The Way of Wisdom

In my book Awakenings: Asian Wisdom for Every Day, I have a quote from Lao-tzu which says, "The way of wisdom: working without fighting." The picture beside it is of the sacred mountains of Huangshan, China. From the rock face there grows an absolutely beautiful tree. There is no effort in the tree's growth. It is simply there, growing out of the rock. It is not threatened by the steep slope or the surface of the rock, it simply grows. It does not fight for life, it simply does its work of growing.

Relationships can actually be that way too. It doesn't matter if we are an earth elemental, air elemental, water elemental or fire elemental. If we balance our own element (grow) and trust the element of the other (no fighting) then we are able to accomplish the way of wisdom. This is something that we sometimes struggle with, but the struggle is actually not with the other, but within ourselves.

Blessed Be

Trent
www.deerhornshamanic.com

Awakening from Within

Every now and then in our lives we discover that there is a part of us that is asleep. Not only is it asleep, but it has basically been in a coma for YEARS! Once we discover this we have to make a decision....do we leave it sleep? After all, we have all heard that expression,"Let sleeping dogs lie," or do we gently nudge it and hope that it wakes up? And if it does wake up, then what do we do with it?

Coming from personal experience, I can honestly say that, although it is a much scarier path, it is far better to wake up. You see, when there is a part of us that is constantly asleep there is so much that we miss out on in life. How can we attend a party if we sleep through it? How can we attend a wedding if we are in snore mode? How can we live, laugh and play if we are unconscious?

Waking up those parts of ourselves can also be as adventuresome as it is scary. We experience new and wonderful sensations in our bodies and we actually see the terrain before us with refreshed eyes that behold the world with a sense of wonder and excitement. The thrill of this experience far surpasses any fear based issues that we may have been trying to sleep through in the first place. And the next thing we know, we have discovered passions that we hardly remembered ever having. So although you might not want to "go to school" when you wake up, you can always know that life is the school and we can declare summer holidays any time we want!

Do you hear that? Not only is the clock ticking, but the alarm just went off! Wakey, wakey!

Blessed Be

Trent
www.deerhornshamanic.com

Medicine Wheel and the Body

The last few days, as you can tell from my lack of blog entries, I have been very ill. My body basically laid itself down and said to the rest of me, "Enough". So now that I am on the other side of this event, I have found a lot of things have shifted for me. During my illness I released a LOT of fears. You name it. I dug into the deep dark shadowy corners of my psyche, cleared away the cobwebs and the flakes of debris, and found myself some strength and courage to make the next number of required steps on my path.

In shamanism we don't look at illness as a set of symptoms. We look at it in a more holistic fashion. We see the subtle and complex interrelatedness of all things within us and around us. Sometimes people who hear I have been ill (doesn't happen that often, but when it does, look out!) say stuff like, "What? But you're a shaman! Shamans don't get sick!" I shake my head at this sort of ignorance. Do they say that about lawyers, doctors, carpenters or mechanics? Basically the only difference is in how we treat the illness. We don't tend to medicate unless absolutely necessary and we look for more natural cures and seek more down to earth causations. That way we go about the healing in a very respectful and thorough way.

I am actually quite glad that I have walked through this one. It has made me more clear on my priorities and helped me to infuse myself with an abundance of self-respect. We all have little programs that disrespect ourselves from within. Those cobwebs are now done. Yea!!

Blessed Be

Trent
www.deerhornshamanic.com

Lunar Eclipse

The other night was a Lunar Eclipse. This one did something quite strange. The shadow of the earth seemed to come in from the left and then, instead of leaving on the right, went upward, creating a "horned moon". The horned moon to the ancients was an ultimate symbol of the Goddess energies. The Goddess is often depicted with a crown that has a crescent moon on its side, with the points going upward, much like the horns on a cow. This is also partly why cows and goats have been associated with witchcraft. That and the fact that it was usually women who tended to them.

But herds of animals have another commonality with the Goddess consciousness and the female psyche. The Goddess consciousness has a lot to do with the mass consciousness. You won't find many groups of men in one location who are communicating from the heart center. But this is a common factor in many groups of women. Why is this? Well, the Goddess consciousness connects all and binds all. It is the essence of Love. So it becomes safe to open up and to really connect when there is the Light of Love shining upon you. This is also known as herd consciousness. This is different from mob mentality, which can be very destructive. With herd consciousness each member of the herd looks out for all others and knows they are also having their backs covered in return.

The horned moon just may have been a signal to all of humanity to begin, once again, the process of honoring the group consciousness and putting aside individual agendas. This is, after all, the best way to achieve balance and harmony. Mix into that soup of consciousness the spice of compassion and suddenly we could experience an entire new way of being in the world!

Blessed Be

Trent
www.deerhornshamanic.com

Personal Authenticity

I often encourage people to "follow the path of the heart". In fact I have that on my message manager announcement. But some don't know what the phrase really means. It means personal authenticity and integrity. It means allowing yourself the courage to do what you know to be right for yourself, no matter what our friends, family and society thinks. This of course does not mean that we can just do whatever the heck we like to anyone and not care about the ripple effects. But it does mean to be true to ourselves.

How do we know if we aren't being true to ourselves? Well, does it feel right and good? Or does it create turmoil in your gut? Are you coming from a place of compassion in your heart both for yourself and for everyone else who is affected? Or are you guilting or shaming yourself or anyone else? Are you trapped inside sentiment or nostalgia (the way things should have/would have/could have been, or the way things always were)? Or are you done shoulding on yourself?

Every decision we make in our lives gives us both limitations and liberties. We have to choose
which sets of limitations and liberties will go together and then we have to come to terms with which combination we can live with, and what we cannot live without. All very easy when it comes to buying groceries. But not so easy when it comes to living authentically in our personal lives. And the rotter is that no one can make the decisions for us. We have to meditate, contemplate and decide all on our own and let the chips fall where they may. And we all need to be responsible (the ability to respond) enough to make the decisions, because to not decide does not let us off the hook. It only delays our freedom.

Blessed Be

Trent
www.deerhornshamanic.com

All things simple

I helped my mother-in-law learn how to create a pansy on paper that looked like it popped right out of the page. This was years ago before her crossing over. She had a stamp set and was creating greeting cards to send to friends. But no matter what she did to color in the pansy stamp, it continued to look flat and unappealing. So she asked me what I would do with it, considering that I am an artist.

The first thing I told her was that she needed to see the pansy with a new set of eyes. Too often we overlook the simple beauty that is right there in front of us. Then we needed to sharped the pencil crayons she was using to a fine point. We cannot use a "broad brush" when we are trying to create detail. Then we began the lesson on blending colors. The colors of a pansy are not just black center,then colored petal, then green leaf. They smoothly blend into one another, like lovers and very good friends blend into each others' lives. And in that blend there is a mixture of color that is created. Not just one or the other, but both. We then need to allow the light to shine from a particular direction, and indicate this with highlights on the petals and leaves. We always need to know the source of our light. Then we need to shadow the colors where the light is not so strong and the dark is able to exist. We always need to be conscious of our dark aspects, otherwise it will all still turn out flat. And, last but not least, we need to recognize that no matter how shaded something is, there is still light shining through, thus the leaves have to have some of the colors of the upper petals on them, indicating the light shining through the umbrella of petals and cascading a new tone onto the leaves below.

"Where did you learn this?" she asked me. Well, I have a mother and two sisters who are also artists, so some of the technical stuff comes from that. But the essence of it, the ability to see what I am looking at....that comes from my own spirit and my own desire to know and to observe and understand. My soul is fed with compassion and understanding, and the soul of all things, whether elaborate or simple, is also fed with compassion and understanding. This is the shaman's way.

Blessed Be

Trent
www.deerhornshamanic.com

Courtesy

Courtesy is a very high form of respect. It honors the divine in all of us. I have had the opportunity to witness some of the most profound courtesy in my life. And I have also witnessed the complete lack thereof. I have noticed that people who forget (or just don't) say "please" and "thank you" tend to take others for granted. They seem to have a very large entitlement complex. It is like they give off the vibe of, "Well of course you poured me a coffee, you moron! That's your frickin' job!"

I tend to stay away from people like that. I don't think they have earned my company just yet. And then there are the ones who just walk into your home without knocking when it is their first time there. Yes, I have had some do that. Just tonight in fact. Long story, but suffice it to say, I learned a lot about the person. If someone has earned that privilege then so be it. But let's face it, first timers have so not earned that yet.

Some think that courtesy is unnecessary. I don't agree. It shows respect and caring and humility. We can show respect to total strangers and we can show respect to our lovers. And so we should show respect equally. Taking people for granted is an ultimate slap in the face for them. And who knows, perhaps that person one day would have been nice to have as an ally instead of someone who no longer cares. We can build bridges with courtesy, or we can burn bridges with disrespect. It really is our personal choice. But either way, we reap what we sow. When we ignore courtesy, we set ourselves up for huge life lessons in humility. And we are the only ones who put ourselves there.

Blessed Be
Trent
www.deerhornshamanic.com