Winds of Change

New vision and inspiration for the journey.
A Mystery School Newsletter from Linda Heron Wind published on each Full Moon

October 2005 Full Moon Newsletter

October 2005 Full Moon Eclipse in Aries
Oct 17 (8:14 AM Eastern Daylight Time)

Spirit flows through me
Like water in a river
Singing its sweet song

Cascading water
Pools of wonder form within
Calling me to play

What's Happening?

Full Moon in Aries calls us to honor the inner fire, knowing that it is what directs us to our true path in life. The Eclipse (not visible in the Western hemisphere) is about releasing the invisible strings that hold us in old patterns that do not feed this inner fire. Visions abound at this time and they call us to take action and initiate new ways of living that are joyful and sustainable. While incoming energy very intense, we can use it to consciously release old unworkable patterns and create what feeds us on the deepest levels. When energy gets intense, remember to spend time in nature especially near water, eat to nourish your body, rest, play, and laugh a lot.

I'm moving forward
Inch by inch I clear away
Keeping what feeds me

UPCOMING WORKSHOPS AND CAMPS

Emotional Education for Parents and Children
Facilitated by Linda Heron Wind

You probably never went to school to learn about the purpose of your emotions, how they can be effectively expressed, and what they can teach you. If you are like most people you learned about your emotions from your parents who didn't know any more than you did. This usually results in a variety of ineffective ways of responding to your emotions that go all the way from stuffing them to projecting them onto others. Wouldn't it be nice if you and your children could learn together how to work with emotions in a way that enhances family relationships and promotes good emotional skills in everyday life? That is exactly what this series of classes is about. In 4 sessions of 2 hours each you will acquire the knowledge and practical skills that will provide a solid foundation for your family to work effectively with the emotions that surface in everyday living.

Using stories, role playing, self control techniques, and problem solving skills, parents and their children will learn to identify, express, learn from, and resolve their emotions as well as how to respond in helpful ways to the emotions of others.

Outline

• Recognizing emotions in ourselves and in others
  
• Techniques for working with emotions in the family
  
• Tools for self-control
  
• Distinguishing between emotions and behaviors
  
• Expressing emotions
  
• What we can learn from our emotions
  
• What to do with the energy of emotion
  
• Identifying and handling emotional triggers
  
• When to hide your feelings
  
• Using problem solving and thinking aloud to address emotions

WHEN: Sundays, Oct 30, Nov 6, 13, 20 from 4-6PM.
WHERE: in the Victor area
COST: $180 per family for all 4 sessions or $50 per individual session
Email LHWind@aol.com or call 585-924-5620 if you are interested in being part of that group.

Shequaga is a beautiful 50 acres with creeks, waterfalls, pond, woods, and open fields owned by CIRCLE in the southern tier of NY about 50 minutes south of Rochester. A turtle shaped building houses kitchen, showers, healing room, craft room and an indoor labyrinth. Tent camping with some platforms, and great vegetarian cuisine create a great environment for living in close relationship to the Earth and her rhythms.

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More details on Camps and Workshops are available on the Workshops page of this website or the CIRCLE website www.circleinc.org.

Ritual

Tending the Visions - Over the next moon cycle, pay attention to the visions that come to you. When a vision resonates on a feeling level, select a seed of any type, perhaps collected from your garden or nature, and place it in a small bowl or clay pot that you can place on your altar. Each day begin the practice of stirring the seeds in the pot and feeling whether they are ready to be placed in soil for you to tend and grow.

Stirring the seed pot
Which seeds will tumble out first
Onto fertile ground?

The Playwright - Close your eyes and get into a comfortable position. Take a few deep breaths and ground yourself by dropping a root into the Earth. Imagine yourself in a small cottage that sits on the edge of a lake. The setting is beautiful with woods and meadows. In a main room of this cottage is a round table where you sit to await the arrival of some of your different identities. The first to arrive is the character that you play in this life, dressed in the costume of your physical body. Welcome this part and talk to it about the identity that it represents. The next to arrive is the actor or actress who plays this role. Notice how this part appears and talk to it about why it was drawn to play this role and how it sees itself in developing the character it represents. How is the actor different from the character? What is the identity of the actor? Can you feel it? Next you welcome in the director. Notice how the director appears and ask how it tries to direct the actor in light of the play. What is the identity of the director? Can you feel yourself as the director? Finally invite in the playwright. How does the playwright appear? Why did this part write this play? What is the theme and purpose? What is the identity of the playwright? Can you feel yourself as the playwright? Stay with this group as long as you like and see how they interact with each other. Which one do you feel most identified with?

The playwright knows all
Choosing the perfect scene for
For the actor to play

This Month's Article

Who Are You?
Linda Heron Wind

Your answer to this question is a window to the level of consciousness that you embody in this moment. As with any good question, there are many levels of answers that attest to the levels of consciousness that you are capable of experiencing. The level that you embody, however, is sort of like a normal operating consciousness, or the one you are at more than 50% of the time. Identity is the perspective from which you look at yourself and the world. It is a primary determining factor in your experience of life.

Before you read the rest of this article, take a moment to answer the question, "Who am I?" making a list of whatever comes to mind first to those identities that take a bit more thought. That way your answers will be more spontaneous and more useful to look at through the levels of consciousness lens. There is no way to be wrong here, no better or worse, just information that will help you on your journey.

Now let's look at the ways that people think about their identities and how those identities relate to levels of consciousness and perspective. If we use a metaphor of a play, we could divide the identities in to role or character, actor, director, and playwright. Third dimensional consciousness is the role or character. Some examples of identities that correspond to role are your given name, your job title, mother, father, or other labels that relate to your third dimensional life. These are the roles that you play in the play of your current life. They generally relate to external, physical experience although our identity with them often is internalized. In some ways it is like an actor that becomes over identified with the role being played. While it is important to "get into the role" to be a good actor, becoming the role creates a loss of perspective.

A fourth dimensional identity would be that of the actor. This perspective requires a step back from the role where you know that you are playing a role and that you are not the character whose costume you are wearing. This step back allows you to consider how you wish to play the role - a choice not available when you are totally enmeshed with the character. In life this corresponds to an emotional trigger event happening and rather than just automatically reacting, you take the time to decide how you, the actor, wish to speak your lines in the play. Choice about our actions arises when we can embody the identity of the actor. For example, the actor is aware of the archetypal nature of the role and how that event relates to the archetype. In a case where you might feel victimized or taken advantage of, the actor can choose a positive expression of the victim archetype that is empowering rather than the negative expression of blame.

The next level of consciousness would be the identity of the director. Here the director has a perspective that the actor does not have. The director can see the play as a whole, how the other supporting actors are playing their roles and the progression of the plot toward the purpose of the play. As we take another step back from the actor, we can see how the choices of how to play the character can affect how the supporting actors play their characters. In life, for example, we may choose to respond to another person with lack of trust or from a victim theme. When we do that that person my respond back with defensiveness or with blaming. On the other hand, if we respond to the person with trust and from a place of empowerment, that person's response may be quite different. The awareness that how we play our role affects how others play their roles, and being able to choose accordingly, is holding the identity of the director. This perspective also brings us to a greater awareness about the level of control that we have over our experience in life.
Finally we can identify with the playwright. From the perspective of the playwright, the play can be rewritten as you go. Choice extends to not only how you say your lines as you act out archetypal roles, or your awareness of how your actions affect others, but to how each scene is constructed to fulfill the purpose of the play. Awareness from the perspective of the playwright is awareness that you are creating the play as you go along and, if you are creating it, you can change it at any time. Now there is a difference between embodying this perspective and just knowing about it or believing it. Many people can accept that they are creating the experience of their lives, but it is much more difficult to live your life moment to moment allowing that awareness to inform your choices of how you feel, think, act, and speak.

While we have all had momentary experiences of all of these identities, it is useful to begin to notice which identity you are aligned with in the moment, particularly when issues are triggered or experience arises that is not what you expect or desire. It is those times that you have the greatest opportunity to raise your consciousness to a higher level and, thus, contribute to the evolution of consciousness in humanity as a whole.

To be in this world
Is to know the role you play
And choose your actions

To not be of it
Is to know the play you're in
And direct it well

If you have comments on this newsletter or ideas for future topics,
call Linda Heron Wind at (585) 924-5620 or send e-mail to LHWind@aol.com.

Check out the article about CIRCLE in the D&C
http://www.democratandchronicle.com/news/02042S35QT0_news.shtml

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Page last modified onOctober 15,, 2005 by RMC/SMH