The archive to the right says the last posting was in January…where has the time gone and what has happened since then in your life and mine!
For me, I left beautiful and cold Mt Shasta in late January as my bones never seemed to get warm. Headed for Sonora to stay with friends before going to North Hollywood for 10 days to look after another friend’s animals while she traveled to the East Coast.
This was followed by a fun week of travel from Venture to Santa Cruz with a friend visiting from South Carolina. The day she left I headed for the Ojai Valley for what turned out to be a 2 month stay.
Initially I was scheduled to be at the Ojai Foundation for the month of May with the month’s prior filled by the known whys! Nestled in a valley east of Venture, Ojai has become not only a retirement and bedroom community of The Bay Area, it is also known as a spiritual and artistic mecca.
The large and diverse array of creative arts draws people from all over the world year round. The spiritual community is represented by organizations and centers such as The Krotona Theosophical Institute and School started by Helena Blavatsky in the 1920s, whose original mission was and still is to promote freedom of thought, freedom of society and the seeking of Higher Religious Truth.
Other spiritual communities in Ojai are The Krishnamurti Foundation of America, Meditation Mount, the teachings of Annie Besant and Beatrice Wood, the intentional communities of The Ojai Foundation and Elevate, as well as an array of varying religious and spiritual belief communities.
I visited and shared in the experiences of these main organizations through lecture series and events during my time in Ojai.
As the end of March rolled around I was none clearer as to why I was in the Valley. Then as I vowed to leave one night my guidance seemed to yell loudly “stay and be patient”.
Two day later an email from the Ojai Foundation…we have had two unexpected late cancelations in the program…are you available and when can you arrive!
My question answered and so I turned up at the Ojai Foundation on April 6, a full month ahead of schedule!
This whole region is rich in history of the Chumash people, the arrival of the Europeans/Spanish and the Catholic Church. Rich as it may be, it is not without great pain, hardship, abuse, violation, greed and power struggles of cultures and traditions at odds with each other and themselves.
The Ojai Foundation is set on a ridge of 40 areas within Happy Valley. This community was established over thirty years ago and has been serving as an example of intentional and substantial living and governing by the model of Council. I was especially interested in how Council governing worked as an ongoing model.
As is normal with me, full immersion into all areas of daily life was how I would see and feel the experience. Sleeping on the land (once again), participating and holding the space for meditation in the Council House most every morning for the month I was there, tending the shrines and gardens, doing the beauty way along with everyone else there. Assisting others when their work load for turning over spaces was tight whether in housekeeping or kitchen. As well my physical body got one massive workout. Being on a ridge the areas of flat land are minimal so everywhere one walks, from one place to the next, is either a quarter mile up or down hill and some days the path between the upper land and offices, kitchen, cars was traversed 3,4,5 times…..heart, lungs and muscles not always rejoicing!
I was honored to share and hold space in the two Inipi or Sweat Lodge Ceremonies during my time on the land. Lodges held by humble, honorable and powerful Lodge Elders.
And most especially meeting and getting to know a group of wonderful dedicated and knowledgeable staff, work exchange participants, council members and guests on retreats (both personal and in groups).
It wasn’t until five days into my stay that even an inclining of why I was there and what was to be learn began to be revealed.
Wednesday was the departure morning for a group of ten or so women who had participate in a “Birthing Seminar for Eight Days.” I volunteered to help get the sleeping domes in the Grove ready for the group arriving the next day….a group of high school seniors participating in a 5-Day Rites of Passage retreat. (For the previous twenty plus years, seniors from varying schools from Santa Monica and other areas would come to the Foundation for such retreats.)
As the simply process of cleaning, sweeping and beautifying each dome took place, from time to time I would sing….singing songs in languages other than English, accompanied by feelings and thoughts that were not mine. In each dome I left sprigs of lavender, rosemary and sage.
For many years in my intuitive and life alchemy work, it has not been uncommon to “act as a medium or go between for spirit world”.
It was in the third dome that I had an understanding come forth. Whoever had been staying in that dome had left a very distinct “imprint” (for lack of any other description at present) of a baby/child. My immediate sense and song that came forth was of “one that had been lost, was going to be lost or represented the woman herself who was lost!” It could have even been all of them!
In these immediate moments I do not analyze, question or judge. It is to just continue with the flow and honoring of the energy present – sing, pray, cry, dance, whatever is the mode of expression for as long as is necessary.
Then as fast as it has shown up it disappears and a sense of peace rests…my job is done!
That day there were a few other happenings and clearings. Later I briefly mentioned what happened in relation to the babies to my friend who had overheard the singing (for privacy I will leave out their names.) “Did you know that is area is known as the Children’s Grove!” Of course I didn’t!
What concerned me most of all and the underlying message to be gained was that the leader/facilitator of the Birthing Retreat probably had no idea that some of her participants were leaving “things behind” that could interfere with the next occupants – high school seniors – the following day.
The veils are becoming non-existent. In the world of the Unseen it is so easy (myself included) to miss, ignore or not pay attention to what is ours or not ours….what is of Light and what is Dark and Disruptive, what needs attention.
Please know to acknowledge the latter is not to focus on the negative. Yet to call it for what it is, even honor it for what has been revealed through the experience however NOW it is not required any more and transmutation to a new path/direction/power will be most beneficial for ITS evolution.
Some of you may find this approach difficult to accept yet as an example replace the dark and disruptive being with yourself on a very bad day and circumstance. How do you react? What do you want from the person/people involved? What is the real deep issue that no-one understands? Do you just want to be recognized or acknowledged? As the saying goes….negative attention is better than no attention at all….and thus bad behavior (in either world) is one way of getting it!)
I will leave you here to ponder these questions and perhaps a revelation or change in perspective will come forth. If you are interested in an appointment contact me
I will continue the story in the next posting….hope you join me…..promise the wait won’t be long!
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