I have been reading Angell Deer's "Becoming the Medicine: A Sacred Guide to Shamanic Wisdom and Practice". I was doing the exercise of connecting to my spirit animal, when my guides said that my spirit "animal" is Zing! What a novel idea...that my higher self is my "spirit animal". I wondered what my "spirit animal Zing" would look and feel like, and I sketched it on paper. Then I relayed my description to ChatGPT and asked it to create an image for me. I LOVE THIS IMAGE OF SPIRIT ANIMAL ZING. My tail is curiosity and wonder. My heart is delight. My hands are golden light. My legs move easily. My feet are confidently attentive and aware on the ground. Lol, I will be meditating on and connecting with my higher animal self, for sure. (joyous laughter...) I posted the meditation I used below. Please share what happens when you connect with your spirit animal!

The message, written on white, was folded into three and dropped into the ethers. It fell…and pressed in upon itself, slipping downward through the dark. Intended for one destination only, it knew not to dally or be distracted. Streamlined, it fell. Clear and pure and friction-free, it fell. I waited by the reeds, a teenage boy in the Faerie Glen, by the waterline of the creek where I would normally look for Salmon. This area felt deserted, abandoned by summer’s rush of life for autumn’s letting go and settling back. I was calm, patient. There was a dark fracture which appeared in my creekside quiet. There were those who said valid answers were only found by moving willingly into that crack in the ground and down through it into a lower reality. This was a gray cave located beneath the Faerie Glen. I descended and found myself on the smooth cave floor sitting against one wall, my knees pulled up. I realized Goddess Olwen sat beside me, in a similar pose. She observed the two of us, looked up toward the distant Faerie Glen, looked back at me, and said, “We’re out to lunch!” and we laughed. She said, “Against a backdrop of simple grayness, complication can be clearly revealed.” I looked up at my complicated hopes and dreams whose simple reflections were cast upon the cave wall. Olwen’s presence disappeared from the cave, leaving me to ponder what was being revealed here. The grayness of this projected life was not what I was desiring. Noooo… I would only be satisfied with NEWLY RECALIBRATED “COLOR”/VIBRANCY TO MY LIVING. I rose back up through the earth fracture, into the Faerie Glen. I looked around at the quiet reeds and water. I stood on the sandy edge of the rippled, brown leaf-speckled creek, and something lightly falling caught my eye. In wonder, I opened my hand. As I stretched out my arm, something white fell onto my palm. A message for me? A broad, happy grin covered my face. I felt the message, even as I was carefully unfolding it. "You too, child, are free."

[I received this as I dared take a VACATION in California from my demanding life in Maryland.] Whirling around me, the Orbit, in sparkles of green and gold, whistled me into their vortex. We spun downward into the Faerie Glen, where leprechauns became the wheels of my transportation. Trustworthy, sturdy--you can always count on leprechauns to get you where you need to go. Lol. I feel like I am rooting through the dark dirt on the ground, between the roots of the grasses. My focus is on my nose, following my nose as I move bits of dirt aside, to seek the flow of what is coming to and for me. I know the sun shines for me. I know I am well-accompanied. I can put my arms out to my sides and know I have the space to MOVE and BE. Please share what happens when YOU take a trip to the Faerie Glen!

I'm reading in David Spangler's "Partnering with Spirit" in preparation for our next Book Club Zoom. This book expands me even further than his previous ones--a kind of summation of expansion of experience practicing as a "human being". I like when he refers to, "...Subtle awareness as a unique experience in its own right and not simply as physical perception in non-physical guise" on p.78. The more we move our consciousness into the Subtle Worlds, the more our experience involves "feeling" ["participatorily" blending all our perceptions] our OWN subtle energy field. As a multidimensional incarnate being, I can be aware of inhabiting my physical (plane) being, my emotional (field) being, and my spiritual being of relationship (oneness with everything else). We are challenged by David to live "partnership with spirit" as "participation with spirit", which, in the wholeness of things, means "participation [on multi-levels] with the world in which we live." ✨😮✨

Here is the ritual I use for a PERSONAL PROCESS OF SPIRITUAL EXPLORATION, from Angell Deer's book "Becoming the Medicine": In a quiet, comfortable place, create a sacred space. Introduce a heart-resonating rhythmic element which will help you shift your consciousness from the ordinary to the spiritual realm. Close your eyes, relax, connect to your breath, and feel yourself entering a meditative state. Set your intention or question for your journey. Let the trance start. Sit, move, or dance. Let the rhythm guide your senses away from the physical world and deep into your spiritual realm. Let the trance arise from within you. Relax, trust, and be joyful/playful. Let your journey naturally unfold in response to your intention. Let images, sensations, or intuitive feelings fill your consciousness, and let them guide your journey. Remember, you are a respectful observer here. Do not rush. Do not control your journey's direction. Listen, observe, and accept everything your journey reveals. When you feel complete and ready, signal yourself that you wish to end the trance. You may slow down the rhythm, or simply set your intention to return to the physical world around you. Feel the floor beneath you, hear the sounds near you, and open your eyes when ready. Write down your experiences, insights, or messages as soon as your journey is concluded, to ensure their clarity.