Photo by Laurence Delafosse

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” ~ Marcel Proust

What finds a trail to the space of your heart?

I can see a flower so beautiful that tears overflow, its beauty touching a space so deep within. Beauty enrapts me. We are a microcosm interacting with this vast cosmos. Take a moment to truly see these flowers. If we could hear these flowers unfurling. If we could understand the language of their movement, we would realize the secret dance of flowers.

The Life of flowers (Жизнь цветов) from VOROBYOFF PRODUCTION on Vimeo.

How much life happens in those spaces and moments you regard as filled with stillness. Life is always flowing. Perhaps this is what those flowers that worship the sun would say:

 
 
I love flowers and love beings that drink and delight in their honey. I got intimate with hummingbird medicine in the wild gardens of Berkeley where I could hear and recognize their song from far. Hummingbirds have such a sweet song. Iridescent, they embody joy.

Hummingbird on sunflower by Carol Collins (Nona)

A Ruby-throated Hummingbird by Steve Creek

Photo taken at a park in Staunton, Virginia, by schoolboy Marlin Shank.

Hummingbirds gather the sweetness of life, taking sweet nourishment in small doses. I miss these magical beings but have their song imprinted in my heart, the buzzing of their wings intact in my memory, still reaching my soul.

They follow their bliss from flower to flower blessing their hostess with their beauty and pollinating power. They can fly backward, downward and upward and make a figure 8 in their flight, the symbol of infinity. They symbolize our ability to go back in time, to digest the past and embrace what is to come. They teach us to go for the honey, the nectar of life and celebrate the song in our hearts by sharing it with the whole world.

Most people think they are always fluttering their wings in rapid motion. But I often saw them resting on branches and cables, pruning their feathers, singing their song with such gusto and delight, celebrating life. Here you can see one in the photo I took last winter.

Photo via Beate

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
A taste of freedom and a real victory to let our true voice find expression. Against all odds and with tough love, discipline and patience, this remarkable young girl Carly, diagnosed with autism, was able to achieve something extraordinary, communicate her inner world, reach out and touch others. She says: “don’t give up, your inner voice will find its way out. Mine did.” thanks for the inspiration Carly

 
 
I’d like to end this meditation on this note, with a beautiful sonic exploration titled Travel Dream Song by Meredith Monk, considered in this wonderful post an “archeologist of the human voice” who thinks that “the human voice is the original instrument.” Yes!

Love is always streaming through.. May we cultivate the patience to see, receive and nurture the gifts that are offered to us. And like flower and hummingbird, may we unfurl in all our splendor & sing, offering our deepest heart song as a gift to the world.

“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, 
there is a field. I’ll meet you there..” ~ Rumi

 
With love,

Today I am digesting memory, experience, life.
Revisiting space filled with memory, memory filled with space. Slowly emptying out by the power of flow, these moments that live on forever. Fragments of time kept alive in the inner coils of memory, longing to dispense their medicine. They simply want to flow through us. In a way, they remain stuck. We push them away into those deep recesses but they creep up with a life of their own. They stand like ripe fruit still uneaten, lingering in the branches of our consciousness. The Sacred Vine wants to be received whole, one pulsing breath at a time.

Unearth the story underneath. Liberate it.
Read the story of your life backwards. You might spell out a different meaning, a subtler message running through the veins of an old story. A new story revealing itself from the rich compost of experience. Suddenly, you realize something that you didn’t quite see back then. You are free the moment this realization sinks into your bones and somehow opens the gates of your heart. Love is always there. Don’t miss the love that is part of everything.

Feel the ancestral pull of nature.
Ancestral is the pull to remember, to make whole and discover the nature of flow. Flow is not homogeneous. Flow is punctuated, colored, layered by moments that narrow and widen, darken and lighten, descend and ascend through the landscape of your heart. Nature calls you to shift the way you look at things. Here is a short meditation captured on video in a moment of flow in that delicious space in between, where the sea meets the land because:

“There’s nothing more beautiful than the way the ocean refuses to stop kissing the shoreline, no matter how many times it’s sent away.”
~ Sarah Kay

Feed your senses, feed your soul.
Dear wanderer, enjoy a poem I love to inspire your voyage through the landscapes of nature that feed your soul. The light sand, the warmth of the air and whispering wind, the waves of the ocean, the soft glowing sunshine all colliding in a healing moment of both touching and being touched by nature. As the great writer and poet Borges affirms:

“The word must have been in the beginning a magic symbol, which the usury of time wore out. The mission of the poet should be to restore to the word, at least in a partial way, its primitive and now secret force. All verse should have two obligations: to communicate a precise instance and to touch us physically, as the presence of the sea does.”

Let yourself be moved by this beautiful poem:

For the Senses
By John O’Donohue

May the touch of your skin
Register the beauty
Of the otherness
That surrounds you.

May your listening be attuned
To the deeper silence
Where sound is honed
To bring distance home.

May the fragrance
Of a breathing meadow
Refresh your heart
And remind you you are
A Child of the earth.

And when you partake
Of food and drink,
May your taste quicken
To the gift and sweetness
That flows from the earth.

May your inner eye
See through the surfaces
And glean the real presence
Of everything that meets you.

May your soul beautify
The desire of your eyes
That you might glimpse
the infinity that hides
In the simple sighs
That seem worn
To your usual eyes.

~ John O’Donohue

Today, in this moment, what wants to flow to the surface of your being, awareness, consciousness? Like this gorgeous flower, may you give yourself to all that you truly love. May your emerging essence find expression  in the spaces you inhabit as they welcome all that wants to be seen, experienced, shared and loved, rising to meet the world.
 

 

Ay, this flow is killing me! Peter Gentenaar’s ethereal paper sculptures were hung inside the Abbey church of Saint-Riquier in France. I love these luminous forms juxtaposed against the ancient interior of this church. Seen together, they seem to be dancing in space. The Church, providing the architectural backdrop for their movement, folding and unfolding. The second picture I assembled in a collage with pictures from his site.

Unleashing motion.

I started this post last night, February 4th, feeling the cosmic concoction in the air.

Lately I have taken you on journeys through some of the natural and built spaces and artworks that touch me in a deep way. Today, I am feeling a burst of freedom flowing through me and it naturally wants to land on the page & continue its route to your heart. Exuberant. Luminous. Fresh. Wild. Energy. Surging, through the landscape of my soul.

Friday night began with work filling me with joy and love, feeling so energized after a Skype call with a client for a space revolution session. Saturday gifted me with the fragrant sweet scent of the ocean reaching my soul. And the magic continued yesterday when I had yet another experience of wild and sacred flow at Pinterest.

Letting your obsessions flow.

Passions turn into obsessions. They don’t give up, even when trampled your whole life. They persist. They survive. On very little actually. So resilient. They are love in disguise. Your gifts. Deep and bottomless like the ocean. A sea of beauty. An energy, feeling, thought formation that rises to consciousness. Defined in dictionary as: 1. Compulsive preoccupation with a fixed idea or an unwanted feeling or emotion, often accompanied by symptoms of anxiety. &  2. A compulsive, often unreasonable idea or emotion.

The etymology of the word obsession is very revealing: From 1510s, “action of besieging,” from L. obsessionem..Later, “hostile action of an evil spirit” (like possession but without the spirit actually inhabiting the body). Transferred sense of “action of anything which engrosses the mind” is from 1670s.

Obsessions get a bad rap in our repressive culture. Ay, we are so logic driven! Let’s re-frame. There is another way. What if our passions/obsessions only turn negative when they remain hidden, suppressed, unloved, unwanted, unfocused? So often ignored and in the dark, they have gifts waiting to to be embraced and channeled.

Obsessions are energies taking residence, dwelling in your body, mind and heart. So, hoarding is not an option. Whatever you are obsessed about is not meant to get stuck in your heart. Freedom comes from letting your passions flow and spill out into the world, for good.

My Pinterest obsession.

feminine flow – Soul of a woman -  rich colors from nature – the sacred bathroom

I have been dipping my feet in the waters of Pinterest. It has become an obsession. The good kind. One that explores, expands, liberates, shares and unleashes flow. I am literary, yes, but also visual and highly or shall I say deeply spatial. I confess that I have been lusting after some images that evoke so much emotion for me. Some of you might understand my obsession. It has become a heavenly realm of sensory and spiritual satisfaction.

Pinterest is a catalogue that lets you curate all things sensual, spatial, natural, artistic, soulful and spirited. Pinterest allows for multiplicity, all at once. It appeals to the senses, avenues of communication between the inner and outer wolds that we inhabit. Read this post here on why Pinterest makes an artist’s heart happy or go here for an informative post on Pinterest applications/tips for business. If you are interested in reading why Pinterest is “totally not a waste of time: creating a visionboard for your creative project ( + why it’s helpful),” read Justine Musk’s brilliant post here.

Re-aligning with the healing power of nature.

From writings that undulate with love to sculptural forms that echo the forms of nature in dwellings that honor our ancient connection to earth and cosmos, I have been a lover of flow all my life, hence the name SACRED FLOW for my life’s philosophy and work.

Since I joined, I have been sprinkling all my boards on Pinterest with images of natural beauty and flow. One of my favorites is Soul of a Woman. Yesterday, a new board created itself, feminine flow, coming together with evocative sensual forms from nature that spilled out into designs of furniture, architecture and interiors. A beautiful thing to behold. A healing pattern of beauty emerging.

Last night I was overjoyed to find Loie Fuller, a modern American dancer who lived in France for the second half of her life. Her body of work shows she is flow herself. Her body, the folds of the earth, the currents of the wind.  “Fuller developed her own natural movement and improvisation techniques. Fuller combined her choreography with silk costumes illuminated by multi-coloured lighting of her own design (source).

“Fuller was well respected in the French scientific community…Stephane Mallarme, the leading poet of the Symbolist movement, dubbed her “La Loie” and described her dancing as “the dizzyness of soul made visible by an artifice…One reviewer described the effect as “unique, ethereal, delicious…she emerges from darkness, her airy evolutions now tinted blue and purple and crimson, and again the audience…insists upon seeing her pretty piquant face before they can believe that the lovely apparition is really a woman.” 1975 (source).

Loie Fuller standing, facing front; wearing large gown, with arms raised in the shape of a butterfly. Spreading her wings wide. Wrapped in flow, rapt in silky, beautiful flow.

A Goddess. Her silky wings in full motion. Portrait of Loïe Fuller, by Frederick Glasier, 1902.

Venus, beauty and cosmic love.

I got a dose of insight about this emotion in motion from my friend Jonathan Pearl, astrologer extraordinaire yesterday at 11:22 am:  

“Venus into maximum exaltation (26 Pisces) in a few hours. Hope you do something special to celebrate today! And maybe into early tomorrow morning..I am thinking about this more Marjory. Let’s translate: Venus in Pisces at maximum exaltation. Venus – What we love, find beautiful, are attracted to, desire, find affinity…in Pisces – Expansive, boundless, giving, flowing, artistic, spiritual… at maximum Exaltation. Our peak of capacity for our highest loves.”

My friend’s words on what’s going on in the cosmos as we speak are right on! By the way, Jonathan gives advice on stock flows that align with the cosmos. How cool is that?

Just say yes.

Art Nouveau doors from Goethe Institute. Inspired in nature. Let the doors open:

“..Follow your bliss and don’t be afraid, and doors will open where you didn’t know they were going to be.”
~ Joseph Campbell

We are all invited to open up to flow. Few heed the call. It takes risk and transformation and the opening of the heart. Wide. To embrace the whole world. Deep bottom.

I have been meditating on how and why we often deny ourselves the things, places, passions and even people we love the most. As my friend and flow sister Alison Gresik so insightfully wrote in her post calling us back to nature:

“Why do we deny ourselves the beach? We are sadomasochist artists. We don’t feel like we deserve it. The beach is not productive.” Ah, the misconceptions that fill our being. As she points out, “Going to the Beach Makes You a Better Writer & Artist” Yes, thank you Ali.

How often do you give yourself permission to do what you love, to go somewhere that feeds your soul and wander around rapt in reverie? Start now. It is never too late. Back to the beautiful feeling. Back to love. Back to the inspiration that is yours if you dare to say YES.

You are an artist, unfurling your essence across the universe.

Let your passions flow, they’ll take you places and create spaces, unimaginable. Need assistance?  I would be delighted to work with you, one-on-one  to unleash flow in your space and life.

With love,

Dragonfly in the Rain
Photograph by Shikhei Goh. Also featured in National Geographic 

What inspires you?

I am fascinated by the encounters with the natural world. Look at this beautiful dragonfly and the sparks of light around it, its iridescent wings. Feel these sparks? Dragonfly medicine is lovely. Being comfortable in both the emotional and intellectual realms. Shape-shifting between the two.

Where do you find beauty?

In Nature. In Art. I love art that reveals nature. I love nature that reveals art. My heart melts in their presence. Art that speaks from the heart. Art that opens up a window to the soul, a conversation with life itself. Energizing. Uplifting. Deepening.

It takes me time to digest an experience, an encounter.  Sometimes I like to hold it in my soul to let it simmer, get full bodied so it can flow and nourish more.

I present to you my journey through Art Basel Miami, Dec. 2011. Art Basel is an art show originally from Basel in Switzerland, with art from around the world.

What awakens your senses, your spirit, your soul?

I invite you to take a promenade to see the works of art that caught my attention, energy, thoughts and feelings. So dazzled by some of the art, I took all these photos and forgot to get the names of many of the artists! I have re-imagined their names here. I was drawn to sensual, textured, organic, spatial forms that pulsed alive.

The art I saw seemed to have a collective spirit, an emerging soul seeking expression.

There are some pieces of art that vibrate high, to the frequency of nature. The first work of art I saw at Art Basel had a surprise for me. A live dragonfly nestled in the arms of this sculptural work, delightfully enjoying its organic forms.

My friend thought it was part of the art. But the beautiful dragonfly somehow found its way inside the gallery and freely chose to rest there, a transitory home on its grand journey through life.

 
We loved these letters woven together in a sculptural maze of energy sitting on the grass. I found the M!

Whoa, this blew my mind. This form was so cellular and permeable.

Our connection to nature, space, art, love can opens us up. We are part of a greater organic, conscious, breathing whole.

This pattern that you see against the sky is part of a Corten sculptural structure by artist Jorge Fernandez (22′ x 32′ x 6′)

The Soul of a Woman

The body of a woman is a sacred landscape to be explored and worshiped. Here she is portrayed layered, complex, in motion, in discovery.

Layered woman ~ like nature, a multiplicity of folds, her body, her heart, her soul.

Climbing woman ~ reaching new heights.

SojiroTakamura, mineral pigment on japanesepaper

Bridge woman ~ like the earth, woman is a bridge herself, to the divine.

Temptation by Robert Langford

Flowing Woman ~ with the cosmos under her skirt, encompassing the whole universe. A mountain of love. Pachamama. Queen of time. Goddess of human creations reaching for the sky.

Expressing awe and wonder

Organic shaped lenses merging together forming a sea of light reflecting surface. What if we experimented seeing ourselves, others and life itself through more organic lenses? This would mean veil lifting power.

Poet William Blake said:

“If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is: Infinite.”

Steve Jobs and Ayn Rand by Global Art Group NewYork

In praise of all that is and in the spirit of Steve Jobs last few words filled with awe and wonder, on his ultimate journey to mystery and beauty.

“oh WOW. oh WOW. oh WOW” … into infinity.

Please share your thoughts, responses, ideas. I would like to know what touches your heart, what fills you with inspiration, beauty, awe and wonder. To awakening sacred flow! With love,

P.S. Do you like these art pieces? Join me on Pinterest to see a collage on The soul of a woman. and much more. In joy!

The Coral Castle.  Miami, FL.

I love secret gardens, all gardens, parks, wild pockets of nature in the city. These healing spaces make me feel at home. I grew up with my very own garden as a child, my love affair with nature started really young. Today I want to take you on a journey through an enchanting place I fell in love with recently..

This photo with the sign entrance that pays homage to the nature of your discovery beyond the threshold that invites you in: “You will see unusual accomplishment,” belongs to the Coral Castle. All other photos were joyfully taken by me.

A space that fills you with awe.
Some places find their way to our heart in an instant. The Coral Castle in Miami is one of those places, a rustic sanctuary built by a man as a testimony to the love of his life. He built a magical home and garden, a sanctuary to love itself. This man lived a very simple, stoic, and yet remarkable life. He was able to create magic with his own hands. A world unto itself, one that vibrates with love, a love you can feel, breathe and see with your heart.

A space that feeds your soul.
The Coral Castle has a garden that is whimsical, playful, filled with ancestral  remembrance of what it means to be alive, connected to self, spirit, soul, earth & cosmos.

Every detail was literally carved with love. And you can feel it. This garden furniture is made from coral rock. Even the rotating door!

A space of power.
The Coral Castle is a secret garden that tickles your imagination, amplifies your energy and melts your heart. In the tradition of our ancestors who aligned with the earth and the stars in a harmonious way, Edward Leedskalnin, designed and built this coral castle with homemade tools from 1923 to 1951. Ed was able to achieve something mysterious and extraordinary, he was able to carry and carve a total of 1,100 tons of coral rock. He claimed to have the secret ancient knowledge of physics used to build the pyramids, to move and carve his stones, or how else could he have built all this by himself? He used a local material called coral rock or oolithic limestone. It is fossilized stone of beautiful organic forms.

I love this moon fountain!

A space that awakens your energy.
I love the connection between matter, form and energy. Scientists say that an image that evokes a feeling or memory can light up the same part of your brain that lights up when you are physically there. We are still scratching the surface of energy.

The Coral Castle is a place for you to stop, slow down, meditate, walk, enjoy, breathe, watch the stars, discover, make space for beauty to dance in your heart. This is the power of a place made with love that vibrates your whole being to pulse alive as part of the whole web of creation.

Nature is so alive here. The beauty of the plant, animal and mineral world. Here you can see Ed’s truly astronomical creations: the gorgeous sun dial that lets you know the time of the day and the lovely Polaris telescope that lets you gaze at the North Star!

A space of high vibration
The Coral Castle  is nourishing, energizing, revitalizing. It is enchanting, surreal, and peaceful.  As you cross the threshold and enter the garden, you feel a child again. This place awakens your curiosity, your desire to touch, feel, and be alive, fully. I feel the pull to go back and continue my exploration, the way you return to a book that becomes a friend, revealing new things with every read, every visit.

Lush flowers. Tropical paradise!

The year of the Water Dragon
I started writing this post yesterday and it dawned on me that today marks the beginning of the New Year in the Chinese calendar. Today begins the year of the Water Dragon. Dragon, a mythical figure of great power. Here is a drawing I did many years ago. I have been drawn to the dragon for a while, it could be that I’m a dragon in the Chinese 4 pillars system (zodiac) or it could just be that I’m enamoured with what the dragon represents. This bird reminds me of the mythical feathered serpent Quetzalcoatl, a being that moves comfortably between heaven and earth.

What does the Dragon have to do with the Coral Castle? The Coral Castle and the Dragon are magical beings and places that remind us of our power to connect to heaven and earth, harness the forces of the universe, marvel at the magic that is available in every moment, access the power to reveal and create unparalleled beauty, for good.

I would love to know about the places that feed your soul & awaken your imagination.

The spaces that you long to revisit hold sweet medicine for your soul.

I wish you an auspicious year of awakenings and magical creations. May you feel inspired to let your home become a symbol of love!

Photo by Ralph Thayer

Door panel and hinge, circa 1888. Union Railroad Station, New London, Connecticut

What does it take to find home?

Everywhere you go, there is possibility and potential
for your relationship with home to heal, open, blossom and reveal itself
your colors, your song, your gifts
keep exploring, peeling the layers, opening

Human beings “cannot discover new oceans unless [they have] the courage to lose sight of the shore.”

~ Andre Gide

Home is a place, a state and a quality of being
the seat of your dreams
opening your heart to meet yourself and the world
alive, fresh, vital, magical

Home is part of an ever unfolding adventure
breathing the space where we come together
taken by this growing taste for mystery

Home is the page holding this ink receiving your presence
inviting you to explore, discover, cross thresholds, expand

Sonia Rykiel 

At home in your own skin, in your own body
in that place that whispers:  come out, emerge, shine, play

At home in your heart
in the spaces you inhabit
in the sacred earth
in the world

At home, flowing like a river,
like the ebb and flow of an ocean
a merging and flourishing and a constant becoming

At home in the voyage of your soul
in the journey made of moments and vistas
of valleys and peaks and trails of love

“The day will come when, after harnessing space, the winds, the tides, and gravitation, we shall harness for God the energies of love. And on that day, for the second time in the history of the world, we shall have discovered fire.”

~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

May love fuel your journey home, in the here, in the now.

I want to explore the taboo of woman’s blood, unleash the sacred flow of our blood. 

Taboo:

“forbidden to profane use or contact because of what are held to be dangerous supernatural powers.” ~ Miriam-Webster

“the prohibition of an action based on the belief that such behavior is either too sacred and consecrated or
too dangerous and accursed for ordinary individuals to undertake.” ~ Britannica Online Encyclopedia

We don’t talk about taboos because they inspire fear and awe. We exclude them from our conversation and they become hidden sore spots. Taboos are kept hidden. Disguised. Distorted. Disfigured. Mistrusted mysteries of life. The true meaning of taboo connotes sacredness. Most taboos are left untouched, a reservoir of power, untapped.

Unfurling this blood taboo.

I realize that woman’s blood is taboo: uncomfortable to many, including women. I encourage you to read through these words, follow their flow and let the discomfort melt away. Underneath the color of our skin, all women bleed the same, red, deep, ancient flow of life force. It is this power what makes the blood that naturally flows through a woman during her cycle seem taboo.

There is still a lot of stigma around woman’s blood. The lingering feeling that our periods are the punishment for being women. The notion that we stain the world with our blood. I remember my first period was not celebrated, in fact, quite the opposite. It caused sadness, a child no more, I had lost my innocence. But can innocence ever be lost? Can you be innocent while acquiring experience?

Menarche, our first blood is an initiation into womanhood, a rite of passage lost to modern culture. Ah the beautiful songs of innocence and experience by William Blake. I can understand the sadness of my mother, a period ended and another one started. Transitions can be difficult. Imagine a ceremony to acknowledge some of the mother’s pain but also the excitement of her little girl becoming woman.

We have disengaged from the beauty of our bodies and the processes that run through us.

What was once powerful is now seen as a source of shame. We hide, ignore, obstruct and diminish our own blood, we think it is dirty, but it is sacred. It is sacred flow. I recently listened to these woman’s words about her own blood:

“It grosses me out.” She said about her menstrual blood.
What grosses your out about it? I asked.
“Don’t know. Associate it with pain. Injuries.” She stated.

This blood comes from the life giving space of our womb. It saddens me to hear a woman speak of her own blood in this way. And yet, I understand the pain and its emotional source.  When the blood that could have nurtured a life is lost as this flow that comes through us, we may experience pain as a primal feeling of loss for the life that didn’t become. This may sound irrational but since when is pain rational? Nothing is lost, this blood wants to flow back into the earth, not the landfills. May we offer the earth our precious blood in sustainable ways, ways that keep the integrity of the earth intact.

Feeling our shame. Healing our pain.

This pain can stem from the ways in which we dishonor our center. The shaming of this sacred power makes us:

~ Block our emotions
~ Obstruct the flow of our blood
~ Keep quiet when we know in our belly that there is energy rising seeking expression
~ Give up on our dreams to make a man, a system, or society ‘happy’
~ Forget ourselves to sustain others
~ Conform to draining schedules
~ Push ourselves when our cycles call for rest
~ Feel fed up in a system that fails to satisfy your deepest cravings, and yet stay
~ Silence our truth because we do not want to upset others

You don’t have to continue to participate in this self deprecating system..

Celebrating our ancient wisdom.

Our sacred center longs to be experienced as it is, divine and in harmony with the earth. Our healing process inspires us to:

~ See our own innate beauty emanating from within
~ Spend time in nature
~ Honor our feelings
~ Liberate our emotions
~ Express ourselves
~ Slow down to listen and trust our intuition
~ Rest when our cycles call for it
~ Live according to a rhythm that sustains us
~ Awaken to our true desires
~ Gather in circles of women
~ Reclaim our own space
~ Help reveal new healing ways of living that bring peace

Accepting our power.

We experience cycles. We are not machines, we are organic beings with sleeping cycles,  menstrual cycles, life cycles. Cycles. Women are naturally more in tune with the rhythms of nature since our bodies sexual system works in cycles. Once a month we bleed, sometimes in unison with other women when we commune together, a lost art that is being revived today.

Our blood cycles can be messy, bloody, but also life giving and cosmic. We bleed to the rhythm of the moon. There is great power in our blood. Since ancient times, women’s ability to bleed from their womb was considered sacred, powerful, magical; that is, until the wisdom and power of body, woman, nature was desacralized.

Bleeding involves a sort of depletion essential for regeneration. It is a process of self renewal. Bleeding time used to be honored in ancient culture and still is in some tribal communities where women gather to nurture themselves during this part of their cycle. In our fast pace western culture women have to work to the same speed of men who do not have this organic life regenerating mechanism. The fact that women need to rest during their cycle implies no weakness, it speaks of wisdom. Too much speed without pauses of rest can lead to shallow life experiences and burnout.

We need rituals, ceremonies, rites of passage that honor our life transitions and life processes as we grow and expand.

It is time to honor and celebrate our womb, our beautiful shakti (feminine) power. There are traditions that revere feminine power. We have much to learn, to remember from them for our own healing process. In order to reconnect with our blood power, we need to reframe the way we think about our blood.

Forget about women having penis envy. It is the other way around. Sigmund Freud got it wrong! In Metaformic theory, in Blood, Bread, and Roses: How Menstruation Created the World, Judy Grahn attributes the development of culture to women.  Men were originally fearful of women’s power to produce blood once a month. It is a mystery to be able to offer blood to the earth. Men had to inflict injuries to touch blood with their hands and so the author says that this I how the bellicose nature of man got started, his thirst for woman’s blood, woman’s power.

When I am on my moon, I feel a special power. I know this power will also cycle and show up differently at various times of my life. For now, while I can bleed, I marvel at my body opening to spirit flowing through me in this visceral, ancestral way. If you are a bleeding woman, know that life’s mystery is revealing itself through you. Slowly befriend, honor, bless, and trust your flow, your life force. Your cycle is sacred and so are you.

With love,

It is wintertime and the beginning of 2012, an auspicious time to draw in and nurture our chi, our energy and life force. What are you craving deep in your heart?

When I see this picture, a multitude of words start to swirl around in my imagination. I feel all these dancing around the word revolution:  evolution, revelation, reveling, revolving, love. Love, circling around, peaking through and dismantling the structures that limit us.

Poet, writer & psychoanalyst Clarissa Pinkola Estés, suggests we make 2012 the year of an inner revolution. I couldn’t agree more.  This is the year when that part of you that is hidden, lost, forgotten, neglected; finally rises to the surface, aware, conscious, bright and beautiful like a plant seeking the light in the garden of your heart.

You want to revolutionize the world. I invite you to, first, revolutionize your heart, your soul, your connection to spirit and your space in the world. Revolutionizing the world becomes an extension of revolutionizing your life. A world of self revolutionaries will revolutionize itself. What can assist us in this process, is fine tuning one of our most neglected relationships, our relationship to our space, to our nature, to our environment.

Awakening is a gradual process of discovery and realization, revealing a view of life that expands as we navigate the landscape of our life.  We are living times of great shifting, inviting us to expand and fulfill our potential. An essential part of healing the web of life is shining our life purpose, expressing its essence in every space we move through. Here are a few of my offerings in the spirit of awakening sacred flow, the awareness and remembrance deep in our bones, that we are, indeed, part of one world pulsing with multiplicity.

Want to start an inner and outer revolution? Here is how:

: Winter DreamSpace Circle
 is a virtual women circle devoted to dreaming, creating & connecting, for a more conscious world. Let’s dream together!

: Space Revolution Sessions are virtual spatial healing & sacred design sessions to revolutionize your relationship with your home, studio or office. Let’s begin!

: Mandala Magic Sessions are
 virtual spatial healing & sacred design sessions, anchored in the ancient symbolism of the altar and mandala. Cosmic wow. Let’s flow!

: Soul-Mirror Intensives
 offer a profound shamanic journey into your interior space. Ideal for clients who want to transform their homes into vibrant sanctuaries, receive in-person attention & tangible design inspiration, and reconnect with their life’s purpose…while creating spaces of meaning & magic. Let’s awaken!

These are all ways we can work together to create sanctuary for your life, your work, your art, your truth. Give yourself the gift of shining your soul’s purpose and expressing your essence, one space at a time.

I would love to hear from you. You could win a free Space Revolution Session if you:

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If you love your space, your space will love you back. Your space wants to witness your most brilliant self, revealed. Your highest potential, unfolding.

To a 2012 of bright beginnings and luscious flow,

“Another world is not only possible, she is on her way! On a quiet day, if you listen carefully, you can hear her breathing.” ~ Arundhati Roy

In between. We are magnetic beings on the brink of a new shift. A reality that is altered and ushered by our every thought, feeling and emotion.

“The flapping of a single butterfly’s wing today produces a tiny change in the state of the atmosphere. Over a period of time, what the atmosphere actually does diverges from what it would have done.” (Ian Stewart, Does God Play Dice? The Mathematics of Chaos)

The world is constantly changing and nothing exists in isolation. We are interconnected. That thought, that feeling, that inner current is reaching and touching someone, nature, the world.

“There are no backwaters. There is only one river & we are all in it. Wave your arms, & the ripples will … reach me.” ~Scott Russell Sanders

If you feel too insignificant when you consider your contribution to solving the issues our world faces today, consider this possible:

“How small moves, smartly made, can set really big things in motion.”

 
Some things come into our lives by magic. Such is the magic that drew me to The Power of Pull, an innovative book written or shall we say channeled by my friend and client John Hagel III  along with John Seely Brown and Lang Davison. This is not just a book on business, it is a book on living!

This revolutionary book is a call for subversive visionaries who are ready to birth a new order, mindset, and paradigm. Ready to explore their passion until the juice of inspiration and serendipity flows freely, intentionally, purposefully.

I am finding a provocative parallel between The Power of Pull and the guiding principles of Feng Shui and Taoism that are part of my philosophy and practice. I’m passionate about revealing magical ways to express our soul, our purpose and deepest potential in the inner and outer spaces of our lives. I’m interested in opening channels for the breath of life and all the vital forces of the cosmos to support our sustainable and sacred expansion.

This is why I love The Power of Pull. Its applications go in a fractal manner from the individual to the collective level. May The Power of Pull inspire you (& your business, community, organization, institution) to:

1. FIND YOUR PURPOSE: YOUR CONTRIBUTION IS MEANINGFUL AND ESSENTIAL.

“Could the techniques of pull be harnessed to make it feasible for a single individual , without any institutional foundation at all, to change the world? What would that look like?”

“A profound shift in the way we consume energy” and the way we let it flow through us..

2. GET NAKED: REMEMBER THE LANGUAGE OF THE FEMININE.

The book presents a new paradigm of pull that outgrows the broken and obsolete patriarchal systems of push. Forget to arm yourself to go to war. It is time to get naked with strategic love. Welcome serendipity, harness, flow, the edges where collaboration happens.

“We..will tend to attract others who are intrigued by the sense of focus and direction that we communicate.”

“Pull is the ability to attract people and resources to you that are relevant and valuable, even if you were not aware before that they existed.”

This world is a manifestation of the ebb and flow of yin and yang in a cyclical cosmic dance of forces. When the world is too yang (masculine), the yin principle (feminine) yearns to manifest. We are entering the realm of the feminine, the mysterious, the unknown. There are three ways of harnessing pull, three waves. I love this feminine language:

1st Wave ~ Access
“The first wave is all about lowering barriers to entry and movement.”

2nd Wave ~ Flow
“The second wave shows what happens when those barriers go away: Capital, talent, and knowledge start flowing increasingly rapidly across.. boundaries.”

3rd Wave ~ Flourish
“Knowledge flows naturally flourish on the edge.”

Provocative questions:
 
~ How transparent and permeable are you?
 
~ Are you welcoming new flows?
 
~ Are you turning your passion into a sustainable path?
 
~ Are you exploring your edge in new territories beyond your comfort zone?
 
~ Are you communicating your message with focus and direction and opening up to the universe sending you what you need?

Fertile. Synchronicity. Serendipity. Magic. These are the feminine words that inhabit the narrative of The Power of Pull.

3. KNOW THYSELF: PASSION AT YOUR CORE CAN TAKE YOU TO YOUR VERY EDGE.

“Pull is truly subversive.”

It pierces through your veils of illusion. It draws from your deep knowing flashes of insight. It is an apple falling on your head. Actually, it is the apple you eat. Epiphany. Receptivity and then the power to hone the energy that streams through you.

I only wish The Power of Pull would emphasize depth over speed. New life takes time, conception, incubation and then that miraculous moment of birth, preceded by hours of bearing new life into light.

We are already experiencing the effects of greed ravaging our world at fast speed. To pull the best of us from our very core as we play and explore our edges in the face our current challenges, we must go deep and true within ourselves.

4. EXPLORE: GO ON THE ULTIMATE HERO[INE]‘S QUEST.

Then come back, leverage your story, for good, for love, for the passion burning bright in your heart, in your soul, in your blood running wild, awakened, freed, in service of all.

“To present ourselves authentically, we must first develop a deep understanding of who we are. For many of us, that will be a novel and somewhat discomforting quest as we strip away the scripts, routines, and facades that we have so carefully cultivated in order to integrate into the push world.”

This is no small feat, it requires patience, love, a SLOWING DOWN to see where we come from, where we are and ultimately where we are going. The realization that we are part of a greater whole and that “passion provides us with the key to achieving our full potential” can be infused with intention, consciousness and a burning love for all life.

“We will need to begin to view or social and professional networks as assets that can be leveraged not just for own own personal success, but to help amplify the success of others.”

“HARNESS YOUR ECOSYSTEMS.”

Push can be aggressive, forceful and often violent. Pull can be provocative, seductive and expansive. How you walk your path is your choice and gift to the world.

You can: live your passion, experience serendipity & synchronicity, open up to the magic of mystery and use your genius to help others. This and more is possible. May you feel the power of pull to fulfill your potential. You are key to the unfolding of life. Inside of you there is another world pulsing its way into being.

To being conscious conduits of flow, reveling in magical moments of coming together in synchronistic collaboration, for the deepest good. To healing the ways in which we relate to ourselves, each other and our planet. To The Power of Pull, to love, to the scintillating power of yes! 

PS. All quotes come from The Power of Pull, unless otherwise cited. Love these thoughts? Get The Power of Pull here.

May you feel inspired to share your ideas, feelings, responses in the comments below or click reply if you are subscribed and receiving this post in your inbox. Enjoy!

We need to look back in order to see forward. Looking back is a gift of reflection, meditation and awareness. What you find can fuel your journey with the fire of inspiration, with the taste of surrender to the current of life and mystery unfolding moment to moment.

My word for 2011 was: ripening. I did feel like fruit ripening in the sunlight. Fruit nourished by the deepest tree roots, sustained by earth, water, air and love. So much tenderness, gratitude and reverence for a 2011 of deep remembrance. A cycle of lessons, teachings, offerings, gifts, synchronicities and miracles.

How have you digested 2011? What did you learn, absorb, remember and how will this energy nourish your life force in 2012?

“Anything I can not transform into something marvelous, I let go. ”
~ Anais Nin

Kiss the old year good bye. Sweetly, fiercely, magically, let go of anything that holds you back, anything that dims your light. Back into the current of life.

Today time feels like a friend that I am getting to know, intimately. Like a fluid stream. Like someone I love, no longer rushing to get anywhere. Somehow, quite gracefully, I can relax into the softness of this moment and savor it, love it, more fully and unconditionally.

Here is a well loved poem  I’m sharing again to inspire you. May you feel the flow and spirit of this poem like ocean waves softly touching the shoreline of your being.

What to remember when waking by David Whyte:

 
In that first
Hardly noticed
Moment
In which you wake,
Coming back
To this life
From the other
More secret,
Moveable,
And frighteningly
Honest
World
Where everything
Began,
There is a small
Opening
Into the day
Which closes
The moment
You begin your plans.

What you can plan
Is too small for you to live.

What you can live
Wholeheartedly
Will make plans
Enough
For the vitality
Hidden in your sleep.

To be human
Is to become visible,
While carrying
What is hidden
As a gift to others.

To remember
the other world
In this world
Is to live in your
True inheritance

You are not
A troubled guest
On this earth,
You are not
An accident
Amidst other accidents,
You were invited
From another greater and greater
Night
Than the one
From which
You have just emerged.

Now, looking through
The slanting light,
Of the morning
Window towards
The mountain
Presence
Of everything
That can be,
What urgency
Calls you to your
One love? What shape
Waits in the seed
Of you to grow
And spread
Its branches
Against a future sky?

Is it waiting
In the fertile sea?
In the trees
Beyond the house?
In the life
You can imagine
For yourself?
In the open
And lovely
White page
On the waiting desk?

…

What you plan is too small for you. You are a sacred vessel of flow. Say yes to being, opening, receiving, giving and letting life flow through as you engage with the world.

I want to beg you, as much as I can…to be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.
~  Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

My word for 2012? See the picture on top of this post. Feel it in your heart. What does it evoke for you? Pictures speak a thousand words and more.

Wishing you a gentle transition into a luminous 2012, may it be a year of beautiful awakening.

With love,