Forest Goddess Redux

Some more plays on the Forest Goddess / Forest Spirit theme - the hidden, sensed, almost seen:

Pachamama Healing Mandala

This is the piece I am showing in the Blue Door Gallery's "Healing Arts" show. I thought that I would add an offering element to the Pachamama mandala image as a way to energize the space and create an awareness of shamanic healing ritual.

Forest Goddess Variations

My recent Pachamama series got me interested in playing around more with the emergence of a figure from (within) the positive space of a veil of leaves. Here is a selection of Forest Goddess image variations including some calling upon her guise as animal spirit totem.

But a few of the Goddess variations I played with stand out in terms of 'hidden mystery' and embodied forest spirit energy. Check these out:

What do you want? (Dance of the Skeletons)

Official video for the song What Do You Want? from the Gotye album Boardface

Animated and directed by Lucinda Schreiber
Lucinda on Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/user1657924

*******************************************
What do you want?
What do you want from us?
To ask you this much is just a matter of trust
Not an affront
What do you want?

Few here'd be true to your point of view
If they knew
What you want
Who here would choose
To walk in those shoes
Even you can't

So what do you want?
What do you want from us?

What do you want
What do you want that you cannot say?
Show us the faith we're supposed to display
Come what may...
You can't!

So what do you want?
What do you want from us?
It's a matter of trust
That you tell us just
What you want from us

Spirits of the Redwood Forest

Redwood Spirit Circle ©2012

I just completed this image based upon a journey that I undertook a few months back. During the session, I found myself in a deep redwood forest with sunlight filtering in long beams down to the soft, damp, needle-covered ground. The scent of the redwoods filled the air.

I was wondering about this location - was I understanding it correctly or not? How did I come to be here? How did this connect with my original journey intent querying about running for public office?

Slowly I realized that I was not alone, but surrounded by tall, elongated translucent white figures shimmering in the sparkling light of the woods. I immediately understood them to be the Spirits of the Redwood trees themselves. I queried them as to their purpose coming to me. One replied that they came to call me into their circle and to offer me their strength and courage from their perspective of a thousand years of watching the world go by. "Stand tall. Be strong and courageous as we are. We will be with you." I felt honored by their presence and their support.

King of Mushrooms

From the lovely site Kingdom of Fungi by photographer TAYLOR LOCKWOOD.

Setting Intentions Daily

Kara at Conduit of Joy recently posted this set of guidelines for setting your daily intentions:


It is important to set your intentions every day.  Intention setting first thing in the morning sets your course for clearer sailing for the rest of your day.  Call it whatever you want – an invocation, a prayer – setting your intentions in the morning, makes sure you are best aligned with your guides, and helps your intuition function at its highest level all day long.


a) Be thankful for what you have already been given. Why would the Universe throw some more your way if you don’t already appreciate what you have?
“I thank you, thank you, thank you, for all the abundance and good that I have already received.”

b) Call on your Higher Self and Guides. You need to specifically ask for who you wish to connect with.
“Higher Self, power animals, spirit guides, I ask for your help today to lead me in the direction of my soul’s highest growth.”

c) Ask for assistance in tuning up your talents to their highest use. We are here on Earth to use our talents to their best expression to help ourselves and others.
“I ask that you make me the best channel that I can be.  Help me to best discern and provide the most relevant information, in the most understandable way for myself or others in our soul’s highest growth.”

d) Be specific in asking for what you need. Is there something specific today you need help with?  The more specific your request can be the more specific the guidance can be.  Being specific also strengthens your intuition.
“I ask that you help me today with knowing the right things to do and say in this job interview, so that I may move towards the job that is in my soul’s highest growth.

e) Make sure you practice good spiritual hygiene, so you keep only the guests you invite in your energy field.
“I close off my aura to all but my own Higher Self and those Beings of the Highest Vibration who are with me at the choice of my soul.”

You may wish to use some type of closing or gratitude again.  Some folks also use protections as part of their intention setting.  Your practice will vary with your personal beliefs, preferences and specific needs from day to day.  However, covering the basic elements will help you tune in to your best intuitive information all the time.

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For the complete posting see:  http://conduitofjoy.com/2011/09/22/getting-the-best-from-your-intuition-setting-intentions/

The Magic of the Spirit Realm

I periodically meditate on the issue of iconography (physical/visual form) and how this relates to the Buddhist notion that everything is MIND, everything is ONE (and so forth) according to deepest Buddhist teachings. Within these traditions, there is an understanding of the surface (apparent) truth and of deeper (hidden) esoteric truths. In the case of a figure such as Tara, she is seen as a female embodiment of the Buddha. Of course, ultimately, there is only one Buddha MIND such that everything is encompassed. To speak of Tara as a differentiated figure is thus somewhat misleading. Although she presents herself that way to the practitioner/meditator, deep down, it's all mind energy of the ONE (voidness)... Likewise, when the Buddhist teaching of death and rebirth are examined, the Bardo teachings, it is explicitly said that what you experience after death is based upon your expectations. The demons and protectors of the Bardo realm are a mental construct. Self projection of the mind's delusions.

Read more ->

Spirit Totem for My Birthday

In a recent journey, I was given an image to create as a totem for this emerging cycle in my life (or at least for the next few months of transition from fall into winter).

Sagittarian Vision Mirror Totem

The image shows a Snowy Owl perched atop a blooming Prickly Pear Cactus. Owl is holding a Snake in its beak. Behind Owl, in the night sky can be seen the blue-white star field of the Pleiades. Some of the major stars of the cluster mark the head and the tail of the Rattlesnake (in Owl's mouth). In many Mayan dialects, the word for rattle and Pleiades is the same.

Below the Cactus is a pair of flaming antlers - a shamanic gateway and protective sign. On either side sits a pair of Smoking Mirror hieroglyphs (based upon the Aztec variant of this Meso-American symbol with the vision plume merging from the mouth of the skull). The mirror represents contemplation, the smoking mirror is that of journey and vision quest by the Mirror Lord.

Owl has come to me over the last few months introducing itself as a new companion and power animal to guide and watch over me in this next phase of my life.

Upon receiving this journey image and during creation of the actual digital image, I was struck by the similarities of the central totem (Owl, Snake, Cactus) with that of the Mexican flag (Eagle, Snake, Cactus) - itself originally based upon an Aztec hieroglyphic place sign for their capital city of Tenochtitlan (where Mexico City stands today). Legend has it their leader was informed in a dream by the god of war, Huitzilopochtli, that they were to settle in the place where they would find an eagle on a prickly pear cactus holding a serpent. The place where they saw this sight was quite inhospitable - a swampy area in the center of three lakes - on a small island in the Lake Texcoco. This is where they settled and built the great city of Tenochtitlan with its Pyramids of the Sun and the Moon.

Plant Spirit Healing

This highly recommended book on plant spirit medicine is by Pam Montgomery. I read it last year and it changed my life.

A quote from her website:

The cover photo by Linda E. Law is of Lady’s Mantle. I sat with this image for the longest time wondering about the alien being that is so prominent. This being has a masculine quality to it and I was surprised to not see a more feminine being. Then in a flash I saw it wasn’t an alien after all but, instead, a wise old alchemist. I’ve started to call him Arturo and, of course, Alchemilla (Lady’s Mantle’s latin name) would reveal such a being. You will find that each plant reveals different beings, some are sweet and others are almost disturbing, just like life. These most amazing photos give you a rare opportunity to delve into the essence of the plant.

- Pam Montgomery

Ecstatic Body Postures - 2009

This posting will be updated monthly to present posture journeys based upon this year's new moon cycles. For more information about Ecstatic Body Postures, read my previous postings (below) and visit the Cuyamungue Institute. If you are in the New York metropolitan area, contact me and I will ask Marianne Carroll, our local group leader, to contact you with details about the next (monthly) circle.

Mayan Whistle Pose

02.24.09 - Pisces New Moon. Mayan Whistle Pose - This is a "living myth" posture - related to the Hero Twins of the Mayan creation story, The Popol Vuh. For this posture, I created a wide golden necklace matching that found on the original sculptural figure. The ceremonial collar is covered in hermetic hieroglyphs, with specific translations as indicated (see collar detail below).

The trance image is a composite of a number of trance experience as reported by the participants: at the bottom right of image is the rattle with "incense" (spirit smoke) coming off of it, producing the vision space of the ancestors (upper panel). We see a circle of 3 ancestors joined together in a ceremonial circle, each of them in the journey pose, and each wearing the golden collar covered in mystic hieroglyphs. Behind them / emerging from their circle is a pillar of fire and water. Within this portal / vortex can be sensed images of attending spirit animals - protectors and guides. We can see a pair of guardian wolves at the top of the image emerging from the smoke, further down in the mid-section, a pair of totem ravens. Thru the fire and smoke rises the (kundalini energy) snake of transformation. Finally, in the bottom left appears a white cave bear appears to ensure the ceremony results in healing for all.

Mayan Ceremonial Trance Collar

Feathered Serpent Pose

01.26.09 - Aquarius New Moon. This is a time of rapid portal openings and energy shifts: a solar eclipse falls on this new moon, followed 2 weeks later by a lunar eclipse on the full moon gateway. Meanwhile, Venus (in the evening) and Saturn (in the pre-dawn) play in the vicinity of the moon over the coming month... The posture figure is The Feathered Serpent, circa 6000BC-2500BC, found in areas as diverse as Bosnia, Siberia, Peru and India. The pose is classified as a Spirit Journey / Initiation pose.

Here is part of my journey notes:

I am in a desert landscape under a central tree - acacia. In the darkness around me I sense, then clearly see, a large number of animal totem spirits circling and dancing... As it becomes daylight, the spirit animals auras become indistinct, almost imperceptible. Yet I can sense them still dancing and cavorting around me in the landscape. The shadows cast by the tree leaves catch my eye - I see refractions of a full eclipse - a myriad of solar "beads" which glint and shine in synchronicity with the sun and moon conjunction in the sky above.

A hummingbird flies up to my ear and whispers "Let go, let it fall away. This is the time of transformation, of falling away, of stripping away the illusion - to reveal something new and unexpected under the old skin. A new world, a new world tree. Let the old tree come crashing down... let the old skin fall away. Do not fear. Help others around you through their fear of what seems chaotic, out-of-control."

The solar shadow play mentioned above is a real physical effect that I've had the pleasure to witness several times in "waking reality" - it occurs because the tree crown's leaf crossings randomly create a thousand "pin hole" camera-like apertures which transmit silhouettes of the solar eclipse, projecting a myriad of sharp, glittering eclipse images onto the ground below in the tree's shadow. The effect is strongest near totality.

Ritual Posture: Ecuadorian Spirit Journey

South American Lower World Posture

4.04.08 New Moon - This posture's spirit journey can be visualized as beginning with a descent through a hole, cold damp cave or a stairway to the Lower World of animal spirits. It may be used to locate one's power animal, totem animal, or spirit helper. Reports of healing such as soul retrieval may also spontaneously occur during this posture.

In my journey, a white Snow Leopard leads me through an "A" shaped Inca stone gateway along a winding path to a hidden valley with steep slopes and terraces planted with flowers. In this valley there is a spacious workshop, my herbarium, which I explore in detail. Elsewhere, in the distance, a large crowd is gathering under a prayer flag pole to celebrate Solstice.

Many other participants in this body posture workshop relate stories of animal guides, meeting power animals and removal of energy blocks.

Shaman's Journey Series

Its all here, folks - vision quests, sacred medicines (ayahuasca, mushroom, peyote, soma), spiritual guides, power animals, flower allies, "xibalba be" (The Royal Road, The Dark Road to the Underworld and the Ancestors), star gates and star ancestors...

Guardian of the Gate

Spirit Circle

Spirit Fire

Spirit Path

Royal Road / Dark Road

Shaman's Gate

Tutiwarai

Spirit Mountain

Spirit Tree