Growth

I sure hope so....

De/Vision - Be A Light To Yourself

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdSNdHy5vBQ

I was broken, battered, bruised all over
 But I was never one to cry
 Shattered, torn apart, forsaken
 Felt more that than alive
 Embraced the pain, buried the hatchet
 Learned to sleep with an opened eye
 They can waste me, hate me, refuse to save me
 But I'm not letting go
 For I know
 You have to be a light to yourself
 Be a spark
 In the dark
 Shine and be a light to yourself
 Watch me glow
 I was madly in love with the devil
 On those lonely winter nights
 I would kiss the lips of an angel
 No, I'm not letting go
 For I know
 You have to be a light to yourself
 Be a spark
 In the dark
 Shine and be a light to yourself
 Watch me glow
 Watch me glow
 No, I'm not letting go
 For I know
 You have to be a light to yourself
 Be a spark
 In the dark
 Shine and be a light to yourself
 Watch me glow
 You have to be a light to yourself
 Watch me glow
 Shine and be a light to yourself
 Watch me glow
 Watch me glow
 Shine and be a light to yourself

Path of Pollen - Meeting other like minded Bee People

  On Tuesday I went to a local salon to have my hair dyed blue. After chatting about my new refurbished tattoo with Katie, I commented on the Bee tattoo on her foot. She launched into Bee stories for the next 2+ hours. Her Grandfather was a famous Fort Collins Bee Keeper.
  Katie told so many fascinating stories about her Grandfather. She also randomly declared that she herself and her daughter (2yrs) are Bee whisperers. This is all before I could get a word in edgewise.
She told me I had permission to recount some of these. She told me that ever since her Grandfather passed, she 'knows' that when a Bee is hanging around her - it is her Grandfather. Now she even has people around her that comment as such - One day her ex was dropping off her daughter. They look in the back seat and the little 2 year old has her hands cupped. When Katie reaches in for the little girl a Bee crawls out from inside her little hands. HA!! Then the Ex exclaims - "What the hell is your Grandfather doing in my car?"  The bee did not sting any of them.
  Another time, Katie grabbed a grocery cart in the store and realized there was a Bee on the cart handle. She told her Grandfather hello. She did all her shopping with the Bee, just kind of walking back and forth. Katie actually thought perhaps the Bee was sick and dying. When she got up to the checkout the clerk kind of freaked out about the Bee, but Katie assured him it was fine and that she intended to take it back outside. When she got out to her car, she carefully scooped the Bee up to brush it into a planter, thinking that would be a nice place for it to die if it were sick. She told Grandfather good bye. Then the Bee simply flew away.  Fantastic right?
   So, when I finally did get a word in edgewise I started telling Katie about my plans to go study the Path of Pollen in England. She was interested, though kind of hyper and not sure if she was soaking up what I was telling her. I talked about learning more about the magic and medicinal way of the Bee. Not to become a beekeeper. (As I am allergic right?) I told her that I make infused honey and would bring her a jar on Saturday. (I hope to make some batches tonight with the New Moon)
  I also told her about the Bee Hive sculpture I am making with dead bees on the inside and the jeweled antique bee pins on the outside. She told me she collects anything to do with Bees. When I then told her that I am trying to get my dead bees from Copoco's she told me that her Grandfather had donated all his hives and equipment to Copoco's when he got too elderly to use is all. I emailed them today to check in. I have been so absorbed in life this past 2 months that I have not made it back over to the store to check on their hives and to see if she kept some dead bees for me.
  So at some point we got on the subject of dating. She told me how she met her current boyfriend on match.com. He was far enough away that she wouldn't commonly write to him. For some reason she did that night. Somehow that got onto her favorite topic - Bees. She told this guy that her Grandfather was  a Bee Keeper in Fort Collins and that she had grown up with hives, gone on swarm rescues, bottled honey, never been stung, etc. Turns out that the new boyfriends Grandfather was a big ol' Bee Keeper in Longmont Colorado. The two Grandfathers probably new each other. Wow!!
  I'm sure I am forgetting some of all we talked about. It was a speed download of information for both Katie and I. It was lovely that she started telling everyone in the salon that we are new friends. I look forward to Saturday and getting the final blue glaze on my hair - Mostly so I can absorb some of Katie's young enthusiasm for Bees.

Blessed Bee!

Being mindful

I spend a lot of time being mindful; thinking about my thoughts and feelings, making choices; and about how to respond rather than react. Thinking about breaking down pretenses, how to follow my heart, be genuine and real.

New refurbished tattoo

Path of Pollen & Truth

Note to self - when you walk the Pollen Path and work with the Bee Goddess - YOU WILL GET STUNG!!   Ouch.  Well, I hope that I've learned my lessons and not lost any friends on this path. Such sweetness coupled with some huge awakenings brought on by the stings of Truth. The Weaver told me that Bees are creatures of the Sun and demand me to walk a path of truth. If getting stung brings my lesson to my conscious vision?  Then ok. A few tears shed. Apologies made. Not sure if that will mend the fence, but I hope so. I now know I can depend on the Goddess to sting me if I stray off the path of truth and pollen. 

Advanced Magical Arts - RJ Stewart & Annastacia Nutt

Advanced Magical Arts - RJ Stewart & Annastacia Nutt

    Stunning weekend workshop with my tribe. I cried, I laughed and I cried with joy. I feel like I wept the whole weekend. I had told you all at the introduction that I was tender from my soul retrieval work on Thursday. I had no time yet to integrate such a massive undertaking.
    Thank the Goddess that I could be tended by a dear GreenMan. Thank you so much Jory for your grounded compassionate energy. It was stunning for us to both sit in the North with the leaders. The exercise of sending energy into each other from the Pillar of Flame was incredible.
  Of course it is always a heart felt experience to have 4 of my Flamekeepers in the circle. Six of us, when we count Brigid, and a room full of priestesses and seekers.(Chuck, Lola, Nancy & Edie)
All of the journeys & teachings were profound.    
   Probably for me going to the Abbey, The Weaver and The Merlin - really blew me away. When I knelt before Merlin and he pulled my head against his knee and told me I was to be ok... yet more weeping for me of course - but this time I was filled with joy and hope.
  At the end when the Oracle of The Weaver answered my question about pursuing the Path of Pollen was almost spooky. Trust she said. (more tears of course)

I thank you all for this work. I cannot wait for the Underworld Initiation in the Fall.

I can't hardly articulate how life altering and path affirming this work and service is.

I am blessed.

To drive on the left side of the road.

What I want to manifest in the next 2 years.

Life is so interesting. I wonder if I will be doing module 2 of the Jin Shin work in 2015?

I still believe I will be in England and Ireland in 2016. Probably the full year.

Will I live there?    Will I stay there?

Will I live in Ireland and commute to England for my Path of Pollen training?

Could I complete all the lessons of the Path of Pollen in a year?

I will probably always keep Colorado as my home base.

In Briton, the laws and accreditation for healers is quite rigorous.

I am very interested in buying a time-share cottage in Ireland though.

I am looking at properties in County Sligo. Near my friends and my Faery Beloved.

My favorite Irish County. I do love Dunderry, Kildare and Dublin... and the Burren.

I guess I will have to learn how to drive on the left side of the road.

The Navajo Pollen Path

The Navajo Pollen Path

May 24th, 2007

A Navajo sand painting, New Mexico, c. 1950, dissected in Joseph Campbell‘s The Inner Reaches of Outer Space, 1986. Such paintings, composed of colored sand strewn upon a hogan’s dirt floor, are used in healing and initiation ceremonies, wherein an assemblage of friends and neighbors chant and encourage an initiate, physically entering the painting, to [re]embark upon and [re]live a mythic adventure.

Starting at the bottom, “the footprints represent a spiritual ascent along the mystic way known to the Najaho as the Pollen Path” (p93).
“The two colors of the ‘female’ and the ‘male,’ lunar and solar powers… become one on passing between the guardian Spirit Bringers at the entrance to the sanctuary; the path, which is now of the single color of pollen, runs to the base of the World Tree, where three roots or ways of entrance are confronted” (p97).
“The bounded area is equivalent to the interior of a temple, an Earthly Paradise, where all forms are to be experienced, not in terms of practical relationships, threatening or desirable, evil or good, but as the manifestations of powers supporting the visible world and which, though not recognized in practical living, are everywhere immediately at hand and of one’s own nature” (p93).
The painting abounds with symbols, correspondences, archetypes, and hierophanies: the axial Great Corn Plant, its threefold root, the blue bird, its threefold perch, the lightening flash that “strikes to the exact center of the way” (p94), the yellow and black apparitions, the color system, the turns of the path, the number of corn ears and their placement. See Campbell’s expansive discussion.
“The ordeal is an act of sacrifice. The mind is to abandon forever the whole way of relating to life which is of the knowledge of the two powers of the path only as distinct from each other, red and blue. Beyond the exit gate, returning to the world, the path is to be no longer red and blue, but of the one color of pollen. The neighbors and friends who have gathered to witness the occasion will experience an exaltation, but then return to the world along the path by which they came… whereas the initiate, nearly naked and decorated as a god, will have become identified with the adventure” (p101).
http://unurthed.com/2007/05/24/the-navajo-pollen-path/comment-page-1/

Bees & Crows

The Shamanic Way of the Bee

This book continues to rock my world. I read it once and then flipped to the first page to read it again.

Blackbird

Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise.

Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these sunken eyes and learn to see
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to be free.

Blackbird fly Blackbird fly
Into the light of the dark black night.

Blackbird fly Blackbird fly
Into the light of the dark black night.

Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise
You were only waiting for this moment to arise
You were only waiting for this moment to arise.

Jin Shin Jyutsu - Paid

     Today I mailed off my $100 deposit for the module one seminar. I spoke with Lisa Bailey about my concerns of learning the numerical identifier for all the safety energy locks due to my dyslexia.
She felt that this particular teacher - Susan Schwartz - would be a visual teacher and that I would absorb and learn more than with some of the other instructors. So, 3 full days in July, I will immerse myself in this work that started for me when I went for healing 20+ years ago.
   I also told Lisa, that I am completely obsessed with the hand mudras. There are up to 800 of them!! I do feel that will continue to be my specialty, as I continue to channel and develop my own set of Celtic Mudras.

Now to manifest this all.

I certainly began manifesting when I mailed off that check this AM.

Good sign

I believe it to be a good sign, that when I tell people my hopes and plans, they ask if they can go with me. :)

Bee

The Way of the Melissae - Training in England

My next step in my Priestess development and my Path of Pollen

Due to the first of the Melissae workshops being the exact same week as my Jin Shin Jyutsu training, I will be looking to try and go to England in September. If I cannot pull that off, then I will go next year some time. That could be better as then I could combine the trip with going to Glastonbury and then back over to my beloved Emerald Isle.

 

The Way of the Melissae – A workshop for women

with Naomi Lewis and Kate Shela

The Way of the Melissae is a well-trodden path for distaff members of the European shamanic tradition known as The Path of Pollen. This workshop offers a rare opportunity to work directly with women from The Path of Pollen who will be sharing teachings that have traditionally been passed down ‘from mouth to ear’.
Central to the tradition is the magical formula known as Six-Hex-Sex which is embodied and expressed by the Melissae in her role as Priestess and as Pythoness – a specific oracular mode of magnetic trance – and training in the veiled ways of the Priestess and Pythoness will be emphasized during this teaching event.
The Melissae utilize little-known arcane methodologies to move into liminal zones, in-between places of ‘neither-niether’ – where the three-fold structure of sisterhood ‘cells’ can be encountered and its denizens met, namely the Sisterhood of the Spinners, the Sisterhood of the Wise Maidens and the Sisterhood of the Fey.
Each of these sisterhoods holds a particular body of teaching, orientated towards encouraging the student to become both the flower, the flow-er and the pollinator of honeyed wisdoms. Participants will also be introduced to the apis-codex, being a guide to living the fullest of lives in accordance with the Path of Pollen.

DATES: The next two opportunities to undertake this workshop are:
Friday 4th – Tuesday 8th July 2014
Friday 12th – Tuesday 16th September 2014
VENUE: The Sacred Trust Centre, Dorset
FEE: £685 inc VAT (fully residential; fee includes accommodation, food and tuition)
Maximum Number of Participants: 24
http://www.sacredtrust.org/path-of-pollen.php#TheWayoftheMelissae

Jin Shin Jyutsu

    I am pleased to announce that I will be taking the first module of training to become a Jin Shin Jyutsu practitioner. This energy work has been a part of my life for nearly 20 years. It certainly has inspired and helped me co-create my Celtic Energy Weaving practice that some of you are now getting treatments with.  I feel this is a solid step in my becoming the healer I am meant to be. This will also help facilitate growth in my spiritual network of practitioners and give me direction to move and practice my healing modality in Denver and perhaps Ireland.

https://www.jsjinc.net/
Jin Shin Jyutsu® physio-philosophy is an ancient art of harmonizing the life energy in the body. Born of innate wisdom and passed down from generation to generation by word of mouth, the Art had fallen into relative obscurity when it was dramatically revived in the early 1900's by Master Jiro Murai in Japan.
After clearing himself of a life-threatening illness, Master Murai devoted the rest of his life to the research and development of Jin Shin Jyutsu, gathering insight from a range of experiences and resources, including the Kojiki (Record of Ancient Things). The resulting knowledge of Jin Shin Jyutsu was then given to Mary Burmeister, who brought it to the United States in the 1950's.

My Iris are Gorgeous this year!!

Yes I Will !!

Weaving into the Earth's Web

Holding the Sun in your Hand Chakra

Fire in My Eyes

Spiritual Gifts

Divine Masculine - Sacred Feminine

High Priestess

Beautiful Bee Art

Talking Heads - "And She Was"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgSVTdAtNYE



"And She Was"

And she was lying in the grass
And she could hear the highway breathing
And she could see a nearby factory
She's making sure she is not dreaming
See the lights of a neighbor's house
Now she's starting to rise
Take a minute to concentrate
And she opens up her eyes

The world was moving and she was right there with it (and she was)
The world was moving she was floating above it (and she was) and she was

And she was drifting through the backyard
And she was taking off her dress
And she was moving very slowly
Rising up above the earth
Moving into the universe
Drifting this way and that
Not touching ground at all
Up above the yard

[CHORUS]

She was glad about it... no doubt about it
She isn't sure where she's gone
No time to think about what to tell them
No time to think about what she's done
And she was

And she was looking at herself
And things were looking like a movie
She had a pleasant elevation
She's moving out in all directions

[CHORUS]

Joining the world of missing persons (and she was)
Missing enough to feel alright (and she was)

Crow and Bee Path - Today's Healing for a Mother

 

  Today a friend contacted me urgently as her Mother had just been rushed to a hospital. Not much was known yet as to what was going on. My friend is a client that I am working with to help heal an injury that has affected her energetically. I am at work, but saw the incoming text. I immediately bundled up to go out and do a walking prayer and then some blessings for her and her Mother.

   As I began my walk, I shifted into what I fondly call 'My bad ass urban shaman' mode. On this trail there are a lot of sketchy people. I have to call on my guides to protect me as I travel deeper into a trance. Hey! watch my back. Right?  I now begin my walking trance journey by chanting my mantra and by working with my Celtic hand mudras that I channeled back in March of this year. I only had to do one set of chants when the prayers and blessing bubbled out of me. I was walking along the lake and little streams of melting snow were everywhere. I thought of Cynthia's trance journey for me last week and how she saw so much water. Water and Brigid's Well.

  Today I was to work with water to help my friend's Mother. I am going to call her May, just because it’s the month, and I like that name. For May, I am working with healing waters. I called on the Goddesses Danu and Brigid. Healing waters, waters of magic, waters of the world. As I chanted my mantra, I felt my body stretch and sink into the water. Sank down and touched the earthstar where the hissing steam erupted upwards through my body as Brigid's healing flame of life. The energy extended and burst like a cobalt beam into the stars where the energy swirled and fell back down upon me like a silver meteor shower. As I continued to walk between worlds I became the Kildare Oak. A massive Tree of Life. Roots in Brigid's Well. Branches in the Stars.

   In my branches I welcomed the Hive. A massive Bee of Life swarm. My Bees, My Queen, My swarm. My Hive. Thrum Thrum Thrum. The rhythmic sound took me even deeper. I am completely unaware of my walking feet on the path. In my branches is Crow, Raven and Magpie. They are here to watch. At first they are watching me to see what I am up to, curious as always. I call on Crow to observe May's experience. Keep a sharp eye on that medical staff. Make sure they give May their utmost attention. My sweet Bees - send May your sweetness. With your thrumming call on the Ancestors with their healing knowledge. Healing through the Collective Hive. Calm as one organism. Maintained and healthy. Guided by our queen - Brigid.

  The waters at my roots are where Salmon swims. I call on Salmon to swim through May's waters, blood, spit and tears. Salmon and I work to remove any extraneous inflammation or non-essential stagnant energy that could possibly hide an important diagnosis or treatment plan. As I am doing this, I come a bit out of my trance and find myself standing before the raging Poudre river. I visualize my friend, her Mom and Myself, holding hands around the trunk of the Oak.

 Maiden Mother Crone. I chant the prayer from the Calliach. I weave the magic up and down the trunk of the Great Oak. Up into the Flame and Branches. Down the roots and into the Well.

 Maiden Mother Crone. We are three, we are one.  We send calm sweet energy to May.

The Crow watches. The Bees thrum. The Well runs deep. The Flame burns blue. The ancestors nod their heads and whisper.

  I blow three final healing breaths into my hands and release the prayer with Salmon into the river. Salmon who swims between the worlds. He takes the healing prayer and blessings to May. She breathes a sigh and receives these blessings. Her daughter prays and can hold onto Brigid's hand.

   I take a moment to stir out of my trance a bit more. I breathe in the spring rush of the Rivers surging energy. I drink up some of this to replenish myself. I pull down some of the silver star energy to bless this work and my gifts. I bless all opportunities for my growth and life.

 
Blessed Bee,
Aspen

 
© Aspen Karen Fischer
May 13, 2014

Wedge tomb on the Burren 2010

Destiny vs. Fate in Relationships

I believe in Destiny but not Fate when it comes to people in my life. Destiny has a hand in offering an opportunity to engage in an interaction of growth. A gift offered. If that opportunity is not embraced then the gift and life lessons may simply be offered to someone else who is ready to embrace the forward momentum. There is no gauge as to the level of engagement needed to stay in the game, but if someone is unwilling to even look at the cards, they forfeit the opportunity to draw a winning hand.

©Aspen Karen Fischer 2014

Crow and Bee Path

I realized that I need to be more aware of my dualistic approach to life. As a Gemini I like to have many tools available. Magically I work with Crow, Salmon and Bees. Water and Flame for Healing. These are not always polarities. As there is always the In Between. I do work with all Elements in ritual.  

    When I am NOT grounded I will channel too much Crow and end up squawking like a crow. Too much Bee energy, then I am scattered all over the place searching for nectar. 

   Now that I am aware of what I am doing, I am back to wise crow who watches and waits for the right opportunities, plays to have fun, gathers with the flock when it is time. 

   On my Pollen path, I have called back to the Hive my scouts. That huge amount of kinetic energy is a dripping swarm of Bees. The swarm is one organism. When it's on the move, there is a lot of energy that is contained within the swarm. I need to contain my wild thoughts. Need to just stay with the process. Let my Goddess prepare my flight path. Trust in the collective. Thrum hum and chant. Wait for the call to action. 

   This is my alignment for now. Feed the collective. Keep the Priestess and Healer healthy. The Well runs deep. The Flame is mostly Blue and well fueled. There is anticipation in the air. Air -  My Element.  Blessed Bee. 

MOON MOON

Moon Moon

Lover swoon

Who will meet me here

Please come soon

 

I lie here waiting

Not knowing who

Which lover will bed me

Will it be you?

 

My Faery husband

Lover of lifetimes

Wed in our Sligo Glenn

Blessed by Maeve

 

My Greenman

Sap that rises

Drives me mad with desire

Leaves me sinking into the earth

 

A common boy

Perhaps a farmer’s  Son

Stumbles upon this beauty

Waiting for magic.

 

Perhaps a Satyr

Lusting for a drink

A dew moist footprint

Leading to the prize

 

Moon Moon

I think tonight you will be my lover

For the others seem to be off wandering

Looking for dreams and mists.

 

 

 

 

© 2014 Aspen Karen Fischer