Search Results for: Sacred Garden

Creating Conscious Connection

Ashe
(“Ah-Shay”)
The Creative in me honors the Creative in you!

A shift is a gradual change.  It is like moving your sail a bit to catch the wind differently and thus steadily directing yourself to an entirely new destination.  I like that way of changing – a shift in focus that takes me to a new destination.   

I also like the idea of new possibilities.  It means that I can make a slight shift and from that new viewpoint, I can see new vistas, new directions, new possibilities – all by simply shifting my gaze. 

A possibility is not a “have-to” place to go.  A possibility is a place to explore, to consider, to try on for size.  You can take all of it or part of it or none of it.  

The idea is to shift – to turn our gaze, to look more closely at new options, to perhaps even explore a bit.  

Shift.  If we keep shifting our weight from one foot to another – we don’t go anywhere, but our view is different and our body is being used differently, all because we changed the emphasis, the focus, the weight from one place to another. 

Shifting can be like moving around furniture in a room or it can be like moving a dish a few inches on a counter to line it up better.   Small changes can make things align differently, open up new vistas, and create new possibilities. 

Shift your gaze. Center your attention in one place and slowly and consciously begin to identify the different energies and the feelings and sensations that viewpoint generates. Immerse yourself in the feeling of the energy, exploring the messages you intuit.  Change your gaze or your compete location to engage in a deeper experience of the messages of the energy you are aware of. The operative concept here is to shift.  Shift your gaze. Shift your thoughts. Shift your attentions.  Shift your intentions.   

How will you shift your gaze today?  Look closely at the new vistas it opens up. 

DEEPER SONG AFFIRMATION

I consciously shift my awareness and go adventuring.

DEEPER SONG PROCESS

• Close your eyes and notice how you feel, what you hear, how the air smells.  Let those experiences soak into you. 
• Now go deeper, leaving the physical plane behind, and shift your awareness to the Unseen World.  Leave behind all awareness of your body, or all sound, even of your breathing.  
• Where are you? What do you see?  What do you feel?  
• See where a gentle shifting of your gaze can take you?

OUR GLOBAL DEEPER SONG COMMUNITY

Our Deeper Song Community extends throughout the planet. Welcome new Deeper Song Explorers. I’d love to hear of your experiences – caralumen@gmail.com or let’s have a discussion on the Deeper Song Explorers!

 ===REFLECTIONS OF A DEEEPR SONG====

Step Beyond the Limits of Yourself

An Exploration of the Unseen World

“The Tao is vast and fathomless. You can understand only by stepping beyond the limits of yourself,” says Stephen Mitchell in the Second  book of Tao.

What does that mean? What are the limits of myself?  How do I do that?

The word “Tao” means all-ness, everything that is, everything that exists, seen and unseen.  Tao IS.

And here we sit, all stuffed into our limited bodies, relying on limited resources trying to understand this immense vastest.  Where do we even begin?

Cara Lumen, spiritual philosopher and Founder of the Deeper Song Community is a cosmic explorer who consciously travels into the unseen world to serve as a bridge to help us expand our relationship with the spiritual world. She shares what she learns and guides us to the next level so we can sing a deeper song.  

In this episode we explore

Step Beyond the Limits of Yourself

(17 Minutes)

(Listen Here)

Listen to
Reflections of a Deeper Song Podcast on
Apple / Spotify /Google

Important Links From This Episode:

Stephen Mitchell Tao te Ching and Second book of Tao

To Sing a Deeper Song Consider:

Can You Experience Your Boundlessness

How to Partner with the Energy of the Universe  

How to Build a Launching Pad for Your Inner work

Metaphorical Messengers and the Unseen World

The Power of Your Still Point

The Unseen World Needs Us

The Magical Power of an Affirmation

= ==INNER WORK ===

 The Empty Room

What if your life right now was like an empty room? You could bring into it only the things you like. What would you bring in?

I love the serene energy of a basic Feng Shui arrangement – usually 3-5 pieces. That might be a chair, a lamp and a table, or it may be a dish and plant and candle on a tabletop.  But I could never just choose three of anything for a tabletop or shelf. I am definitely not a minimalist and at the same time I appreciate the serenity of simplicity.

We get to become aware how just one more thing upsets the perfect balance.   

What is the first item you would bring into your inner room?  My computer has to come – for writing and learning and interconnecting. 

I would want my cat, Sebastian, to be with me.  We have a great interactive time. He is a supportive friend.

And then I would like a schefflera plant – a big one. I love those. 

A plant, a cat, and a computer.  Good so far.

I would like a place to rest and a way to feed myself.  

That makes for a fairly simple and clear space – until I bring in my crystals and my flutes and my drums…. 

But what I have established in my own mind is my priorities.  That helps.  

I recently gave away a lot of stuff.  My daughter and her husband helped me by hauling it away.  It was amazing how the energy in my home changed with that major letting go.  And I did gradually rethink and rearrange all the surfaces in my home.  Less crowded a bit, but very meaningful for my current awareness and nurturing to look at. 

If you were to begin with an empty room, what would you bring in and in what order?  And most importantly, when do you stop adding things…

Begin with an empty room…

Listen for the Messages of Your Heart

It’s not that your inner voice and the messages from your heart are different, it’s just that they are presented in a different way to help you interpret them. 

My inner voice picks up words and ideas that trigger a response in me.  I explore them and develop them. Some I keep.  Some I don’t.  I do that so often that I’m getting really good at it. 

I really had to stop to see how I hear the messages of my heart.  My heart spoke to me when I got super excited over helping a new friend find the words for her new website. I had a great time, the results were powerful and I had a marvelous time helping her figure out the positioning of her work.  Yes, it was mental but it made my heart sing. My creativity touches my heart.

Playing my flutes each day resonates to my core.  Sometimes it is simple melodies to nature that show up. Sometimes it is the specific songs I have composed for the directions and elements.  The melodies come from my deepest inner self and resonate throughout my body. They are definitely songs of my heart.

I’m in my mind a lot so I may need to practice listening to the messages of my heart. It will be as simple as looking for them. 

Having said that, my mind unerringly leads me to ideas and actions that make my heart sing.

We are a multi-faceted being and we get to access our actions from both our heart and our inner knowing.  Which is louder for you?  How will you turn up the volume?

Use Your Intention to Transform

We manifest things through our intention.  We set an intuition to do something and we do it.  We sent an intuition to change our focus and we do.  In shamanic journeying, we set an intention for our journey. At my altar, I set an intention for my day.  I set an intention for the energy I offer my work. 

Intentional intention….!

What do you intend for today?  What do you intend for your life?   Intention is purpose.   Intention is a plan.  Intention is a focus. Intention makes things happen. What is your intention? Think big.  Aim high!

The Dreams/Expectations You Were Given

So much of what we manifest for ourselves is based on a dream we were given.  An expectation for our lives from others.  Women my age did not have jobs, we were expected to get married and raise children.  Period. 

A young woman of today does not have that expectation for herself or her future. She has multiple choices and she goes exploring. And her expectations for herself are high. 

Let’s say your entire family is artistic and had managed to make their living as artists.  Not necessarily an easy thing to do.  But what if a member of that family is artistic but can’t follow in the footsteps of the others, even though the longing is great, the skill or know-how or whatever else it takes to succeed is simply not there? What kind of a wound does that make? Does he or she keep pursuing a path that is not theirs to follow?  

What did your parents expect of you? Is that the direction you chose? Did you fail to live up to their expectations?  Or did you far exceed them?

I didn’t realize I expected all my children to go to college until my first child was brain damaged by a forceps delivery at birth and that path was never an option for her.  I had to change my expectations. 

I took a very unique turn in my life that made me who I am today.  If I had not made that unusual and daring choice, my life would be quite different.  I have lived on both coasts and my metaphysical education grew by leaps and bounds. My choice.  My experiences.  My results. 

Pause and examine what your parents expected of you and how that helped or hindered you.  Have you put aside a dream because of someone else’s expectation of who you should be and what you should do?  Not just parents, but friends, spouses, even children have expeditions that you may or may not meet. 

Pause and notice what you expect from yourself and where that expectation came from. Are some adjustments in order?

===OUTER  WORK ===

Rethink Your Routine

Routine means a fixed pattern, a sequence you continuously follow.  It may be what time you go to bed, when you eat or when you walk your dog.  My cat Sebastian, has a very insistent routine that is guid not by a clock but by his stomach.  He reminds me it is time to feed him. There are all types of prompts that create a response or a reaction. It is the thoughtfulness that goes into your choices that determine their ultimate relevance to the present moment.

Question your choices.  Are they a response or a reaction? 

I have more free time than I have created for myself in a while, yet I want that time to be relevant, rich in ideas, fertile in offerings I can share.  And that’s all I need for now. Just keep your eye on your overarching goal, reset your routine and let your daily choices take you in the new direction you have chosen. 

Like Attracts Like

Pause to look at the people you have attracted to you. What are they like? Happy, angry, contemplative, jovial, serious, relaxed? They are a mirror of you.  How do you like your reflection and what would you like to change about yourself?

= ==DEEPEN  YOUR SPIRITUAL PRACTICE ===

The Offering

I bought the Lotus Incense Holder for – incense – but instead I am using it for my personal offering – with my breath.  It has a lid which I lift as if I were letting smoke out and I name what I am offering – “I offer my curiosity, my love of writing, my sense of adventure to my day and its unfolding.”

There are many ways to make an offering. I have some paper I can write on that dissolves in water.  You can light a candle, you can use incense, you can simply use your breath to make the offering.  You can put your hands together and made a small bow. What will you offer to your world today?  How will you offer it?

Spring Equinox, March 20

If you garden, you have begun to look over the seed catalogs to see what you would like to plant for the coming year.  We can do the same for our life in the Spring Equinox. What we plant now is what we will harvest in the fall (or sooner) and what will tide us over in the winter. What will you plant?

I have a foundational planting of alternating podcasts and newsletters that seem to be a very good balance that leaves me time to explore. Now is the time for me to choose other things I want to explore or deepen or learn.

My problem is that I let things unfold and I can’t put them into a list. 

But I can make choices and go exploring.  

For instance, I want to do more shamanic journeying into the unseen world.  It’s hard to figure out any details beyond that.

One of the crops I want to plant is to expand my spiritual practice.  That means more moving meditation like Qi Gong, expanded musical meditation with flutes and drums, and using writing as meditation as I explore my thoughts.

We are plants too, growing in the Garden of Self, but I have a few “Cara” Plants growing that I would like to have less of – some habits of omission (like the need to walk more). Do keep an eye on the unwanted plants that show up. A weed is a plant too, but when it shows where it is not wanted it is considered a weed…

The overarching tone of my Garden of Self this year is exploration.  What crops are you going to plant?

= ==DEEPER SONG  INSIGHTS  ===

Koan

Shenshan was mending clothes with a needle and thread.
Dongshan asked, “What are you doing?”
Shenshan said, “Mending.”
Dongshan asked, “How are you mending?”
Shenshan said, “One stitch is like the next.”
Dongshan exclaimed, “We’ve been traveling together for twenty years now, and you can still say such a thing!
How can you be so dense?”
Shenshan asked, “OK, then, how do you mend?”
Dongshan said, “As if the whole earth were spewing flames.”

If you want to study Koan’s, I highly recommend Illana Berger, PhD

illanaberger@gmail.com, www.illanaberger.com

Formation  

I drew the Oracle card “Formation” after having drawn “Ready But Waiting” a number of times.  So perhaps this period I have gone through of knowing change was forming but not knowing what it would look like is moving forward. 

Formation can be very slow, like centuries of layers of sediment gradually build up layers to become rock.  Or it can be a rapid change, like lava pouring over the hillside to change its shape forever.  Forming is about shaping, evolving.  It is change. It is an emergence.  Like a baby bird working its way out of the shell in its own perfect time, or a caterpillar securely wrapped in its cocoon and gradually changing form.  Formation takes patience and awareness of its subtle changes. 

What is forming in your life and how is it unfolding?

= ==OUR EVOLVING FUTURE===

A Path of Your Own 

The future is not about fitting into something that exists, it is about forging your own unique path, using the new technologies and concepts that are available to shape your own future.  

This is a time to celebrate your uniqueness.  To identify what sets you apart and cultivate that into a possible new path. 

This is no longer a time for figuring out how to fit into something that already exists because all that exists is in the process of changing, evolving, repurposing, and retooling. This is the time to make up a new role for yourself. 

I am listening to my inner voice make suggestions for slightly shifting my focus in a way that will both eliminate some of what I am doing and expand others. 

Whatever you develop, your path will be unique, yours alone, paved with choices that match your gifts, your interests, and your desire to serve.

Where you are standing right now is a result of the choices you have made along the line – both choices to do and choices not to do.  Identify what resonates, identify what led you to manifest that outcome, and create a path that is uniquely your own.

A Cosmic Question   

I heard the phrase “cosmic question” from Judge Merck Garland in his confirmation hearing for Attorney General in the US. It not only was an interesting phrase coming from a fact-based federal judge but I had to pause to figure out what it meant to me. 

I think it means to look at the over-arching impact. How far-reaching the answer to the question will be.  It means to look beyond the reason for the question into the potential impact of the possibilities the idea suggests.  What does that mean exactly?

A cosmic question means to look into the far-reaching consequences both for now and in the future and even in future generations.  What will this decision impact? Who will it impact? We are to look beyond the reason for the question into the possible and probable impact of the decision.

The most obvious example is our climate.  It’s not just about dropping our one plastic straw into the ocean, it’s about the zillions of other people who thoughtlessly do the same without any consideration for the future impact of that mindless act. Change is made in our consciousness -our conscious decisions, our conscious choices. 

When we do something, you can bet there are a whole lot of others doing the same.  What will our collective impact be?

Yes, we feel overwhelmed, but I control my own personal universe, as do you.  I am responsible for my own choices and for their impact. 

In essence, we are to ask a cosmic question about everything we do. Who will this impact?  What will it impact?  Is this what I want to do?

===MESSAGES FROM THE SACRED EARTH ORACLE CARDS  ===

Space

We need to give ourselves space to grow.  We need to give ourselves space to move.  We need to give ourselves space to think.  We do that with pauses. We do that with meditation. We give ourselves space when we simply pause to look out the window and connect with nature.  We open up space when we take a deep breath and move to our Still Point. 

Space is also about – well, space – the planets, the galaxy, the unseen world that is 95% of everything.  

Do you give yourself space to think?  To Feel?  To contemplate? To change?  How will you focus on space in the next few weeks?

Sacred Earth Cards

===CARA’S CORNER ===

Allow Time for It to Unfold

After many months of knowing change was coming. I finally and dramatically and totally had the vision come into being.  

I type my journeys as I experience them so when the clarity of this new direction finally kicked in, I went back to see what I had been told in my journeys of the last few months. 

The hints were there. In fact, they were more than hints.  I had just not been in a place to hear them.  Until suddenly I was and this next body of work became incredibly clear.  The Universe had to keep showing me the new direction a whole lot of times until I was ready to hear it.  

Guidance is there all the time. The more you listen, the more you hear. 

Journal, make some lists, gather more information, whatever form you need in order to make some of your ideas visible in the human realm so you can relate to them and consider them.  Write those ideas down in one place and when you are ready, you have a good-sized collection of potential answers.  

What am I going to do?  Process Podcasts.  Guided meditations that can be listened to multiple times that give you a different, individualized experience every time.  I have some processes recorded but not like these.  They are specific. These are about you filling in the experience.  So it will be different for you every time you listen because you will be accessing your inner wisdom. 

It takes time for ideas to unfold but when you are ready, they will be there in order to move you forward! Keep listening…!

===A DEEPER SONG ===

A new path opens, a new journey begins. 

A new path opens. A new journey begins and the road ahead widens.

A new path opens. A new journey begins and the road ahead widens to reveal untold possibilities. Here I go adventuring!!!!!!

-Cara Lumen

We create our future with every thought we think, every action we take.  Move forward mindfully as you sing your Deeper Song.

Namaste,

Cara

Come Sing a Deeper Song  

I help spiritual adventurers explore the Unseen World so that we broaden and deepen our personal journey and turn to share our discoveries with others.  We are guides and way-showers with our light held high.

Please forward this newsletter to a friend and suggest they
Join the Deeper Song Community