portals

Fire-Breathing Dragons – Day 1016

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Kind of looks like a Teenage Ninja Turtle – Photo: L. Weikel

Fire-Breathing Dragons

There was a lot of cloud action going on today during my walk, from portals to Beings to fire-breathing dragons. When I first started out, I saw a distinctively rectangular shaped ‘hole’ in a massive cloud bank immediately in front of me. I stopped to photograph it because it sort of defied the look of most cloud portals (doorways into other realms). While portals are definitely not limited to simply round holes in the sky, it could be argued that classic portals are often either round holes or rectangles that resemble doorways.

Thus, the sideways rectangle that initially caught my attention felt odd. It was, one could argue, a doorway on its side. But it looked and felt different. Unique. Perhaps it was the clearly defined right angles that, for whatever reason, felt distinctive and a bit out of place.

So I decided to take a photograph of this oblong hole in the clouds. Once I did, though, I couldn’t unsee the huge face of a Cloud Being that revealed itself to me. How could I have missed the mirth-filled face smiling down upon me?

Dragon Rising! – Photo: L. Weikel

An Hour Later

Nearly an hour later, I encountered more clouds that refused to be ignored.

Hardest to ignore was a dragon with upward extended bat-like wings that caught my eye. It was clear this dragon was scorching the air with its fiery breath as it rose to gain a better vantage point over the countryside.

But when I zoomed in to take a closer photo of the head of this fire-breathing dragon, I noticed that it, too (like the giant cloud being, above), appeared to be…happy.

Laughter and smiles from the two most prominent cloud beings appearing in the sky today. With all the ominous and threatening, billowing and dangerous storm clouds and thunderheads that have been frequenting us lately, I have to admit these harbingers of happiness were an unexpected and most welcome surprise, especially given my cranky attitude at the outset of my journey.

Their smiles were contagious, both then and now. I’m grateful for the laughter I see in both.

Close-up of (laughing) fire-breathing dragon – Photo: L.Weikel

(T-95)

Portals – Day 995

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Two of Wands – Rider, Waite, Smith deck – Photo: L. Weikel

Portals

A friend asked me the other day about the concept of portals and the number 11. After I mentioned the connection between the two in a recent post, she wondered whether the connection between 11s and portals is consistent between astrology, numerology, and shamanic work (where traveling between realms is an essential aspect of the tradition).

As an artist, she could easily see how the number 11 resembles the two sides of a doorway. But her question plumbed far deeper than the superficial observation.

In my experience, two pillars, but possibly two of almost anything depending upon context, often evoke the energetic desire of the observer to go through or between them. There’s an etheric barrier implied, an energetic tension between the two columns, that beckons to be pierced.

Maybe it’s the tendency for us humans to be fixated on duality that fosters this sense. We tend to see duality all over the place: in/out, up/down, male/female, black/white. So of course if there’s a threshold in front of us, there’s the tendency for us to think in terms of here/there.

Where?

A doorway intuitively leads us from here to there. So it’s a significator; it announces to us that we are leaving where we’ve been and entering new or different territory.

I can’t remember where or from whom I first learned that 11s are portals. I think it was probably more of a symbolic association than anything else. But as soon as I began my metaphysical studies almost 40 years ago, I realized how prevalent is the consideration of 11s as something special.

Tarot

As I’ve mentioned in other posts, it took me a long time to feel comfortable exploring the tarot. But once I realized its value as an amazing means of accessing psychological and spiritual insight, the symbolism – when I gave myself permission to free associate – seemed to just fall into place intuitively. Although when I reread that sentence, I wonder if it was the development of my confidence in my ability to intuit symbols that finally helped me appreciate the value of the tarot.

Hmm. A thought for another time.

All I can say at this moment in time is that pondering this question has made me pull out a bunch of 11s in just one tarot deck. I want to use them as examples of how they lead from one state of reality, understanding, awareness, or experience to another.

But it’s taking me down a rabbit hole and I realize I don’t have nearly enough time to explore this and have some fun with it.

11s

Suffice it to say for the moment that I have a special relationship to 11s. Not only do I have 11s showing up for myself numerologically, but of course Karl died on 11/11/11. I’ve always felt he couldn’t resist all the portals that showed up in front of him – so he went through and didn’t return.

For now, I’m just going to comment on how the Two of Wands, pictured above, shows a person on the brink of moving out into a whole new world. He just needs to go through the doorway formed by the Wands on either side of him. It’s his choice. The world is in his hands.

And there’s a lot more for us to explore.

(T-116)

Spark to My Imagination – Day 864

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Photo: L. Weikel

Spark to My Imagination

I recently had a chance to spend some time near a tributary to Lake Nockamixon, and – shock of all shocks – it wasn’t my favorite creek in the whole world, the Tohickon. I forget the name of the one I visited, and I apologize for not researching it before settling in to write this post. Despite not knowing its name, however – I do want to pay homage to its soothing, rippling presence and spark to my imagination.

Even though the photos I’m including in this post aren’t capable of conveying the ‘live’ feature that I so enjoy on my iPhone photos, I hope you can sense the gentle rolling waves (if you can even call them waves) that I saw. They were so mellow, they created no sound as they rolled to shore.

Perhaps it was the reflection of the blue sky on the surface of the dark water; I don’t know. It just felt…different.

Photo: L. Weikel

A Magical Tree

There was a tree nearby that seemingly grew out of the water – yet also seemed to be hovering above the rolling undulations of the lake. Long, sinewy roots grew parallel to the water’s surface, yet were protected by the grass above them. Darkness was the only thing visible between the roots and my imagination conjured turtles, snakes, and perhaps even an errant duck’s nest.

But in the crook of the tree was a dimple that called to me. It looked like a perfect potential portal – an opening that could be a viable entry point into another realm of reality. (You never know until you try.)

For whatever reason, the placement of this tree on land coupled with its hovering relationship to the water beneath it beckoned even more seductively than many other potential portals I’ve noticed recently. I’ve not yet had a chance to give it a try and see if it takes me somewhere…fecund.

Journeying

Of course, when I talk of portals and traveling to other realms of reality, I’m speaking of the practice of shamanic journeying. If you’ve ever journeyed  and would like to become more disciplined, join me – and kindred spirits – and hop on a ‘Wagon’ in my Shamanic Caravan.

Follow the links if you’re curious.

Potential Portal – Photo: L. Weikel

(T-247)

Invitations – Day 741

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Portal with Laughing Guardian – Photo: L. Weikel

Invitations

Probably because of my shamanic perspective on life, I tend to notice things that look, to me, like portals into other realms. I know I’ve written about these doorways in other blog posts, some that I’ve noticed appearing in fog or mist and some manifesting in clouds. But the other day, when the weather warmed up again and I was invited to take a walk along the Lenape Sipu (Delaware River), I felt like I was bombarded by invitations.

Invitations? Yes. Whenever I see a portal my natural inclination is to note it and wonder what I might discover if I journeyed through it. What might I find on the other side?

It’s not that I take journey through every opening I see. Absolutely not! In fact, I rarely journey through unfamiliar portals, even though I notice them whenever I see them and acknowledge them as opportunities to travel into another dimension of reality.

I guess I simply acknowledge them as remarkable potentials.

Waterfall Portal – Photo: L. Weikel

Tried and True

Most of my journeying is done for the benefit of other people – my clients. It’s been my experience that I have specific entry points into other realms that I use for my clients, and different ones I use for journeying on my own. I rarely think about it, because it’s second nature. They’re different doors to different places, just like we take different roads to distinct destinations.

So I guess it’s curious that I’m always on high alert for portals. Nevertheless, I saw a bunch the other day. Maybe I’m being called to journey to a place I’ve yet to visit?

Tree Portal for Tall People – Photo: L. Weikel

(T-370)

Portals – Day 731

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11:11 Medallion – Photo: L. Weikel

Portals

Today, of course, was the 11th day of November. 11/11. A day of portals, doorways, openings in time and space.

A day doesn’t go by that I don’t contemplate – if every so briefly – how our eldest son, Karl, facing the myriad array of portals on that fateful evening of 11/11/11 at 11:11 p.m., decided on an unconscious level that all those doorways to utterly new experiences beckoning to him were simply too enticing.

Timing and circumstances.

A New Perspective

I’ve always been aware that Karl died on Veterans Day. He didn’t serve in any of the armed forces, so I never sensed any particular connection between his death and the celebration of this national holiday.

This year, however, my attention was drawn to the fact that Veterans’ Day used to be called Armistice Day. Somewhere deep in my memory banks I’m sure I knew this; surely I learned it in a high school history class. But the holiday was changed to Veterans Day in 1954 – five years before I was born – and in the ‘70s, it seems like there was a lot more focus on either the here and now or the future, and much less on the past. In the ‘70s, World War I seemed a distant memory, eclipsed by the fact that World War II proved it was not, in fact, the ‘War to End All Wars,’ and both the Korean War and Vietnam shunted WWI even further down the memory hole.

Perhaps because of the pandemic we’re experiencing and the coordination between Armistice Day and the Spanish Flu of 1918, Armistice Day has been catching my attention more this year. Even when our Covid-19 was just taking root here and around the world, in the first three months of 2020, I remember reading about the dangers of a ‘second wave.’

Second Wave

Of course, back in March many in our country were (and still are) in denial that a pandemic is raging through our country. The thought that a ‘second wave,’ exponentially greater than the first could hit us in the fall of 2020 and winter of 2021, was pretty well ignored. But I remember reading stories at the time about Armistice Day – November 11th, 1918 – and how people gathered in great throngs throughout the country, mostly without masks, to celebrate the cessation of fighting. Shortly after this great celebration, the pandemic spread like wildfire, killing more than had died in the war itself.

It was actually only this very morning that I realized that Armistice Day was established because the agreement to cease fire between the warring nations in WWI was formalized at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. In fact, one article I read this morning even suggested that it was at the 11th minute of the 11th hour.

I didn’t realize the significance of all of those 11s in the establishment of Armistice Day.

One definition given for the word armistice is: An agreement for the cessation of active hostilities between two or more belligerents. (www.brittanica.com)

This calls to mind the significance of all the 11s. The confluence of all these portals created an opportunity for the world to work together, to walk through a doorway to new ways of working together and creating a better world.

And yet…those portals also opened up the citizens of the world to the spread of a deadly contagion. Why? A big reason was a reluctance to wear masks, as if the call to do so was some sort of oppression.

Natural portal – Photo: L. Weikel

More Reflection

So much of what I’m writing right now is just pouring out of my fingertips and demanding greater reflection.

There is something to the concept of thresholds being created (or at least represented) by the number 11 and the opportunities or perils, depending upon one’s perspective, that await discovery ‘on the other side.’

Perhaps I should have started writing this particular post a bit earlier this evening. Maybe I’ll engage in further contemplation in the days to come. All I know is, I feel like there’s something bigger right now for us to be looking at and perhaps learning from history.

Are we capable of moving through the portals available to us, calling a ceasefire to the insanity we’ve endured for the past four years (or more), and choosing to embrace a new vision of a future of cooperation?

(T-380)

Another Dimension – Day 711

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Crescent and Fog – Photo: L. Weikel

Another Dimension

Sometimes we stumble across a person, place, or thing in our everyday lives and we almost have to pinch ourselves to see if we’re dreaming. That’s sort of been Karl’s and my experience the past two early evenings. Not just once, but twice we’ve encountered a very obvious threshold; a portal into another dimension.

The spontaneous rising of a rather substantial bank of fog in the fields surrounding our home lent an eerie and ethereal atmosphere to our walks the past few evenings. On the one hand, we were treated to a spectacularly clear view of Saturn, Jupiter, and the waxing crescent moon creating a graceful arc in the evening sky. It’s also kind of cool to realize that, if our eyesight were only powerful enough, we’d also be able to see Pluto nestled in the expanse between Saturn and Jupiter.

Yet at the same time that we revel in that unobstructed view of those outer planets and our moon, when we bring our gaze down to ground level, we can barely see beyond our own shoes. There’s a little inner double-take that happens when we first realize how backwards this all seems. Why is our ability to see things up close so obscured?

Perhaps it’s a metaphor; I really can’t say. Maybe we’re supposed to be setting our sights on what we want to create and the ideals to which we choose to aspire. We know what we want; we can see it clearly. But maybe we’re supposed to reach those goals through an act of faith.

Approaching the Portal – Photo: L. Weikel

Entering the Portal

We reached a point in our walk both last night and tonight when the way ahead appeared to be an illustration straight out of a book of fairy tales. Clarity prevailed almost everywhere we looked, but straight ahead? Our path led us directly into what appeared to be a portal to another dimension.

Entering this portal felt like it might lead to another time and space. We joked that at least we had each other; maybe we should hold hands so as not to lose each other in the heavy mist. Perhaps the Beings of the threshold would try to persuade us to take a nap and we would awaken a decade or two hence.

It felt like we weren’t alone as we broached the almost cave-like threshold. A photo I took captured not a wall of fog but rather shapes and swirls and the maybe even the faintest source of cool hands brushing our cheeks and tickling our necks.

We walked maybe 25 yards through this ground cloud of haze only to emerge – suddenly – into a what felt like the other side of the mirror. We returned to the road, further along by far, but with our surroundings revealed to us with laser-like focus and clarity once more.

Photo: L. Weikel

Emergence

Were we changed by the experience? At first glance, it would appear we weren’t. But maybe we should take a little time. Wait and see. Was this a metaphor? Do we feel relatively unscathed because we persevered? Because we continued walking through the veil, putting one foot in front of the other and having faith we’d eventually emerge from the fog?

I don’t know.

It felt significant that we stayed the course; that we didn’t turn around or freeze up just because the way forward was suddenly and dramatically obscured. Not that we even entertained stopping. Or turning around. Not really. But…what was that passing in front of me as I tried to take a photo?

(T-400)

Binge-watch – Day 376

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Binge-watch

I don’t have a lot of time to write tonight. Seems like that’s been a theme in my life lately. But tonight the culprit is not simply my inability to keep my eyes open as I sit here with fingers poised on the keyboard. Nope. Tonight the time bandit is The Man in the High Castle – and my delayed opportunity to binge-watch it.

I’m told the season was released last week. But since I wasn’t home, we mutually decided to refrain from indulging until we could be together.

No, we didn’t watch all the episodes at once. But we did watch three episodes this evening. And I have to say, I’m finding this season (Season 4) especially intriguing.

Parallel Universes and Portals

To me, this stuff is part of my daily life – so it’s fascinating to watch it being depicted on a tv show on Amazon Prime. Not that I subscribe to all of the concepts the way they’re portrayed in this show. But I find it rather mind-boggling that stuff Karl and I were reading about almost 40 years ago is now so mainstream that tv shows are built around these ideas.

Wow.

Especially Portals

Since 2011, and 11/11/11 in particular, I’ve been acutely sensitive to portals. Naturally, it’s not hard to see how the number 11 is a portal, with the two sentinels standing there on either side of the doorway.

Perhaps because I have a lot of 11s in my life (beyond the Karl-connection), such as my birthday ‘day’ adding up to 11 (it’s a 29) and my life path number adding up to an 11, I even have obscure incidences of 11s showing up, such as my post office box number (182). I didn’t choose my box number (that I recall) – and I’ve had it for something like 32 years or so.

Obviously, the single day of my birth and the full date (day, month, year) of my birth both represent a significant portal to me: I crossed from the spirit realm into embodiment that day. And I secured my post office box when I walked through the portal of opening my own law practice.

There’s something exciting about crossing a threshold. I guess I’m a ‘glass half full’ kind of girl, since I find the prospect of opening or passing through a portal filled with potential for new experiences.

Some might find it odd, but even the almost unbelievable confluence of 11s on Karl’s death day (which, beyond being 11/11/11, also – as best as we can tell – may have actually occurred at 11:11 p.m., too) does not make me cringe at the thought of 11s. It actually tends to make even more sense to me. Karl was an adventurer, a traveler. To me, there were simply too many 11s enticing him to cross over or through that day for him to resist.

Parallel Universes

I’m also intrigued by the concept of parallel universes or parallel realities, given all the choices we set up for ourselves throughout our lives. There are innumerable ways in which each of our choices triggers a cascade of events that also impact other people’s choices. If we consider for a moment that we are spiritual beings inhabiting a body for the purpose of experiencing life from that perspective, with all of the inherent senses and polarities that go with that situation, then why would we not allow ourselves the ability to live the different lives created by making different choices?

Yeah, I’m going deep tonight.

Ever since I started reading my first Seth book (by Jane Roberts) back in 1984 – The Nature of Personal Reality* – my perception of ‘reality’ and my comprehension of how we hold incredible power over what and how we create our reality has never been the same. All of the Seth books touch something deep within me. A knowing.

And to think, this post was triggered simply by me plopping myself down on the couch and allowing myself to indulge in a couple/three episodes of The Man in the High Castle.

*affiliate link

(T-735)

Paths and Choices – Day 157

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Paths and Choices – Photo: S. Abbott

Paths and Choices

When we’re in our late teens and early twenties, even into our thirties, it’s easy to imagine that we need only set our sights on our intended destination and zzzzzip – if we’re dedicated and disciplined enough, we will head straight toward that goal.

A lot of us, I’m told, did just that. We ‘knew’ what we wanted and we went after it. Some of us barely stopped to breathe, even if we managed to find a person to love, and then decided to breed.

Breathe. Breed. We do it. We did it.

Some of us didn’t really and truly know what we wanted back then – but we knew we needed to do something.  So we picked a thing and did it. Set our sights ahead, put our heads down, and did the work to reach the goal.

It’s Cliché, Perhaps, But…

More times than we might like to admit, though, when we picked our heads up and saw where we’d actually plowed our way toward, we realized not only that the destination wasn’t anywhere near what the brochure had described but – wow – we’d missed a ton of scenery along the way.

I could get into some long dissertation on the paths we choose and the end of the road. How we feel about the choices we’ve made when we realize there are no longer an infinite number of choices available nor all that many decades left to explore those choices (if we’re lucky). But naaah. I’ll pass.

The Magic of Choice

The photo at the top of this post, from a tulip festival in Seattle earlier today, reflects to me the magic of choice that we’re faced with all the time. We can walk straight ahead, staying on the gravel path that’s been set there deliberately for us to follow, to make it easier, to make our choice abundantly clear – but which leads to what? A ‘concrete’ destination? Or where? A destination so predictable but impersonal that we need an ID card to swipe us through ‘security?’

Portal to the uncharted – Photo: S. Abbott

Or we can meander off, following the curving cobalt path that needs to be trod a bit more carefully (so as not to kill everything we step upon). And just where does the cobalt path lead? It’s a mystery. Perhaps there is no definitive destination, but the path simply intersects, over the horizon, with other colorful paths that lead to forests or mountains or sacred fires burning on lakeshores that connect us to forgotten sisterhoods.

 

Vista from beyond the portal – Photo: S. Abbott

That curvy cobalt path sure does look enticing to me.

(T-954)

Day Eighteen (T-1093)

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Portals

This morning I was reminded by my favorite, most amazing, numerologist (who is also a friend), Alison Baughman, that today is yet another “11-11-11” day.

For those of you unfamiliar with the basics of numerology, you might be wondering how today, November 29, 2018, could be considered an 11-11-11 day.

Obviously, you realize that the first 11 is for November, the 11thmonth. The second 11 is the day today, the 29th, ‘reduced’ (2 + 9) to 11, and finally the year, 2018, also ‘reduced’ (2 + 0 + 1 + 8) to 11. That’s pretty much how you do anything in numerology as far as dates. Everything is added up to its lowest configuration between 1-9, unless you reach 11 or 22, which are considered “master numbers,” which do not reduce further (to 2 or 4, respectively).

There’s a ton of fascinating information you can access through numerology, and I urge you to explore it as a means to gaining yet another perspective on the quest to understanding yourself and why you are here, perhaps what lessons you are here to learn, as well as what skills and assets you bring to the table.

And yet again, I am the quintessential poster girl for the concept of  “a little bit of knowledge being a dangerous thing.” Don’t take my word for any of this. If playing with numbers is attractive to you, or you notice certain ones showing up frequently and wonder if there’s any meaning to it, take the time to learn about it. See for yourself if applying these principles bears fruit for you.

But back to the power of today.

Naturally, I am probably slightly more tuned in to the potential for transformation when it comes to 11s than a lot of people. Not only did my life change irrevocably on 11-11-11 (technically, yes, it was 11-11-2011), but it also turns out that I have 11s all over the place personally. Right down to the post office box that was assigned to me over 30 years ago adding up to an 11. It’s weird.

And despite my experience of 11-11-11, I actually love the number 11, probably because it is a number so deeply connected to me on so many levels. I see it, quite honestly, as the PORTAL, or doorway, that it is. A doorway to birth, rebirth, change, transformation, new experience, adventure, and yes, maybe even ascension.

So I felt a little bit of excitement quickening within when Alison reminded me (well, everyone following her on FB, to be honest) that today would almost certainly be a momentous day in some way because of its numerological significance. Indeed, all day I felt a sense of anticipation that we might be passing from one experience or understanding of ‘reality’ to another; that there might be revelation, or an exposition of us to light or information or profound change – either on a personal or much wider level.

And then the day started unfolding. Revelations abound. Lies are being exposed, light is illuminating the darkness, and perhaps – hopefully – truth is coming to the fore.

It is indisputable that we have passed through some major portals today as a nation, and it remains to be seen what will come of it all.

In some ways, perhaps, old beliefs and assumptions of what was true and what was not have died, making way for the birth of new understandings and perspectives. Ah, those alluring 11s. Those portals to our future…

I don’t know about you, but I am ready for some shifts in our reality. Walking through the portals may yield some really scary experiences and even feel like the death of some things (ideas, beliefs, hopes, fears), but ultimately, it is transformative. A rebirth.