November brings complex energetics to the table

Hello my friends. Can you believe it is already November 2017?? To me it seems the year has flown by. Energies are high right now, as influenced by the Full Moon and the intensity of the changing season. Let's start by looking at what this Full Moon brings:

In November we have an Otter Full Moon (or Beaver, depending on your source), which is a somewhat complex energetic because it taps both an awakening of consciousness and a sense of being grounded. Generally speaking, these may be two opposing impulses, but at this time, they come in harmony to create a powerful energetic that supports us in releasing what no longer serves to make space for what does. 

You may feel especially emotional during this Moon cycle (I know I do!) as new levels of clarity come to you. You may also notice a broadening of your perceptual field and a stirring of your spirit that actually leaves you feeling more, rather than less, connected and grounded. 

Combine that with the ending of the Harvest season. This month our energy begins to turn inward as Winter approaches. If you have not yet taken stock of your personal "harvest" this year - what you grew in your life and what is ready for releasing - now is the time to do so. Your personal harvest begins in the Spring with what you plant into your life; then moves into Summer in which you tend to those dreams; then becomes your harvest in Autumn. 

Sometimes what we find excites and pleases us; sometimes it does not. No matter what you find in your personal harvest, give thanks for it. Growth comes through both gains and losses. And as the Otter Moon suggests, we have to release what does not serve us to make room for what does, just as a tree releases its spent leaves during Autumn, making way for fresh growth in the Spring.

Consider allowing this Thanksgiving to hold something different for you: an opportunity to celebrate the whole of your harvest - that which is to be released and that which is growing - in your life. By keeping your connections to the things in your life current and clear, you free up the space and energy needed to keep you feeling vibrant and inspired, ready to move forward. 

Til next time, Namaste'

Come Present

Hello Friends!
It has been a while; life is full and I was delayed in connecting with you. Today I feel compelled to blog about coming present with what is.

We find ourselves midway through October 2017 and quickly approaching Samhain (pronounced "sow-in") - the celebration behind All Hallows' Eve and modern-day Halloween. Samhain was originally celebrated to honor the spirits of the dead, for it was believed they visited the Earth on October 31st and provided insights into the future. Sacred hearth fires were burnt all night as a gesture and request for protection through the approaching darkness of the cold, harsh Winter months.

Photo by Olivia Henry on Unsplash

 

Samhain comes at an auspicious time of year when the season shifts from long, warm Summer days to long, cool Autumn nights. The color of the leaves on the trees signals the change most prominantly. Traditionally this meant the energy and activity of the season was shifting too: crop growing was done and harvesting began.

Photo by Evgeni Evgeniev on Unsplash

Though our context may be different, these same shifts apply to us today, if more to our internal world than our external one. Our body wisdom responds to the energetic shifts inherent in the change of seasons. And if we pay close attention, we may feel a shift in what we long to do that mirrors this change.

While Summer is typically filled with a lot of external busyness and play, Autumn beckons us to start slowing down and bring more presence to what is...to take stock of what we've created in our lives, trash what didn't work, harvest what did, and be grateful for it all.

Today we can use the symbology of Samhain this way:

• honor and release what no longer serves your life (the crops that did not grow or no longer serve your life; your "dead")
• claim what does (the crops that grew to enhance your life; your "harvest")
• be grateful for what is (all the gifts born of your year and your life so far, both tangible and intangible)  

 

Photo by Simon Maage on Unsplash

 

You might want to write down the things you are releasing and ceremonially burn the paper; you might also want to make note of the gifts of your harvest and ceremonially bury the paper. By honoring the ancient Samhain tradition in this way, you can clear your energetic field, gain perspective, and better prepare for what approaches next.

This placement of your attention is a powerful tool to keep you present with what is, in a way that leads to the next aligned step toward right action in your life, rather than getting caught up in messy distractions and distorted reactions that don't serve. I define right actions as those based in love, and distorted actions as those based in fear. For what it's worth, now is a great time to be curious, to stretch beyond your comfort zone, and to choose love above fear.

Photo by Jez Timms on Unsplash

Each and every one of us is called to stop being shy, and to step into right, aligned action for ourselves and for the greater reality of which we are a part. For what better purpose is there to life than serving the world in a way that leads to positive changes for you and for all the beings you share this Planet home with? I can't think of any...

Until next time, fare thee well my friends,
Dr. Ceci Zuniga

Crazy Cloud of Crap

We are now technically into the third week of September and...

Wait a minute...how did we get to September...NINE months into 2016...already??

Don't get me wrong; I will be uber-happy to move beyond this crazy-ass, Nine Fire Monkey year (See my blog from February). But seriously, how did we get through 3/4 of this year already...? It feels like we just celebrated the new year. 

Anyway, moving on...

This month, the heat of Summer is beginning to (subtly) recede as we round the corner toward Autumn. But wow, are things boiling hot! The election hype, the Olympic hype, the violence hype...It's all spinning around us like a tornado, creating a crazy cloud of crap we have to navigate our way through.

Don't delude yourself into thinking you are not impacted by these things. We live in a single, unified field of energy, as all the fish in the ocean do. Waves of energy in the form of vibrations and impulses gently nudge or harshly slam into us, just as they would if we lived in the ocean.

So not one of us is insulated from anything that happens on this planet (or beyond, if you want to go there). What happens, even if on the other side of the globe, impacts us, though we may or may not be consciously aware of it.

How do I know this? Because quantum physics has finally proven it to be so. When stimulated, particles of matter respond to each other, even when separated by thousands and thousands of miles across the globe. We - you, me and everything else here - are particles of matter, constantly responding to the experiences of those around us.

"So what?" you may ask. "What does this mean?"

It means if you find yourself feeling tired, sluggish, overwhelmed, blah, uneasy, perhaps even exhausted or depleted, irritable, angry or ill, your body system is likely struggling beneath the crazy cloud of crap I mentioned earlier. There is no way to escape it...

Well, that is not exactly true. There are things you can do to shield yourself from the influences of these more dense energy vibrations. But they take practice and to practice them, you have to learn them first. Then, you have to do them regularly. The more you do them, the better they work for you.

Some of these things are simple; some are more complex, coming to us from the indigenous, deeply connected cultures of the world. And they work. Really well.

Managing the impact of the crazy cloud of crap on you is twofold. First, take steps to minimize your contact with it. Second, take steps to minimize its impact on your body system.

Here are some things to stop doing to minimize your contact with it:

• Stop bombarding your system. Unplug from screen technology (TV, internet, phone, etc.) as much as possible. If you choose to engage with them, be very specific about why you do and with whom you connect. Don't drown yourself in other people's rhetoric, spin, drama, opinions, and emotional energies. These things penetrate your personal energy field and pollute it with gunk, leaving you feeling low, sluggish and off-balance both physically and emotionally. If anything significant happens, you will hear about it anyway.

• Stop taking things personally. Every single person on this planet has an opinion about what is going on, including you and me. Whether people's opinions are right or wrong, true or not, is irrelevant; they are just people's opinions and people have a right to them. Arguing, rationalizing, explaining - these are all antics of the ego and probably will not change someone else's opinion. Your energy and passion are better spent elsewhere. So let others be, without taking their opinions on as a personal affront.

• Stop neglecting yourself. Your body needs to be energetically nurtured just as it needs to be physically nurtured. When you get "slimed" by crazy clouds of crap, your energy body needs a good cleaning to restore its vibrancy and re-balance its functioning. The better it functions, the less vulnerable you are to the impact of such clouds, and the better you feel.

Here are some things to start doing to minimize its impact on your body system:

• Start spending more time doing things that inspire your senses, like playing, creating, dancing, singing, visiting with others (face to face, not via a screen), or anything else that awakens you (hiking, biking, spending time outdoors, listening to favorite music, cooking, meditating, road tripping, doing yoga, bubble baths, writing, napping, snuggling, etc.). 

• Start trusting in something larger than yourself. Trust that there is more to what is happening than you can possibly comprehend. The tapestry of Life reaches far beyond our full comprehension, so find something bigger than yourself to entrust its design to. Trust that the Divine Source of all things always works with us and never against us, even in the midst of a crazy cloud of crap.

• Start soaking in a hot bath with lots of Epsom salts. This is my favorite way of cleansing the body's energy field of slime. Emerge feeling more vibrant and radiant.

If you find yourself suffering from the crazy cloud of crap spinning around us, give me a call. I've got lots of tools in my toolbox for just this sort of thing.

In the name of LIFE

 A few nights ago I went to a world-wide screening of a new film called "Unity." It was...well, quite frankly, disturbing. I nearly walked out within the first 10 minutes. Instead, I covered my eyes, sat in my seat and sobbed at the suffering being shown. It was not fiction; it was life - the suffering in this life that we humans have created and that we maintain through things like war, and how we feed ourselves. It was a sort of documentary. I felt compelled to stay, though at the time I was uncertain as to why. Typically, I would have left immediately.

In hindsight I realize there was a part of me ready to bridge the gap, to change my choice of not looking to looking, to feel the reality of what humanity has created, to fully step into the realm of Oneness and to recognize that on some level, I am contributing to the horrors shown...perhaps through apathy, denial, resistance, justification, by being choosey about what I allow into my consciousness...

It took all my conviction to stay in that theater, watching the reality before me. It is one thing to read and hear about such things; it is quite another to watch their painful unfolding and feel it throughout my body as if it were happening to me. Now I know that it was happening to me. It does happen to me, because on the most intimate level of being, there is no separation. The experience, at times, was nearly unbearable and was certainly traumatic...as it should be. Only a sociopath might watch such a film and feel something other than complete disgust and deep compassion.

I presume the intent of this hard-hitting film was to shake people out of their comfort zones, to fling us out of complacency into a place where we can no longer deny the brutality we participate in every day, even if by default...and not just to other Homo Sapiens but to all creatures that share this life, this planet with us. Important questions were raised...

For instance, 

• How is it that one can condone and allow horrific stockyards for the inhumane growing and slaughtering of cows, pigs, turkeys and chickens in the United States yet scoff at how the Chinese handle dogs and cats in the same inhumane ways in their country? 
• How is it that one can justify eating sea-dwelling creatures but not land-dwelling creatures? What about sky-dwelling creatures? 
• What makes the life of a shrimp or a crab any less significant than the life of a cow or a chicken? What about a horse or a dog or a cat? A clam?
• What is it that puts the value of one living creature's life above or below the value of another living creature's life? 
  

Every creature values its life and wants to have it just as we do ours. They also have a right to have it, just as we do ours. We may believe we can speak for them, choose for them, disregard them for our own purposes but that is not ours to do. Their life is not ours to overtake. It is no more or less valuable than our own life is in the whole of creation. They do not want it taken away from them any more than we want ours taken away from us, especially without consideration and in fact, with complete disregard. Why would they? Why would we? Why would any living creature?

For many of our fellow creatures, we take their babies, their freedom and ultimately their lives. We separate them from their family, their clans, their tribes and even their homes. We use them for selfishness and greed in the name of survival, sustenance or even worse, pleasure or entertainment but this is a great lie. It is the error thinking of our ego. It is nothing more than the brutality and insanity of what I now call species slavery: exhausting labor, drudgery, bondage, one life sacrificed without regard...

And by whose authority? None of us - not one of us among the race of Homo Sapiens has the authority to say one life is more or less valuable than any other, or in essence: My life is more valuable than yours; your life is less valuable than mine. Money does not give one that authority; nor does power. Some may take it, but it is not theirs to take. Life belongs to us all, period. It was given to us all by the same loving Source. No species has a right to dominate any other. We are not the same, but we are equal.

Spiritual master S'rila Prabhupada once said, "As a state is protected by the department of law and order, so the state of the universe, of which this earth is only an insignificant fragment, is protected by the laws of nature. This material nature is one of the various potencies of God, who is the ultimate proprietor of everything that be. This earth is, therefore, the property of God, but we, the living entities, especially the so-called civilized human beings, are claiming God's property as our own under both an individual and collective false conception. If you want peace, you have to remove this false conception from your mind and from the world. This false claim of proprietorship by the human race is partly or wholly the cause of all disturbances of peace on earth." 

There are those that will argue to maintain the brutality in the name of livelihood, survival, necessity, etc. but these excuses are all lies. Many lies are used to maintain species slavery today. It does not have to be this way. We can change this tragic trajectory, but it will take a major overhaul among the lives of Homo Sapiens. 

• It means that as Homo Sapiens, we relinquish our false conception of proprietorship of the earth and its creatures back to God, by whatever name you choose to call that creative life Source and force.
• It means that as Homo Sapiens, we agree to turn away from the destructive brutalities of war and turn instead toward peace, acceptance, compassion and collaboration.
• It means we get rid of the industrialization of our food system and return to local, sustainable food systems that do not prioritize or include meats and flesh of our fellow creatures. 
• It means many livelihoods change form. 
• It means laws align with the affirmation of all life forms. 
• It means, above all, that we come to view life on this planet as one living organism of which Homo Sapiens are but a tiny part of a much larger whole comprised of many, many species...not the same, but equal....equal in terms of our right to and desire for life and freedom and peace, no matter what.

To say I cried a lot during the film is an understatement. I sobbed deeply at times, for the breaking of my heart at the brutality being witnessed, and knowing that it happens every single day across the globe on a mighty scale. I spent hours crying and meditating when I got home, saying Ho'Oponopono and doing recapitulation, feeling the pain and suffering Homo Sapiens inflict on our own species and on other species of this world seemingly without regard, as if we are separate from them, better than them. And that was the key to this film.

In realizing once and for all that there is no separation of life - that what one life suffers we all suffer - we find compassion, the kind of compassion it takes to make something different happen. 

• Only by choosing to see the brutal truth of what we have created in this world, are still creating, can we change it. The reasons we got here no longer matter; it is time for change. 
• Only by recognizing how we participate in the suffering as Homo Sapiens can we change it. 
• Only by acknowledging that everything here is sacred - animals, birds, people, plants, sea creatures - can we stop the brutality. 

What we do to ourselves and to other species is disturbing, traumatic... insane even. We shy away from responsibility for things we are not a direct part of and yet we do participate as members of the Human species, Homo Sapiens. In the film, they used the term Homo Spiritual to describe the next level of our evolution. This means we evolve past the point of believing in the (ego) illusion of separation. This means we evolve to view all life as sacred and equal. This means we evolve to coexist in balance, harmony, compassion, collaboration and egalitarianism. Homo Spiritual: humans who have evolved beyond the drives of their egos to a place of true Oneness where every living creature can thrive in life.

This is ours to rectify. This is ours to balance and harmonize because it is the species of Homo Sapiens that perpetuate it. Start now, today, somewhere, somehow, with one loving, compassionate choice. It is time. It will take every single one of us to change what we have created and continue to support, even if by choosing not to look too closely. No one is excluded from the brutality of this creation...no one...because we are this creation and this creation is us. 

Do not close your eyes or your heart any longer. It is time. Please. In the name of life...