For most people, psychic gifts need to be relearned in each lifetime. The world is vibrationally distinct in each lifetime — and so is your physical body. It is only natural that you would have to relearn how to be energetically in relationship to yourself and to the world. This is particularly true about how we relate to our soul’s journey and foreknowing future aspects of it.

Whatever your soul planned to do here before you incarnated on Earth has probably changed. Especially if you incarnated before 1972. Humanity changed. The planet changed. Whatever your soul decided to do here on Earth before you incarnated has probably changed.

During the past 50 or so years, there have been multiple shifts in our reality that our souls did not anticipate. Depending on when in our linear timeline your soul decided upon this lifetime’s goals and challenges, you may be experiencing yourself as disconnected from your own life. Isolation is one symptom I commonly hear from clients, as well as the sensation of floating away from the physical life you are living. From my experience, this simply means that what your mind may think is your soul’s journey is no longer your soul’s journey.

Most of us have been told by someone at some point either what our soul’s journey is, or have figured it out for ourselves. For me, I feel that no one can fully understand or know the journey of anyone’s soul. Not even our own. But we can have senses about what we are drawn to do in this lifetime, and how we are to do it.

Because of the dramatic changes that have already taken place and the increasing pace of future changes, I find it useful to revisit the trajectory of the journey of one’s soul on a regular basis.

The soul’s journey is more apt, at this point in time, to be revealed first to your body, then to your heart, and finally to your brain. Once entered into, your new soul’s journey will continue to weave and shift throughout your lifetime. Learning how to monitor and adapt to changes in your soul’s journey is most useful.

As you explore your journey, it is your mind that is able to look backwards and tell you where you have been. It is the heart and body that can look into the present moment and tell you where you are. Together, the mind, heart and body can chart a potential path for your future. But this is usually the near future, as your external world continues to shift and change.

I am emphasizing here that the brain can only look back at what has already happened. Most of us use our minds as the determiner of what to do. This leads us to repeat old patterns and repeat the same unwanted results. When this happens it is easy to assume that we are not in touch with our inner spiritual life or outer world.

But perhaps there is another reason. We experience the present moment most strongly not as thoughts but as kinesthetic sensations in our body. Simply put, the body lives only in the present moment. The mind remembers the past and can anticipate the future. Our minds therefore live without being anchored in the present moment. This can be very helpful, but not if you are trying to understand your soul’s journey right here and right now.

Big Picture Information from Thoth:
About 1997 our system of creating linear time changed. Because of this our psychic ability no longer sees the future with the ease it once did. This is because we are no longer creating our future probabilities in the same way as we were before.

Our new system of psychic perception of the future looks more like this: Our body sees where we are in the present moment. That information rises to our heart center. The heart feels our relationship to this present moment. Do we like it and want to extend our experience or are we ready to move onto some other experience? Our heart answers this question and sends the information to our brain. Our brain collects the information from our body and heart, adds its own ability to see the past and comes up with the most likely potential future.

Remember that our brains do have the ability to live in the past, present and future. As humans, we are stepping into an exploration of creating outside of linear time. The first step in this exploration is comprehending how linear time functions. We must first understand time in order to understand how not to be subject to time.

In geometry (and I promise this will be easy, so please keep reading) there is a basic concept that if you have one point and then decide on a second point, you can draw a line between them. That line can extend beyond those two points into infinity in both directions. So you only need two points in space to define linear time. Where you have been and where you are.

What we are now able to do is change the point that exists in our past. By looking back and clearing past patterns the point behind us changes its location. That means the line drawn between our past and our present naturally changes. Our potential future changes every time we address, clear and release issues from our past.

I’m not talking past lives here. My guides are clearly stating that by addressing this life’s issues we change this life’s future. When we make changes in this lifetime those changes echo out to all of our other lifetimes and offer healing changes into those lifetimes. Since our bodies exist in the here and now, making changes in the here and now will get you the biggest results.

The head has to have the other partners, the body and heart, in order to see where it is going. If it is just looking backwards all that it can tell you is where you have been, which means you are going to create more of the past rather than utilize the new elements that are available to you now to create a different future.

How to get in touch with your body – a simple meditation
Lie down on your back. Bend your knees so your feet are flat on the floor or surface you are lying on. This naturally pressed your lower back against the surface you are on, and opens up the pelvic region to increased energy flow.

Feel the breath in your body. Feel the breath in your lower body. Breathe as if you could breathe from your feet up through your knees and into your belly. Your hips move and your lower back expands every time you breathe. Take normal-sized breaths. How easy can that quality of breath be in your body? Follow that quality of breath as you imagine the breath entering from your lower body. Let it exit wherever it wants to exit. At some point you may fall asleep, go into a light trance or meditation state. You might also notice that the direction of the breath seems to change. Just notice whatever you notice. Let your body’s wisdom tell your mind something that your mind cannot know on its own.

This is a time of exploration. What has your body been wanting to tell you?

In the midst of the accumulating “dark” or introspective energies of the Northern Hemisphere’s winter months, I can’t help but notice the parallels to our outer world, where fear is being created in greater and greater abundance.

But is the creation of fear really happening successfully? Or are enough people seeing this constant Chicken Little “the sky is falling” attitude around events as something else? I am in the midst of wondering about darkness and the role lightworkers and those who are stepping away from polarity are being called to play in the world today.

Releasing the importance that we unwittingly give to both our small daily personal fears and our globally manifesting fears will change the choices humanity has available to it in the very near future.

It is time for those who can to address their own personal fears, so that our shared unconsciousness has within it a pattern of standing up honestly to fear and knowing it for what it is: a disconnection from Spirit. And when we are responding to fear, we are not responding to Spirit.

This is particularly true around fear and finances, fear of the future, fear of government, fear of swine flu and illness and the intentional creation of fear around 2012. Ultimately we are each responsible for addressing our own fears. And remembering our roles as co-creators. If we can create fear, we can un-create fear.

Uncreating fear
I present here some ideas about uncreating, or de-emphasizing, fear that Archangel Michael and others have shared with me over the past few months.

Just mentioning that there are “dark” forces implies that there are “light” forces, as well. When we identify something as dark, we are placing what we perceive as ourselves in polarity. But we do live in a polarized world, where some things are healthful to our bodies and some things are not healthful.

“The role of lightworkers,” Archangel Michael says, “is not to judge the darkness nor fear it, but to offer illumination to those people and situations that request it.

“That which you perceive as dark or fearful may only be your own perceptions informing you that it is not something for you to engage with. Going into battle with anything means going into battle with yourself. Do you want to be embraced and loved or pushed and shoved around?”

As we enter into the next five years, each solstice will bring us deeper into the well where darkness dwells. Here fear is our true foe, for fear is a signal and symptom of our separation from Spirit. The ability to love what is different from ourselves, especially that which we perceive as dark, is a sign of our unity with the conscious of God or All That Is.

As we embrace rather than reject the darkness, we dissolve that which is feeding the fear in our society. As the saying goes, “make love…not war.”

The motion into Unity Consciousness, for me, seems to be one of slow and gentle change. Change that sometimes is imperceptible, until we all turn a corner and look back for a moment at where we have been. In that moment, it is as if humanity takes a collective breath — amazed at how far we have come. And at that same moment, there are elements within our shared subconsciousness (or perhaps our shared unconsciousness) that quake with fear. These aspects of us know that change is coming, and know that this means change for them, as well.

Sometimes I feel that these elements then empower odd behaviors in people, particularly behaviors that create emotions we associate with trauma. These big emotions, such as fear, keep many people’s attention and energies focused on the external world fending off what they fear. This slows down the collective progression of humanity’s movement into a deeper communion with Spirit.

Fear and 2012
My own sense, and that of my guides, including Thoth and Archangel Michael, is that the date of December 21, 2012, marks the astrological end of a calendar cycle. Each year our Gregorian calendar ends on December 31, marking a single evolution of the Earth around our sun. With the exception of the millennium change and Y2K fear, the ending of the printed calendar year does not bring up within us the fear that the planet might for some reason cease to turn and therefore the sun cease to rise on January 1.

The Mayan calendar also is based on the cycles of the sun, moon and planets. It is much more in depth than our Gregorian solar calendar. And it stops at the point where, if it were written as a musical score, there would be a repeat sign. Meaning, “and do it again from the beginning.”

Of course, I’m saying this because I see that as we create fear around anything, we are distracting ourselves from seeing the advantages and possibilities that Spirit is placing at our feet. As we move through and beyond 2012, we are merely moving into the next calendar cycle. This anticipated date — December 21, 2012 — marks the end of a cycle of 13,000 years of our galaxy orbiting outside of a defining connection to Spirit. It has been a time in which we have played with being ourselves, with free will, and with what one of my guides referred to as “this new Y chromosome experiment.”

According to my guides, we came up with some pretty nifty ideas. The isolation that we experienced during the past 13,000 years forced humanity and the other consciousnesses abiding with us in the galaxy to function in ways that have given ideas to consciousness in other dimensions and realities.

As we move past 2012 we will be “reunited” consciously with many levels of reality that we are just now beginning to suspect might exist. Those of us who can see, sense or feel other beings are being called upon to help point out to others how they themselves might see, feel or sense their own reconnection to Spirit.

But fear is also at play. Those elements within our shared unconscious and/or subconscious are used to the old ways of polarity and separation from Spirit. For me, the emotion of fear means that the human has lost a connection with Spirit. To the extent that any one of us experiences fear, we are being reminded that we are disconnected from Spirit.

Trying to resolve fear by running around in the external world and creating vast systems of protection feeds the very forces that are creating the fear. And it pulls us back into polarity. When we act out of fear, we create more fear. And we unconsciously strengthen those elements within our unconscious and subconscious that are themselves wanting us to remain where we are in polarity.

Healing often happens best not by trying to influence an external person, event or situation, but by looking internally to see why we want to change an external person, event or situation. Identifying our own inner issue that is being brought up and ignited by the external world is the first step in healing it. When we heal something within ourselves, that same motion of healing resonates to the outer world. In this fashion, our outer world changes because we have changed our inner world.

But is everything within us really ours?

Sometimes energies that we are ready to release present themselves to us as repetitive thoughts, heightened or frequently reoccurring emotions, or even physical sensations. The energies are speaking to us in the only way they can. They do not mean to harm us. But they are no longer in tune with who we are. Therefore their presence causes discomforts, such as brain chatter, repetitive thoughts, emotions or physical unease.

We notice these things and feel that there is an issue within us. And we assume that we must somehow heal, fix or change the emotion, thoughts or physical sensation. But in my experience, the energies are merely attempting to get our attention so that we will release them. They may not be perfect, but they are ready to move on.

That which is not ours to heal we cannot heal. That which is not ours to change we cannot change. When we continue to try, we merely hold those people, energies or situations back from their own developmental process of learning and evolving. This is true even when we hold onto an energy or emotion in order to try to make someone safe.

That which does not vibrate accurately with us is not in tune with us. It is therefore in dissonance with us. Other people’s energies, just like clothing, seldom fit us accurately. Part of our healing journey is to learn to recognize all those energies that are not in tune with us, be they thoughts, emotions or physical sensations in the body. Upon recognizing that what we are experiencing is not always based upon energies that are in tune with us, we have the privilege of releasing those energies and allowing them to move onto wherever they need to be now. And should an energy relate directly to another person, know that the energy, once released, is gifted into the arms of that person’s guardian angel.

Why the Soul wants to Embrace the Body
Each of us, simply by our physical presence, brings a quality of energy to the world. Each of us merely being present changes the world. Releasing those energies which are not ours to hold onto or to heal is one of the greatest ways that we can be of service to humanity. It allows our Soul to more fully embrace our body. The more our physical form is engaged with our soul, the farther our unique tone and quality of presence moves out into the world. The availability of our unique tone in the world serves as a remembrance to others of who they truly are.

Healing as a Service to Others
The larger patterns that we each struggle to heal throughout our lifetime, such as addiction, anger or unworthiness, often seem insurmountable and overwhelming. This can happen when we fail to recognize and to release those aspects of the pattern that we have come to completion with. We assume that if something doesn’t feel perfect, then it isn’t healed.

But what if we have healed some pieces or aspects of a pattern as far as we are able to heal the pattern now? Does it not make sense that these smaller pieces and their related energies would be ready to move on from our body, mind and heart? But instead of releasing them, we see instead the unfinished business of healing the larger life-long pattern.

In doing so, we grab onto all of the pieces of the pattern, keeping them close to us. And we slow our own process of change, because we stop these pieces from moving on to wherever they need to be in order to follow their own evolutionary process. Naturally, the tighter we hold onto them, the more strongly they demonstrate that they are no longer in tune with us. And our thought patterns become chattery and repetitive, our emotions overflow and our bodies ache.

When we hold onto these old pieces, it also becomes very hard for the next layer of the larger pattern to emerge and make itself known to us. In this way, we oftentimes get stuck, believing that all the healing work we are doing is in vain.

A typical question I hear might be: “I’ve been working with anger for so long, and why haven’t I gotten anywhere with it?”

And I would point out that you have created healing around the issue, but you didn’t know it. All those chattery thoughts, emotions or odd physical sensations may be energies relating to the old pieces of the larger pattern of anger. As they have learned all that they can from you, and you have learned all that you can from them, their vibration and your vibration have grown apart.

You now experience them as energies that are out of tune with your body. And your psychic wiring picks them up as mind chatter, emotions and even uncomfortable physical sensations.

Whenever you notice repeated thoughts, overly large expressions of emotions or even physical aches and pains, try asking them: “Is this me?” “Is this mine?” “Is this me right now?” And to whatever extent you have completed the healing with the small pieces of the pattern, you will feel a shift in the thought, emotion or physical sensation. Simply by asking the question you are giving permission for the energies relating to old pieces of the pattern to go and continue on with their own journey.

And thus you can continue on with your own journey.

In our zeal to clarify and heal ourselves, we sometimes forget that what we feel no longer suits us may indeed at one time have been a blessing to us. Releasing any energies or issues is dependent on our ability to truly come into a state of compassion toward whatever we are releasing. Coming into a state of compassion requires a lack of judgment towards ourselves, as well as what we are releasing, and any other people or circumstances related to the energies or issues we are releasing.

When there is true compassion towards ourselves and what we are ready to release, then, and only then, are we completing our soul’s agreement with that energy. This compassion allows us to fully release the energy. Without reaching a state of compassion towards what we are releasing, we end up pushing and shoving the energy out of our space and our life over and over again. It never truly departs.

In almost all cases where we perceive something as being in our space, we have an agreement to learn from the other energy, and to allow the other energy to learn from us. At the conclusion of this process, it is our responsibility to release the other energy onto its next step.

In this fashion we honor that all energies are themselves growing and evolving in consciousness, and that all energies are active parts of All That Is.

These energies can range from Nature Spirits that we picked up in our feet while attempting to ground ourselves to someone else’s guide. Sometimes there are DNA guides from ancestors who are long deceased, or simply an out-of-time angel who helped you when you are facing your first day of kindergarten.

Even what we might perceive as dark or malevolent energies are energies that are seeking their home. What is not in tune with our reality will feel foreign and perhaps uncomfortable to us. Any energies that are not supportive of health in our physical human body often feel extremely cold and appear as psychic dark or even black in color. This is our own brain’s interpretation of their vibrational frequency.

Because they are not supportive of our physical health and well-being, our brain interprets their vibrational frequency into cold sensations or into a dark grey or black color. This is the same as our body looking at motor oil and knowing not to drink it. Or smelling food that has gone bad, and knowing not to eat it. Our body knows instinctively what will nourish us and what energies will harm us. It is only our dependence on fear that makes us not trust our own body’s information.

I find that as I am working in healing sessions with people, there are two principle reasons for energies that are not serving them to still be with them. I believe that these are common issues that most of us are identifying now and changing.

• Judgment — We are trying to push the energy, which may be an out-of-time guide or issue, away from ourselves. We all want to believe that we are loving people with the ability to love others. Our polarized way of looking at things as either good or bad doesn’t let us move easily into compassion. If something is bad, we must shun it, because a good person would not have bad energies around her or him. But a compassionate person understands that what no longer serves our soul will appear as ‘bad’ in order to draw our attention to the issue. In the moment we notice what we judge as “bad,” we have the ability to address the issue and begin to make different choices. In psychological terms one might talk about engaging with the shadow. In energy healing terms, it is moving away from polarity and into compassion. I personally experience this as an Active Compassion, to distinguish it from complacency.
• A lack of Trust in Our own Body and Heart — We want to know everything possible about the issue, energy or guide and why it is there. Usually from past trauma, sometimes simply from our upbringing in western society, our brain doesn’t trust that our body or heart knows what it is doing. Without meaning to, our brain has grabbed the energetic tail of issues, guides or energies that our body and soul are done with. It is sort of like grabbing onto a mouse’s tail when it is running out of the front door. Why stop it from leaving? In this case our brains don’t trust the larger process of Spirit. Therefore, our brain does not trust that the energy can leave, and we will be safe without it.

Here we are learning to trust. We are learning to trust that whatever we might need to know will come to us. It will come in dream state, from books, from other people, and not just from our own heads.

We are also learning to trust our lower chakras. Information comes to us from our lower body (navel chakra and the Enteric Nervous System, also known as the body’s mind) as well as through our heart. We are telepathic in each and every chakra. That means not just the 6th chakra that has been developed (overly so in my opinion) here in the Western cultures, but also in the heart chakra as taught by Drunvalo, and in the lower chakras.

It is the lower chakras that connect us into the consciousness of the Earth, and let us hear the wisdom shared by the lower dimensions. Our navel chakra, connected well into the lower dimensions, offers us the information we need to know about our physical environment.

This is a learning edge for Westerners. We must clear out energies that no longer serve our body’s completion of our soul’s journey, particularly from our hearts and lower chakras. As we move down into the strength and power of the energies of the lower chakras, we open the upper chakras to new levels of consciousness. We cannot open into these higher levels of consciousness without first going down and clearing the foundation of our lower bodies. We must go down in order to rise up.

There is no right way or wrong way to experience healing. There is ultimately only a deepening into your own soul’s journey and your ability to live compassionately with all that surrounds you.

The sense of urgency and fear that many have felt in the past few months can be talked about in several ways. I would say that Gaia, the soul who has taken on the form of the Earth, has been moving into a higher dimension of energy more closely related to emotions. Our physical bodies rely on her physical form, the Earth, for grounding. Therefore we have felt this same uplifting process.

In some ways it is thrilling, and there have been moments of expansion and ecstasy. But it has also been terrifying, especially for those who have no experience of spiritual energies or who have difficulty moving through and expressing their emotions. Even for those of us with an understanding of the larger picture, it can be frightening or startling to feel what we have held as theory come into actual form.

Gaia has recently shifted back to the lower physical energy, and so too the Earth has settled back into the lower dimension of energy to which we are accustomed. Because of the expansion that we experienced at the higher dimensional energy, we are having a difficult time with the lower contraction phase now. It is like being on vacation for a month in Hawaii, and having to return to a cold and grey northern city. All that we find uncomfortable is in our awareness. And we don’t like it!

When Gaia is in her higher emotional energy state, our lives change rapidly. After several weeks or more of seeing change come quickly, we slow down into the denser reality where change can take a while. Seeds that were planted will grow, but at a pace that is partially determined by the density of the larger world and our connection into the mass unconsciousness of all life relating to the Earth. This can be frustrating as what works in one reality does not work in the other.

Those who adapt and learn to work with the emotional intensity and speed of the higher dimensional energies find the return to the lower, slower dimension of energy very difficult. Frustration, depression and impatience are typical emotions for them to experience as Gaia shifts back down into the lower dimension. At this same time, others who are more accustomed to the solid 3rd dimension experience relief and a sense of repurpose in their lives. They are able to pick up on the old ways again.

At some point, about 2024, Gaia will not be shifting vibrationally back down all the way into the 3rd dimension as she is doing now. And so that sense of returning to a stable, comfortable known place will not occur. And by then, those souls not moving into the next dimension of emotion with Gaia will have found new avenues for their evolutionary path.

The discomfort that you may be experiencing as Gaia shifts back down in the denser 3rd dimension now comes in part because your soul utilized the time spent in the higher emotional energy field to fill your body with higher spiritual energy. As we all re-ground and bring the new spiritual energies through our physical bodies, those aspects of ourselves that are ready to be shed come into our awareness. We notice them as habits that we can no longer tolerate (in ourselves and others), physical illness, as well as thoughts and emotions that are not comfortable.

If you find yourself thinking “I just can’t take it any more!” pat yourself on the back. You are exactly where your soul wants you to be in your cycle of growth and change. You are noticing what doesn’t fit, and you are not going to keep it going.

This is a natural cycle, and a natural way of learning and growing. By feeling what doesn’t fit, you can let it go. If nothing ever felt uneasy or uncomfortable, why would you ever change? So take this opportunity to know that whatever is a bit out of sorts in your life has been squeezed out of you by your soul. Let it continue to move out, so that what your soul has spent time growing within you during Gaia’s time in a higher emotional state may now grow into your spiritual maturity.

As I write this I feel like I am standing in a doorway, swaying back and forth between the old habitual sensations and a new clarity that is so clear I don’t even know it is there. There is the violence and chaos, but there is also this stillness. The stillness is so pristine that if my antenna is listening to the outer chaos I would easily trample upon it, clueless to its existence. This new clarity makes forward motion available to me, as long as I notice and release the patterns of emotions and thoughts that are still audible from the old way of being. Even a small action based on the old way of being causes discomfort.

My guides were giving me a similar metaphor about the transition process the USA is in right now, and how much I’m looking forward to the new era that awaits us politically. And yet, this road to change is so darn bumpy! When the focus of power moves from one point to another stuff gets chaotic for a bit in the shift.

In this case, on a personal level, it is like jumping on a trampoline, without having emptied your pockets first! Everything comes flying out and it lands all over the place. My sense is that the bumps and jumps we are experiencing serve to loosen those behaviors, patterns and energies that our soul has targeted for release. These are energies that our soul must shed, in order to walk through the doorway into the new era. "And it is our new era," my guides add.

Not surprisingly, this is what I’ve been doing in private sessions for other people also. Right now I’m often being directed to assist clients to address issues that lie several feet away from the physical body. This is so hard to see from inside your own aura. But it is fairly easy to see from outside. And once I point out what I’m seeing, most people can feel or see it in their own way.

These energies are much easier to remove sooner rather than later. Sort of like trying to wedge yourself through a doorway with a gigantic backpack on. It is so much easier to take it off before you get stuck in the doorway!

So often in "new age" terms we speak of illnesses as dis-ease. And it is true, there is usually a sense of discomfort, not always in the exact location of where the physical disease may eventually manifest, but it may be a discomfort or imbalance in the life or lifestyle or emotions.

Very often the physical body registers discomfort at a subtle level. This happens long before the disease has manifested into the body. The physical body registers sensations kinesthetically of what is going on all around us – two, three, four, five or six feet away from us. Oftentimes when something begins to molest us and to manifest as illness or noticeable discomfort, we look at the body itself. We forget to look outside of the body, to where it is probably coming from; the subtle energy field two feet, three feet or more outside of our physical body.

In these spaces farther away from our bodies we intersect with other people. We intersect our energies with those groups of people we have agreements with, such as those who live in our neighborhood or city, our biological family, those people we work with, people at the school we are attending or a sport we participate in. Most people have easily a dozen primary agreements between themselves and a group of people in their life.

For example: Each person’s soul has an agreement with their own national consciousness. The soul has decided upon a quality of energy that reflects its agreement with the larger national consciousness. Therefore, whether they live in Canada or the USA or China, each person’s physical body resonates with some aspect of their country’s national consciousness. And, each person impacts that national consciousness. In this fashion, each of us, no matter where we live, is playing our part in that larger agreement that our soul has to the national consciousness.

Likewise, within the world there are those who have agreements to hold certain qualities of energies. Simply by being in a human body, you carry an agreement of the quality of energy that you will manifest. As long as you are in that human body, the quality of energy that you have agreed to manifest here on Earth is present. That quality of energy resonates out, and is audible to everyone.

While there are moments when it seems rather odd to simply sit still and do nothing, in that doing nothing you have the opportunity to turn within, and find that vibration that your soul has agreed to bring into the Earth plane, on behalf of humanity.

Your stillness draws forth the remembrance of stillness from those involved in the conflicts, the wars and the battles. It draws through them that remembrance of home…and of the communion they share with you as humans here upon the Earth.

In this manner we do not aim to inflict Peace, nor to inflict an artificial straight line of resolution to conflict, but to offer that service of remembrance, that each might be nourished, might be fed, simply because there are those who sit in silence, and sit in alignment, which is true peace.

I’ve been thinking about fear. It’s everywhere. I turn on the TV news and hear
about lack of money, the financial systems coming apart, and people behaving
badly. My junk mail has an ominous tone in it, assuming that someone must get
elected, or must not get elected, in order to save our schools or lifestyle or
community.

When I create or make a choice out of fear, I am giving myself no love. By choosing or moving while I’m in fear, I will withdraw and contract. That choice will be a choice that on some level disempowers me, and sends the message that it isn’t safe to be here to others.

When I choose out of my own sense of desire and courage, anything I create or choose will continue to move out as an open, loving and empowering quality. Anyone who comes in contact with something I’ve created out of my own desire, be it a song, an article, or a podcast, will find that same empowerment and love opening within themselves. Because it is already within both of us.

Love is our experience of knowing Spirit, and fear is our experience of being separated from Spirit. Knowing this, we can adjust our tuning.

Fear is our separation from Spirit. When we are in fear, we experience it physically, emotionally and mentally. The kind of fear I’m speaking about is a fear we step into ourselves. Which means we can step out of it.

"Life is an ongoing process of choosing between safety (out of fear and need for defense) and risk (for the sake of progress and growth)." This wonderful quote comes from Abraham Maslow, courtesy of www.silvers.org. Maslow continues, suggesting that to break the cycle we can "make the growth choice a dozen times a day." These choices need not be gigantic. Start with what is right in front of you.

What do you really want? For most of us, fear is stopping, slowing, or clouding our ability to answer this question clearly.

Natural Part of Life

It occurred to me that fear manifests in so many ways, and is so prevalent that it has become nearly invisible. It is considered a natural part of life. We have come to expect it and embrace it so much that we do not register when we are experiencing fear. It is no longer a question of if we are in fear mode, but to what extent or percentage we are in fear mode. Even in deep meditation, I can find at least 10 percent of my body still engaged in fear.

In my Midwestern U.S. culture and upbringing, fear was mixed in with food and water as a daily supplement. It was the primary motivation for most small daily choices. You couldn’t go outside without proper clothing (what would the neighbor’s think!) You had to give money to the right organizations. You couldn’t be seen getting mail from certain companies. You couldn’t be seen talking too long with the "crazy" neighbor. And for me the biggest fear-rule was that you had to say nice things at all times, especially when you or the other person didn’t feel like it.

I remember my mother chastising me for answering a neighbor’s query "how are you feeling?" honestly. "Not very good’ was my reply to the neighbor, who happened to also be my mom’s best friend.

I had broken my leg, and at the time was in a heavy cast and on crutches. I was about 11 years old and living in the northern U.S. It was snowy and icy outside and I was stuck in bed or on the couch for months during the healing process. As a young teen, in the age before internet and cell phones, my life was miserable. No friends, no phone calls of any length (we were on a party-line), no privacy, nothing to do, and my mother buzzing around me 24/7. Looking back, I think my saying I was "miserable" was an understatement!

The next day my mother took me to task for answering the neighbor’s question honestly.

"No one really wants to know how you feel," explained my mother. "When you are asked ‘how are you?’ just say you are fine." I could see that there was no option. There was a fear around letting any crack or weakness show. If I wasn’t fine, it meant something was wrong. And at that time in my culture, that meant weakness. And there was, and still is, a great fear around being perceived as weak.

But I find that weakness can turn to vulnerability. And when I let myself be vulnerable, I let Spirit remind me of how much I am loved, and how much my guides and angels and my friends want to support me.

Those little cracks and imperfections we judge within ourselves are opportunities to share compassionately. I love how the Dalai Lama can meet fear-based questions with a smile and an understanding of what lies behind the question. Much to the consternation of U.S. television interviewers, his answers are frequently not to the question that is asked, but to assuage and address the fear that prompted the question. Compassion reveals how Spirit can move through humans. Most of us would state that yes, there is already a bridge between all human hearts. Acting compassionately towards ourselves and others illuminates this bridge so that others may see it as well.

Building New Bridges

For many years my guides have pointed out that the unsacred (profane) masculine structures will not function forever. As we move into the new level of consciousness, we see differently. Rather than be in fear about what is falling apart, can we look to see what can be built?

It occurred to me that if my attention is on the past, on what worked yesterday, and I am trying to get that same system to work today, then I’m not seeing what other way I might do something. In the past, I sent out press releases to newspapers that published little articles, and people saw these and came to my concerts. I still do this, but fewer newspapers have money to write articles about local events. So now, most people come to my concerts through word of mouth and my newsletters.

This means more people present at the concert understand the importance of Spirit and energy and healing. The concerts go much deeper into silence. People walk out differently than when they came in. They report dreams before and afterwards. Their guides and my guides and all of the Archangels are obviously working together to create gentle yet substantial changes in the larger fields of consciousness that we share.

It is much harder to do that with hundreds of people wrestling with having to sit still (because they don’t know what meditation is and aren’t used to being still) and with kids smacking each other over the heads with the paper program while the parents assume no one will notice. Obviously, my old way of advertising brought in more people, but not always those who could both benefit from the energy-surround, while stepping into it and co-creating it with me.

I don’t rule out, as we all are awakening, creating large healing concerts again. I believe that is somewhere in the future. For right now, I know how events feel to me. And I’m excited by creating concerts (and workshops and gatherings) that reflect our joint abilities to find the bridge between our hearts that already exists. It is that quality of depth and stillness in Spirit that is my focus now. It nourishes me in a manner that fills me and lets me move out into the world. And I believe it nourishes others.

In the Christian Bible there is a story about not putting new wine in old wineskins. As a typical suburban kid, I had no idea what this meant! As an adult, I see the parallel to what I am experiencing in the world now. Something old cannot contain or safeguard something new. The new must be contained by something also new.

Looking at what used to work, and trying to build based on what used to work, is like trying to build a new building in quicksand. What was won’t work now, or in the future. The energies that made up our old systems are being re-absorbed into Creation. The old systems are falling away.

Our future choices will flourish and grow if we make them based on what is here now. See the foundation, whatever it is that is working for you now, and let your choices come to you from the aspirations of your heart and your desires. Don’t try to build what was. Build what is now possible. Next month, next week or even next year something more will be possible. So start with what works for you right now, today. Then you will be ready to build with the new that is coming.

While it seems overly simplistic and more than a bit esoteric, with the election
of Barack Obama as president, we are unwinding a pattern of cursing a sacred
name. The combination of vowels found in the names "Obama" and "Osama" is not a coincidence. "Ama" is a root word in many languages for "mother" and "love." Placing a prefix such as "O" before it simply defines which quality of love.

In an ideal world, the words created using "ama" also generate the intention of loving deeds and care for the world. People who have chosen or been given names with this root are also given the opportunity, each time their name is spoken, to generate this quality of consciousness around them.

In the U.S., we have cursed "ama." Literally, we have cursed the feminine out loud for the past seven years. This is not about what Osama bin Laden did or didn’t do. How he and all those with "ama" in their names use the blessing of the Divine Feminine is held within their souls. My point is that by speaking that name with hatred, we have created an energetic pattern of cursing "ama," the Divine Mother, within ourselves and our country.

This is not the start of our disowning the Divine Feminine. Rather, it is the revealing and ending of the practice. Those whom we in the U.S. refer to as our country’s Founding Fathers have incarnated as a group multiple times. Clearly, their specialty (and learning process) is around creating systems of government that allow people to individuate and develop their unique soul properties while still listening to the greater impulses of Spirit.

Our collective unconscious

I don’t feel it was the Founding Father’s intention that the U.S. government turn away from the Divine Feminine. But it happened. Our collective unconscious focused on the profane, or non-sacred masculine principles more and more. And now, that slowly moving pendulum of 13,000 years is crossing into a new connection to Spirit. The principles of Divine Feminine and Sacred Masculine, which those who founded the U.S. invoked in its inception, are responding.

Like seedlings emerging after a sudden frost, what was planted hundreds of years ago here, thousands of years ago in Egypt, and tens of thousands of years ago in Lemuria, is awakening. Our souls know it. We feel the pendulum swinging slowly towards 2012, towards the full reconnection to Spirit. How can our world, in finances and politics, not reflect this?

The governments founded by the souls that also created the U.S. were not meant simply to exist and function for a short span of historical time. Rather, they were meant to be a series of practices for what is coming. Our full reconnection to Spirit requires that each of us understand and utilize our individual power, with compassion and grace toward others.

What was built without sacredness is falling away. What arises is the sacredness that has waited, patiently, to arise.

There are inevitable hurdles before the world and the U.S. We will pass through the same chaos regardless of who is the U.S. president. The question is, which way will we move out from that point? If we enter into the chaos in fear, we move through the chaos without vision. Entering with our heart open allows us to retain our vision, both individually and as a group, while we move through the chaos.

Our collective unconscious is being awakened each day a bit more, just like the bright sunlight stirs us out of our slumber each morning. As we move more deeply into chaos, we also move closer to the brilliance of the sunlight. Are we ready to hear the truth? Are we ready to see what the sunlight will let us see easily?

A final note

As we choose to speak "Obama" with a sense of joy and support, we will unwind the cursing we have created upon the name "Osama," as well. This will move us out of the polarity of "us versus them" that the current wars are founded upon.

And yes, Joe Biden’s last name will work in the same fashion upon "bin Laden." The family’s name of "bin Laden" may be released from its position in a cycle of cursing. And this will help to loosen financial pressures. Because as our hearts are heavy, we do not exhibit or choose to act out of compassion. And money is a result of the flowing of spirit. Where there is generosity, compassion and love, spirit flows and money follows.

May your days be abundant with generosity, curiosity and creativity.

by Norma Gentile with Archangel Michael and Atamira

As we face 2007, the sometimes planet (and always powerful) Pluto faces Galactic Center. This brings what I call Grandfather energy directly to bear upon whatever we each need most to transform. And of course, what we most need to change is also that which we most strive to tuck away, far away, and out of even our own sight.

Pluto has been for some time moving towards Galactic Center (the physical center of our galaxy), which is where the new Sacred Masculine is coming from. It is the loving touch of this wise energy that lets us transform our shadows, rather than being swallowed up by them.

I was told many years ago that the Sacred Masculine contains the wild card for this round of ascension. And it is hidden in the physical bodies of men. Pluto was in a perfect alignment with this not-yet-known Grandfather energy at the end of this past December and moves around that alignment for many months to come.

And the good news? This Sacred Masculine Grandfather energy lets us learn what it is that we have put into storage as a shadow. Our choice now is to either fear it, or see it as something that our soul is ready to change. When the student is ready, the teacher will appear." I might rephrase that in this instance to: "When the soul is ready, the tools will be given."

There have been two strong trends in our energetic advancement: the High Heart opening (thymus gland chakra) and the navel chakra clearing. Both lay the foundation to take advantage of the incoming touch of Sacred Masculine from Grandfather.

When the thymus gland is open, it has permission to say "no" and mean it. This allows us to tune the navel chakra prana, the life force that infuses every cell of our bodies, to us, and only us.

Think and feel this statement. The navel is physically where the umbilical cord has been. This cord carried not just the nutrients into us while we were in our mother’s womb, but also brought to us much of the energy blueprint that informed and perhaps created our beliefs.

Believing that you have the right to be happy only after everyone else is happy is a prime example of the navel chakra tuned to this energy blueprint. It comes not just from your mother, or your grandmother, but from a belief held in the collective unconscious of humanity. Cutting the energy cord at your navel to that belief is the key to weaning yourself, and others, from giving it power. The moment we do not serve this belief, we have the ability to hear what it is that the High Heart is speaking to us.

Why is the High Heart so important?

From Archangel Michael:

High Heart allows us to like certain things and to dislike other things. High Heart gives us permission to take all of the unconditional love of the traditional or lower Heart Chakra, turn it into a laser beam, and focus it directly on what is ours to do in this lifetime. For this reason, High Heart says "no" 99.9 percent of the time to all that is around us.

As we look around, we see the needs and wants of others, the absences and voids in work or in organizations, and things that simply feel like they need to be done. To all of these things, High Heart simply replies, "If it isn’t mine to do, I don’t want to do it." That is its role, to say "no, no, no, no and again no" so that when the soul turns and sees exactly what it is supposed to do, High Heart says, "Yes, that is what I’m here to do."

When High Heart says yes, we need to listen. When it says no, we need to let it be, and not continue to force it to say yes instead. Giving permission for High Heart to say no means giving yourself permission to say no. And this can be a learning process about ourselves, and why we have learned to please others before listening to our own heart.

We need to give ourselves permission to hear no, so that we can hear yes. Letting the traditional Heart Chakra be set at unconditional love, loving everyone and everything without condition, we then let the High Heart be set exactly in turn with our soul’s journey. What is it that your gifts, your talents are meant to do in this lifetime, in the here and now?

The backside of the High Heart is frequently full of guides and angels pushing in against the upper back, between the shoulder blades. These have come as a response to our trying to say "yes" when we meant "no." They came in response to our asking for help to do what was not really ours to do. Together, you and these guides tried to turn the no into a yes. You thought you were supposed to be able to do everything that you saw needed doing – heal every wound, fill every need. And, just like your "yes" to filling these needs really didn’t fit your soul or body, the guides or angels who came also don’t fit your soul or body. Letting go of them allows you space to welcome those guides and angels who come when you hear a "yes."

What is yours to do in this lifetime, right now?

If you do something that isn’t yours to do, two things happen. You take away someone else’s chance to experience the learning and growth they would receive by doing it. And while you are preoccupied with the task, who is doing what you are meant to be doing?

Give yourself permission to say no, and to hear no when it comes from within you. This never impacts your expression of unconditional love from the traditional Heart Chakra. When you allow the High Heart to speak clearly, it will open more strongly when it says yes. As you let High Heart say both yes and no, you will find something magical happening. Both heart chakras will open. They become attuned to each other, and create a heart space spanning your entire chest. This is the Universal Heart. When this is happening, you are experiencing your soul’s journey.

From Atamira:

High Heart is a gift formed from our love of humanity. This gift, carved into physical form and placed so close the human heart, is meant to direct the heart, much as turning a paddle gently guides a canoe. "Follow your heart" truly means to follow the guidance that has already been placed within you. How else can spirit speak to you, but through this gift given to you? One is never afraid of one’s strength when that strength comes from a heart in true alignment with spirit.

Blessings to each of you within these quiet days of holy contemplation.