from the Shift Network 

Dear Dorothy Walters,

Our world is so thirsty for our Divine Feminine Shakti power that her arrival can stir quite a commotion, kinda like rain in the desert.

Because, awakening our Shakti blasts open our hearts, brings us up close and personal with our divinity, and unleashes our erotic life force energy — our very presence as awakening women can cause a ruckus. (And it's about time.)

Knowing how to manage others' projections (both positive and negative) and set healthy boundaries are tools we need in our Shakti “kit.”

And, you can get a head start (or “heart start”) in learning about these practices –– AND ask me your big questions about Shakti and my upcoming course, Awakening Your Shakti –– LIVE tonight at 5:00pm Pacific, during a special Q&A session. I’d love to hear from you. (See call-in details at the end of this email.)

Also, I’d like to give you a gift right now –– in the form of a teaching –– to save and use whenever you need it: a brief and effective practice to check in with your own boundaries.

Our "aura" is another word for the field of energy around us. Some people can "see" this as a kind of shimmering mirage or as a color emanating from a person. I'm not one of those people. But, I can sense and feel it. Modern physics has confirmed that we're mostly energy and not "made" from any real "stuff" anyway. So, there's basically nothing "woo-woo" about this concept anymore.

To begin this practice, get comfortable and take some deep breaths. Call your awareness inside, as you begin to relax with longer inhales and exhales.

Then, simply check in, or ask to be shown the edges of your own energy field right now.

You might find that your aura feels wrapped around you, almost like a blanket. Maybe you even feel your breath coming shallowly, or you feel overwhelmed or hunkered down — like you need to protect yourself from intrusion.

Or, perhaps your energy is flying out so far into the world that you feel a little groundless and without center, spaced out. Maybe your life force has its tendrils way "out there," because you’re busy worrying about others or trying to influence someone. Maybe you've got your nose in other people's business. Your breath may feel like it's all up in your head.

So after a bit of diagnosis, the next step is to re-establish your energetic field where it would best serve you. According to the experts, a healthy aura extends about three feet around the human body. If you stretch out your arms in front, behind, above, below and to each side of you, you can get a feel for that amount of space around you.

It's kind of like your body is an egg yolk floating in the field of the white, and the edge of your aura is the shell that keeps it altogether.

Except –– and this is important –– the "shell" doesn't keep us separate or walled-off from life. It has a function to protect and create a container of sorts for us, but it's also permeable — so connection, love, giving and receiving happen through it.

So, if your energy feels way out in the far reaches of the universe, call it back home to you. And, if you feel like you don't have room to move, then take a risk and claim your rightful space by pushing your energy out a little bit.

Whenever I do this practice and get my energy back in a healthy place, it makes me feel calm, strong, clear and back in my power center. My shoulders relax and the armoring around my chest dissipates. My heart feels more free to love. The fear melts. Notice what happens in your own body.

To close this practice (which you can do in just a few moments any time you need it), I always offer gratitude. An extra dollop of compassion for yourself is also a good idea –– it's no walk in the park being a spiritual being in this physical body of ours.

I close with prayer that usually goes something like: "Maha Shakti, thank you for giving me life, for allowing me to walk in beauty as your emissary. Thank you for protecting me as I go forth with love, light and awareness."

Find the words that work for you.

Blessings on your journey,
Lisa

PS - Remember to listen in tonight at 5:00pm Pacific, for my special Q&A session.  I’m looking forward to answering any question you have about bringing Shakti into your life!

Call in details:

Connect to the webcast at http://instantteleseminar.com/?eventid=57756792
Or dial +1-530-216-4294 and enter the PIN 461457#
PPS - Join me –– starting on July 29 –– for 7 weeks of powerful practices like this that will take you deeper into your Shakti power: Awakening Your Shakti course.



The Shift Network 101 San Antonio Rd Petaluma, California 94952 United States

Old Lovers Revisited

I think I am allowed
to go there now.
Even if I have transcended time,
and all its prescriptions.
Even if I disdain
what some say
never happened anyway,
not to me,
just to that unnamed Other.

I believe I can
reclaim
all of it,
that precious stuff
of half imagining,
half  desire.

Who cares
if it was real or not?
Why bother
to test it by acid
or flame?

We were together,
that is what matters.
Sometimes bodies
are allowed to touch,
to remember who they are.

Dorothy Walters
July 22, 2014

When we enter the purely transcendent realms, we are tempted to leave all our past experience behind--some call this earlier self merely an expression of ego.  And indeed, some systems of thought--especially Buddhism--claim that enlightenment occurs when we realize that our sense of ourselves is only a fiction, a myth we have invented about our own self and its experiences.  Actually, I embrace this latter concept, though in the poem the "I" rejects this notion for one which does not exclude our personal experience.
Even when we realize on one level that the "self" does not exist, we are called on to live in the human realm as if we were in fact an existent being.  And as a personal reality we are likely, in the latter part of our lives, not so much to live in the past but to reflect on and re-evaluate it, for life review seems appropriate here.  In the moment of profound awakening, we seem to "transcend time," but on another level, we still realize that time (for us in ordinary reality) exists--there is past, present, and future, and all are equally valid.

I could not resist putting up this poem by Wendell Berry, though it seems to have little to do with our topic.  Even as we grieve the loss of many beloved friends, we still often feel the sweet and soft flow of the energies within, reminding us that we live, always, at the heart of mystery, and that even in the midst of pain the divine connection with source exists.

Ripening

The longer we are together
the larger death grows around us.
How many we know by now
who are dead!  We, who were young,
now count the cost of having been.
And yet as we know the dead
we grow familiar with the world.
We, who were young and loved each other
ignorantly, now come to know
each other in love, married
by what we have done,
as much as by what we intend.
Our hair turns white with our ripening
as though to fly away in some
coming wind, bearing the seed
of what we know.  It was bitter to learn
that we come to death as we come
to love, bitter to face
the just and solving welcome
that death prepares.  But that is bitter
only to the ignorant, who pray
it will not happen.  Having come
the bitter way to better prayer, we have
the sweetness of ripening.  How sweet
to know you by the signs of this world!

- Wendell Berry
_________________________

Did you know that there is a site where you can find a listing of reported UFO sightings over Boulder and nearby areas, as well as sightings reported in almost all other parts of the country?  This record gives us pause.  Is something happening?  For many, it would appear so.
And if, indeed, UFO's are visiting our planet, many questions remain.  Who are they?  What do they want from us?  Are they friends or foes?
As you may know, there are numerous TV programs on UFO's past and present--material that once was to be found only on the National Enquirer now is available mainstream.
Personally, I neither believe nor disbelieve, but watch the growing phenomenon with interest.

http://www.nuforc.org/webreports/ndxlCO.html

The above site offers a record of sightings in this (Denver/Boulder) area.  Of course, these are not evaluated and many may be explained as coming from natural causes.  Others appear to be authentic UFO visitations.
Some one or two hundred are listed for this area, going back to the year 2,000.  Thousands are listed for the country as a whole.

Do these alien visitations have anything to do with Kundalini?  Some believe that the aliens operate on a much higher vibrational frequency that we do (hence the dangers from actual contact).  Many believe that Kundalini raises our own internal frequencies.  Could such transformation help to prepare us for contact with those from outer space?  Could the aliens in fact be bringing about the myriad Kundalini awakenings now happening all over the planet?
These are interesting areas for speculation, but I do not have any answers.

P. S. Recently I described my theory to a Jungian therapist who is quite active in our
local UFO study group.  She thought the idea had merit, and also mentioned that many of her clients who report UFO experiences have also had some sort of experience with Kundalini.

The following is an excerpt from Jung's Red Book, a volume which he "downloaded" in an altered state.  The "speaker" appears to be Jung's own inner guide or higher self:  in fact, the message resembles channeled information.  Jung, of course, followed the advice given here, and thus became one of the most original thinkers of his time.  Likewise, luminaries such as Andrew Harvey advocate what Andrew calls the "direct path," one which follows the advice of the inner counsel, rather than that of outside experts and authorities.  And, of course, yours truly has always relied on the "inner guru" rather than outside systems to follow the Kundalini path.  The latter, is I believe, the ultimate teacher, and will offer sage instruction to all who will listen, both through feelings and words.
This choice does not mean that one does not glean all possible wisdom from various teachers and writers, but rather that one is selective, testing all assertions and instructions for oneself rather than blindly following someone else's beliefs. 

Believe me:  It is no teaching and no instruction that I give you.  On what basis should I presume to teach you?  I give you news of the way of THIS man, but not of your own way.
My path is not your path, therefore I cannot teach you.  The way is within us, but not in Gods, nor in teachings, nor in laws.  Within us is the way, the truth, and the life.
Woe betide those who live by way of examples!  Life is not with them.  If you live according to an example, you thus live the life of that example, but who should live your own life if not yourself?
So live yourselves.
The signposts have fallen, unblazed trails lie before us.  Do not be greedy to gobble up the fruits of foreign fields. Do you not know that you yourselves are the fertile acre which bears everything that avails you?
Yet who today knows this?   Who knows the way to the eternally fruitful climes of the soul?
You seek the way through mere appearances, you study books and give ear to all kinds of opinions.  What good is all that?
There is only one way and that is your way, only one law exists, and that is your law, only one truth exists and that is your truth.
You seek the path?  I warn you away from my own.  It can also be the wrong way for you.  May each go his own way.
(Page 125 of the Reader's Edition of The Red Book, Liber Primus, The Way of What is to Come, )

Words
Dana Gioia

The world does not need words. It articulates itself
in sunlight, leaves, and shadows. The stones on the path
are no less real for lying uncatalogued and uncounted.
The fluent leaves speak only the dialect of pure being.
The kiss is still fully itself though no words were spoken.

And one word transforms it into something less or other—
illicit, chaste, perfunctory, conjugal, covert.
Even calling it a kiss betrays the fluster of hands
glancing the skin or gripping a shoulder, the slow
arching of neck or knee, the silent touching of tongues.
Yet the stones remain less real to those who cannot
name them, or read the mute syllables graven in silica.
To see a red stone is less than seeing it as jasper—
metamorphic quartz, cousin to the flint the Kiowa
carved as arrowheads. To name is to know and remember.
The sunlight needs no praise piercing the rainclouds,
painting the rocks and leaves with light, then dissolving
each lucent droplet back into the clouds that engendered it.
The daylight needs no praise, and so we praise it always—
greater than ourselves and all the airy words we summon.

The Man of Compassion

You are always
finding treasures
in the dirt,
taking them home
and washing and polishing them
until they sparkle,
then placing them on the mantle piece
for all to see
where they shine and glow,
proud of who they are,
little beams of light
igniting the dark.

Dorothy Walters
July 6, 2014

Old Lovers

What shall we do,
now that all our old lovers
are dead,
their bodies turned to ash?

Should we become the quiet grandmother
sitting close by the fire
remembering all
that has passed or gone away?
Write our memoirs,
shocking or plain,
hidden under the bed?

And if we too
cross that barrier
of time,
will we and they then
 meet together,
talk about the parts we played,
who wounded whom,
what delights were shared,
how it will go between us
next time around?

Meantime,
ghosts drifting, images of fate,
what took us to
our ancient paths
of longing.

Dorothy Walters
July 6, 2014

 



I received the following from Integral Life, about the passing of a vey wise man who will indeed be missed.  We need many more like him.

Remembering Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi

The world lost an extraordinary man last week. Our very good friend Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi passed away on July 3rd at his home in Boulder Colorado. For those who don't know him, Rabbi Zalman was the founder of the Jewish Renewal and Spiritual Eldering movements. He published over 150 articles and monographs on Jewish spiritual life, and has translated many Hassidic and Kabbalistic texts. He was truly a shining light in this world, and will be dearly missed by all of us.

In remembrance of Rabbi Zalman’s life and wisdom, we wanted to share these classic dialogues with you all, one of which is being made available for free. Please have a listen, and find your own way to celebrate this man’s incredible life and legacy.

Zichrono l’vracha – may his memory always be a blessing.

Exile, Imprisonment, and the Journey Towards a Self-Conscious Spirituality
 Audio

Our story begins with Zalman as a young teen living in Nazi-occupied Vienna in 1938. Although anti-Semitism had been present in Austria for many years, what was once an occasionally dangerous situation overnight became a lethally threatening one. Rabbi Zalman shares his tremendously moving story of narrowly escaping the shadow of Hitler in Nazi-occupied Europe, discovering his own spiritual path, and coming of age in some of the most difficult conditions imaginable. We invite you to listen in on a master storyteller sharing a truly incredible chapter of his life as a young man, taking place in a world marching steadily towards the greatest conflict it had ever seen....

+LISTEN NOW

God in the 21st Century
 Audio

Does the fact that Moses didn't literally part the Red Sea mean that all spiritual and religious concerns are null, void, and illusory? Rabbi Zalman and Ken Wilber discuss the current atmosphere of attack on all things spiritual, and how a more compassionate and integral spirituality could change the tone of this crucial conversation.

+LISTEN NOW

Sex, Drugs, and Rock of Ages
 Audio (FREE)

In reviewing Wilber‘s The Eye of Spirit, Rabbi Zalman stated that "the Kabbalah of the future will lean on Ken‘s work"—and in this absorbing dialogue, Zalman and Ken discuss the new Kosmology, and how "Kosmology plus Kabbalah" is where much exciting work now lies. In a particularly valuable segment, Zalman outlines his 7 basic recommendations for an integral spirituality.

+LISTEN NOW

I received this e-mail from Terry Patton of Beyond Awakening.  I also listened to this broadcast and was glad to receive this summary response.  Beyond Awakening offers in its archives interviews with many important speakers and spiritual teachers of our time, including this one.


http://beyondawakeningseries.com/blog/archive


Dear Dorothy,

Last Sunday, I was joined by the internationally-renowned scientist, philosopher and visionary, Ervin Laszlo for a public conversation we titled “The Self-Actualizing Cosmos: The Akasha Revolution in Science and Human Consciousness.”

The conversation ranged quite widely, and some of what he had to say even startled me.

I wasn’t surprised when he began by describing his synthesis of the radical holographic implications of the new physics, a paradigm for which he borrows the Sanskrit term “Akasha” to refer to the quantum vacuum, or originating field that is more fundamental even than matter and energy.

Or by by his assertion that "you don’t see the quanta, you see the effects. The universe is basically an unobserved wholeness of which the observed elements are those that meet the five senses. We try to understand the whole, but we’re working by inference.”

No, what startled me was that I had expected to challenge him on why he spoke so consistently of “consciousness” but not of “God” or “spirituality”—even though the implications of his vision of reality are, in most people’s view, profoundly spiritual. But I didn't need to challenge him at all! He went straight to the spiritual aspect on his own.

Ervin said what he’s talking about is really not any different from the classical spiritual notions. And he freely associated his notion of Akasha with ancient mystical concepts dating back 5,000 years or more. He cited Plato, Pythagoras and Plotinus and drew parallels with this ancient notion of reality: The world is not what you see—what you see is the effect of unseen realities that are the real nature of the world.

(Note from Dorothy--also, this idea is similar to the Eastern notion of maya--that what we see in the material universe is not the reality itself, but is reality veiled.  Western science approaches nearer and nearer to the concept of maya, but few scientists point this out, though many do agree that everything is in fact not solid matter but energy.)

He also testified to his own “inverse optimism.” He said that he’s very optimistic in terms of human potential, but quite pessimistic in terms of the current holding pattern of the dominant paradigm. He thinks the break is about to come and that we had better be prepared for it.

But he explained that being prepared means discovering a more healthy way to be before this break and opening ourselves up to a source of wisdom in the cosmos that can enable us to feel what is needed.

There was much more, so I hope you will tune in to listen to this illuminating, powerful dialogue. I invite you to access the recording and read more about what we discussed here.

To our evolution,

Terry

Rivers Carved
(for the elders and the poets grown old)

An aged man is but a paltry thing,
A tattered coat upon a stick, unless
Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing,
for every tatter in its mortal dress.
                                   Yeats

It is enough,
these years engraved
upon the face,
the wrinkles like dry river beds
coursing across
the flesh.

What, we ask,
did it mean
to be young
and passionate?
What was the purpose
of so much sorrow,
so many griefs?

Who shattered our hearts
so many times?
How often did we fail
to meet the mark
we had set for ourselves?
How did it happen,
that meeting with the One?

Abandonment,
deceit, a taste of glory--
we drank
our fill of these
and now navigate our craft
into the harbor,
take our ease,
contemplate the distant flute
of time.

Dorothy Walters
July 6, 2014

I received the following announcement from the Shift Network this morning.  Clearly, this is an important series, useful to anyone on a mystic path or spiritual journey.  I am especially interested in the final session on July 10 with Andrew Harvey and Mirabai Starr, two of my all time favorites.  And---as far as I can tell--the sessions are free--the only charge seems to be for recordings of the presentations.



Dear Dorothy Walters,

Are you ready to learn from the world’s top experts about how you can ignite your Shakti — and awaken the heart of feminine sensuality, sex and the Sacred?

You’re in luck, because you’re already registered for The Shakti Summit — which starts TOMORROW — and we have an impressive line-up for you!

We’re all revved up for this amazing online event, where you’ll discover ways to activate your feminine life force energy to become more empowered, pleasure-filled, joyful and whole.

We kick off the next two days with an intro session this evening with Summit Host Lisa Schrader in conversation with Stephen Dinan, the CEO of The Shift Network. Join us at 5:30pm Pacific / 8:30pm Eastern to learn “What is Your Shakti Power?”

And here’s the full schedule of what you’ll hear throughout the next few days:

WEDNESDAY

Jul 9, 9:00am | The Power of Venus with John Gray, Ph.D.
Jul 9, 10:00am | Innate Erotic Genius and Its Evolutionary Impact with Saida Desilets
Jul 9, 11:00am | Dharma Shakti: The Source for Outrageous Creativity and Ability to Manifest Your Vision with Chameli Ardagh
Jul 9, 12:00pm | Creating Delicious Sexual Partnerships with Alison Armstrong
Jul 9, 1:00pm | 5 Things You May Not Know About Polyamory and Conscious Relating with Deborah Taj Anapol, Ph.D.

THURSDAY

Jul 10, 9:00am | Sexual Healing and Reclaiming Your Shakti Power Through Radical Forgiveness with Colin Tipping
Jul 10, 10:00am | Stop Playing Small in Your Sensuality - Release the Habits that Cause Your Suffering with Rev. Jennifer Hadley
Jul 10, 11:00am | How To Attract Incredible Abundance By Marrying Yourself with Leonie Dawson
Jul 10, 12:00pm | Creating Love On Purpose - How to Have It All with Orna and Matthew Walters
Jul 10, 1:00pm | Exploring Passion and Eroticism in the Feminine Mystic Experience with Andrew Harvey, Mirabai Starr

Click here to see the full schedule and details about each session.

Trust me, you’re not going to want to miss any of these enlightening sessions!


HOW TO LISTEN IN

Your dial-in number and PIN for all of the Shakti Summit sessions is:

Call in number: +1-530-216-4294 (click here for other access numbers and methods)
Your access PIN is: 461457# (backup PIN: 428379#)
If you’ll be listening over the internet instead of on the phone, you can click on the links in the list of sessions above (or just go to the schedule page).


LIFETIME ACCESS TO THE RECORDINGS

A recording of each call will generally be made available within 24 hours, and the replay will be available for 48 hours after the initial broadcast, so you have plenty of time to listen to this important and valuable content.

But we know that having permanent access to the wisdom of the summit can really help you integrate and practice what you learn here. If you order now you’ll receive 30% off the downloadable recordings and transcripts, so you can access the information any time, and as many times as you want.

Find out all the details here:
http://theshaktisummit.com/upgrade


SHARE THE SHAKTI SUMMIT

This is a perfect time to share this great free offering with your friends and colleagues. Even if people miss the start of the summit, they'll have free access to the replays for 48 hours after the broadcast, so they have plenty of time to listen, learn and be inspired by these illuminating sessions. The more women in your community who know about the power of the sacred Shakti energy, the more YOU will be supported on your own journey.

We’ve set up a beautiful page which has all kinds of resources to help you help us get the word out about The Shakti Summit. Email your friends, share on Facebook and Twitter, post on your blog… click here to get everything you need!


Here’s to a truly sumptuous week, connecting with the gifts of your divine feminine essence!


  Alison Marks
Director of Telesummits, The Shift Network


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Divine Feminine Awakening

Water Shed

The green expanse of duck weed
Parts and there he sits,
Proud - or so I imagine -
In all his feathered irridescence,
Shedding water with neither thought nor effort.

The late Spring rains
Fall on Sonoma Mountain and English Hill,
Dancing down the Laguna and Atascadero Creek.
So Wintergreen becomes Summergold.

But where are the salmon, the steelhead,
The pronghorn and the grizzly?

There is so much for us to grieve now,
So much lost that we will never see again.
And yet so much still arising
That we have only begun to dream.

Can we shed despair
As we shed our tears
And see with clearer eyes
The shining form just now emerging?

- Larry Robinson

The Flag

At our best
                    we show our true colors,
                       fly the flag that stands
                       for our deepest, broadest
                      allegiance to each other,
                      to the Earth holy & diverse.

                   These are my colors:

                   red of my love that colors all
                 & is the root &; flower &; fruit,
               the heart of my belief
                 & what I know of truth.

               orange of my abandon, my surrender
                     to my living, mindless of laws
                 that would fetter the steps
                    of my wildest dances.

                  yellow of my joy that tastes
                   of the sun, exultation in the
                  wealth of the senses,
                  root of my power & my love.

                    green of my hopes that wing
                    my desires & lend will
                 to my acts, that inform
               even my opposition
                     to outrage.

                    blue of my memories
                    that make my history of wings
                  that soar to the mountains
                     & drop to the ravines,
                 complex topography of myself.

                  purple of my sorrows, my remorse,
                      my shame for betrayals of the heart,
                   most often of omission,
               through weariness or fear.
                       This is my flag;
                               its colors run,
                       diffuse at the edges,
                               blend, shade
                       into hues, half-tones
                               difficult to name.

                       The tongues that praise it
                     are so many, so varied, & so sweet
                     their chorus rivals the birds'
                 & silences the angels in their flight.
                       Known everywhere
                               as sign of peace & joy,
                       let this be our flag;
                               its colors dance.

- Rafael Jesús González

For the Unknown Self

So much of what delights and troubles you
Happens on a surface
You take for ground.
Your mind thinks your life alone,
Your eyes consider air your nearest neighbor,
Yet it seems that a little below your heart
There houses in you an unknown self
Who prefers the patterns of the dark
And is not persuaded by the eye's affection
Or caught by the flash of thought.

It is a self that enjoys contemplative patience
With all your unfolding expression,
Is never drawn to break into light
Though you entangle yourself in unworthiness
And misjudge what you do and who you are.

It presides within like an evening freedom
That will often see you enchanted by twilight
Without ever recognizing the falling night,
It resembles the under-earth of your visible life:
All you do and say and think is fostered
Deep in its opaque and prevenient clay.

It dwells in a strange, yet rhythmic ease
That is not ruffled by disappointment;
It presides in a deeper current of time
Free from the force of cause and sequence
That otherwise shapes your life.

Were it to break forth into day,
Its dark light might quench your mind,
For it knows how your primeval heart
Sisters every cell of your life
To all your known mind would avoid,

Thus it knows to dwell in you gently,
Offering you only discrete glimpses
Of how you construct your life.

At times, it will lead you strangely,
Magnetized by some resonance
That ambushes your vigilance.

It works most resolutely at night
As the poet who draws your dreams,
Creating for you many secret doors,
Decorated with pictures of your hunger;

It has the dignity of the angelic
That knows you to your roots,
Always awaiting your deeper befriending
To take you beyond the threshold of want,
Where all your diverse strainings
Can come to wholesome ease.

~ John O'Donohue ~

(To Bless the Space Between Us)











__,_._,___

Recently I listened to a youtube presentation from a well known yoga teacher on the merits of following an established lineage as opposed to the Direct Path (guidance from the inner guru).  This speaker was very articulate and he offered a cogent argument for following an established yogic path under the guidance of a qualified external guru.  He pointed out that these traditions had been tested for many hundreds of years and had proved their benefits for generations of practitioners.  They can be handed down from teacher to teacher, bringing the insights and techniques from ancient times into present settings.  He insisted it was important to find an authentic guru, who himself was the disciple of an authentic guru, who also was the same.

Although this speaker felt he had benefitted from his choice to follow a prescribed tradition, there is much more to be said on this topic:

First, in ancient times the guru was virtually the only source of the kind of knowledge desired by spiritual seekers.  There were no newspapers, books, T. V. presentations, workshops, or Youtube talks as is the case today, with information freely available on virtually all topics of interest, including yogic lore.

Second, he seems to assume that the seeker is incapable of following his/her own inner guidance, and ignores the possibility of receiving help from one's own inner teachers and guides.  He compares the danger of following one's own intuition to having surgery from someone who lacks medical training, or building a house under the direction of someone not trained as an architect.  He implies that by ignoring the traditional lineages, one risks getting nowhere in one's practice.  He seems to advocate intense immersion into the classic sacred texts, for only they can offer the knowledge that is sought.

Now, I have no bias against studying the ancient texts (indeed, I read them often), but I think he makes a gross error of logic when compares those who function in the material realm (surgeons, architects) with those who are pilgrims on the spiritual journey.  Awakening can occur in amazing circumstances and to those who appear on the surface to be the least ready.  Sometimes past lives appear to be involved.  The apprentice yogi can make dramatic progress or suddenly emerge as a master, bringing the ecstatic energies easily up into the head or other parts of the body.  Further, some may follow the prescriptions of the ancient texts for years, disciplining the body through asanas, diet, mantra practice, etc., and still never arrive at the blessed moment of realization.  Certainly, one profits from teachings on technique, such as asanas, tai chi, or chi gong practices.  But even in these areas, one may choose to modify the technique to suit one's one purposes--when the energies flow, the practice is correct.  One does not practice merely to attain perfect form.  One seeks the feeling that is the desired product of the form, however it may be attained.

The writer does not deal with the danger of the "corrupt gurus," so prevalent in our society--we have all heard the stories of these false teachers who have taken extreme advantage of their pupils through sexual or financial or other forms exploitation,

For me, the proof of the method is in the results it produces.  It is experience, not theory,
which offers the final test.  The "jug and mug" method may please some, but for many of us, such surrender to "authority" is disempowering.  We prefer to use our own minds to challenge all systems and to validate through personal experience the authenticity of the
"method," the pathless path that leads to the gateless gate.

I was for many years a classroom teacher in the humanities.  Our aim was not to teach students what to think, but rather how to think.  Without the capacity for "critical thinking,"  we fall into the class of those who prove their points by insisting that "the Bible says," or who follow blindly some ancient faith based on extreme emotion and sometimes dangerous perspectives rather than compassion and love,

Finally, it is important to note that these systems are themselves the creations of highly patriarchal institutions, where the "authorities" are given unquestioned allegiance and hierarchies are the rule.

(Picture found on internet)