Animal Communication

I was so moved by this amazing film that I must share it with all of you. The Animal Communicator directed by Craig Foster and produced by Vyv Simson asks a very important question: What if you could talk to animals and have them talk back to you?

The film’s description tells it all: “Anna Breytenbach has dedicated her life to what she calls interspecies communication. She sends detailed messages to animals through pictures and thoughts. She then receives messages of remarkable clarity back from the animals.

Anna can feel the scars hidden under a monkey’s fur, she can understand the detailed story that is causing a bird’s trauma, she transforms a deadly snarling leopard into a relaxed content cat – the whole animal kingdom comes alive in a way never seen before – wild birds land on her shoulders, fish gather around her when she swims, and wild unfamiliar baboons lie on her body as if she is one of their own.

This is the first full length documentary film on the art of animal communication.”

This is a gorgeous and moving film that asks us all to look deeply into the eyes of our fellow planet mates and see the love, life and intelligence that lives there just as it does in each of us humans. I personally love animals and every time I look into the eyes of one of them I cannot fathom how it is the we can see them as inferior. It is time to recognize that animals are not some kind of simpleton that we can treat with incredible cruelty and they will not feel it. They also have feelings, memories, loves and hates just as we do.

To watch the 52 minute film click the link below:

The Animal Communicator

Your Life is a Gift

Well, I am inspired. I just listened to an Awakening Zone interview that Sandie Sedgebeer held with Anita Moorjani earlier this year.

Anita was diagnosed with terminal cancer. She actually did die and hence the title of her book, “Dying to be Me” but she was offered the chance on the other side to return and she chose to do so. Her story is so compelling, her understanding so beautiful. I love that she says that in many of our various cultures we actually think that this life is only preparation for life in the hereafter and that heaven is only after death but she knows that is not true.  She says this is where we must achieve our state of joy, love, connection, and self-love.

Anita brings incredible insight to our confused state of being and doing. With her clarity born of her near death experience she shares the profound importance of all of our lives. She points out the subtle, incorruptible connectedness that we all live within. She shows us how naturally we relate to those who are actually on the other side. She stresses the importance of life in form and gives understanding of what life without form is.

I have read tons of books about NDE’s, past life stories, angel encounters and encounters with heaven and rarely have I heard such a clear, grounded and loving voice. I can’t wait to read her book. I welcome you to listen to her interview first if you want. Anita comes in about 1/3rd of the way through Sandie’s show.

Anita can be found at AnitaMoorjani.com.

2012

I woke up early this morning, actually it was still the middle of the night, and I was so excited to be in 2012. I was so excited I felt like I did when I was a kid and Christmas was coming the next day. I call 2012 “magical year” Why you may wonder and I also may wonder? I am not quite sure why except that I now know that the gifts of 2011 were great and I know that by my own personal inner shift much enlightenment has grown within me so I only expect more of the same for 2012.

2012 is a year of extraordinary promise & prophecy, which nourish either our fear or our hopes. So many have written about it, talked about it and even made movies about it and at this point – the very opening of the year – we can still have no idea what it really will be like; doom and gloom or a brand new world. All I know at this point is that by my choice to live within a hopeful, life affirming focus, that is what I will get. 2011 was proof of that for me. So for 2012 I choose to believe in heaven, angels, faeries, beneficent aliens, good politics, banks of service, serendipity in business, good and supportive friends and all that is life affirming.

Looking back I find that 2011 was the year that I think I mostly settled in the now. Yes, now, and that is a huge achievement, something I have been working on for probably eons although I only realized this was my mission relatively recently. Living in the now is such a relief. It seems there is more time for everything, things get done in just the right time and in just the right way. There is far less angst about what happened in the past and what might happen in the future leaving me with the joy of savoring what is going on right now. Serendipity and miracles seem to find space within the now that they can never pry open in the future or in the past and yet there is something about living in the now that changes both the past and the future. 2012 is about living in the now.

Gregg Braden speaks eloquently about zero point and explains complex science of the shift of the ages and how we are moving into no time or now time, where linear time collapses into the now. All this is great but seemed nosense to me until I began to actually understand now time on a completely different level of consciousness. Discoveries in physics point out that time is an aberration. Ancient sages tell us that we live in a dream world and that our true nature is in all time. But this is so perplexing, it is almost the craziest koan out there and stops the brain short. In spite of that living in now time, now I have the faintest inkling that the sages are right and the we are eternal, it rings true and feels comfortable to me. The realer than real world of our spirit seems closer to me in now time.

It used to be that when I took on a project it was about accomplishing the task, finishing quickly, efficiently and producing a good product. More and more it has become about filling the moments with joy, reveling in now. So I am choosing projects that really pay off in the moment and the relevance of the end result is far less important to me. I guess this is “life as art”, there is no determined outcome but what really counts is the joy of exploring the process and stopping when the product feels finished. I am so much happier now than I used to be in my “work” mode. I suppose it should be called “fun” mode.

For New Year’s Eve we share a gift exchange with our friends. This year the gift was to be homemade. Of course everyone was a bit stressed about it even me and I can make so many kinds of things. Anyway I chose to make something not typical of my skill set – a lamp. My strengths lie in fabrics. I had such a great time making that lamp. It was so much fun creating something different and beautiful out of stuff that was around the house – a curtain rod, plate, some stones, a piece of veneer and some silver leaf. I do admit that I have some kind of unusual stuff kicking around, being a crafty person. The project was so satisfying and stretched my sense of what I can do. Also I was so impressed and delighted to see all the marvelous things my friends could make which ranged from baked goods, to plantings, pictures in frames, another lamp, artwork, jewelry, pottery, glass work, carpentry and more. I think everyone enjoyed their assignment. I know for me it was a beautiful affirmation of the great value in making something for the love of the making and the joy of giving all done in the very precious now.

Proof of Heaven

Here it is, seed germination of our harmonious, golden future. We must nurture it and let it grow.

This is an extraordinarily beautiful picture from the Occupy Wall Street Facebook page of Christians protecting Muslims at prayer. I found this image so moving that I could not stop thinking about it. I take it as proof that we are on the right track toward the golden age that has been promised by so many prophets. It is our birthright.

Out of Sync

This is why I need this blog because one day I’m in the groove and then I’m right out of sync in no time later. Why did the ouster of the Zuccotti Park occupiers drag me down so? I feel a general malaise that fogs my mind and makes me really wonder what kind of state we live in. It looks like a police state out there now, the park is ringed shoulder to shoulder with riot police and multiple barricades. But it is my job only to manage my inner state and not that state out there that is wild and crazy with people pushing and shoving, grasping, arguing, complaining and insisting that they are each right. How can we ever succeed in resolving this duality out there? I personally do not think that we can. So I’m not going out there to try, I instead am going to focus all my attention in here and look very carefully to see where it is in my own mind that I support that duality of discord.

I am blessed, we are all blessed with great teachers to help us in these “interesting” times. Today I finished a lovely book, “Angels in My Hair” by Lorna Byrne and I was reminded to employ my angels to resolve any problem that drags on me or anyone I wish to pray for. Excellent advice. In times when the problem seems insurmountable this is a great time to employ our angels and pray. That focused and yet surrendered practice creates abundance of inner space for our consciousness to shift thus allowing our reality to shift with it.

Again I was emailing my niece, Gillian and she reminded me of the Bhagavad Gita, a book I have read three times and love. It is perhaps the best guide to dealing with and understanding duality and conflict ever written. I am ready to read it again. The most valuable advice I remember from the book is to, “perform inaction in action and not action in inaction”. Which I take to mean do everything with a clear mind devoid of noisy thought, judgement and justification and don’t get so tangled on thinking that you can’t do anything. This is how the whole book started with Arjuna collapsed in a puddle of fear when he perceives the battle is about to begin.

Finally, because this is a heavy day and I need a lot of support to lift my state I am going to practice my mastering alchemy lessons and do some exercises to contemplate my own attachment to the drama outside as well as some exercises to sever the tendrils of those attachments.

I keep thinking about that quote by Einstein I referred to a couple of posts back: “You cannot solve a problem from the same consciousness that created it. You must learn to see the world anew.” I am working on that and have been for my entire life and it is working for me. Byron Katie said something a couple of weeks ago when I saw her at a talk. She said that she had an epiphany where she saw that we are all one mind, that we share one mind, that our thoughts may not be ours but are all floating around in one mind and we get washed with them and then think they are ours or something like that. It struck me how amazing and true that is. So if I change my mind then the whole of one mind is now changed.

So this is how I will deal with the seemingly insurmountable problem of the injustices of today – I will change my mind by introspection, self-examination, diligent practice to recognize and root out self-destructive thought patterns and I will be HAPPY even when I am feeling low. Because the truth of it is that legions of angels support us all, our God (whatever you call THAT) loves us unconditionally and gives us the gift of absolute free will, we are made of star stuff and we live in God’s back garden so what is the problem.

11.10.11

I’m on a roll with the blog right now because this is such an important time energetically. Tomorrow there is a beautiful portal opening of cosmic light that will create incredible opportunities for us all to recreate our reality. Think of it this way it’s kind of a reboot, the quirky, corrupted and hacked programs of our reality are being reformatted and the new refreshed programs booting back up. This means we have an extraordinary opportunity to install fresh and clear programs to move forward as a collective, inspired and uplifted humanity. It’s another chance to get it right, to establish Heaven on Earth for all. Yes, we are in Heaven already but now we have the opportunity to make it easier to remember that. Miracles abound already and yet there will be more.

Think of this day as the day surrounded by angels see the one’s in 11.10.11. The zero in the date is this space, this world, this consciousness and open arena for us to step up our consciousness and our commitment to manifesting Heaven on Earth. Tomorrow there will be another angel standing in that open space ready to help us with our commitment.

Last night I met a lovely woman Lorna Byrne, writer of the book, “Angels in My Hair”. I have only just bought the book but I look forward to reading it. Lorna spoke last night about her experience with angels, how she has seen them since she was a child, how she has met with God and how she prays everyday. She is very clear and sweet and humble. She would rather hide, as she says, but God commands her to come out to remind us that we all have a guardian angel. That we can feel free to ask the help of any angel or arch angel at anytime that God listens to us always and knows every single thing about us. We are not alone. Lorna said many times that we do not pray enough and that if we do we will create an extraordinary future, she has seen it.

Lorna’s purpose for coming out to speak is to exhort us all to overcome our differences and to recognize that there is only one God and that we are all brothers. She says that when she looks at anyone she sees their guardian angel with them regardless of their religion. We all have a guardian angel and they never leave us. We are so blessed with unseen support and with seen support like Lorna.

I told her that I wished I could see the angels like she does but that I have had the experience of feeling them. A few years ago I rolled our new Land Rover, I was avoiding a skunk and the SUV started fish tailing until it rolled. I thought I was done, but as the car rolled I felt as though strong hands were holding my head firm to the back of the car seat and the arms were crossed over my chest. Later when I examined the totaled vehicle I sat in the driver’s seat and realized that the upper left corner of the front had crunched in to within and inch or two of where my head was. If my head had moved forward a bit I probably wouldn’t have climbed out of that wreck. What a blessing. So I do not believe in angels, I know angels.

That is the consciousness that we need to move into; gnostic apprehension of Heaven, belief is great and will hopefully create the space for the experience of the unknown but knowing is so much better. A shift in consciousness to looking with hope, gratitude, acceptance and granting of blessing, self-love, contentment and delight will all create space for the knowing of Heaven.

Meditate and pray tomorrow, be with loved ones, send blessings, make art, read uplifting stuff and expect miracles; in general do things that will set the tone for the next age.

Sacred Temple

OK, it’s time to explore the most important aspect of Heaven, the vehicle within which we travel and enjoy our experience here, that is the body. I am thinking that for the next seven weeks or so, we’ll see how it goes I am going to look at the sacred aspects of the body temple. This is the germ of a book I have in mind, so I am going to test it out here.

The body sometimes known as the “no seamed robe of the soul” in the ancient Vedas is just that. This body is a vehicle of the divine, a window on the dualistic world of form for the soul. The brilliant light being that we are winds its cosmic frequency, it’s omniscient, omnipresent essential self down until it fits within the confines of time and space and this exquisite vehicle that we are gifted with by the mother principle. All mothers are that divine goddess principle of creation in incarnation. This body is sacred, it is worthy, it is beloved of the divine and it is here for the soul to exercise it’s free will in this creative realm of duality in order to explore itself. This mandate comes all the way from the top. As expressions of the primordial divine whatever you call it – God, Allah, Shiva, Yaweh, The Emptiness or whatever we are gifted with the purpose of exploring ourselves so that the divine may know more of itself in diversity or duality – what we know of as form. The divine knows all about itself in unity or chaos which is the natural at rest state before becoming being.

The body is a magnetic response of form to spirit. The elements of the body attract to the spirit and create a body that reflects the higher principles of our own individual being. This understanding is apparent in many traditions and teachings throughout the world. I will start with the most obvious and gorgeous one first. Think of the head and the apparel that adorns the head for various special occasions or for dignitaries of note in many cultures. What kinds of things do people wear? I bet you’ve pictured crowns, bridal veils, American Indian Chief’s war bonnets with fabulous feathers, Cardinal’s red hats and more. All of these spectacular headdresses honor the crown chakra; a radiant light giving center of energy at the top of the head often shown in paintings as a halo. The adornments are physical representations of the light form of the chakra at the top of the head.

The crown chakra or Sahasrar is the highest chakra or energy vortex of the soul associated with the physical body, it is pure consciousness. It is located at the top of the head, hence the title – Crown Chakra. Through this chakra the energy of the soul is funneled into the realm of physicality. At this point the light is vast in all of us but more visible and workable in the world in those who are awakened or enlightened like Gurus, Shaman, Saints, Avatars and Sages. According to the Vedic texts this chakra is a huge lotus flower with thousands of petals. In the unenlightened the flower is closed, in the enlightened it opens. But don’t just listen to the texts go and seek an experience of this and the other chakras by meditation or breath yoga. Find a really good path of study with great teacher.

My own experience of the crown chakra was extraordinary and very enlightening about my beingness. I was sitting by a fire once chanting a beautiful ancient text called the Rudrum. In front of me was a massive bonfire, the wood crackled and spit and sparks flew out of the fire and raced into the vast deep black sky, filled with many layers of stars, above me. The sparks and stars were merging. My awareness shifted and the sparks seem to come up from within the core of myself to pass through my head and fly off into the stars. This stretched my awareness to include all that movement and the entire sky. Suddenly I felt my crown chakra open, it was like a flower opening almost instantly in a spiral motion and the petals as they popped open made a fluttering sound. This was a huge feeling. Once opened this chakra which was located at the top of my head fell with a thunk into my upper heart and rested behind my sternum on the heart chakra fully open. I sat on the soft supportive grass fully grounded from my heart down and from my heart up I contained the universe. That vast sky, the sparks, all eternity was contained within me. This is the gateway to our divinity it is no wonder that we need to honor that aspect of ourselves to welcome and share the specialness of that inner window.

The extraordinary significance of these chakras can only be hinted at by symbology and esoteric description, personal experience is best though illusive. There are sounds, frequencies, colors, aspects of our daily lives, moods  and relationships associated with all of the chakras. The energetic system by which these chakras is connected is profound and somewhat complex but this is what we are made of and therefore it is important to explore this knowledge with great reverence. It is sacred knowledge about our sacred vehicle. But my intent is to look at the expression of the nature of our chakras in the traditional adornments and robes of people worldwide. So back to reflections of the Sahasrar.

When Kings and Queens wear crowns they are honoring that inner authority of the divine impulse and wisdom. Unfortunately the deep understanding and connection to that idea has been lost for many generations leading to great misfortune for many royals and their people. But the legends of old in all cultures speak of generations of kings that were also great sages and so functioned with full knowledge of the sacredness of their duty. The radiant nature of this chakra is also apparent in the choice of a white veil for a bride. Here the idea is to express the purity, innocence and honor associated with the awakened nature of this chakra. A shaman or chief who wears a feather bonnet reflects again the authority of the enlightened nature of one who has a fully opened crown chakra. In his case wisdom and the accomplishment of many brave or good deeds are displayed in the brilliant array of feathers. A contrary response to the brilliance of the crown chakra can be found in the sometimes enforced use of veils, bonnets and hats. The need to cover ones shining wholeness, radiance and beauty may be protective, or some form of resistance to the glory inherent in all of us. Counter to that modest impulse are head adornments like the Nigerian ladies head wraps made of stiff and sparkling silks which when tied in exotic ways and splayed fan like frame the face like any classic halo.

Many of these head ornaments are a physical expression of the halo which goes all the way back to Greek history and is represented in all cultural iconography. Other names for the ring of light around the head are nimbus, aureole, glory and gloriole (according to wikipedia). Through all forms of Western religious art these halos or rings of light are represented around the head. They are associated most often with the holy and with kings. In Asian art  the light may be represented as flames which may even extend around the whole body. This vision of the light corona of the entire body is known as the Mandoria and is also sometimes seen in Christian Iconography.

Here is a representation from wikipedia of the crown chakra that most interestingly expresses the movement of the opening of the crown chakra quite brilliantly. It is amazing how eloquent and relevant symbols can be. Often the deeper knowledge can be accessed by just looking at them.

Sensitivity

Here is an extraordinary opportunity to feel into our world. We are the most sensitive, accurate instrument that exists for examining and discerning truth in our world. No statistic, no expert can discover that for us. Each individual is gifted with very specific and unique window on reality that is their very own special taste of the divine, here is where miracles occur. Most of us are sensitive the obvious input like the feelings of our loved ones, in fact we are sensitive beyond our typical awareness – we can sense a mood when a loved one enters our room behind us even. This is perfectly normal. What is also perfectly normal are many greater and finer layers of sensitivity that we have forgotten as a culture.

Sensitivity to our world and the creatures we live with is perfectly normal. In England we had a saying, ” A little bird told me” for when someone learned something they perhaps might not have heard about yet. With today’s telecommunication and instant messaging we hear just about everything instantaneously. But not too long ago getting the word across distance was not so easy. In our mythologies of the world there are many legends of great beings who communicated with animals, plants and even the land itself. This too is normal, we just don’t use that skill. It is one of the talents we are born with that rests within our “junk” DNA waiting for revival.

Today I had a most delightful experience. I am reading Penney Pierce’s book, FREQUENCY and enjoying it very much. Her clarity in describing layers of sensitivity and how to use and develop it is inspiring.  It is so inspiring that I found it working spontaneously today. As I lingered in my last moments of sleep this morning I was disturbed by a neighbor’s dog, a German shepherd, barking – woof, woof, woof, woof. Repeated at a specific rhythm again and again. Finally, I popped out of bed, OK the day had begun. As I walked to brush my teeth my mind was stuck in a phrase, much like when you get a song lyric stuck in your head, “What do you do?” “What do you do?” again and again. I noticed that it was the same rhythm as the dog’s bark.  Again it repeated in my head and I thought, “Why the heck am I thinking this?” A quick memory scan identified that it was not part of a song lyric that I’d heard yesterday and it dawned on me that the phrase was what the dog was saying, “What do you do? Then I knew it, that it was most definitely true. There is a knowing with something like that which is irrefutable. What a blessing, a magical insight into the mind of another being, a connection which dissolves the lines of separation between us.

Once many years ago I had a very clear understanding of a thought that popped into my head during a meditation retreat that I knew was not my thought but that of a man across the room. I have written about this in a previous post, I think. This is sensitivity which only comes with clarity, through an uncluttered mind. A  mind that is full of preconceptions, distractions, rules of engagement, cultural and tribal biases and other thoughts irrelevant to our fullest experience of this most precious moment in reality will miss too many opportunities and delights. For me this kind of sensitivity restores the magic and miracles to my world. It is a much more comfortable, exciting, delightful place than it was for me when I thought otherwise.

Sensitivity restores our own autonomy and authority over our own reality. We are bombarded today with millions of bits of data telling us what to do, what to wear, where to go, how to raise our children. As a result most people are numbed and stressed. Numbed to protect themselves from the overwhelming vibrations created to generate fear, our mainstream media mandate seems to be specifically to ramp up the fear factor and drive us to think and do things we would not necessarily do with our clarity of mind and heart fully aware. We are stressed because we buy into the machinery of manipulation and “need” this and that to make our future or past complete while forgetting about this moment which is all we have.

Feeling into the now, letting go of all other ideas, needs, wants, histories and possible futures is the first step into the magical world of sensitivity. It is the most precious gift we can give to ourselves, it is our birthright, it is the attitude that will reveal to us that we have never left that primordial garden, Eden. We live in God’s backyard, this is Heaven.

Multidimensionality

Heaven is a realm of uncountable possibility. It is where we know ourselves as the omniscient, omnipresent beings that we are. But this is a leap for our time and space bound minds that only a very few wise ones have taken over millenia. Today many more of us are poised to grasp the consciousness of multidimensional beingness and teaching comes toward us even from mainstream entertainment.

I have talked a little bit about the concepts of super heroes and super powers and the relevance of these to our true nature today I am inspired to examine the idea of multidimensionality. If we are omniscient and omnipresent we are not truly confined to the here and now that we are all so familiar with and comfortable with. This is the most mind bending of the concepts of ascension that our spiritual teachers present to us. It is impossible for the mind to grasp the idea of being in more than one place or time. Our linear construct is so rigid and confined and just what the mind can grasp. What does multidimensionality look like?

There are amazing ancient spiritual texts that tell stories of this like the Yoga Vasistha or the Ramayana, some Buddhist tales and many fairy tales. Sometimes moments in those stories strike our super consciousness into remembrance. A moment like that is when Hanuman, the monkey god from the Ramayana, goes to the bottom of the ocean to retrieve Rama’s lost ring and he finds 10,000 identical rings there indicating that this moment has been repeated for eternity. When I read that my mind stopped, it became stuck in an open space of wonder and awe that I cannot describe.

But forget about the old stories for now, what about the new stories? Several TV shows right now toy with this idea of multidimensionality – Ghost Whisperer and Medium concentrate on how ghosts; us in another state, interact with the living.  There is an overwhelming fascination with death in today’s entertainment. And last week we discover that Lost examines ideas of what can happen in the other dimensions after death exploring a tangled tale of woe, loss and loves in the Bardo state of between life and death. The Tibetan book of Living and Dying explains this Bardo state in great detail. Basically it is a state of consciousness where a human who has lost form gets stuck attached to the realm or idea of form and moves through seemingly uncontrolled adventures spurred by the fancies of the mind. The natural process after death is to move directly to the bright light of the divine, which is God or our own highest self but sometimes we are so attached to the idea of a life in form that we get stuck thinking we are still alive. Or we may know that we are dead but for some highly charged reason we are unwilling to move on. This is powerful esoteric understanding that we are becoming familiar with through the use of popular entertainment. This is a great blessing for this age.

To my surprise after suffering through the last season of Lost, I stopped watching after the first, I liked the ending. It is my dream to create uplifting entertainment and I am impressed that Lost’s last show pulled off a miraculous feat of mind-bending although a bit too sappy spirituality.  The implications of the end are beautiful. When we wonder what multidimensional beingness might look like this could be it – parallel lives, friends who become enemies and then become friends again, a constant raw respect for living and a throwing oneself deep into the game of living.

Hinduism refers to life as a lila – a dance. This maybe what it would look like. The multiple arms of Shiva, of all the gods; stabbing, saving, feeding, stealing, sharing and depriving and then embracing each other. The dance of life.

We are on an ascended path, these remarkably esoteric entertainments are a cohesive part of the shifting process. They show us what is possible without ramming it down our throat like a religion might. We can laugh because it’s all fun and entertainment then we can’t get the ideas out of our heads and then we realize we are living it.

Bravo to Lost; it was definitely worth it. I think I am going to plan a Lost marathon.

Magic

Almost everyday I think to write this post and then another idea takes over but here we are MAGIC. Without it where would we be? Children delight in magic, magical stories never go out of style. Magical beings are fascinating to us whether in the form of dragons or super heroes. Popular media are swamped with magical tales from Harry Potter to Vampire Diaries and Witches of Eastwick. But what really is magic? I am going to tell you a couple of stories, personal experiences, these will not answer that question but to me they proove that something is greater than the mundaneness of reality that we accept and insist is all there is.

Last year here in Tribeca workers had just completed the plantings in a brand new garden greenway along the Hudson River around Murray Street. There was new dirt and tiny newly set plants for a few blocks along the river. I was walking home one day and I noticed that this small strip park was crowded with huge dragonflies, thousands and thousands of them. In over 30 years in New York City I only ever saw one of those big dragonflies and that was on 12th Street between University and Fifth Avenue, kind of odd also.  I stopped to watch the dragonflies. They were buzzing around in deliberate circles over the plants there was no still water as you might expect for these creatures. Suddenly it occured to me that I was seeing dragonflies because that is what my reality accepts but the thought hit me that they were not dragonflies but were actually faeries there to set the plants and activate the spirit of the new garden where no garden had ever been before. This idea felt absolutely right to me. I looked as carefully as I could at the dragonflies trying to see if I could see them as faeries but it never happened. Call me crazy, who knows what we see and how the mind interprets what we see. All I know is that there were all those thousands of dragonflies there for one day and now there is a vibrant and gorgeous garden there now. 

Another time I was walking in the woods of Vermont by myself. These woods were always very quiet and rarely were there any hikers going by except in hunting season. Suddenly I heard as clear as anything a set of pipes like the pipes of Pan. It was not windy. I could see through the woods in the direction of the sound and I saw no one. Again, I have no idea what that was but it was an undeniable sound.

Magic is that which leaves room for amazing things to happen. Magic is a harbinger of new rules for the way the universe, our world and our reality function which we don’t quite understand yet. Think of the things that we take for granted which would have been considered magic just a century ago: cell phones, TV, Satellites, nanotechnology, and so much more. If we deny magic we close the door to untold and uncounted future possibilities. We close the door to surprising nows.

Magic is beyond the idea of hope or wishful thinking it is a mystical knowing and practicing with the forces of life that produce space or possibility for different outcomes. Here is another experience.

I was working on a project for a summer spiritual retreat a few years ago which was a 30 foot wide and 20 foot high back drop for the stage where the festivities were to be hosted. I designed the back drop and worked with a crowd of volunteers and one other experience painter, together we pulled the bulk of the project together and to completion but it was touch and go and a big mess for most of the process. Finally we dragged it into the hall and laid it on the floor for the crew to hang it while we went to lunch. I looked at it then and thought, “Oh well, done is beautiful” a term from my costume business. And left for lunch thinking that the work looked a bit flat and maybe unfinished yet.

When we returned I ran straight to the farthest side of the hall to see what the drop looked like and when I turned around I was blown away. It was stunning. Somehow between laying it on the floor and hanging it up the drop had become infused. It glimmered, it sang, it came alive and touched places inside that reminded us of mystical connections. I don’t know how this happened and I have more to say about this drop which I plan for tomorrow’s blog. This kind of magic is the ineffable something that we always seek to create in the theater; that electrical magic that sweeps one away and sparks a connection to the mysterious lifeforce that inspires us all. That’s what magic is about, to deny it is to shut out the mystical part of us the part of us that nourishes our greater being and then that greater being that nourishes the form of us that we know.