10/10/12—Remembering Who You Are

Today's Draw: Father of Coins from the Margarete Petersen. Do you believe there is a part of you that is part of source? Is your humanness getting in the way of hearing, seeing and answering the call of your soul? How often do you find yourself forgetting who you are?

This week's posts are all about those times we feel like we're in a holding pattern...unsure of which way is forward or unable to move forward even if we know. 

Today's card is about building empires and legacies. But one of the things the Father of Coins learns along the way is that it's not just what you build, but how you build it. If the kingdom is built on ego and the need for external power, it's built on a shaky foundation. And it will fall. But if it's built from a place of oneness and connectedness, the whole of the kingdom is there to ensure it won't fall. 

Many of us are looking to build something new in our lives...or at the very least move on from something old. As we sit in our holding pattern waiting for inspiration or energy or SOMETHING to kick us in the arse, it might help to remember who we are. 

We are an essential part of something much greater. My buds Oprah and Iyanla were talking on TV the other day and Iyanla said she believes our souls are that part of God that comes down here to inhabit a human form and take on a human personality. That's not exactly what she said, but it's what I took from it because it's also what I believe. I just hadn't parsed it in those terms before. 

From time to time I talk about this amazing energy healing/visualization appointment I have every month. Anyway, one time I was there and looking for guidance and I visualized myself ascending into the puffy whiteness of what could be considered heaven and there were a bunch of angelic beings there. It seemed I was there for a "tune up" and they tuned me up by placing their hands on my head. And then they shoved me back "down" toward earth, kind of kicking me in the arse and saying "she's so funny. She's totally forgotten who she is." 

It makes me emotional just thinking about it now. Their attitude was like I was one of them—a divine being—and they were laughing because I had so completely bought into the delusion of being separate from Source. 

There is an enduring part of me and you and everyone else that is...whatever you want to call it...source—limitless, fearless, omnipotent, divine. And in being human we learn to limit ourselves. We learn to fear. We buy into our powerlessness. That is the power of the human ego...the power to drown out the voice of our divinity. 

So if you're afraid of moving into the unknown, remember who you are. If you're thinking of limiting your vision because what you REALLY want is too ambitious, remember who you are. And if you just don't feel like such-and-such is cut out for little old you, remember who you are. Any foundation build on fear, limitation and powerlessness isn't going to stand anyway. So, as long as we're just sitting here in a holding pattern, we may as well start entertaining solutions that our soul angels would look down on in pride. 

6/7/12—Leaving Bag End

Today's Draw: The Fool from the Hobbit Tarot. Are you ready for a sudden change? What is holding you back from creating something new in your life? And when you truly examine your answer to that, is it even a valid excuse?

Have you ever been suddenly struck with a motivation to change? One day you're your normal self and the next day you're headed in a direction that never really occurred to you before? I have. In one way or another I feel like I've done it many times. 

My most notable example is probably becoming a self-employed writer. I had always worked for others before. I had never really considered being a freelancer before. But within three weeks of having that thought for the first time, I was one. And that includes the research I put in and my two weeks notice. Once I had the actual thought, it was pretty much immediate that I knew I was going to do it. And it's not like that's a small change, either. I had nothing really to fall back on. It was succeed or die. But something in me knew I'd succeed.

Bilbo Baggins is in the same situation in the Hobbit. One day he's happy living in Bag End and the next he leaves on an adventure he could have never imagined the day before. It's not like he doesn't have his doubts. But he does it anyway. It's as if he can't NOT do it. Something within him tells him it's the right thing to do. And as his journey progresses, he finds that life was preparing him for this all along. 

Sometimes life hands us these sudden happenings. But it's important to note that we can make these sudden changes for ourselves. Life hands us that opportunity once a second for every minute of the day. 

We've talked a bit about manifestation this week and one of the keys to that is watching our thoughts and words. Everything from self berating words to negative thoughts can get in between us and the things we want. 

One of the neat tricks I've learned to combat that is from a spiritual teacher named Iyanla Van Sant. She suggests you get in the habit of merely injecting "until today" into your thoughts. So "I suck at math" becomes, "Until today, I sucked at math." And "I feel like nobody loves me" becomes "until today, I felt like nobody loved me."

Each "today"...each minute...each second...brings the possibility for sudden change that can make those statements true. In fact, many of these statements are usually feelings based on our baggage and have no real basis in fact. Maybe you don't suck at math, you just suck at Geometry. And the feeling of being unloved is just a feeling. Like we talked about a couple of days ago just changing your thoughts can change your life. And "until today" is one of the tools you now have in your arsenal. 

Another tool is examining your excuses for why you can't change. Are they really valid? A lawyer who wants to become a landscape architect may say "I can't do that because I have children to support and I won't earn as much." First, some landscape architects do earn as much. And second, what are you teaching your children by staying in a job that doesn't fulfill you for the sake money? You could probably stand to downsize your life anyway. And you can't convincingly tell your children to pursue their passions in life if you don't have the balls to do it yourself. There's always another side to the argument. So look for that other side and see how valid your excuses are in that different light.

Until today, Bilbo was an ordinary hobbit, comfortable in Bag End, doing and thinking the same things, day after day. He could never be a hero because he was a little bumbling and, besides, he was past his prime. Then his excuses fell away, he had a new thought and a side of him that had gone underutilized all his life came to the fore. And he became a hero. His world became bigger. And his life became bigger. 

It all started by having a different thought. Then it took a leap of faith. Then it took on a life of its own. 

That's how change happens. One of the gifts of life is that there are no wrong turns. Everything path leads to a lesson. And every moment contains the potential for a new thought that can change things again. In this way, we live in an endless stream of magic and creation. What will that inspire in you?