 Consider the picture of your life for a moment. What images come to mind? How would you describe your life? What words would you use? Would you say your existence is normal and routine, or unusual and extraordinary?
The word routine is of French derivation and means "usual course of action, beaten path." For many of us the picture of our life is just that, routine. It follows a fairly unwavering pattern, beginning with birth, then early development in the home, school, starting a career, seeking a partner or mate, creating a family, working many years saving for retirement, and then settling into the routine of retirement until we die. Maybe, if we are fortunate, this timeline is sprinkled with a few highlights like travel, perhaps grandchildren, or a beloved hobby. Does this sound at all familiar? If not for you, then perhaps for many you know. Certainly there is nothing wrong with this picture. It surely does offer many great satisfaction and contentment. But what if there’s more? As the planet and her inhabitants ride the wave of rising consciousness, for many of us, the existence I just described is starting to feel rather hollow, devoid of meaning or purpose. We may feel as though we are just going through the motions, like so many automatons. We can no longer spin on the hamster wheel of life getting nowhere. Something must change. Many of us are now beginning to sense and experience this readily, as that which we once new to be our security is crumbling beneath us. As old paradigms dissolve, we are waking up and recognizing that there is more to life than this age-old pattern that our parents lived, as did theirs, and theirs before them. As we rise on the tide of expanding consciousness, into the dawn of the New Age, there is a stirring, a restlessness, a quickening within us that is signaling greater potential, the possibility for a more vibrant, passionate existence. Can you sense it? Do you feel it? Do you desire it? I had the distinct pleasure and good fortune to be a participant in a workshop offered by my guru, Her Holiness Sai Maa Lakshmi Devi, called “Living a Passionate Life.” If you have ever been in Maa’s presence, you would attest that she is nothing less than the quintessence of passion. In every moment she is completely present, vibrant, exuberant, vitally alive, and wholly committed to Being. She is the embodiment of Shakti, or Divine Creative Power. Throughout the weekend Sai Maa challenged us to look closely at our lives, and ask ourselves how can we be more aware and awake to the experience of our lives, how can we become impassioned creators? How can we consciously, in every moment, fully embody the Divinity that we are? It is important to distinguish what is meant here by the word passionate. In this case, we are not talking about being filled with heightened emotion, or excitement. And this has nothing to do with sex or sexuality. Let’s consider for a moment a richer meaning, enthusiasm, derived from the Greek enthousiasmos, meaning “divine inspiration,” and enthousiazein, to be rapt, to be in ecstacy”, these words stem from the Greek entheos meaning “inspired or possessed by a god.” When we are truly living a passionate life, we become a conduit for the flow of Source Energy through us. We breathe in, are inspired by, and are possessed by God. The breath of God animates our entire being. The root anima, is a Latin word, with various meanings: living being, soul, mind, passion, feeling, courage, spirit. Are these descriptors you associate with your self, with the life you are currently living? Not long ago, I watched the Martin Scorcese film Hugo, based on the book The Invention of Hugo Cabret, by Brian Selznick. Some of you may have seen this multi-Oscar winning film. For those of you who haven’t – “Spoiler Alert!!” The story is of a boy who lives and winds the clocks in the Paris train station, after the untimely death of his father. Hugo’s father was a master clock maker who also worked in a museum, where he found an extraordinary treasure, an automaton, a mechanical man that was created with a specific purpose. When his father found him abandoned in a storeroom of the museum, he was broken, and before he and Hugo could fully restore him, his father died. Hugo was left with nothing but his father’s notebook of cryptic drawings and calculations, and the passionate desire to fix this broken mechanical man. After his father’s death, Hugo is left alone and seems equally as broken as his inanimate friend. He manages to get him all but working, using parts he has stolen from a stern old toymaker whose shop is in the station, save one essential piece. The missing piece is a key. The key that will bring this rare treasure back to life is in the shape of a heart. At one point in the film, Hugo confides in his new friend Isabel and brings her into his lair behind the station walls to reveal his secret friend. Looking at the Automaton he says, “He looks sad. I think he’s just waiting to work again. To do what he’s supposed to do.” He goes on to say, “Everything has a purpose. Clocks tell time, trains take you places. They do what they are meant to do. Maybe that’s why broken machines make me sad. They can’t do what they are meant to do. Maybe it’s the same with people. If you lose your purpose it’s like you are broken.” So many of us are seemingly broken, automatons stuck in a meaningless routine, going about our lives without any sense of purpose. How do we re-inject meaning into our lives, and create a passionate existence fully conscious of and living out our purpose? The answer, the essential missing piece, the key to awakening us to out true potential is the Heart. It is always through the Heart that we find our purpose, and that purpose, regardless of who we are, is to be a passionate creator in the service of others. It just so happens that Hugo’s friend Isabel is the keeper of the key. Her God-Mama Jeanne gave it to her, whose husband is the crotchety old Toy Maker with whom Hugo has already had a very nasty run-in. When they finally use the key to wind up the Automaton, which holds a pen and appears to be able to write, he eventually scratches out a drawing of a rocket that has flown into the eye of the moon, signing it Georges Melies, whom, we discover, is Isabel’s God Father, the bitter old Toy Maker. So where is all this leading? What does any of this have to do with creating a passionate life, you might ask? Well, it just so happens that George Melies was, at one time, doing just that. The character is loosely based on the life of an artistic genius, whose work, in the early 20th c., was considered revolutionary, on the vanguard of a fledging film industry. Melies began his early career as a stage magician. He was a creator and master of illusion. He and his wife had a theatre where they performed their act. After seeing the Lumiere brother’s magic picture making machine at a carnival, he decided he must be part of this new wonder. It was an extraordinary new kind of magic. It could be used to tell stories and had the “power to capture dreams,” and Georges Melies was enthralled with the possibilities of this new invention. Like Scorcese, the real Melies was an auteur, a filmmaker and director, who exercised complete creative control over his works with a strong personal style and creative vision. He wrote, designed, directed, and acted in hundreds of movies, including the iconic film, “A Trip to The Moon.” This “new” medium, in fact, wasn’t new at all, in one form or another it has been around since the dawn of creation. Its tools and techniques, fundamentally, are those we all use on a daily basis, however unconsciously, to create the movie of our own lives. To make a film, at least in Georges Melies era, one required a film camera. Light is allowed through a lens into a box, which houses unexposed film. As the light hits the film, an image of whatever the lens is focused on is captured on the film. He made all his films in a glass house he created specifically to allow as much natural light as possible into the space. All his creations were emanations of his imagination. And so are ours. His process, and that of all contemporary film-makers, is the same as ours. We, like Melies, are genius creators, constantly producing the movies of our lives; we just don’t require all the high-tech gear. This is how it works. Using the ancient teachings of the Tarot we will illustrate how we come to create and experience our own reality. In the Tarot, Card number 1, The Magician, represents our self conscious or lower mind. The Hebrew letter Beth, associated with this card, means house. We can see Georges Melies’ glass house as a metaphor for the self-conscious mind. All of his thoughts, ideas, and imaginings, the characters, the scenery, the costumes and visual effects, his total vision for each film is housed in his self-conscious mind. When he places his focus and concentration, two other important attributes of the Magician, on these elements; he brings them to life, capturing them on film. He has complete control over what we ultimately see and experience in the movie theatre. He is the ultimate creator of illusion, of the waking dream. In our lives, we do this every moment. We view the world we live in through the lens of the conscious mind. So whatever the mind conjures is what we will ultimately experience. Consider carefully the script you are using, the words you are laying down to write the screenplay of your life. Are they sketching out a comedy, a tragedy, a tragicomedy, a dramady, or perhaps a farce? Who are your collaborators? Who are the characters with whom you you surround yourself? What is the environment, the settings you find yourself in on a daily basis? What soundtrack underscores your experience? And of course, The Magician must have an assistant to pull off his illusion. This is the High Priestess. If the Magician is the lens that focuses and lets in light, then she is the film on which the images are captured. The High Priestess is the fertile soil of the sub-conscious in which the seeds of our thoughts are planted. Just as seeds need to germinate in the dark, the film is housed in the darkened box, until the light of the sun is received through the lens, burning a lasting impression on the film. As the energy of our focus penetrates into the darkness of the sub-conscious mind, the seeds of our thoughts grow. The essential element here is the Sun. This is the Energy of God, the Light of Pure Consciousness, which pours through the self conscious and sub-conscious mind. This Light, this Energy is really the Source of all we create. Just like the film, our sub-conscious mind is wholly impressionable. It does not discern. It cannot say, “Oh, I will only allow the pretty images to be burned into my memory.” Whatever seed thought the self-conscious mind plants in it, the sub-conscious accepts. The more the self-conscious mind focuses on a thought, the more indelibly it is etched in the sub-conscious. As we continue to focus on it, it concretizes. The thought form is processed and then fixed, becoming denser and denser, continually lowering in vibration until it manifests. Once firmly fixed in the sub-conscious mind, a thought must inevitably be played out through the projector, the mechanism of our brain, the optic nerve and our eyes, onto the movie screen of our own experience. We think our lives are happening to us, but in every moment we are creating them. So what kind of movie are you making? Is it a Family Friendly Drama, a Romantic Comedy, a Thriller, a Horror Flick? Georges Melies was a Magician, and so is each of us. We are the auteurs of our lives. We are the sole creators of what we experience, based wholly on the thoughts we are chronically thinking, the words we are habitually saying, the emotions we are constantly feeling, and the visions we are continually imagining. The Magician card in the Tarot instructs us how we can change, or influence that picture, through the control and use of the self-conscious mind. The Magician accomplishes this feat with the use of four Magical tools, the wand, the cup, the sword and the pentacle. These four tools represent the four elements: Fire, Water, Air and Earth, respectively. They also represent the Tetragamaton, the four- letter name of God -Yod- Heh- Vav- Heh, Yahweh, written on the neckline of the Fool’s tunic in the previous card, which symbolizes, the Light of God, or Super-Consciousness. This 4 letter Hebrew word is not really so much God’s name as it is a formula. When we know how the formula works, we can begin to shape our reality consciously rather than by default. The Wand represents the will, Fire. On the card, it is the one tool the Magician holds. He grips it at the exact center, implying that there is both a higher and lower will. In raising the wand above his head he indicates that his will, the lower, is in the service of the Higher Will. He has become a channel for Source Energy. You see, for the formula to really work, we must align the lower will with the Higher. There is nothing that is not God; therefore God’s Will must be our own. When we are willing to surrender our limited will of the ego, we are able to call upon the omnipotence of the God Force Energy. The second variable in the formula is the Chalice or cup, Water, which represents our knowing. The Age of Aquarius is the Age of knowing. We have passed from an age in which we were expected to simply believe, into the New Age, where all understanding shall be predicated on our knowing. Knowing is an active, creative energy. You may have heard someone say, I’ll believe it when I see it. That is so last age! Let’s change that slightly and say “I’ll see it when I know it.” We constantly use our knowing to establish reality. That knowing is the cup Source Energy flows into. The reality we ultimately create is always perfectly in tune with our knowing. If we truly know something, without doubt, it cannot help but manifest. Unfortunately, most people only manifest their doubt. When what they had hoped for doesn’t come to pass, they have the perfect excuse, “See, I knew it wouldn’t happen. This proves it.” You see life is a self–fulfilling prophesy. The third variable in our formula is the sword, Air. This represents our daring, our will to act. We have focused our will on our intention, knowing it will manifest, now do we dare act? The sword is also the symbol of the word. We must dare to speak what it is we intend. When our word is fortified by our will and knowing, and in alignment with our intention, it is an unstoppable force. When we truly know that what we are saying must come to pass, then there is nothing that can keep it from manifesting, so long as it is in service of the Higher Will and for the greater good. The Word holds power. It is the vibration of creation. We can use our words to create, but we can also use them to destroy, so we must choose them wisely. The final tool or variable in the formula is the Coin representing Earth. This is the most challenging aspect of the formula to master. It is silence. This tool symbolizes ‘letting go’. This is key in any magical or spiritual work. We must let go of our attachment to the outcome. In letting go we create space, a void into which Source Energy must flow to manifest our intent. The coin is inscribed with a pentacle, a five-pointed star. When pointing up, the top point represents the Magician, the self-conscious mind. The four lower points symbolize his tools: To Will, To Know, To Dare, and To Be Silent. When we know the formula and have control of our mind, we have dominion over these forces, and there is nothing we cannot create. And now Back to Paris…. In Martin Scorcese’s vision for his film, after a life of such great inspiration and artistic achievement, Georges Melies, an inspired creator, has become, as the character puts it, “a penniless man and a broken wind up toy.” Like his automaton, he has lost the key. He has shut down his heart, which eventually dried up his passion. He lost his enthusiasm, his inspiration. He lost his purpose. But how did this happen? In the movie, he believed that after having seen the horrors of World War I, no one had time for or appreciated what he had to offer any more. The times had changed and he had not adapted his style quickly enough to meet the changing needs of his audience. He believed he was outmoded, unwanted, useless, unnecessary. It took a boy with an open heart and a passion to be of some use to the world to reignite the spark of inspiration in this old man, ultimately bringing meaning back to his life. In search of his own purpose, Hugo Cabret, could see the genius that lay dormant in Georges Melies, beneath his rigid armor of pain and suffering. He compassionately recognized this man’s plight as so poignantly a reflection of his own, and in serving him Hugo was healed. Encouraging Isabel, who was questioning her own purpose, Hugo said, “I’d imagine the whole world was one big machine. Machines never come with any extra parts, you know. They always come with the exact amount they need. So I figured, if the entire world was one big machine, I couldn't be an extra part. I had to be here for some reason. And that means you have to be here for some reason, too.” What is our reason for being here? We are all here for the same reason, to live passionately, in service of others, to be joyful expressions of the Divine, the Source from which we all emanate. The One, the Absolute, God is the Source of All, the Spirit, the Light essential for the creation of this movie we call life. We must open our hearts to allow this Divine Passion to flow through. In serving others, from the heart, we serve God, and our life is thusly blessed. Consider the picture of your life for a moment. What images come to mind? How would you describe your life? What words would you use? Would you say your existence is normal and routine, or unusual and extraordinary? In this moment, take control, become the auteur, rewrite the screenplay, live the passionately, purposeful life you were meant to. Create the intent with your Will, Know it must come to pass, Dare to speak it, then be Silent and wait on the Will of God.
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 A series of events that began in December 2010 was a catalyst, heightening our awareness that the wheels of global change are rolling faster. It was deemed the "Arab Spring." A fitting term, as Spring, the season of Aries energy, which sets things in motion, is a time when new growth and change become evident for all to see, when the forces that lay dormant can no longer be contained in their constrictive casings and push their way up from the darkness into the light of day toward the Source of their being, the Sun.
Uprisings are surfacing the world over, more recently, with the Occupy Wall Street movement that started in 2011 gained momentum in the US. What began as a few thousand individuals fed up with untenable inequalities in the economic climate, setting up camp on Wall Street, spread to numerous cities large and small throughout our country and others. In 2017, the election of Donald Trump to the presidency and the policies he and his cabinet are attempting to enact have caused a groundswell of protest and activism unseen in recent history. Revolution is at hand. In this sense revolution implies, “the overthrow and replacement of a government or political system by those governed; an extensive or drastic change in condition.” Our current political system is ostensibly set up to do just that. We call these free and democratic elections. By purging it every two or four years, the opportunity is there to keep the system running clean. The process, were it actually implemented the way it was intended, would ensure against complacency and stagnancy, which, as we have seen amplified in during the Obama administration, is running rampant, and clogging up the system so completely that it has brought our government to a standstill. Where there is stagnancy, there is no movement; where there is no movement, there is decay. Where there is decay, there is suffering. The system has been corrupted from the inside. “Something is rotten in Denmark.” As with the great tragedies of Theatre, the state of the state affects all, from the loftiest to the lowliest. As with these dramas, the protagonists are always the last to understand that they are the source of the problem, and ultimately of their own undoing. Generally, their enlightenment comes only moments before their eventual demise. They finally reap the fruits of the seeds, which they alone have sown. What I’d like to suggest here is that the upheaval we are now experiencing is a natural progression, a part of a larger “cycle of successive events or changes” that is affecting the entire planet as it goes through the process of evolution. The planet Earth is a Being, just as are you and I. She is in the process of evolving from the 3rd and 4th dimensions toward the 5th. The 3rd dimension is characterized as a state in which the realities of Time and Space are perceived by most to be static, linear and limited. This new dimension we are entering, or have already entered, more accurately, is one in which we understand the 4th dimension of Time/Space to be fluid and infinite. Our current technology, in the form of the World Wide Web, computer clouds, and numerous other innovations, reflects the awareness that everything in the universe is energy in vibration, light and information, intimately connected in a grid-like matrix that is continually being impacted by those observing it. The creators of this technology are beginning to realize what the ancient wisdom traditions readily grasped that not only are we the creation, but we have the same power to create as the Creator. This recognition was at first slow to surface, as it went against the reigning status quo, but it is springing forth in new modes from all quarters. Science has come to this understanding, beginning with such revolutionary concepts as Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, and researchers continue to make further discoveries as to the nature of the ever-expanding co-creative universe. They are not revealing anything new; they are merely assigning new labels, using new words to describe what the ancients have been telling us for millennia. This revolution in Science may more accurately be labeled an evolution in which the realms of science and spirituality, two seemingly disparate disciplines, are realizing more and more that they have been seeking the same answers using different means, and reporting back on their findings using different languages. What we are witnessing is a balancing of seeming opposites. In actuality, they are two faces of the same coin. One is seeking answers to the origins and nature of the universe through external means, and the other through internal ones. Eventually, the two poles will meet in the middle at their Source. What is now befalling the major institutions in our country and those of others around the world is a reflection of the revolution of the Greater Cycle, the Wheel of Karma, the Universal Law of Cause and Effect. The staggering National Debt we are burdened with, as well as the debt many individuals carry mirror a larger Karmic Debt that is now being settled. We too, both individually and collectively, are reaping what we have sown. It all comes down to creating balance. Energy has been released and it is finally coming home to roost. Each action we take can be seen as a pebble being dropped in a pool of water. Waves of energy move out from that central point concentrically. That energy will eventually make contact with a near or distant shore and return to us, in kind. Our intent underlying the cause determines the nature of the effect. How much Karma we have accrued over our vast number of lifetimes that remains unbalanced will determine how quickly we receive the effect of that initial cause. If there is little Karmic debt, the effect will return quickly. We call this Instant Karma. If one has a great amount of unresolved Karma, the wave goes out, but the effect must queue up behind all of the previous karmic actions, and wait its turn to be balanced. Depending on what the energy wave bumps into along the way, distortion may occur as well. This is often why when something happens in our lives, seemingly for no reason, we are left mystified. We can’t figure out what we could have done to deserve this. This can explain why so called bad things happen to good people. It really has nothing to do with good and bad, however. Universal Justice is blind. There is no judgment. Like gravity, what goes up must come down; what goes around comes around. It is the Law of the Universe. Card number 10 in the Tarot is The Wheel of Fortune, ruled by Jupiter, referred to as The Greater Fortune. The Hebrew letter attributed to this card is Kaph, which means “a curve.” The number 10 is related to a mode of consciousness called Resplendent Intelligence, which implies an unlimited outpouring of the Vital Life Force of the I AM PRESENCE, or Higher Self, that aspect of ourselves that is eternally connected to Source or God. In esoteric teachings Resplendent Intelligence is said to have its seat in Understanding. We could see this time of great upheaval, when all seems to be turning upside down, as the huge learning curve we as a human race are going through in this school we call life. We are preparing to graduate to the next level. In essence, we are advancing from 3rd to 5th grade. You could say we are skipping 4th grade, the realm in which Time is introduced as a dimensional factor in the creation of Space-Time. We have now moved beyond these limitations. With this evolution, we are being given the opportunity to develop a consciousness of Mastery, where we gain the understanding of the true nature of who we are. We are emerging from the bondage of a limiting consciousness into an awareness of what Master Teacher, Sai Maa Lakshmi Devi calls our “Divinity in manifestation in action.” Our core essence is Vital Life Force Energy. C.S. Lewis so clearly saw this when he stated, “ You don’t have a soul. You are a Soul. You have a body.” Jupiter, the planet attributed to the Hebrew letter Kaph, is called the Lord of Fortune, and, quite fittingly, rules bankers, judges, theologians, religious dignitaries, and other heads of institutions, presumably men and women who have a firm understanding of the principles underlying their respective institutions, as well as how to fairly implement them in their realms of operation and expertise. Ironically, it is in these same institutions that we now see the misuse and abuse of such knowledge and power is leading to their destruction. For thousands of years the focus in the East has leaned toward gaining the riches of spiritual enlightenment, at the expense, it could be said, of the more mundane aspects of human existence, while in the West the focus was directed toward gaining material wealth to the detriment of our spiritual growth and wellbeing. Yet over the past several decades, technology and industry are growing exponentially throughout Asia, as more attention is placed on economic expansion than on spiritual expansion, and China has now become the wealthiest nation on the planet, while its populous is not free to openly practice their spirituality. Conversely, the nations of the West see their political, religious, and financial institutions crumbling, while their citizens are gradually waking up, and listening to the call of their souls to emerge from the bonds of greed and consumption. The pendulum has swung the opposite way. Eventually, it will again settle out in the middle. How, when all seems in a state of chaos, do we find our way back to the middle? We turn within. At the center of any wheel is a hub, around which the wheel turns on its axis. Within this hub is a void, an empty space into which the axis penetrates. We, like the planet Earth, are revolving around a central point of attraction. That central axis is the Sun, which sustains all life on this planet. Our point of attraction just happens to be within us. At this time, we are being called upon to foment our own personal revolution. Instead of running in circles, chasing after some perceived, yet fleeting, happiness in the external, we are now challenged to turn our focus inward. I say challenged, because all that we once believed to be stable on the outside, those things we could depend on in the material are being rent from us, leaving us with nowhere else to turn but within. Our evolution as individuals and as a race of humans depends on it. The upheaval we are experiencing is resistance to this change. Our suffering is a result of resistance to our expansion. The more tightly we cling to all that we have known, or rather, believed to be our support and sustenance, the more difficult will be our passage. We wouldn’t want to stay in 3rd grade forever would we? We must progress, and that means leaving behind all we have outgrown and all that no longer serves our greater good as a planet. There are those who would hold us back. They fear the unknown. They have grown accustomed to running fast and furiously on the hamster wheel of their existence, chasing after some illusive goal of happiness. They are running themselves ragged and getting nowhere, because ultimately there is nowhere to go, and nothing to do. We must move from the outer rim of the spinning wheel to the hub, to the eye of the storm, to the center where it is still. This space at center is a portal, a doorway that opens in. When we turn inwardly we stand on the threshold of the Infinite. It is here we connect to our Source, the axis around which we revolve. This axis like the axle of a car is the straight and narrow, and what propels us forward in our spiritual evolution. It is the path of the Heart. When we embark on the Journey to Center, we must first discover, next unlock, and then open the door of the Heart, the gateway that connects the lower 3 chakras, associated with the material, to the upper three, the spinning vortices of energy associated with the higher realms of consciousness, of spiritual power, sight, and knowing. But what does this key look like that will open the door of the heart, and where will we find it? The search got underway from the moment we entered this physical form. And we have been tricked into believing it could only be found outside of ourselves. So we have been mistakenly seeking it in the other, and even in material goods. However, we have had it backwards. It has been closer than we ever have imagined, and accessible all along. Instead of looking without, we have only to look within. We have the key; we have had it all the time, like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz. It is who we are at our essence. The only key that will open the door to the Infinite is LOVE, because that is its essence. God is LOVE. We are LOVE. LOVE is at the heart of this inner revolution, and the only means of restoring balance. As we free our minds from the tyranny and limitation of duality, all sense of separation will cease. New growth will spring forth, as we loose the chains that have bound us to the wheel of Karma. LOVE, LIGHT and LIFE, the true nature of our essence, will be our gift to ourselves, and to all of humanity.  When I was a kid, my siblings and I used to swim competitively each summer. From the day school let out in June until Labor Day, we pretty much lived at the pool. I loved being in the water, spending the days with my girlfriends gabbing about clothes and boys, but I dreaded practice, and even worse the swim meets, because the focus was always about competition. I much preferred diving and synchronized swimming, where my goals were either self-mastery or collaborating with others to create a thing of beauty.
For this same reason, I have never been particularly fond of board games, especially those where the purpose is to win by bringing about the downfall of the other players. I’d have to say my two least favorite are Monopoly, and Risk. I would willing play Shoots and Ladders, where winning the game was only based on the roll of the dice, not on my strategizing another player’s demise. The board game Risk was invented by a French man, and was originally called The Conquest of the World. In it, players control armies and attempt to capture territories from other players. The goal is to occupy every territory on the board and in so doing to eliminate all other players. Only a roll of the dice determines a battle’s outcome. Isn’t it interesting that we make games out of gambling with other people’s lives? The games have evolved and many are now played on consoles and computers, but world domination is still a popular theme. Today we see shows on TV like Survivor and Project Runway that pit one person or team against another. Alliances are drawn, betrayals occur, and it’s all in the name of entertainment. Why are we so conditioned to take pleasure in another’s downfall? When I was beginning to contemplate the direction of this reflection, I was guided to a copy of Success Magazine on the coffee table in the reception area at CNY Healing Arts. On the cover was an image of entrepreneur and best selling author Jim Collins hanging by one arm from a sheer rock face, flanked by the bold title "When To Risk It All." Certainly in the world of business and finance there is a lot of discussion of risk. Corporate types are always focused on risk factors, cost risk analysis, risk management, risk aversion, all of which are attempts to mitigate or reduce uncertainty and potential loss. Those in business and finance are not the only ones looking for a guaranteed payoff. This is very often the underlying factor in many of the decisions we make on a daily basis. Many of us are only willing to take action when we are sure the outcome will be to our liking. We are only willing to give when we are sure we will get something in return. We are only willing to love when we are sure we will be loved back. Not only the game, but the word “risk,” derives from the French. The root is risque, which means, “run into danger.” Millions of dollars a year is are spent on researching risk from every angle. Mountains of books have been written on the subject all focusing on preparing, with statistical calculation, for the probability of something going “wrong,” and the effect of uncertainty on our decision making processes and our ability to move toward an objective. This, according to Jim Collins, is called “productive paranoia,” which seems to me to be an oxymoron. To hedge one’s bets is a figure of speech, which means to reduce or mitigate risk, that is, the likelihood of meeting danger. This refers to fencing something in; you guessed it, with a hedgerow, a fortification of dense shrubs that would, ostensibly, prevent loss by escape or by some foreign entity getting in. It all comes down to protection; it all comes down to fear. According to Marianne Williamson, noted authority on “A Course in Miracles,” any defense is an attack. She says, “We end up attacking, because we think we need to defend.” This, it would appear, is the foundation of the pre-emptive strike, a surprise attack launched in order to keep the enemy from doing it to us first. Defense is always a reaction based in fear. When operating from fear base, we contract, we close ourselves in and off from life. In the game Risk, the winning strategy always centers on amassing armies and fortifying one’s position. We do this with our gated communities, fences for our yards, and alarm systems for our homes, meant to keep everything out so we can feel safe inside. We unwittingly do this when we wall ourselves inside our belief structures, and behavior patterns, based in dualistic thinking, to protect ourselves and keep others at bay. In so doing, we only succeed in erecting our own self-made prisons. Instead of calculating ways to avoid something going wrong, we must come to understand that the universe is benevolent and expect that everything is going right, in divine, right order. W. H. Murray, speaks to risk in this way, when he writes: "The moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur that never otherwise would have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, which no one could have dreamed would have come their way." Albert Einstein put it more succinctly when he said, "nothing happens until something moves." When we are living bound up in fear; we aren’t truly living, we are coping. We aren’t thriving; we are surviving. Fear leads to stagnation, and stagnation leads to decay, which leads to death. So at the root of all fear is the fear of death, whether of the physical body or the ego. But it is only when we die to the ego; that is, the illusion that we are separate from God, that we truly achieve eternal life. For it is in remembering that we are God that we come to the awareness that we cannot die, because God is eternal. The physical body does run its course, but Consciousness, the Life Force, continues without end. Death is the grand illusion. One morning several years ago, as I walked into the garage, I noticed someone had been in my car. I can’t say they broke in, because I rarely lock my car. They had just invited themselves in for a look around. They had riffled through the glove box, the console and the ashtray. All total, I’d say they made off with about two bucks in change. All I kept thinking was, “they must have needed the money more than I.” This incident brought to mind Jean Val Jean in Les Miserables, who steals some silver candlesticks from the parish rectory, after the priest who sees he is in need takes him in. When he is caught, the priest tells the authorities that he gave the candlesticks to him freely. I wondered if perhaps Victor Hugo knew the Zen parable about The Thief Who Became a Disciple. It goes like this: One evening, as Shichiri Kojun was reciting sutras, a thief with a sharp sword entered, demanding either his money or his life. Shichiri told him: "Do not disturb me. You can find the money in that drawer." Then he resumed his recitation. A little while afterwards he stopped and called: "Don't take it all. I need some to pay taxes with tomorrow." The intruder gathered up most of the money and started to leave. "Thank a person when you receive a gift," Shichiri added. The man thanked him and made off. A few days afterward, the fellow was caught and confessed, among others, the offense against Shichiri. When Shichiri was called as a witness he said: "This man is no thief, at least as far as I am concerned. I gave him the money and he thanked me for it." After he had finished his prison term, the man went to Shichiri and became his disciple. I suppose you might say I took a risk leaving my car open, that I should have known better. As I drove to work that day, I considered if I would do anything different as a result. The answer was no. Wasn’t it Master Jesus who taught, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. "Whoever hits you on the cheek, offer him the other also; and whoever takes away your coat, do not withhold your shirt from him either. "Give to everyone who asks of you, and whoever takes away what is yours, do not demand it back.…” I think the greater risk would have been closing down my heart. Just the day before this incident, I read about a former NFL Player named Brian Holloway, whose house was broken into while he was in Florida. It became the site of a party that some 300 high school and college kids attended. The police finally came and broke it up, but not before they did about $20,000.00 worth of damage. The posts and tweets the kids put out on social media are helping the authorities track down the planners and the perpetrators. Now, Brian Holloway could have made any number of choices as to how he wanted to deal with these kids. The first thing he did was set up a website and here are a few of the suggestions he posted: (1) Could it be possible to turn this moment into a movement where the 300 students, with a new commitment to a bigger future actually become ambassadors to reach 3000 or maybe 30,000 other students? That would save a lot of lives. (2) Would it be possible to have a group of parents and community members join with these students and the DARE program and MADD program to send another urgent message about the dangers of drinking, drugs, crime and violence? That would probably save lives. (3) Suppose these students came together and created a voice of accountability and reconciliation that spread across the county with all the power and speed of social media? It’s happened before? That would definitely save lives. (4) Suppose it was possible for the parents and students involved to determine the best consequences for what did occur? That could save the lives of their children and more. Like, why do I need to press charges? They can handle this. Right? Or am I totally off my rocker, or totally soft on what did happen? ...Maybe I’m Wrong, But I Believe In These Kids. I believe that they can be turned around. I believe that this event that was marked with spray paint on our home – can be turned into a declaration of change, transformation and new beginnings. Anyway, see if any of these thoughts spark bigger and better ideas, their future is at stake. There’s so much more possible for their lives -- if they can make this turn. Lives can change and future can be built. And with all this effort, energy and work, if we were only able to save one life – would that be worth it? Of course it would. Help Me Save 300 I read also that a number of parents of these kids are considering suing Holloway, because they feel he is ruining their kids’ future and their chances of getting into college. When I told my 14 year-old son Coe about this, he said they ruined their own chances by the choices they made. Yes, they took a risk, and now they will be held accountable for their actions. Were these kids treating life as a game? Perhaps, in their impaired state, their actions became like those in a video game, without any actual consequences. They occupied someone else’s territory and then destroyed it, all in the name of entertainment. They might have made different choices had they grown up playing my favorite game Chutes and Ladders, or Snakes and Ladders, as it is also known. The historic version of the game, known as Moksha Patam, or The Ladder to Salvation, was popular in ancient India and represented a life journey complicated by virtues (ladders) and vices (snakes). Moksha Patam was associated with traditional Indian philosophy contrasting karma (destiny) and kama (desire). The game was also used as a tool for teaching the effects of our actions. The ladders represented virtues such as generosity, faith, and humility, while the snakes represented vices such as lust, anger, murder, and theft. The moral lesson in the game was that we can attain salvation (Moksha) through making positive choices, whereas by acting in ways that harm ourselves or others, we will inherit rebirth. There are fewer ladders than snakes, as a reminder that a path toward salvation is much more difficult to tread than a path forged in misdeeds. Now, whether in a board game or the “game of life,” when we are considering such things as calculated risk or gambling on our future, it must mean we feel we have something at stake. This term, again, derives from the notion of cordoning off land with markers, to stake a claim of land or territory. This then implies we have something to claim, and therefore something to lose. Brian Holloway isn’t concerned about recouping the loss of his property; he is concerned about recouping the loss of these 300 souls. His focus is not on pressing charges, but on making substantive change in the direction these kids lives are heading. He is not looking for retaliation; he is looking for reconciliation. Instead of perpetuating the cycle through retribution, he is moving beyond the limitations of what conventional wisdom would have him do, and he is behaving with generosity, faith and humility to save 300 lives. Whether he knows it our not, he is offering these kids an opportunity to balance their karma. He is giving them ample space for atonement, or at-one-ment, and in so doing they can realign with the Source of their being. He is an inspiration. So, what do we have to lose, really? What is it we truly own? What is it we value? How do we determine what is of value, what something is worth? Ownership is an illusion, and worth is an arbitrary designation. The only things of any lasting value are those we have no fear of losing. And the only thing we really have to lose is our mind, the ego mind, the aspect of ourselves that keeps us bound in fear by maintaining the illusion we are separate from All That Is. Some might say Brian Holloway has lost his mind, because he is unwilling to press charges and seek prosecution. When we believe our foundation is the material, the physical stuff of our bodies and our possessions, and our sense of security is tied to the maintenance of those forms and structures, we will forever live in fear of having them taken away. We can lock up our homes and lock up our cars, but if someone really wants to get in they will find a way. We can erect walls at our borders, around our hearts, and shut down our minds to keep out what we deem a threat to our way of life. We can make every attempt at protecting ourselves and our families from the world, but what do we gain? Certainly not peace of mind; for it is never come by through external means. If we are so afraid of losing what we have, we will miss every opportunity to discover who we are. We will only truly know the vastness of our being by opening our hearts, and expanding beyond the self-imposed limitations of the conscious mind. At this time of great contrast, let us consider ways in which we can, through our thoughts, words and actions, bring about harmony in our lives. In every moment we get to choose how we are going to be. Will our actions be rooted in love or based in fear? Will they move us closer to Source or keep us trapped in the material realm, imprisioned in fear? Will they keep us bound to the wheel of birth and death, or release us to merge again with the Light? I will leave you with this final quote from Marianne Williamson from her book A Return to Love: "When we surrender to God, we surrender to something bigger than ourselves -- to a universe that knows what it's doing. When we stop trying to control events, they fall into a natural order, an order that works. When at rest, a power much greater than our own takes over, and it does a much better job than we could have done. We learn to trust that the power that holds galaxies together can handle the circumstances of our relatively little lives."  I set out one chilly grey Thursday in mid-July to travel to an old stomping ground. I was headed to Sugarbush, VT for a reunion of sorts. My entire family would be there, save my children, who were in Edinburgh Scotland with their Dad, step-mom and stepbrother.
My journey there took a circuitous path, which is my way. I developed an affinity for traveling the scenic route from my father, who never drives the same way twice. The backcountry roads took me through towns like Graphite, Riparius, Sodom, and Hague. I was met with a brief but intense downpour that cleared the heaviness from the air, as I rounded Loon Lake. I continued along the eastern flank of Lake Champlain, just as the clouds began to break. The sun escorted me into The Green Mountain State, kissed the tops of the trees then dipped beneath the horizon at my back. The sky, vivid cobalt, was still light, though the sun had receded. The rest of the drive, it remained masked by the peaks that grew up around me. As I approached the final leg of my trip, I came to a proverbial fork in the road. Either I could take the Appalachian Gap, which is a well-maintained two-lane highway through the mountains; a way I have traveled often, or I could brave the Lincoln Gap, which I had never driven before. While I pondered my options, I was reminded how often we face these junctures in the journey of our lives. We are continually being presented with choices. Each holds its appeal. The one is tried and true, comfortable, and safe. The other offers potential risk, and may conjure fear, because it is an unknown quantity. I decided to take the road less traveled, in part because it shaves a good chunk of time off the drive. But I was also feeling rather adventuresome, and the desire for a different experience. Invoking the spirit of my dad, this day I would try a new route. Now the Lincoln Gap has the illustrious distinction of being a pass that is closed from November through April, because of the treacherous nature of the road conditions during the winter months. It begins, benignly enough, as a charming country road, dotted with quaint New England farmhouses. The route lulls one into a false sense of security, in a gentle assent. The road starts out paved then turns gradually into a dizzyingly serpentine gravel obstacle course that snakes its way through the mountain pass. I thought fondly of my old Subaru, once I transitioned to “off road” conditions. My little Toyota held on for dear life as we made our way through hairpin turns and switchbacks. The 4 Wheel Drive vehicles parked alongside the road snickered as we passed. My Corolla, valiantly huffing and puffing like the Little Engine That Could, inched her way to the top. The metaphor for life was becoming ever more apparent. While I traced my way through the Gap, past experiences flashed before me in dramatic detail. How many times had I found myself heading in a direction that seemed harmless at the onset, only to realize at some moment further down the pike that I was venturing into territory that was seemingly way beyond my abilities or know how. When I reached the summit, my mind was temporarily distracted from the climb. The vista held me in awe, as I overlooked a pristine lake, framed by tall white pines, etched into the side of the mountain. I was tempted to pull off to take in the full grandeur of the view, but thought better of it, as my family awaited my arrival. So, I set off down the other face, somewhat reluctantly, wishing I could remain to watch the day undress herself for night, just as a few faint stars began to dot the curtain of sky stretched out before me. I was quickly jolted back to reality, as the gravel surface rapidly transformed into a pitted, potholed washboard, with a grade that was dauntingly steep. There were no run-off ramps on this road to stop me should my brakes decide to fail. It was like I had gotten to the top of a ski trail, having innocently followed the blue squares toward the intermediate slope, only to find myself careening down a black diamond mogul field. I was startled to see bikers breezing past me with only clingy tanks and shorts, and feather weight helmets to shield their fragile forms, in the event that they, well… I banished the thought… I marveled at their fearlessness. How totally vulnerable they were, yet so free. Every sinew in their bodies working to reach the top, like Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay summiting Everest. Then in seeming free fall they race down at speeds that boggled the mind. I honored their determination, courage and faith, aspiring to know that sense of power and liberation in my own endeavors. The dizzying decent was at once terrifying and exhilarating. I hugged the shoulder closely, as the road was narrow, and cars climbing in the opposite direction sped around corners quickly, catching me off guard. My well-worn tires had difficulty making traction, and occasionally I could feel my grip slipping. At times, I daringly let up on the brake to enjoy the thrill of the speed, until a gravel skid brought me back to my senses, loudly declaring my cockiness had found me way out of my element, and dangerously close to peril. I slowed to a much more reasonable pace, deciding it was infinitely more desirable to get to my destination in one piece. I rolled into the drive on Norwegian Way, just about dinnertime, unscathed, yet invigorated by the experience. The following day offered yet another adventure that highlighted the contrast between playing it safe and leaping empty handed into the void, and how difficult it can be to make the choice. Saturday morning, after a breakfast of yogurt, fresh fruit, granola, and decaffeinated green tea, we set out for the nearby village of Waitsfield, where we would collect our gear for a leisurely float down the Mad River. A friendly young man, who gave us the requisite safety drill, delivered us to the launch point, then off we went down to the bank, inner tubes in hand. There was a large boulder, the kind only a glacier could deposit, to the right of a small waterfall that we had to go over to move into the flow of the river. The water was clear, cold, and the pace brisk, as I was drawn toward the falls by the current. Though I was one of the first to venture in, I was the last to go over the falls, as I spent some time taking in the scene around me. I drifted, in my bright blue tube gently in the direction of the falls, and then plunged a couple of feet over smooth, water worn limestone, my vessel hugging the rock face, the water unwilling to spit me back into the flow of the river. For a time, I was unaware of my predicament, as the sun was warm on my body, and I enjoyed the refreshing spray that cooled my skin. I gazed up and noted the stunning contrast between azure sky and emerald pines, not a cloud to be seen. Then it finally dawned on me; I was stuck. I was caught in an undertow of sorts that kept pulling me back toward the rocks from which I was unable to extricate myself. My inner tube, unlike the others, was designed with a plastic mesh screen across the bottom, so I was taking on far too much water. Were my vessel not buoyant, I would have sunk. As I bobbed up and down, the water rushing into my tube, I realized the predicament I had found myself in was a gift, a mini- wake-up call from the Universe, to bring my attention to a personal matter I had refused to see clearly. At the time, I was involved in a relationship that was fulfilling in many ways; yet, somewhere within I knew it was not what I really wanted. It had ceased to serve my greater good, and it was time to move on. Still, in that moment, my first reaction was denial. “No, this can’t possibly be what I’m supposed to be learning here.” I dismissed it entirely, flouting the clear cosmic message being offered. My ego was screaming, “How could the Universe possibly know what is best for me!?” Had I been honest with myself, I couldn’t deny the signs had been there for quite some time. I just hadn’t wanted to read the writing on the wall. When we are stuck, whether it is in a relationship that no longer serves us, a job that is unfulfilling, an addiction that is sucking our soul, or some other limiting pattern of thought or behavior, we have ceased to be in the “flow of the Universe.” Like a leaf spinning incessantly in an eddy, hung up behind a rock, we feel incapable of dislodging ourselves, in order to move back into the current. This “current” of which I speak is the present, the now, the experience of living. We become entrenched, debilitated by fear, or mired in the stories we have fabricated about ourselves, the way it is, or the way it has always been. We feel unable to move into the present, powerless to embrace fully what is waiting for us in the river of life, even though we know instinctively it is far better than where we presently find ourselves. Often, we remain in a place long after it is useful to us, because we can’t see any other option, or the alternative will force us to alter our current ways of thinking and being. The thought of change can be rather unnerving. When our belief structures are what have supported us for so long, we might see the change as a threat to our very survival; we struggle and resist the forward momentum, and eventually become paralyzed. As Ralph Blum says in The Book Of Runes, “Self-change is never coerced, - we are always free to resist… Still, he encourages us to “remain mindful that the new life is always greater than the old.” Though we may wish for change, we often feel powerless to alter our circumstance. It seems as though “the world” is against us, our spouse is unreasonable, our boss is disrespectful, our resources are dwindling, and there is nowhere to go and nothing to do. We are stuck, and it…well…it’s very unpleasant. Though we may be trapped, eventually we become aware that the river has continued to progress along without us. Everyone else seems to have moved ahead, traveling on down stream. This realization can further cement us, as we get fixed in a mode of anger or self-pity, which only perpetuates our experience. So here, again, we are faced with a choice. Do we remain in our present circumstances, clinging to the status quo, bemoaning our retched state, or do we pick ourselves up and move, braving the unknown? Appalachian Gap or Lincoln? Do we stick to the path that is familiar, or take the risk, like the Tarot’s Fool, and step off the cliff, letting go of the known and moving into the unknown. The chick must step out of the nest in order to fly. We can take the leap of our own volition, but often we need a little push. Sometimes it takes a gust of wind, or an unforeseen force that catches us by surprise and propels us into the void. Recall now an experience when you were in the proverbial “zone”, when you were flying. Remember a time when everything seemed to flow perfectly, when you were in harmony with the forces of the Universe. In these exquisite moments, life is vital and vibrant. We feel inspired and ecstatic. The word inspire, from the Latin inspirare, translates as both breath and spirit. It means, literally, to be filled with the breath of Spirit, and the word ecstatic, derived from the Latin ex-stasis, means to move out of stasis or to stand outside oneself. These are truly transcendent moments, when we find ourselves lifted out of our ordinary circumstances to a level of awareness that places us in the current. This is what the teachings of Abraham-Hicks refer to as “The Vortex,” where everything is happening in Divine Right Order. When we are stuck, however, we feel out of sync with existence, like we are trying to paddle up stream. We may even discover the same pattern is manifesting in multiple areas of our lives at the same time. Our job is unfulfilling, our relationship has ceased to grow, we can’t shed those last ten pounds, our bathroom sink is clogged, and the CD player in our car is jammed. The sense of stagnation can permeate our whole experience, and the feeling can be quite uncomfortable. Liberating ourselves from this place can create great upheaval in our lives. It may mean emotionally disentangling, and physically removing ourselves from a toxic relationship, a destructive habit, or a dysfunctional situation, but more often than not, it means simply expanding our consciousness, altering our perception, taking responsibility for our own reality. What we are called upon to do is rewrite our story, but first we must acknowledge that we are the authors of our own lives. We must recognize that we hold the pen, and we can reshape the tale we are telling to reflect how we truly want our lives to be, rather than how we are experiencing them, presently, or how, in our estimation, they have always been. Meanwhile, back at Mad River, a shout roused me from my reverie. I glanced over my shoulder, to notice the rest of my crew had already floated several hundred yards down stream. If I was ever going to get out of the clutches of the whirlpool, I was going to have to take action. I started pushing against the rocks with my hands, no luck. I rolled to my stomach and kicked off with my feet to no avail. This stressing and striving was getting me nowhere. No help in sight, I saw no other alternative. I was going to have to take the plunge. I rolled into the icy water, planted my feet firmly on the pebbly bottom, and forcibly pulled my raft back into the rushing river, and in due time I was reunited with my party back in the flow of the experience. So how do we do this in our own lives? How do we extract ourselves from deep-seated ways of thinking and being, when we may have no clue what to do? We simply begin. We may start small, but we begin, nonetheless. It may seem counter-intuitive, but the first thing we must do is to be still. But you say, I’m stuck, how much more still can I possibly be? Yet, when we are stuck we can behave similarly to a caged animal. We pace incessantly in our restlessness, or hurl ourselves against that which binds us. We may, like an animal caught in a trap, gnaw at ourselves, trying to break free, only to do even greater harm. It might seem that bold immediate action is the only way out. Yet, it is important to take the time to feel our emotions fully, the pain, anger, and frustration. It is essential that we sit with them long enough to move deeper, beneath the surface, to the root of that which we struggle against. When we sit long enough, we discover, inevitably, that what we thought we were fighting is merely a mirror of ourselves. If we can be with the discomfort, we soon discover what has gotten under our skin is the recognition that we have outgrown our current circumstances and our Higher Self is calling to us to move out of this stasis into a new, more beneficial, way of being. The negative emotions we are feeling are signals that we are out of alignment with our true nature, and reinforcing that which we don’t want. At these times we need to shift our point of focus from being stuck toward where we ultimately want to be. Most often we need to make this transition incrementally. If the leap from where we are to where we desire to be is too great, we must build bridges to span the divide. We begin by changing our thoughts. We move from negative ones that keep us focused on our present state of dissatisfaction to increasingly more pleasant ones. As we begin to shift what the Abraham-Hicks teachings call our “Point of Focus” to the positive aspects of our situation, or to what it is we really desire, we begin to raise our level of vibration, and in keeping with the Law of Attraction, we always draw to us those things of equal vibration. Our feelings, what these teachings call the “Internal Guidance System,” are the indicators of our current point of attraction. When we are feeling good about something, we are aligned with what we want, and attracting more of the same, but when we are feeling bad (and most likely talking about it…)we are still attracting, but, it in this case, exactly what we do not want. A very effective tool for making the transition from negative thoughts to positive, or from feeling bad to feeling good is to cultivate what some call an “attitude of gratitude.” We can begin this process by working with a gratitude journal or a “Book of Positive Aspects,” in which we write the positive elements regarding all of the things in our lives we wish to change, and, accordingly for which we need to cultivate improved feelings. You might think, “There is nothing positive, what so ever, about my current situation.” Take a moment and think again. If we can approach our experience from a place of gratitude for that which is positive, we soon begin to change our perception. We discover that our circumstance is an exact reflection of our dominant thoughts about it. And we have the power to change the situation, simply by changing our habitual thoughts about it. Next we state our intentions. We need to express specifically what it is we desire: a more satisfying job, a more fulfilling relationship, a healthier lifestyle, whatever it is, we must be clear about what we want, in tune with our intention. When we are aligned with our intent, it becomes our point of attraction and we draw to us things, people, experiences that resonate at the same frequency. Like attracts like. The next and most difficult thing we must do is to release our attachment to having it now. For this inevitably sends us back into focusing on our lack, of not having what we want. If we can remain centered in the present, knowing that the intended change is in process, our thoughts will remain positive and we will manifest the desired outcome that much sooner. Finally, we must accept what is given us. Be careful what you wish for, as you may just get it, is not just a trite saying, it is Universal Law. Our thoughts have power, and are the seeds of all creation. Fortunately, we can always change our minds, and adjust our desires accordingly, as we evolve. Therefore, we must operate consciously, from a place of greater awareness, from a plane of higher vibration, in order to create the lives we truly want to be living. Should we find ourselves stuck, or at a place where our desires have shifted, and we feel compelled to move, we need only remember that we are sole authors of our experience. We can be, as Gandhi says, “the change we wish to see in the world,” simply by turning to a bright, clean, new page and rewriting the story of our lives. |
Katrin Naumann worked for 20 years as a Theatre Artist, both behind the scenes as a Costume and Scenic Designer, and on stage, film and TV, as an Actor. She has been a lifelong adventurer on the path of Self discovery, which has led to her current role as Director of Inner Balance Life Works. Her holistic healing practice focuses on offering pathways toward (R)evolutionary Self Transformation. Katrin serves the community as an Energy Healer, Intuitive Spiritual Guide, Qigong & Yoga Instructor, Author, Public Speaker, and Workshop Creatrix. Archives
February 2018
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