Hello and welcome to the October 2014 edition of Horizons Magazine. Halloween! Samhain! Time to don a mask, dress up and celebrate!. Halloween is a socially acceptable time to wear a mask, and the crazier the better. But we all know people who wear masks all the time. Some wear a mask to avoid letting on that anything is triggering their emotional pain. We accuse another of wearing a mask to project the reality away from ourselves and our own mask. And it comes at the cost of knowing who we actually are. Like Dorothy and her friends in the Wizard of Oz, we’re all trying to find a Wizard to make everything ok. Blinded by the yellow brick road, we embark upon the perilous trek to the Emerald City. We get there to have the Wizard put us through exhaustive tests with the promise of receiving our heart’s desire. Like Dorothy and friends, we withstood the trials only to find out in the end that the Wizard was all smoke and mirrors. And in real life, when you see behind their mask, if they are not ready to face who they are and what they do, they will disconnect from you until they grow into their soul. We all wear masks every day: the happy one, the helpful one, the one who cares. Like the day after Halloween, we all have to know when to wear the mask and when to put it down.
Why I Paint in the Silence
I’ve been painting every day for the past few months. I use art as a fun meditation practice. The finished image isn’t as important as the thought-journey I get taken on. It lifts me out of the mundane, every day world and into another place, like a book for some, a movie or a trip for others. I’m all about altering my consciousness (through meditation, visualization, creative expression) to see beyond the mundane, turning it into a world full of symbolism and metaphor from which I learn, every day.
Watching painting tutorials last month, I noticed they often have music in the background. It’s interesting to note the different types of music. Some classical, some rock, some heavy metal. One said, “Painting without music is like trying to work in total darkness. Music is the light that switches me on in my work.” I can see how that that can be so, but I much prefer to work in the soft, subtle nuanced world which is silence.
Silence for me is not empty, it is full of Presence
By Presence I don’t mean a rambling chain-of-consciousness babble speak of hurried thoughts about daily doings. I mean simply thoughts of observing what is in front of me, and letting myself be carried away by the beauty of whatever that is. I spend much time each day thinking thoughts that I have to think for work or on behalf of others. I look forward to having thought-time to think my own thoughts, to contemplate my own life. After I’ve done enough of that, I like simply steeping in the silence and observing what Inner Guidance reveals to me.
As I paint in the silence, thoughts and images come to me to help me create each piece. One reason I paint is to allow the different facets of myself to reveal themselves to me. They do this by impressing upon my mind the imagery of elements, symbols and totem animals. In the researching, Googling and contemplation of the meaning of the words and images that come to mind, I discover the metaphor relative to me and learn a lot about myself. Listen to music while painting? My choice is time alone in my own world with my own thoughts.
Where one door closes another will open, but you won’t see the door if you’re fretting over what you feel you lost.
A friend is upset, citing “once again life has slammed a door in my face.” I told her it’s important to remember that it’s no biggie when that happens, that something else will replace it soon enough. Where one door closes another will open, but you won’t see the door if you’re stuck in the grieving process of what you feel you lost. But what if you feel you lost your purpose in life? Your purpose in life is just morphing into new forms of expression is all, and you’re in the stage of “oh, the caterpillar is dying”. That’s all. After the caterpillar dies, the butterfly emerges. All it is doing is morphing. What a caterpillar calls death, we call a butterfly. You don’t freak out when a student graduates high school. That’s not the end, next is college. To move forward, you don’t look at what you’re leaving, your look at where you’re going.
What if I think I’m looking in the right place? How do I know if I’m looking in the wrong place?
You feel negative emotion when you’re looking in the wrong place. If you’re looking in the right place but carry unresolved baggage from the past, you won’t see it. How clearly you see what is right in front of you is up to you. When you begin fulfilling your soul’s purpose, you will see doors fly open all around you and it will become easy to attract the people who want what you have to offer.
When we fail to recognize who our spiritual family is
Sometimes it’s not so easy. You think those rascals around you are interrupting your spiritual practice? Those people ARE your spiritual practice. Honor and cherish your derailment because it puts you on the path to where you really want to be.
The person next to you is part of your spiritual family, like it or not — or they wouldn’t be there.
I’m always coming across friends who are scoping out locations to open a new healing center, a place for like minded folks to gather and come to circle. I’ve seen it often: a new group begins and soon enough personality conflicts split it apart and each party goes off to start their own group. Twenty years later, there are a dozen groups, each with just a handful of attendees. Everyone wants to start their own group rather than attend where someone rubs them the wrong way. What they fail to see is that each person in the group – especially if they rub you the wrong way — are there reflecting back to you facets of your personality that you are unaware of. When you are triggered by something or someone, that shows you where you have emotional work to do.
So, personality conflicts on the spiritual path? That’s how we work this stuff out, with each other. And we don’t get to work it out with only the ones it’s fun to work on issues with. That comes later. First we have to work on it with the people we really don’t care for, have no respect for and think are beneath us, who we think don’t walk their talk or possess the skills they profess. The reason these people are in our experience and irritating us is because right now we are all vibrating in the same place — like it or not. So the quicker we can get over it and get on with it, the quicker we move onto the ones it will be fun to work on issues with. I promise.
You only feel competitive if you are disconnected from your inner guidance
Ah, the illusion of Competition! That was the topic last month week during readings. What experience has taught me is there is enough for everyone, and we each attract according to right of consciousness: our expectation and belief about how much of anything we think is available to us. And it’s all related, everything. He advertises more? So what! No one can take anything from you for long. If you’re all caught up in the world of emotions, you’re operating on an astral level. The astral level is where a lot of illusion lies. As we raise in consciousness, we rise above the astral level so that truths are less and less clouded by illusion. As we meditate, we are no longer driven by our emotions, we can distance ourselves emotionally from the situation. When we can view the situation objectively, we see there is never any competition. What anyone else does doesn’t matter, unless you think it does. Again, your expectation and belief governs what you attract.
Those times you’re reminded you’re a business person competing for dollars in a world of just so many customers? That’s when you know you’ve gone off your guidance signal. If you think anything anyone says about you can prevent you from attracting the good that is meant for you, you are temporarily disconnected from guidance. We’ve all done it. Gotten angry in the moment over some perceived wrong and created an entire scenario about it in our head, blaming someone else. But when we’re conscious, we take the time to contemplate what is going on in our life. We take responsibility for what we’ve put into motion. We know that whoever we think is to blame is just someone we are allowing to have some power over us. Power over our thoughts and emotions. Allowing your thoughts and emotions to go there is a choice. Choose to rise above the astral level so you can see through the eyes of guidance.
There IS no competition. Focus on your work and why you do your work and why you love your work and pretty soon, you’ll have more work to love. And you will have attracted it because you’re now connected to your inner guidance, where you realize anything is possible, and anyone can do it.
Accept all things. It’s the only way to wake up…anything else perpetuates the dream.
Enjoy our offering this month.
Hari Om.