holding space

Job Well Done – Day 588

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Guarding Our Backs – Photo: L. Weikel

Job Well Done

OK, I’ll admit it; I don’t want to speak too soon. But that being said, I also don’t want to overlook the small steps we’re all taking, collectively, to not only survive the insanity of the present times but also incrementally make things better. And that’s why I’m inclined to give us all a “Job well done!”

This was a big weekend energetically. I’ve written about it, as have a bazillion other people more adept at reading signs and placements and aspects.

But the call to those paying attention was made: Strategically holding space. Holding the center. Maintaining calm and peace in the midst of discord, disharmony, and the deliberate instigation of chaos.

Volatility Index

If there were such a thing as a volatility index, my guess is that it would be hovering at the top of its scale since May 25thor so, when George Floyd was senselessly murdered by a policeman (and callously observed as he did so by three other officers) in Minneapolis. And the needle hasn’t moved much since then, as incident after incident keeps happening, reminding us every day that even when the spotlight is shining directly on our society, ugly stuff just keeps piling on.

As we were approaching this past weekend, we all knew DT had initially planned a ‘comeback rally’ supporting his re-election on Juneteenth in the city of Tulsa, where 99 years ago an absolutely heinous attack was made on Black people by Whites. Yes, amidst calls that this was utterly tone deaf and provocative, he postponed his rally by a day. Thus it was scheduled for this Saturday, June 20th, the arrival of summer and the beginning of an annular solar eclipse.

A lot of signs point toward unrest, massive protests, and possible radicalism. And there’s nothing to say that the danger of seeing these things is past.

But by taking one day at a time, cooler heads have prevailed – so far. And that, in my opinion, borders on miraculous. Especially when taking into account the incendiary rhetoric being tossed about by the DT, the President of the United States.

Surprised?

While part of me was surprised by the outcome of Saturday’s rally in Tulsa, another definitely was not. I felt the sense of protection that was coming forth to keep the peace in Tulsa and around the United States and the rest of the world. There definitely was a calming presence, which may or may not have been a collective presence created by the intention of many loving beings on the planet.

Indeed, I was reminded of Beings, seen and unseen, watching over us – not unlike how we are taught to have each other’s backs when we approach a sacred fire. One of the first rules of etiquette at a sacred fire is that no one approaches a fire to do personal work without another member of the circle standing behind them, arms raised in protection. This ‘having a person’s back’ enables the person approaching the fire to freely interact with the element, have a conversation with it, and allow it to guide and heal them without fear that they will get blindsided or accosted from behind when they are most vulnerable.

That knowing that space will be held and a person’s back will be protected is essential to creating the trust and vulnerability necessary to effectuate true healing.

Larger Forces at Work

When I saw these huge clouds forming in the sky on Saturday afternoon, they reminded me of what it looks like when a person guards the back of another at a sacred fire. I hoped it meant that protection was being afforded on a higher level; that space was being held on a much larger scale than human, and that we were actually setting the intention by holding that space for our brothers and sisters ourselves.

The cavalry was hearing and responding to our call.

While situations can change in the blink of an eye, and the volatility index is not slated to decline much, if at all, this week, I take comfort in knowing that our efforts are being recognized and reinforced. Certainly it’s undeniable that a potential tinderbox was not ignited in Tulsa last night.

For that, I am grateful, and consider our efforts a job well done. Let’s not lose our focus now.

(T-523)

Doing or Being – Day 419

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Photo: L. Weikel

Doing or Being

It was suggested by one of you (my wonderful readers) that we need to affirmatively do something – ideally shamanic – in order to be of assistance in the midst of all of the turmoil we’re witnessing unfold here and around the world. The question was asked what we could do collectively to help the situation(s).

I responded by saying I would ask. That meant, I will ask Spirit, my guides, guardians, allies…those unseen Beings/energies who work with me to be of service in the ways asked of me.

I did not get a chance to formally do that asking today, although I felt like I was being given hints as the day unfolded. Sometimes that happens. There have been times when I will state something affirmatively, such as an intention to say or do something on behalf of another, and it’s as if I open the floodgates.

Asking and Listening

I’ve learned that when I either ask a question or affirmatively ask for guidance or a message – particularly if I do so out loud – the act of stating the intention is sometimes more than enough to get the ball rolling. In other words, I’ve learned that I need to open my eyes and start paying attention (i.e., listening) as soon as I’ve asked.

Which leads me to reflect on the sense I received as the day unfolded.

Interestingly, someone specifically kept popping into my head for no apparent reason. It was the person I’ve written about before, who asked for me to come visit them in the critical care unit at a local hospital after having an aneurysm. It might be recalled that they ended up asking me to place a buffer into their auric field to protect them from the onslaught of presumably well-meaning but exhausting, and in some cases conflicting, energies being ‘sent’ to them by friends, family, and even people who didn’t know them at all.

I’ll admit that experience made a dramatic impression upon me.

Our Inclination to Do

Perhaps it’s our nature as humans. Or maybe it’s the type of people I hang out with or who resonate with me and my energy and approach to the world. Whatever it is, I do seem to know and care about some extremely passionate and affirmative individuals who equate caring with action. We want to do something to make a situation better. We want to help; we want to help set things right.

Very often, with this sense of doing something to help comes the corollary to that: if we’re not taking action, then we’re passively (and weakly?) allowing bad things to happen. In other words, the sense that often accompanies our desire to do something is the fear that if we don’t, we will have aided and abetted awfulness by idly standing around doing nothing.

To be sure, some of this action anxiety is stoked by the exhortations we see floating around via meme or otherwise that entreat us to not stand idly by while injustice or cruelty is inflicted upon others. For those who did nothing, we’re told, were the worst of the lot.

The Power of Presence

And I guess that’s where consciousness and intention comes to play a huge part in all of this.

Very often we fear being perceived as doing nothing in the face of great tragedy. But if we know we are doing our part, does it really matter? Can we be secure enough within our own selves and our own knowledge of power and intention to feel just fine about how we are responding to the issues of the day?

I ask that because I feel as though my acquaintance/client popping into my head a couple times today was Spirit speaking to me as I stood at the sink doing my dishes, engaging in informal contemplation. Perhaps the greatest thing some of us can do to be of service in these times of disruption and chaos and tragedy is to hold space. (Ooh! I just realized as I typed those words that I believe I’ve written about this before – the power of ‘holding the center’- hmmm.) I’ll have to do a search.

Setting the Intention

The action we so deeply crave (again, as a result of our simply being human or because we have been raised to believe that action is the answer to everything) is setting the intention. It is holding space with intention. It is closing our eyes and simply opening our hearts to provide open-hearted love and compassion to go where it is needed.

Right now, there are a lot of groups sending various types of energy to situations (be they children in border internment camps – I can’t believe I even typed that just now – or doing this or that healing ritual for the fires in Australia) or addressing a myriad of other situations around the globe. And maybe there’s just a whole lot of conflicting energetic intention flying about.

Maybe what the world needs right now if for people who can hold their focus on maintaining steady, loving, compassionate courage and calm in the face of howling wildfires and insane, power hungry madmen is precisely what we need. These people may to all outward appearances look as though they are doing nothing, yet actually be providing the space for those in the direct line of fire (so to speak) to do their jobs clear-eyed and from their centers – free of being bombarded of other people’s potentially conflicting beliefs about what needs to be thought, said, or done.

Tohickon Creek – Photo: L. Weikel

Holding Space – Together

In the spirit of the power of working together, though, I want to propose that it might be a great experiment of togetherness for those interested and reading this to join me and each other in holding that space of allowing courage and compassion to be felt by all who need it together.

I will continue listening to Spirit for further fleshing out. But this feels right. A practice of actively holding space and allowing courage, compassion, and space to be given to all sentient beings – humans, animal, plant, and elemental (including rain, wind, sun, earth, etc.) – feels like an answer.

Hmm.

(T-692)

Mercury Rx – Day 122

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Mercury Retrograde (Rx)

I had a nice start on a post tonight and just deleted it.

It was an incipient riff on all the glitches, slow-downs, and common irritations I’ve been experiencing on my laptops over the past few days, but especially today.

It’s no big deal, or rather, these hiccups shouldn’t and wouldn’t be all that remarkable except for the fact that I am achingly tired this evening.  As in, I can barely keep my eyes open as I try to write this quality tired.

March 6th – March 28th, 2019

Of course, anyone who is familiar with astrology would chime in that these glitchy annoyances are associated with the fact that “Mercury is retrograde.” As I described in my post a week ago, it is said that when Mercury goes retrograde, communications are often hung up, misunderstood, confused, or delayed, electronic devices tend to break or ‘go on the fritz,’ and it’s generally thought of as an inauspicious time to either buy electronic stuff or enter into contracts.

The reason behind this is that the planet Mercury is associated with communication and electronics. So when it is retrograde (which means the planet appears to be going backward in its orbit from the perspective of Earth), the attributes Mercury usually promotes tend to go awry.

I’ve never tracked this closely in my personal life, but I try to keep it in the back of my mind, simply as a form of cosmic good hygiene. And you may recall, I did have a bout of intense aggravation during the last Mercury Rx with my Dell laptop (resulting in my decision to use my MacBook Air for all posts since)!

If I can postpone buying an electronic item during the approximate three weeks that this astronomical situation takes place (three or four times a year, I believe), then I do so. I also try not to sign contracts unless it’s absolutely necessary, and bearing in mind the potentially cantankerous effects Mercury Rx can have on electronics in general, I tryto laugh when stuff randomly stops or slows to a snail’s pace. Or blips out. I’ll admit it: I said try. I didn’t say I’m successful.

Effect of My Weekend Reflections

A recommended strategy to deal with Mercury Rx is to focus on such activities as reviewing, revisiting, editing, and reflecting, instead of moving forward with new projects or initiating big changes. So I find it intriguing that I ended up engaging in the ‘reflections’ I did over the weekend. They were big for me. And I really feel like the act of expressing them ‘to the world,’ in a sense, liberated me.

For myself, that meant that I finally felt ready to move on to digging into reflections of another sort. I haven’t yet had a chance to perform this contemplation in the manner that I’d hoped because other people were engaging in their own re-enactment of dramas from years and years ago, and these happened to affect me personally.

Spiral of Evolution and Growth

As a result, I’ve been distracted. But I like to describe this process of facing the issues that come back to push our buttons again not as living life in a circle, but rather in a spiral. Being given an opportunity to deal with an issue again is like being given an opportunity for a ‘do over.’ The most practical approach to this spiral metaphor is to realize that we don’t go around in circles. Hopefully, we’ve raised our expression of our energy high enough that we approach the problem from a slightly, or perhaps greatly, shifted point of view.

Thus, we (hopefully) never repeat the exact same response to a challenge or an issue. We’ve evolved (again, hopefully). And so we’re given another bite at the apple; or looked at another way, another chance to choose a higher octave of response to our situation.

It feels as though I’ve been ‘holding space’ for a number of people, myself included, to experience this upward spiral toward growth.

As a result, I am in extraordinary need of reviewing and realigning myself with the comfort and wisdom of a clean set of sheets, the backs of my eyelids, and a long night of sleep.

There are some good stories brewing. I just have to watch some of them play out before I tell them.

Thanks for hanging in there with me. I hope your personal reflections are yielding powerful insights and affirming the evolution we all hope to see and feel in our lives.

Rooting and Reflecting; Photo: L. Weikel

(T-989)