Urban Shamanism

We're approaching the Solar Eclipse in Taurus and I don't know about you, but this week has been incredibly intense. My country's beset by constant rainfall which has already been causing structural damage and it's the remnant of the labors set up by the chavista regime to take over this land. I haven't gotten much sleep and yesterday in particular, I had the first true nightmare I've experienced in at least a decade. I can deal with most dark dreams and feel cool about them, but this was something completely different. I saw so many terrible things that I won't describe here so as not to give them strength. Later, I had a wonderful talk with @selfhelp4trolls and together we figured out the essence of the imagery that I'd dreamt, concluding that it had to do with the crimes and abuses being committed all over the world at the moment, particularly in China and Europe. I explained to him that I've been studying more mystical texts, specifically the Zohar (the Book of Radiance of the Kabbalah) and the Popol Vuh (the sacred creation text of the Maya civilization.) We ended our chat with great excitement about what's coming, in the understanding that this challenging time must be dealt with but can't stop us from achieving what we personally and collectively set out to do. I'd already realized that studying treatises as deep and illuminated as these would present me with visions of dread because it's impossible to work with great Light without facing deep Shadows, and these times are forcing us all to face up with that Shadow.

@selfhelp4trolls had asked me recently to talk about my mom and I described to him part of my process with her, the reason for her cancer and many other revelations that I've had during my spiritual explorations, which she herself has either provided or confirmed through visions and dreams over the past three years. He reminded me yesterday of something very important that immediately ensured my shift in vibration: I don't need to go through the pain and the effort that she'd gone through in order to do my work, on the contrary! She did what she did so I didn't have to, and I have a broad assortment of tools and knowledge that facilitate my task enormously.

Today I also had a powerful dream where the dark energies were much more subdued and far easier to work with. I could even identify an old friend of my family who betrayed my sister's trust and is embroiled with pretty intense density. He was trying to keep me imprisoned in a place but I could handle him and his accomplices with little problem. I saw the Phoenix in all her golden, fiery magnificence and their intent was to prevent me and those I was guiding from riding the firebird out of the place, but they failed. Together, yesterday's nightmare and this dream speak to me about the energy of this Eclipse, an entry into a shadowy passage that compels us all to ponder a few very important questions, mainly, the significance of Wealth.

What's Wealth to you? Is it billions of dollars? Material properties? Loads of food and drink? A library filled with books? Is it experiences and knowledge? Abundant friendships and alliances? A green and healthy garden with many fruits and flowers? Is it the value of your word? Your honesty and dignity? Your faith and connection to God? If you can lose or be stripped from something, is it truly your source of personal Wealth? If you have considerable amounts of money and possessions or enormous influence, power and fame, but you feel miserable and lonely, are you really wealthy?

When the Moon crosses the Sun's path and leaves the Earth in shadows, taking away its heat and light, what do we actually have? In ancient times, well before electricity or even candles, an Eclipse could be terrifying beyond description to our ancestors, and it could be deadly too, because many of the worst predators on the planet hunt at night and there were far fewer of us. Only fire helped us, around it we could gather and regain our strength. Love, community, fraternity, togetherness, mutual trust, these things increase our freedom and empower our capacity to face any challenge no matter how hard. I believe this is the real core of our Wealth, the possibility to embrace one another and work in unison toward a singular goal. Things like money, possessions, nationalities, religious identities, opinions and judgments... they split us apart and leave only noise and black spaces between us, gaps that can be very hard to bridge, the birthplaces of oppression, tyranny and crime. I believe that this understanding is our treasure, and that the times we're going through are the means by which we're learning this essential lesson.

Laguz. Water, Emotion, Presence

Nostalgia can be as restrictive as anxiety, both disconnect you from the present and obstruct the genuine flow of your emotions; you can't drink water downstream or upstream but only where you stand. Express yourself honestly and authentically, without sinuous words or elaborate images; when a look or an action suffice to say what you have to say, explanations get in the way. Pain is pain regardless of its source, truth is truth regardless of its appearance. Intuition doesn't require analyses, only attention. Respect your feelings, don't suppress the messages of your heart, the sea doesn't vanish when you turn your back on it. Don't ignore the information that your senses report, logic and study have their own space and time, live your experiences fully.