Five Toltec Principles

A Reset for Spiritual and Religious Confusion

As promised in the Are We Sheep? article, here are Five Toltec Principles that helped us reset our spiritual and religious confusion. As you may imagine, for us these principles are sacred, for oh so many reasons.

Please note, we use Toltec with a cap to indicate the actual, historical People of Mexico, our ancestors; we use lower case to describe the toltec way/path/philosophy, which is to make art of one’s life. In addition, all non-English or non-Spanish words are in a major Native American language known as Nahuatl, the word meaning, beautiful harmonious sound.

Sacred because the Principles offer a functional, non-judgmental path to our True Self, a path free of religious and societal dogma, where one decides who they will be and how they will live.  

Imagine for a moment that you step up to a cave entrance. A Warrior suggests you leave all your beliefs at the door, like religious influence, teachings/beliefs of family, traditions, peer pressures, mate pressures, politics, and the endless list of human dramas.

It takes a minute because there are many conflicting feelings and deep beliefs, but finally you unpack because part of the reset is to sort all that out, and Amen to that.

Naked like a baby you step in the cave. The Warrior and a Warrior Woman step forward to bequeath to you what they call, “Five Basic Human Objectives, with infinite possibilities,” the Warriors add,” without bias and influence outside of yourself, your True Self. Do what you will with them.”

After that you, the Warriors and Others, figure it out…your story to tell.

FIVE TOLTEC PRINCIPLES

There are many, many authors, teachers, elders, traditional dancers, and other real toltecs/Toltecs that can explain this much better than I, so if anything grabs your eye, looking for those teachers and sources of information are well worth your time. If we can assist, you know where to find us.   

EMANCIPATION – SHOSHOU’KI

Freedom is the ultimate goal of the survival instinct. It says abundance, choice and strength, not scarcity, take-what-you-can or weak behavior. The mere thought of Freedom provides the needed vitality to chase it.

Freedom includes a certain detachment from material conditions, detachment from a confusing reality and the dogma used to perpetuate it. This one accomplishes through the sobriety and training of the senses, all of them, the five, the well-known sixth sense and the seventh, which the Navajo taught us is dreaming. No matter what one faces, one is on the rise toward freedom.

There is no request for you to give that freedom to anyone. Only you make that decision. It’s for you, for this life, for your cosmic journey, perhaps something you can actually take with you.

EQUILIBRIUM – KINAMICTIA

Equilibrium within the forces of life. This does not advise balance as a safety measure, although balance plays a part in our well-being. In no way does this idea of balance hamper the spirit or still the voice that wants to sing. Think of it this way:

If you were an asteroid traveling through space, balance in flight through all the debris and other flying objects, will determine how far you get. If you want to hit something, OK then, but let it be your target. If you hit everything out there, though, you won’t get very far.

Scale that down to moving through our day as human beings: family, work, physical condition, social media, politics, love interests, dark desires, frustrations, obstacles, possibilities and impossibilities. Isn’t that like an asteroid sometimes?

The idea is remaining in balance as you move through where you want to go.   

EXPERIENCE – ISHLAMATI

Guide yourself by your own experience, depend on your own experience.

That really makes sense, like it’s a given, but it is indeed a rare teaching in our world. Mostly we are to guide ourselves by what community, church, school and government say, aren’t we?

We are given a framework of behavior since our birth, then, within that framework we are advised (correctly) that we have personal responsibility, however they mean accountable to that framework.

Toltec thinking puts your personal experience above and separate from that framework. Be accountable to yourself – personal responsibility without middlemen. This puts government, religion, society, family even, into a secondary position, and ultimately, some of them with no position at all.

AWARENESS OF DEATH – NANAMIKI

No matter our beliefs around Death, the cycles of life and death surround us in three-dimensional, hardcore reality. Every living creature shares birth and death with every creature of every size, shape and function – the great equalizer, as they say.  

Being aware of one’s death as one lives puts an edge to our evolution. We know all of it expires at some point, so we behave accordingly, making the most of every moment we have.

It’s said that awareness of death purifies us from superstitions as it guides the development of our character. Sounds like a teacher, huh?

ATTENTION TO ANCESTORS – YEYEKOLTIA

This is a devotional matter, no doubt, but devotion Toltec style changes the meaning of the word – from a person with hands in prayer, eyes to the sky, to a woman in touch with those who came before, putting a life together!

That’s not to say the woman doesn’t take the prayer position or look to the sky at some point, but that’s not all she does. She finds, retrieves, intuits, reads-the-signs-around her – information that translates to more food, better shelter, healing, child-rearing and other functionalities of life on Earth.

Nowadays, in light of science, one could say this woman is making the best of her DNA, talking to her blood, so to speak.

A tap on the shoulder tells you it’s time to leave the cave. As you step back out, you’re given Five Medicine Bags, and you know it’s time to start sorting it out. If you keep it, put it in the right Medicine Bag. If it doesn’t serve anymore, burn it.

Next time, we’ll talk about the Three Approaches to making these Principles work.

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Who Are Earth People?

Will They Survive?

If you answer, “All people living on Earth now,” you, of course, would be right. However, when you look at our progress as the human race it’s clear we have to look at how we’ve progressed.

We have this huge home in the sky, and we’ve come so far from caveman days and now, reality is in our face: some of us care about the present and future condition of our planet; many others just don’t. There’s lots of reasons for this, however,

If we give a damn about our progeny, our next generation, why would we continue to produce wealth in ways that tears up our house?

If we’re so damn smart, advanced, high-tech, why can’t we produce wealth without destruction of our home and its people?

WHY ARE WE HERE?

I think there is agreement, everywhere, from everyone, that we’re all here to enjoy the abundance of the Earth. We have a million ways to express that drive, and many would never use words like “joy or abundance,” but all of us, one way or another, want more of something on our planet.

Another commonality we all have, regardless who we think we are now, is that all our ancestors started their learning at the Earth, directly from the Mother. Learning about hunting, gathering, healing, longevity and protection from the elements, to name a few, were all learned directly from the Big Mama – in the dirt, as they say.

One can still see this direct learning, this communication, with the Earth among indigenous peoples around the planet.

But wait! Indigenous peoples? Aren’t they the ones who get conquered in most of the conquering history we’ve been fed for so damn long no one remembers?

In our mostly great country, most of us have heard, in our history classes, about manifest destiny – the belief of many Americans that God destined them for taking this land in its totality, no matter what Red, Yellow, Brown or Black bastard gets in the way.

One of our most racist Presidents used to say, affectionately, of course, “The only good Indian is a dead one.”

Unfortunately, almost every country and region of the world has this bullshit or something like it deeply affecting Earth’s people at deep, deep levels! Too many somebodies been killing off the Earth People! Does that make sense to anyone?  

Why, Brothers and Sisters of the Human Race, is modern history filled with stories of genocide, precisely aimed at indigenous folk?

I submit respectfully that all of us living on Mother Earth will be contemplating that question in some form, like we said, it’s “in our face.”

Any Hope for Earth Peoples?

As to that direct communication with the Mother Earth…Thank Creator, the learning from the Dirt is coming back in the new generations, generations who have indeed heard the heartbeat of our Mother, and they, as in the past, are of all colors, sizes, shapes and talents.

If we act fast, maybe we have something to leave our kids, huh?

Earth People are those who are, right now, today, are claiming ownership of our big rock in the sky, Mother Earth, Turtle Island, Gaia, Terra, Tellus, Orb, Spaceship Earth and lo, Her many names!

We learned a new word in our process here, by the way: terrigenous – derived from the land.

In the scientific world terrigenous speaks to the effects of erosion and other natural events of that sort, but the part of the meaning that hit us in the right-word department is

“derived from the…” Earth”

Terrigenous

…Learning how to live upon Her

Apologies for my vocabularic license here, but it’s a simple word and the act itself – learning how to live upon Her – is not all that difficult. It just takes intentional action with continuity, but it can happen on top of Sandia Peak in Albuquerque, New Mexico or in your backyard, even where Nature only seems scarce.

Try it. Touch Her sincerely and She will respond.

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ARE WE SHEEP?

AS IN OBEDIENT?

One common stream in most religious teaching is the accepted concept that human beings are endowed with free will. Works for me, makes sense, at least worth looking into, right?

Then, however, these same religious teachings, for the most part, start telling us exactly how to use our allegedly freewill. I don’t mean they teach us how to use it for our maximum evolution, unfortunately, I mean they teach how to use our freewill in the way that suits them.

Some religions – teachings, disciplines, rituals, dogma – are nice about it. They suggest better behavior. As the suggestions become stronger other religions go to the extreme and put you in a living hell if you don’t look, act and feel like they do.

So, what the fudge?

Obviously, it’s about obedience, and of the many models of obedience we are provided, we’ve chosen the Sheep Model to make our point. Keep in mind we have a religious context here, but much applies to governments, corporations and other organizations, as well.   

It’s clearly in the Jewish, Islamic and Christian faiths, and while it likely goes beyond that, the whole concept runs pretty well across the planet. Overall, it’s clear and simple, “Be a sheep.”

Let’s say first that obedience has a proper place in many human endeavors and definitely has a place in the development of every human being on Earth. But, if I’m subverting your free will somehow, isn’t that a kind of dark obedience?

I, like many of you, heard a few sheep parables growing up and, I don’t know what you saw, but the lesson was always about the obedience itself – like obedience in knowing when not to ask questions, and simply doing as one is told. And of course, there was talk about the rewards of obedience and let me say, from my time as an obedient sheep, they owe me.  

So yes, we got the message “Obey and be rewarded.” They never talked about how sheep are valuable members in the web of life, and about how they give their life daily for you and me to be warm and eat well.

A sheep, really? There’s always been excitement around Jesus, no doubt, but He was no sheep from what we’ve been taught. It’s hard to imagine Him telling me to let my wool out a little longer, or fatten up a bit more before slaughter. Maybe the organizations that want to herd us might do better than the Sheep Model, if they want new members.

It stands as a principle at this altar, a foundation for action, that we get back at least some of what we lost in all those generations being sheep. A quick look at history shows us the fates of both the good, well-behaved sheep and the black sheep who don’t conform. Mostly the fates of sheep, good or bad, hover around wool supply and slaughter.

History plays a big part in this, remember. Even if we don’t read or study or give a hoot about history, it’s “written in our blood.” Ancestors and living DNA move in all of us. all colors, creeds and globally, at that.

Much of human history, ancestors and consequently us, have endured a “god, or gods” who destroys us almost at whim, over and over again. The violence in the Bible and all the texts that support the history make Hollywood look like amateurs in the horror/terror department.  

Then they talk about love and grace, if of course, you’re a good sheep.

Confusing as it all gets, we came to see it all as an issue of Will. If one agrees we all have freewill, then all the good and the bad in world history has something to do with the use and misuse of our human freewill. Right?

So, let’s start with isolating our Will – the Will that has our name on it. Take a minute, hold it up and look at it. With all that history attached to our Wills maybe we should honor it, value it and improve upon its use?

We love the sheep and all they do; indeed, they are a staple of life, but it is they who were called to be sheep, not us.  As the most evolved beings – body, mind and soul – on the planet, do you think human beings are called to be sheep?

As the Medical Profession says, “First, do no harm,” or as Jesus said, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” and as Pagans say, “An’ it harms none, do what ye will.” Sounds like these guys have a better plan than “Be a Sheep.”

Yes, these ideals are easier said than done, but they are available and achievable. The simplicity of the above ethical codes, by the way, makes them quite liberating!

After all, if you believe in some kind of Creative Absolute that gives us freewill, why do you think they gave it to us? So, it could be manipulated by governments, religions, corporations, and other highly domination-prone groups?

As unfathomable human energy creations, there are millions of ways for human beings to express and experience our Will. It’s likely the information stream that brought you here has millions more options for you.

As a point of reference, in a future article, we want to share five Toltec Principles that came to our assistance when we did our major reset of our spirituality. The Five open doors in the mind.

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Are You Called?

As in Helping, Healing or Conjuring?

Are you hearing voices, seeing things that may not be there, getting information on others you may not want to know? Are you dealing with aspirations to heal, or perform magic or save the world (or parts of it)?

Are you experiencing feelings that don’t quite fit in what is known as normal?  Do you have thoughts that scare you or perhaps bring out your worst? Maybe a few weird “powers” you never knew you had?

Among veteran healers/magicians/servers there’s an understanding that one doesn’t really choose the work. The work chooses us.

You might have had plans to follow another life path, but no, no matter what, this draw pulls you to the non-normal, weird, off-the-wall, woo-woo stuff. Familiar?

Chances are something from your life has sparked some awareness, an awareness out of the ordinary.

If you somehow identify with this awareness, you might see it as a gift, or just as possibly, as a curse. Those who experience this what-am-I-supposed-to-do-with-this(?) dilemma, many times, consider it both a blessing and a curse.

Maybe the awareness stems from family life. The ins and out of a major human survival event aren’t always easy to maneuver. Perhaps you or some of your family members had to resort to spiritual help along the way and this has indeed, affected you.

And by the way, when this awareness comes it always has something to do with family.

Maybe you saw a ghost, heard a voice, saw something before it happened, learned a trick from Grandma…who knows. Point is, and I’m sure you know, you’re drawn to it for a reason.

I know we hear that “for a reason” quite a bit these days; many times, it’s an answer we use when we don’t have an answer. However, it’s true. It might be a dumb, or unimportant, reason, but there’s always a reason.

Blood, religion, and unexplained experiences – the kind worry you you’re crazy – usually have much to do with that awareness, its draw, its attraction, and our curiosity. Dealing with the awareness becomes as frightening as it is enticing.

When we dealt with the “are we called” question,

we followed our roots, we studied, we disciplined ourselves, much like you might be thinking to do. We hoped someone would tell us what we should do next, someone to say go forward, or tell us we better keep our day job. To be quite honest we wanted someone to anoint us, give us a title, with a clear path ahead.

Since we weren’t quite willing to sign our lives away to any organization, cult or religion, that anointing didn’t come. It would be 20 years before our patients gave us the title we hold, curandero, and by the time it came it didn’t matter much anymore, we were so busy doing the work.

We learned:

Everyone has gifts. These gifts can turn to curses when denied or abused.

The gifts bestow a certain awareness, a certain knowing. Working that awareness can become functional and useful in living your life.

The awareness itself is the calling, by its mere presence in your being. So yes, you’re called.  

We realized, after a few years in, that the awareness we were curious about was not going to be satisfied in a weekend or even with a college degree. We realized we were on a path, on a Quest.

We also realized there was no turning back from it and that the awareness would lead us, eventually, into eternity. 

Learning about these gifts/curses, sights, experiences, traumas – awareness-es, can lead to understanding how to use them. Imagine how that might impact your life.  

Unfortunately, most of us either think we don’t deserve a gift, or at the other extreme, thinking way too highly of how gifted we are. Add to ego the judgements of society and loved ones, and one can see where all the obstacles come from.

However, it is these challenges that turn the awareness into gold.

Don’t despair! Embrace the question. Determine to get the answers. Use them wisely as the answers come, because they will. Like anything you already do with intention and action you get better at it.

Future articles will suggest some of that intention and action, along with parts and parcels of our online course, The Quest.  As some of you know we have been teaching for a few years and are happy to say we have touched the lives of a handful of warrior healers who are right now moving upon their gifts.

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Day of the Dead

The Real Thing, Part 2

We waited until November 1 to write this post, deliberately. Since we’re in the middle of preparing for this Día de los Muertos, we thought we might make things a bit more real. For those of us who, through life’s circumstances, find ourselves quite committed to this ceremony, it takes a place in our life, every year and in between.

Flowers for the Ollin – where we left things in Part 1: innumerable candles, high color decorations, the list of our Dead we will honor, and naturally the needs – emotional, material, spiritual that all of us carry in mind. When we pray for the Dead we pray for the living, as well, as vice versa.  

With Covid 19 and the rest of our world’s challenges, it seems like a good time to call on Ancestors who, in some form or fashion have lived this before.

As we said in Part 1, the Día de los Muertos ceremony provides a floor of knowledge that fuels almost everything we do: healing, blessing, teaching, seeking the best ways possible to make good lives. We can’t begin to tell you how much we have experienced that has proven quite functional in our lives from participating in the actual event over the years. Attention to our ancestors energizes our evolution on Earth.

We left Part 1 at 2:30 AM, the Drum, Rattles and Song silenced for a few minutes, a well-deserved break from the work and joy in “lowering the Ollin” the last four hours.

Perhaps, next year we will share a picture of an Ollin, but we have deeply ingrained in us the “rule” of taking a picture of this Sacred Image, only if necessary, and then, not sharing it with anyone outside the group. This type of “rule” is lightening up, but these traditional guidelines have, and still do, preserved our tradition from its many predators, so not only can we preserve it, but live it.

Around the Sacred Image made of colored Flowers, the participants have coffee, discuss their feelings and feel the presence of our most honored guests. For some this is actual communication with ancestors, for others it’s simply a faith in the feeling that surrounds us. The kind of presence our pets feel.  

The Conch, Concha, calls us – four loud, air-thru-shell calls. As the People move about into their places, the Huehuetl, begins it version of Mother Earth’s Heart, and we all move faster into place. The Jefe asks a participant to lead us in the first song in the “raising of the Ollin,” the next half of our ceremony.

Ollin: Sacred Movement, a sign chosen today to honor the movement between Life and Death. Those who follow our Calendar think about that sacred movement at least once every 20 days. There is a day for Death, of course, but today Movement is what we seek.  

After the first song – song leader sings a verse, group repeats it, and again – the Jefes choose another man and a woman to “raise the Ollin.” It’s now past 3:30AM. Two cut broom sticks, two-three feet long, and a ball of thread are set in front of the couple.

As the Smoke, Song, Rattle and Drum move, the couple begins, very slowly, deliberately and in rhythm with the singing, tying the flowers, artfully, on the once common broomsticks.

Of course, the honoring of our Dead continues.

Many times, I have regretted not recording the special sounds our tradition makes during ceremony. You really have to be there to appreciate the movement of smoke and song.

When the Jefes asked me to lead a song in the process, I said, “El es Dios,” a traditional expression I’ll tell you about some day and happened to notice the time was 5:35AM. I got through my nervousness at leading the song by belting out the first stanza, as if I knew what I was doing.

I continued to sing when the group answered my stanza, but it gave me time to catch my breath, clear my throat and sense my spiritual surroundings. You’d think by now I’d be used to it, but when one feels the presence of that world so clearly, it is always a most singular moment in my existence.

My song ended at 5:59AM. By that time over half the broomsticks were covered in beautiful Flowers and the next song moved it forward.

When every Flower was off the ground and on those broomsticks, the Jefes began the ending of the ceremony. Special songs are sung, acknowledgements, and of special note, is the “return of the Word.”

When a Dancer is given a role in a ceremony, we say the Word was given, the Palabra. When the Dancer performs her duty, she returns her Word to the Circle by summarizing how it went from her point of view. Maybe she was rude, or possibly made an error. Sorry. Maybe she has a comment to make about a certain moment in the ceremony. Thank you.

However, before those Words are returned, we have the Limpias for all participants and other family members that come over in the morning, expressly for a limpia with these flowered broomsticks. The Jefes each take a broomstick, the Dancers line up, and each of us gets a smudging – healing passes with the Flower Ollin, to be precise.

Truly a glorious moment, a word I don’t use all that much: glorious. After the limpias the Words of each facilitator are returned to the Circle, as above. And after that we eat, drink and enjoy the Offerings with our Dead.

How else can they taste the sweetbread or the tobacco, except through their home in our blood? In my early years I’d go for a shot or two of Tequila to wake up. Later years I sought protein and fruit first. Lol

Thanks sincerely for reading our story. We believe that any mental, spiritual attention any of us give to our Ancestors is crucial, all the time, but nowadays, even more so. We thank you for any thoughts, deeds or inspirations you may have had. It helps all of us. El es Dios.

Our next article asks, Are You Called – as helping, healing or conjuring?

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Day of the Dead

The Real Thing, Part 1

In this humble altar, the Day of the Dead, comprises a floor of knowledge that fuels almost everything we do, including healing, blessing, teaching, seeking the best life possible. We can’t list here how many philosophies, methods, inspirations, and powers we have learned and used from participating in the actual event. And from attention to our ancestors we have used the reality of death to energize our evolution for the time we have on Earth.

The ceremony and celebration of Día de los Muertos, November 2 is no joke. Nor is it a party, not exactly anyway. Definitely not a superstition (and I imagine, since you’re reading this, you might feel the same).

We’ve been privileged to be part of legitimate versions of the Day of the Dead as originally practiced in Mexico. That is to say, a Toltec-based, Aztec-observed ceremonial practice, passed via tribal authority. In the Aztec dance tradition, the Day of the Dead is one of the Five Winds. Each Wind gets an overnight (up to 12 hours or more) ceremony, and a serious Dance the next morning, except the Day of the Dead. We don’t dance after that Wind, some mourning being in order.

We’d been meeting and doing ceremony in this Santuario for a year, and we’d seen the sacred room take many forms and functions. Walking in for my First Día de los Muertos ceremony, however, almost floored me. Really, it took a moment to adjust.  

The presence of ancestors fills a room, takes over an environment, especially when they are welcome. The Jefes motioned us to wear headbands and get our “weapons,” our rattles, ready. The Smoke was coming from three Sahumadores attended by three women Dancers.

We hear the waist high, tree trunk Drum, the Huehuetl, a mark of our tradition, behind us and we hear the Concha, the Shell call. The Chiefs, Jefes, welcome us and give us an idea of the agenda. Two main events: the Dead, of course, and the Ollin.

Volumes can be written and sung about the Ollin, another keystone in our traditions. Google it and you’ll get so many interpretations, images and stories you’ll beg for simplicity. Ollin is one of the 20 Day Names in the Aztec/Mayan Calendar. Simply translated it symbolizes the Gift of Movement. For us it is a quickening, an enlightening; a healing movement.

After the initial ceremony and the lighting of about 20 something candles of all shapes and sizes, the Jefes choose a man and a woman to “lower the Ollin.” This is about 10:30 PM Nov 1 and while this sets up, a Dancer collects the names of the recent dead from each participant. They ask us to keep mostly to relatives and close friends who had passed in the last five years or so.

Assuming the Dead are in the right place, we feel like they stay around for a time, for an afterlife review, what they did or didn’t, who they loved or didn’t, all those issues. After that, we believe they move on, next cosmos, back to Earth, to Heaven, somewhere out there or in here. Circle of Life.

Plentiful items of food, drink, tobacco, sweets and pictures of the Dead are all over the altar surrounded by strong colors, multiples of skulls, in all shapes and sizes, tall glass Mexican candles representing every Deity imaginable. The two main events occur simultaneously.

The couple chosen to lower the Ollin are on the floor seated by a square board centered in front of the altar. They are surrounded by baskets of multi-colored flowers on short stems. Branches and leaves are bundled neatly next to the flowers. As a new round of Song and Smoke kicks up, the couple begins, flower by flower, lowering the Ollin!

Then a Dancer stands up holding the list of our departed. She begins reading one name at a time, loud and clear. She reads one name per verse of song. Considering there were 40 people there, each offering a few names, we Sang, Rattled, Drummed and Prayed quite a few songs, until 2:30 AM.

It was hard to see the Ollin, since there were so many in various states of prayer and participation, but I took a mental picture that comes now, so many years later, to inspire when needed. That mental picture is something I can take with me.

The Ollin is lowered, our prayer for the communities of the living and dead is set. During the break, much expectation for the future sneaks into most of our conversations, and while there were only 40 of us, we felt like we were in an auditorium of hundreds.

Day of the Dead, the Real Thing, Part 2, November 1, 2020.

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Lost Souls

Lest We Forget

Imagine the Spirit World. How big do you think it might be? How many souls live there? Are they all human souls? Know anybody in there? Does this Spirit World really exist right on top of us, all around us?

I believe all of us have the answers to those questions and more, within us. After all, we are spirits, as well as bodies, souls more precisely, in this case. What’s the difference? Spirit is one. Souls are multiple memories and experiences belonging to one spirit.  

Our world is in a time when many mysteries of Spirit World will be solved, and many questions answered. At least that is our hope and can be seen in the informational trends all around us.

Mostly however, if you want to know about the Spirit World, or accomplish anything while you’re there, you basically have to hang around there a lot more than most people ever need to.

One day we woke up and realized that, here at the altar, our co-workers were, in the majority, citizens of the Spirit World. We didn’t see this while we were working our regular, mainstream, jobs. We assumed then that most of our circle of influence, our communities, were living humans. When we went full time altar, we realized that most of our circle was indeed composed of invisible, discarnate beings.

Some are deities, maybe avatars, saints, bodhisattvas, angels. Some are animal spirits. A few are ancestors, and some are other kinds of beings, but all with a positive purpose. Of course, if we’re going to have discarnate beings around, that’s the kind we want living and working here.

Most of our work, naturally, deals with the more negative citizens of the Spirit World: the cursed, demons, ghouls and various evil intentions wrapped up in all kinds of packages.

We see that while the Spirit World is indeed daunting, we fleshed up humans indeed have the authority over the Spirit World. It’s not because we’re so holy or great or anything; it’s because this is our show, living in the flesh on this three-dimensional planet. We suffer the pain and pay the rent. Last we checked; discarnate spirits don’t carry those obligations.  

That said, many kinds of spirits/entities/energies are quite attracted to humanity and how we evolve. For good or evil they want to be a part of our human inheritance.

In dealing with this huge Spirit World, we want to focus today on a way-too-common character that we deal with way-too-much: the human lost soul.

Most of us, in the living of our lives, have heard, or possibly told, a story about a person who dies unexpectedly, perhaps in an accident or a homicide. Definitely a tragedy for the living, but on the Spirit side of this story we start dealing with lost souls.

Unexpected death does present a challenge for our soul. Since we aren’t expecting death, we don’t prepare for it. At the moment of the surprise it’s possible our conscious awareness is simply not conscious of what just happened. Since our soul basically is consciousness, and there’s something we’re not conscious of, we can definitely get lost!

What are a soul’s choices at that moment? Anything is possible but for the most part we have two big choices. First, we can choose what we’ll call the Light. When a soul takes this route, she goes with ancestors and/or helping spirits to a safe place in order to go through an afterlife review, preparing for the next journey. Second, we can follow the consciousness we died with and see where it takes us – stuck in a conscious moment that isn’t conscious all the way.

Under choice number two our soul can go in many directions but when one is not in the Light, one can easily become victim to Spirits much better at life in the Spirit World than we are, as well as victim to living practitioners who entrap souls to do their evil.

One of our most common jobs is to remove the energy of death from the living. Maybe they picked up the poison through work or by accident, a friend or relative.  Or maybe they have a lost soul attached to them to affect their behavior, whether that lost soul likes it or not.

You can see why “lost souls” are indeed an issue. We wanted to highlight them since All Soul’s Day is coming up November 2 and we want to urge you to give them a moment, honor them, ask for them. Consider three ideas.

First, if you are drawn to this subject, chances are you have some call to help. If so, lost souls are always in the mix of this work. And,

Second, it’s quite likely we all have lost souls in our families, therefore in our blood, in our DNA. Can’t hurt to say a word for them, can it? And finally,

Let the inevitability of our death, no matter how far out you think it is, bring power to the evolution of your life. Those lost souls out there could have benefitted from that little bit of conscious awareness.

In this altar, All Soul’s Day is Día de los Muertos, Day of the Dead. Our next two posts – 10/28 and 11/1 – are all about this most sacred time in our work and traditions. The ceremony goes all night long and I assure you, lost souls are part of the festivities.

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SIMPLE ANCESTRAL HARMONY

A Reciprocal Dynamic

In our first article in the ancestral series, we say that whether or not you have a spiritual or religious affinity to your ancestors matters little. Your ancestors are in you, living blood, aka DNA. Not sure how you’re feeling about this overall, but we offer a practical approach below.

Start by deciding if you want to honor one ancestor or a group. Either way is good. There’s a hint for you in the specific thoughts, memories or specific family members that brought you to this, by the way.

Think about doing this at least three times, to give it a chance. Many people go monthly, on either Moon, a special day, etc. We recommend six times to really get a feel for it.

Bring the Light Any light, a candle, a flashlight, natural sunlight or a match; all spotlight the Light, your Light, as the focal point of our honoring ritual. We are asking for, some would say “invoking,” light for the departed, and for us at the same time.

Do you have any idea the amount of scientific research aimed at light? Edison and Einstein are just the tip of the iceberg on that. Makes sense, right? Religion, though, also says to walk in the light and avoid the dark, in a million ways.

So everything we see, including within us, came out of the dark, into the light, and that’s according to both the churches and the scientists. Interesting thought: the Lucifer, Hell and Heaven people say it and the Waves, Particles and Energy people say it, too.

Maybe place the light you choose on an altar or a windowsill and say something like, “I place this light for the ancestors in my blood, for them and for us to find the light we need.”

Of course, you can say or do much more than that, and be free to open up, by all means. This is just a core of a ceremony that you can work from.

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Gratitude or Acknowledgement Both of these mental-emotional giants work. We were raised on gratitude to our ancestors, so the decision to say thanks is easy. However, for some this may be so new that acknowledgement of the huge role ancestors play in our reality is equally as effective.

Something like, “Thanks for bringing us this far,” if you have gratitude, or “I realize the role you have in my life,” as acknowledgement. Elaborate, of course, as you wish.

Declare or Petition or Pray If you have a specific need in mind, this is the time to voice it. If you’re done talking in the last step, just go to the close.

If you do have something to add here, be clear about what you want. If you want success, ask for it, healing, ask, or if you are having trouble with a granddaughter or a husband’s brother, and so forth, ask.

The trick here is to realize you are asking a trusted source that can actually help in certain ways, and who also needs help from you in other ways.

Offering something in return simply makes sense, “the energy exchange,” we often hear about. You’ll be happy to know that a prayer for them, an offering of food or liquor, goes a long way where they are – a touch from living humans, an exchange. You could also be more practical and offer to help Aunt Vera who needs a little financial support in life, and is your ancestor’s favorite. Important, however small or large your offering, do comply, keep your word. The rewards are amazing.

Something like, “Grandma, I could sure use some help with my daughter. I’m at wits end, don’t know how to approach it anymore. I will keep looking in on Aunt Vera, you know I can’t do that much, but we take her what we can.”

Or, “I need this job, Ancestors, if you help me get it, I will place flowers on your grave, once a month, for a year, for whatever you guys are needing.”

Again, if you are uncomfortable with this step, skip it. It’ll come to you, what to say in these moments – after you intend it with some action a few times.

Close it Speaking gratitude/acknowledgment in your terms, saying a quick “Amen,” and smiling and walking away, all work quite well. Be creative.

Try it six times, record/remember what you said and mostly observe what may or may not come to you. No matter what, you know we’d love to hear about it.

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Observe the Beast

Dealing with the Internal Dialogue

Last time we introduced the internal dialogue as a major obstacle to our progress, not only in the practice of intentional breathing, but also in finding the focus required for a strong life.

We said these “thoughts” from our internal dialogue were not what we call thinking; indeed, they are a murmuring, muttering, conglomeration of thoughts that have no present, functional value, thoughts that don’t stop playing in our mental background, no matter the thoughts you want to have.

Remember the Playlist analogy, …the internal dialogue, like a very old playlist that you continue to hear in the background, while you try to play a new one.  

It’s also the noise one hears when taking a test, for instance, thoughts of “I should have…,” “I should know better than to try this…” or worse still, “wonder if I can peek at that student’s test.”

It’s a mental noise that pulls our strings because it knows us, as they say, better than we know ourselves. It’s those moments when we do something we really don’t want to do, but it feels “like the thing to do at the time.”

In many roads to mastery of many sorts, dealing with the internal dialogue is equivalent to dealing with the ego.

Let’s cut to the chase regarding our egos. If they’re too big or if they’re too small, they cause trouble; if you think about it, all the problems in the world could be linked to something like #egos-gone-wild.

Egos are not real and definitely not permanent, they are convenient pictures of our times, help us have identity – a mental construct to help us deal. The problem is egos hate change and don’t take challenges to their judgment very well. This resistance to change is so prevalent, many have even come to call it “human nature!”

On the contrary, Dear Readers, humans survive by change and adaptation, and evolve in the process. Is it human nature to just get comfy or is it egos that don’t want anything new to deal with that make us think it’s human nature?

I imagine there’s something natural about seeking a comfortable status quo, but do you really think that’s been the human drive – to seek comfort – that got us here?

On the other hand, both our ego and our internal dialogue can be helpful when in balance, when we can shut them off and get the answers we need without a bunch of old issues to sort through!

This brings us to an Energetic Fact regarding egos and the internal dialogue. You can’t live with them and you can’t live without them.

Furthermore, if one’s ego is over-inflated or under-inflated, or if our internal dialogue limits us somehow, that imbalance must affect our reality.

Does that mean that while I’m too concerned with my image my job performance is failing? Does it mean that my old Mommy issue is going to convince me, whispering in my ear, that I should do something she hates, just to piss her off? Or is my old daddy issue going to blind me to the advice he’s offering me now? And of course, the old favorite, “No matter what, I can’t seem to stop thinking about sex,” no matter what’s really happening around me.

All this affirms the need for intentional breathing and focus, doesn’t it? Not to mention deep healing and breaking the binds that make all the noise.

If you captured a wild mustang or inherited a wild dog, and if you intend to tame it, the first thing you must do is observe it, right? After you know what to expect from the beast, you use your knowledge, discipline and physical techniques to develop the beast into a pet, an obedient pet. If you’re going to take on the wild without knowing all you can first, well, we congratulate your courage, but courage without wisdom has many bad days on the field of battle.

If you’ve ever thought of your ego as inflated, or deflated, or how the noise in your head gets in the way as a bit wild, or out of whack, maybe you’ll intend to tame this beast.  

Those of you with the Bible in your backgrounds may remember the verse, “The Tongue is a Fire.” The tongue, clearly a major physical and quite active organ, makes this very real, real to our body and our mind.

For those of you unfamiliar with the verse, the lesson is to control what we say, to control our tongue. One must admit that is good, solid advice, everywhere, in every language and every culture. What if we applied the same approach to the non-stop internal dialogue?

For instance, if you decided to “watch your tongue” better in the future, that would start you catching words before they come out of your mouth. Same again, with the internal dialogue. You’d listen to it, so you could respond better before acting on it.

I say again, you’d listen to it, so you could respond better before acting on it, wouldn’t you?

If your internal dialogue sounds anything like mine it goes something like this, “Need to watch the time…” (without any real reason to watch the time, just too conditioned)… “wonder how the girls are…” (knowing the girls are fine, since I’m always watching after them)… “phone bill is set for Monday, where am I getting the money?” (which may or may not be a real concern, but a common concern, certainly).

Other boring oldies: “I’ve gotten away without making quota for a few months. Will my luck hold out? The look the boss gave me… I should just tell him the truth… (ending with the very frustrating) what am I doing in this nowhere job anyway?” About then a car pulls in front of me and it’s a close call, but no damage. This, however, reminds me of the time I almost got killed that way. “It was close. Should have told the cop the truth about the woman.” Oh yeah, that was about five years ago. Sure, I have a complaint, but it has no application right now, does it? And then, of course, we all have at least one of these, “Maybe I should have listened to my Ma about…”

When we try to silence the internal dialogue, or try to focus on something else, is when it comes at us louder, because it thinks you’re going to change! But even when we’re not trying anything, if you listen, you’ll hear it murmuring all the time.

And if you can listen about 12-15 minutes per day for maybe 10 days you will experience a change or a shift in your daily performance, or at the very least know much better who this beast is.

Should you accept the challenge (it’s good for you to know), being an observer is a skill needed to reach a master level at anything. The closer you get to mastering the internal dialogue, the farther your life will go.

Write down what you observe, what you hear. This will surprise you, although the content, as you’ll see, is old stuff with which you’re probably way too familiar. Next time we can talk about what to do about the noise, but you’ll understand quite a bit about it and will already be working on it by then.

Honestly, I wish I could make this simple exercise such a big deal you’d start right now, because we’ve seen incredible results. Please, let us know how it goes.

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Is Bioavailability Spiritual?

As per Google search, bioavailability refers to “the proportion of a drug or other substance which enters the circulation when introduced into the body and so is able to have an active effect.” In other words, it’s about how much medicine actually goes to our support.

Regarding hemp, considering the fact that less than 10% of the CBD gets to a patient in the customary oil form, bioavailability is a serious consideration. For us, it explained why we’d taken various types of CBDs over five years, all with some success, but without really seeing what all the hype was about and without feeling the full benefit.

When we found hemp/CBD that literally changed our life by giving us the full benefit, we started paying attention to bioavailability. Basically, we were on a steep recovery, but going very slow in fact. When the hemp oil came, our recovery accelerated and we found firm ground to continue our healing and actually improve a tough condition. 

First, we happened upon a product from the network marketing industry, a company called ZILIS. They use a process of extraction that makes the medicine water soluble. Since human bodies are mostly water, I get 70-90% of the medicine from a dropper, which is much more medicine than the 3-5% I get from an oil-based CBD. The quality is top shelf and retail prices, on a monthly basis, are competitive in the quality markets.

We continue using products from this company since they use the same bioavailability process in all their supplements. You’ll find some good science and an array of health products at the link above.

Along the way, we encountered Disruption-Labs, who spoke of bioavailability via nanotechnology. That got our attention and we stopped the first CBD long enough to give this nano-CBD a shot at making this old body move. We felt just fine, didn’t miss a thing, and though we had to adjust to the high-tech taste, felt a little extra zing later in the day. The link above leads to some well-presented science and to a product called Reset, in case you want to go see that first.

So how is bioavailability a spiritual topic?

The first thing that comes to mind is: bioavailability is a process that is helping me stay alive in acceptable ways. That not only includes my body but all the other stuff that goes with it – a mind, emotions, a spirit and soul. That, on a very personal level, is not only spiritual, it qualifies as sacred, too.

Second, we’re talking here about a medicine going into a body mostly made of water. Water is one of the four elements that comprises all of Mother Earth and the greatest percentage of our mass. Before the words spiritual or sacred existed in any language, our ancestors cared more for some things than others, such as water. The things with the most survival potential, in one form or fashion, to peoples all over the world, became sacred by the intensity needed to survive. The more important the item or idea is to survival, the more sacred it becomes.

Third, my body makes cannabinoids, the active ingredient of CBD, like women make milk and men make sperm. It’s me, my spirit, my mind, that seeks healing for my body, the me who is made of water and the me who produces cannabinoids to survive well. I seek this with all the knowledge I have available. If that’s not spiritual, and rational, at the same time, then I don’t know what is.

It reminds me of an Indian Way of defining medicine as anything that brings you closer to what Creator intended for us human beings. If you’re an atheist, then replace “Creator intended” with human evolutionary potential (i.e. medicine is anything that brings you closer to your human evolutionary potential). Bioavailability is medicine this way and how much spirit comes through is indeed up to you.

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