FOR SUPERIOR HEALTH, GREATER PERSPECT IVE , AND PEACEFUL L IV ING Vol. 6

only better

Pioneer of PossibilityALBERTO VILLOLDO

Shares His Personal Transformative Story

Heads-UpFacing Fear with Daniele BolelliHoly HolisticsRestore Equilibrium with MUDRAS

Knocking on Heaven’s DoorAn Interview with Dr. Susan Allison

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The Soul Discovery Coloring Book, Janet Conner Conari Press • ISBN: 9781573246859

A V A I L A B L E W H E R E V E R B O O K S A R E S O L D

only better!

Jan Johnson Publisher Emerita

Bonni Hamilton Editor

Jim Warner Design Director

Nicole Deneka Digital Coordinator

You Only Better is developed and distributed by Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC.65 Parker Street, Suite 7, Newburyport, MA 01950

youonlybetter@rwwbooks.com

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C O N T E N T SW H AT ’ S I N S I D E

4. Pioneer of PossibilityAlberto Villoldo shares his personal story about his path to shamanism

9. Heads-UpFacing fear Daniele Bolelli-style

11. Knocking on Heaven’s DoorSusan Allison answers questions about her new book You Don’t Have to Die to Go to Heaven

14. An Angel of a Dog from The Best Angel Stories

17. Five-Part HarmonyAshley Davis Bush provides a light in the dark to the grieving

20. Holy HolisticsLearn Prithivi Mudra (Earth Mudra) to restore equilibrium

22. A Seat at the TableCordials courtesy of Kami McBride

24. Embrace Your Inner MonsterThe truth behind Sagittarius and Capricorn

27. Magical KingdomA brief history of the pendulum

29. Random Acts of Kindness

Last C

all !

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P I O N E E R O F P O S S I B I L I Y

ALBERTO VILLOLDO

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Alberto Villoldo has devoted 25 years of study to the healing practices of the Amazon and

Andean shamans. This is his story.

While I always felt a calling to be a healer, I didn’t grow up wanting to be a shaman. Like many, I discovered my path as a result of seren-dipity and synchronicity. However, the urgeto dedicate my life to service in some way began in my childhood—a common thread in many of the stories that you are about to read. Many years were to go by before I could own my de-sire to become a healer and ascribe the name shaman to the path that called to me.

In my twenties, I trained as a psychologist, which prepared internship in a psychiatric hospital showed me how many different ways people could go mad and how few ways we had in the West to bring them back to sanity. I remember one patient in particular named Harold who made a powerful impression on me. The first time I met him, he held my gaze, unflinching, to a point that scared me. He seemed to be looking through my eyes, past my mind, and into my innermost self. Without thinking, the first words that came out of my mouth were, “Whom did you frighten that you ended up in a mental hospital?”

Still holding my gaze, Harold responded, “Everyone.”

Over the following weeks, I discovered that Har-old was not mad. Instead, the fine membrane that separates our inner world from our outer world was simply not there for him. He had an extraordinary gift: He could look into your heart and bring up secrets that you had hidden even from yourself. He was the first highly intuitive individual I had ever met.

One day, Harold said to me, “I know you are just a terrified little boy pretending to be a man and hiding behind your title, doctor. You’re still shak-ing underneath that bed, when the people were shooting outside your house. You are scared of what might happen to you if you ever come out from beneath the bed.” And then he laughed in my face and walked away.

I thought to myself, “This guy is really messed up.” But when I got to my office, I had to sit down in my chair, for I had begun to shake uncontrollably. I closed my eyes and images began to flood my mind: a frightened nine-year-old, gunfire and explosions in the distance, lightning-like flashes illuminating the perfectly clear night outside my bedroom window as I cried and trembled underneath my bed. Harold had no way of knowing I had survived the Cu-ban Revolution as a boy. Now, I was reliving the terror. I had been convinced I was going to lose my mother, my father, my sister, and ultimately my own life. How did he know? How had he been able to gaze so deeply into my heart and dredge up memories that I myself had worked so hard to forget?

No, Harold wasn’t mad. He simply had a gift that no one could understand, and he could not control. The only way he knew how to cope with his extraordinary gift was to frighten people away from him. This is what had landed him in the madhouse. I was only a graduate student working toward my PhD; the real doctors in the hospital were even more terrified of Harold than I was. Just what hidden, disturbing truths had he revealed to them? I realized he had dug

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out their dirty laundry from the depths of their psyche and hung it out to dry on the hospital grapevine. And they had no choice but to medi-cate his gift out of him.

The next time I saw Harold, he had so many drugs in his system that he simply stared dumb-ly at me. His gift was well hidden under a bush-el of antipsychotic pharmaceuticals, but I would never forget my glimpse of it. He had awakened me to the fact that I had to heal the war that still raged inside of me if I ever wanted to become a healer myself. Otherwise, that scared nine-year-old would be in charge of my nervous system and secretly making my deci-sions for me.

Working in the mental hospi-tal made me understand the severe limitations of West-ern psychiatry. We put away people that do not fit into the system, who scare others with their gifts, and for whom we have no place in our culture and society. Granted, there are people who hurt others and need to be treated; yet many of the individuals that I met at the hospital were pleasant and genial. Some were even geniuses. When their unusual talents went unacknowledged by the world, they began to hurt themselves and others. Their magic, their genie, kept escaping from the bottle, and we were trying to medicate that force into silence rather than admiring its power and helping people like Harold to harness it.

As for my own gifts, I didn’t have an inkling of them as a child growing up in Cuba, where I was born. When Castro entered Havana, I was just nine and didn’t know how to make sense of the fighting in the streets. Who was the enemy? The good guys and the bad guys all spoke the same language, had the same skin color, and were often members of the same family. It was a very chaotic and confusing time. When my fam-ily and I finally immigrated to Miami, I was ten years old, and I knew only four or five words in English.

As soon as I entered public school, I was tested to determine the level of my academic achieve-ment and aptitude. I still remember the intimi-dating interview with the school psychologist. He insisted that I look him in the eyes. Brought up in a Latin culture, I had learned that you did not look adults in the eyes because that was dis-respectful. When an adult was speaking to you, you showed deference and respect by looking downward, so I nervously resisted the examin-er’s demands to look at him. He kept grabbing my chin and forcing me to look into his eyes until tears were streaming down my cheeks. The results of this evaluation indicated that I was

developmentally delayed, what in those days was called “edu-cable mentally retarded,” and I was put in a classroom with children who were cognitively disabled. To my surprise, hard-ly any of them spoke a word of English or, for that matter, any other language. All of our com-munication was tactile—touch, gesture—and I was delighted. They didn’t know nor did they care that I spoke only Spanish. For the next month, I explored the world of blocks and colors,

climbing gyms, and ball games in the company of children who communicated without words.

A couple months later I was retested, this time by a Spanish-speaking psychologist at my parents’ insistence. They had been taken aback by my diagnosis, and had requested a reevalu-ation. The examiner was a very kind lady who realized that in front of her was a young boy who had been traumatized by war. After gently interviewing me—and not forcing me to make eye contact— she informed the school and my parents that I was a very bright boy and should be placed in the gifted classroom.

The following week, I was put in the gifted class and discovered that no one spoke Spanish. The only English that I knew was the year and date. The teacher would ask the other children how many members were in Congress or what Gali-leo had discovered, and then would turn to me

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and say, “Alberto, tell us the date and the year.” In my broken English, I would give her the an-swer. Triumph! From there, my education pro-gressed normally, but I never forgot that strange and traumatizing experience when I first went to school in the United States.

The patients I worked with at the mental hos-pital reminded me in some strange way of that classroom the school psychologist had placed me in when I was ten. Could it be that we doc-tors and students simply didn’t understand the language that these people were speaking? Could they also have been wounded, as I had been, and unable to express themselves in a way others could comprehend? Was there some strange war that raged inside of them that we were blind to? Unfortunately, there were no gifted classes avail-able for psychiatric patients, only medications that quieted the storms and left them meek and obedient. I realized I was lucky to have been diagnosed as developmentally delayed and hyperactive before these conditions were treated with Ritalin.

After my experience with Harold, and recogniz-ing the limits of Western psychology, I gradually became frustrated with my chosen career. In my training I was taught that every problem with the mind was due to bad parenting or childhood trauma. What about the spirit world? What about the extraordinary psychic abilities of some of my patients? An even greater interest of mine lay in a branch of study that had not been invented yet: medical anthropology. I wanted to explore the mythology and healing methods of indigenous people. I was eager to learn the definitions of the normal and the extraordinary, particularly as defined by those descended from the ancient cultures of the Americas who had inherited a rich legacy embedded in symbolism and story.

The man who awakened my interest in the field,

and with whom I would later coauthor two books, was Dr. Stanley Krippner, a renowned parapsychologist who had spent years study-ing the positive side of psychic phenomena. He showed me that what was cutting-edge research for us in the West had actually been part of the fabric and healing practices of ancient cultures. What had happened to these civilizations that built cities in the clouds in places like Ma-chu Picchu, that had constructed regal Mayan temples and pyramids, that had designed the ancient city of Teotihuacán in central Mexico? At the time of the conquest, Teotihuacán had a higher standard of living than London and

its inhabitants lived longer and healthier lives than their counterparts in Paris, Rome, or Madrid.

Inspired by Dr. Krippner, and with a meager research grant to fund my studies in my early twenties, I made my way to the Peruvian highlands to explore the lost cities of the Andes and meet the descendants of the Inka, the “children of the sun.” The Inka civilization was short-lived, lasting only

from 1200 until the arrival of the Spanish in the 1500s. Yet during that brief period they had consolidated an empire larger than the United States. They built over 13,000 miles of roads plus irrigation canals and glorious cities on moun-taintops. Fascinating as their architecture was, what intrigued me the most were the legends about men and women who could look into the hearts and souls of men—much like Harold had looked into mine. They were the Earthkeepers, preserving the wisdom of their ancestors, by an illness of the spirit. They were not only able to peer into the darkest places of your psyche, but to help you heal those wounds that were hid-den even from yourself. They were the p’aqos, or shamans, and their modern-day progeny had a rich inheritance I hoped they would share.

I arrived in the city of Cusco, the capital of the Inka Empire, as a young anthropologist looking for adventure, with a backpack full of dreams

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A Shaman’s Miraculous Tools for HealingAlberto Villoldo • Hampton RoadseISBN: 9781612833491

and a head filled with Western notions of sci-ence and psychology. Peru was a dangerous place then, with bands of terrorists occupying mountain villages in a country dominated by chaos and social inequality. Once in Cusco, I was fortunate to meet an old Indian who would become my first mentor.

Proud to wear my shiny new badge of PhD, sure that my beliefs about the nature of reality and the human mind were the only ones any intel-ligent person would hold, I was about to have my first shocking encounter with the shaman’s worldview. The first thing my mentor pointed out to me was that there was a difference be-tween information and wisdom. If I wanted to learn the timeless wisdom of the ancient Ameri-cans, I first had to empty my swelled head of all the facts and information that I had confused with knowledge. He explained that information was knowing that water was H2O, while wisdom was understanding how to make it rain. Infor-mation was knowing a diagnosis, while wisdom was being able to heal. He described how illness manifested in tissues and organs but was always caused by sickness of the soul. This ran contrary to my academic understanding. I had believed until then that the body, organs, and tissues were the only reality, and that the soul was this ephemeral and ungraspable notion described only by religion and in the vaguest of terms.

“The first thing you have to heal,” my mentor said to me, “is your ignorance. You are full of facts and figures but have very little wisdom.” And thus began my journey into the world of the shaman. It would take many years, and many more humbling encounters with shamans far wiser than I—and many more experiences tripping over my ego and falling on my face in the brush alongside the road to genuine wis-dom—before I developed any mastery of the fundamental healing practices of the shaman. I have described these practices in detail in my previous books, particularly Shaman, Healer, Sage: How to Heal Yourself and Others Through the Energy Medicine of the Americas. In A Shaman’s Miraculous Tools for Healing, you will see these practices in action, in the setting of actual healing sessions.The stories are told by men and women I have

had the privilege of working with. Each story illustrates a core healing practice of shamanic medicine. Each individual embarked on a heroic journey, having exhausted the possibilities for healing offered to them by Western medicine—their lives and health as they had known them had been taken away from them in some way. Their healing journey took them from deep despair to hope, from pain to compassion, and helped them repair their bodies and mend their souls. The men and women you are about to meet came to me desperately in search of healing. Often, their problems seemed to be merely physical. However, a shaman knows that all physical ailments are the result of disturbances in the soul, known to them as the luminous energy field, or LEF, which surrounds a person’s body and informs it at a cellular and biochemical level like a magnet influences a pile of iron filings. Shamans heal by entering non-ordinary reality to transform the energies and information encoded in the LEF—the blueprint for the body’s state of health and well-being.

Although I played a key role in my clients’ quests for health, I didn’t “fix” or “heal” them. Shamanic work always involves a dance be-tween the shaman, the one seeking help, and the Source of all healing. I brought to my clients the energies and insights they needed to begin

their healing journeys. And along the way, each of these men and women taught me valuable lessons about the nature of healing, deepening my awe at the elegant dance between ourselves and Spirit.

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H E A D S - U P

In the beginning was fear—the fear that everything that has a body experiences once it realizes we live in a predatory universe; a universe in which absolutely everything gets to be eaten… if not by the sharp fangs of a predator, then by time itself. And Fear became our God. And it began to rule over our lives, shrink our willingness to dare, and rob us of the beauty of it all.

IN THE BEGINNING WAS FEAR

An Essay by Daniele Bolelli

Fear is written in the deepest layer of our DNA. You can’t run away from it. You can’t escape it. It’s so pervasive that plenty of people try to exorcise the demon. Religions, philosophies, advertisements, motivational speak-ers… They all tell you if you make the jump and follow their cure, you’ll

no longer have anything to fear. They tell you that there are no monsters hiding under your bed. They promise you safety from everything you fear. They promise you a sense of empower-ment. They promise you victory against all odds.

The reality is that they are trying to sell you something.

The monster is indeed under your bed, after all. The reality is that you have every good reason to be afraid, because everything you fear is on your tracks right now, and will eventually catch up to you and destroy everything you loved and everything you are.

Welcome to the world, motherfuckers.

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Not AfraidDaniele Bolelli • Disinformation BookseISBN: 9781609259983

So, why “not afraid?” Wouldn’t it be more ap-propriate to be “Scared shitless and rightfully so?”

Because being scared doesn’t help you. Reality is uglier and harsher than anything we like to admit to ourselves, and yet it’s pointless to be scared since your fear will not protect you. Fear is only useful if it alerts you to a danger you can avoid, but if there’s no possible way to avoid it, if it’s inevitable that it’ll crush you no matter how hard you fight, then what’s the point of being afraid? If you have no hope of survival, what’s left to be afraid of?

The only thing you’ll succeed in doing is spoil-ing this very second when the forces that will destroy you haven’t stepped onto the stage yet.

Yes, you will not get out of here alive. But so what? All the more reason to celebrate right here and right now. Let’s pop the champagne before all hell breaks loose. Squeeze every last ounce of orgasmic ecstasy from the present mo-ment. And when the monster finally climbs out from under your bed, at least you’ll have a good reason to smile before he devours you. You are already dead. Let’s have a party in the mean-time.

Dr. Susan Allison answers our questions about her new book You Don’t Have

to Die to Go to Heaven.

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A ray of light comes down and I fly within this beam up higher and higher into space, and suddenly I crash right into a star that blows up into a million pieces and its fragments flow inside me. I grow into a new star with such bright light that it penetrates hearts, the land, the sea, starfish and babies alike. I fall down, down to earth and receive this message: “You are a star being, filled with light, and your task is to bring light to the world, to help heal the sick, help the blind see, the maimed walk, to restore faith to those who are lost. Your healing vibration is increased tenfold, and you will feel the power in your hands. We are counting on you!”

Becoming Light

K N O CK I N G O N H E AV E N ’ S D O O R

Q: What inspired you to write this book?

A: This latest book is a culmination of twenty years of sha-manic journey work, including teaching individual clients and groups how to go into trance and travel to spirit worlds. I always want to empower readers and in this book anyone can learn how to visit spirit worlds and bring back insights that can trans-form their lives. I also want to help people to no longer fear death or worry where their de-parted loved ones have gone. It is a mission of mine to change the way we as a culture view life and death.

Q: What is shamanic journey work and what are the levels of the spirit worlds?

A: I define shaman-ic journey as travel in an altered trance state from this world of ordinary reality to

Dr. Susan Allison answers our questions about her new book

You Don’t Have to Die to Go to Heaven.

A: For centuries shamans have been going into trance and journeying on behalf of their tribes, meeting with spirit helpers in alternate realities and bringing back information and ways to heal the sick, find food and water, and solve dilemmas within the commu-nity. The shaman also augmented his or her own power and did this as well for those who were ill. Today, the aver-age person can learn how to do shamanic journey, usually for personal transfor-mation and to help others. The purpose is similar to the goals of ancient peoples: to ask for wisdom from spirit allies in order to improve one’s life and the lives of one’s fellows.

Q: Why did you write the early chap-ters about animal helpers in a lower

world and spirit allies in a middle world? Why not just write about the upper worlds and a level of heaven?

A: It’s very im-portant that readers practice doing sha-manic journey to the other worlds first in order to invite power animals and spirit helpers to support them in their many journeys. Traveling to the upper worlds is much easier and more fulfilling when read-ers have animals to carry them and allies to accompany them on their quests. Also, it is helpful to under-stand the context of journey work in the earlier chapters as well as mythological and cultural information such as the history of The Tree of Life and Jacob’s Ladder before spirit traveling to up-per realms.

Q: What qualifies you to write this text?

alternative worlds that are non-ordinary. In other words, shamanic journey is spirit travel to other dimensions of reality. The shaman or shamanic practitio-ner can go into a deep trance state usually by listening to a rattle or a drum. Then they dissociate from their own body and physical reality and journey into an alternate real-ity that the shaman calls the spirit world. These alternate re-alities are often called the lower world, the middle world and the upper world, and in each realm the person journeying can engage with spirit beings such as totem animals, spirit allies and higher beings like angels, soul family members and divine teachers.

Q: What is the purpose of doing shamanic journey work and going to spirit worlds?

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A: I have been actively involved in shamanic community since 1993, studying with four major sha-mans, Michael Harner, Alberto Villoldo, Brant Secunda and Hank Wesselman, doing two vision quests and immersing myself in Plains Indian tradition. I am a shamanic prac-titioner and use jour-ney work with most of my clients, teaching them to travel to spirit worlds and even to journey into the world of their own bodies and minds. As a life-long student of medi-tation, an ordained minister and energy healer, a hypnothera-pist and transpersonal psychologist, shaman-ism is an additional tool I use for my own growth and transfor-mation for individual clients and groups.

Q: You have said there is no death and we are all immortal. How do you know?

A: For over two decades I have been going into trance and spirit traveling to alternate realities, to worlds beyond this one. All this time I’ve known that we are souls having a physical experience on earth, and this has espe-

cially been proven to me this year after my husband’s transition. Now that Tom is a spirit without a body, I still feel his energy, hear him speak to me and see him in what I call a level of heaven. He looks radiant and full of light, with a youthful, muscular body, long dark hair and a vibrant energy. I can visit him anytime I wish and we meet be-yond the sun in heav-en, on a white sand beach to the right of a Greek temple where my soul family and divine teachers are. My husband is there with my parents, and Jesus and other guides also share their wis-dom with me. Through direct experience of the divine, I know for a fact that there is no death for us as souls; we are immortal.

Q: What is some of the wisdom that your own spirit allies have shared with you?

A: Every journey is unique and each visit to a spirit world of-fers different insights. In general, my spirit helpers are always honest and positive. They often tell me that I am on the right track and they are proud of me. At times they

share more specific input, whether about my relationships or my work, my health or my spiritual practice. They will tell me if I am not journeying of-ten enough, and when I show up, there are weeds in my sacred place or no helper is there. My allies have helped me to become a much better person through adventures, tests and experiences that show me what I must change and who I need to be-come. Once when I was being bossy and demanding, one of my animal helpers dropped me into a rushing river. He also left me in his nest to think about my be-havior and finally re-turned and asked, “Are

you teachable? Are you ready now?” Very humbly, I answered, “Yes.”

Q: What do you mean by the title of the last chapter, “Bringing Heaven Home?”

A: The final chapter is about how to use all the insights from the previous chapters to improve one’s life here. It invites readers to look at all the jour-neys and all the guid-ance by spirit helpers and apply these teach-ings to specific areas in the real world such as: healing past life issues, relationships, spiritual practice, self-care, health, profes-sional life, creative expression, leisure and service. The chapter offers readers a way of creating heaven on earth, of establishing a plan to increase the joy, love, passion and purpose of one’s life, letting go of what no longer serves, and em-bracing what is truly the soul’s calling.

You Don’t Have to Die to Go to HeavenSusan Allison • Weiser BookseISBN: 9781633410022

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K N O CK I N G O N H E AV E N ’ S D O O R

An Angel of a DogLois Spoon

Meet Lois and Becky and the dog who drew them together.

When I found a marble-size lump in my breast I tried to tell myself it was nothing. I was forty-two and had enjoyed good health my whole life. But deep down I knew better: My mother had died from breast cancer, which meant I was high risk.

Finally I summoned my courage and called the doctor. A mammogram and a biopsy confirmed my worst fear. The lump was malignant and doctors advised a radical double mastectomy. I agreed to have the surgery. And although all of my medical questions were answered and my husband, Robert, and son, Luke, gave me end-less amounts of love and support, I kept a lot of my worries to myself. I wished for another woman to talk to. Someone who understood completely what I was going through. Lord, help me through this. I feel like I’m on my own.

Only days after the four-hour surgery I was released from the hospital, but I still seemed to

spend more time with doctors and nurses and counselors than I did at home. I went to physical therapy every day, but rehabilitation was slow. Simple things such as rolling down a car win-dow or opening a jar of peanut butter hadbecome painstaking tasks.

Then at a follow-up visit with my oncologist I got even worse news. The cancer had spread far into my lymphatic system. “Frankly, Lois, we can’t be optimistic about the prognosis,” the doctor said, unable to cushion the blow. Even with chemotherapy, the odds of my surviving were small.

Back home I sank onto a chair and watched the rain through the window. I had never felt so completely alone.

I got up to draw the curtains when I noticed a Siberian husky trotting up the front walk as if he knew just where he was going. I’d never seen

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him in the neighborhood. I went over to the pic-ture window. The dog cocked his head slightlyand studied me. He came closer to the window and I saw he had one blue eye and one brown. For a few moments he stared at me, then went to sniff around the front yard.

Wait a minute, I said to myself. Where did I just read about a missing husky? I grabbed the previous day’s paper from the coffee table and thumbed to the lost and- found section in the classifieds. There it was—a description of a lost dog exactly like this one. I went to the phone and dialed the number listed. A woman answered. “I think your dog is in my yard,” I told her.

“I can’t believe it,” she said. “Wolfy’s been miss-ing for weeks. Please give me your address. I’ll be right over.”

I hung up and went back to the window. How could I make sure the dog would stay until his owner came for him? Robert and Luke were out, and I couldn’t restrain the big animal on my own. It would be hard to control him if I let him in. He seems content just to sniff around outside, I thought.

Sitting back down, I tried to keep an eye on the dog as he wandered around the yard. In about ten minutes a knock came at the door. “I’m Becky,” the woman said. “Where’s my Wolfy?”

“You don’t see him in the yard?” I looked for myself. “Oh no! He was here just a second ago.”

“I’ll check around the neighborhood,” she said. “He couldn’t have gone far.” The woman re-turned about twenty minutes later. “Well, he’s managed to disappear again,” she said. “But I’m grateful you called me.”

I felt awful for Becky. That, on top of my own problems, got me dabbing my eyes with a tis-sue.

“Are you okay?” Becky asked.

“Yes,” I said. But she persisted. “You sure?” All of a sudden a gush of tears poured from my eyes.

How could I let a stranger see me like this?

“Let’s talk about it,” Becky said, patting my arm. Something told me it was okay, and I invited her in. “My name’s Lois,” I said. We sat on the sofa, and I explained what was happening to me. She listened to every detail. When I finished she put her arms around me.

“Lois, I want to tell you something,” she said. “Four years ago I had the exact same diagnosis and the exact same prognosis. Just like you I was given little hope for survival. But here I am. It can happen to you too,” she said. “ God will stand by you every step of the way—and so will I.”

That day I gained immeasurable strength from Becky. I confided all my deepest fears to her, and it made me feel better when she said, “I know what you mean. That’s how I felt too.” She became a wonderful friend, always knowing just the right words to encourage me when I didn’t think I could stand another round of chemo. Sad to say, though, she never did find Wolfy—God had other plans for him.

It’s been six years since my surgery. I beat the odds. With Becky in my corner, I’m not sur-prised. I think it’s safe to say that a dog only heaven could have sent wanted me to meet her.

The Best Angel Stories Editors of Guideposts • Conari PresseISBN: 9781633410077

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F I V E - PA RT H A R M O N Y

When we lose someone close, it’s easy to feel unmoored.

We need to find a rhythm to our days and new ways

to connect with the ones we’ve lost. Ashley Davis Bush

shares a few daily meditations for the month of March

from her new book Hope & Healing for Transcending Loss to help us do just that—small doses of comfort

and hope for getting through your day when you

are still heavy with grief

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March 1There is no expiration date on grieving. Even if your loss happened years ago, now could be the time to revisit feelings that you didn’t honor way back when. Know that grief can be opened, examined, felt, and processed many years after the loss. It’s never too late to grieve. Perhapsnow is the time.TodayLook back in time . . . Is there a loss from the past that is waiting for your attention?

March 2Notice how you are supported in your grief . . . through friends who understand, family, online communities, religious groups, mentors, and counselors. Know that needing support is not a weakness—it is a sign of being human. We all need and deserve to be supported on our journey.TodayCall a friend and let them know how you’re really feeling.

March 3It is natural after a loss to ask the question, “Why?” However, we will likely not know the answer to that question in this lifetime. A dif-ferent question to ask is, “What now?” Living into the answer of that question means to learn, grow, keep your heart open, reach out to others,keep your relationship with your dear one vi-brant, find meaning, and turn your attention to those still here.Today Ask the question, “What now?” and be open to living into an answer.

March 4Give yourself time to grieve, to ride the waves of pain, to share with others, to reach out, and to draw in. Give yourself time to turn toward grief, to express your feelings, to learn, and then, bit by bit, to begin to embrace life. Let yourself be

in the process of grief and know that you will be supported

by a love that is woven into the fabric of your being.Today

Give your grief time.

March 5With grief, it is as if you are living in a well of tears. The well is deep with the accumulated pain of profound loss. However, at the bedrock of the well is a foundation of gratitude. It may be difficult to contact it, but gratitude is there. Aren’t you grateful for having had this belovedperson in your life, for their love, for your love for them, for having had the privilege of know-ing and loving them?TodayRemember that gratitude is your bedrock.

March 6The Old English root of the word bereavement means “to rob.” You will often feel like you have been robbed of your loved one, of precious time with them. Know that it is normal to have this feeling, and allow yourself to recognize the pre-ciousness of your loss.TodayKnow that you are not robbed of the ongoing love that still exists.

March 7There is a new relationship unfolding between you and your loved one. It is based on memory, on spiritual presence, on dreams, on felt-sense, on LOVE. The relationship you knew, based on form, has re-formed into something different but equally powerful. Even as you continue to love them this change will unfold.TodayOpen yourself to the new relationship that is emerging, a relationship of spirit and love.

March 8Grieving is exhausting work. Some days your energy is simply so heavy, so down, so weighted that you can barely get out of bed. Let the heavi-ness be. It won’t always feel this intense, not every day; but for now, it does. Be gentle and permissive with yourself. Rest when you can.Today Give yourself permission to rest.

March 9It is common for people to try to minimize your pain: “Oh but you had so many years together,” “You’re young,” “You’ll have other children,”

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“You’ll find someone else,” “It was only a pet.” People do this because they have such a hard time with pain (yours and/or theirs). Know thatyour pain is acceptable. You don’t need to mini-mize it or hide it.TodayDo not minimize the vastness of your pain, no matter what anyone else says.

March 10Most people are terrified of dying. However, when you have a dear one who has already crossed over, death sometimes becomes less frightening. The sting of death has been taken away. In fact, it’s typical to look forwardto the time when you will be reunited with your dear ones. Just know that until that time comes there is a reason for you to still be here.TodayReflect on how your views of your own death are changing.

March 11Grief is like a massive storm—a hurricane, a tsunami— that sweeps through your life, leav-ing destruction and devastation. You hold on tight but recognize that you cannot control the storm. However, you can reach out to others also affected by their own storms and begin to rebuild together.TodayCall another griever today.

March 12Let the photographs of your loved one be a tes-timony to a rich life filled with love and happy memories. Yes, images can sometimes cause a slice of pain as you remember what is lost. But be open to a shift whereby photos also remind you that each dear relationship is still a part ofyou, intrinsically woven into your heart and soul. These pictures honor life.TodayAllow yourself a quiet time to look through some photographs of your loved one.

March 13You might think that you’re doing better and then suddenly dissolve into tears with virtually no warning. Perhaps a song, a smell, a memory

Hope and Healing for Transcending LossAshley Davis Bush • Conari PresseISBN: 9781634410039

triggers your sorrow. Know that no matter how many years have gone by, you will occasionally have these grief “bursts” that take your breathaway. So intentionally breathe deeply and let it be. See each burst as another way to connect to your loved one.TodayIf grief bursts through, let it do so without your judgment.

March 14It helps to believe that your dear ones are in a place of supreme beauty and intense divine love. Although you’d rather that they be with you, knowing they are so cared for can bring immeasurable comfort. Without this belief,grief can feel even more painful. Open your heart to the possibility of something else, and keep holding open that door of possibility.TodayBe curious about the promise of something more, of mystery.

March 15Grief is not something that you get over; you learn to live with and accommodate it. Love is also not something that you get over; you learn to let it shine through you. Your dear one is always with you, part of you, watching over you. Let the love that you were gifted radiate

through you. This will make your grief more bearable.TodayLet your dear one’s love shine through you.

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H O LY H O L I ST I C S

Mudras—also playfully called “finger power points”—are yoga positions for your hands and fingers. They can be

practiced sitting, lying down, standing, or walking, at any time and place. Here we share the Prithivi Mudra (Earth Mudra),

which can eliminate energy deficiencies.

PRITHIVI MUDRA

•Place the tips of the thumb

and ring finger on top of each other, using light pressure.

Extend the other fingers. Do this with each hand.

Do as needed, or use three times a day for 15 minutes.

•U20

The Prithivi Mudra can eliminate an energy deficit in the root chakra. Whether or not you feel psychologically or physically strong and vital is largely dependent upon this energy. This finger position also intensifies the sense of smell and is good for the nails, skin, hair, and bones. If you feel uncertain of your steps while walking, the Prithivi Mudra can restore your equilibrium and trust. This mudra also activates the root chakra, in which our elemental force resides. We can compare this chakra to the grafting knot of a rose. The potential for the ap-pearance and nature of the plant is found here; the roots sprout into the ground from this point to give the plant stability and absorb the nutri-ents. The stem and leaves grow upward from this point to connect with the light, to blossom and bear fruit. Without reservation, this image can be applied to human beings as well. We also need stability and nourishment to grow and be effective in our place in the world. The purpose of our lives is to connect with the Divine, which means we must also orient ourselves toward the light and open up like a flower that is being pollinated. For us, this may mean experiencing

grace. So this mudra can give us everything that we need for a meaningful life. I use it when I feel insecure and need inner stability and self-assurance. More-over, it stimulates the body temperature, the liver, and the stomach.

MudrasGertrud Hirschi • Weiser BookseISBN: 9781609250584

EXCERISEStand or sit on a chair. Keep your feet parallel and their soles flat on the ground.

Inhalation: Imagine that you are absorbing Earth energy through the soles of your feet. Guide it up through your legs, back, and throat into your head and far beyond into the cosmos. Hold your breath for a few seconds.

Exhalation: Like a golden rain, the energy sinks back to Earth as the renewing force. There is a balance between taking and giving. Now imagine a catch basin in your pelvic floor and let the energy rain flow into your pelvis.

Repeat this a number of times.

AFFIRMATIONThe power of Earth gives me secure stability, staying power and assertiveness, self-assurance, and self-confidence. The power of the cosmos gives me enthusiasm, pleasure, and joy.

(Earth Mudra)

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A S E AT AT T H E TA B L E

, proportionsThe only difference between making a cordial with fresh versus dried ingredients is how much you put in the jar. Fresh plants contain water and take up more space, so you use more of them. ¾ jar finely chopped fresh herbs and fruit¼–½ jar dried herbs and fruit

, making a culinary tincture1. Prepare your ingredients: crush dried herbs in a mortar and pestle as much as possible. If using dried fruit, finely chop the fruit with a knife. Fresh herbs and fruit should be chopped fine.

2. Fill a clean glass jar with fresh or dried herbs and/or fruit according to the proportions above.

3. Pour the alcohol over the herbs and/or fruit, filling the jar to the top.

4. Put a lid on the jar, label the jar with the date and contents, store it in a dark place, and let the ingredients infuse for one month. Make sure your fruit and/or herbs stay covered with alcohol. Oc-casionally check to see if you need to add more alcohol, as some of it may have been soaked up by the plant material. This tends to be more of a problem with fresh ingredients than with dried. Especially check your mixture the first few days after making it. That is when fresh herbs often ab-sorb the alcohol, in which case you will need to add a little more alcohol to cover the herbs and/or fruit. The alcohol should cover the ingredients by at least 2 inches (5 cm).

Making Herbal Cordials, decantingAfter the ingredients infuse for one month, you will participate in the ancient art of decanting (a fancy term for straining out the plant material from the alcohol).

1. Place a funnel into the mouth of a clean, steril-ized jar and lay the muslin on top of the funnel.

2. Carefully pour the alcohol through the mus-lin and funnel, letting the muslin catch the herbs and fruit, and being careful not to let them spill into the jar. If the herbs and fruit spill into the jar, get a clean jar and start over. 3. Allow all the liquid to strain through the cloth into the jar. If you are using dried herbs or dried fruit, squeeze the rest of the liquid out of the dried plant material through the cloth into the jar. If you are using fresh fruit, do not squeeze the muslin, or you will end up with a cloudy extract. When making fresh fruit cordials, just let the liq-uid drip through the cloth.

4. Discard the herbs and/or fruit. Add it to your compost or just put it on the dirt in your garden. The liquid left behind is the herbal tincture and the beginning of your cordial.

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, sweeteningOnce you have decanted the herbs from the alcohol, you now have an herbal tincture that needs to be sweetened in order for it to be clas-sified as a cordial. The amount of sweetener you put in is up to you. Traditionally, one-half part sweetener is added to one part tincture to make a cordial. Once you strain the herbs and/or fruit out, pour the liquid into a measuring cup to see how much you have. Divide that number in half, and that is the measurement for the sweetener.

, making a cordial with vinegar Vinegar cordials are made in exactly the same was as alcohol cordials. The only difference is in whether you soak the herbs in vinegar or alcohol. I make vinegar cordials and use them in salad dressings and marinades. One thing to remember when making cordials with vinegar is that the cordial has to be stored in a jar with a cork or plastic lid. Vinegar eats metal and will corrode the metal lids.

, storage Because of their high alcohol content, cordials are viable for years. Cordials made with fresh fruit are the least stable, depending on the amount of water in the fruit. Plan on a shelf life of one year for fresh fruit cordials and a couple of years for everything else (but most likely they will disappear long before then!)

The Herbal KitchenKami McBride • Conari PresseISBN: 9781609252939

rose-cardamom cordialThis dessert cordial is great added to ice cream.

1 cup (48 g) finely chopped fresh rose petals or cup (66 g) dried rose petals

1 tablespoon (6 g) finely chopped fresh lavender or 2 teaspoons (1 g) dried lavender

1 teaspoon (1 g) finely chopped fresh peppermint or ½ teaspoon (1 g) dried peppermint

1 teaspoon (2 g) powdered cardamom

2 cups (500 ml) brandy, or to cover by 2 inches (5 cm)

½ cup (174 ml) maple syrup to sweeten

relaxing lavender cordialThis cordial can help you digest your dinner and relax at the same time.

3 cups (216 g) fresh lavender

1 teaspoon (2 g) powdered nutmeg

4 cups (1 L) brandy, or to cover by 2 inches (5 cm)

2 cups (740 ml) honey, or one-half part, to sweeten

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STINKING SAGITTARIUSNovember 23 to December 21

E M B R AC E YO U R I N N E R M O N ST E R

L aissez les bonne temps roulez, Sagittarius. Life’s a freaking party, and you’re the guest of honor. If you were born under the sign of Sag-ittarius, congratulations, you’ve rolled lucky seven in the giant craps game that is life.

For anyone who has never had the pleasure of knowing a Sagittarius up close and per-sonal, they’re the type of people who give off a friendly, warm vibe twenty-four hours a day. It’s disconcerting, like they’re able to cast this spell and draw people into their tractor beam without even trying. Sagittarius is the new girl in school who moves to town, immediately usurps you as the teacher’s pet, then makes out with your boy-friend, and invites all your friends to a movie marathon sleepover at her house. The Sagittar-ius invited you to the sleepover, too—Sagittar-ians always invite everyone to their parties—but you’re too annoyed to go, so you stay home and bitterly bite through an entire bag of Peeps, alone, in front of the television instead. This may be hard to believe when you’re brutally de-capitating marshmallow chicks, but you’ll probably come around eventually and become besties with that Stinking Sagittarius.

One of the qualities that attracts everyone—except for the most bit-ter and cynical people out there—is the jolly Sagittarian sense of humor. Sagittarians are really, genuinely funny. Not always funny in a clownlike way, but

they have the natural wit and timing to add a sparkle of fun to conversations. Sometimes they’ll cross the line, however, and get fast and loose with their humor. This can really hurt thin-skinned friends. Sagittarians tend to hide their true emotions behind their jokes, which can give them a sort of sad-clown-Pagliacci-type-feel when they get down in the dumps. This makes for awkward social interactions and should be avoided.

Sagittarians are represented in the zodiac by the centaur—half-man, half-horse… strong, free, a good shot with a bow and arrow, and magnani-mous by nature. While other signs in the zodiac torture themselves over right vs. wrong, good vs. bad, Sagittarii are generally immune to this sort of impotent self-sparring. They do put a lot of thought, however, into their place in the Uni-verse and the role(s) that they should assume in their time on Earth. When they dream, they dream big, but luckily (and of course… they’re

always lucky) they have a little help from their friends. Rarely is

there a story of a Sagittarius who truly pulled him- or

herself up by his or her own bootstraps without the generous help of a friend or relative. Sagit-tarius may tell the story differently, but—deep down—they know they’ve

mainly been carried on the shoulders of others.

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CURSED CAPRICORNDecember 22 to January 20

Y ou don’t suffer fools, Capricorn. You don’t waste your time trying to protect people’s feel-ings with trivial efforts such as “being nice” and “having manners.” Manners are platitudes better left to the feeble-minded or lazy. And you think pretty much everyone is either feeble-minded or lazy—usually both. Incompetence is a plague on this land.

Try to relax, Capricorn. Take a breath and turn the tight little corners of your mouth upward into a smile. You come off like an incredibly frigid fish when people first meet you and it is hard to get through your armor to know the real you. When your inner circle does get to see the real you, they’re in for a treat: they’ll get to see the over-sensitive, over-reactive, suspicious, jaded side of you. They’ll also get to know your pervasive pessimism, general grumblings, and your quick temper.

Those closest to you also get to know your in-sane workaholic side. You don’t care how long it takes to get the job done right… you’re going to stay at the office and figure it out. You’ll miss dinner, and if the work’s still not done, you’ll just go in at dawn to finish it off. You wear blind-ers when you’re trying to achieve a goal, and not much can slow you down. Other people can gum up the works when they constantly seek your advice. You’d like to refuse, but you have a strange and stubbornly charitable streak. More importantly, you tend to be insecure and really don’t want to be seen as Scroogelike. You know that most people already think you’re a wet blanket. Unfortunately, no matter how charita-ble you are with your advice, you aren’t likely to change their minds. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. Hell is other people, eh, Capricorn? Capricorn, the Sea Goat, will always be the zodiac’s antagonist.

The truth is that each sign has its own terrible qualities and its own fatal flaws. In

this issue we look at Sagittarius and Capricorn. Sagittarians are foolish, putting

their own short-term happiness above anything else. Capricorn has to be right all

the time. Capricorn would rather assume that everyone else on planet Earth is

brainless than admit to being mistaken about anything.

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your incompatibility ratingSAGITTARIAN INCOMPATIBIL IT Y RATING

ARIES—often a bit overcautious and faint-hearted for you.TAURUS—they want to settle down; you want to settle up and get the hell out.GEMINI—lead you astray, but you were going there anyway.CANCER—bring you down with a bola made of apron strings.LEO—they like to lay down the law; you like to jump over it.VIRGO—they whine that you never remember trivia, like their name.LIBRA—you play the field; they play My Little Pony.SCORPIO—get incandescent when that controlling with the eyes thing just doesn’t work.SAGITTARIUS—dead cert for a death-by-misadventure pact.CAPRICORN—they have developed a foolproof casino system; where’s the fun in that?AQUARIUS—intellectual anti-hero meets anti-intellectual stuntman.PISCES—wet and clingy, so they cramp your skydiving style.

CAPRICORN INCOMPATIBIL IT Y RATING

ARIES—you know what they say about separating the sheep from the goats? Well, it’s true.TAURUS—they do it their way; you do it your way.GEMINI—tease you mercilessly in front of the neighbors.CANCER—they take pity on lame ducks; you shoot them.LEO—you grovel ingratiatingly to royalty; they walk all over you.VIRGO—nothing either one of you does is ever good enough for the other one.LIBRA—they are your trophy partner; you are their meal ticket.SCORPIO—despise you because your ambition is so obvious.SAGITTARIUS—saw through the rungs of your career ladder.CAPRICORN—who is this rude, self-opinionated curmudgeon?AQUARIUS—they’re on Mt. Chalk; you’re on Mt. Cheese.PISCES—always slide off the hook just when you think you’ve got their life organized for them.

Bad BirthdaysSarah Christensen Fu • Hampton Roads PublishingeISBN: 97816128333237

Incompatibility ratings courtesy of Darkside Zodiac by Stella Hyde.

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M AG I C A L K I N G D O M

AUGURYThe belief that we can see into the future is as old as mankind itself. We have always been captivated by tomorrow and what it may hold; future events can be, and have been, foreseen. There have always been rituals, methods and techniques for opening the ‘universal’ space that has its never-ending roots in timelessness. Everyone looks for good luck in the future, in-cluding atheists! No matter what religion, creed, or beliefs a person may have, they all have one

A Brief History of the

Pendulum27

thing in common: paying tribute to the most elusive goddess of them all—Lady Luck. The personification we call Lady Luck today is the modern incarnation of the Roman goddess For-tuna, whose role was to shape and control the destinies of humans. She was considered to be a bridge between human expectations and the realm of the gods. The Wheel of Fortune derives from her: when you’re at the top, all is well; at the bottom, the only way is up!

But even 2,000-year-old Fortuna is the new goddess on the mountain. Many of the meth-ods of divination are thousands of years older: Each culture throughout history has had its own understanding of fortune’s revelations, and the ways that can be used for living in the good and avoiding the bad.

ROMAN TRADITIONToday’s pendulum user is a lineal descendant of the ancient Roman priest and official called an augur. His role was the practice of augury, interpreting the will of the gods by studying the flight of birds. The ceremony and function of the augur was central to any major undertaking in Roman society; his duty was not to foretell the future, as such, but to discover whether or not the gods approved of a proposed course of action. This was known as ‘taking the auspices.’ We even retain these words in our modern language: when the outcome of an enterprise or activity appears to be promising we say ‘it au-gurs well,’ or it is ‘auspicious.’

This Roman custom constitutes the background, along with that of the earlier Delphic Oracle, to today’s practice of divination, of which pen-dulum practice is a part. The earliest use of the word ‘divination’ appears in 44 BCE.

YOUR PLACE IN HISTORYOther practices were added to divination as time passed. Those most directly related to pendulum use fall under the general category of sortilege—the casting of lots. The word ‘sor-tilege’ comes from the Latin word sors, which means lots, and the title Sortilegus was given to

the person who was the reader or the diviner via means of this process.

Broadly, the practice involved (and still in-volves) holding an object or group of objects in the hand or hands while imbuing them with the question for which an answer is sought, then casting them through the air: It was believed that the answers were ‘in the air,’ and that, as the lots moved through it, they became impreg-nated with the answer; causing them to fall in a certain pattern. The answer is then divined from the pattern made by the objects in their landing positions. The movements of the pendulum are derived from the same source.

Among other practices of sortilege are: astraga-lomancy—the ancient practice of casting bones; cleromancy—the casting of dice and runes; geomancy—sand casting; and the I Ching—casting of yarrow sticks or coins. Among the Babylonians, Arabs and North American Indi-ans, arrows were used because of the nature of the way they pierce the air—flying forward into the unknown. Each arrow was specifically marked, and could be cast down to the ground or just drawn from a container.

Just as through history, we still engage the space and allow the pendu-lum to bring forth the unseen. Today, in-stead of looking at the patterns made by the lots, we read the movements of our pendulums. Thus you, should you be a pen-dulum user, are taking your place at the end of a long line of history.

How to Use a Pendulum for Dowsing and DivinationDr. Ronald L. Bonewitz and Lilian Verner-Bonds Weiser BooksISBN: 9781578635894

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R A N D O M AC TS O F K I N D N E S S

Pass It On

In the mid-1980s, my husband and I were financially well off, so we decided to take our Christmas money and do something to benefit someone in need. We knew a couple struggling with a failing business, three

young children, and the possible loss of their home. We gave them money and told them that we did not want to be repaid but that when they got back on their feet, they could pass it on to someone else in need. Just a few weeks later I met the recipient of our gift. She told me that part of our wish had alreadycome true: they knew another family in even worse circumstances than they were in and had given half of our gift to them. What kindness! Our giving was from our surplus but their giving was from need.

More Than Enough

A friend who was working in the Dominican Republic with Habitat for Humanity had befriended a small boy named Etin. He noticed that when Etin wore a shirt at all it was always the same dirty, tattered one. A box of used clothes had been left at the camp, and my friend found two shirts in it that were in reasonably good shape and about Etin’s size, so he gave them to the grateful boy. A few days later he saw anoth-er boy wearing one of the shirts. Whenhe next met up with Etin he explained that the shirts were meant for him. Etin just looked at him and said, “But yougave me two!”

Random Acts of Kindness Then and NowConari PresseISBN: 9781609257620

We do not remember days, we remember moments.—Cesare Pavese

The world is in desperate need of human beings whose own level of growth is sufficient to enable them to learn to live and work with others cooperatively and lovingly, to care for others—not for what those others can do for you or for what they think of you,

but rather in terms of what you can do for them.—Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

How to Use a Pendulum for Dowsing and DivinationDr. Ronald L. Bonewitz and Lilian Verner-Bonds Weiser BooksISBN: 9781578635894

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