Deer Visitation and the power of LOVE

Yesterday on my morning run on Mountain Drive I felt so light and free and at ease. I was feeling such bliss as I was effortlessly moving through space. I realized that I was in this high vibration state of being because I have been stripping away everything that is blocking and inhibiting a free flow of LOVE within me. I have been doing a lot of clearing and cleansing of anything troubling from my past and truly arriving here in this moment flooded with love and a deeper ability and desire to forgive than I have ever experienced. A huge part of the "let go" has been emotional transparency, wearing my heart on my sleeve and authentically and truthfully expressing what I feel. I feel a true sense of altruistic gentleness that has brought deep healing and restoration to my life on all levels. Ram Dass' teacher Maharaji's core teaching is "Love everyone and tell the Truth." I have heard it 1000 times but this morning I got it on a cellular level. Loving everyone (even from afar at times) and telling the truth and living from a place of forgiveness in my experience is one of the main keys to health and happiness. I really experience it when I am running. If I am carrying emotional baggage then I am sluggish and out of sorts. When I am emotionally and mentally light, I am physically light too.

So, at the very moment that I had this realization (or download as I like to call it) a big buck and his lady deer came bouncing out in front of me. I knew I was receiving a very clear message from Spirit. Deer medicine is all about being gentle, loving and compassionate with yourself and others to melt all fear and resistance. What made it all so much more magical is that just before it happened I ran past a car. I noticed someone in the passenger seat but didn't look at the person. I just kept running. All I knew is that I felt really great energy from this person. It turns out that it was one of my dear (deer...hehe) friends Sara. She saw the whole thing happen and knew that there was magic afoot. It was quite a beautiful scene. Later that day I drove past a giant bus that said FAST DEER CHARTERS. I perceived that as yet another message from Spirit that there is a quickening of LOVE and COMPASSION in my life that is being chartered in my life now. I just love how the Universe works and guides me along with potent signs and symbols. So here is what the Native American Medicine Cards have to say about Deer Medicine.

Deer-Gentleness

A little story to begin.
One day Fawn heard Great Spirit calling to her from the top of Sacred Mountain. Fawn immediately started up the trail. She didn't know that a horrible demon garded the way to Great Spirit's Lodge. The demon was trying to keep all the beings of creation from connecting with Great Spirit. He wanted all of Great Spirit's creatures to feel that Great Spirit didn't want to be disturbed. This would make the demon feel powerful, and capable of causing them to fear him.
Fawn was not at all frightened when she came upon the demon. This was curious, as the demon was the archetype of all the ugly monsters that have ever been. The demon breathed fire and smoke and made disgusting sounds to frighten Fawn.
Any normal creature would have fled or died on the spot from fright.
Fawn, however, said gently to the demon, "Please let me pass, I'm on the way to see Great Spirit."
Fawn's eyes were filled with love and compassion for this oversized bully of a demon. The demon was astounded by Fawn's lack of fear. No matter how he tried, he could not frighten Fawn, becauce her love had penetrated his hardened, ugly heart. Much to demon's dismay, his rock-hard heart began to melt, and hid body shrank to the size of a walnut. Fawn's persistent love and gentleness had caused the meltdown of the demon.
Due to this gentleness and caring that Fawn embodied, the pathway is now clear for all of Great Spirit's children to reach Sacred Mountain without having to feel the demons of fear blocking their way.

Deer teaches us to use the power of gentleness to touch the hearts and minds of wounded beings who are trying to keep us from Sacred Mountain. Like the dappling of Fawn's coat, both the light and the dark may be loved to create gentleness and safety for those who are seeking peace.

If Dear has gently nudge its way into your life today, you are being asked to fine the gentleness of spirit that heals all wounds. Stop pushing so hard to get others to change, and love them as they are. Apply gentleness to your present situation and become like the summer breeze: warm and caring. This is your tool for solving the present dilemma you are facing.
If you use it, you will connect with Sacred Mountain, your centering place of serenity, and Great Spirit will guide you.

May DEER grace you with his presence and melt your heart into LOVE.

Speak to us of Love

Perhaps for the first time truly in my life I feel and am experiencing what Kahlil Gibran wrote about in The Prophet about LOVE. I have read this passage countless times and to be feeling it as if from within it is miraculous and humbling. Love truly is the most powerful force in existence and in my experience it is the reason we exist.

Then said Almitra, "Speak to us of Love."
And he raised his head and looked upon the people, and there fell a stillness upon them. And with a great voice he said:

When love beckons to you follow him,
Though his ways are hard and steep.
And when his wings enfold you yield to him,
Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you.

And when he speaks to you believe in him,
Though his voice may shatter your dreams as the north wind lays waste the garden.
For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you. Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning.
Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun,
So shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth.
Like sheaves of corn he gathers you unto himself.
He threshes you to make you naked.
He sifts you to free you from your husks.
He grinds you to whiteness.
He kneads you until you are pliant;
And then he assigns you to his sacred fire, that you may become sacred bread for God's sacred feast.
All these things shall love do unto you that you may know the secrets of your heart, and in that knowledge become a fragment of Life's heart.

But if in your fear you would seek only love's peace and love's pleasure,
Then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love's threshing-floor,
Into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears.

Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself.
Love possesses not nor would it be possessed;
For love is sufficient unto love.

When you love you should not say, "God is in my heart," but rather, I am in the heart of God."
And think not you can direct the course of love, for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.
Love has no other desire but to fulfil itself.

But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires:
To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.
To know the pain of too much tenderness.
To be wounded by your own understanding of love;
And to bleed willingly and joyfully.
To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving;
To rest at the noon hour and meditate love's ecstasy;
To return home at eventide with gratitude;
And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.

The Invitation

The Invitation

by Oriah

It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living.
I want to know what you ache for
and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.

It doesn’t interest me how old you are.
I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool
for love
for your dream
for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon...
I want to know if you have touched the centre of your own sorrow
if you have been opened by life’s betrayals
or have become shrivelled and closed
from fear of further pain.

I want to know if you can sit with pain
mine or your own
without moving to hide it
or fade it
or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy
mine or your own
if you can dance with wildness
and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes
without cautioning us
to be careful
to be realistic
to remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn’t interest me if the story you are telling me
is true.
I want to know if you can
disappoint another
to be true to yourself.
If you can bear the accusation of betrayal
and not betray your own soul.
If you can be faithless
and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see Beauty
even when it is not pretty
every day.
And if you can source your own life
from its presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure
yours and mine
and still stand at the edge of the lake
and shout to the silver of the full moon,
“Yes.”

It doesn’t interest me
to know where you live or how much money you have.
I want to know if you can get up
after the night of grief and despair
weary and bruised to the bone
and do what needs to be done
to feed the children.

It doesn’t interest me who you know
or how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand
in the centre of the fire
with me
and not shrink back.

It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom
you have studied.
I want to know what sustains you
from the inside
when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone
with yourself
and if you truly like the company you keep
in the empty moments.

© Mountaindreaming, from the book The Invitation by Oriah published by HarperSanFrancisco, 1999 All rights reserved

Welcome to my blog!

Hi there! Welcome to my blog. I am so happy that you visited me here today.

I just had an amazing experience. For nearly 2 years now I have kept this blog very erratically. The last post that I made was in April 2009. Just today someone who I have never met before commented on that post, totally making fun of it. At first I was offended but then I was grateful. I immediately thought of Carlos Castenada's book "The Wheel of Time" in which he says, "Personal history must be constantly renewed by telling parents, relatives, and friends everything one does. On the other hand, for the warrior who has no personal history, no explanations are needed; nobody is angry or disillusioned with his acts. And above all, no one pins him down with their thoughts and expectations." from Journey to Ixtlan.

There is a great guy named Brian Johnson who reads all the great spiritual literature and then writes 6 page "cliff notes" and 20 minute MP3's out of them as well. Check him out at www.philosophersnotes.com. This is his commentary on Casteneda's teaching:

"Personal history. It’s a *huge* part of Castaneda’s teaching. One of the basic aspects of the Toltec Warrior is the process of transcending/cutting off/destroying our personal history. Think of your personal history as an anchor you have tied to your waste. A big one. It’s heavy. It slows you down. It’s all the things you’ve done in the past--good and bad--that have created a world of expectations around you. If you let it, this will stifle your evolution and creativity faster than anything. As Castaneda advises, let it go. Quit putting yourself in a little box by trying to live consistently with your past and explaining every little action you take. BE YOU. Fully. In this moment. Independent of what others may or may not “expect” from you."

So, today I erased every blog entry that I have ever written. Just the other day I erased about 1000 photos from my computer. They are gone forever. These are all things from my past life. Life has so radically and positively changed for me over the past year that there is no need for me to hold onto these things from the past. Although the past brought me to this moment, holding onto it has weighed me down. This moment is fresh, beautiful and perfect and I feel liberated and set free right now.

So, I thank that stranger whose laughter at me helped me shed some old snake skin so that I can meet this precious moment exactly as it is...and, laugh at myself and my waning attachments to the past. Thank you kind stranger for helping me let go...what a relief...