{"id":42763,"date":"2014-10-01T17:14:20","date_gmt":"2014-10-01T22:14:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/horizonsmagazine.com\/blog\/?p=42763"},"modified":"2018-02-16T04:05:08","modified_gmt":"2018-02-16T09:05:08","slug":"october-2014-editorial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/horizonsmagazine.com\/blog\/october-2014-editorial\/","title":{"rendered":"October 2014 Masks, Silence, Spiritual Family, Competition"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"10-14<\/a>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\u2019s 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.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

Why I Paint in the Silence<\/span><\/h1>\n

I’ve been painting every day for the past few months.\u00a0 I use art as a fun meditation practice. The finished image isn\u2019t 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\u2019m 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.<\/span><\/p>\n

Watching painting tutorials last month, I noticed\u00a0they often have music in the background.\u00a0 It\u2019s interesting to note the different types of music.\u00a0 Some classical, some rock, some heavy metal.\u00a0 One said, \u201cPainting without music is like trying to work in total darkness. Music is the light that switches me on in my work.<\/em>\u201d I can see how that that can be so, but I much prefer to work in the soft, subtle nuanced world which is silence.<\/span><\/p>\n

Silence for me is not empty, it is full of Presence<\/span><\/h2>\n

By Presence I don\u2019t mean a rambling chain-of-consciousness babble speak of hurried thoughts about daily doings.\u00a0 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\u2019ve done enough of that, I like simply steeping in the silence and observing what Inner Guidance reveals to me.<\/span><\/p>\n

As I paint in the silence, thoughts and images come to me to help me create each piece.\u00a0 One reason I paint is to allow the different facets of myself to reveal themselves to me.\u00a0 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.<\/span><\/p>\n

Where one door closes another will open, <\/em>but you won\u2019t see the door if you\u2019re fretting over what you feel you lost.<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

A friend is upset, citing \u201conce again life has slammed a door in my face.\u201d I told her it\u2019s important to remember that it\u2019s no biggie when that happens, that something else will replace it soon enough. Where one door closes another will open, but you won\u2019t see the door if you\u2019re stuck in the grieving process of what you feel you lost.<\/em>\u00a0 But what if\u00a0 you feel you lost your purpose in life? Your purpose in life is just morphing into new forms of expression is all, and you\u2019re in the stage of \u201coh, the caterpillar is dying\u201d. That\u2019s all. After the caterpillar dies, the butterfly emerges. All it is doing is morphing. What a caterpillar calls death, we call a butterfly.\u00a0 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.<\/span><\/p>\n

What if I think I’m looking in the right place? How do I know if I’m looking in the wrong place?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

You feel negative emotion when you\u2019re looking in the wrong place.\u00a0 If you\u2019re looking in the right place but carry unresolved baggage from the past, you won\u2019t see it.\u00a0 How clearly you see what is right in front of you is up to you. When you begin fulfilling your soul\u2019s 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.<\/span><\/p>\n

When we fail to recognize who our spiritual family is<\/span><\/h2>\n

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.<\/span><\/p>\n

The person next to you is part of your spiritual family, like it or not \u2014 or they wouldn\u2019t be there.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m 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.\u00a0 I\u2019ve 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.\u00a0 Twenty years later, there are a dozen groups, each with just a handful of attendees.\u00a0 Everyone wants to start their own group rather than attend where someone rubs them the wrong way.\u00a0 What they fail to see is that each person in the group \u2013 especially if they rub you the wrong way<\/em> \u2014 are there reflecting back to you facets of your personality that you are unaware of.\u00a0 When you are triggered by something or someone, that shows you where you have emotional work to do.<\/span><\/p>\n

So, personality conflicts on the spiritual path? That\u2019s how we work this stuff out, with each other.\u00a0 And we don\u2019t get to work it out with only the ones it\u2019s fun to work on issues with.\u00a0 That comes later.\u00a0 First we have to work on it with the people we really don\u2019t care for, have no respect for and think are beneath us, who we think don\u2019t walk their talk or possess the skills they profess.\u00a0 The reason these people are in our experience and irritating us is because right now we are all vibrating in the same place \u2014 like it or not.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 I promise.<\/span><\/p>\n

You only feel competitive if you are disconnected from your inner guidance<\/span><\/h1>\n

Ah, the illusion of Competition! That was the topic last month week during readings. \u00a0What 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\u00a0it\u2019s all related, everything. \u00a0He advertises more? So what!<\/em> No one can take anything from you for long. \u00a0If you\u2019re all caught up in the world of emotions, you\u2019re operating on an astral level. The astral level is where a lot of illusion lies. \u00a0As we raise in consciousness, we rise above the astral level so that truths are less and less clouded by illusion. \u00a0As we meditate, we are no longer driven by our emotions, we can distance ourselves emotionally from the situation. \u00a0When we can view the situation objectively, we see there is never any competition. \u00a0What anyone else does doesn\u2019t matter, unless you think it does<\/em>. \u00a0Again, your expectation and belief governs what you attract.<\/span><\/p>\n

Those times you\u2019re reminded you\u2019re a business person competing for dollars in a world of just so many customers? \u00a0That\u2019s when you know you\u2019ve gone off your guidance signal. \u00a0If 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.\u00a0We\u2019ve all done it.<\/em>\u00a0Gotten angry in the moment over some perceived wrong and created an entire scenario about it in our head, blaming someone else.\u00a0 But when we\u2019re conscious, we take the time to contemplate what is going on in our life.\u00a0 We take responsibility for what we\u2019ve put into motion.\u00a0 We know that whoever we think is to blame is just someone we are allowing to have some power over us.\u00a0 Power over our thoughts and emotions. Allowing your thoughts and emotions\u00a0to go there<\/em>\u00a0is a choice. \u00a0Choose to rise above the astral level so you can see through the eyes of guidance.<\/span><\/p>\n

There IS no competition. Focus on your work and why you do your work and why you love your work and pretty soon, you\u2019ll have more work to love. And you will have attracted it because you\u2019re now connected to your inner guidance, where you realize anything is possible, and anyone can do it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Accept all things. It\u2019s the only way to wake up\u2026anything else perpetuates the dream.<\/span><\/p>\n

Enjoy our offering this month.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hari Om.<\/span><\/p>\n

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