A New Year
A New Beginning
Attune
Commune
Connect with the Light
Grow Stronger
Healthier
Live the Love That We Are
Service to Higher Will
Joy, Peace, Justice, Beauty
Win-Win-World
For All
May it be so through you and me
Ya-Wee
Remembering Jerry Jampolsky
Jerry Jampolsky was my spiritual older brother, a fellow Aquarian, a fellow saxophone player. He crossed over last night. I am sad to no longer be able to see and be with him in physical presence but tremendously grateful for our forty five years of relationship that helped me grow deeper into the love that we are. His wife and partner, Diane V. Cirincione, shared with me this morning that a while back Jerry had a vision that all the children we worked with who crossed over would be there for him as he crossed. This touched me deeply because every morning in my prayers I say the names of these same children, remembering our work together in launching the first Center for Attitudinal Healing. I connect with their spirits and I know they will be there for me as well, along with Jerry, when my time comes.
Until then, and ever after, it’s all about love. To Live Love Now, is the only way to go.
Thank you dear Brother Jerry. I see you in the Infinite Light of Love that you lived so wonderfully while you were with us in physical form and now flows even stronger and brighter in all the millions of hearts you touched around the world.
My heart is filled with warm tears of love and gratitude.
love to all.
Christmas Blessing
All Blessings to you this holy day. I love how Christmas can trigger an inward journey beneath the commercialism to exploring what is this day really about? What does it honor and celebrate on the deeper level? Beneath whatever might be your thoughts and reactions to whatever meaning you hold about Jesus Christ and Christmas, they are a relatively recent (two thousand years) carrier of an much older, ancient story which appears around the world in different guises but expresses the same truth, universal truth.
It is possible to birth through us what is given to us by the Greater Powers of the Universe as grace, a place in the heart that is a manifestation of, connected to and At-One With, Infinite Unconditional Light and Love, a level of consciousness that Jesua, manifested under the most demanding of situations being a radical Jewish rabbi who threatened the power structures of the time.
From a holy book inspired by Jesua, comes this reminder of how we, as the sons and daughters of God, can birth Christ Consciousness through us and out into the world so long as we are alive no matter what religion or spirituality we practice:
"And now faith, hope and love abide, these three, and the greatest of these is love.” Corinthians 13:13
Blessings of this Holy Day & thought you might enjoy learning more about the ancient shamanic roots underlying the medicine of Santa Claus.
Memory Time
Here is a picture of a ceremony Wakan did out at Slide Ranch for my friend Kresser who was to die at a young age which we helped birth him through when the time came.
Decades later his daughter went on vision quest with me and now comes a message from his sister that both his parents, Al and Gretchen (whom I also knew well and who flew me to Aspen to lead a memorial service and release Kresser’s ashes into the Earth and Sky of the Rocky Mountains) are very ill with covid close to crossing. She asks to keep them in our prayers.
A gift for all of us even though most of you do not know the folks I am talking about. Why a gift? Because when we pray we strengthen awareness of our interconnectedness, because it connects our awareness to the divinity we share, the spark of light-filled love that is divinity waiting within us to be polished up and shared which enriches our lives.
Live Love Now Blessings to All and Thank You for your prayers.
love, tomás
Awakening to Wisdom this Thanksgiving
I am thankful for You, I am thankful for Family, Community, Friendships and Ancestors.
Speaking of Ancestors, on this day that many celebrate Thanksgiving, I offer a prayer for WOKSAPE WOKIKTA - which is Lakota for Awakening to Wisdom, which includes making Thanksgiving relevant to Native American People still alive today whose Ancestors lived fruitfully here on Turtle Island for tens of thousands of years before the invasion from Europe in the late 1400’s. How?
By heeding the words of the late Native historian Jack Forbes:
"While living persons are not responsible for what their ancestors did, they are responsible for the society they live in, which is a product of that past. To address the crimes of settler colonialism that helped build this country’s wealth, the process rightfully starts by honoring the treaties the United States made with Indigenous Nations, by restoring all sacred sites, starting with the Black Hills, and payments of sufficient reparations for the reconstruction and expansion of Native Nations.”
May it be so for the healing of historic wounds whose repercussions still impact disastrously today.
May enough of us show up as spiritual activists to make it be so.
Thanksgiving Blessings for your Health, Safety and making good lemonade out of lemons.
love, t.
The Mystery of the Blue Light: Election Day 2020
The day of the 2020 election, I was invited to present on a panel about religious freedom. Other panelists being of Hindu, Buddhist and Islamic faith. I represented shamanic indigenous spiritual ways which as I explained is not a religion. It is a way of being in relationship to the creation that existed before there was religion as we know it today. I explained how indigenous people do not have a word for religion since they know all creation is alive, conscious, interwoven in a cosmic web of inter-relationship. They knew that all life is sacred, that we are 100% dependent for our lives on forces of nature that we are not in control of and that those forces are spiritual energies that we need to be in respectful, reciprocal relationship with or else we will not survive. So there is no religion that is separate from how they live their daily lives trying to be in harmonious balance with all the powers that give and sustain our precious lives. Religion came later, much later.
I was the last of five panelists to speak after the others had shared about discrimination their people have and still do experience. I shared how i do not have freedom of “religion” because of the insanity of this country’s laws that make it illegal for me to eat or drink certain plants grown by Mother Earth, something indigenous people have been doing for thousands and thousands of years in socially integral ways that expand and grow consciousness. It is precisely an expansion of consciousness that is needed today shapeshifting from one that believes in separation, that has an economic system that feeds greed, fear and violence, to a consciousness that knows how we are all interconnected and that what we give/do to another we do to our selves, to our children, to our grandchildren. From that expanded consciousness we can work to grow a cooperative planetary consciousness based on love, kindness, caring, justice, equality, peace, beauty and healthy world, a Win-Win World for All. It is possible. I know it. I have seen it.
I closed my sharing with respectfully honoring the diversity of religious beliefs and practices expressed by the panelists with my understanding that beneath the differences real spirituality comes down to a bottom line truth that God is love, and those who love, know God. It seemed to resonate with each speaker as I watched their heads nod in agreement.
It is not so easy living that love consistently when it is so easy to be triggered into fearful reactivity by the dramatically challenging times of so much social unrest and climate change we are living in today. Below is a photograph of a place I have been going to each day to remind myself of the deeper waves of life, the beauty of the natural world, the magnificent creation we are gifted to live in. I call it “Sanity Shores” because the energy there is sane. The rhythms are constant but always changing. Impermanence and continuity. There is wisdom there. There is no ego there. There is what “God hath wrought”.
I share the image caught on camera so you too might take in some of the sanity there to help you through this time of unrest, of unease, of unknown future. There is Father Sun sending down stardust from above. There is the endless sky. The wispy passing clouds. There is the flowing waves of Mother Ocean. Rock People. What indigenous people say are the oldest living people on the planet, the ones who carry the history of what has been.
May the figures on the screen help you connect with a center of strength and peace within you. May they help you connect with the love that is in you, that you are, that we all are. May it help strengthen your knowing that so long as we are alive no matter what is happening, if we choose it, if we clean out any thoughts or beliefs that get in the way, we can Live Love Now remembering love is the most powerful transformational energy in the universe.
One more thing. If you look at the bottom left hand corner of the picture you will see a blue light. On the rational, logical side of understanding it is nothing but a lens flare. Of course. We all know that. We share a cultural understanding that explains its presence. Yet, might there possibly be more to it than that?
In a shamanic perspective it just might be a trickster doorway, a nierica, to/from another dimension, a spiritual dimension using the lens flare of the camera to bring through a transmission of some sort. Maybe it is just Coyote playing one of its tricks. But yet, indigenous people know that Coyote’s tricks carry medicine teachings, wisdom guidance to help people live in a good way with Creator and Creation. I invite you to take a look at that blue light. Open your mind to the possibility that the Sacred Mystery that exists beneath all physical phenomena and from which all that we see with our eyes comes from and returns, just might be trying to communicate something to help us through these dark times.
The Elders say Creation is a great mystery. They counsel to stay open, that there is more going on than what you think you see and what you think you know in your ordinary state of everyday awareness. "Stay open, Stay humble. Stay open to mystery” they say.
I invite you to find your way to open the blue light doorway and see what might come through for you. I welcome hearing from you.
Please keep the light of hope, faith and love alive and shining.
All Blessings.
love, tomás
Spiritual Activist Wisdom Warrior
Fall Equinox Reflection 2020
Blessings of the Fall Equinox to you, when the cosmic wheel of the seasons flows from summer to autumn bringing opportunity to pause and reflect. As the leaves release from their temporary home in the “Tree People” and fall to the Earth letting go of what has been, death of the old, we also are asked to look at what we need to let go of that no longer serves our lives.
As many of the winged-people and four-leggeds gather bounty from the fruits of summer, we two-leggeds are asked by the wisdom of the seasons to reflect on what has grown in us during the summer. This year, as we were pressured in many ways with COVID-19 threats and restrictions, out-of-control fires, smoke-filled skies, violence towards peaceful Black Lives Matter protesters, friends who lost homes, etc., there is much to reflect on and ask ourselves.
What will serve us as the Light of Father Sun moves further away and we have to find the light within our selves and each other? Following are some thoughts from wisdom elders that may help you find your way:
Here is one from Rumi on the truth of our deepest being.
“The external world is not at all how it seems. Neither are you. Beneath the convincing separateness of things is a vast, indescribable loving Unity. That Unity your true identity.”
Viktor Frankl addresses mindful choice of how we use the instrument of our minds.
“Between a stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom. The last of human freedoms is to chose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances.”
David Cooper reminds us of how we each make a difference.
“The sense of self continuously dissolves as we merge into a vast interconnectedness with all of creation bringing the presence of the Divine into as many moments of life as possible. Each time we do something that raises consciousness we lift sparks of divinity within us all and within all things to new levels.”
Cosmologist Brian Swimme offers support to our membership in the Starlight Ohana here to polish up our stardust and shine.
“The universe has unfolded to this point. It has poured into you the creative powers necessary for its further development. When you breathe, you breathe the creations of a star… Every element, every atom that composes your body was fashioned in the heat of a star. You are that star, brought into a form of life that enables life to reflect on itself. The simple truth is that we are here through the creativity of the stars.”
The equinox is a time the cosmos speaks to us about balance since it is a time of equal day and night, light and dark. It reminds us to look at where we are out of balance in our own lives and in our society and use that information to take action steps to come back into balance.
May we all release heartedly with grace what needs to go. May we all gather heartedly that which strengthens our hearts and minds, our bodies and spirits, for the work we are all called to do in helping to birth a more peaceful, just, healthy and happy win-win world for all.
May it be so for all of us and our precious and threatened Mother Earth and All Our Relations.
Love, tomás
An American Billboard: a Poem
an American billboard
driving north on rt. 101
pass Gilroy
garlic capitol of the world
wide open spaces
huge irrigated fields of mono crops
campesinos harvesting
talking with andrea
met when we were
eighteen
love growing
through
the years
sudden shock
huge billboard
add for tractor
sez
“Conquer Your Land”
are you shitting me?
and yet
there it is
up front
how we got here
control
dominate
no wonder
the problems
the suffering
got it backwards
from what
we once knew
respectful
humble
harmonious
relationship
with the powers
that give life
Sacred Covenant
with Earth
Ocean
Desert
Forest
Mountain
Ancestors
Butterfly
Wind
Fire
Plants
Praying mantis
still time
though
growing short
purification
cleansing
rebirth
evolution
growing us
up
to
higher consciousness
that knows
truth
kindness
love
that is
for
giving
Evolutionary Pressure: What Does COVID-19 Want Us to Grow Into
Evolutionary pressures – what does the Universe want us to grow into?
How glaciers formed mountains, racism, corona virus and climate change are evolutionary pressures pushing us into new ways of being. They are symptoms that need to be addressed but unless we continuously want to be symptom-treaters we ultimately need to address root causes. Beneath anxiety, fear, prejudice, discrimination and violence to the other, to the earth and the living ecosystem is a perception and belief that people, plants, animals, earth, ocean, and sky are all distinct, separate entities, disconnected from one other. As we go about trying to meet our needs this consciousness of separation leads to behaviors that cause harm to that which is perceived to be “not-us”. We see a world of scarcity so we fearfully compete with others to make sure we get ours and for those of us with white skin more likely to do so than others with darker skin. Yet still all of us suffer from the ills that beset the world which are evolutionary pressures from the Universe, from God, Spirit, the Tao, pushing us to grow into more of who and what we really are towards realization of our greatest potentials.
Our current situation is analogous to a situation where the various organs within our body perceive and think they are separate from one another. Each is concerned with getting its needs met so they compete with each other for the nutriments they need to survive totally oblivious to the deeper reality that they are inter-wovenly connected and dependent upon each other’s cooperation to survive and thrive. So too we humans compete with each other, along with countries who compete with each other fed by patriotic nationalism where whatever county you live in you are socialized to believe in is the greatest thing going.
I remember starting each day in elementary school on with having to stand and recite the pledge of alliance while one kid held the American flag and god-forbid if the poor kid inadvertently touched it to the ground! Major shaming from the teacher. All based on the perception and belief in separation.
The intensifying crisis of today’s world is pushing us to wake up to recognize that like the organs of the body, all of humanity, all nations separated by arbitrary boundaries based on political realities, are part and parcel of a unified field in which every “thing” is connected and that there is no such thing as a separate thing. The win/lose scenery which is a natural outgrowth of the reality-as-separate paradigm leads to the path we are on now – a small group of mostly white corporate-enriched elitists getting their needs met living in barricaded enclaves guarded by their paid private militias while the rest try to survive amidst the ravages of climate catastrophe and weather-related calamities for whatever scraps might be left over, if anything, after the elites have taken all they want. That is where we are headed if we don’t change and change starts with the root if it is going to meaningful in the long run.
The evolutionary pressures are pushing us to the realization that the only win is a win-win for all, humanity acting cooperatively and wisely throughout the planet, which means in harmony with the powers of nature that give and sustain life. Humanity working together to create systemic structures that provide equal access and support to all in meeting basic needs and the nurturance of creative potentials towards their fullest blossoming and greatest good. We need to reweave the covenant by which our ancestors lived wherein they knew the earth was alive, that all of creation was alive and that they needed to meet their needs in ways that were in respectful relationship with those life-giving powers.
What does that mean in practical terms? It means realizing that there needs to be a balanced reciprocity between what we take from the environment and what we give back, inter-woven with re-learning how to take respectfully. Indigenous life-way traditions are good models for this because they recognize that reciprocity is sacred. They ask permission before they take, they do an honoring and thanks-giving to the spirits of what they take and they take only what they need and they do so in a way that supports that those living seven generations from now will also be able to live and thrive as they are doing. As compared to the rapacious insatiable take, take taking of modern life with no thought of thanking those powers that give the life, the spirits that are the essence underlying the physical manifestation of that which we are taking – animal, plant, oxygen, mineral, fuel etc.
In our indigenous minds there is an ancient heart-memory that knows all of creation is alive, that knows all is connected, that knows we are all related as relatives in the cosmic web of life. How to return to the consciousness of knowing this basic truth of what the universe is and how to work in harmony with the way it works, in reoccurring cosmic cycles of life, death and rebirth? The start is with intention for everything starts with intention. Intend to practice attentive, sensitive, humble receptivity to connect and align with the way life works on this wonderous planet we get to call home: Mother Earth, Turtle, Pachamoma, Gaia. Pay attention to how it all works. Attune to how it all works.
Start with the start of the day. The sun comes up in the east every morning bringing activity energy to the earth which activates the interactions of photosynthesis wherein plants take that energy and create oxygen, animals eat the plants, people eat the plants and animals and we have human life in all its diversity. Without that sunlight, that starlight brought to earth, we do not have life. What about facing the sun each morning, filling up your tanks with its energy, giving thanks for its gift? What about opening to the possibility that contained within the photon beams of light you are taking is not only fuel for life but also information – non-english, non-human information, but cosmic information on how to live a good life in harmony with all life? What if it is an expression of consciousness, a gift from the creative wisdom power of the universe trying to wake us up to the truth of our being?
What if it is telling us to do what it does, to shine? What if it is telling us that the essence of our physical being is not only made of stardust, which we already know from science that our bodies are comprised of atoms which were created in solar explosions, some of which migrated through the heavens to our planet, but that the essence of our being is luminosity? We are made of stardust and we are fueled by stardust. We are luminous beings.
What if we open our minds to understanding that light is in all of us, no matter what the color, shape or size we are, no matter what language we speak, no matter what religious beliefs we have, no matter what our gender or our sexual partnering. What if we recognize the importance of diversity to the resilience and continuation of life? We see with the cancerous spread of mono- farming that if a disease or insight blight attacks the one crop all is lost, but if there is a diversity of crops then there is a greater change of something surviving as compared to nothing. So too with humanity and its diversity of belief systems and social structures. Instead of striving for a mono-way of being and living driven by consumer culture and the billions spent annually manipulating us to buy the same products, the same clothes and consume the same entertainment in a sameness of conformity, how about honoring and nurturing our differences but knowing that not only are we all luminous beings worthy of respect, care and support, we are all in our essence of luminosity made of the energy of love? What if at the deepest essence of our being we are love? What if our love is for giving, to ourselves, to each other, to all beings and to Mother Earth in all her diversity?
What if shining up our stardust means setting an intention to be a love-giver, being a channel for the love-light that is the essence of our being and taking responsibility for the fact that we are constantly extending the energy of our thoughts and feelings out into the energy field of the earth like a broadcasting system? What if we recognize that because we are all connected, what we give to another, what we give to the earth, how we treat animals, forests, oceans, plants, mountains, streams, the air, comes back to us and impacts not only our lives but those of our children and grandchildren and all those yet to come?
What if we cultivate states of consciousness that bring us into experientially knowing our interconnectedness, our unity, our essential oneness? What if we have access to the infinite, creative wisdom of the universe? What if we use that access aligned in a shared intention of creating a Healthy and Just, Peaceful and Free, Beautiful and Diverse Win-Win World for All? What kind of world could we create? What kind of social and institutional structures might we create that every one on the planet had equal access to health care, education, protection, justice, food, clothing, housing and income so that no one was missing out? What if all were nurtured and supported to fulfill their highest creative potentials for wisdom, beauty and self-actualization? Would you like to live in that kind of a world? Would you like to have your great grandchildren live in that kind of a world? A world where everyone knew they were, and were treated as, sacred, worthy luminous being of love that is for giving.
The truth is that it is entirely possible to create such a world. We just have to hold this as a shared intention and then move into acton by showing up to do our part to deconstruct the beliefs and consciousness of separation, and the corporate capitalist, profit-driven, racist institutions that poison the earth and people towards each other driving the catastrophes that threaten to wipe out the human species taking many other species with us as we go.
It may seem impossible. It mean seem preposterous. It may seem to be a naive fantasy wish that could never be accomplished in the “real world”. Yet who would have put money on the motley, rag-tag army of colonialists defeating the most powerful army in the world in 1776? Who would have put money on the Berlin Wall coming down without a shot being fired? Who would have put money on people walking on the moon if you lived in the time of ancient Rome? Not too many that is for sure.
Dr. Martin Luther King spoke a message decades ago that still holds power for those of us living today when he shared what he thought was possible – “I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies; education and culture for their minds; and dignity, equality and freedom for the spirits.”
So let’s not just treat symptoms. Lets also address root causes and do what it takes to expand our consciousness to a wider bandwidth and to a deeper knowing of the truth of who and what we are and why we are here – sacred worthy luminous beings of love whose purpose is to live love now working to create the kind of world that is possible for all of us to be living in.
So polish up the light you are
come so far from a star
polish up the light you
to shine, shine, shine.
How to polish up a star so bright?
you hold it up
into the light
Shine on into darkness
shine on into night
shine on when its stressful
shine with all your might.