Winds of Change

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

April 2006 Full Moon Newsletter

Contents

moon phases

Full Moon in Libra April 13 (12:40 PM Eastern Daylight Time)

The Quest continues
Searching for that which cannot
Be found but just is

What's Happening?

A Full Moon in Libra brings up questions around relationship. Not only our relationships with friends and significant others are called into question, but our relationship with self, Earth, the elements and all the beings of Earth. Where are you in good relationship and where are you out of good relationship? When we are not in good relationship with someone or something, it becomes our teacher, and the teachings are not always pleasant or easy. Such is the nature of this Mystery School that we are all enrolled in. So during this full moon, make an accounting of your relationships and be sure to take whatever steps are needed to bring yourself into good relationship with yourself and all that is around you.

Winds of change blowing
Clearing what does not serve love
Sacred Spring cleaning!

UPCOMING CAMPS AND RETREATS

Living with Joy - Hummingbird's Journey
June 23 - 25, 2006
A Retreat Weekend
with Linda Heron Wind, Ph.D.

Hummingbird is a symbol for joy and also for mythic journeys. This weekend retreat gives us time away from our everyday world to return to the silence of our hearts while we are serenaded by the birds, the frogs, the falls, the wind, and inner knowing. This retreat will provide you with alone and silent time in nature as well as sharing circles, and opportunities for creating sacred art. Individual time with Heron will also be available for guidance. We will let hummingbird lead us back to ourselves, as we discover the sweet spring of joy that flows eternally within our hearts.

TIME: Friday June 23 (7 PM) to Sunday June 25 (12 Noon)
COST: $120 (limit of 15 participants). All meals provided.
REGISTER BY: May 21 with a deposit of $60.

AWAKENING SPIRITS

CHILDREN'S EARTH SCHOOL CAMPS
An opportunity to experience living in harmony with each other and with the earth

Mystery Schools over the ages taught the basic truths of the Universe that are often found at the core of every major religious and spiritual tradition. Through small group activities and exercises, community talking circles, creative arts, story telling, singing, dancing, ceremony, and sacred play, Awakening Spirits Earth School camps teach a core curriculum that emphasizes:

Authenticity - being in good relationship with ourselves, others and the environment
Accessing and trusting inner guidance
Working with feelings and emotions to gain wisdom
Developing effective communication skills - hearing and being heard
The role of story in our lives - telling and changing our stories

Earth School camps provide an opportunity for youth and adults to explore and practice together these teachings in a playful and loving atmosphere.

PARENT-CHILD EARTH SCHOOL
July 14-16, 2006
With Linda Heron Wind, Ph.D.

When parents and children engage in the same process of learning about themselves it enhances family life. We learn from each other, younger and older and we engage in creative activities, storytelling, music making, and playing in the woods and the water.

A girls hoop, boys hoop, and parents hoop explore questions and stories and then come together to share around a camp fire.

FOR: Parents, male and female, and sons or daughters, ages 5-12
TIME: Friday July 14 (10 AM) to Sunday July 16 (Noon)
COST: $180 for adult and first child, $60 for second child or adult. All meals provided.
REGISTER BY: June 15 with a deposit of $90, remainder due on July 1, 2006.

MOTHER-DAUGHTER EARTH SCHOOL
August 4-6
with Linda Heron Wind, Ph.D.

When mothers and daughters share the same deep experience of community where each person, regardless of age, is honored for their gifts and wisdom, magic happens! Through loving community with ourselves, each other and the Earth, we learn how to be who we really are and the skills to take that home to enhance the mother-daughter relationship within the family. Children spend time in age clustered hoops as well as whole community activities. Mothers hoop engages in similar learning and activities that address mothering concerns as well as self-growth. Come play with us in the beauty of nature!

FOR: Mothers, grandmothers, aunts (or other caring female adults) and girls, ages 5-12
TIME: Friday Aug 4 (10AM) to Sunday Aug 6 (noon)
COST: $180 for adult and first child $60 for second child. All meals provided.
REGISTER BY: July 1 with a deposit of $90, remainder due on July 28, 2006.

DANCING INTO THE DARKNESS: Entering the Jaguar Dreaming Lodge
September 29 - October 1
with Linda Heron Wind, Ph.D.

If we are to survive on this sweet Earth and move into the predicted time of love and peace, we must learn to be the conscious dreamers of our lives and our world. Shamans have known how to dream the world and jaguar teaches us the secrets that the darkness holds. Together we will make our dream masks, call on the jaguar and dance into the darkness to bring these ancient wisdom ways more fully into our lives. Join us as we dance, create ceremony and sacred art, and ride the jaguar into the darkness.

TIME: Friday September 29 (6 PM) to Sunday October 1 (Noon)
COST: $120 (limited to 15 women or men). All meals provided.
REGISTER BY: September 1 with a deposit of $60, remainder due at retreat.

For more information, call Linda Heron Wind at 585-924-5620 or visit the CIRCLE web site www.circleinc.org.

Ritual

Relationship Altar - As you begin to assess your relationships, past and present, create an altar on which you can place symbols of anyone or anything with which you are not in good relationship. For each relationship that needs more harmony, create a circle of paper or an index card on which you can write what would be needed to come into good relationship. You can also draw with colors on the reverse side what feels like good relationship with that person or thing.

For example, if there is a person you are not in good relationship with, you might put their picture or name on your altar, then put the circle or card you have created under it. If it is an object that you are not in good relationship with, such as money, your car, your job, the place you live, etc., then put a symbol of that object on the altar. Each day between the full and new moon (2 weeks), focus on creating good relationships with all that is on your altar. On the new moon you can take the altar apart or continue it by removing those things or people you have come into good relationship with and placing additional ones on the altar if necessary.

Invisible breath
Blows through all that's visible
Connecting it all

Meditation Exercise

Journey to the House of Relationship - Get in a comfortable position and take a few deep breaths to relax. Imagine that you are walking down a hallway in a large mansion. There are many doors that open off of this hallway. Each one contains information about your past and present relationships. Notice which door you are drawn to and move toward it. Open the door and see what is inside. It may be a theatre where you can review your relationship on the screen or it may open into a scene from the past or present where you will see yourself interacting with others or something. Hold the question of how you might come into better relationship with everyone and everything in your life as you allow the scene to unfold. When you feel complete, come back out and close the door. Know that you can return at anytime to explore that room further or try some of the other doors. When you come back into the physical reality of your body, journal about what you experienced and use that information to help create your relationship altar.

Good relationship
Dancing through life together
We are harmony

Inspiration

Enjoy these poems by Heron: What the Trees Know

This Month's Article

Unilateral Good Relationship

Linda Heron Wind, Ph.D.

When the subject of good relationship comes up, I often hear others and myself saying that if only the other person would be more loving, then good relationship could happen. The good news and the bad news is that it does not require anyone's participation except your own to be in good relationship. This is good news because you potentially have control over what you do. This is bad news because it requires you to do something different if you find your relationships less than good.

I always used to think that a good relationship required both parties to actively want harmony and work toward it. It was very freeing when I realized that it did not require any input but my own. Now when I find a relationship that is not as good as I would like it to be, it becomes a challenge to find what I need to change about what I am thinking, feeling or doing to bring it into harmony.

I realize that this might be a stretch if you haven't actually experienced the hard evidence, so let me give you some background information and a few examples. First, just as there is a law of gravity on the physical plane, there is the law of attraction on the energetic level. You don't have to know about it for it to work. What this law of attraction does is attract any energy outside of yourself that matches the energy you are holding inside. For example, people who are angry attract angry people, and high winds and storms. People who are sad attract things to be sad about, and rain and cloudy skies. People who are joyful attract things to be joyful about, and sunshine. People who are loving attract love, and beauty all around them.

I have had many experiences of being loving and finding that others are loving back. I have also had experiences of being irritable and running into many things and people to be irritable about - and then, shifting my attitude and finding that everything and everyone around me comes into harmony. The trick here is to be in control of your own attitude, thoughts, feelings and actions. That is not easy, especially when you have a bad attitude trying to run the show.
Most of us are aware of the kinds of things that shift our attitude - gratitude, songs, poetry, inspirational reading, nature, trees, water, breathing, chanting, drumming, pets, laughter, and beauty - none of which require anything other than the willingness to engage in or with them. For example, if I find myself thinking critical thoughts about anyone, I immediately go into gratitude for them being in my life and try to see the beauty of their spirit. I sing songs that help me to feel connected to that person and everything. Since criticalness separates, I remind myself that we are really the same, part of the one heart. If I cannot bring myself to do those things, then I need to go looking for the part of myself that is resisting. There I will find a wonderful healing that frees me back into good relationship.

So the next time you find yourself relationship challenged, remember that: one, you have total control over yourself, and, two, you are the only one who needs to change to bring that relationship into harmony. Look at what you are thinking, feeling, or doing that is not loving and shift that attitude into harmony and connection. Bringing yourself into good relationship brings the world into good relationship with you.

Let harmony live
Within you where it can call
Harmony with all

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

Page last modified on April 10, 2006 by RMC