[PS -- as soon as I posted this, a huge gust of wind blasted out of the south, filled with dirt and grime, and smashed the geraniums on my porch!]
The Sun joined the Moon today in a message from Power. “Power” is a force in the universe
which comes to the Shaman as a guide or messenger, or in many other
guises. Michael Harner and Carlos
Castaneda and many other teachers use Power as an introductory helper for their
apprentices. It is a very
enjoyable enterprise to ‘court Power’, and Harner’s book, The Way of the
Shaman, as well as others, gives a good account of how to do this. This is a very good way to enter into
the beginnings of a true relationship with the energies of the natural
environment, which eventually become a key ingredient in the Medicine Energies.
I use the lunar cycles as an introduction to the energies of
the natural environment, because we don’t have to trek to the wilds to observe
them. Today would be the day,
third day from the New Moon, to expect to see the first of the crescent moon
low in the Western sky, just after the sun goes below the horizon. In my project of developing skill at
the Despacho Ceremony, I am deciding that this day is more appropriate for
Ceremony than directly at New Moon.
There is such a crowd at New Moon!
In developing the proper aspects for the Despacho, there are
many forms of energetic vibrations that I have to take into account. As a Shaman, I observe these energies
through my Energy Field Awareness.
The Energy Field Awareness never really shuts down. Unlike most people, my Energy Field
Awareness is susceptible to a most pernicious source of energy – Marilyn
Monroe.
This morning at 5:00 am, she woke me with one of her
trademark dreams. She presented me
with a small box, with the word BEDBUGS stenciled on it. That got me right out of bed! I remembered that I had forgotten to
take out the garbage last night. I
put on my slippers and hauled the dumpsters out to the alley, checking to see
if the frost had hit the plants yet, as forecast. Apparently not.
But some dog had scored a direct hit in the crushed gravel of the
parking area beside the alley. I
got that cleaned up, and went back inside to start my day. The Internet showed me that my utility
bill had gone up $10, and was due three days earlier than usual. Within fifteen minutes, I had received
a noticeable batch of negative inputs!
I turned on the TV for the local news and weather, and had
my usual dates and nuts and coffee from yesterday’s Thermos. A package of info began to unfold
within my deeper consciousness.
The ‘bedbugs’ message was pointing me to her attitude toward the people
I had met at the Tai Chi studio. I
went over to the vortex to sit, and picked up my tom-tom. During the drumming, my energies opened
further, and I could see that Marilyn Monroe was into a serious penetration of
my life force.
One of the first spirits I was introduced to during the
onset of my Initiation as a Shaman was the Samurai swordsman Miyamoto Musashi,
one of my former incarnations, in whom Marilyn Monroe had also been incarnate,
as she is with me. Musashi was the
author of The Book of Five Rings, a manual on the strategy of
swordsmanship. From that book, I
picked up a strategy called ‘The Feint of Going-With’. You allow the opponent to force you
into the moves he wants from you, knowing that you will be able to perceive the
exact moment to turn the forces against him.
So I decided to go with Marilyn Monroe for the time being;
to let her penetrate me however she would, so that I could discern her
purpose. In a moment, I got up and
pulled the I Ching out of retirement.
I had put it away weeks ago, after decades of using it daily, so that
she would not have that access to my energies. (Lao Tzu, my original contact on the I Ching, had taught her
to be the ‘voice’ of the oracle on January 1, 1993.)
I tossed the coins and received hexagram #54, The Marrying
Maiden (MM). This hexagram is her
‘signature’, having her initials, and referring to the unfortunate situation of
the woman taking the initiative in the relationship. It changed to #21, Biting Through. My first thought was that she had decided to get out of our
relationship – it was a dead end.
I continued with my morning, and got ready to catch the bus,
to go over to North Town Coffee for my daily poem and drawing time. As I came to the bus stop, I saw Power
in the sky.
The sun was low in the southeast sky, surrounded by the
wisps of clouds typical this time of year in Yakistan. But then I noticed a distinct wing at
the sun’s left side. Its feathers
were long and slender, and fanned out like a cluster of double-edged
swords. A winged sun… as I looked,
I discerned a stout tail of hawk feathers.
The bus came, and I got to my coffee, and instead of
beginning my poem, I got the beginning of my image for my drawing: the sun,
with its wing of swords. So I
sketched it in and went back to cogitating about what to write. But I was interrupted by the Moon. I reached over and sketched it in as a
thin crescent ‘ear’ on the right side of the sun.
This conjunction of moon and sun seemed to tell me that
today would be the day to consummate my Despacho ‘Kooti’ Ceremony, to ‘cut the
cords’ between me and Marilyn Monroe.
After my walk home (a mile), I decided to have breakfast,
and after breakfast, I lay on the yoga floor to initiate the RDSE (rest,
digestion, sexual energy) sequence of Ayurveda. I was there for over an hour. This is what happens when Marilyn Monroe is ‘feeding’ on my
energies. When I got up, I drove
back to the coffee shop with my computer, to have a free blended mocha and
write this. It’s mid-afternoon
now, and I’m wondering what will happen next. Will there be a ceremony? (I cast another I Ching before coming over here, and it
recommended a Ceremony… --but
everything must be ‘correct’….)
We’ll see.
Next day…
Well, I got home, and there were things to do, and I was
anxious. There were blockages all
through my energy system, my mind and my body. After I finally got settled in from the journey to the
coffee shop, I found myself wandering around looking for the next thing to do. I was mumbling to myself. Then I knew it was time.
I went out to the sacred grove next to the parking area
along the alley, and everything seemed ok. The tall sunflowers, and the huge sprawling vine of the
squash from Sergio’s garden next door, which grew up into my tree and on into
the parking area, hanging large squashes high in the branches, proved to be an
effective screen to ward off the killer chi from the alley and the apartment
building across the way. Lots of
plants and the plywood fence screened the fire area from Sergio’s yard, and no
one was around.
I got my tiny pieces of wood, a few splinters from a cedar
shingle, some newspaper, and went outside to put a fire in the large cookie
tin. The fire burned nicely, and I
brought out the small despachos I had prepared, with the bay leaf quintus
wrapped in napkins, and a note regarding the aspects I desired to be
eliminated.
One by one they went into the flames, were consumed, and
soon the ceremony was complete. No
hay problema!
I looked up to see the strong crescent of the moon just
above the horizon to the south and west, not at all obstructed by the darkening
gray cloud bits strung throughout the sky.
Everything had gone well – quite well, I thought.
Last night I had two dreams. One, in deep sleep, showed a man’s face. He was dead. He had brown hair and a trimmed moustache/beard. His face appeared to be perhaps covered
with water. The second dream, just
before I woke up, was very similar.
A man’s face, same sort of beard, but maybe not the same person, equally
dead.
During my shower, (a very good place for knowledge to emerge
from the energy body / or the Medicine) I realized that the man had been
Jesus. Already volunteering for
next moon’s despacho!
