I frequently hear people say that the Goddess is returning, to which I respond, “Where do you think She’s been?” I understand the crisis of the soul that feels forsaken by Deity. The ego that needs to see Divinity as having abandoned all of creation to explain its misfortunes perplexes me. In fact, the need to say the Feminine Divine is returning to modern culture from long enigmatic hiatus only perpetuates blame and doesn’t take responsibility for needing to perceive Her as missing to start with.

Pandoran Tree of Souls

Why we need to interpret Deity by gender, or how much fertile soul growth is denied by ignoring neutrality aside, I should just be grateful that She’s getting play at all. The real issue isn’t that She left. We left Her, and in doing so created an imbalance via patriarchy that gifted us sexism, racism, materialism, and militarism–all of which in Martin Luther King’s words, until we remember to be person-oriented are “incapable of being conquered.” As an animist, I say, we can’t overcome them until we become Life-oriented–that is, until we see All Things as equal and connected, until we realize that we are All One. This is the message I take from James Cameron’s Avatar. The connection to All Things is always there. We can never leave it, we can only drop it from our awareness, and when we do, we devalue ourselves and All Things.

Yes, I’m late to the discussion on Avatar. Despite that, I read a lot on the film’s archetypal philosophies before I knew their context. On the surface, it was easy to see how widely its symbolism and cultural dynamics could be interpreted. I was as skeptical of gurus spouting wisdom on its sincere depiction of returning Goddess culture as I was of yet another “white man learns a few magickal truths from Ethnics, then uses his new power to save them from his culture,” story. About twenty minutes into the film I realized the inherent egotism in those surface judgements, then relaxed and enjoyed the film.

I relaxed when Jake thanked Neytiri for saving him from a pack of night predators, and she replied, “You don’t thank for this! This is sad. Very sad, only.” Instantly, I realized what the film was attempting to accomplish, and subsequently, what it was up against. At that moment a muted recognition settled over the theatre. The audience seemed at peace with the knowledge that the killing was a somber survivalistic necessity, but a dimness obscured that Neytiri’s anguish wasn’t from having to kill. It was from having to kill needlessly. Jake had no respect for the terrain or animals he invaded. Cultural egocentricity and defensiveness severed his connection to All Things. Had he honored Universal life force, he would have never violated the space of the forest; there would have been no killing. The resounding philosophy of connection and honor is the core of balanced Divine Polarity. That message of the human patriarchy invading the thriving Feminine ecostytem trumped every mundane criticism I’d read about the film–military vs savages, technology vs Nature, culture vs culture, patriarchy vs coexistence… The singular reason those other conflicts existed was because of the loss of divine connection.
If viewers see this film and come away with only allegories of returning goddesses and trite interracial conflicts, they are missing the higher message appealing to the subtler mind, which is that we can’t expect the support of Divinity when we don’t cultivate interconnection between ourselves and with the life force of Nature. No, the film isn’t emotionally gripping or highly intellectual. Neither is it preachy or understated. If it was any of those things, its story could not speak directly to the spirit so effectively.

I know why Goddess “went missing.” We didn’t ditch Her because we found a shinier, more flattering deity. We stripped Her from our consciousness because that way of honoring All That Is was under siege, systematically being whittled away until our spirits were defeated, separated. We abandoned Her in order to survive in a brutal climate riddled with fear and defensiveness. These projections of separation we have carried into our present. The differences of culture and tribe, of gender and alignment are part of formed reality. We have to face them. They can’t be evaded in our experience of Earth any more than they could on Pandora. Acknowledging a feminine aspect to Deity is frightening and threatening to many. If we can collectively imagine Woman empowered, there would be no need for any group to remain oppressed, because we would have to face that we are all inherently the same. There would be no more power struggle, no disconnect.

The collective need to experience Life without Her has coincided with the optimal time to remember that each of us is Divine, and in doing so, we are all All. In that single memory our future thrives. Honor Goddess. Until we do, we cannot truly bless Her God.

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Intentional Insights is a Q&A column inviting you to look inside yourself. If you have a question that you would like for me to address in my column regarding a brief Soul Reading or questions about spiritual healing and shamanism, please send them to me at Kelley at soulintentarts dot com, or contact me to schedule a full-length Soul Reading. Intentional Insights is a production of Soul Intent Arts, © 2010 All Rights Reserved.

Thanks for your note! You definitely live in a place that is etherically active, quite upbeat and healthy. The level of energy there feels like the positive end of a battery. That high level of vibration attracts lots of etheric visitors, but I would wager that most of them are fairly peaceful sorts, if not higher consciousnesses. When I feel the atmosphere of your house and weave through traces of visitors, these disturbances are not unquiet dead. You are being visited by a troubled projection of one of your family.

The phenomenon you describe has been traditionally referred to as poltergeist activity. A facet of poltergeist activity is a suffering spirit, or “noisy ghost” in the literal translation, becoming enlivened by an unconscious projection of a living person. This person feels powerless to effectively express needs or concerns, or someone who feels that expressed needs and concerns go unaddressed. It’s usually a child or young adult. Most people report poltergeist phenomena centering around a young girl moving into puberty. Occasionally this disturbance occurs with boys, but males typically have a clearer sense of power in the family, so there is no need to feel displaced or unacknowledged. Young girls, on the other hand, are beginning to see the wider dynamic of where the feminine fits into Life, not to mention are usually embarking on radical physiological changes. While females traditionally are more likely than males to speak their feelings, culturally, females at puberty realize that though they speak them, no one is really listening. A sense of futility develops as a troubled unconscious projection, through which the unexpressed emotions are vented. Where there is a troubled psyche is a prime highway for restless energies to venture in. The angst of youth is powerful, and when channeled through the unconscious mind of a troubled child, it’s fertile ground for errant energies to tag along and act out their own frustrations. The troubled unconsciousness is what gives these energies power to make chaos in your home. This fusion of frustrated young person with restless spirit is what we call poltergeist phenomena.

That said, my feeling is that your disturbances are being caused by your youngest daughter. Around the age of 9-10, we become aware of our spiritual will, and our parents can no longer shield us as effectively, or consciously affect our soul’s growth. Your youngest daughter is feeling the natural pull to “drive” her spiritual will, but her soul is saying that she doesn’t have the faculties to do so. For this reason she is acting out unconsciously. Volatile emotional traces of her are throughout your home. She isn’t harmful. Rather there is a feeling of panic, a desperate need to belong, and a specific need to feel protected. On the mundane level, she is beginning to see that she is not equipped to deal with the world outside your home, though her age and society are demanding that she do so.

What your daughter is dealing with internally is out of your hands. At an emotional level, a professional in behavioral modification (preferably one who understands spiritual emergency) can help your daughter give words to her feelings and learn to express them healthily. She brought long-festering discontentment into this life and it will not resolve quickly. This unhappiness has created limitations in her inherent ability to cope socially, and in her ability to be in command of her spiritual will. Energetically, her inner world is fairly dark, which is heavy and quite frightening for a child. If it seems like her joy is superficial, that’s because it truly is and she feels pressured to fake it. She doesn’t have the social skills that most children her age do, and she definitely doesn’t have the ability to cope with the errant energies that she’s picking up on. Chakra balancing would be helpful for her. Verging on puberty, if this mastery of spiritual will hasn’t occurred, hormonal changes will be mentally taxing for her, more so than is common, and will require medical intervention. Medicating her pain away isn’t an answer. In some cases medication can cease the soul work that is needed. Rather, work a combination of approaches to allow her process to unfold as gently as possible, and create internal balance, now. She is not mentally ill. She is experiencing a true spiritual emergency, in which her soul is demanding work that her cognitive ability can’t provide. This state isn’t going to be a way of life for her, but some facet of her spirit is crying out for better means of rooting into her form during this hormonal transition, so that her adulthood can be quieter and more focused. Quite simply, what unrest she brought into this life has exacerbated in her childhood, and can’t be carried into her adulthood. That is the reason her spirit is crying out for help now. She is asking for help in commanding her spiritual will.

The combination of potent ley lines, the visitors they attract, and three youth verging on teen years is going to keep your home energetically interesting for some time. In fact, the ley lines may be adding pressure to your daughter’s spiritual emergency. It is within your parameters as her parent to ask the higher beings on your land and her guides to ease off her rapid growth, thus, calm your home. Likewise, make use of that etheric portal you sit on and invite into your home some relief for you all. Be well!

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Intentional Insights is a Q&A column inviting you to look inside yourself. If you have a question that you would like for me to address in my column regarding a brief Soul Reading or questions about spiritual healing and shamanism, please send them to me at Kelley at soulintentarts dot com, or contact me to schedule a full-length Soul Reading. Intentional Insights is a production of Soul Intent Arts, © 2010 All Rights Reserved.

Thanks for your note, BFF. For my response to this inquiry, all personal information has been removed, and “Jane” is the missing woman. It’s very difficult to connect to the overall dynamic of how she went missing. As soon as I feel it, it’s as though I’m bounced away. Instantly, I feel a sense of self-culpability regarding her absence, but also regarding some state of her life well before she went missing. She’s making it clear that she doesn’t want me to see, which I respect. I can’t force anything. I would like to provide her loved one with info, if possible, however. Instead of trying to connect with her, I focus on the time and area in which she went missing. Instantly, I see the face of a dark man. When I try to read that further I get nothing, as if I hadn’t really seen it. I focus on her earthly consciousness, and feel that it is no longer in her body. When I focus on how it left her body, I find myself looking up through icy cold water into woods, where people rarely are. Attempting to read that experience further, the image of a head with a plastic bag over it is forced into my field. At this point I am perfectly clear that Jane doesn’t want me to know what happened to her. As I get a feel on something, she interferes and I lose bearings on the dynamic. A final attempt to connect with an aspect of her that is able to communicate with me renders a sobbing Jane. When I ask her if she is OK, she tells me that she’s fine. She doesn’t feel or present herself as fine at all, yet she insists. When I ask her why she is upset, she says, “I can’t breathe.”

I take Jane up for healing, and after, we sit on a rock in Spirit space. I ask her how she feels now, and she tells me, “Embarrassed.” Repeatedly she says this, but when I ask her to help me understand how to soothe her, she only attempts to redirect me again. I ask her to tell me about the embarrassment, and she goes silent. At this point along a deathwalk, it is unusual for a newly released soul still to be emotionally involved with the affairs of the living, not to want to facilitate balance. I tell her that I realize I’m being very intrusive at a sensitive time, but to show some compassion for those who are worried about her and give me something to report to them. Jane then tells me that she was involved with a married man, who when she said she was tired of hiding, became violent. She even gives me a name; however, when I hold the energy of what she is saying, I feel nothing. Perfectly flat. Understand that I am not a crime solver. I am not a details collector. I am a deathwalker. My job is to facilitate the released consciousness to the point that it can peacefully re-enter Source and move on to its destiny. It’s also my job to make sure there are no discordant connections left by the earthly consciousness, and Jane is intentionally impeding this healing. Anything that comes up along that process is incidental. That said, I don’t feel that Jane is telling me the truth. I feel without question that she is deeply ashamed about her death and having caused it, as well as the circumstances of some hidden aspect of her life leading up to it. My sense is that Jane was mentally ill and the people around her did not realize just how difficult it was for her to manage. That she may have intentionally created her own death would not sit well with them, and in Jane’s mind, that she led such a deeply troubled existence embarrasses her. She holds strong stigma around her mental struggles. I can’t force someone to tell the truth. All I can do is register if the vibration of what the being communicates matches its life force. Jane’s doesn’t. Despite that the details of her account don’t match up etherically, she’s been through a trauma and is expressing that she’s not ready to let go of it. Jane sits in a wonderfully peaceful space, so that when she is ready, she has the angelic support to move on well.

As I leave her, something odd happens. From a remote view, I see myself walking away from Jane, who is still seated on the rocks with the angelic beings. Jane turns into a large, bright green reptile and explodes, projecting herself toward me. The beings intervene and keep her from reaching me. Not common, though not unheard of, altercations with the disembodied occur. My sense of Jane’s aggression toward me is that she is deeply ashamed and doesn’t want anyone to know how her hidden life contributed to her death. For me that last act seals that Jane is mentally imbalanced, and was so at her death.

I don’t feel that anyone else was directly involved in Jane’s death. I do think that there could be a clandestine relationship on the periphery, though it was with a woman, not a man. I don’t feel that this woman was aware of Jane’s mental condition. I also feel that Jane is keeping her body from being found, and that’s why she’s not moving on. In her consciousness, which is not balanced, she equates being found with secrets revealed. I don’t feel that her body would reveal any foul play or evidence of an untoward lifestyle. Still, her shame over her death is deep. I feel that she is safely contained, though her earthly conscious is still very much engaged. I expect that she will move on when she feels safe to do so.

BFF, I’m sorry for your loss, and I hope that you find the mundane answers that you need to find your balance.

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Intentional Insights is a Q&A column inviting you to look inside yourself. If you have a question that you would like for me to address in my column regarding a brief Soul Reading or questions about spiritual healing and shamanism, please send them to me at Kelley at soulintentarts dot com, or contact me to schedule a full-length Soul Reading. Intentional Insights is a production of Soul Intent Arts, © 2010 All Rights Reserved.

Join me for Honoring Nature Spirits, Beltane 2010 at Pullen Park in Raleigh, NC.

Thanks for your note, Elizabeth. I see a general fogginess around your lower middle that feels quite rigid. It’s about six inches to a foot out from your form, which tells me two things: one, that your chakra system is functioning well, overall (were it not, the fog would be in your form rather than a bit out from it), and two, this fog is connected to the second chakra. The second chakra is, generally speaking, the point that we manifest our desires. When we don’t, the result is defensiveness, resentment, anger, bitterness. When I ask to see the source of this fog, I see you in your mother’s womb.

The Etheric Field

This fog has served you well in many cases, energetically thwarting unwanted relationships, advances, situations, almost without effort. It has enabled you to draw boundaries and know you would be protected. The thing is, this fog has been deflecting wanted interactions and situations, as well. Instead of culling through boundaries and what is wanted with your higher awareness, it has been done reflexively through this sacral shield. In the course of interacting with your High Self and guides in this journey, the fog was released; however, I feel that because so many of your decisions have redirected through it, learning to pass that process up to your higher awareness will be what releases it permanently.

Your energetic insight into yourself is keen enough to feel when this fog is in place, thus to know when you are not approaching a boundary or choice from higher insight. I think you could still do some visualization of allowing earth energy to flow up the chakra system and out the crown, drawing higher energy into the crown and down the chakras, through your soles. My sense, though, is that the energy work aspect of this is very clear and easy to manage. The challenge will be instilling that habit to appeal to higher counsel, instead of reacting instinctively and letting that shield push things away. However you appeal to your spirit guides, ask them to raise your awareness, so that you react from your soul’s wisdom. When you find that process more natural, even automatic, you won’t carry any murky energy about your middle, and you won’t gather unwanted physical shielding there, either. With a healthy flow of energy through your chakra system, the balance of your skills and health are restored. Be well, Elizabeth.

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Intentional Insights is a Q&A column inviting you to look inside yourself. If you have a question that you would like for me to address in my column regarding a brief Soul Reading or questions about spiritual healing and shamanism, please send them to me at Kelley at soulintentarts dot com, or contact me to schedule a full-length Soul Reading. Intentional Insights is a production of Soul Intent Arts, © 2010 All Rights Reserved.

Thank you for your note, Nina. As you indicated, I do find your sister-in-law very difficult to connect with, etherically. Upon gathering a circle of allies to support her, I am led to a tree in a frozen, far north land, some centuries ago. Instantly my focus is on a young man who hangs from the tree. He is Slavic, light-skinned with dark eyes, and wears farmer’s clothes. His feet and hands are missing, and he bleeds from his mouth. I am struck that this frigid scene is just outside of a fairly large village, and that this tree is frequently used for such hangings as a message of clear punishment to those who might create problems in the village. My feeling is that he stole something out of dire need, with torture and hanging his consequence. It is only after I cut him down, release his spirit, bury him, cleanse the area energetically, and the Nature spirits converge that I realize he is not your sister-in-law. She is the tree.

Feeling a strong connection to trees in my spiritual work, my sadness is immense. The tree spirit felt quite invisible in light of being used repeatedly as a weapon without consent. Often when the same traumas are inflicted repeatedly, patterns that were once external become internalized unconsciously. That is what I am seeing, in threads of your sister-in-laws’ erratic life force and that of this tree. Despite its own victimization, the tree communicated deep guilt around being used for harm, though as Nature spirits often do, she released her anxiety and was well healed by your sister-in-law’s High Self. The entire area around the tree became enlivened and warmer, considering it was the middle of winter in a continuously cold climate. I saw the tree’s life force move well above it into Source, and recommit to rooting itself deep into Earth’s energy. I feel this reconnection with Universal life force will be reflected somewhat in your sister-in-law’s life force.

I generally do not look at other manifestations of self as “past” or “future” life. I find that linear expression of time and soul too limiting for how infinite All Things truly are. I must say, the connection I made with this tree imparted a feeling of this tree spirit originating in this plane long ago, and that spirit is still holding space here, somewhere. It still goes on, holding a beautiful, angelic space here. Depending on how your sister-in-law feels, she may find karmic release upon learning the symbols of this story, or she may feel led to do some work with that tree consciousness. I feel that if she did such work, would be very spiritually empowering, and it may even be a totem for her. I definitely felt that a legacy of invisibility and unnamed sadness were released in this spirit travel. I hope your sister-in-law can experience her power more deeply rooted in herself, which will reflect through how her surroundings see her. Be well, Nina.

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Intentional Insights is a Q&A column inviting you to look inside yourself. If you have a question that you would like for me to address in my column regarding a brief Soul Reading or questions about spiritual healing and shamanism, please send them to me at Kelley at soulintentarts dot com, or contact me to schedule a full-length Soul Reading. Intentional Insights is a production of Soul Intent Arts, © 2010 All Rights Reserved. Follow me on Facebook and Twitter!

In the year and a half that I’ve been on Facebook, several people have remarked that the utility unexpectedly reopened old wounds, and in some cases, caused new ones. Presented as a simple Internet networking tool that does all the work for you, Facebook is and has been the hottest social media networking strategy to date. The Internet, in and of itself, has done an amazing job creating of the world a neighborhood pub, uniting old friends, passionate crocheters, Dolphins fans, and sellers with bidders. Some modern sages argue that the Internet is a digital manifestation of the collective conscious, a vessel we all contribute to, a result of our cultural foci and intellectual and spiritual development. As on no other networking site, users swarm to friend each other through Facebook, due to its suggestive relational viral connectivity via alma maters, places of employment, geographies, cousins. Unsuspecting users enter personal landmarks and interests, frequently not realizing that unless secure privacy is enabled, that information is used to match them with every other compatible user and to suggest them as possible friends. Adding one person you knew when is a singular connection spiraling out, not just to every person you know, but to every person that person knows, and so on. It is possible to be deluged with friend requests in mere hours, even with partial security enabled. The volume of the past surging into the present overwhelms those who aren’t ready, and it would seem, a lot of users aren’t.

Certainly I’ve known many people who reconnected fabulously with old friends. I count myself fortunate to have found people on Facebook that years of Internet searching didn’t deliver. However, for many, the wonder years aspect of Facebook is a reminder of a horrible time. The sticking point doesn’t seem to be that it merely reopens old wounds or brings up painful memories. Slogging through old hurts is one thing, but Facebook elicits a communal shadow reaction that many don’t foresee. A hyper-distilled family reunion, digital social display leaves many users feeling forced to confront old demons, not just face the demon, but do so with the demon’s posse looking on. Also, where many have enjoyed the anonymity of a raucous Internet social life, for Facebook to work as intended, you have to be honest in the personal data you feed it. To that end, some have pioneered into lifestyles and experiences that are upsetting to those still at the old stomping grounds, or to employers or potential clients. And then there’s the base embarrassment in friending Aunt Bee, who’s scanned your adorable fifth grade yearbook picture for the world to see…

Who sees what of you is one thing. What you see of others is another. The foremost insight Facebook gives into others is through status updates. Some use this blurb as an opportunity to keep others abreast of their morning coffee selection, what film they saw, or how they feel about sitting on the front porch. Some users are decidedly candid, sharing intensely personal insights. All of these are perfectly fine, though I often wonder if people considered that every status update they enter alters the collective consciousness of the planet, if they would say something more authentic? Because it does. If more people observed such, perhaps their updates would more their soul’s words rather than their ego’s. No contention, mind you. I like to know if my savvy friends think a film sucks, or they posted some gem about our healthcare system. But if the Internet is a manifestation of the collective conscious, and Facebook is its most prolific platform, could we improve how we thrive here if we chose to make social networking a more spiritual experience?

The thing about Facebook is that for it to be a social networking success, it demands radical honesty, as does spiritual growth. Indeed, that honesty can be selectively doled, based on privacy settings, interests entered, and the choice not to friend. Even in that closed scenario, I’ve known people whose pasts were still skillfully unearthed from the bowels of Facebook by some haunt, throwing them into a moment of panic. I think it is in that moment that the real life of Facebook thrives, not in the choice to friend or ignore, the celebrity who friends you, or the smackdown you give your old boyfriend. Certainly those things can be empowering and bring closure to karmic patterns. I think the real power of Facebook is that it’s a cutting edge, worldwide awareness, within which the Universe holds up a mirror, as we all know it does from time to time, making sure we really do know where we stand on the trials, paths, and joys of our lives. We can look into the bytes of our past and make an empowered choice based on the free will of our soulful present.

[1] Facebook Is Increasingly Cited in Divorce Cases

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Intentional Insights is a Q&A column inviting you to look inside yourself. If you have a question that you would like for me to address in my column regarding a brief Soul Reading or questions about spiritual healing and shamanism, please send them to me at Kelley at soulintentarts dot com, or contact me to schedule a full-length Soul Reading. Intentional Insights is a production of Soul Intent Arts, © 2010 All Rights Reserved. Follow me on Facebook and Twitter!

Thanks for your note, Sara. The story I am shown is in your chakras. Your root chakra, which is the first of the primary chakras along the spine and is situated at the perineum, is very overactive. The root chakra does what it sounds like–it roots you as a spiritual being into the form of this world. Mastery of this chakra involves gaining the basic survival skills to stay alive as a formed being, and psychologically it entails that you become aware that you are part of a tribe, in preparation for the mastery of the second chakra, which is all about how one relates (or doesn’t) to the tribe, itself. An overactive root chakra can indeed give the effect of being locked in fight-or-flee instinct, the perpetual feeling that you are being pursued even when there is no threat. The other major point about the root chakra that is vivid for you relates back to the tribe–your family unit. You have a birth family unit, the one you learned to survive in and prepared you for surviving in the world, and you also have created a family unit, your son, whom will be leaving the tribe soon. In your time of peril you have returned to your original tribe, and in doing so have brought your created tribe with you. It’s good to have a support system, but in this case, sharing living space with your birth tribe is only creating more inner conflict for you. Another facet of this overactive root is OCD–Obsessive Compulsive Disorder behaviour. Virgos are given to wanting order and turning themselves inside out to preserve it. I feel like this is something you generally have good habits on, but the constant trigger to preserve survival has created self-harming habits, mostly at a mental level–spinning scenarios in your head until panic ensues, allowing irrational thoughts to trump approaches you know are more healthy. Sometimes we best manage by stepping back. We think that disengaging and being present is a passive act, when in reality it is the most challenging active pursuit. This is your greatest challenge right now, and as you master it, so shall your son.

Because connections of tribe are so interwoven with the way Saturn is affecting you, I do feel that this experience is karmic. Distress with your birth family is being unconsciously acted out by your son. He is expressing your repressed stress, which is a long-standing pattern between you that has only increased with Saturn’s focus. He is not consciously aware that he is playing out this dynamic. I have a sense of spinning wheels. He is at the threshold of stepping out into the world as an individual, and he feels that he should be able to help you more with the household. His own stress cripples him. This ‘inability to provide’ is creating a block for him. He is mature enough to feel the pinch and longing to help, but he doesn’t have the experience or emotional grounding to effectively help. Few his age do. Teens deal with ’spinning’ by acting out. Rebellion feels productive, despite that it only divides and conquers. Crazy as he may be driving you, disciplining his behaviour won’t improve circumstances. His underlying stress has to be soothed, and the best way to do that is by example. Strategically placed, “My emotions are my own to process,” in talks with him can unconsciously help him let go of responsibilities that are yours alone to manage. It will also send him the signal to let you be the parent. Conversely, it will send the signal to him to be the child, ie, to listen and observe.

Your guides are only showing me how this karmic stress is affecting your chakra system. Because everything in our etheric form is connected, so, too, is the internal and external. It’s a matter of time before it affects other aspects of your wellbeing, your health in particular. Regardless of what is going on in your external right now, it is imperative that you address the internal. When I observe the rest of your chakra system, I can just make it out for the overwhelming size and brightness of your root chakra. The lower chakras pertain to our earthly growth and maturity, while the upper chakras relate our spiritual growth and maturity. Etherically speaking, what needs to happen is the root chakra energy needs to be moved up the spine, balanced throughout, as it were, and the life force that comes in through the crown–the topmost primary chakra in the form, needs to be drawn down. Whatever meditative technique appeals to you, bringing your awareness to this process will be helpful. Visualize doing it, feel it moving, imagine that primal balance taking place. If you can go to an energy worker to do this work for you, or if you’re comfortable with doing it at a distance I can do such work. Either way, some self-maintenance is required. I do not get information on job or new residence, because giving attention to your life force is imperative. My sense is that in giving yourself some solitude and care, you will have better perspective and opportunity will arise from that.

It’s been a long haul with Saturn. I completely empathize with you, Sara. You have come through it, and through the aftershock you are regaining your power. Be open to the wisdom Saturn leaves you, and some sweetness will prevail.

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Intentional Insights is a Q&A column inviting you to look inside yourself. If you have a question that you would like for me to address in my column regarding a brief Soul Reading or questions about spiritual healing and shamanism, please send them to me at Kelley at soulintentarts dot com, or contact me to schedule a full-length Soul Reading. Intentional Insights is a production of Soul Intent Arts, © 2010 All Rights Reserved. Follow me on Facebook and Twitter!

Hi Kelley, I am a middle aged woman who has experienced many changes this decade. Unfortunately, things seem to get worse–job, financial problems, relationships… I feel myself isolating and trust is becoming an issue. I truly don’t know how long I can hang on at my job, and there are few new jobs out there. Finances are difficult. Not sleeping is a problem. I feel blind and blocked. No matter what I do to free myself, things get worse. Thanks… Leea

Thank you for your note, Leea. What I am shown is that you have played by the rules of patriarchy to the point of mastery, and it’s time to invite in and express the feminine way. The underlying feeling of always adapting, never setting the pace, going with the crowd despite the fact that it doesn’t feel natural… These states are all indications that you have well-learned how to function in a linear world with set rules. They are also signs of the feminine giving up power to the masculine, which creates disharmony for both. On a personal level this dynamic creates a space in your daily life, in which you feel that if you could just play the game better, if you could just get that one break, if you could just meet the right person… While predictable and safe, this routine doesn’t serve your deeper needs. It is, in fact, giving away your power.

Feminine Divine, artist unknown

Now on the planet is a sense of the Divine Feminine reawakening. Where has she been? Right here, actually. But the way we live doesn’t acknowledge her, which means that we don’t honor our natural rhythms. We all know about the millennia of control of men over women, patriarchy, excision of the feminine to yield masculine monotheism. What we seem to be realizing with this re-awareness of the Divine Feminine is the toll the lack of energetic balance has taken on how we live. In Her lack, our existing Masculine is wounded. None of the established systems work anymore–organized religion, healthcare, government, social benefit. On a personal level, the systems that don’t work are the daily grind, running a household, biological and energetic political/sexual dynamics… Does this mean we can’t have these things? Not necessarily. It means we have to find new ways of implementing and sustaining them, so that instead of meeting only our dire needs, they meet all of our needs.

The place to begin this transformation is to assess what your real needs are. Yes, we all have to earn a living. We all have to eat and pay bills. To have the energy to do those things means we must be fed on deeper levels, and that is where I see you needing to provide yourself support. Giving yourself the nurture and care that you need will reconnect your inner feminine and masculine, and it will allow you to reshape your perspective on the systems in your life. If you feel supported and trusted inside, your outside will conform to those feelings. It will mirror that support and give back to you. You have worked yourself spare trying to create that support externally, and only come up tired and feeling a lack. Consider the things that nourish you spiritually: a regular massage? a weekend retreat? an evening watching the stars? an artistic pursuit? a class you’ve wanted to take? I suspect it is some collection of different treats done at a set interval. These are not empty acts of girlie indulgence. They are cogent approaches to solidify trust in yourself and expressing your untapped voice. This will be a leap of faith for you, as there is an element of needing to trust your ability to determine what is right for yourself, and gaining the courage to manifest it. Yet reading these words stirs some wild woman within who needs expression. Allay your fears of her. She is the voice of the Divine in you. She is the key to feeling whole and creating the movement and language that is right for you.

That said, I do see a better job opportunity for you in the next 6-9 months. The thing is, without a calm, confident core, you won’t recognize it. Start creating that nest for yourself now, and not only will the opportunities you need meet you, you will see them coming. With these new opportunities meeting your needs, you are quite likely to create your own new system.

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Intentional Insights is a Q&A column inviting you to look inside yourself. If you have a question that you would like for me to address in my column regarding a brief Soul Reading or questions about spiritual healing and shamanism, please send them to me at Kelley at soulintentarts dot com, or contact me to schedule a full-length Soul Reading. Intentional Insights is a production of Soul Intent Arts. Follow me on Facebook and Twitter!

Bless your heart. It’s a Southern staple, old and rife with colorful implications. Although commonly heard, it’s an expression that I never found authenticity in; thus, I forewent using. Last year I had an experience that solidified my thoughts of it, and of the necessity of differentiating between judging people and their behaviour, and honoring shadow truth. With thoughts of word choice and how we use them at the fore, this feature isn’t intended for young readers.

I never liked the expression. It was too Southern, too religious, too… pitifully cloying, disempowering. In reality, I’ve rarely heard it used with sincerity. Most often it’s insinuated into an off-color remark, such as, “She shouldn’t be wearing those pants, bless her heart,” or “Bless his heart, I can’t believe he spent money on that.” An expression of righteous indignation, the judgemental piety somehow transmutes the fact that its heart is an insult. Ever the wordsmith, that twisted intent never set well with me.

As I began my own lessons in speaking and discerning truth, and learning not to judge, I re-examined the phrase. While not necessarily religious, it should be uplifting. It should be kind and inspiring. It should be a reminder that ‘they’ are no different from ‘us,’ such that the speaker and recipient walk away from the exchange better than they entered. As it stood, the expression was a dead metaphor; no one seemed to remember its original reverence.

My cause to avenge clearly laid out, I began voicing the affirmation. I specifically used it in situations that challenged my truth, such that I genuinely intended a wish of Universal improvement to the situation, the person, the ailment. Then I made a disturbing observation. Whenever I said, “Bless his heart,” the response of those around me was to snipe about the person/situation, or to chastise me for speaking ill. I discovered that the phrase was so badly misused and misunderstood, that even when used with high intent it was poorly perceived. Because the words had long been so carelessly bandied about, no one recognized my heart-centered use. It was perceived as just more glib gab. The reaction of my “community” left me wondering if I perhaps I didn’t understand that the phrase was meant to be double entendre, and that any commentary on ill-behaviour or situation is judgemental regardless of honorable intent. I thought my cause was lost.

A year ago I was working with a longterm client, a gifted Reiki Master who has observably immense compassion. We were engaged in a fairly deep conversation on his experience of recently being hurt by someone. His perspective toward the offending person was intensely stirring and radically calm, which is in keeping with his overall passionate but gentle disposition. In his closing assessment of the altercation, he held up his hand in the Reiki beaming position and said, “I just said, ‘Love and light, motherfucker. Love and Light.’”

My initial reaction was muted laughter. After working together for years, we’d spoken candidly, comfortably. Despite that, his northern need to romanticize my southern gentility most often pre-empted colorful interaction; read, he was more self-conscious than I was. Yet, when he said those words, I understood that was his “bless his heart.” My quest on speaking with intent clarified.

I realized that there is implied assessment in honoring someone after reproach, not for no reason. We must be able to distinguish behaviours that support our truth and those that do not. That distinction can be made without judgement. There is a huge difference between saying, “You hurt me and that was unacceptable,” and saying, “You hurt me and you’re a bad person.” Likewise, we must be able to express anger when our truth is not honored. For most of us that expression comes in the form of potent speech. However expression is manifest, remember that it’s needed. What is stuck creates imbalance inside and outside. Recall as well, that once voiced, words can’t be taken back. Speak truth.

We must be able to bless, without damning, what we don’t like. On some level we are all acting in our best capacity. That recognition doesn’t mean have no boundaries. It doesn’t mean be a doormat, and does not offer license to be mean to someone who has offended. It means cultivate the ability to send love and light to what angers or hurts us most. Don’t overlook its true nature, which may have no one’s best interest in mind at all. Be aware of it, step away from it, bless it, and don’t become it. The challenge is to find the means of interacting with shadow dynamics without falling prey to our own. This isn’t news. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” “An it harm none, do what ye will.”

In the end it isn’t about judging the behaviour of others, but what we can honor within our own actions when we’ve been offended. It’s about our intentions, regardless of the words coming out of our mouths. I use the phrase copiously now, as a self-check when I’m really annoyed about something, with the hope that my intentions for “blessing” someone might help them in some way, and with the hope that I may be a trendsetter, yet.

Indeed, love and light. Bless your heart.

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Intentional Insights is a Q&A column inviting you to look inside yourself. If you have a question that you would like for me to address in my column regarding a brief Soul Reading or questions about spiritual healing and shamanism, please send them to me at Kelley at soulintentarts dot com, or contact me to schedule a full-length Soul Reading. Intentional Insights is a production of Soul Intent Arts. Follow me on Facebook and Twitter!

Thanks for writing, Linda. Your concern is duly noted. I have a Libra moon, which is curiously productive and stabilizing, and is now insisting that I value and be authentic in relationships. I never thought I’d turn to the Sun for shade. Along that line, in Libra, Saturn’s focus is relationships and how they are an extension of ourselves. The usual indecisiveness attributed to Libras is more balanced and manageable. In Libra, what weights the other end of the scale is our ’shadow’ self, our Other we rarely if ever talk about. It is this facet of self that has the most emphasis for you during this Saturn-Libra dance.

To do this reading I call in your guides, who show me a triangulated dynamic that is the focus of the next three years. What I see is your earthly consciousness, another woman, and a man. The other woman in the dynamic is furious at the man, who doesn’t feel like he is completely in the formed world. If he isn’t, he is an attachment dominating your energy and you should seek depossession help. If he is in the formed world, he is not physically present or active in your life, as his essence is barely rooted here. He feels to be a man who hurt you badly, if not one that has already died. At any rate, this other woman is your shadow.

To get specific insight into this dynamic, I call in the big gun, himself, the spirit of Saturn. His presence is leaden, but not in a heavy, cumbersome way. Rather, he is solid, reliable, dependable. I ask him what the primary focus is for you during this time, and he emphasizes shadow work. I ask him how shadow is represented in this triad. He says, “The shadow is light.” Lovely metaphor, but he literally means that in this era of Saturn, it is appropriate for your more controlled, subdued conscious approach to life to take a backseat to your real, primal truth, which is screaming, “Run for the hills!” where the connection with this man is concerned. This man feels like a slow bleed, perhaps so slowly that you’re not aware just how toxic his energy is in your life. On a conscious level you have tolerated his mild annoyance, maybe even enabled him to some degree. What I see is that on a conscious level, you have achieved intellectual peace with his misdeeds, but at an unconscious level visceral parts of yourself are still hurting, raw, and very angry. That kind of split is common in wound dynamics. We do what we have to do to find peace day-to-day. Saturn is holding your hand in an effort to help you find a deeper peace, for all time. Shedding this relationship is the primary focus of the next few years. I feel that the real challenge for you isn’t in letting the man go, but in healing the parts of you he’s affected, and letting go of habits, crutches you’ve created to sustain living with the energy drain that he has been.

You are up to the task. In doing this reading I drew a card from The Wise Woman’s Tarot. The card is the Seven of Wands, represented in this mythos by the female warrior Scathach, the Scottish “Shadowy One.” Her message is that yes, you are under attack, and you are up to the task of victory.

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Intentional Insights is a Q&A column inviting you to look inside yourself. If you have a question that you would like for me to address in my column regarding a brief Soul Reading or questions about spiritual healing and shamanism, please send them to me at Kelley at soulintentarts dot com, or contact me to schedule a full-length Soul Reading. Intentional Insights is a production of Soul Intent Arts. Follow me on Facebook and Twitter!