Winds of Change
New
vision and inspiration for the journey.
A Mystery School Newsletter
from Linda Heron Wind published on each Full Moon
November 2005 Full Moon Newsletter
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Contents |
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November 2005 Full Moon in Taurus
Nov 15 (8:58 PM Eastern Standard Time)
Inspiration comes
When you are empty of breath
Hungry for Spirit
A conversation
Between Heaven and Earth
A song of pure silence
Moving into the darkness, the place of roots and our connection to Earth, the Taurus Full Moon calls us to slow down and plant the seeds of physical change deep within us. It is a time of physical nourishment from our roots that ground us into the Earth plane. In times of high energy and rapid change we need to be more conscious about moving with the cycles of Earth and honoring our bodies as the Earth element. In winter all the plants and trees withdraw their energy into their roots. Many animals sleep more or even hibernate. For humans this time is often a challenge, with the fast paced world around us that ignores natural rhythms. Yet when we do slow down and move within, an abundance of energy and creativity meet us there that allows for new growth in the spring. To move forward in our lives and continue our growth, there must be a time that is quiet and deep.
Full moon time again
Cycles are spinning faster
Like Sufi dancers
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: New group forming in January.
WHERE: in the Victor-Pittsford 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.
Root Tea - One of the ways to honor your own rootedness is to use roots for tea or food. There are many roots that are used for medicinal teas. You might research one and drink it over the time of the waning moon. One that I like is Ginger root tea. With a little honey and lemon it is very warming and great for a scratchy throat or cold. Dandelion root is a purifier for the liver and is good mixed with something sweeter as it is bitter. You could also roast up some root vegetables such as carrots, onions, parsnips and potatoes. To make this a ritual, it is only necessary to consciously drink the tea or eat the vegetables with the intention that they strengthen your own connection with the earth.
Push your root down deep
To keep you strong when winds blow
And bring nourishment
Meditation Exercise
Journey into the Silence of Earth's Center - Get yourself comfortable and take a few deep breaths to relax. Then imagine that you are following a root that begins to push down from your tailbone into the Earth. Notice how it becomes quieter as you move into the first layer of Earth just below the grass and even quieter yet as you snake your way between rocks or even through them into deeper layers. The vibration of the rocks and dirt is slow and even. The stones are in no hurry to go anywhere or figure things out. As you go further yet the rocks may become warm and finally molten. You bathe in this warmth that for some strange reason does not seem to burn you but only hold you in its warm darkness. You allow yourself to be suspended in this molten center that moves slowly or not at all, to be warmed in the silence. No place to go, nowhere to be other than here in the center of the Earth, held in the warm cradle of love that the Earth has for you, her child. When you are ready to leave, you place the end of your root here in the Earth's belly and begin to climb back up through the layers, following the root back to the end of your tailbone and back into your body. You pause for a minute, checking to see if the root still extends down into the center and silence, knowing that even by just thinking about it you can re-enter that place again.
Silence surrounds me
Like a nurturing dark womb
Filling me with peace
Harnessing the Power
of the Mind?
Linda Heron Wind
As the energy continues to accelerate, the most common difficulty I
find in myself as well as in those I work with is that the mind also accelerates.
In the face of swirling change in the physical world, the mind wants to
run from one thing to another attempting to control things, or to obsess
about what is not working. Certainly these are issues that the mind has
had for a long time due to its nature and education, but its capacity
for interfering with our happiness has greatly increased over the last
year. While we have all been engaged in various practices over the last
few years that are designed to quiet the mind and free it from its obsessions,
we appear to have come to the point of needing to make our moment-to-moment
existence a practice that quiets the mind.
The place that we are quickly moving to is one where our guidance needs
to come directly from the heart with support rather than interference
from the mind. You can easily detect when your mind is interfering by
the feelings of frustration, inner conflict, stress, and fear that arises.
When the mind is supporting the heart there is a feeling of wellbeing,
lightness, and flow. So the question is how to get your mind to play a
supporting role rather than needing to be the main character in your play.
Part of the solution is to give your mind something to do that it actually
can do well. Choose what you would like your mind to focus on rather than
letting it aimlessly wander into stories and places that are neither within
its control or its business. The mind may have bad habits that it automatically
goes to when you do not consciously direct it such as looking for the
worst case scenario or what is not working. The problem with such habits
is that they are based on stories and not facts and they tend to create
emotional response. Instead give your mind the task of identifying what
is story and what is fact, a task it can do and enjoys doing. Releasing
the stories and sticking to the facts, that are always neutral, does not
send you on an emotional rollercoaster ride.
Giving your mind a task that it can do tends to help the mind feel in
control and relaxed. You can ask it to look for all that is working which
usually brings feelings of gratitude. You can ask it to notice the beauty
that is surrounding you all the time. If it must be obsessive then give
it something that enhances your heart centeredness to move within endless
cycles such as chants, affirmations, inspirational sayings, songs, or
prayers. While all of these are a type of directed business of the mind,
they work to bring the mind into synchrony with the heart and ultimately
to a more relaxed and peaceful state.
Since energy follows focus, another way to bring the mind closer to stillness
is to focus on the roots that extend from your feet into the ground or
even on the bottom of your feet. This draws energy away from thinking
and into the body producing a sense of quiet or emptiness in the mind.
Actually standing on the Earth in bare feet or leaning your back against
a tree and feeling its roots going deep into the Earth will also be helpful.
The more grounded you are, the quieter your mind will become.
As we move toward the winter and the coming new year, we must learn to move from this deep place within us where there is inner harmony and peace. Only then will we be able to respond to the changes in the world around us from a place of trust and love. When the heart and mind are in synchrony life can be awesome!
My powerful mind
Can work to support my heart
Or create conflict
Practicing presence
Holding focus here and now
The sacred moment
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 on November 14, 2005 by RMC