Monthly Archives: November 2012
Dance of the Twin Flames – Painting #8 Glides into Being
Dance of the Twin Flames by Tania Marie
I am excited to share painting #8 titled, “Dance of the Twin Flames.” I have a strong connection to sea horses and was so happy when they came through as the next animal spirits for this painting in the series, Universal ARKitecure. I was also ecstatic that they would be representing the Twin Flame energy and that made the essence of this one very special – the two sea horses being sacred keys.
Dance of the Twin Flames honors the beautiful sea horses (known as hummingbirds of the sea) in a magical and ethereal underwater cosmos of angelic and star-like sea anemones. The two sea horses symbolize the Divine Feminine and Divine Masculine in harmony as they unite with their Twin Flame.
Sea horse wisdom shares the messages of joy, understanding the importance of the courtship dance, stability in emotional waters, ceremony, bonding monogamously for life, great keepers of secrets, keen vision, psychic energy, analysis, strategy, independence, etiquette, sharing and mixing up of gender roles (as the male sea horse carries the young and births them), the water element, and connection with Poseidon.
Sea horses are graceful and almost mythological creatures that are one of those rare species that don’t seem to fit with any others in their category. They possess so many different qualities, similar to a platypus, and have been around since ancient times (40 million years ago). They can even change their color and pattern to match the environment they are in. And although they are known as “hummingbirds of the sea,” having dorsal fins that flutter as much as 35 times per second, they are built more for maneuverability than speed and actually don’t move around all that much. They prefer to wrap their tails around sea vegetation for stability. They are able to hover just as hummingbirds, however their dorsal fin flapping speed is amazing since it takes place under water.
Remarkable and ethereal, these sea horses were a joy to create and I hope you can feel their energy, and that of the painting, through the image. This is definitely one of my favorites. Channeling this painting seemed a perfect way to jump start my vacation on the island of Grenada, where I will be spending much time in the Caribbean Sea.
This painting, along with the other 7 in my series will be at the upcoming art exhibit mentioned below where all originals will be available for purchase. Prints of “Dance of the Twin Flames” will be available shortly. Prints and originals can also be purchased of any in the series at the link above.
I just finished this painting last night and realized what an amazing experience of creation it was. It was the first time in I can’t remember when, that I stayed up late painting through the evening and night only. This used to be my usual protocol, but had switched to day time hours the last couple of years. It also was the quickest creation that literally felt like it was created magically in my mind and then projected quickly through my hands. (I’ve been intending this for a long time!)
In general my painting process is super fast compared to the time it used to take me. Part of that had to do with the heavy subject matter, the healing work I was facilitating, journeys I literally took to travel to energy spots all over to support their creation, the size of the canvases, the minute details woven into each, and my personal process. However, this painting, which I’ve been saying I’d paint for like the last three weeks, didn’t happen until the very last minute when I had to get my series to the gallery before my vacation, for the upcoming art exhibit opening reception on the 10th, while I am away. It literally percolated in the background and I kept seeing it done and knowing it would get done somehow, some way, regardless of the small window of time I knew I would have. It was all about trust.
As always, when we go with the flow of our intuition, things naturally and supportively come together very easily. I never force-painted it during any other day of the last three weeks, always being guided to other work I needed to do instead. This painting was completed in some of the hours of the remaining last couple of days before I head out. With some of the other paintings I have had to wait for timing and things to come together a certain way, in the midst of their process, which was this layering of painting or waiting that would take place. But this one was like poof! I discovered just how to create the vision in my head, instantly, and the timing I was told it would take, it did.
I also had received the title before the painting, which was another indicator that acceleration was in order, as usually the title comes after or in the midst of painting.
Things continually get more interesting! I look forward to #9 when I return.
The Alchemy of Responsible Reflection
Take time to reflect
As we each move through the waves of current energies flowing in and out of our lives these days, it can be helpful to understand how to navigate more easily and transmute energies more quickly.
One of these ways is the mirroring process, which we all have heard of and hear reiterated often, but if you really actually put it to practice, you will see it as one of the powerfully effective tools that it is, which can instantly shift your experiences and empower you.
Many times we avoid, repress, ignore, turn the cheek or our back on, and convince ourselves about things, while we may find excuses to have our choices superficially fill the spiritual ideals we have come to value, yet haven’t really integrated at the core.
One red flag or message that shows you you have not fully transmuted something is if it continually patterns back, either in the same exact way and from the same exact source, or from a new source, but with the same underlying story.
I know for myself, one of the most empowering ways I have learned, and am daily learning, to shift my experiences, is by actively facing the mirror. Of course we all have human feelings that can at first react, rather than respond, or simply come up for us to express. But the reason for these reactions and releases are for us to take note of their message.
If something bothers you on some level, there is something in it to learn about yourself and why that is.
Could it be that there are ways in your own life you are the same as what you are not liking in another?
Could it be that you have ignored something about yourself that you are being shown to do or express?
Could it be sharing a theme that needs healing in your life or that calls for greater understanding and compassion?
Could it be that you are needing to learn the truth of unconditionally loving detachment both of self and others?
If you are a light worker, healer, visionary, leader, etc…much of what comes up can also be about helping you to get to a new level of understanding within, so that you can be of greater service to others.
So it really can be beneficial to pay attention and look inside, re-evaluate, and create a new direction for your life.
Even if we create a superficial boundary, but haven’t truly integrated the learning, no matter where we run or go, the same things will follow just in a new way and form, until we actually take a look at the underlying meaning and deal with it. That boundary would need a healthy, core foundation in order to create new experiences.
I know this very well in my own life, that core patterns will continue to cycle around until I look within and make the necessary adjustments. And they have changed by my doing so.
And when new things come up, or in the case of a pattern, old things come up, I allow my feelings to move through me without judgment, as it’s the only way I will be able to move through them in a healthy way. It also is the way I can instantly then be present and look at those feelings and look at myself, as an observer watching through the mirror, and find out what it means for me.
And then the healing integration immediately takes place and I relate to the thing, or person, and in essence, myself, in a completely different way and with greater sense of peace and empowerment, as well as more compassion, and can communicate more clearly.
The reaction then turns into my learning to more presently respond and come from a deeper place when I do. It takes practice, but with practice it becomes much easier. And with everything accelerating, it can happen instantly.
That isn’t to mean we won’t ever come up against something else, once we do integrate certain things, as we are continually evolving and we will have new things to help us to get to new experiences.
However, our processes can completely change and become more natural and we won’t be looking at it as this thing to do or work on, but we just instantly work the magick and poof! Instant alchemy.
It’s about empowering yourself.
The only reason things seem to happen “to us” is because we aren’t taking responsibility in our own lives and realizing our ability to actively be part of our experience.
Maybe some see this as a burden and why it may feel easier to turn away from things or ignore something even in the heat of the moment.
But do realize you can shift everything “through” YOU and create more natural balance as a result.
Here is what Shakti Gawain has to share about learning from your mirrors:
Often, we are so stuck in our old beliefs and patterns that we aren’t able to see the changes we need to make. Even when we feel frustrated about our problems, we may not recognize what we need to learn to change things. That is why we need to use the mirror of life. Everything in our lives reflects where we are in the process of developing integration and balance. We can use everything that happens externally as a mirror to help us see the areas within us that need healing and development. Whenever we have a problem, especially a recurring or chronic problem, it is always an arrow pointing directly to some aspect of our psyche where we need more awareness.
We all attract certain people into our life who have developed qualities opposite to the ones we are most identified with. In other words, they mirror our disowned selves, and we mirror theirs. These are often the most highly emotionally charged relationships. We either love them, hate them, or both! We feel very attracted to them, and/or very uncomfortable, judgmental, annoyed, or frustrated with them. The stronger the feelings, the more important a mirror they are for us. We have drawn them into our reality to show us something about what we need to develop in ourselves. The fact that we have such strong feelings (one way or another) toward them means that they are showing us a part of ourselves we need to acknowledge, accept, and integrate.
Of course, it’s important in any relationship to learn constructive ways to communicate honestly about our needs, our likes and dislikes, and so forth. However, along with letting the other person know our feelings, including ways we might wish they would change, we need to remind ourselves that we brought them into our lives to teach and inspire us to develop new aspects of ourselves. Our challenge, then, is to be open to discovering the parts of ourselves that they mirror for us, and to learn how we can express those parts of ourselves more in our own lives. Difficulties we are having in our relationships often mirror parts of ourselves that we need to heal. Such difficulties may involve a family member, a close friend, a coworker, or even people with whom we have only a brief encounter, such as a clerk in a store. If you are having difficulty with a present relationship, or if you frequently encounter certain kinds of difficult people — for example, a needy person or a person who doesn’t respect your boundaries — take a moment to look closely at what they are reflecting.
The people we are in relationship with are always a mirror, reflecting our own beliefs, and simultaneously we are mirrors reflecting their beliefs. So relationship is one of the most powerful tools for growth… if we look honestly at our relationships we can see so much about how we have created them.
Breaking Through Fear & Living – November 2012 Energy Forecast with Lee Harris
Free Yourself and Live
Seems like just yesterday that the October Energy Forecast was here. How time keeps accelerating. So amazing! Things have really shifted in a matter of days and that brings us to this month’s themes of leadership and direction. One of the questions to ask yourself is, what can you do to support yourself?
One way to help keep balanced, Lee shares, is to continually bathe yourself in nature both day and night time as much as possible – yes, that means under the moon (which I know many of you were doing a few days ago under the Taurus Full Moon) and under the stars, as well as outdoors in the sunlight and getting your feet and toes mingled with the Earth. Synchronously, I just posted earlier today about John Muir and what he inspires and teaches about the value and importance of getting in touch with Nature as a way to discover your own True Nature aligned with the Universe.
Reflect upon these words Lee shares and savor their message: Embrace your fears. Do things and give yourself permission to do things you normally wouldn’t do. When you are alive you infuse others with this enlivened energy. We are all connected with each other and with everything around us. BE ALIVE and REALLY LIVE.
Trust yourself to lead and you will realize that the seeds of your childhood will emerge again. (I know I’ve seen and been writing about this myself as things have been returning to their origins in my own life)
And I love this message of Lee’s, as I have been sharing the same with several in my life, who had encouraged me to write a future blog on communication: If you express something that’s very much your truth, you give your friend (and others) an opportunity to feel his or her truth around yours. And then we all move forward into a different place together. But if you stay safe and you play it safe and you censor yourself, you and your friend are being held back.
You can listen to and read the forecast here: November Energy Forecast – Are You Living Yet?
Or simply view it directly here:
Discover Your True “Nature” & You Discover the Universe – John Muir
John Muir
New things keep unfolding in my life by listening to my instincts and following where I’m guided. It all weaves a beautiful story and I am enjoying the creation of it more and more. It always leads me to new discoveries and hidden treasures when I allow myself to venture deeper into unfamiliar realms. The smallest things can offer the largest rewards.
One thing I’ve been finding very rewarding is a documentary series that of course connects dots with much of what is going on in my personal experience, and has been reflective and reiterating. We’ve been watching a six-episode series produced by Ken Burns and Dayton Duncan called: The National Parks: America’s Best Idea. This is a beautiful series filmed over a 6-year period that shares not only the evolutionary history of the National Parks, but weaves a story about the amazingly devoted people, from all walks of life – artists, entrepreneurs, idealists, scientists, etc. – who made a difference in their preservation. The particular episode last night focused on John Muir, considered America’s most famous and influential naturalist and conservationist, and founder of the Sierra Club. Alongside his advocacy of wilderness preservation he was also a writer, lecturer, geologist, botanist, glaciologist, explorer, school teacher, inventor, fruit rancher, husband and father.
It’s always interesting to see how visionaries of the world are so multi-faceted, extraordinarily gifted, and of course, ahead of their time. It’s like they see a whole other reality others haven’t tapped into yet, because of their direct connection to Spirit, and help lead others through that doorway they have found. They courageously forge into the unknown realms, guided by an innate calling, in order to integrate a new experience for the collective. It’s really a beautiful thing to see and hear about and is why I support visionaries in their quests and help to nurture their empowerment – because I see the value of their journeys.
John Muir is one such visionary and what I enjoyed the most in this episode last night, was not the usual historical facts you can find and read about him online or in history books, but the intimate insights from other writers and historians who shared about his mystical and beautifully unique nature. He was not just all the labels the conventional world celebrates, but he was a mystic, a natural spiritualist, a keeper of the garden of Earth, an elemental communicator, what many would closely relate to as a shaman and medicine man, and lived the concept of “as above, so below.” John Muir was a poet of life and marveled at the beauty in every miracle of nature around him, coming to know and understand their story and how it reflected his inner landscape.
I loved the stories of how he would trek off 50 miles in 2 days without a thought and with only some crackers, oatmeal and tea along with him, sit for hours or a day talking with the new species of plants and animals he discovered, ran at a bear making noise and flailing his arms to see its reaction and having the bear run off, climbed behind Yosemite Falls without any gear but nail studded shoes he had fastened for his daily adventures just to experience what it was like to “be” the water running over the edge of the cliff and rocks, saw storms as songs, excited over what an earthquake came to teach him, climbed high mountains of snow and then intentfully rolled down in with an avalanche to experience it and to arrive quickly back down where he started….the list of captivating and powerfully poignant stories is long, but they expressed a simplistic beauty that is untouchable except to experience.
John Muir
John Muir was a man of no limitations and had the continuous exuberance and innocence of a child, coupled with the wisdom of a sage. Known as “The Father of our National Parks,” “Wilderness Prophet,” and “Citizen of the Universe” he is a reminder of our connection to Earth, her divinity in the cosmic order, and how valuable it is to understand her reflection of us and us of her – to come to embrace a return to natural harmony and preserve what is sacred. Having come to learn more about his unique nature, he definitely is a soul after my own heart and someone I would have loved to have spent time with lost in the magic of the universal wilderness.
I love to hear about others who approach life as I have come to. I relate to much of how Muir lived including his feeling that words were limiting in conveying a sense of the mystical power and majesty of Nature. One such reason I believe I am an artist, so I can convey things in a way more aligned with how I feel and see them. And like the ineffectiveness of words led Muir to emphasize the value of “experience” as a path to truth, I wholeheartedly agree that in order to learn, one must actively participate rather than idly watch. He naturally was engaged in a Zen-like exploration of himself and knew the meaning of life lived as a spiritual embodiment and as a daily meditation that was just in the way he embraced life, rather than as a structured discipline. His discovery of Nature led him to discover greater awareness of himself and as result, discover the Universe.
This is the meaning of his famous quote, which I love:
“I only went out for a walk, and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in.”
Harmony in life is brought about by living in union with one’s true “Nature” and John Muir’s quest for this created a personal philosophy that astoundingly would be considered close to the teachings of Zen, even though he had not studied much about eastern philosophy. One does not have to study something to live it. John Muir’s realization was to simply follow his instincts, live in constant communion with Nature, and in so doing he found his true peace and joy. His message is a beautiful reminder to each of us.
Here is an article written by Greg Haegele that shares some interesting facts about John Muir: Ten Cool Things About John Muir
And I love these beautiful and reflective quotes and sharings from John Muir. I hope you enjoy:
Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop away from you like the leaves of Autumn.
The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.
The mountains are calling and I must go.
When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.
In every walk with Nature one receives far more than he seeks.
Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.
Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out going to the mountains is going home; that wilderness is a necessity…
Keep close to Nature’s heart…and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean.
The sun shines not on us but in us.
The power of imagination makes us infinite.
Let children walk with Nature, let them see the beautiful blendings and communions of death and life, their joyous inseparable unity, as taught in woods and meadows, plains and mountains and streams of our blessed star, and they will learn that death is stingless indeed, and as beautiful as life.
Going to the mountains is going home.
I will follow my instincts, and be myself for good or ill.
In God’s wildness lies the hope of the world.
Between every two pines is a doorway to a new world.
A few minutes ago every tree was excited, bowing to the roaring storm, waving, swirling, tossing their branches in glorious enthusiasm like worship. But though to the outer ear these trees are now silent, their songs never cease. Every hidden cell is throbbing with music and life, every fiber thrilling like harp strings, while incense is ever flowing from the balsam bells and leaves. No wonder the hills and groves were God’s first temples, and the more they are cut down and hewn into cathedrals and churches, the farther off and dimmer seems the Lord himself.
Most people are on the world, not in it– having no conscious sympathy or relationship to anything about them– undiffused separate, and rigidly alone like marbles of polished stone, touching but separate.
Not blind opposition to progress,but opposition to blind progress…
One day’s exposure to mountains is better than a cartload of books.
Who wouldn’t be a mountaineer! Up here all the world’s prizes seem nothing.
Most people who travel look only at what they are directed to look at. Great is the power of the guidebook maker, however ignorant.
We all travel the Milky Way together, trees and men.
When we contemplate the whole globe as one great dewdrop, striped and dotted with continents and islands, flying through space with other stars all singing and shining together as one, the whole universe appears as an infinite storm of beauty.
Anyhow we never know where we must go, nor what guides we are to get—people,storms, guardian angels, or sheep….
When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.
Every hidden cell is throbbing with music and life, every fiber thrilling like harp strings.
I was awakened by a tremendous earthquake, and though I hadn’t ever before enjoyed a storm of this sort, the strange thrilling motion could not be mistaken, and I ran out of my cabin, both glad and frightened, shouting, “A noble earthquake! A noble earthquake” feeling sure I was going to learn something.
If for a moment you are inclined to regard these taluses as mere draggled, chaotic dumps, climb to the top of one of them, and run down without any haggling, puttering hesitation, boldly jumping from boulder to boulder with even speed. You will then find your feet playing a tune, and quickly discover the music and poetry of these magnificent rock piles — a fine lesson; and all Nature’s wildness tells the same story — the shocks and outbursts of earthquakes, volcanoes, geysers, roaring, thundering waves and floods, the silent uprush of sap in plants, storms of every sort — each and all are the orderly beauty-making love-beats of Nature’s heart.