
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Friday, September 24, 2010
Monday, June 28, 2010
The Song of the Reed - Rumi

How it wails with the pain of separation:
“Ever since I was taken from my reed bed
My woeful song has caused men and women to weep.
I seek out those whose hearts are torn by separation
For only they understand the pain of this longing.
Whoever is taken away from his homeland
Yearns for the day he will return.
In every gathering, among those who are happy or sad,
I cry with the same lament.
Everyone hears according to his own understanding,
None has searched for the secrets within me.
My secret is found in my lament
But an eye or ear without light cannot know it..”
The sound of the reed comes from fire, not wind
What use is one’s life without this fire?
It is the fire of love that brings music to the reed.
It is the ferment of love that gives taste to the wine.
The song of the reed soothes the pain of lost love.
Its melody sweeps the veils from the heart.
Can there be a poison so bitter or a sugar so sweet
As the song of the reed?
To hear the song of the reed
everything you have ever known must be left behind.
– Version by Jonathan Star
“Rumi – In the Arms of the Beloved”
Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam, New York 1997
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Reinventing Diet: Going Back to the Stone Age
There are three components to our dietary make up. We receive calories from the holy trinity of food: carbohydrates, proteins and fats.
Our bodies are equipped with mechanisms that tell us when we have had enough of these two types of calorie but it has zero mechanism to tell us when we have had enough carbs. Carbs, including sugar, are nothing but raw energy that our body either uses immediately or turns directly into fat. Since our body can never tell us when we have had enough carbs, we will just keep eating and eating. This is why we see such a large percentage of obesity in Americans. We have been told, from a young age, to consume large amounts of grain carbohydrates as a part of our diet. Grains wreak havoc on the body’s processes and are mostly stored as fat.
The CARB Conspiracy
The body has many processors, timers, and mechanisms. You may wake up in the middle of the night to find you need to make an emergency trip to the bathroom. When you are frightened, your heart beat rises and your blood is flooded with chemicals that cause you to react. When you eat a meal, your stomach tells you when you are full (even though you may not listen!). The body also has a mechanism to tell you when you have eaten the required amount of certain types of food. There is a mechanism for fats and proteins…..but none for carbs! Your body will never tell you when you have had enough carbs and that is why you need to pay special attention to this energy source.
http://www.sleepwarrior.com/health-dangers-of-bread-pasta-and-rice
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/why-grains-are-unhealthy/
http://nourishedkitchen.com/against-the-grain-10-reasons-to-give-up-grains/ 
For the most part, this pyramid should be completely turned on its head. The largest part of the pyramid, the base, should either be completely eliminated or moved to the pinnacle. When humans were in the hunter/gatherer stage of development, they ate very little grains. When civilization began to develop agriculture, grains were very important for poor people to remain alive. Grains don’t run when you try to cut them down. They are cheap and readily available (and tasty, I know). If you must eat grains, avoid refined grains, white grains, and white potatoes. Sugar is the at the far end of the carb spectrum and can be considered the physical reincarnation of Satan. You can get your sugars from fruits and honey.
If you have a sweet tooth and find yourself gorging on fruits, be careful! The sugars (especially dried fruits) in fruit will rot your teeth and cause all sorts of problems in your body. Don’t overdo it!
Fruits and Vegetables
The largest portion of your carbs should come from fruits and vegetables. Anyway you can find to get more RAW fruits and vegetables, the better. I suggest getting 3 servings of raw greens a day (by all means, get as much as you can). Greens should always be eaten with FAT, as many of the vitamins and minerals they contain are fat soluble. Dense leafy green foods include kale, spinach, dandelion, collard greens, mustard greens, and chards. Green smoothies are a great way to get the greens down the hatch, especially if you are not a fan of vegetables. Get a blender, add water or milk (whole milk, coconut milk, or soy) about two cups. Try to add as much greens as you can with a high concentration of kale. Kale is extremely good for you and the fiber in kale absorbs many times its own weight in toxins. The next step is to add fruit. I use a blend of avocado, strawberries and bananas. Acidic fruits may not work so well. Berries are very friendly to the smoothie. Be weary of over-blending as it oxidizes and destroys valuable nutrients.
Green Smoothie Recipe:
• 1 Avocado
• 6 Strawberries
• 1 Banana
• 1 cup chopped fresh spinach
• 2 cups chopped fresh kale
• 2 cups whole milk
Blend until smooth and drinkable.
Proteins
The LORD has given us certain us every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. - Genesis 1:29
Protein can be somewhat of a complex subject as many people argue over the finer points of veganism and acidic blood levels caused by the consumption of animal protein. As with all your food, protein should be consumed from the widest variety of sources possible. Nuts and seeds in a wide variety provide many, if not all, of the essential fatty acids. They are usually high in omega fatty acids and contain a very high anti-oxidant and vitamin content. Some fruits and vegetables contain smaller amounts of protein and can assist in rounding out the diet plan. It is my personal belief that everyone should eat at least one animal source of protein a day. The body likes long chain, complex amino acids. Eating fish 3 times a week should be an absolute minimum for any vegetarian/vegan/etc (though I know you probably won’t), and for any meat eating heathen. This will eliminate the need for ingesting fish oil pills and is a much healthier solution. The fish oil industry is very suspicious and dirty. Don’t trust them, just eat real fish. Vegan enthusiast may argue that the consumption of animal proteins leads to an acidic PH of the bloodstream, but with enough raw fruits, vegetables, seeds, and nuts the body will be at the perfect PH. Taking 2 table spoon doses of apple cider vinegar with a large glass of water also helps with this.
Fats
Many people that believe in eating a healthy diet avoid this one component of food that they need the most: FAT! We use fat as direct energy and it also provides insulation to the cells of the body. Just like carbs and proteins, fats should be consumed from a wide variety of matter. Plant fats do not contain cholesterol and even saturated plant fats have been shown to decrease cholesterol. Coconut oil is a super food that should be a major part of everyone’s diets. High in lauric acid, it unarms fungus, bacteria, and viruses in the body and promotes healthy bodily functioning. It is also excellent for digestion and delivers a solid punch of energy with any small meal.
I recommend 1 tablespoon of coconut oil with meals to aid in digestion (may be unnecessary in high fat meals). Saturated animal fats are not the bad guys that they have been made out to me. The cholesterol contained in these fats is the back bone to the hormone molecule.
The French Paradox
“The French Paradox is the observation that Frenchmen suffer a relatively low incidence of coronary heart disease, despite having a diet relatively rich in saturated fats.”
Did you know that Americans have some of the world’s highest rates of heart disease, obesity and diabetes? This has nothing to do with the consumption of fat! Consumed fats are not reformed into body fat. They are burned, used to insulate cells or passed out of the body. Consuming fat will not make you fat. That is the job of sugar and carbs.
With these things said I offer a sample daily diet:
Wake up:
1-2 large cups of luke warm->warm water to encourage regularity
Breakfast to slowly awaken the metabolism to a high rate of burn for the day(listen to the body, do not eat whole pieces of fruit if you are urged to slow down):
• 1 apple (wait until hungry and move on to next fruit)
• 1 banana (wait again until hunger returns)
• 1/2 grape fruit
2nd Breakfast (brunch)
• 2 hard boiled eggs
• ½ grapefruit
Lunch
• 4 celery stalks (for salt)
• Dense green salad
• 2 tablespoon Hemp seed
• Small bunch of grapes
Afternoon snack
• 2 table spoons of apple cider vinegar (raw, unfiltered, organic) with 2 teaspoons of raw/local/organic honey in half a cup of warm water
• Mixed raw nuts
• I cup of plain kefir
Dinner
• 12 ounces of grilled tilapia
• Large dense salad
• Steamed broccoli
• 1 sweet potato
Desert
• Pineapple
• Mixed raw nuts
This is a very loose example of a daily diet. Feel free to add smoothies, different salads, and other foods. Pay attention to your body’s dialogue. Eat slowly…listen…and enjoy.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Alejandro Jodorowsky: Psychomagic
"The psychological mechanism that transforms energy is the symbol."
-Carl Gustav Jung
We can use the symbol for many purposes. We use it to create the future, dicipher the present, and heal the past. When we have done the healing work, we become more centered in the present, giving us leverage on creating the future that we desire.
Jodorowsky makes a priceless contribution to the human understanding. I wish we had him sooner.
Pt. 1 of 6:
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Stephen's Purple Drink - Sangre del Arbol
The cabbage has been a staple in western diets for thousands of years. Packed with Vitamin C and K, it was seen as a commodity in fighting scurvy and hangovers on the turbulent sea. Its phytonutrient make up make it an excellent antioxidant and destroyer of cancers. Notice the fractal tree of life pattern in the manifestation of this beautiful spirit, concealing the secrets of immortality.

Cabbage can be consumed raw, cooked, dried, pickled, and salt cured. For those wishing to avoid the unpleasant side effects of digesting cabbage fiber (excessive wind), juicing may be a preferable method. Cabbage juice is high in chlorine and sulfur (secret element of the alchemist) which clean and heal the mucus membranes of the intestines. All healing in the body takes place from the inside out. By investing healing energy in the digestive tract, we can proactively fight disease and fatigue. I recommend drinking at least 2 glasses a day, 4-5 if you have poor intestinal health or ulcers. Purple cabbage is higher anthocyanin (found in all purple/red/blue plants) which makes its nutritional content higher than green cabbages.
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=19Tools:
Blender
Fine mesh strainer (wide brimmed - you can find at target)
large bowl
small bowl
Ingredients
Shredded Purple Cabbage
handful of chopped carrots
2-3 celery stalks
Fill blender a little more than 3/4's of the way with shredded purple cabbage, add handful of cut carrots and celery. Fill blender 3/4's full of clean, fresh, unadulterated water (preferably blessed with loving intention). Blend on high for 1 min. Pour mesh into strainer and strain into bowl. Place small bowl onto cabbage mesh and slowly add pressure. The juice is ready to drink. May store for approximately 3 days.
This recipe can be modified into a powerful cheap pro-biotic formula. Just fill the blender full of cabbage, add 3/4's blender of water. Blend for 1 min and let the mix sit at room temperature for 3 days. Strain off the pulp and you have your formula. Consume 1/2 cup with equal parts water 2-3 times daily. Word to the wise, this stuff stinks! You might want to take mix outside when drinking and mixing. More formula can be made by adding a cup of pro-biotic juice to fresh juice and let it sit for 24 hours. Probiotic recipe taken from Chris Gupta: http://www.eregimens.com/therapies/Diet/Cultured%20Cabbage.htm
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Prayer and the Co-creation of Reality

Excerpt CXXIII from In Memoriam by Lord Alfred Tennyson
There rolls the deep where grew the tree.
O earth, what changes hast thou seen!
There where the long street roars, hath been
The stillness of the central sea.
The hills are shadows, and they flow
From form to form, and nothing stands;
They melt like mist, the solid lands,
Like clouds they shape themselves and go.
But in my spirit will I dwell,
And dream my dream, and hold it true;
For tho’ my lips may breathe adieu, I cannot think the thing farewell.
This giant mound of land and water rolling through space finds no peace in the pitch of night. Round and round it goes, illuminated by a ball of burning hydrogen. The consciousness of earth, expressing itself through man, is entangled in a web of illusion. The financial crisis rounds the herd into a ghet
to of depression. Rogue flu strains creep into every corridor of space. War looms on every edge of the earth. Every waking moment is spent in terror of what plague God will caste upon us next. What is taking place in minds and hearts of men is that which threatens to destroy us. We must take our attention back and direct it in any way that we can use it to create a future for ourselves that is independent of central control. We don’t need legislation or even an army to do this. All that we need is our hearts, minds, and the will to act.I am regretful to hear people have given up on prayer. These scarred and tattered souls have lost touch with the mystical roots their ancestors had worked so hard to preserve for the future generations. There is a general lack of enthusiasm for the spiritual realms in pop culture. The old truths have lost relevancy in a routine of redundant work, errands, and stress. The minds of the youth are so dominated by popular media that one can often find the moral of last night’s South Park episode dictating the philosophical medium of the average high school teenager.
Some manage to break through the sphere of local consciousness and relate to the free thinkers of the day. “God is dead,” declared Nietzsche. Many people seem to take this as an exclamation of the vacancy of spirit in the physical experience. Darwin’s theory portrays a random sequence of events leading to an existential existence where instant gratification is purpose. Still, others attempt to explain God through the rational faculties of the intellect, citing prayer as a selfish endeavor: “ One could not possibly change the will of God through prayer.” If God knows every atom at every place at every time in the Universe, then how could the individual dictate their will to God (a philosophical contradiction)? Others tell me that they have no use for prayer any more. Maybe it was due to the fact that they did not achieve the results they were seeking.
There has been a loss of heart in our generation. Technology, modern comfort, and socializing have taken the place of contemplation, meditation, and the search for ultimate truth. We don’t even have time to think anymore. Families disintegrate all around me, including my own. Families that can maintain the congenial binding, have little time to pay attention to the development of the soul and creation of a loving community. Most of free time that we have falls prey to shallow entertainment and consumerism.
Enter stage right, the new paradigm: 2011, the year before the Mayan end date. According to late Ian Lungold, 2011 signals the beginning of our next great lesson in the classroom of cosmic consciousness: co-creation.
ortgage…I need a miracle. I will do anything if you get my mortgage paid this month. I’ll never stare at a woman’s ass again. I’ll never eat Twinkies. I’ll help my mom clean her garage…anything, Lord!!!” These sorts of people have a skewed vision of who or what God is and will have very little luck getting anyone to intercede on their behalf. The mystic understands that God is not a person that is there to throw us a bone in times of need or smite us under his thumb. Thankfully we have true champions of spirit such as Gregg Braden blazing the torch of enlightenment for us to follow suit and create a world of our own.In his book, The Isaiah Effect: Decoding the Lost Science of Prayer and Prophecy, he explains the quantum connection between the self and the exterior world and that our thoughts and emotions play an important part in the experience that we create for ourselves. He also tells of his miraculous experiences such as witnessing the healing of physical wounds right before his eyes, missing space and time, and Native American rain dances.
We are literally connected with our external world. There is no difference between what is inside your head and what is going on around you. The mind is projecting a hologram of fluxuating energy that is designed to respond to every thought and emotion that the individual can create. Scientist have recently discovered that we can change reality by mere observation.
Dr. Quantum, The Double Slit Experiment
What the Bleep Do We Know!
THOUGHT + EMOTION = FEELING
FEELING + ACTION = DESIRED RESULT
(Thought + Emotion) + Action = Result
I have stated in earlier blogs the connection between Tarot and the ancient formula for prayer. Fire is thought, water is emotion, air is action, and earth is the final outcome
When we practice prayer and gratitude, the aura is bathed in light streaming from the chakras opening crown, heart, and root chakras to create a flow. When our energy flows, we are healthy, happy, and content. Stagnation causes disease and emotional problems. The ability to maintain a center of gratitude will also increase our ability to manifest destiny. Some may have difficulties maintaining any level of gratitude due to the severing of the emotional body from waking consciousness.Connecting to the emotional body is easier said than done. From the time we are born, we learn to repress our emotions just to be able to function. Bright lights, cold air, strange people, being ripped from our mother and smacked on the ass violate everything we have known to be. These catastrophic events are repressed in the psyche, initiating a cycle of habitually detaching from emotion; debilitating our ability to see the self as it is. We live in a patriarchal paradigm that values pride, patriotism, sacrifice, and the masculine display of power. By reconnecting to our emotions in a healthy way, we change the paradigm from within, manifesting a world in balance of male and female.
Reconnecting to the right brain is embracing the feminine aspect of our being. Honoring the feminine has more to do with being nice women and girls. It is an acknowledgement to the female within, the right side of the brain, the emotional experience. The Return of the Divine Feminine prophesied by so many indigenous tribes and pagan systems of faith is none other than the return of right brain thinking, balancing the dominating left half and initiating an understanding of co-creating reality.
According to Dr. Emoto, water is the most receptive of the elements. He conducted a study on the effects of thought/emotion on water. Water that is structured well forms hexagonal liquid crystals. Dr. Emoto found from hundreds of trials of independent experimentation that when the crystal freezes, the form developed is dependent on the thought/emotion projected onto it.

The structure of water dictates your body’s ability to use it in ways that benefit normal functioning and longevity. Danny Vitalis and Dr. Leonard Horowitz give much more background to this science and the practical application. ( http://technorati.com/videos/youtube.com/watch?v=V_hvLvS2dgY, http://www.drlenhorowitz.com/) Connecting to water is to connect to the emotional body. “As above, so below. As within, so without.” –Hermes “Thoth” Trismegestis
Taking all of these points into consideration, a simple prayer would go something like this, “Thank you (Jesus, God, Allah, the Universe, self) for my new job. I am thankful for the ability to maintain financial independence, care for my family, and purchase a new house”. Repeat the prayer often so that it sinks deep into the unconscious. I am not the type to formulate my prayers into words, so experiment, research, and gather your results. It only takes a few successes to convince the subconscious of a new reality pattern and open the flood gates of personal creation. Now take action! Your new job could very well land on your lap, but it would have a much better chance if you search for the job, schedule an interview, and then show up. Baby steps…baby steps…
As far out as this may seem, it is not impossible. In fact, you access the 5th dimension on a regular basis in your dreams and day dreams. We live in a three dimensional world and perceive a fourth dimension of time so that we may pinpoint a place in space-time with four coordinates: x, y, z axis’s and time. The fifth dimension lies right outside of time: the realm of thought. This mind is a powerful template of creation, communication, and problem solving. How many times have you been trying to solve a problem, or remember the name of a particular someone and you just can’t seem to grasp that which is just beyond the reach of your cognition? Then during some completely unrelated activity, the thought suddenly jumps into your head with no effort. This is because the mind works in a non-linear (outside of time) fashion as a hologram of information and experience. It is much more than it seems being that the unconscious (that functioning that you are unaware of) makes up for 99% of the total mind.
Sit back, breathe deeply, and send a warm feeling into your toes and feet. Let this feeling break up any strain or tension, and as you exhale let the tension drain away. Breathe deeply and send this warm feeling into your ankles. It will break up any strain or tension, and as you exhale let the tension drain away. Breathe deeply and send this feeling into your knees, let it break up any strain or tension there, and as you exhale let the tension drain away. Send this warm sensation into your thighs so any strain or tension is draining away. Breathe deeply and send this warm feeling into your genitals and drain away any tension.
The sanctuary is now your access point to a stable environment in the 5th dimension. This sanctuary is as every bit as real as the world around you. The more practice you put into accessing this space, the more the energy will stabilize and create a conduit of spiritual power for you to use at your disposal.
Before entering a meditative state and journeying into the sanctuary, list a few adjectives and characteristics of the person/place/thing that you wish to attract into your life. This could be physical appearances, personality traits, job descriptions, pay range, color, shape, etc. Now that you have an idea of exactly what you want to attract, you may enter the dimension of the spirit world. It is not necessary to go through the deep relaxation techniques on every visit to the sanctuary. Your mind will become familiar with the routine and automatically go into a relaxed alpha wave state with little effort after practicing the relaxation technique a few times. Just begin meditating, take a few deep breaths , go to your sacred space of peace and meditate there for a few minutes.
This is a new day in your life. You can take control. You can change the channel. You are creating reality.









