Reverser of Destiny

So they say judgement day is near. The rapture approaches. We've known many apocalyptic prophecies, some Christian based, some Mayan; they come from many cultures. Only time will reveal what is in store for us, but one thing is clear - it's a tumultuous time here on Earth. Scores of social problems from homelessness, mental dis-ease, unemployment, obesity, etc etc combined with a planet in revolt, hurricanes and tornados where there never were before and floods covering our cities while people simultaneously die of thirst for lack of access to clean drinking water.... yes, these are turbulent times. Many of us cry out for help. We pray for the answers, for solutions.

Solutions are all around us. As permaculture principles point out, the only limit to the number of solutions is our imagination. We are not lacking solutions, what we lack is the willpower to carry them out. You call out for peace, say you want harmony on Earth, but are you ready to embrace those ideals, to become them? Are you ready to accept all the terrifying beauty and ugliness of humanity into your heart? To love your enemies? To love fearlessly? Are you able to acknowledge and accept that your worldview is not TRUTH?

You fall into despair because all around you, you see the destruction of our world but are you ready to trade your car in for a bicycle? Are you ready to give up your cell phone in order to save the bees? Can you honor a promise not to purchase any virgin plastic? The questions go on...

I ask these questions of you not because I have the answers but because they are questions that I ask myself everyday. Am I ready to become this new vision I claim to believe in? Can I embody my own values? My passion and vision is a great start but it takes work to change the world.

In a tarot reading this morning I pulled the "Reversal" card, in other decks known as the Hanged Man.

"Reversal is a voluntary surrender or letting go of ways of being that are no longer useful... Negative thoughts and previous patterns are dissolving in the waters of consciousness to make way for positive affirmations of life. This card indicates a willingness to listen to your inner self and validate your changes. You then begin to see yourself as a changer, a reverser of your destiny instead of a victim of events. You become illuminated in the ecstatic light of these insights. Reversal can also be painful, as giving up old comfortable ways can be jarring and emotionally traumatic".

Become the reverser of your own destiny. Do whatever you can to listen deeply to yourself, to your fears and desires. Begin to recognize and release negative patterns. No one is going to hand you the key to happiness or to revolution, it is exists in the willingness of all of us to do the work, to make the changes necessary to restore balance in ourselves so that we may restore balance to our world.

"Reversal is an initiation process, a growth in spiritual awareness and a passage. We are stopped in time, "out on a limb" and entirely vulnerable. Our water reflection smiles back at us, guiding us on our way down a new path"

Swirling Change

Spiral water fountain, Boom 2008

Graffiti by HighRaff & Ram, Boom 2008

Sacred Fire altar, Boom 2008

Can you feel the beating pulse of change as the minute particles in your body die and are reborn in a constant evolutionary swirl? Been walking down some strange and lonely roads in recent months, with the hot sun on my neck, carrying jugs of water to quel the primal thirst building deep inside of me. Sweltering under layers of emotions, that do indeed, suffocate. All the water is rushing down the drain at the same time and there's something blocking its way - a piece of food, some hair caught in the pipe perhaps. I've surfed the whole spectrum of emotion along an unexpected rainbow arc, peeking out of a bold horizon. The secrets whispered to me in moments of meditation, in quiet moments when the spiral unwinds and the tension melts into a blue sky littered with shapes of dinosaurs in billowing cloud masterpieces; the secrets shouted at me amidst the chaos of streets saturated by cows, people and smells; these secrets crawled inside and rearranged the mental processes of my young mind. With no familiar surface to bounce off of, my mirror mirror on the wall reflected the same face, the same me, that I'd always seen, minus some hair on my head ;) And now, when a memory and a feeling from the past has manifested into flesh before my very eyes, my own reflection has changed. I notice now, the differences in myself, a million little things that have stealthily combined to create a different me. I struggle to match the frequency of my lover. Overwhelmingly frustrated at the conflict between heart and mind, between dreams and reality. I believe in love, in its power and beauty. I know that I am capable of expressing this well of love that resides deep inside. I feel its presence within me, so why is it so complex to express? Time and space, although illusory in nature, are powerful forces to contend with as well... as the continuum stretches over the boundaries of the heart. I'm struggling with the deepest parts of myself, with fears and embedded patterns, with eccentricities, dreams, disappointments, beautiful surprises, unknowns, parts known all too well... I'm not running away, but i'm not exactly running the other way either. I'm desperately trying to practice patience with myself, be gentle with my heart and fragile hearts of those around me. I'm trying not to let frustration take over, but to let things unfold naturally. Fragile and yet tough, always growing, expanding, learning, this process is timeless, no beginning and no ending, swirling, swirling, I should enjoy the swirl instead of struggling to swim against it... i feel a strong and deep resolution brewing inside, the end of yet another cycle, beginning, end, breath, been, being, be.