Expectations

I used to body build in my early 20's. At that time in my life I felt compelled to sculpt and shape my form into something that I thought a partner would like. I put a lot of work into it and found that no matter how well toned my muscles were I was still unhappy and unsatisfied. There was always someone else who looked better. For a while I would work out harder. Then I realized that I was obsessed with it.

At that moment I came to understand something. This is a concept that I revisited when watching an episode of Smallville yesterday. The character of Cloe Sullivan said, "Expectations are supposed to drive you to do more with your life, not stop you from living it." Immediately what came to my mind was my body building days. I was spending more time working on my body than I was actually socializing. I was extremely focused and wouldn't "visit" at the gym. Then I dropped the gym and worked out at home because too many people were way too chatty at the gym and it was screwing up my mojo. Yes, I was obsessed. And when I realized that I had become obsessed I immediately stopped working out. I took a long break from it, sold all my equipment and then, much later, slowly went back into it with a totally different attitude. Yes, I had to get some equipment again, but this time I was going at it with ease and more of a zen perspective. Later, once I started having my children in my life, I no longer had the luxury of time to work out, so frankly in comparison my body went to pot. But I am much happier. No more six pack and my biceps aren't as sculpted (that is my gentle way of saying "somewhat flabby in comparison"), but I have joy in my life that I could never achieve when I was driving myself so hard that I wasn't living life fully.

The purpose of life, I have discovered, is to live your life fully. I don't want my epitaph to read, "Had a great body because he was such a dedicated body builder." I want it to read something more to the effect of, "Loved many and was loved by many."

Blessed Be

Trent
www.deerhornshamanic.com

Getting Your Rocks Off

Okay, so everyone will, by now, know how I feel about rocks. They are sentient beings and they all have purpose. I communicate with rocks every day and absolutely love standing rocks, like the one in the photo. So imagine my dismay when a friend of mine invited me to a small quarry to collect rocks and then, upon her advance visit there, discovered that the small quarry is now owned by a conglomerate that is absolutely traumatizing the earth with huge heavy duty equipment. The area can no longer be visited and to do so is considered to be trespassing. They are also ripping up old willow trees and an old creek bed and creating a large road where they once were.

It never fails to amaze me how mankind can be so disrespectful of the earth! There is no going up to anything and saying, "Excuse me Mr. Rock, or Miss Willow, but would you mind very much if I moved you to such and such a place?" No. It is just rip through it and have complete disregard for the geopathic stress they are causing! I am glad that I live a good distance from this, otherwise I would be haunted by the screams of the rocks and the trees. In the meantime, I am going to be sending healing energy to the area. Man, they keep me busy!

Blessings

Trent
www.deerhornshamanic.com

The Third I

People often ask me how to open their third eye. I ask them if they also want to know how to close it. Most often they say, "no". To this I say, "Then I cannot in good conscience show you how to open it." They look confused by this, so I explain to them that opening the third eye and leaving it wide open all the time is a serious health risk.

You see, a chakra is a power centre. But part of the function of a power centre is to swirl and charge and receive energy. The thing is, if it is left wide open, that swirling and receiving is more like a vacuum that sucks in anything and everything. Yes, the chakras need to be healthy and strong, but they also need to be functional. It is a matter of allowing ourselves to become aware and use a higher consciousness, not just the consciousness of the mind or the subconscious, but to become the observer of the self who is in charge and can operate this meat suit that we call the body, chakras included. So we need to be able to open them at will and close them when their job is done. I don't mean to close them all the way. It is more like taking a full bloom back to bud form for a rest period, then opening it up to full bloom again when needed.

People also sometimes have ulterior motives to opening the third eye. They want to spy on others. This is ethically dark. This is a sacred aspect of the self and should not be abused in such a way. When one does abuse the power that comes with an open third eye, it bites them. The third eye is something that is meant to create deep introspection. It is the ability to see and observe what is within more than it is to perceive what is none of our business. With every power comes the need for an ethical application.

Blessed Be

Trent
www.deerhornshamanic.com

Smoke Screen

Have you ever noticed how difficult it is to photograph smoke? After many attempts, that faint wisp of grey that is just above the sage bundle and can only be seen against the background of the smudge pot is the one. That is my photo of smoke. There you go. Exciting, isn't it?

When my eldest sister was going in for her 5 bypass surgery, she was given a video to watch in the hospital regarding what to expect after the surgery. After the video was complete, she looked at me and said, "So what are you going to do so that you never have to go through this?" My response was, "Sweetie, I don't smoke at all, whereas you smoke a pack and a half a day, so why would I ever go through this?" I was remembering a time in my early 20's when I would wake up every morning to cough up half a lung and decided on the spot that I had had enough of this particular activity. So I threw away 3/4 of a pack of cigarettes and did not look back. Apparently not everyone in the world can do that. I was hooked and it took a lot of will power, but I never started up again. Considering that I smoked from the time I was 13, I figured that I had taken enough years off of my life and was determined that I was not going to spend one more minute of what was left coughing up a lung.

The very next morning after my conversation with my sister I woke up and proceeded to cough up a lung. I was quite surprised by this as it had been years and years since this had last happened. I was beginning to wonder if I was doing a surrogate cleanse on behalf of my sister. Then a resonant voice said to me, "Just because you don't smoke cigarettes doesn't mean that you don't smoke." Suddenly I realized that I had been smoking a lot of ceremonial sage. Seven clients a day would be smudged, and I would also be smudged with each client. Now, for each of them that wasn't much, but for me it was an overdose of a good thing. That is when I moved my ritual into non-toxic incenses. They are lighter and can be easily extinguished as soon as the smudging is complete. I still use sage for ceremony, but only if that ceremony is being held out doors. During indoor ceremony I do not burn the incense for the entire duration. After all, too much of a good thing is still too much. We need to be able to adapt what we do so that we don't wreck our bodies while doing something that is supposed to be healing.

Blessed Be
Trent
www.deerhornshamanic.com

Thank You

I was at my Medicine Wheel today and checking in with how the crystals and stones inside the Earth are doing with regard to the shift that they have been experiencing. They asked me if I would pass on a warm "thank you" to all of you who did the breathing meditation to help recreate the energy matrix of the Earth. They still need us to continue to do the work as there is much that still needs to be adjusted, but they wanted to communicate their gratitude to the two-leggeds who are their "helpers".

They also said that as a reward for our good work, we would find that we are being gifted with crystals and healing stones in the next while. I thought that was unnecessary, but they assured me that they wanted it this way. Then suddenly this afternoon a good friend gifted me with two pieces of pipe stone! If that isn't the icing on the cake!

Blessed Be
Deerhorn
www.deerhornshamanic.com

In the Moment

So often we don't realize what is happening in the moment. There may be something extremely funny going on or there could be something that is full of sorrow that we are trying to avoid. Either way, we will miss it if we are not in the moment. Allowing ourselves to let go of the swirls of energy that distract us, gives us the ability to find our way to the Centre, the Moment, the Now.

In the Now we have a great capacity to find what we need. I have a Spirit Guide that continually asks me, "Trent, what is it? What's happening for you? WHAT ARE YOU FEELING?!!!" This Spirit Guide I sometimes find annoying, but at the same time these questions serve to keep me in the Now.

For this I am eternally grateful.

Blessed Be
Deerhorn
www.deerhornshamanic.com

Long Time no Scene

Wow! It has been a very long time since I have been able to sit down and write. My apologies to all my readers for the delay. I am amazed at how easily we get busy and end up not getting to the things that bring us joy and fulfillment. This is something that I encourage my clients and my friends to not neglect for themselves, and then find myself needing to really listen to my own sage advice.

So here I am doing one of the things that brings me joy and fulfillment. I chose the photo, courtesy of my Love and her trip to China and Tibet, not because it matched anything in particular that I wanted to say, but because I simply like the photo. I like the structure that seems to blend so well with the natural environment and I like the misty quality of the scene. It brings to mind that movie Hidden Dragon, Crouching Tiger. Or was it Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon? That title always mixed me up. The movie itself was, in my never to be so humble opinion, amazing and phenomenal. But the scene in this photo brings more to my inner being a recognition of the mystical aspects within. When I see something like this I resonate with it. Yes, I know that I have had many lifetimes in that area of the world, but it is more the energy of this scene, and others like it from a variety of areas around the world, that brings forth the recognition of the magical aspects of life and of nature.

Nature has always been an important part of my life. Growing up in the bush helps one to get used to nature quickly. But there is a difference between getting used to nature and flowing with nature. Now, don't get me wrong here. I am not the type of person who, in black fly season, thinks that it is unnatural to utilize things like Deep Woods Off. As a good friend of mine said recently, "Black fly season reminds me that there is a harsh aspect to the Goddess that we must defend ourselves from." Another acquaintance said of this that, "Black fly season lets me know that God does not exist, because if She did She would have had much more forethought than that!" I am not sure how black flies ended up in both conversations, but they did and suddenly they are part of this blog as well. Anyway, flowing with nature requires the ability to read the signs of nature. One gets to know that when the cattle start running there is a storm coming up on the horizon. One also gets to understand that within a dew drop there is a whole other universe with purpose. My biggest concern when roaming through the bush was that I would run into a bear. They always terrified me when they would come onto the farm yard and root around. Not only did they smell bad, but they also created a lot of destruction along the way. It was like having an 800 pound 2 year old roam through on their way to the potty, which was often designated on your front step. So when going from one place to another on my nature hikes I was always very attentive to any signs of bears around. Fortunately I was able to avoid them very well. It is amazing what motivation fear can have when avoiding beasts, be they bears or any other kind.

So when I would go out into the bush I would play a game with myself. I would go out, blindfold myself, spin around until I felt almost sick, and then find my way back home blindfolded. I think this is how some of my extra perceptive abilities got enhanced. There were a couple of times I was sure that I was hearing a large animal nearby, but I always stayed calm and very still until it moved off. I would not remove the blindfold because that would only create fear if I saw a bear. So I would freeze and barely breathe and keep myself very calm. When I felt my body completely relax, I would proceed with the game. This technique has been valuable in many life experiences where I have been in mortal danger. I have been able to stop, calm quickly, and respond accordingly. It is amazing how some childhood games can create enhanced awareness that can walk with you for life.

Blessed Be

Deerhorn
www.deerhornshamanic.com

Symmetry

The other day my Love and I took my daughter to the Science Centre in Regina. Parts of it were good and other parts overwhelming in terms of bright colors, loud people and different smells. The part that I found most fascinating was the split mirror. You stand in front of it and the mirror shows you how you actually look to other people when they are looking at you. Many find that they can't relate to photos of themselves because they just don't look the same in the photo as they do in the mirror.

I was rather surprised to find that when I looked into the split mirror I did not look much different that I do when I look in a regular mirror. I seem to have a somewhat symmetrical face. Perhaps this is why my masks that are moulded from my face look so nice. I remember the first one I ever made. It dried over night and the next day I was shocked to find that this one was mine out of all the other masks made by the workshop participants. It had striking features and was what I would consider to be rather good looking. I never thought of myself in this fashion at all, so this was quite the breakthrough in self-image. Having a good look in the split mirror has explained to me why this attraction to my own mask was there. It is all a matter of symmetry. Now I can put my ego aside and know that I am an attractive man and not be filled with false humility. This has with it both the liberation and the responsibility that comes with being one of the "pretty people"; something I had never before thought of myself as being. Hopefully with that comes longevity and graceful aging! After all, "Youth is a gift and age is an art!"

Blessed Be

Trent
www.deerhornshamanic.com