Happy New Year!

I wish for all of you, in the coming year, that you find the most magickal (and Madge-ickal) self within you and bring it out for all the world to see! We need you!

Many blessings,
Eva Yaa Asantewaa

Happy Winter Solstice!

Wishing you all a beautiful holiday season and every blessing of the coming year. Please enjoy this remarkable story!

Eva

clipped from www.youtube.com

A creative journey

clipped from www2.warwick.ac.uk The Painless Headache 10:02 Mon 15 Oct 2007 The role of consciousness in writing and the creative process. Download (MP3 format, 10:18, 9.9 MB)

In this podcast, British writer David Morley--whose fascinating series, Writing Challenges, is available through iTunes--offers a visualization process to open your creativity. Although intended for writers and writing students, this visualization can also be used by anyone who wants to enhance psychic development and spiritual communion and is very similar to what I have practiced and taught for decades. Enjoy!

Points of view

When you close your eyes to meditate, pray or even just to take a breath and get a little peace at a stressful moment, where do your eyes look?

That might seem like a funny question, but check this out: When your eyes are covered by your eyelids, where they seem to be looking--according to an actual physical sensation or your imagination--can give me some sense of what you are looking at, what that inner vision means to you and what light it might shed on the question or concern you have brought to our reading session.

Here are the possibilities:

• straight ahead
• to the right
• to the left
• tilted slightly upward through your forehead
• tilted upward through the crown of your head
  
• tilted slightly downward
• behind your head
• from a point above your head

The level, straight-ahead position focuses you in the current moment. It is also the place of manifestation. When you focus there, you are bringing the energy of possibilities into coherence and, to the extent that we can do this, nailing it. Whatever you envision in the other positions can be brought here, if desired, and infused with the intention of manifestation.

The rightward position is a place of the potential future. It is about creativity and has a warm, positive vibe. Use it to visualize what you would like to have happen, then anchor those visions by moving your eyes front and center.

The leftward position is a place of the past, and it is good site for examining, evaluating and selecting--or rejecting and/or letting go of--ideas and things.

The forehead position correlates to the idea of the Third Eye chakra. Focusing here, you are seeking things that cannot be immediately seen with the human, physical eyes. You are seeking their mysteries. It is a profound truth-seeking position. It is also a remote-viewing (seeing at a distance) position.

The crown position correlates to the idea of the Crown chakra. Focusing here, you are on the cusp of the liminal, shamanic space between worlds. You are able to see, comprehend and communicate with the dual nature (material/spiritual) of all things in physical existence and to apprehend spirit as it exists in all things.

The downward position signifies that you are reading--as if from an invisible book resting in your lap--information about a person, place, thing or situation.

The behind-the-head position--which should remind us of the expression "having eyes at the back of your head"--takes you into seldom-visited depths of self and into the deep past. There is much to be learned here--and in back of the entire body--that reveals what we, as three-dimensional, local ego selves, have little or no awareness of and often cannot control.

The above-the-head position correlates to what some have called a Transpersonal Point, a few feet above the Crown chakra. Here, your vision and awareness are transpersonal and multidimensional.

I became interested in these closed-eye positions when I realized that my own closed eyes typically look downward or feel as if they're slightly tilted up to my forehead when I'm doing readings for my clients. I have begun to deliberately retrieve or accept energy, information and insights from more of these positions and to explore what's happening when clients close their eyes to remember something or to perhaps to visualize something else.

All of these positions are valuable modalities of psychospiritual development, and I encourage you to explore them, too, and keep track of your experiences in your journal. If you'd like to share your results with me, I'd be most delighted to read them.

(c) 2007, Eva Yaa Asantewaa, hummingwitch

Your online library of sacred texts

I heard about this remarkable resource on a Tarot-related podcast and thought I'd share it with you: Internet Sacred Text Archive, described as "the largest freely available archive of online books about religion, mythology, folklore and the esoteric on the Internet. " It has mainly public domain material and everything from A (African, Alchemy, Ancient Near East) to Z (Zoroastrianism). It's really extraordinary!

Serge Kahili King's Dynamind Technique

I recommend Serge Kahili King's Dynamind Technique, a simple but versatile and profound healing process that you can learn here.

And you might be amused, as I was, to read the fourth item in the following list!

Four methods of touch are generally used in the Dynamind Technique:
1. Light Tapping.
2. Gentle Vibration.
3. Extended Contact (with light pressure).
4. Extended Contact with humming.

Okay, kids! Get humming! :-D

If you're interested in learning more about King's huna-related teachings, I highly recommend podcaster Kelly Howell's comprehensive interview with him on Brain Sync: Theatre of the Mind.

One life within us and abroad

O! the one Life within us and abroad,
Which meets all motion and becomes its soul,
A light in sound, a sound-like power in light,
Rhythm in all thought, and joyance every where

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (from “The Eolian Harp”)

Body knowledge

"When you're using reason, the world is distant, seemingly objective, and is upheld by your thoughts about the world. When you use your body, you feel connected, you sense your relationship and you have a knowing, beyond thoughts, that you're part of the world. This is body knowledge."

Ken Eagle Feather (from Toltec Dreaming, Bear & Company, 2007)

On vacation!

hummingwitch is on vacation--yay!!!--and will return to the Net sometime in early November. See you all then!

The Unpath

My remarkable colleague Hyperion-- who inspired me to launch this blog--calls his teachings and his podcast The Unnamed Path. What we have here at hummingwitch is more like The Unpath.

I'm going to assume that your life is fairly similar to what mine has become and that, despite the best intentions, you are multi-tasking to the max and your Madge-ick has to fit into that somehow. Your meditations would not be recognized as such by gurus, and your channeling is more like an open-ended, ongoing and highly informal conversation. Despite the customary instructions to reserve and use magickal tools only for magick, you use Madge-ickal tools--that is, whatever comes to hand--for, well, whatever.

I just want you to know that that's all okay. I understand. And it's really more than okay. It's quantum hoodoo. Carry on!

Yesterday, I spent a few hours in the presence of other people who love dance and the wilderness, experiencing a novel combination of the two. We visited a beautiful, wild area in the midst of the city, on the border of Brooklyn and Queens, and picked our way through the forest to a little clearing where we sat on the dusty-dry, leaf-strewn earth and watched three women dancers engage with their environment, as intimate with it as forest animals. I thought then, as I'm thinking now, that Unpath is what it's all about. How can we become so finely sensitive to and steeped in Spirit that we really don't have to do anything out of the ordinary?

Be Madge-ickal today. Be ordinary.

Mirror, mirror...off the wall?

You're on the bus or subway, checking the particular gleam of your latest lipgloss or flicking an invisible speck out of your eye. Or so it seems.

In reality, you're doing quantum hoodoo Madge-ick, and no one has to be the wiser.

Make friends with your pocket mirror. Rediscover your Inner Narcissus. You're going to be looking at your reflection, every now and then, and it will appear to all the world that you are simply a very vain (or very insecure) individual.

Use this mirror gazing to:

1. mentally send your lunar self powerful words of affirmation or infusions of energy (e.g., Reiki or other symbols), or

2. mentally send your spirit guides expressions of love, words of thanks or requests for assistance or information.

As you gaze at your face, you might find that your lunar self will make your features change in subtle ways. One of your guides might overlap your energy and make an appearance in a similar fashion, perhaps slightly or dramatically altering your expression or seeming to float in front of your face in a flash. You might not see anything at all but, instead, have feelings or sudden impressions of information.

It's all a matter of your intention. Are you really smoothing your hair back into place? Or are you secretly asking for help with the critically-important presentation you're about to give? Your firm, focused intention will make this mirror madge-ick work.

A way of freedom

The ancient practice of meditation comes to a maximum-security prison in Alabama. Read Staring at Death, and Finding Their Bliss by Whitney Joiner, The New York Times, September 13, 2007.

Do it now!

To change one's life: Start immediately. Do it flamboyantly.

--William James

Dive right in

Visit Beyond the Ninth Wave, the blog of Neasa, digital artist, poet and diva!

The eclipses and you

Astrology podcaster Dena DeCastro has posted a fascinating examination of the personal and societal effects of the recent lunar and solar eclipses.

Download Dena's excellent Evolutions of Astrology podcast via iTunes or click here to access the September 18 podcast about the eclipses. On that page, you'll also find links to her supporting material on Pisces, Virgo and the astrological houses.

While the solar self sleeps

Sleep learning, sleep healing, sleep divination, sleep creativity, sleep spells for manifestation. They are all possible. Try asking your guide(s) to speak to you, instruct you and work with you while you sleep. And I mean it: that's all you have to do. Sleep, and your guide(s) and your lunar self will team up and go into action.

I often wake up overnight or in the morning with wonderful bits of new information, creative ideas and solutions to current concerns. That's fairly normal, I think, but you can fine-tune and boost this process by taking a few moments as you're about to drift to sleep to specifically ask for what you need and declare your receptivity to whatever Spirit intends for you.

Always ask in the name of the highest good for all and harm to none, in gratitude for Spirit's past and present graces in your life, and with a recognition that Spirit ultimately expresses wisdom and intention in ways that you--or at least your little local self--might not anticipate, even ways that you might find highly amusing!

Keep a notebook and pen nearby so that you can quickly jot down the information you receive before it fades into the aether or before your usual morning busy-ness distracts you.

The information you receive can take many different forms, some of them very subtle; so, pay close attention. You might get very clear, direct words; some relevant song lyrics or lines from poetry; a passage of music; a visual image; a vague but persistent undertone of feeling; a burst of energy. You might be reminded of something that you had forgotten. You might get a warning or be saved from making an error, or you might suddenly know where to find something you had lost. You might feel a calling to go somewhere without knowing that you'll encounter someone who has the answer to your question.

Try this tonight. Sincerely ask for the spirits who work with you to help you take care of something that's been on your mind. Commit yourself to at least carefully considering the wisdom of what you learn and, accordingly, following through with action on your end.

Have a restful night and sweet dreams!

Ganesh Chaturthi

clipped from hinduism.about.com

clipped from www.lpf.com

My longtime friend and colleague Patricia Kelly sent me the following description of the celebration of Ganesh Chaturthi along with a poem she recently wrote to the elephant-headed Hindu deity Ganesh. Ganesh/Ganesha--commonly known as the "Remover of Obstacles"--is the Hindu version of the "Opener of the Ways" archetype.

Patricia's blogs include: ROSWILA'S DREAM & POETRY REALM, ROSWILA'S TAROT GALLERY & JOURNAL and ROSWILA'S TAIGA TAROT.


Eva :-)

****************************************************************

Ganesh Chaturthi (in case you don't know) is a festival celebrated this time of year to honor Ganesh (some say it's his birthday). Depending on what web site you read from the festival runs either a week or 11 days. I started observing last year and did it for a week, so that's now my "tradition." :-) I sit at a special carefully decorated altar dedicated only to Him twice a day, giving him various gifts and meditating. At the end in the festival in India, the temple Ganesh statue is taken to a body of water and submerged, with much wailing and mourning. I believe this is symbolic of Ganesh's return to our unconcious, where He's always been. I submerge a small bronze figurine of Ganesh in a special bowl of water, acknowledge my sorrow that this special time is over, and welcome Him back to my unconscious. The below was written this morning, the first day of this year's festival (see note at end for more info):

PRAYING TO LOSE MY HEAD*

Oh, Deity of Blinding Light,

my unknown father,

free me from this head

of mine, cut this obstacle

from my knotted neck

in one clean swipe

Relieve me of its weight

of eyes that see as through the darkest glass

of ears that hear only ancient echos and newest fears

of a busy mouth deeply stained by bitterness

of a nose that breathes but is not inspired of spirit

Then do not rush to comfort my Great Mother

but let Her grief echo in the emptiness

that bleeds where my understandings roiled

before your blade’s release

Let Her tears flood over me until

You are moved to gift me with a new

way to comprehend

And until this gift, I will wait unknowing

in the flooding darkness, knowing only

that You will keep Your promise

of transformation

Patricia Kelly © September 2007

One of Ganesh’s titles is "Remover of Obstacles." This was written on first day of Ganesh Chaturthi 2007 (September 15), inspired by the story of Ganesh’s origin: Before Ganesh had an elephant’s head, he was guarding His Mother’s (Parvati) bath. He and His father (Shiva) did not recognize each other, and when Ganesh refused Shiva entrance to Parvati’s bath, Shiva cut off Ganesh’s head. Parvati’s grief was so overwhelming that Shiva went out into the jungle and cut off the head of the first animal He saw, an elephant, and made it Ganesh’s new head.

bright blessings to you all,

Patricia (a/k/a Roswila)

Eternal sunshine of the dreaming mind

Think you've never had a lucid dream? Think again! Remember all those nightmares you had when you finally said, "Enough of this crap! I'm outta here!" and yanked yourself awake? Lucidity! Of course, you could have hung in there--the shamanic way--and actively worked with the nightmarish elements of your dreams to find what secret treasure they hold for you.

And then there's the forgetfulness factor; you've probably forgotten lucid moments or entirely lucid dreams. My sense is that this sort of thing is natural, normal and common, although seldom remembered by the conscious mind when awake. The lunar self has all the fun!

Here's a rather well-done piece by Stephanie Rosenbloom of The New York Times about lucid dreaming: Living Your Dreams In a Manner of Speaking (Sunday, September 16, 2007).

Speaking of being kind to your hands...

Here's another one our dearly departed Madge would surely enjoy: a hand massage that is a great way to relieve the stress on your hands from...ahem...endless blog typing. It's also an excellent way to prepare yourself for creative and channeled writing, visual artwork or healing work.

With gentle pressure, lightly massage the palms and fingers of your hands. Use your thumb to press into the center of your palm. Free the energy of each finger by stroking it upward from base to tip. Circle the tip pads of each finger clockwise. Lightly brush the back of each hand from your wrist to fingertips.

Further activate the energy of your hands by rotating your wrists a few times and then giving your hands a good, loose shake for a few seconds. At some point, you should feel your hands go ON!

You can infuse your hand massage with specific energies: colors, symbols, names of deities or guides, essences of all kinds. Let this be as big as your imagination.

Bjork and friend

clipped from www.last.fm

And you’re breathing it, too

Draw in a series of deep breaths, and imagine these currents of air being expelled through the top of your head until this area feels clean and permeable.

Draw in another series of breaths; expel them through the middle of your forehead until this area rings with clarity.

Draw in a third series of breaths, expelling them through your eyes, making your vision crystalline and penetrating.

Do the same for your ears and for the hollow of your throat, deepening your ability to hear beyond the surface of words and things, and to clearly, fully and creatively express the energies you perceive and the truths you learn.

I used to teach chakra work of all kinds, but I am less of a Chakra Queen today than I used to be. I’ve learned that spirit beings are heavily into simplicity and, for the most part, nonlocality. Any concept that emphasizes a specific physical or time/space location for things (such as “the Heart chakra is located in front of the chest”) makes them roll what would be eyes if they had eyes. We have energy centers all over the physical body, and we have energy centers that are not local to the physical body, just as we are not confined to the physical body.

This breathwork practice is very simple and relatively quick. You can do it anywhere--sitting, standing, walking, lying down--and without anyone knowing that you're doing. You need no equipment, magickal tools or special supplies. Spirits, I've learned, are not Thing Freaks. They leave that sort of thing to us. And as I've worked with them, I'm feeling less of a need to use things or to engage in complex, formalized practices, more of a need to work with a simple magick of the mind. Call it quantum hoodoo, if you will. I continue to keep sacred images and things around, and work with visual symbols, because they are beautiful and provide focus and energy for my own consciousness.

If we like to use all kinds of beautiful, powerfully evocative items to move our own consciousness, the spirits are happy for us, and we can use those symbols and things to our hearts' content, but the spirits do not require them. This frees us to do what feels good and right for ourselves.

The breathwork practice is a good daily routine, spur-of-the-moment tension- and stress-reliever, an initiator for creative work and for any kind of self-expression. Moreover, it's a good beginning for any formal or informal prayer, meditation and communion with Spirit.

Adagio for Strings, Op. 11 (Samuel Barber)

clipped from www.youtube.com

You're soaking in it!

Remember that old commercial with Madge the Manicurist, touting the gentleness of Palmolive dishwashing liquid while her client dips her hands in a bowl that turns out to contain the very same Palmolive? A laugh riot, right? Okay, those were simpler times, but that's the way I think about the spirit world: we're soaking in it. In fact, we're an integral part of it. Some people turn themselves inside out trying to figure out how to contact and work with it. But engagement with the spirit realm is kind of a duh thing.

Many spiritual and metaphysical teachers emphasize the teaching that we really are spirits, first and foremost, as well as incarnate humans. This philosophy makes matters way easier. Connection with the spirit world involves affirming and realizing your spirit self. Why should it be a hassle (or even scary or dangerous) to commune and communicate with the spirit world, when you yourself are part and parcel of it?

View your day-to-day existence from the perspective of your knowledge and wisdom as a spiritual being who, for a precious stretch of time, has chosen to be localized in a body, and you will more readily discover amazing resources of energy, healing, information, creativity and wisdom applicable to the challenges of your daily life.

This post is dedicated to the memory of actress Jan Miner--Palmolive's Madge--who passed away in 2004 at 86.

Oh, the serendipity of it all!

The beauty part about blogs is that you're allowed to figure out what it is you're doing as you go along, and readers don't seem to mind. That lends itself well to what I hope to do in hummingwitch--a nonlinear, merrily winding pathway and multi-directional, multi-dimensional portal in which the matter of Spirit will often become clothed in everyday things. At least, that's what I'm sensing now.

Part of the blame for hummingwitch must go to a fellow named Hyperion who hosts a much-admired podcast called The Unnamed Path, that features his systematic teachings on shamanic spirituality for men-who-love-men (his term). I wrote to Hyperion and asked him if he knew of any similar--meaning specific content and high quality--podcasts for lesbians. He did not, but--as I anticipated!--he took the opportunity to encourage me to set up something of the kind.

I have worked in feminist and lesbian spirituality, but while Hyperion's suggestion is wonderful, I still feel--as I felt some time ago--that I am not drawn to restricting my work to any particular group of people. I'd like it to be available to anyone who discovers it and finds it interesting, just as I have found Hyperion's work interesting. As I listen to Hyperion's podcasts, I sense a call to get my own work out more widely in the form of this blog. I have a podcast devoted to dance, and perhaps someday, I'll find the time and focus to add one for hummingwitch.

In the meantime, please feel free to visit my main Web site and my dance blog InfiniteBody (where you'll also find my dance podcast, Body and Soul). I do feel that my interests in dance and in metaphysical spirituality overlap quite beautifully. Perhaps I'll have more to say about that another time.

Every blessing,
Eva (hummingwitch)

Hello! Hmmmm....

Just humming a bit while I figure out how I want to configure this blog... More later!

hummingwitch