Finally published “Letters: Shamcher Beorse and Carol Sill”

I’m excited! So many thoughts and feelings related to bringing this book of letters out into the light of day, and I’ll be catching up on that in the next while. But for now, here is a photo of me, a proud mama of  the first box of books!

Wow. It’s been a long time coming….. and now I’m so very happy to finally have the books in hand!

212 Pages, Trade Paperback, 6" x 9", ISBN 9780978170554

What’s this book about? Find out more at the website for the book: Letters: Shamcher Beorse and Carol Sill, 1974-1977

I’m just so happy – the book is available now from Amazon.com and also on Kindle. And here, direct at CreateSpace. I’m still waiting on the iBookstore, but that will come soon.

Five Elements And The Feminine Divine Meditation – Video

My friend Jim recorded a conversation we had a few weeks ago about the elements and the divine feminine.

It’s now posted at the Meditation Techniques website, along with some commentary and context.

I really like the site, which has a variety of quick and easy techniques that anyone can do to find their way into meditation. We all know that changing your mind and heart and body happens at deep levels. These can best be accessed through inner concentration and meditative techniques that have been known down through the centuries by the sages and wise of all the religions and traditions. It’s great to see it becoming so accessible!

I thought I’d post the video here, too.

 

Mindfulness and Intimacy Retreat

I’m looking forward to the upcoming Women’s Mindfulness and Intimacy workshop with Nancy Mortifee, once again at Cascadia in Roberts Creek BC.  Three days on the beautiful Sunshine Coast! Sept. 24th -26th.

Click on the flyer to view the info full size

Connect at the Cascadia site

See Nancy’s info at Mortifee Training.

I Love “In Love with the Mystery”

Editorial work for Ann Mortifee’s new book and cd project, In Love with the Mystery, has been extremely satisfying and a personally deepening experience. Ever since I had the opportunity to work with curator Pavel Alejandro Barrios Sosa on the English translation of his catalogue essay on the group exhibition in Cuba, Los Artistas Majos, I have been yearning to editorially go deep into the meaning and implications of words on a poetic level. Ann’s project brought this to me, and it has been a great joy mining her words to ensure they are saying what her heartsoul was pouring out through her. Along with her exquisite inspired writing, there is also a beautiful music CD that accompanies the book, featuring Ann and her husband Paul Horn and friends.

The book is now available for pre-order, and it is absolutely beautiful. Photos by the renowned Canadian photographer, Courtney Milne are integral to the stunning design by Diane Jensen-Feught.

Find out all about it here on Ann’s new site.

Nancy Mortifee and I put together this new site for Ann’s work, giving her an updated web presence and a place that could be easily added to when her workshop and appearance schedule changes, and as the reviews and interviews happen around the book and other events. Just waiting for the video to come into place and it will be wonderful.

Yoga Nidra

I’ve become more and more dedicated to the inner practice of Yoga Nidra, something I had been interested in years ago through connection with Swami Rama. When I saw that the YWCA in Vancouver, an unlikely spot for inner yoga work, was featuring a class on Tuesday afternoons on Yoga Nidra, I was very excited and have been a regular attendee. The gym is filled with people lying down in savasana, covered in blankets, perfectly still and practicing Yoga Nidra.

Innerly, the process is extremely useful and can be a very high meditation. It also gives equillibrium, great peace of mind, stress relief and profound relaxation. The instructor for the class is very knowledgeable and gives clear, direct and no-bullshit instructions. There is no overlay of the kind of so-called spiritual advice, but rather a direct guidance to the straight goods, for you to find out for yourself.

After taking the class regularly, I interviewed Yogachaitanya, the instructor, for the project I was working on at the time, Open Source Spirit (this site is now in transition.) I’d include a video here, but wordpress.com won’t let me post it. You can find a link and CDs of the instructions for this Yoga Nidra, here at his site.

This practice of Yoga Nidra has been particularly helpful to me in the past few months, when my mother was so ill, and I was travelling back and forth, visiting her at the hospital and then at the hospice, and then after her passing. I just followed the instructions on my ipod and there was immediate relaxation and peace of mind that persisted within me through the days during one of the most stressful and intense times of my life. Using these instructions from the CD was a godsend, and kept me in the spirit of the process at its most meaningful, and the practice has remained helpful to me to this day.

Normally, I am not a fan of guided meditations, which I feel are more a form of hypnosis than training, and there comes to be a reliance on them, rather than self-aware involvement that is your own. In this situation however, I was very grateful for the assistance, and the leading of my conscious awareness into the openings of spirit.

Learning Life Lessons from the Labyrinth

While in Calgary visiting my mum in hospital, I discovered a finger labyrinth in the Foothills Hospital chapel. It was really a lesson in life to make use of this incredible meditation tool. Their version was in wood, and I could stand and trace the pathways with my finger. Don’t go too fast or you miss the turn. Just when you think you have it made, there is a sudden change, and you have to go with it. All this mirrored the ups and downs of mum’s good days and bad days, and so helped my linear logical mind to accept that these things have their own path and method.

Direct is not the way of the heart. I’m so grateful to have found this labyrinth at that time, and I really recommend that anyone who is looking for a “good work” to do: please donate a finger labyrinth to your local hospital chapel. It is a teaching beyond words.

New Quiz on Agrippa

I had fun today putting together another quiz on esoteric lore. Enjoy!

Test your skill!

New Quiz: Mantra and Meditation

Here’s another quiz – you can add your own questions to it if you like! Click on the image and you should go directly to the quiz page.

Overexposed

The heart is overexposed
In light too high to see with any eye
How can words be known here
Where all is blinded light?
The listening heart hears
The rush of love’s waterfall
As a million butterflies per second
Crash into the pools below.
On the mountain peaks
Siva wears his snake around his neck
Like a prize
He has let it out completely –
And uses it now as a garland.
Yearning toward this freedom
My own wisdom illuminates
The seven caves
All elaborately decorated with images of you.

(I’ve been reading over some of my earlier poems – I’ll post them here from time to time.)

New Quiz on Diamond Sutra

Just for fun I’ve been playing with the MyStudiyo’s quiz site – along with my interest in Open Source Spirituality. Please do the quiz and let me know what you think.

I tried to embed this directly into this wordpress.com site, but there must be something that doesn’t permit a direct embed here at wordpress.com. So there’s a link out to the Mystudiyo site. (I’ll try to crosspost this on another site as well, to see how it plays.)
There is another open version I’ll do next – it allows quiz-takers to add their own questions!