Today is Wednesday January 14, 2009
Celtic Tree Month of Birch (Dec 24- Jan 20 )
Upcoming Sabbat~ Imbolc February 2
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Todays Colors
White, Topaz, Yellow, Brown
Todays Trees
Rowan & Hazel
Todays Sacred Stones
Moss Agate, Aventurine, Hematite, Sodalite, Bloodstone
Todays Herbs
Sweet Pea, Lavender, Cherry, Jasmine, Fern
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The Moon is in the 3rd Qtr.
The Lady Resides in Virgo
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Today's Food for Thought..
The supreme act of forgiveness is when you can forgive yourself for all the wounds you've created in your own life. Forgiveness is an act of self-love. When you forgive yourself, self-acceptance begins and self-love grows.
-Don Miguel Ruiz
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Listening to Spirit
B Y A T H E N E R A E F I E L
I CANNOT TELL YOU HOW MANY TIMES people will say to me that they want to hear what spirit is saying and cannot. Hearing spirit is an interesting development that begins with our listening skills. I have discovered that most people cannot even truly enjoy listening to themselves or others around them in life. Most people want to talk and be heard but do not give much credence to listening.
Learning to listen is an art that can be developed over time. First one must learn to sit in the quiet and remove all excess background noise. The sounds we usually hear in the silence are the sounds of our own mind thinking. If our mind is thinking too loud for us then we need to turn the volume down so we can hear whatever other sounds can be found in the quiet.
When we understand that our thinking self and listening self are not the same, we can begin to explore the different levels and dimensions of sound that we hear. Once we realize that we not only listen with our ears but also with our feelings we begin to explore how we actually feel about the quiet or the sounds within it. While exploring the silence we often become uncomfortable and bored. We have a need and expectation for there to always be activity happening and we do not know how to relax and enjoy the moment without it. Relaxation is an art that must be found before it can be developed. Doing nothing is not the same as relaxing. One can be very active and relaxed all at once but one cannot be relaxed simply by doing nothing.
All time serves us in some way and time genuinely spent in silence and relaxation rejuvenates us as well as balances our emotions. This is often referred to in Metaphysics as being in the moment. Learning to relax is no easy feat in a world where we were taught to stress and worry and to manage every waking moment of life. An individual may think about wanting to relax only to discover that they feel guilty for even thinking about it. We were programmed to believe that relaxation is wasting time. And we all know that time and money are the elements by which we have learned to run our lives.
If we wish to hear spirit speaking to us, if we wish to have their counsel and guidance in life, then we must go to the places within ourselves where they can be heard. This space is silence and relaxation.
For spirit there is no time, no chaos, no money; for spirit all is created and happening in the now, the moment. They do not wear watches nor do they sleep. They do not need food or shelter in the physical way that we do, and their communication with one another is often simply telepathic.
Each of us has our own spirit and it can be accessed only through soul awareness. Soul awareness can only be accessed through silence and contemplation, often referred to as prayer or meditation. This is actually a process of moving beyond the mental mind of daily life and into the void or nothingness of the soul and its matrix.
We cannot hear spirit as a result of our fear, but we can hear and understand spirit by allowing the unknown to manifest. If, and when, we discover that all life is energy as are we, we can then associate with our own energy as well as that of all other life, including spirit. This can sometimes be a very frightening experiment for most human beings because they are moving into unknown territory. They will probably have to give up whatever belief in control they have had of what the exploration of the mind, body and soul are about.
When we reach into unknown dimensions of self we will probably be forced to face our own inner demons. This is not something that someone else forces us to do but we have created these ugly thought-forms of what reality and truth are and they will now probably impede us unless we confront and dismiss them as illusion. As we learn to spend more time in the multifaceted and inner dimensional worlds of self we discover that we are a walking encyclopedia of information we hadn't uncovered about ourselves in a very long period of time. Suddenly we realize that there is a whole lot more to life and us that we ever even imagined.
The discovery of the inner life is a journey we call the path. Walking the path is to work on the elements of self-discovery that can only be known by exploring and learning through our energy self. We actually have many energetic bodies in our forcefield, our Aura, that we have yet to explore, learn from and understand. Studying and developing these energetic bodies as well as healing and integrating them, leads us to what I call The Divine Flow. All this accomplished through listening and trusting that what you don't hear is just as valuable as what you do.
We are a mighty vessel just waiting to be filled with the light and remembrance of how we too are spirit. Once we connect with this memory we discover that we are always communicating with spirit and spirit with us. It is not that it is not going on everyday, it is just that you were not aware of the process because you expected it to be a physical experience.
Spirit is not physical; spirit is energy. If I want to communicate with someone who only speaks another language, I must learn the language. Spirit's language is energy because spirit is energy. When we learn to hear what the energy within sounds like and feels like then we will be able to hear spirit. We will then be able to identify and re-learn a language we knew long ago.
Connecting with our own spirit self and spirit nature is a journey unto itself. It is unending, ever expanding, ever developing and ever awesome. There is never boredom in the experiences and energetic changes that are continually helping to bring about the transformational changes life brings us.
It is only hard to hear what spirit is saying because we do have the proper tools or training to do so. We must put the tools into play and make them a regular part of our daily structure. The tools are basic yet extensive.
We must make the time to learn how to:
Relax
Be in Silence
Contemplate
Concentrate
Quiet our loud thinking
Overcome our Fears
Meditate
Trust in our Divine Light and Energy
Learning and listening are part of the same experience. Moving beyond the outside noise into the inner sanctuary of silence is an art that many more need to develop to hear spirit. Spirit is the essence and energy of unconditional love and acceptance. Our unconditional love and acceptance resides within the spirit essence that we are.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Athene Raefiel is a teacher of Mysticism and Enlightenment. She has been helping people find direction on their spiritual path since 1985. She is the Author of a book called, Getting to the Heart, A Journey of Soul Transformation and Spiritual Enlightenment. She is a channel for the Hierarchy of Light and is attended by Archangels Raphael, Michael, Gabriel and Uriel, and has taught many people to connect and work with their Spirit Guides and Angels. She also does one-on-one spiritual readings and channelings. Visit her web site athttp://www.AtheneRaefiel.com.
Article Courtesy of:
(C) groups.yahoo.com/group/Spiritually_Speaking : )
Permission to share freely as long as footer is included.
May there be sunshine on your head and the wind at your back!
Brightest Blessings
Cat
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