Urban Shamanism

The challenge of Presence

Today's message is about accepting possibilities and revelations, which isn't easy. We've been raised and conditioned to live our lives planning, fretting or hoping for the future while disregarding the Now. We're told that having a degree and a job is important, that making money is important, that paying the taxes and following the rules of society is important; very few of us are ever told that we can have our own choices outside the standard way of living and that as long as we take responsibility for the consequences of said choices, we can do whatever we want with our lives. And how could that be? Our parents and grandparents weren't told those things either, so they poured their own hopes and dreams into us because they either genuinely thought they were the best for us, or didn't take much time to question their actions.

We're beings of infinite possibilities. Whatever we think of or imagine is quite translatable to reality at some level, but in order to establish it, to give it shape and context, we have to work with what we actually have, with the factual elements around us, and in this, our hopes and expectations are limitations, because they diminish our ability to see the things that surround us, the events that are taking place, the emotions that we're experiencing. All of this is concealed by our desire to have the world function the way we want it to function, and from that desire comes great suffering, because we're unable to accept the lay of the land and thus frequently stumble upon rocks and crash onto walls that we don't want to acknowledge. It makes sense for us to do that, though, it's a way to cope with Fear when the reality around us seems bleak and insurmountable, but paradoxically, this self-imposed blindness diminishes our capacity to face the tests we're presented with, because we immediately wish them away instead of resolving them.

Our opinions about how the world should be cloud our sight of how it is. Through the filter of our expectations, we get only partial information of where we stand, essentially mounting our personal narrative upon the pre-existing narrative of our surroundings, an illusion upon an illusion. How can we find Truth through self-deception? If we want to grow, we have no choice but to abandon the stories that we've been told and repeat to ourselves; it's the only way that we can take advantage of events for our learning. I used to say that I was a herald of Hope but I stopped when I realized that Hope wasn't useful to me anymore, I didn't want to live thinking of a better hypothetical future when I'd already discovered that I could improve my Now. That's the only knowledge that we truly require, that everything takes place in the Present Moment and that we don't need to exist in a drama or our own making when we have such a wonderfully tangible existence to experience Here, wherever Here is for each of us.

Drop expectations and hopes, just be what you are, pay attention, See and Listen. I assure you, you'll start living more fully and beautifully than you've ever imagined!

Night Rune: Ansuz

(Meditation) I see my mother and then powerful protectors. I question the price for the accomplishments that I have reached.

Daylight Rune: Dagaz

The Celestial Vault is our vision of infinity, look up to the sky and imagine a world without borders. Your willpower and your desire to advance depend on the possibilities that you allow yourself to explore, if you lack motivation, remember how far you have come. Accept trustingly the revelations that you receive even if they seem absurd, the world is more complex and wonderful than you think, give yourself the opportunity to live in impossible territories. The bird lives in the clouds but is always connected with the land through observation; therefore, it is possible to live in the ethereal without losing sight of the tangible. You cannot transform without admitting new realities, evolution demands constant change and detachment. Expectation and hope cloud the perception of the facts, partake of what is happening, the must-be is an illusion.