Beholding Beauty

Well, we're now entering the second half of this extraordinary course in creative manifestation as we move into week seven.

Week Seven's theme constellates around the astrological seventh house, the zodiac sign Libra and the planet Venus. This brings us into contact with the themes of attraction, love and appreciation of our relationships, harmony and beauty.

I found a wonderful quote the other day:

"A person is only beautiful when their own beauty is reflecting onto others."

This really sums up the energy of week seven for me. Week Seven is the week where Aphrodite-Venus, the Goddess of Love, manifests her true beauty. And beauty is one of the watchwords of the week and what a misunderstood thing it is.

If you can behold beauty in your own heart, in your own soul, then you can appreciate beauty in others and in the world. Our impoverished modern western view of beauty is that it is something objective to be striven for, something that exists outside of ourselves - a trophy to be claimed or a rare resource to bought and sold. Beauty has become commodified.

“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”, they say. This oft misunderstood statement is absolutely correct. Yes, indeed beauty is in the eye of beholder. “The eyes are the window of the soul” they also so and the way that you look at the world, the way that you perceive reflects perfectly the current vibration of your soul. When we consider our own beauty, we often forget this. We imagine how others look at us and we judge our beauty against the beauty of others, and often against some impossible ideal. This week, we are practicing getting in touch with the idea that beauty resides in our own perception. If we look out on the world knowing our own beauty, then beauty will be reflected back to us everywhere we look. Beauty is far from the scarce resource that only a privileged few have access to, as we are continually led to believe. It is abundant in all of creation, an energy which we can draw upon any time we choose. And it always begins with an experience of our own beauty.

So as we as step out this week and feel the beauty within us and feel it pulsing through us, so we naturally raise our vibration of attraction. We become more attractive to those around us and we become more attractive to those experiences that we wish to attract. So by raising our capacity for beauty this week, we are raising our capacity for manifestation. We move into alignment with what we wish to attract and if we can practice consistently holding that vibration that we will naturally draw it into our lives, delivered to us courtesy of The Law of Attraction.

So be as beautiful as you can possibly imagine this week. Feel the power of your attractiveness, of your beauty and share it with the world. For every time you authentically appreciate the beauty in another, you raise the vibration of beauty in yourself. So, go tell your spouse how much you love and cherish them, go tell you mother, father or sibling how much they mean to you. Don't hold back. You are infinitely more beautiful than you give yourself credit for. Share your own beauty with the world.

Love John x

Harvesting Our Gold

One of the key symbols of week six is the symbol of the 'harvest', that time of the year marked in the Celtic calendar as the Lammas festival, the time of reaping what we have sown. The harvest is a time both of ritual celebration and ritual dedication to task. We could usefully connect to the meticulous effort of harvesting the wheat this week, the repetitive action of the sheaf as it cuts down the once proud stalks of golden crop that shone with the glimmer of the sun's summer light and transforming it into the feast that will feed a community. The revelation of nature's gift lies in each kernel of wheat and, symbolically in our own lives, through the diligent, ritual work of separating the wheat from the chaff, we perform's the magician's work, transforming the potential of nature's abundant gifts into concrete manifest forms. Through such attentive diligence, we are fed, we are sustained, we are healed, and wealth in all its forms is delivered to us.

I have subtitled this week's practice 'Harvesting Your Gold' and in the coaching I have been offering it has all been about bringing one's attention back to the practice. No matter what else is going on in the circumstances of your life, just bring it back to the practice. We have been hold the vision, we have expressed the vision - now is the time to cultivate it. As you become more acutely aware than ever of all the details of your life and honour each one of them for the place they have in your life, irrespective of their perceived size or importance, so you cultivate your golden crop. As you cut back the stalks of gold, so you clear the way for the magic of the universe to express itself.

So carry on clearing the clutter. Move things around in your space, move the furniture, rearrange things. It stirs up the energy. Something will change in your perception of reality and something will be revealed. It's a healthy abundant practice and you'll feel different about yourself as a result. Happy harvesting!

Love John x

The Magic is in the Details

We are now into a week six of the Living a Wealthy Life course. This week we are moving from the energy of Leo and the Sun, where we basked in the light of creative expression, and found the confidence to radiate our own golden light and we are moving back once again 9as we did in week three) into the energy of Mercury, the wily magician, whose skill and cunning knits together the fabric of life into a seamless dance. In week three we met Mercury through the element of air, in his role as messenger, emissary of divine contact. In week six, Mercury really takes on an embodied form and embeds his magic in the details of life, details which we so easily miss each time we attempt to look beyond the everyday for inspiration. Yet, when we ignore the mundane, the embodied every day rituals, we risk losing the magic touch. So this week, we must be mindful of Mercury’s deft touch, his sleight of hand, and we must invoke the ritual magician if we are to glimpse his creative secret. We must become aware of the details of our lives, observe the order and rituals of life, learn to respect and revere each so-called mundane experience. Our task is to glimpse magic in the ordinary. Our role this week is to sweep, to clean, to tidy, to order, to polish, to wax, to sharpen, to become still, accepting, and blissfully content as we perfect the ordinary tasks of life. Through bringing mindfulness to our repetitive actions, we open the possibility of transcending time, entering liminal space, re-enchanting our experience of stepping into the shoes of the magician.

It strikes me that in our thirst for new experience, we in the west are becoming increasingly averse to ritual action. The idea of doing the 'same thing' at the 'same time' every day seems abhorrent when we have the 'freedom' (so-called) to do whatever we like whenever we like. Yet there is something deep within us that seems to call us back to ritual and the benefit that we feel when we develop a daily practice can be life-transforming. This is such a key moment in the course, that we have decided to dedicate two weeks to it. Unlike the fiery energy of last week, this a slow-burn process, where the emphasis is definitely not upon getting anywhere, but upon being somewhere.

There is a wonderful quote which I think is really profound and it goes like this:

"There may be more to learn from climbing the same mountain a hundred times, than by climbing a hundred different mountains." (Richard Nelson)

This really speaks to me and challenges me in all sorts of ways - yet deep down I know that it contains a profound wisdom and it is that same wisdom that we are invited to draw upon this week.

Love John x

Sending Faxes to God

Today I'm going to leave the words to someone else. Methinks you will like...

Sending Faxes to God

Our dear friend Bob electrocutes himself whilst blow drying his hair in the bathroom one evening and suddenly finds himself in heaven. He is somewhat bewildered, his last memory catching a glimpse of himself in the mirror with frizzy hair as he fell with a thud to the ground. Anyway, his wonderful guide Gloria comes to his aid and settles him in to his new situation. “So how do you think you did Bob?” asks Gloria.“Well, very well I think. It’s hard work down there. Work, trouble, toil, striving to create new situations, overcoming challenges, it’s quite exhausting!” replied Bob with frustration in his voice.“Oh?” replied Gloria “seems to me that you got everything you asked for”“Everything I asked for! Have you gone completely mad? I hardly ever got what I wanted. As I said, a lot of toil and trouble, broken dreams, disappointments, just plain hard work.”Gloria placed her hand lovingly on Bob’s knee and with a kind look gazed into his eyes and said “No Bob, really, you got everything you asked for. You see, the Universe is like God Inc and we have departments for everything. Order departments, dispatch, marketing, management, everything, and we’re all working for you. Let me show you.”

Gloria took Bob by the hand and took him into a very, very, very large building. Hundreds of people were milling around all over the place, carrying books, files, documents, people shouting across hallways and offices like a busy stock exchange, an absolute sight of busyness. “This is the order department Bob, look around” Gloria invited.As Bob looked around, he could see fax machines pumping out orders left right and centre, piles of documents several feet high on many desks, documents being passed from one person to another. He was amazed by just how busy it was. Gloria then took him by the hand to another room and in that room sat one person, with one fax machine next to her desk. As he stood there, the beautiful assistant received a fax which she read diligently and with a smile on her face, took a rubber stamp that said “Implemented” on it, and crashed it down on the paper with a look of sheer delight on her face.

Gloria took Bob out into the hallway and looked at him. “Did you notice the difference between the two order departments Bob?”.“Yes” replied Bob “Clearly that small office is for someone special, a senior soul or something and the other office deals with lots and lots of less important Souls”“No my dear Bob” replies Gloria “the small office is the order department for a woman on Earth who is clear about what she wants, hardly ever gives into doubt, doesn’t feel that she has to compete with others, and is clear about her intentions. The other office, on the other hand, is your order department.”“Yeah, me and half of Earth’s population” Bob retorted. “No Bob” Gloria replied gently “it is YOUR order department. All of those people and faxes work for you”.“They do?” asked Bob“Yes Bob, each one of them works for you every moment of the day” says Gloria “let me explain”.

Gloria goes on to explain to Bob that every request he sends out in thought is received as a fax by God Inc and implemented. She explains that Bob would send faxes saying something like “I want a new challenging career, which is well paid, where I am independent and self reliant” and the order is approved immediately by God Inc. Bob then goes for an interview and on his way out he sends another fax saying “I’m not sure I’m good enough for this job, they seem to be wanting to ask a lot of me”. Gloria then explains that this fax, like the first one, is approved and implemented, hence Bob does not get the job, and Bob in return is angry. Gloria takes Bob by the hand and takes him to the office archive where he can see every fax he has ever sent to God Inc.

He is stunned, so many contradictory orders concerning health, money, career, relationships, everything! For each subject there are two piles “orders” and “cancelled orders”. Bob was amazed to see that the ‘orders’ and ‘cancelled orders’ piles were equal in many cases, and in most cases, ‘cancelled orders’ exceeded ‘orders’. “But the truth is Bob” Gloria says to him “there are only orders. It is God Inc’s responsibility to fulfill your every wish and whim, we are duty bound to obey your every command. So when you send us a fax saying “I’m not sure I can do this” we have to honor it and fulfill that order through your life’s circumstances.”

Bob looks at Gloria with wide eyes and says “So I really did get everything I wanted?”

“Yes Bob” replied Gloria “every fax sent to us is honored fully and it’s a pity that you rarely read the faxes we sent you”“You sent me faxes? When? How often?”

Bob replies in disbelief“Yes Bob” Gloria replies with a gentle smile on her face “almost every day, but most of the time we simply got the busy signal, so we simply couldn’t get through to you. At times we would get creative and send a fax to a close friend who would read it you, but you never really listened or took note. Over the millennia, we’ve become very creative, we send faxes via friends, psychics, even hidden faxes through TV, Radio and many, many books, but you missed so many of them. A few times, when the line wasn’t busy, we did get through and you would read the fax with great interest, forget it, and then send us another fax asking for the same information. We would then re-send it, you would read it again, ignore it, forget it, dismiss it, whatever, and then re-fax us for the same information over and over again.”

“Didn’t you get tired with me” asked Bob“No Bob, never” replied Gloria “that is our job, we only noticed just how tired you were making yourself. So, dear Bob, I would like you to try again. Go back to Earth, upgrade your fax receiving equipment, pay attention to what you receive, and try to send us fewer, much clearer faxes in future. We are only here to help you Bob.”

_____________________
John L Payne is an internationally known metaphysical teacher, therapist, and author of “Omni Reveals the Four Principles of Creation” (Findhorn Press). http://www.fourprinciples.com/

Remembering to Breathe In

Just a quick observation, (which will probably turn into a long one...) One of the themes of this week has been our relationship to giving. How do we give? How freely and unconditionally do we give?

I haven't formulated any of this - it's just a spontaneous first draft as it occurs to me...

We're working from the premise that as we give unconditionally in a spirit of abundance, so we receive unconditionally in a spirit of abundance. Yet one of the things that has been coming up this week is the report from several participants that they feel that they do give freely, but at the same time, they feel that they give too much. How can this be? How can we possibly give too much and yet still be giving freely and without condition. One of the things that emerged was that in giving 'freely' of one's time (in particular) there was actually a previously unacknowledged element of guilt associated to the giving, guilt that it would be bad or wrong not to help another person in need. This seemed to address a major part of the issue but it bugged me that there was something else here that was really important to do with what is natural about giving and receiving.

It really became clear in a coaching session earlier today that in giving too much we may be forgetting to connect to the breath of abundance that supports us. As we breathe in, we receive - we take into ourselves that which sustains and nurtures us. As we breathe out, we give, as we express ourselves through the outbreath, we give away that which we have drawn to us and been blessed with by the simple virtue of us being alive. But, obviously we can't be breathing out all the time! There is a point that our body knows is the time to take a breath in, and when that signal is adhered to, all is well. We breathe, taking in abundant life giving oxygen from the source of our being, filling us up with energy that we can then authentically give out. As we explored last week, we need to connect to our own authentic rhythm and that rhythm is guided by the fundamental requirement to breathe. Learning to live in abundance is, in a very important sense, about learning to breathe properly. There is a clearly a consistent breathing rhythm to our individual in and out breath. There is also a breathing rhythm to the in and out breath in every energetic exchange with another, in each conversation we have. There is an in and out breathing rhythm of the sun as it lights the day and darkens the night. There is a breathing in and out rhythm to the seasons of the year. There is a breathing in and out rhythm to our life as a whole. If we are in harmony with those rhythms, we may live in abundance and all manner of miracles may be bestowed upon. If there is imbalance in our breathing rhythms, we fall sick, we become afflicted by fear and the belief in lack, whether it is lack of oxygen, lack of money, lack of love or whatever.

Let us be clear here, there is no more virtue in breathing out (giving) too much than there is in breathing in (taking) too much. Our perjorative culture suggests the former is good and the latter is bad, but this is twisted thinking. when there is balance in our breathing, when there is balance in our giving and receiving, we may live in abundant health and abundant wealth. So why don't we just drop this holier-than-thou attitude that giving is 'better' than receiving. Giving is receiving and receiving is giving. One cannot exist without the other, lest we fall sick, poor and ridden with guilt, resentment and fear. Give with joy. Receive with joy. Follow your bliss, as does the child. Surely there is no higher service to humanity.

I welcome your thoughts.

love John x

Your Gift to the World

What gifts do you and could bestow upon the world? In week two we identified our talents, our skills, we named our assets, that which we have that we can rightfully own. It was important and necesary to claim certain things for ourselves, to claim our own value, our own worth, as we often tend to get wrapped up with the values of others and deny our own worth, our own talents, our own skills. This week offers us the opportunity to make a shift in our perspective toward our talents and assets. This we week we are claiming them as our gifts.

We often speak of a person's gifts in the same breath as we speak about their talents, so let us be clear about and make an important distinction. The very nature of a gift is that it is not for us alone. A gift is something that we give away. A gift is something that we have that is of value that we give to someone else, that we give to the world. When we give authentically there is immense joy in our giving, and in giving we simultanously receive. The problem is that our cultural experience teaches us to attach conditions to our giving and we have learned to give strategically. We say to ourselves, if I give in this situation, what am I going to get back in return? We quite understandably want to know that when we give something, we are going get something of appropriate value back in return. Whether we give our money, our love or our time and attention, it doesn't matter. We expect something back that is tangibly connected to what we have given. I'll give you this if you give me that. The idea that a quantifiably measurable receipt is a requirement directly subsequent to our giving, and is a condition of it, is surely one of the most taken-for-granted, and yet misleading, assumptions that we have integrated in our thought process. It is misleading because it comes entirely from a place of limitation and separation.

If we are really going to embrace the idea that we are all interconnected beings on an interconnected planet, each of us interconnected with God, (the universe, the divine or whatever label you wish to place on the unlimited source of being) then we need a new paradigm that can embrace the act of authentic giving. When we give freely from our hearts, from that place of abundant love, trust and well-being, we automatically invite a response in kind. When we give unconditionally, we receive unconditionally. So the challenge of this week is to really get that by giving our gifts, our money, our joy in that free spirit of wealth and abundance, we raise our vibration to a level of unconditional reception - we literally open ourselves to receive. I know this is hard to get. It's still hard for me to get, even though I know it is true deep in my heart. The lie that we have learned to believe is that we are existentially separate, individual beings.

Anyone who has ever travelled in a so-called 'third-world' country cannot help but be touched by the unconditional generosity that is shown to them. People who we in the west might consider have nothing in comparison to us will often give what little they do have as a natural act of hospitality and welcome and they seem to do it without a second thought. On the occasions where I have been the fortunate recipient of such acts of spontaneous generosity, it has seemed to be as natural as breathing in and out.

I have been sharing a story this week with the course participants about a person I met a few years ago who runs storytelling workshops. At the end of a weekend workshop that I attended, this person, the facilitator of the course, asked us to write the name of someone we knew on a piece of paper. We all duly obliged and then he put the names into a hat. He told us that after we had departed and gone home, he would draw one of the names out of the hat and he would send them 10% of what he had made from the weekend through the post in cash with a card simply simply saying 'with love and gratitude'. No name, no explanation, just the gift. He told us that he had been doing it for years at the end of every workshop he ran and that his life had been filled with inexplicable miracles ever since he had been doing it. I will never forget the experience of love and joy that came over me being in the presence of that man as he told us his story and shared with us generous heart. It makes my heart sing to think of it. And it inspires me to follow his example.

A gift, however large or small, given with unconditional joy to another is a gift to oursleves and it is a gift to the whole world, for it clears a channel for the natural abundance of life to flow.

Love John x

Breathing in Abundance. Breathing Out with Confidence

So we're making the transition from week four to week to week five. We have contacted our inner core, the source of our being, and of our well-being, the origin of who we are; now it is time, in week five, to really practice expressing who we are with confidence and joy. The abundance breathing meditation really seems to be the key to allowing me to stay in touch with that abundant creative source, and the more I draw upon that source the more I feel able to really be myself, to be who I am, to know and to trust the flow of wealth and well-being to support and sustain me as I step out onto the stage of life. I breathe in abundance, and I breathe out with the confidence of who I am.

So in week five, we move symbolically from the mysterious, nurturing ebb and flow of the moon to the creative, life-giving energy of the sun. Astrologically, we move from Cancer to Leo, from the deep experiential knowledge of what it is to be sustained by our 'home', we can now step out and play, inspired by the creative fire that can now breathe itself into being through us.

So this week is about play. It's about showing off who we are. It's about performance. Its about creative passion. It's about giving of ourselves, generously and unconditionally. It's about riding a wave of good fortune, splashing out, expressing ourselves spontanously and letting ourselves be in the moment as we dance, sing and play. It's about risking the heart, taking a chance, inviting lady luck to be be our consort.

Let us Play.

love John x

Abundance Breathing & the Addiction to Stimulants

While I was doing my abundance breathing this morning, it became clear to me that the thread which weaves together all the addictions in my life is one of stimulation. I could categorise my addictions as those which involve mental stimulation and those that involve physical stimulation, but as we all know now from 'What the Bleep', there's actually no difference. What is mental and 'psychological' is necessarily also physical and 'physiological'. So as thoughts gushed in this morning at any available opportunity to distract me from my authentic sacred connection, I became very aware of just how addicted I am an to any distractive stimulant of just being in the present. I didn't give myself a hard time about it, I just practiced letting those addictive thoughts go, and re-centring myself on my breathing. And the thoughts dissipated, the addictive thoughts eased out of my consciousness and I found that each time they did my connection was more profound, more real, more authentic. It occurs to me that this meditative process is really a process of releasing addictions. Rather than judging ourselves as to how well we are doing in keeping our minds still, as if stillness were something to attain, it really became clear to me that this meditative practice is a process of release. The very fact that the thoughts show up should be welcomed because only then can they be released. By allowing those thoughts the existential right to show up in this space, rather than trying to deny them, we offer the opportunity to release our addictions, to move beyond them, and in the process of doing so, we may claim our authentic sacred connection.

Love John x

The Ecology of Being At Home Now

Something I've spent a lot of time thinking about over the past couple of years is the true meaning of ecology and the true of meaning of being 'at home'. I've pondered it, agonised over it, I've even written an MA dissertation about it!

We generally think of an ecologist as someone who cares for the natural world, someone who has an ethical concern for all the living creatures on the planet, and indeed, the planet itself as a living organism that can support and sustain all the life upon it. How different is this from the idea, purported by all the dominant discourses - patriarchal religions, Cartesian (and post-Cartesian) philosophy, and materialstic science - that the earth is simply dead matter, there for the explotative benefit of man with his supposedly superior mind. So why, on earth, are we humans constantly seeking to reconnect to its animate beauty, its plants, its animals, birds and insects, its rocks, its landscapes. Perhaps because the so called 'natural' world is, in an obviously real and embodied sense, our true and sustainable home.

The word ecology comes from the root word 'eco' an abbreviated form of the Greek word oikos which means 'home'. In fact this word can mean either a human home, a temple, or the home of the gods, or the astrological 'house', the natural home of a planet (as god or goddess). The word 'oikos' is a deeply spiritual word which resonates an energy of desire, the desire to reconnect to one's home, to reconnect to one's roots, the building of homes, the building of sacred temples. At a very profound level then ecology involves the spiritual practice of making a home, and of being at home as an expression of finding a suitable home for the soul.

We perhaps tend to think of ecology in a rather limited way, as 'the study of' our relationship to our environment. However, when we explore the second part of the word, -logy, we realise that the root word logos actually means more than just the study of something. The word logos is full of mystery and creative potency. 'In the beginning was the Logos and the Logos was God', as the first line of the gospel of John testifies. So ecology is really about the mystery of home, and the mystery of our connection to our spiritual home. As we search for our home in this world, we are also, in a very real way, searching for our spiritual home.

Existential philosopher Martin Heidegger described authenticity as the experience of being 'at home' in one's own being, and that authenticity exists in the human condition only as rare, but profoundly enlightened moments among a vast sea of inauthentic experience when we feel cast adrift from the experience of being at home. The authenticity of being 'at home' he described as an experience of 'dwelling'.

The commonality of responses among participants on the course this week to the question, 'what does home mean to you?' has been very interesting. A place of peace, connection, serenity, joy, love, warmth, a place to return to, the place to get sustenance and nourishment; time and again, the answers seemed to echo each other. Almost everyone connected the experience of being 'at home' to being in nature, to being surrounded by the natural beauty of the world around them. It would seem that home is very often experienced as a return to the natural world, a return to our own lost connection to the natural world and the divinity implicit within it. So really the only differences exist in terms of the interpretations how we have allowed our experience of feeling 'at home' to be violated. We all have our stories and we have defined ourselves by those stories. Whether we were abandoned, abused, controlled, smothered by love or denied love, we have become addicted to those very same violations of our authentic experience of home and have defined and limited ourselves by them. We give so much energy to those stories of the violation, of how we have lost connection to the sustainable source of our being, that we attract more of the same, in different guises perhaps - but with essentially the same thread of addiction.

It occurs to me that we have forgotten to honour our sacred connection to 'home' in much the same way that we, as a society, have forgotten to honour the earth, the natural world around us, our planet, our environment, our ancestry, our cultural traditions. Several people this week have bemoaned the state of their home - that it doesn't feel like home, that it's a mess, that it's too small, too big, too impersonal. Yet our relationship to our home may, in some important sense, reflect our relationship to ourselves - so by honouring our home, we are implicitly honouring ourselves. By honouring our environment, we are honouring ourselves; by honouring our family, our roots, our community, society at large, we are honouring ourselves. For we cannot help but dwell in each one of these, whether we like or not. So we can resent it, blame it, reject it, but we can never escape it, any more than we can escape ourselves. So if you dream of living in a beautiful place that satisfies all your desires as to what a home should be, begin by honouring the place where you are right now, beginning by engaging with the place you currently call home, as you would engage a sacred place. Create a sacred relationship with your home now and you forge a connection with your spiritual home now. From that place of connection, you hold the power of manifestation in your hands. Build your temple here and build it now - don't dream of it in some far off place, because if you do it will remain in that far off place forever.

Ecology, the mystery of home, is the mystery of where we belong, it is the mystery of who we are and it is the mystery of here and now. I actually like to think of ecology as the honouring or blessing of home. Be grateful for your home, be grateful for where you are right now. You could not be in a better place.

Love John x

Welcome Home

So we're into week four of the Living a Wealthy Life coaching programme. Here are some key words and phrases for this week:

connecting to the source of well-being / sustainability / being 'at home' / being in harmony with our own rhythm / honouring our roots / peace / sacred space / sanctuary

This week’s theme is about really connecting through our feelings to the source of our well-being. Astrologically, we are connecting with the element of water, the moon and the astrological sign of Cancer. So far, we have honoured the element of Fire, the planet Mars & Aries by connecting to our passion and our vision; we have honoured the element of Earth, Venus & Taurus by connecting to the energy of money, value and to the body; and we have honoured the element of Air, the planet Mercury and the sign Gemini, by connecting to energy of words and communication. This week we honour the element of water by connecting to our feelings and the the sacredness of 'home'.

Last week we articulated a vision statement and got in touch with the power of our words. This week, the aspect of communication we are concerned with is emotional connection. How do you feel? What makes you feel connected? What makes you feel most 'at home'? Often in our quest for change, we neglect the importance of feeling at home, feeling completely comfortable and at one in our being.

Part of what we will focus on this week is to identify the type of feelings that we can dwell in that we know come from a sense of unlimited well-being and are thus sustainable. We will distinguish these from the feelings associated with our cravings that arise from the unsustainable activities we are addicted to. What makes you feel good in a way that doesn’t produce a craving for more of that? If there is craving then there is attachment. If there is attachment, then is the good feeling really sustainable? Aren't you just trying to fix something that really wants to flow? In trying to get your fix, aren't you really just trying to hold on to something that can't be held onto? It occurs to me that when you try to fix something, that really wants to flow, you kill it. This is why this week, what we are concerned with is connecting to the source of our well-being, to the source of where we come from you, to the source of of who we are – what we might call 'home'. So what does home mean to you? What feelings are associated with home? What do you want home to look like, feel like? Where do you belong? Where do you experience a feeling of belonging? In what situations do you feel you can be naturally and authentically yourself? Has the spirit of home been violated in your life? Have you rejected ‘home’ in favour of career or independence?

Think about what happens when a society is uprooted and loses its sustainable source – its people become dysfunctional, substance-addicted, basically, lost. This week, then, is about connecting to that which sustains us, connecting to our roots, the roots of who we are, that which gives us breath, that which is our lifeblood. We may conceive this source as the Earth itself, as God, as our higher self, as our human family or as our human ancestry, or else all or some of these. Whatever our conception of this source, this is the week when we will practice connecting or re-connecting to it. In doing so, we will get in touch with who an experience of being at home with ourselves and getting in touch with our own authentic life rhythm.

The astrological symbol for this week is the Moon, queen of the night, whose monthly cycles enchant us at a feeling level, remind us of our bodies and their own natural cycles. The Moon puts us in touch with our innate instincts. To trust the Moon is to trust our gut instincts, to trust our feelings and to trust our own rhythmic cycle. The danger with the Moon is that we indulge the feelings of the past and reinforce our addicitions and dysfunctional habits. So this week we honour the past, we honour the roots of our being, we honour where we come from and we also recognise that we are connected to a source of nourishment that is not dependent upon the events, circumstances, or personalities that populate our personal history. Rather, we are connected to an unlimited source of wellbeing, that is all loving, all forgiving, all sustaining.

Love John x

New Year's Resolutions

As we welcome in this new year, 2007, we are probably all thinking about our new year's resolutions - that over-rated (and under-rated) and often rather self-conscious annual convention where we commit to breaking a habit or setting a positive goal for our lives. And how many times have we made that resolution and then become disillusioned within a week, or a couple of days, (or a couple fo hours!?) when we seem to have betrayed it and reverted to the old habit or become disheartened about our goal. So what's going on here? I've been thinking about this over the holidays and it occurs to me that the whole project of making a resolution is marred by the fact that we turn it into something we have to live up to, a standard we have to reach, something we really want to achieve but believe we probably wont because we know how we've been in the past around it and we judge the likelihood of it actually happening based on our track record. All the hope of the resolution seems to drain away the first time you have that first joint, cigarette or chocolate bar, miss the first yoga class, get angry with your partner, forget to meditate or oversleep. It seems to me that what we tend to do is to set up ourselves up to fail! We make a promise to ourselves, then we break our word - the problem is (and this really is the only problem) we then we beat ourselves up for breaking it! The resolution becomes just another stick to beat ourselves with. We will then tend to discredit the whole idea of making resolutions in the first place or simply discredit ourselves for been unable to keep a commitment. We throw the baby out with the bathwater, so to speak.

So I'd like to suggest an important distinction when it comes to resolutions, whether they are new year's resolutions or not. The distinction is between keeping your word and honouring your word. Simply defined, the keep your word is do what you said you would do. To honour your word is to be willing to acknowledge the commitment you made and be prepared to re-commit to your resolution even if you break your word. If we were bind ourselves to keeping our word, we set ourselves up to fail. However, if we commit to honouring our word, then even when we don't keep our commitment, we can still be honouring it, providing we can acknowledge that we haven't kept it and then re-commit to the resolution. This is one of several keys to successful resolution making. Honour the resolution, and honour yourself as the resolution maker, and recognise that even if you don't keep your word in a particular situation, this does not have to undermine either yourself or the resolution.

The problem with making resolutions annually, conventionally at the time of the new year, is that it heaps the pressure on you to keep to it - like you've only got one chance a year to make a change, one window of opportunity. This is patently absurd, of course. A resolution is powerful if it can become a daily practice. By making your resolution a daily one, rather than an annual one, you can begin again each morning, re-stating your resolution, your commitment, your vision, regardless of what may or may not have happened around it the previous day. It is through buidling a sustainable practice that you will bring your resolution about, not through some glorified, one time event.

I don't want to knock the idea of a new year resolution - I have made very clear resolutions myself this year - but I have made them within a ritual setting, witnessed by a group of trusted friends and each of us have made commitments to support each other throughout the year to encourage those commitments to bear fruit. I have written these resolutions on a piece of paper and they sit on my altar and I am revisiting them each morning.

One other thing I'd like to say about resoltuions, is that it is undoubtedly better to focus upon the feeling of being in your new reality (free of your craving, or self-sabotage pattern). Better to imagine the sense of freedom and possibility that being in that new reality will afford, rather than just say "I'm going to stop smoking" or "I'm going to lose weight". If you set it up with the focus on what you want to get rid of, you are focussing on the perceived problem. Focus on the new reality, on what you want. If you can really imagine what it would feel like to be a stone lighter, rather than focussing on the weight itself, you are likely to be much more inspired and much less under pressure to lose weight.

A very joyful and prosperous new year to all!

love John x