Went the other night to view the film Where the Wild Things Are. It was one of my favorite books as a child, and i an not alone in this sentiment.  The book is short, and it is simple, but the energy it carries is an energy that strikes us deeply, that we can understand, that we can resonate with on a very base, a very real level.

The realness, this is the thing for me.  In the film there are these Wild things living on an island, and each of them represents a part of our childhood psyche.  One of them is always left out, one of them is condescending and bullyish, one of them shy, yet quiet and profound, one of them tortured and angry, yet the dreamer.  It is the realness of each of these Wild Things that is especially striking.  They are pure emotion, incapable of hiding anything, blocking or covering up the realness of their hearts desires, joys and pains.  It is disturbing and beautiful at once to see a world in which the beings are so free in themselves yet so tortured, completely immersed in the moment, the watery realm of the emotive and childlike state.

Max, the little boy who is their king but not really their king at all, eventually leaves their island.  He is the first king, the Wild Things tell him, that they have not eaten.  He drifts off from the shore in his little makeshift boat, the wild things howling as he goes, mourning his departure, their hearts breaking with reverence, dedication, and animalistic and utterly pure love.

Max , of course, is a Wild Thing himself.  He is tortured, his emotions are raw and uncontrollable, he is always angry and he is always in love.  Yet he becomes king of these raw emotions, these Wild Things, and masters them well enough that they do not eat him.   As he sails from the island he has riven above these base and uncontrollable parts of himself, for somewhere deep inside he now knows who he is, and he knows he is loved.

But the beauty of the Wild Things and their island not lost, is not forgotten.  Max has mastered his emotions, risen beyond them, seen there is more, reached a level of spiritual awareness.  But he has also honored, respected, and realized that a world without Wild Things, a world without childlike play and fun and realness and pain, would not be a world at all.  We cannot live out our lives in this world, on this island, but we surely can visit and experience life without boundaries, laws, rules, and constrictions that come with a very adult sensibility.

Allowance is the way of higher consciousness.  Allowance is the way that we as a unified, human consciousness must move if we are to overcome the plagues of our society.

In the way of allowance we look, first and foremost, to God or Source.  The quality that this takes is trust, or faith.  Without the quality of trust or faith that there is a spirit, a force which is part of us yet not, that encompasses all things, that is higher and more all-knowing and powerful than we are, we cannot practice allowance.  It is this trust and faith that asks us to act from a place of knowing that we actually are not the ones in control.  There is a higher power that is actually guiding and this power moves through us.  We are a vehicle for this Power, and when we act in accordance with this all is well.

Yes, all is well.  When we act in accordance, in intuitive unison with this Force all is well, all is taken care of, all that we dream of happening for ourselves does in fact happen.  This is as they speak of in the film The Secret, yet this is the real secret.  This secret is not about earning a certain income or havinga certain house, yet far beyond that.  this secret is about a way of being in the world in which alignment with Source is the most important, the first and foremost place, that we turn.  All actions stem from this place, not all of the other possible place, or summed up, the places of want.

When our actions come from this place we are in allowance.  We our allowing Divinity to move through us, we are allowing ourselves to be the hands and heart and eyes and ears of God.  This is the way that we must go as humanity, and this is the way of the divine feminine.  When the feminine is in balance and harmony, when the feminine is realized, she is pure intuitive nature.  She is like a storm, a storm of intuition.  She is like the earth with all its many changing seasons and tempests and waves.  This is where human consciousness is heading, towards a way of divine feminine first-towards a way of allowance.  From here, right action, or right masculinity can be exemplified and carried out.

One of the main issues, challenges, or states of being I work on with my clients is allowance versus want.  I believe this a major piece moving through the mass human consciousness at the present time.

In order to understand how these two impulses move in human consciousness it is important to see that these two impulses- allowance and want, are not ways of thinking but rather ways of being.  They are ways of moving through life, ways of interacting with everything around you, they are ways of manifesting and creating.

The way of want is a function of the desires.  These desires normally can stem from any chakra but normally manifest out of the 3 lower chakras and show themselves in the desire for security, sexual connection, companionship, control, monetary stability, protection, etc....  The way of want tells us that, fundamentally, we do not have enough on our own to survive and that we must get stuff in life.  It tells us that we must go after things, or eat things in order to survive.  At its fundamental level the way of want is concerned only with survival on the physical plane, and its entire motivation is driven by fear of not having enough.  It does not recognize a higher power, it recognizes the lower self.  Astonishingly, it rules many of our decisions, including the most fundamental ones such as our job and relationship choices.  Its nature is masculine or left brained.

The way of allowance is a function of of a very deep state of intuition and surrender.  It requires that we get out of the way of our own divine nature, the energy of Source or God that seeks to move through us.  It is listening, first and foremost to our intuition which is always in accordance with what is best for us and what we most deeply want.  It requires taking action only after listening deeply, and then doing so with conviction and trust that all is well if we act from our highest source of inspiration.  its nature is feminine, or right brained.

Last night attended a Gender Alchemy Ceremony here in Bend, put on by Erika and Jah Sun of Red Lightning Burning Man camp.  There were 30 plus gathered tightly into the brand new Beloved House on Jefferson downtown- thank you Ethan and Wendy Anderson for opening this space to the community! - and Julia and I did a short closing ceremony for the group.

The pervading theme for the night-a night in which the atmosphere was warm, open-hearted, and ripe with people from a variety of backgrounds, spiritual paths, ages and walks of life, was 'what the heck is gender alchemy anyway?'  Though all in attendance were sure that it was something they needed to have and grow into in their lives, and that this mystery of gender alchemy is in fact  essential for our evolution as conscious human beings.

Many people gave views on what they felt gender alchemy was: Jah Sun described it as a 'weaving together of the masculine and the feminine' and Erika gave a beautiful take on the feminine essence, of which she described the importance of a moon lodge for women, a place where women can go and be with other women while they are in the 'deep praying' or their period.  The men tend to them at this time, acting as guardians, for in this time women are deeply connected to God or Source, and in a constant state of prayer.  This is also a Sufi, and general Moslem belief.  Women are not supposed to pray the obligatory salat prayer when they are on their period, as they are already in such a deep state of prayer and intuitive power.  This moon lodge is brought to life vividly in the novel The Red Tent- I read this book years ago and have never forgotten the powerful imagery of the moon lodge and what takes place amongst the women in such a sacred space.

Our culture has truly forgotten the essence of masculine and feminine nature, and this is quite sad.  If my wife were to have the option to go off to a moon lodge during her period and be with other women, I feel that I would tend to her every need, bowed before her beauty and majesty as a woman.  As it stands currently, we normally fight for the first couple days she is on her period, and there is a general feeling of disconnection from each other.  I do not know how to hold her deeply in this time, and I am not meant to do it alone.  It is simply that she is living her daily life as normal (except now there are more tampons and less sex), rather than having a framework to create a sacred space for herself.

And this also holds true for the men.  Out of time, but will blog more about this tomorrow.  Blessings.

Often times in our workshops, talks, or private sessions Julia and I will reference the name 'God,' 'Divine,' 'Allah,' or some other name to attempt to describe The All.  Sometimes these names trigger people, and Julia and I want to explain our use and meaning of these names.

First of all, any attempt to describe the Unseen Energy and Source of all things is and always will be an attempt to describe the indescribable.  This being said, it is the human energy behind the use of the names that is applicable, and for Divine Spark this energy is love.  Whether we use the name God, Allah, The Divine, or The One, these names are an expression of love, gratitude, and human potential, and this is all.

However, it is true that at times these names are used with other intentions behind them.  Sometimes people feel judged in the presence of these names, or controlled, boxed in, squashed, or not seen.  This energy, it must be realized, is not from the names but from those who speak them and use them in unclean ways.

In the Sufi way, the path that Julia and I come from, we use the word Allah.  We chant Allah, remember Allah, and use Allah in everyday conversation.  Naturally the use of the name Allah triggers many people when they first begin to study Sufism, conjuring up images of Islamic Fundamentalist Militia, bombs, and beheadings. Understandable, yet normally quite easily washed away when they realize that Sufism is a path of love, and only love.  It is said in Sufism that "if all the religions knew the truth of their religion, they would realize that this truth is the same truth, and that this truth is love."

It is the same for us at Divine Spark.  We seek to awaken to greater and greater states of love and human potential, and we use a variety of names to get there.  But truly these names are an attempt to describe the indescribable, and will always in some way fall short in their humanness.  This is why the true spiritual seeker, the mystic, seeks to experience The Divine within-through heightened states of rapture, ecstasy, and surrender-as opposed to leaving it solely up to a spoken word to do the work.

Last night, at our abode up here in the mountains, we held our first ever spiritual marriage ceremony for Shalimar Ewing and Ryan Re.  It was an intimate, lovely evening, probably about 20 people or so and a bunch of kids-click here for a short video of the wedding. I wish them well in their journey together.

The marriage is a spiritual marriage, performed in the sufi tradition, because the spirits or souls of the lovers are intertwined through prayer, song, and the nature in which the ceremony is held.  The Beloveds are asked to see one another as the face of God or the Divine, and in this way by surrendering to one another completely and facing one another completely in their marriage, they face the Divine completely.  In essence, they promise to walk through one another to the complete realization of themselves in the deep way.

There is no greater inspiration to me than to witness two lovers coming together in this way.  The spiritual marriage is a deep thing, a holy thing, and once performed the marriage will not be able to stand up to the patterns that turn so many in marriage away from one another.  Once spiritually married the lovers are taking a vow to walk through everything together, and at its root this is a spiritual journey that begins with oneself-one's inner work.  If there is a reason to marry in this way it is this, for "till death do us part" is a death sentence if there is not conscious growth, awareness, and and constant lifting of the veils that keep us from loving more fully-in marriage.

Here is an excellent interview on spiritual marriage by one of my teachers in the sufi way, Dr. Ibrahim Jaffe.

The children in the photo are two.  They are together.  They are community.

The Hopi Elders say: "The time of the lone wolf is over. Gather yourselves!"  The Elders do not say to be alone, and to meditate on one's own, or to find a cave where you can think about things for awhile.  It is clear that they mean for us to gather, to find those that are like-spirited, and hold fast to that which is community.

This community, however, should not be just any group of people.  This community stems from the realization of who we are, in a very deep way, as individuals.  This community is not intended to be warm bodies alone, something to stave off the loneliness.  It is more than that, much more, and it speaks again to earlier lines in the poem: "The elders say we must let go of the shore, push off into the middle of the river, keep your eyes open, and our heads above the water. See who is there with you and celebrate."

This gathering together, then, can only happen once we've allowed ourselves to "push off into the middle of the river."  This pushing off is the inner awakening, the letting go of the old ways and the embracing of the new, the coming more fully into love.  Once we have pushed off, once we have said 'yes' to living a greater level of love, of purpose, of the truth of who we are, then we gather.  Once we have stripped ourselves naked, and are like children, then we gather.  For it is only from this place that we will find true community, or those who have also pushed off into the river.  It is with these people that we "celebrate."  How can we know our community, how can we know who it is we are to gather with, if we haven't let go?

How about community currency, right here in Bend, Oregon.

Unbeknownst to my children ( at least I am assuming this to be the case) they were participating in a truly timeless act, and thus captured in a timeless moment.  My son River (with the shovel) and daughter Clea (on the tractor) were doing what generations before have done-working the land, toiling on behalf of their own sustenance, acting as caretakers of the Earth.

These children demonstrate not only a complete immersion in their work, a true losing of themselves in the nature of life itself, but also a closeness, a connectedness with the land.  This is demonstrated by their nakedness, as it appears no part of them is separate from the land around them, from the earth, and thus from their work in this world as human beings.  They are in complete harmony with their surroundings, unfettered by the underbelly of turmoil that is the frightened mind, and that is much of the man-made world.  They have their priorities correct, they are our leaders and teachers, prophets and saints.  These children know that they "are the ones we've been waiting for."

When we speak of this change that is the River of Time and 2012, we must of the land.  Our human connection to the land, the growing of food, and the building of community.  It is frightening to think of what might happen all the world over if we were forced to look in our own backyards for sustenance, to grow and harvest our own foods.  How many individuals today have this connection and knowledge.  How many of our environments are suitable for this type of living?  These are thoughts worth thinking-as many of our sources of food are unsustainable for they are destructive both to the earth as an ecosystem as well as humanity as a culture-a thriving, knowledgeable, and healthful culture that is designed to evolve and to last.

While it is not imperative that each of us be a farmer-for we all have our right lines of work to benefit greater humanity, it is imperative that each of us know a local farmer, support a local farmer, and take a real look at where we harvest our food.  The outer health of an ecosystem is directly related to the inner health, and we should not forget this, perhaps now more than ever.

Small is Beautiful by E.F. Schumacher is perhaps the greatest book ever written on sustainability and society.

Completed our first couples workshop weekend, "Awakening Through Relationship," in Bend, Oregon.  Many thanks to the couples that participated in this weekend, it appeared to be a great success.

The Beloved relationship is about walking to God, or the constant unveiling and uncovering of our own individual divine nature through the vehicle of relationship.  To see the couples from the weekend-many who came in struggling with one issue or another, open and surrender to the reality of their love for one another is a sight and a gift that I shall never forget, and never get tired of seeing.  It is the pinnacle, truly, the melting away of the veils, the separation, the anger and judgement and future and past, until there is nothing remaining but the original love.  This love is the source, this love is the ocean.  This love is from where each and every one of us was born, and to where we will ultimately return.  This love is the only reality, this love is the way home.

Relationship is a way to return.  To return we do not need it, but most of us choose this way as opposed to the way of the monk, the priest, or the yogi, celibate and seeking direct knowing of God.  To return through relationship, however, we must see the reality of what relationship is-a vehicle for us to obliterate all that keeps us separate from the divine realization of who we truly are.  The Beloved relationship can teach us this, through our partner we can truly touch the source.

The impression I am left with is of the renewing of the vows ceremony, the couples kneeling before one another, opening to love, a renewed commitment, a deeper walking.  The circle of witnesses, the candles burning, the soft music, the tears, the softness.  The presence of angels, the presence of joy (I wish I had photos-will next time).  Why do we hold ourselves back?  Why do we not turn everything over to love?

The photograph of the children (they just happen to be mine), taken by Suzanne Fogarty tells the story of these times.  It tells the story of 2012, the River of Time, and "We Are the Ones We've Been Waiting For."

There are many aspects to this photo, aspects that weave and shift through webs and layers of meaning. It may take many blog entries to describe, so bear with.  The first aspect I will discuss is nakedness.

The children in the photo are naked- and my children often are.  I imagine most children would like to be naked most or all of the time as long as the weather is warm.  However it is normally us, their parents, that stop this natural way of being from happening.  There are undoubtedly societal constraints on being naked, familial constraints on being naked, and inner belief structure constraints on being naked.  Yet we are born naked, and if we are smart we seek to die naked, so this is the the rub.

In no way is this some sort of nudist colony advocacy article, yet it is an article that seeks to stand up for the nakedness of and in children, and the nakedness in all of us for that matter.  For even the Old Testament tells the story of the human being naked at the beginning, until the apple of knowledge was eaten, and clothes were put on-or another way to see this is that once the apple was eaten not only were clothes put on to cover our outer human nakedness, but boundaries and walls were put up to cover our inner nakedness as well.  So it is with the advent of knowledge-mental knowledge, that we covered ourselves up.  It is also with the advent of knowledge that we were, not coincidentally perhaps, cast from the Garden.

When our clothes come off one thing happens in particular: we become more vulnerable.  This vulnerability may take many forms or feelings: freedom, eroticism, joy, weeping, bashfulness, or any number of feelings that undoubtedly are more heightened than the feelings we were experiencing when our clothes were on.  We are more sensitive, alive, in tune with the subtleties of ourselves and the world around us.  Ever walk through a forest naked?  Try it-clothes on and clothes off.  See which experiences is more titillating.

The children know this.  They are naturally more alive, more naked, on the inside than most adults.  They are more in tune with their natural state, the state of nudity, the state of complete and utter vulnerability.  We learn to be less vulnerable as we grow older, and then we realize we have made a grand mistake and seek to become vulnerable once again.  Because it is only through vulnerability, through nakedness, that we can touch our original state of the Garden-our original state of love.  It is only through nakedness that we can let go into the River of Time.  Our clothes must be off in order to have sex, or make love.  This is no coincidence, as our clothes must also be removed if we are to make love with God.

The poet Rumi understood the true meaning of nakedness.

As we go about our days, as we move along with our lives, it is imperative that we understand that we are inextricably part of a larger moving force, a larger consciousness, and a larger destiny.  The following lines in the Hopi poem "We are the Ones We've Been Waiting For,"  demonstrates this with incredible poetic beauty and force:

"There is a river flowing now very fast. It is so great and swift that there are those who will be afraid. They will try to hold on to the shore. They will feel they are being torn apart, and they will suffer greatly. 

"Know the river has its destination. The elders say we must let go of the shore, push off into the middle of the river, keep your eyes open, and our heads above the water. See who is there with you and celebrate."

The River is the central imagery in this poem, and this river is the River of Time.  It is the force of time moving through all things, the force of destiny, the force of change.  The river is moving its own way, with its own purpose that involves us all as part of creation, and there is no way to stop the flow of this river.  This river flows fast, and it flows strong, and it can often times be scary to behold or/and accept.

Yet this river while a powerful and daunting force is also undoubtedly a River of Love.  The force that moves behind this river and throughout all of its ripples and veins is only the force of Love, and Mercy, and Justice and Freedom.  There is nothing else, this river is the embodiment of this Love.  Its "destination" is unity with All Things, or God, the returning of all of Creation with its original source.  Yet "there are those who will be afraid" and there are those who will "suffer greatly."

How can this be so, if this river is truly a river of Love and Mercy, how can it be so that there will be those who are "torn apart" and "suffer greatly"?

It is so because for each of us, releasing, letting go, and dissolving the parts of ourselves that are not dissolved into love can be a painful and difficult process.  It can and often does mean letting go of past patterns of belief, wounds, places of pain, and places where we identify ourselves that really are not who we are at all.  All of this is the bank of the river-the places in ourselves separate from Love-and if we hold onto these places, especially in this time, suffering is created.

All of the great mystics, saints, and prophets point to surrender as the key.  The Hopi Elders point to surrender as well.  They bid us to leap into the river, keeping "our heads above water," and to see who is there with us and "celebrate."  This is surrender, surrender to the time we live in now as a magnificent time of growth and human evolution, and surrender to Love.  The more each of us can surrender to Love, the more the outer reflection of world will change.  This is the key, this is the meaning to the phrase "inner revolution."

As you search yourself to see if you have the strength to look within, realize that there is really no choice.  The River is flowing, and it is flowing fast now.  It is "the Eleventh Hour."  There is no time to waste, for any of us.  Do not hold on to the shore, let go into the River.  Let go into Love.  Whatever you perceive stands in your way-whether it be family history, finances. relationship-realize that all of it is only there to push you closer to the edge of the bank so that you may finally find the strength to let go into the rushing, soaring, River.

For a good listen or read on this River of Time, click on the links for the Four Winds Society.

The Hopi poem speaks about time-about us living in a time in which our actions, our authentic actions are more important, and more needed than ever.  The "Eleventh Hour" is the moment that is upon us, the hour before the clock strikes midnight which is presumably the year 2012, but more importantly the ending of an era, or a time, and the beginning of another.  The ending of this current era represents also a an ending of a certain type of consciousness, and the beginning of another.  The consciousness that is leaving is the consciousness of the last 2000 years-one that is focused largely on power , and the consciousness entering is a consciousness focused more entirely on love.

When asked these questions- "Where are you living?  What are you doing?" etc... we are being asked-each and every one of us, to evaluate our lives.  Are our lives in alignment with what is truly highest for our spirit?  Are we living our truth as a human being?  Are we living an authentic life?  These questions all point to one statement "It is time to speak your truth."

How many of us are really, truly speaking our truth?  In order to speak ones truth, one must also be living one's truth, and how many of us are doing this?  It is a time to be honest with ourselves, a time to awaken the sleeping dragon within that-as the poem points to-stands for nothing less than what is true for us as individuals.  No time now to put those dreams on the back burner, to compromise one's gifts, to pretend to be happy, to live life in order to get by.  Those times are over-as the poem points out, "It is the Eleventh Hour."  There is no time to waste.

Click here for an excellent, authentic, and well-thought out book on the coming shift of 2012.

The meaning of the home page photograph and words "We are the Ones We've Been Waiting For," begins with the poem of which this line was quoted.  The poem is from the Hopi Indian Tribe, spoken by the elders.  Its meaning is profound, especially in these times.  Photo by Suzanne Fogarty.  She's amazing.  Check her out here.

Here's the poem:

This short film, while it may be very marginal in areas, actually is what kicked off the Project.  Having practically bankrupted myself with a cafe venture, i decided to no longer follow my mind and follow my heart, though I had no idea where this might lead.  Never having made a film before, for some reason this was the first illogically logical step.  It got me out in the community, opened me up to my own creative vision, and introduced me to some amazing people.  This little film also served to rise a fair bit of awareness about The Project-something that instilled in me a little bit of confidence going forward.  So if there is a message in this one-it is simply this: follow. For you know, you really do.

Some of the people in this film have their own outstanding projects happening.  Click on the names to check them out: Ramy Louis-The Life Center, Carol Oxenrider- Serendipity West, Jim Allen-Angelic Healing Fire, Pat Benage-Spiritual Awareness Community of the Cascades; Aaron Berg-Blue Tree Strategies.

Thank you to all of the people who participated in the making of this short film.