In 2012, my heart opened more and more—with love, with joy—until there were times when I felt as if it couldn’t possibly open any wider. In the process, however, I found that I also had to face the presence of pain that I had carried within me for a very long time. My heart was aching with the suffering I saw everywhere in the world, and my body itself struggled with pain in the form of headaches. Unconsciously, I felt a resistance to becoming fully resilient and healed because I believed that would separate me from other people. As I moved to a place of acceptance of the full spectrum of human experience on Earth at this time (pain included), my entire consciousness shifted. Pain/suffering is one part of a greater whole, and as we continue to evolve, that part begins to diminish in the face of human compassion and love, which brings all of us closer and closer together in the global experience of oneness.
What is more, as I/we expand and become more resilient (peaceful, joyful, loving), that energy goes out into the collective matrix and helps to shift everything/everybody. This is the power of interconnections and of the reverberations of light resilient energy. It is the butterfly that moves its wings in China and affects the wind on the other side of the planet. It is the human heart that opens so wide as to embrace every experience and every living being with unconditional love. It is the power of fully awakened spirit in human form.
The dream of a more peaceful, compassionate, and loving world has been with us from time out of mind, but perhaps never more powerfully imprinted on global consciousness than during this year, 2012. Maya elders and other indigenous peoples, as well as visionaries from all cultures, have spoken of the beginning of a new cycle of light and possibility. As 2012 draws to a close, and human beings on Planet Earth begin to realize the extent of the monumental changes before us, the way we view everything will shift. To me, the key word for this time, and for the coming years, is transformation.
As I look back on the year, I see countless moments of transformation, both in my own life and in the lives of others, even in the face of great challenges. My/our consciousness is cracking wide open, and the light is pouring in. What is particularly amazing to me is that I also saw these moments reflected in the natural world around me, specifically in the appearance of butterflies. Butterflies are often viewed as one of the most powerful symbols of metamorphosis and transformation: metamorphosis—the caterpillar breaking through the chrysalis to become a radiant, colorful being of light; transformation—humans breaking through the density of form to emerge into the light of higher consciousness. In 2012, butterflies came flying into my life in unexpected numbers and varieties.
In May, I participated in an online live video and interactive chat session with Panache Desai and hundreds of people globally. Positive messages of love and hope popped up from all over the planet—human voices merging in the manifested dream of a world “living as one.” My heart filled with joy as I felt the transformative energy radiating outwards. The next day, when I walked out my front door, a cloud of Red Admiral butterflies filled the air, landing on flowering bushes and on my arms and legs as well. Everywhere I looked were butterflies, and this continued for several days, unlike anything I had ever witnessed here in Massachusetts. I could not help but make a connection between the human event I had just taken part in and the highly unusual butterfly explosion. Both were sheer magic, each reflecting the other.
The magic continued in July after I attended Panache’s “Awakening Your Authentic Soul Signature” at Omega in Rhinebeck, New York. Our entire group experienced personal breakthroughs and collective shifts during the week, and I truly felt as if my soul self had emerged in new, more expansive ways.* Upon my return home, American Beauty butterflies began to show up in increasingly large numbers in my back yard. Each day, the energy of the dancing butterflies was infectious. As they fluttered and zoomed around the yard, my spirit was flying right along with them!
The third butterfly event occurred in September after I attended a gathering with Maya elders in western Massachusetts, which included a powerful traditional Maya fire ceremony. The elders’ teachings combined with the fire ceremony made for an inspiring and uplifting four days. Once again, after I returned home, a large group of butterflies appeared in my back yard. This time it was orange-and-black monarchs, floating majestically through the air and landing on the purple flowers of the butterfly bush. As they danced all around and above me, their magnificence was beyond awe-inspiring. Tears rolled down my cheeks at the beauty. Was this yet another reflection? No doubt in my heart or mind.
So is 2012 the beginning of something as miraculous and beautiful as butterflies dancing on the wind? Are we co-creating a new Planet Earth when we come together in love and the openhearted desire to live in oneness and light? The challenges of being human have kept us trapped in suffering and sorrow for millennia—can we break free? The butterflies show us the transformative possibilities; they reflect the beauty of our infinitely expanding souls back to us. If we allow our hearts to fly with them, anything we envision becomes possible. May we step into 2013 trusting in the power of our own transformation.
*See previous blog posts “Birth Day” and “Rainbow Child.”
These are powerful times. The veil between the physical and nonphysical realms is thinning, and we are becoming more and more aware of something greater that permeates and expands our experience here on Earth. Yesterday was the harmonic gateway 12.12.12, synchronistically occurring on the same day as the Maya New Year, 8 Batz, in the Cholqij calendar. Next week, the long-anticipated date December 21, 2012, will finally become present, then past. No single day is the point of complete awakening or ultimate transformation, however. Everything is part of a continuously expansive becoming that humanity is experiencing at this time.
For me, the moments of clarity and opening have been increasing exponentially over the past few months. In October, I attended a 4-day gathering with Panache Desai at Kripalu Yoga Center in western Massachusetts. I’ve taken part in gatherings and webcasts with Panache for over a year now, and with each experience, I find that my heart opens wider and wider. At this particular event, as part of a meditation journey, I asked for a tangible physical sign of the presence of Spirit in my day-to-day life—and not just any sign—one that would “blow me away” with its power and “unmistakability.” Well, I got my wish. As the weekend progressed, I found that chills covered my body at every synchronicity or deep connection with another person or with the group as a whole. God was not only “in the details” (as the saying goes); he/she was very much in the goosebumps!
In the weeks after Kripalu, the chills increased in frequency until, during a 12.12.12 Global Gathering in Florida this past weekend, they became practically nonstop. Beautiful experiences in nature, deeply touching music, inspiring passages in books, and loving conversations with friends all brought up the now-familiar gooseflesh, and often tears as well. As I took daily long walks in my neighborhood, my heart would open and my eyes would fill at the beauty everywhere: a towering evergreen silhouetted against the sky at dusk; a Japanese maple surrounded by a scarlet carpet of autumn leaves; the vast expanse of endless blue sky streaked by white/pink clouds at sunset. At the Florida gathering, the collective energy of the 405 people present was so powerful that it shifted every cell in my body to a more intense loving vibration.
What I discovered was that I was actually living the wise advice that I had read somewhere once: Live every moment as if it is your first, or last, on Earth, as if you have never seen this world before, or will never see it again. Every second became filled with such poignancy and such heart-breaking magnificence that my body, and my soul, could only respond with tears and goosebumps. And gratitude, infinite gratitude. To be alive at this time and to experience the magic of the world as it transitions into a greater expression of itself, and we all become greater expressions of ourselves, is the most amazing miracle I can imagine.
A number of years ago, comedian Lily Tomlin starred in a one-woman show on Broadway called The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe (written by Jane Wagner). One of the play’s many characters, Trudy, the wise/crazy bag lady, talked about her “space chums” who visited her and were in awe of the “goose bump experience” here on Earth. They would take that back with them to outer space
Contrary to what you might hear or read in the media, the Maya never predicted that the world would end on December 21, 2012. Never. That’s a complete misinterpretation of the ancient Maya teachings, which have been handed down and preserved by indigenous Maya lineage carriers. The Maya cosmovision brought forward by the Maya elders of today speaks of the end of one cycle or Sun and the beginning of another, one filled with light. This is a time of transition, possibility, and expansion, not apocalypse.
Over the past eight years, I have had the opportunity and honor to learn about the traditional Maya teachings from Nana Mercedes Barrios Longfellow and other Maya elders from Guatemala. A number of us have traveled with the elders to Guatemala and participated in traditional fire ceremonies at Maya sacred sites there. Gatherings and fire ceremonies with the elders have also taken place in the United States, often at Rowe Center in the mountains of western Massachusetts.
Nana Mercedes’ teaching always involves a discussion of the Cholqij, one of the twenty sacred Maya calendars. The Cholqij is used as a guide for the spiritual growth and evolution of human beings, thus its particular importance at this time. The calendar consists of a 260-day cycle, each day of which carries a different frequency. In Nana Mercedes’ words, “Spirit speaks through the energy of the day. If we attune to the frequency of the day and begin to obey the laws of the universe, that day that sacred energy will fully support us.” Using the calendar on a daily basis helps humans to live with a conscious awareness of the larger cosmos that we are a part of here on Earth.
Over the years, I have learned so much from Nana Mercedes: about slowing down and getting in touch with the flow of each day’s energy (through meditation/prayer); about living life with humility and respect for all beings; about being of service to others and being grateful for the blessings we receive every moment on this beautiful planet. To spend time with Nana Mercedes is to experience a deep connection to a profound and wise way of living in the world. “We are one heart,” she has always said, and for me that is one of the most beautiful of the Maya teachings. I feel it profoundly when I am present at a Maya fire ceremony and also when a group of us—some longtime friends, others new friends—comes together to hear the wise teachings that have been handed down for thousands of years.
In September, about 30 of us spent four days at Rowe Center with Nana Mercedes and Nana Regina (who is also from Guatemala). Afterward, my heart was full, and I felt the ancient wisdom and light embodied by the Maya, and other indigenous peoples, shining forth powerfully and helping with the global awakening of all beings to universal oneness. More and more, I see evidence of that awakening, in spite of the huge challenges the planet faces today. The Great Shift—this transition to a new era, or new Sun, which the Maya have foreseen—is with us now. And it’s not about one date, or even one year. As we release old ways based in separation and fear, the cosmic energy will carry us forward beyond time and space into full immersion in the realm of the heart. As Nana Mercedes herself has said, “We are destined to be evolved beings, living in harmony, with great gratitude for the miracles of life.”
In The Wizard of Oz, there is a classic moment when the Wicked Witch of the West sky-writes a warning to the little girl from Kansas: Surrender, Dorothy! Most of us have always thought of that as an ominous threat. What if we look at it instead as wise and magical advice: surrender. Dorothy doesn’t surrender to the witch, but she does surrender to the power of her own journey, which finally brings her back home. Don’t all of us who are on life journeys come up against that ultimate challenge—letting go and trusting in something greater than our own individual lives? A surrender that will bring us “home,” to ourselves and to the heart of the universe.
In the past year, I have faced this in my own life. Never having been raised in a religious tradition of any kind, surrender was a foreign concept to me. Yet, the deeper I went within my own uniquely eclectic spiritual journey, the more I found surrender to be the key to opening the door to a greater expansiveness in myself and a profound connection to the cosmos. Not to mention, the key to a greater ease in living life.
Synchronistically, messages to that effect began to appear everywhere in my life. On an Oprah show that I tuned in to, Shirley MacLaine offered one piece of advice: “Surrender to a highly sophisticated Divinity.” A friend of mine described a comic strip with the punch line: “Resign as general manager of the universe.” It was Panache Desai’s ideas about “allowing and receiving,” however, that really struck a chord within me: in essence, flowing with everything that comes into your experience.
I’ve discovered that for me surrender isn’t a mental decision or a set of prescribed steps. It’s an ongoing process of emotionally letting go and embracing all of life, over and over. Part of me wants to hold on, wants to be in control, and it gets scared if I consider releasing that tight grip. Gradually, though, I’ve learned to relax and open to a wider vision of my life and my place on Earth. Like Alice, who discovers another world “through the looking glass,” I too have found that this physical reality is only one piece of the multilayered dream we call life. And it’s nothing I have to “control.” It involves trusting that my life as it is unfolding is exactly what I need in order to grow/evolve and that all that I perceive is part of an intricate tapestry of universal meaning and infinite love. As I have more and more experiences (within the physical realm and beyond) of the web of connection that we are all a part of, my trust grows, and I allow my life to flow with greater ease.
Surrender, then, is ultimately an opening of the heart: surrender in joy, surrender with tears and laughter. Fall in love with the world! Surrender to the dance of life. Step through the looking glass, put on those outrageous, sparkling ruby slippers, and click your heels together! You’ll be home in no time.
Spiritflower 
You must be logged in to post a comment.