Sunday, December 20, 2009

Sacred Space, Sacred Time


If you really want to feel some powerful energy, skip the vortexes in Sedona and go straight to any old, stone cathedral in Europe! With their soaring ribbed vaults, pointed arches, flying buttresses and stained glass windows, they truly awe, inspire and humble us. The men who built them were expressing their relationship to Spirit and God. Each cathedral took decades to be completed. Can you imagine how much energy was expended in terms of time, money, physical labor and human lives to gather the materials and construct these monuments, many of which have withstood the forces of time and weather? After construction was finished, these cathedrals were consecrated as holy places of worship and service. When I have entered several old cathedrals, I have deeply felt all of this powerful energy of the sacredness of being in communication with spirit. Sometimes I meditate on evoking this energy within me. It is amazing to sit in such a space of communion with one's self and with one's God-of-Your-Own-Heart. It is a space of total presence and certainty.

Most of us spend very little time in Sacred Space. That's because no one ever told us that it even exists, much less how to create it. We rush through our busy lives distracting ourselves from finding the real meaning of life, while wondering if we will ever stumble upon it. Well, you get there a lot faster when you consciously create it. For me, "It," the meaning of life, is being in spiritual communication with yourself, with others, and with our Divine Essence, the life force energy that animates us, that makes us be alive.

If you are reading this, you probably already have some kind of spiritual practice. Do you need to bring it into present time and renew your enthusiasm for it? Have you done a consecration ritual asking Spirit to bless your sacred space? Also ask the Forces-That-Be to bless and make sacred the time that you spend in your sacred space. Write times your datebook for your spiritual practice and let no one intrude on it, or take it away from you. If you have an artistic nature that needs to be expressed, furnish the room to your liking. If you have an ascetic nature, all you need is a chair and your body. Some people take a walk out in nature, or visit cathedrals, temples and other holy places. Aim for those deeper feelings of aliveness and remembering who you are while on this physical plane. If these deeper feelings sometimes seem elusive, remember that it is a human process of experimentation and discovery. The thirty to sixty minutes you spend in deep connection with yourself is what gives meaning to the other twenty-three hours.

Exercise for discovering creating sacred space: Make a list of the places of worship for several religious denominations in the city where you live, or a nearby large, metropolitan area. Try to find those with sanctuaries that are over one hundred years old (both large and small). (Hint: Look in a phone directory and you will find some unique and interesting spiritual centers, as well as the dominant ones.) Visit these places at a time when the main sanctuary is empty. Many places of worship welcome people to enter the sanctuary during the day. Feel into the energy of each of them and notice how your body feels. Does it feel like the people who worship there come out of love, or out of obligation? Can you feel if a particular place offers its congregants a rigid or flexible dogma of how to communicate with spirit? Which of them have a feeling of holiness about them? After visiting a variety of spiritual centers, churches, temples and mosques, stop by a bookstore or library for books on creating space with rituals, decorations, music and feng shui. Go home and create your own sacred space. Let me know what you find there.

Blessings for a Joyous and Peaceful Holiday Season.
Madeline

Friday, December 4, 2009

Book Recommedation: Temples of Light

Hello!
I would like to let you know about a new, wonderful book written by a good friend of mine. Danielle has been leading trips to Egypt every year for several years. We are very lucky that she is now sharing her incredible spiritual information and experiences in this very worthy read.








Temples of Light by Danielle Rama Hoffman, is being offered along with $3000 in bonus gifts (including gifts from Psychic Awakenings), beginning on December 8th at 12:01 am. We invite you to visit www.thetemplesoflight.com/promotion and then click on the "order" link, order the book on Amazon and return to the promotional page. Enter your name and email address to reach the bonus page. The bonuses will not be available until December 8.

"The Temples of Light guides the reader, as the initiate, on a spiritual journey through thirteen of Egypt’s sacred temples--a journey into the sanctuary of the open heart. Each sacred site is a portal to ancient wisdom that can assist the modern-day pilgrim with everyday life issues and struggles--love, purpose, money, and health--and the deeper questions of enlightenment and our divine origin."

Danielle Rama Hoffman opens up sacred rites of passage that historicallly have been kept secret to forge a relationship with the temples of Egypt as allies and spirit guides. For example, the temple of Sakkara is associated with abundance; the temple of abydos with remembering. The initiations in this book awaken intuition and the Sahu--the fully realized self--allowing connections to the power, magic, and wisdom of such sacred symbols as the Flower of Life, the Djed Pillar (the backbone of Osiris), the Ka, and the energy body. Hoffman's guided meditations, rituals, and exercises also raise the reader's vibration level, as we move from the Piscean to the Aquarian age. Embodying the wisdom of the open heart of these temples imparts a shift in consciousness from fear to bliss, from powerlessness to empowerment, opening the body, mind, and spirit to the infinite possibilities within. The book also includes a 60-minute CD of a guided journey of the Sphinx.

Please do click on the link above and take a look at this book on Amazon.com. It's a trove of useful information for those of us interested in spiritual and personal growth.

Madeline

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

December Expectations

The day before Thanksgiving (“On your mark…”),
Thanksgiving (“Get set…”),
The Friday after Thanksgiving (“GO!”);
and we are off and running the countdown to Christmas day (well, in our society December is mainly Christian-focused, but there’s several other worthy holidays: Hanukah, Kwanza, Yule and the Winter Solstice). For most adults, the thirty or so days go by quite quickly. At the end of the race, are you left with fulfillment and satisfaction, or disillusionment and disappointment? The first few days of December are a good time to clarify your intentions for the remainder of the holiday season.

Being that I live in Seattle, where there is perhaps one or two days of snow in December, I’m always amused at the winter-themed decorations that appear during the week of Thanksgiving. Snowmen and snowflakes appear everywhere. That’s when the department stores and radio stations turn up the volume on the Christmas carols too. They want to get you into the “Christmas Spirit” so you’ll spend your money more freely. That’s because merchants and businesses are setting the energy for a profitable December. There’s a theory that most businesses “operate in the red” (i.e., red ink on their income and expense reports indicate financial losses) from January through November, but make up for their losses during the Christmas season which traditionally starts on starts on Black Friday (they change to black ink on their reports to indicate profits). If you adjust your energy to match the energy that the businesses set, you may behave the way they would like you to behave and buy things that neither you nor your friends need. It’s a good idea for you to set the energy of Christmas and December to where it means something to you. You’ll be much happier setting expectations and intentions that you are capable of manifesting.

Present Time Exercise:

Here’s an exercise to help you create a more satisfying, enjoyable December. Get a fresh December calendar page. Preferably one without any pictures on it (if you don’t have one handy, you can Google “printable, December, 2009.”) Draw pictures, or use store bought stickers, to mark the holidays you want to celebrate. Also indicate any parties, family get-togethers, gift shopping, performances and religious services you want to attend. Next add enough quiet time or self-pampering. Finally, create time for connecting with a few individual friends one-to-one. Be sure to decorate the borders of the page, and some of the empty spaces too.

Now it’s time to energize, or “work the energy of” your December. Take your calendar page and sit in a straight back chair, with your feet flat on the ground. Close your eyes and take a deep breath. Imagine sending down a grounding beam of energy from your body down to the center of the earth. Now imagine a grounding cord of energy from your December page down to the center of the earth. Use it to drain off everyone else’s attention, energy and expectations from your December. Just see that energy being sucked down the grounding deep into the earth. Keeping the page grounded, now fill it up with your highest creative essence. See your favorite color spreading across the page. Set the intention that you will be in present time as each day unfolds so that you will fully enjoy each activity. Bless it and ask your Spirit Guides or Angels to bless it also. You’ve now given yourself the best gift of all: Present Time. Enjoy your December!


Blessings of Peace,
Madeline
http://www.psychicawakeningsseattle.com/