The Mystery of the Blue Light: Election Day 2020
The day of the 2020 election, I was invited to present on a panel about religious freedom. Other panelists being of Hindu, Buddhist and Islamic faith. I represented shamanic indigenous spiritual ways which as I explained is not a religion. It is a way of being in relationship to the creation that existed before there was religion as we know it today. I explained how indigenous people do not have a word for religion since they know all creation is alive, conscious, interwoven in a cosmic web of inter-relationship. They knew that all life is sacred, that we are 100% dependent for our lives on forces of nature that we are not in control of and that those forces are spiritual energies that we need to be in respectful, reciprocal relationship with or else we will not survive. So there is no religion that is separate from how they live their daily lives trying to be in harmonious balance with all the powers that give and sustain our precious lives. Religion came later, much later.
I was the last of five panelists to speak after the others had shared about discrimination their people have and still do experience. I shared how i do not have freedom of “religion” because of the insanity of this country’s laws that make it illegal for me to eat or drink certain plants grown by Mother Earth, something indigenous people have been doing for thousands and thousands of years in socially integral ways that expand and grow consciousness. It is precisely an expansion of consciousness that is needed today shapeshifting from one that believes in separation, that has an economic system that feeds greed, fear and violence, to a consciousness that knows how we are all interconnected and that what we give/do to another we do to our selves, to our children, to our grandchildren. From that expanded consciousness we can work to grow a cooperative planetary consciousness based on love, kindness, caring, justice, equality, peace, beauty and healthy world, a Win-Win World for All. It is possible. I know it. I have seen it.
I closed my sharing with respectfully honoring the diversity of religious beliefs and practices expressed by the panelists with my understanding that beneath the differences real spirituality comes down to a bottom line truth that God is love, and those who love, know God. It seemed to resonate with each speaker as I watched their heads nod in agreement.
It is not so easy living that love consistently when it is so easy to be triggered into fearful reactivity by the dramatically challenging times of so much social unrest and climate change we are living in today. Below is a photograph of a place I have been going to each day to remind myself of the deeper waves of life, the beauty of the natural world, the magnificent creation we are gifted to live in. I call it “Sanity Shores” because the energy there is sane. The rhythms are constant but always changing. Impermanence and continuity. There is wisdom there. There is no ego there. There is what “God hath wrought”.
I share the image caught on camera so you too might take in some of the sanity there to help you through this time of unrest, of unease, of unknown future. There is Father Sun sending down stardust from above. There is the endless sky. The wispy passing clouds. There is the flowing waves of Mother Ocean. Rock People. What indigenous people say are the oldest living people on the planet, the ones who carry the history of what has been.
May the figures on the screen help you connect with a center of strength and peace within you. May they help you connect with the love that is in you, that you are, that we all are. May it help strengthen your knowing that so long as we are alive no matter what is happening, if we choose it, if we clean out any thoughts or beliefs that get in the way, we can Live Love Now remembering love is the most powerful transformational energy in the universe.
One more thing. If you look at the bottom left hand corner of the picture you will see a blue light. On the rational, logical side of understanding it is nothing but a lens flare. Of course. We all know that. We share a cultural understanding that explains its presence. Yet, might there possibly be more to it than that?
In a shamanic perspective it just might be a trickster doorway, a nierica, to/from another dimension, a spiritual dimension using the lens flare of the camera to bring through a transmission of some sort. Maybe it is just Coyote playing one of its tricks. But yet, indigenous people know that Coyote’s tricks carry medicine teachings, wisdom guidance to help people live in a good way with Creator and Creation. I invite you to take a look at that blue light. Open your mind to the possibility that the Sacred Mystery that exists beneath all physical phenomena and from which all that we see with our eyes comes from and returns, just might be trying to communicate something to help us through these dark times.
The Elders say Creation is a great mystery. They counsel to stay open, that there is more going on than what you think you see and what you think you know in your ordinary state of everyday awareness. "Stay open, Stay humble. Stay open to mystery” they say.
I invite you to find your way to open the blue light doorway and see what might come through for you. I welcome hearing from you.
Please keep the light of hope, faith and love alive and shining.
All Blessings.
love, tomás
Fall Equinox Reflection 2020
Blessings of the Fall Equinox to you, when the cosmic wheel of the seasons flows from summer to autumn bringing opportunity to pause and reflect. As the leaves release from their temporary home in the “Tree People” and fall to the Earth letting go of what has been, death of the old, we also are asked to look at what we need to let go of that no longer serves our lives.
As many of the winged-people and four-leggeds gather bounty from the fruits of summer, we two-leggeds are asked by the wisdom of the seasons to reflect on what has grown in us during the summer. This year, as we were pressured in many ways with COVID-19 threats and restrictions, out-of-control fires, smoke-filled skies, violence towards peaceful Black Lives Matter protesters, friends who lost homes, etc., there is much to reflect on and ask ourselves.
What will serve us as the Light of Father Sun moves further away and we have to find the light within our selves and each other? Following are some thoughts from wisdom elders that may help you find your way:
Here is one from Rumi on the truth of our deepest being.
“The external world is not at all how it seems. Neither are you. Beneath the convincing separateness of things is a vast, indescribable loving Unity. That Unity your true identity.”
Viktor Frankl addresses mindful choice of how we use the instrument of our minds.
“Between a stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom. The last of human freedoms is to chose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances.”
David Cooper reminds us of how we each make a difference.
“The sense of self continuously dissolves as we merge into a vast interconnectedness with all of creation bringing the presence of the Divine into as many moments of life as possible. Each time we do something that raises consciousness we lift sparks of divinity within us all and within all things to new levels.”
Cosmologist Brian Swimme offers support to our membership in the Starlight Ohana here to polish up our stardust and shine.
“The universe has unfolded to this point. It has poured into you the creative powers necessary for its further development. When you breathe, you breathe the creations of a star… Every element, every atom that composes your body was fashioned in the heat of a star. You are that star, brought into a form of life that enables life to reflect on itself. The simple truth is that we are here through the creativity of the stars.”
The equinox is a time the cosmos speaks to us about balance since it is a time of equal day and night, light and dark. It reminds us to look at where we are out of balance in our own lives and in our society and use that information to take action steps to come back into balance.
May we all release heartedly with grace what needs to go. May we all gather heartedly that which strengthens our hearts and minds, our bodies and spirits, for the work we are all called to do in helping to birth a more peaceful, just, healthy and happy win-win world for all.
May it be so for all of us and our precious and threatened Mother Earth and All Our Relations.
Love, tomás