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12 Aug 2021
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Dragon And Tiger Medical Qigong

An Ancient Chinese Treasure for Health and Longevity

 

As more people seek natural, safe and effective ways to improve their health, strengthen their immune systems, reduce stress and anxiety, have more energy, emotional balance and greater mental focus, many have come to rely upon the ancient Chinese practice of qigong to accomplish these and many other health and wellness goals.

Dragon and Tiger Medical Qigong is one of the most popular styles of qigong practiced around the world today. The 1,500-year-old self-healing system teaches you to move qi (vital life energy) through well-defined energy lines within your body that are related to acupuncture meridian lines. Its seven-movement form is a low-impact practice very gentle on the joints, and able to be comfortably performed by anyone regardless of age or current level of health. At the same time, it’s very powerful and dramatically increases vitality, promoting healing on many levels.

Before exploring Dragon and Tiger specifically, let’s first take a look at qigong in general to learn what it really is and give you some background in this remarkable Chinese cultural treasure.

A General Overview Of Qigong

Depending upon sources cited, qigong originated in China between 3-5,000 years ago. Not a single static system, it has many variations, styles, and philosophical bases, each with their specific purposes and objectives. It can be done as a stationary standing practice or a moving form with many parts. Some styles can be done while sitting or lying down, by oneself or with a partner. It has continued to grow and evolve over the centuries, and is perhaps the most well-researched, comprehensive and highly developed system on the planet for building health and extending longevity. That it has continued to flourish through the millennia is a testament to its unique, profound effectiveness and versatility.

Even in the early stages of a beginner-level practice, qigong promotes greater self-awareness, awakening you to increasingly more subtle levels of your being. Many qigongs are rooted in spiritual traditions that transcend simply improving physical health and longevity, adding a nuanced richness and deeper dimensions to enhancing your life. At the highest levels of practice, it is a path to enlightenment and spiritual cultivation, and can prepare your mind for the deepest meditative practices.

Defining Qigong

In order to better understand what qigong is, let’s take a look at the word “qigong” itself, since that will tell us a lot about the actual practice. It is made up of the two syllables “qi” (pronounced “chee”) and “gong”. As each syllable in the Chinese language is itself a discrete word, we’ll first define each syllable separately to gain insight into its fullest meaning.

Often translated as “vital life energy”, or simply “energy”, qi is the sum of all the functional energies that animate and keep you alive, aware, and healthy. The electrical energy measured by an EEG (measuring brain activity) and EKG (measuring heart functional energy), the magnetic energy of an MRI that allows for the magnetic imaging of every cell in your body—all of your cells are polar— the neural energy running through your nervous system, the biochemical energy of enzymatic reactions, hormones and neurotransmitters, and the functional energy of every internal organ are all a part your qi. For a Western mind, this understanding can provide some useful touchstones, but it’s only a part of the totality of your qi, which includes many more subtle aspects than what are contained within the current Western medical paradigm.

In the context of qigong you may find that qi is sometimes translated as “breath” or “breathing”. This is not technically incorrect, since the Chinese character for qi as energy is identical to the character for qi as breath, and we’ll soon see that the Regulation of the Breath is an integral component of all qigongs. But that’s only a part of what qigong is about, and leads to the misinterpretation of qigong as “breathing exercises”. Sometime qi is translated as “subtle breath”, which distinguishes it from the common breath, and is more accurate as it’s the “subtle breath” that is the qi that circulates through our body’s numerous energy pathways.

“Gong” means practice, skill, or cultivation. As in the Western use of the word “practice” as it relates to practicing a musical instrument, practicing medicine, practicing law, or really any profession or avocation in which you may want to acquire some proficiency, it requires some effort invested over a period of time to gain that skill. That acquired skill is the desired result of the practice.

Because all qigongs involve regulating the body, “gong” is sometimes interpreted to mean “exercise”, so that “qigong” is often translated to mean “energy exercise”, but as with “breathing exercise”, it’s also a limited interpretation. In fact, the word “exercise” is sometimes used as a gentle admonition by a qigong master correcting a novice: “You’re not doing qigong, you’re just doing an exercise.” Once learned, an exercise is something that can be effectively performed by rote. In qigong, your full awareness needs to be engaged throughout the entirety of your practice.

Now we can see that the word qigong most accurately means effort invested over time in working with your vital life energy in order to sense, direct, and gather it for the purpose of enhancing your life in a variety of ways. You get to choose what those enhancements might be based upon the style of qigong you select to practice.

Five Philosophical Bases For All Qigong

The five broad categories of qigong are derived from one of the Five Philosophical Bases that most inform each practice. Those are Daoist, Buddhist, Confucian, medical and martial. Each category is very rich and varied, but looked at simply, we can say that Daoist qigongs are most concerned with aligning oneself with the cycles and energies of the natural world and promoting longevity; Buddhist qigongs are most concerned with spiritual cultivation and enlightenment more than with physical health; Confucian qigongs are most concerned with intellectual achievement and societal ethics; medical qigongs are most concerned with preventing illness and treating disease; and martial qigongs are most concerned with developing physical and energetic power for martial applications. Each of the five categories may contain hundreds of different qigong practices ranging from the very simple and relatively common to the very complex and rare.

While there are qigongs that purely adhere to one of the Five Philosophical Bases, it’s common for there to be some overlap among styles. For example, the Daoist qigongs that promote longevity naturally inform some of the health-building aspects of medical qigongs (and vice versa), while the intellectual clarity produced by Confucian qigongs help the mind travel along some the more challenging aspects of spiritual cultivation in Buddhist qigongs.

The Three Regulations

No matter the philosophical basis or style, all complete qigongs include The Three Regulations: The Regulation of Body, Breath, and Mind. Beyond just improving your physical health, each of the Three Regulations influence your emotional, mental, and psychic states of being, more directly as you advance in your cultivation. At very high levels of practice, you can access, balance and clear your karma.

The specific ways in which body, breath and mind are regulated can vary considerably depending upon the goal and purpose of the particular qigong being practiced. The coordinated regulation of body, breath and mind further regulates the qi, first by intention, and ultimately by the mind’s direct contact with qi.

While each qigong has a particular focus, a specific purpose for which it’s intended, all initially produce a similar range of baseline benefits, including general well-being, more energy, reduced stress and increased mental clarity. No matter what style of qigong you may choose to practice, you can expect this common range of benefits. This is because through the Three Regulations, all help you to tune into the wisdom of your own body, releasing negative or restrictive energies, thoughts, and beliefs while bringing you back into balanced wholeness.

Now let’s examine the specifics of a most versatile, accessible and rewarding practice, Dragon and Tiger Medical Qigong.

Dragon And Tiger Medical Qigong History

The origins of Dragon and Tiger Medical Qigong are traced back 1,500 years. Its creation is attributed to the Bodhidharma, who taught it to monks of the Shaolin monastery in China to help strengthen and revitalize their bodies after extended periods of seated meditation. It included the stimulation of qi flow through qigong and acupuncture meridian lines, providing the foundation for an energy wisdom that blended Daoism, Buddhism, and Chinese medicine. That information was passed to each successive head abbot of the Shaolin monastery in an unbroken lineage through the centuries until the mid 20th century, when the last head abbot taught it to his niece, Zhang Jia Hua, a doctor of Chinese medicine.

Dr. Zhang was very experienced in the use of qigong for medical purposes, and made some additional refinements to the practice, transforming it into the even more powerful medical qigong it is today. Those refinements made Dragon and Tiger one of the most widespread and successful treatments for cancer and other serious degenerative diseases throughout China. During the 1960s and 1970s, she taught more than 20,000 instructors who spread Dragon and Tiger Qigong to over 20 million people. (As an aside, I learned Dragon and Tiger from Daoist Master Bruce Frantzis, who learned it directly from Zhang Jia Hua.)

The Meaning Of Dragon And Tiger

The Chinese often use animals to represent the characteristics associated with an abstraction they are describing, common in Chinese astrology and Five Element Theory, for example. In this qigong context, the dragon is associated with the lungs, which take in the air we breathe, while the tiger is associated with the liver, which powers so many of our physiological processes. The first movement of Dragon and Tiger particularly benefits the lungs and liver, giving this set its name. Here are some characteristics of each of these animals, and the associated benefits you may expect from Dragon and Tiger Qigong.

As the flying dragon is a creature of the air, the first associated correspondence is to the air itself. Dragon and Tiger strengthens your lungs and increase your ability to take in fuller, deeper breaths. We’ve seen that the Chinese character for breath is identical to the character for qi, so as you bring in more air with each breath, you are bringing in more qing qi, or atmospheric qi (literally, “clear qi”). The breathing practices contained within Dragon and Tiger increase your ability to extract more qing qi from the air, which builds your reserves of qi.

A second quality is that of the dragon’s movements, sinuous and lithe. Dragon and Tiger creates a physical openness that engenders a flexibility in your body you may not have enjoyed since you were very young.

A third quality has to do with the positive emotions associated with the lungs. When the lungs are functioning well, you will experience an upsurge in vitality and an exuberance for life, increasing your enthusiasm and joy. Conversely, when the lungs are not functioning well, you will often feel sad even when there’s no apparent reason for such sadness. A two-way street, prolonged periods of grief will likewise adversely affect the overall health of your lungs.

The tiger is the animal associated with the liver. The tiger is very powerful, agile and quick, able to transition from a relaxed stillness to the immediate physical activity of a rapid pounce or run in almost no discernable time.

The first association with the tiger’s power corresponds to the power of a well-functioning liver. The liver is involved in aspects of digestion, nutrient assimilation, detoxification, production of enzymes, the storage of glycogen, vitamins and minerals, and more. Its far-reaching influence on our metabolism and physiological processes is staggering. The health and strength of our body depends extensively on the liver’s ability to perform its functions optimally.

Another aspect of that power exists on the emotional level. It takes drive and perseverance, a kind of psychological power, to make changes in the world and in your life. A healthy liver provides that ability to accomplish, to get things done in a positive and productive way. This means you have the inner strength and focus to do what needs doing yourself, or you are able to inspire others to help when help is needed. By contrast, an imbalanced liver will make you easily angered, and that anger can be used to fuel anger-driven actions (which may even be directed against yourself) or to intimidate others into doing what you want. While still powerful, this is a pathological manifestation of impeded liver energy, an unhealthy way of getting things done.

According to Chinese medicine, the liver controls tendons and ligaments. When the liver is functioning well, your tendons and ligaments will be relaxed, allowing your body a greater freedom of movement, as embodied by the supple grace of the tiger. This helps reduce any restrictive physical pain you may have, and provides not only a greater freedom of physical movement, but greater internal freedom on every level. This involves the more subtle aspects of the manifestation of power, whether that’s applied for health, longevity, martial ability, social influence, intellectual accomplishment or spiritual cultivation.

The liver is also responsible for the smooth flow of qi throughout your entire body. This promotes the optimal functional energy of every organ, allowing each to do its job best and work in balanced harmony, fostering homeostasis. It reduces stress, helps maintain both physical and emotional equilibrium, and sharpens your reflexes, creating the same type of smooth continuous internal flow that allows the tiger to move from a relaxed aware stillness to an immediate pounce with no hesitation or awkwardness.

Physical And Energetic Characteristics Of Dragon And Tiger

Dragon and Tiger is primarily a medical qigong that balances the body’s energy systems in accordance with the principles of acupuncture and Chinese medicine. The inclusion of Daoist and Buddhist elements in Dragon and Tiger are used to support and enhance its medical applications. Increased sensitivity and awareness are the hallmarks of all qigongs, and with focused attention on your body, breath and mind, your awareness grows, helping to connect you to your healing qi more deeply. At advanced levels of practice, it can move into spiritual realms, fully integrating body, heart-mind (xin) and spirit (shen) for profound healing on every level of being.

On the surface, Dragon and Tiger have some similarities to the beautiful flowing movements of taiji (tai chi), and many of the principles of Dragon and Tiger can be transferred directly to taiji if you choose to learn that at some later time. It even provides many comparable benefits, improving balance, coordination, strength and longevity. With only seven movements it’s much easier to do, taking less time to learn and less space to practice. Each of its movements focuses on a particular meridian pathway or organ system, and each has specific targeted medical effects that will provide you numerous health benefits beyond those found in taiji. The synergy among the seven movements creates a system-wide energetic upgrade that benefits the health of your entire being.

Despite its simplicity, it’s a complete medical qigong system addressing almost every part of your health needs. Practiced regularly, you will activate and balance the core energy channels most commonly addressed in qigong, and the major acupuncture meridians, releasing blocked and stagnant energy both from your physical body and from the energy field around you, known as the qi body or the etheric field.

Some Expected Medical Benefits

As a therapeutic practice, Dragon & Tiger is designed to balance your body’s energies to prevent, eliminate, or reduce the suffering of disease. In China, it has been used to treat cancer and other serious degenerative conditions. Its seven movements are repeated a number of times, gently stretching, opening and releasing the body, making you more flexible and relaxed. It will reduce stress, improve blood circulation and increase synovial and lymphatic fluid movement, build energy, and enhance your felt sense of general well-being. By increasing awareness of how your body moves through space (proprioception), it‘s also excellent for improving balance, an important consideration for older people and athletes alike.

* The Regulation of the Body can be viewed simply as physical activity, yet when practiced with awareness, it promotes health on both physical and energetic levels, and lays the foundation for deeper energetic benefits that come later. In Dragon and Tiger, some of the physical regulations include weight shifts, which help improve balance in the same way that taiji is known to do; and bending, stretching, and gently twisting muscle tissue, which helps both to release physical tension, promoting relaxation, and opens pathways through which qi flows, reducing obstructions in order to increase the amount of qi available to circulate throughout your body. Removing qi obstruction and promoting qi flow is also the main mechanism through which it relieves aches, pains, and other physical discomforts.

When proper body alignments are learned and maintained, many of the movements release contracted muscles throughout the body, especially in such common trouble areas as the neck, shoulders, upper back, lower back and hips. Some movements massage and cleanse the axillary and inguinal lymph nodes, stimulating the flow of lymph fluids and benefiting the entire immune system. Some Dragon and Tiger movements stimulate communication between hemispheres of the brain, improving cognition in ways similar to the Western physical therapy technique of “cross crawl”, used to rehabilitate people with brain injuries and other cognitive dysfunctions.

* Regulation of the Breath most obviously improves lung health, breathing capacity, and resistance to airborne pathogens. It helps to create the optimal acid/alkaline balance throughout the body, crucial to overall good health. As important as these are, they are just a small part of the benefits derived from the Regulation of the Breath.

The Daoist natural breathing used in Dragon and Tiger gently pressurizes all of the internal organs, in effect massaging them to facilitate releasing the toxic accumulations of metabolic waste material in the same way massage therapy does for muscle tissue. It also frees any binding restrictions in the suspensory ligaments that attach each organ to the vertebral column. This allows for both greater organ mobility (its ability to be freely moved, the lack of which often causes pain) and organ motility, the natural movement patterns intrinsic to and generated by each organ. Together this increases the optimal functional energy of each organ, its ability to perform its intended functions, which is a large part of the organ’s qi.

In a purely Western medical context, there have been numerous studies that support this understanding. One study in New York State tracked 12,000 people for nearly three decades, and found that the stronger your lungs are, the less likely you are to die of any cause, when compared to other people in the same demographic. (Schunemann, H. J., Dorn, J., Grant, B. J. B., Winkelstein, W., & Trevisan, M. (2000); Pulmonary Function Is a Long-term Predictor of Mortality in the General Population. Chest, 118(3), 656–664.) The European Society of Cardiology reported that even a minor drop in lung capacity raises your heart disease risk by 200%. (The European Society of Cardiology, 1998.)

The University of Arizona researched possible holistic treatments for Covid-19.  They reported that among 20 subjects taught to practice qigong, there was a significant increase in lung capacity and that after just 10 days, their lungs had become 20% better at taking in oxygen and exhaling carbon dioxide. It was noted to be a potentially lifesaving improvement.

* The Regulation of Mind improves cognition, mood, and perception. When layered in with aspects of Regulating the Body as discussed above, it further improves communication between hemispheres of the brain. This enhances creativity, analytic ability, and overall intelligence.

A well-know qigong principle states that “the qi directs the body, but the mind directs the qi”, or more simply put, where the mind goes, the qi follows. When integrated with the Regulation of the Body and Breath, the Regulation of the Mind most fully regulates the qi, providing the greatest benefits possible in regards to health, well-being, vitality and longevity. This is where the ability to directly feel and work with your qi becomes most apparent, and where Dragon and Tiger becomes most fun and exciting.

Somewhere between 6” and 18” outside your physical body is the perimeter of your qi body, also known as the etheric field. Dragon and Tiger teaches you to learn to feel that perimeter, and to move qi through it in specific ways. The qi of your qi body connects directly with the Dragon and Tiger energy lines within your physical body. Moving qi through your qi field moves qi through the corresponding energy pathways within your body, which creates all the health benefits and other positive changes that this medical qigong practice provides.

What’s Next?

Now that you have a detailed conceptual foundation for Dragon and Tiger Medical Qigong, the next thing you might want for further insight is an actual demonstration of the Dragon and Tiger form. Click on this link for an in-depth look with additional descriptive information about each movement, and graphic representations of all the associated energetics.

 

About the Author:

Steven Cardoza, M.Sc., L.Ac, holds a Master of Science degree in Traditional Chinese Medicine and is a nationally certified Chinese medical physician, a licensed acupuncturist and herbalist with over twenty-five years of experience. He is a certified instructor of Wu taiji and many styles of qigong, and has taught public and professional classes and workshops since 1986. He is the author of the books Chinese Holistic Medicine In Your Daily Life (2017), and Chinese Healing Exercises, A Personalized Practice for Health and Longevity (2013), both published by Llewellyn Publications; and the companion DVD, A Visual Guide To Chinese Healing Exercises. Email Steven at [email protected] or visit www.healingdragon.org

 

10 Aug 2021
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The Path Beyond The Current Reality — Rising Above The Chaos

 

What you are experiencing now, collectively, is exactly what it looks like when an old age implodes and a new one begins to take its place. This time has been a great challenge for all living on Earth. No one is exempt from this event, and what will be learned is a great opportunity for all. This is something your soul desired to witness, and you will merge with deep wisdom and truths that you will carry through into the foundation of an entire new cycle.

The damaged mirror of your imploding world will not reflect what you are seeking anymore. You are now in between realities. Everything around you that is in disharmony is an illusion. Look beyond all the devastation, anger, fear, loss, division and controversy. There is no truth in insanity. Insanity is simply fear. The soul does not know fear, because it knows the truth that it is One with God. There is nothing to gain in war. War is simply the belief in separation. The soul does not understand separation and the ego driven concept of “us versus them”. Real truth is self leveling, unifying, all encompassing, and it does not come from the mind of worldly knowledge. Truth is love, and love is the only truth. So getting drawn into all the crumbling bits of drama left over from the old reality is a waste of your energy. Look through and beyond the mirror to see what is already arriving now. Scrape away the reflection of the old world to see beyond it.

You are God, so it is simply impossible that anything created by any other human being (besides the blast of an atom bomb), could break your connection to God or the divine, or slow or stop your ascension! So there is no reason for fear, protection or defense. You cannot work your way to ascension while still fighting the old world. If you keep trying to achieve this in the rubble of this crumbling world, you will only feel exhausted, stuck, angry, confused, divided … and be stuck in indecision. If you are always working toward ascension, it will always be one step ahead of you. Because that is how you see it. If you are working to reach it, then you are also not trusting that it is available to you. The universe hears and responds to all of your presence; not just what your mind desires. There is no future; only now. Realization cannot be timed on a clock, or predicted on a calendar. Only when humanity reaches a realization tipping point is when the ascension will arrive. Ascension will flow into you with a graceful breath of allowance, without thought, without pressure and without trying.

You are experiencing incredible levels of sustained pressure and stress in the collective consciousness which can make you feel disconnected from God, Source, etc…. The human race is going through a dark night of the soul, and one often feels disconnected, disoriented, undecided, lost, and we might question the reason for our existence. It is part of the process. This is an age old, tempering process in which we are made to feel abandoned by God, only to realize that GOD has been within us all along. It is the way. We can never disconnect from God no matter what the circumstances, or which direction is taken. Those that are feeling a huge disconnect now are going through this incredibly powerful process. It does not mean that you did something wrong in any way, or that you missed your chance. It just means that you are right where you need to be. You are incredibly brave to face this void.

There is a new reality arising, and you are being readied to enter. It is waiting for you to recognize it. It will not be reflected in the current world. It will not be what you expect. Like we (The Star Elders) have said for years, this is new with new laws of nature. It is something still mostly unseen by humanity. Rise above all the uncountable, opposing layers in this collective crisis. Leave behind the world that is programmed by the old world and is fed by divisions … us versus them, fear, control, controversy, war, etc…. The answers you are reaching for are not here anymore. They are here in the beyond. This is why nothing in your world now feels right. The old world is imploding and fading into pure illusion … soon to be forgotten like it never existed. (This is where some of our memory issues are coming from.)

As the old world implodes, maintain conscious discernment when you are exposed to the many controversies, predictions and perspectives in the last bits of the old, material world. If you become anxious, or have fear of plausible future “possibilities”, it is your clue that you stepped back into the dying world. You have moved away from your center, your balance, and your inner truth. You need to learn quickly to recognize when there is an emotional hook linked to an undercurrent coming from the imploding world (this might be a feeling of heaviness, darkness or sudden anxiety). This is your divine, inner alarm saying to go back to your center.

When worldly perspectives are subconsciously embedded with the energetics of fear in a credible looking way, it redirects you into your reactive, emotional body, which means that you are no longer living in your unified heart. Once exposed, it can take time and energy to purge this heaviness out of your energy field. There is always some thread of truth in all fragmenting perspectives; otherwise no one would consider entertaining it as truth at all. But, you will do this over and over until you are so strong in your center that you will no longer be drawn into those programs or be set off by them. You are already seeing that you have become less triggered and feel a bit more anchored to your heart center. Nothing from the old, imploding world can hurt you anymore, but it wants you to think it can.

Do not let the outdated, dualistic world drag you away from your center. It is good to know what is going on in the world, and there is always a small bit of truth no matter where you look. But as the ascended masters say … do not allow circumstances to put you into an emotional state where you become unanchored in your light. Be in the present moment, and starve the outer world’s conflicts with the absence of your recognition, your energy and your light. This time is about seeing the world, but not being of the world. To be of the new paradigm is to pull your energy out of the old programs.

We are way showers. When we choose the path of non-choosing, and rise above all the biases, and dust off the chaos of the imploding world, we will create a path for all to follow.

 

~ Aluna Joy Yaxk’in, the Star Elders, with a collective of Ascended Master energies

 

12 Jul 2021
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Remembering Beauty

Today as I was preparing to go for my almost daily bicycle ride, I stopped to glance over at one of our two rose bushes. They are planted in a small strip of ground between our living room window and the fence, and in previous years they have not been doing so well. Poor weather is usually the culprit here in the British Isles, but forgetting the rose food is also another factor. However, during the past 3-4 weeks, they have not only been producing a prodigious number of blooms, but they’ve grown over 6 feet in height!

As I gazed upon the unique orange blossoms, I thought that how easy it is to become inured to the beauty that is so close by somewhere. For a moment in time, all my personal thoughts faded into the background, and so did all the world’s tumultuous activity. Here it was just my consciousness taking in the beauty in front of me, and I became lost in a serenity that there are no words for.

Seems we take so much for granted these days, and most of us are so preoccupied that we just don’t really take in what is right at hand in our lives. It is one thing to look; it is quite another thing to actually see what it is we’re looking at. A mere thought about the to-do list, or a worry or three, and we are turning away from the miracle in front of us and exchanging it for another task, another obligation, and another round of problem solving. If you are an entrepreneur, most likely you live that experience 24/7, and barely come up for air. Marketing, tech hassles, virtual staff issues, grumpy clients…where does it end? When does the good life begin?

It can begin when we choose to slow down enough to take stock of ourselves, check and see if we’re occupying our body instead of hovering near it, and exercise our sovereignty diligently so we honor our own feelings and space to be as we are. Yes, I know…there are obligations aplenty. Working for a paycheck with a family to support during the upheavals of the past 17 months has been a grab bag of stress. Or perhaps you or someone you know has a health condition, or a psychological one. None of this we are experiencing is easy, and we can be so focused on survival mode that we overlook so much that there is to appreciate.

I have a very good book about spiritual seeking called “Doing Nothing” by Steven Harrison. Its focus is on the modern quest for enlightenment and peace, but many of his perspectives could easily be applied to more mundane matters. The other book which I have not read, but recently ordered, is entitled “How to be Idle” by Tom Hodgkinson. The Puritan work ethic, or the work ethic imposed by a jealous God in the Old Testament (“…by the sweat of thy brow shall you earn your bread…”) set the human race on a high-stress path of exertion with a future promise of reward and comfort. The entire dogma of the Abrahamic religions is centered on a perfect hereafter, if we are all good boys and girls, that is.

What is discouraged more today then ever before is that to be idle, or decide to withdraw from the Rat Race, is to be a reactionary. Someone who is anti-societal, and not to be trusted. In China it’s becoming a “thing” and they call it “lying flat”.

At this New Moon in Cancer take an inventory about your own life. Where do you over-commit? Where do you over-give? How do you cope with low-grade anxiety or moments of high stress? Are you happy and peaceful, or anxious and fearful? Are you in your body, and loving your body, or not?

Here’s something to ponder: when there’s a lot of cortisol pumping through our bodies we are incapable of rational decision making. The cost for this is multidimensional too, and as Dr. Gabor Maté states, trauma or living with trauma is the single biggest cause for disease…period!

Your physical and psychic boundaries are yours to employ and maintain. No one else will do it for you. We are empowered, we are capable, and it is not selfish to be concerned with one’s own harmony and wellbeing. Slow down, breathe and look around. What do you see? There’s beauty within and without to appreciate. Remember it often.

About the Author

Isaac George is an internationally recognized intuitive mentor/coach, evolutionary astrologer, conscious channel, self-published author and musician. After a life-altering spontaneous kundalini awakening in 1994 he explored various healing modalities, including hypnotherapy and Reiki. In 1998 he began spontaneously channeling Archangel Ariel and other dimensional intelligences.

Originally from the United States, Isaac currently resides in the UK and offers Spiritual Mentoring sessions and programs and Evolutionary Astrology consultations.

09 Jul 2021
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The Fallacy of Our Carbon Footprint

 

In 1992, a Canadian ecologist named William Rees coined the term “ecological footprint,” a measurement of how much any entity was impacting the planet’s ecology. A decade later, British Petroleum started promoting a new term: “carbon footprint.”  In a splashy ad campaign, the company unveiled the first of its many carbon footprint calculators as a way for individuals to measure how their daily actions—what they eat, where they work, how they heat their home—impact global warming.

BP did not adopt the footprint imagery by accident. In the 30 years prior to the carbon footprint campaign, polluting companies had been using advertising to link pollution and climate change to personal choices. These campaigns, most notably the long-running Keep America Beautiful campaign, imply that individuals, rather than corporations, bear the responsibility for change.

“It was done so intentionally,” says Susan Hassol, director of the nonprofit science outreach group Climate Communication. “It’s a deflection.”

The universal adoption of the term “carbon footprint” hasn’t just changed how we speak about climate change. It’s changed how we think about it. Climate change has become an individual problem, caused by our insatiable appetite for consumption, and therefore a war that must be waged on our dinner plates and gas tanks, a hero’s journey from consumer to conservationist.

 

The reality is that the future of civilization is being decided at a political and corporate level that no individual can impact.

 

Yet the reality is that the future of civilization is being decided at a political and corporate level that no individual can impact. Just 100 companies are responsible for 71% of global emissions. Fossil fuel giants are funding climate change skepticism while simultaneously lobbying for tens of billions of dollars in subsidies. Big corporate names like Costco and Netflix are loudly committing to reduce emissions but unable to set meaningful targets or put plans in place. The Trump administration rolled back more than 100 environmental rules and regulations.

The same way that you give your child a toy to play with so you can finish your task uninterrupted, everyday citizens are busy changing out lightbulbs and buying electric cars while the true cause of global warming continues uninterrupted: a civilization dependent on fossil fuels. As Mike Tidwell, the executive director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, wrote in a 2007 op-ed, “every time an activist or politician hectors the public to voluntarily reach for a new bulb or spend extra on a Prius, ExxonMobil heaves a big sigh of relief.” A complete paradigm shift is needed—both in the way we conceptualize our individual climate impact and in the ways we calculate the emission impacts of those ultimately responsible: corporations and governmental systems.

One of the challenges with the carbon footprint measurement is how few of the factors an individual controls. Most of us have limited options for where we live, how far we have to commute to get to work, what kind of energy is available to heat our homes, etc. If we don’t own our home (and more than 30% of Americans don’t), we may not be able to properly insulate or install high-efficiency appliances. One research report from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology found that roughly one third of a city dweller’s carbon footprint is determined by public transportation options and building infrastructure. “We build our cities this way,” Hassol says. “It’s system change that’s really needed so that people have better choices.”

The inadequacy of our carbon footprint as a driver of change is painfully highlighted when you look at single-use plastics. Much attention has been given to how much plastic Americans consume (35.3 million tons per year, enough to fill the 104 million-cubic-foot AT&T Stadium in Dallas every 16 hours) and how each individual should be changing their behavior to help combat this waste. Everywhere you look, there’s a campaign to recycle more, or use metal straws, or bring your own bag to the grocery store.

In contrast, there are no public campaigns about the fact that packaging, an area where consumer control is limited, is the top driver of plastic production by a significant margin. The emissions impact of plastic manufacturing itself is rarely mentioned, along with the fact that much of our recycling still ends up in landfills. Some of the poorest nations are left to deal with hundreds of thousands of tons of soft drink bottles. The plastics are often just incinerated, creating serious environmental and health consequences. It’s a question as to whose carbon footprint is making a deeper impact on the environment: the family whose lettuce comes sealed in plastic (and who pays, not only for the product, but also for the waste collection and management services), or the company that is continuing to package food products in plastic materials, and then opting out of responsibility for their disposal.

 

Even if we just wanted to measure individual impact on climate change, the carbon footprint falls painfully short: “The current concept of a carbon footprint is too narrowly drawn,” Hassol explains. “It’s only the things I’m actively using and doing in my personal life and it doesn’t draw on other actions that are perhaps more important in the big picture as far as addressing climate change.”

For example, the average American has a carbon footprint of 16 tons. The average individual footprint globally is 4 tons. But that calculation doesn’t include who you vote for, how you invest your money, who you work for (and how much you travel for work, versus for leisure), or how you talk about climate change and influence others to get involved. “All of that should be part of the way we conceptualize our impact,” Hassol says.

Instead of obsessing over a single metric, Cameron Brick, a social psychologist from the University of Amsterdam, says he urges people to have an ongoing and evolving conversation between themselves and their chosen lifestyle. “It’s not a single number, because anytime you pick a metric, then we will begin to game it,” he says. Instead, a minimal-carbon lifestyle is a process—one that involves community-building and continuing to make improvements over time, he says. “My lifestyle is not perfect either, but probably better each year.”

Hassol points out that one of the most important ways that an individual can impact emissions on a wider scale is also the hardest to calculate: social contagion. “When people do something, it affects others around them and their emissions,” she says.

Studies have shown that energy-related behaviors are heavily influenced by peer groups, even more than cost or convenience. A study in California showed that every time a solar panel was installed within a certain ZIP code, the probability of another installation in that area increased by 0.78%. Similarly, if you know somebody who has given up flying because of climate change, you are 50% more likely to also reduce your own air travel.

“Your individual footprint is not the full measure of your contribution because you’re encouraging other people through your personal actions,” explains Hassol. She recommends that people who want to do more should research community solar options and ways to buy into clean energy in their communities, and then publicize those options among their families, friends and social networks, in order to create that initial momentum for change.

But what could system change look like? For starters, using measurements that actually hold the decision makers responsible for their emissions impacts, for the entire lifecycle of their product or service. That might look like Big Soda being held accountable not only for the manufacturing and transportation of their single-use plastics, but also for each and every bottle that ends up in somebody’s recycling bin (Coca-Cola is the top producer of plastic waste in the world). The shift also might look like emissions information being printed on product labels and unbiased regulatory bodies certifying the accuracy of corporate emissions reports.

On the policy level, interest in a carbon tax is growing. The Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act was reintroduced in Congress this year (as Senate bill 984 and House Resolution 2238), and would force a temporary moratorium on virgin plastic production, require minimum recycled content, and ban some single-use plastic food service items. Many states already have some form of a producer responsibility program, where the producer of hard-to-dispose products such as paints, batteries, and other hazardous materials, must finance proper disposal. This creates an incentive to design reusable or less-toxic products.

When we shift the focus from changing consumer behavior to changing producer behavior, we see where true change happens: in corporate boardrooms and among political leaders. The irony of the carbon footprint is that individual action does have the power to change the world, just not on the lightbulb and recycling level.

“This problem is too big to solve voluntarily one person at a time,” Hassol says. “We need to change the system and you have a role in changing that system.”

About the Author

Emma Pattee covers topics related to climate change and feminism. Her work has been published in The New York Times, The Cut, WIRED, and others.

Original article here

03 Jul 2021
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State of the Planet Update: Freedom

“…so, there’s rigid and compulsive identification to duty, role, and responsibility, rather than the authentic self is a major risk factor for illness” – from Dr. Gabor Maté – When the Body Says No in Psychotherapy

 

Freedom…what does it mean to you? Does it evoke excitement or fear? What if you could be and do anything you chose? What if you were suddenly free to roam and live any way your heart wanted to? Heady stuff indeed! You might have an argument with yourself (or with others more likely) that you have many obligations and responsibilities. What about keeping society coherent and following the rules? What would happen if you dropped all your masks, and said exactly what you thought, or acted from your authentic self? Maybe freedom to be who you are is absolutely a key part of larger freedoms

I originally had big plans for this blog. I wanted to share about some pertinent astrology stuff, about the USA birth chart, the upcoming Pluto Return for America spanning from February 2022 till roughly January 2024. These are the last acts of Pluto in Capricorn before the main event…Pluto’s ingress into Aquarius on January 21st, 2024, conjunct the Sun. America has been viewed as a beacon of hope and freedom for more than 200 hundred years, especially to peoples around the world with much fewer options or freedom of choice. What will occur over the next 3 years will be seminal for the USA, and by extension, the planet. Well, as John Lennon once quipped “life is what happens when you make other plans”. Sometimes that is the case no matter the scale of experience, and it has been just like that for me this past week. Intensity does not seem to lessen with time, just the complexion of it changes.

A few days ago, I ran across this video of a lecture by Dr. Gabor Maté, and watching it immensely added to my understanding of what the concept of freedom is all about. Since I have Sagittarius rising and Uranus conjunct the Sun, the twin issues of power and freedom have been constant companions for me in this lifetime. My idealized poster child for freedom would sort of look like a rugged pioneer from the American West, or a character like Captain Jack Sparrow of the Pirates of the Caribbean films. What eluded me was the one quality that drew me, and probably a smaller part of the global population than I imagine, to the heroes and heroines from our history who struck courageously out on their own, sometimes at the very cost of their lives. The figure of William Wallace (movie- Braveheart) is one example of an individual committed to freedom at all costs.

I am rapidly redefining my concept of freedom to be an experience that can only be realized by grounding into one’s own authentic being self so profoundly, that you essentially are out of control. Control by others or other concepts I mean. Living from that ground of being would free you from the lies you tell yourself, the lies you accepted to keep yourself safe and protected, to afford you feeling accepted and loved by others outside of you. My mother use to lecture me, “go along to get along, don’t rock the boat!” Well, that works only up to a point, and then what? You continue betraying your own nature to please others and please the system? That is telling yourself lies.

Dr. Maté’s analysis of such behaviour is that it inevitably leads to illness of some kind, and if not physically, at least mentally, emotionally, and ultimately, spiritually. The Indian mystic Jiddu Krishnamurti put it this way: “It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.” If we honestly take a deep look at what has been happening around us for the past 16 months, one can easily discern the effects that following the dictates of the herd will do to us in all arenas of our experience.

Learning how to live free in a seemingly unfree world is a discipline and an art. Many never start, and few have the patience to withstand the tide of criticism or ridicule that others will use to dissuade you from the dangerous and heretical pursuit of authentic experience and freedom. If you are grounded well into your being, and in harmony with your own Soul and the Cosmos, it will not matter. You will not hold anything against anyone, for you would only be harming yourself. Nonetheless, you will walk in freedom, sovereignty, and peace, because you will know who you are and never compromise your integrity ever again.

Once embarked on, this is something that will become a lifelong practice. I will have to begin each day by committing to it, and then hopefully it will be the whole of my experience…one full of joy and contentment.

About the Author:

Isaac George is an internationally recognized intuitive mentor/coach, evolutionary astrologer, conscious channel, self-published author and musician. After a life-altering spontaneous kundalini awakening in 1994 he explored various healing modalities, including hypnotherapy and Reiki. In 1998 he began spontaneously channeling Archangel Ariel and other dimensional intelligences.

Originally from the United States, Isaac currently resides in the UK and offers Spiritual Mentoring sessions and programs and Evolutionary Astrology consultations.

 

24 Jun 2021
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How To Help Dogs And Cats Manage Separation Anxiety When Their Humans Return To Work

When one of my co-workers found out about a tiny, orphaned kitten that needed a home a few months ago, he didn’t hesitate to adopt it. He says his new companion helped make the months of COVID-19 isolation at home much less stressful.

He is not alone. Animal shelters and breeders across the country have reported record numbers of dog and cat adoptions in recent months.

But after my co-worker returned to work, he says his adorable kitten started urinating on the kitchen counter while he was away.

Another friend is worried about how her dog will react when she returns to the office. Her big, goofy Labrador retriever follows her everywhere, even to the bathroom. When she leaves to run a quick errand, the dog sits by the back door and whines, awaiting her return.

What should these pet owners do?

The problem with sudden changes in routine

A change in routine, such as suddenly being alone for many hours every day, is a major cause of separation anxiety for both dogs and cats.

Separation anxiety is more than a little whimpering when you head out the door. It’s major, unwanted behavior that happens every time you leave or are away.

For dogs and cats, this can mean excessive pacing, barking or howling, whimpering or self-grooming as you get ready to leave. In some cases it can mean urinating or defecating around the house, often in places where scents linger, such as on bedding or rugs, or destroying household items in your absence. Extreme clinginess or neediness is another symptom.

Separation anxiety won’t go away on its own, and it can be difficult to get rid of entirely. But there are ways to manage it. As a clinical veterinarian and professor, I am often asked to help people find ways to ease their pets’ anxiety.

What not to do

First, it’s important to understand that it’s not about you – it’s about your pet. Your dog or cat is not trying to teach you a lesson or get revenge. Animals don’t act out of spite.

Instead, it’s a signal of extreme distress and frustration that should be approached like any other medical ailment. Your pet doesn’t want to experience separation anxiety any more than you want to experience its consequences.

For this reason, punishment is never the answer. For one thing, your pet won’t connect the punishment with something that happened hours – or even a few minutes – earlier. And punishment may only exacerbate your pet’s anxiety and stress.

Similarly, going to the opposite extreme by praising or giving affection when your pet is suffering anxiety also will make the problem worse.

The goal is to create a balanced relationship so your pet tolerates being alone. First, get your pet checked out by a veterinarian to rule out physical conditions, such as a urinary tract infection if your pet urinates in inappropriate places.

Next, make sure your pet gets plenty of exercise and mental stimulation. For dogs, this may mean a long run or brisk walk every day. Getting exercise shortly before you leave the house may put your dog in a more relaxed state while you’re gone. It’s harder to feel stressed when the endorphin levels are elevated. For cats, this could mean a change of environment by being outdoors in a safe, enclosed area such as a “catio.”

Treating separation anxiety with behavior change

Here, we’re talking about your behavior. The goal is to make your absence seem like no big deal. Making a fuss over your pet when you leave or arrive home only makes matters worse. If you treat it like it’s routine, your pet will learn to do the same.

Try to figure out when your pet starts to show signs of anxiety and turn that into a low-key activity. If it’s when you pick up your handbag, for example, practice picking it up and putting it back down several times over a few hours. Similarly, get dressed or put on your shoes earlier than usual but stay home instead of leaving right away. Try starting your car’s engine and then turning it off and walking back inside.

Next, practice short absences. When you’re at home, make it a point to spend some time in another room. In addition, leave the house long enough to run an errand or two, then gradually increase the time that you’re away so that being gone for a full day becomes part of the family routine.

Changing the environment 

Boredom makes separation anxiety worse. Providing an activity for your pet while you’re gone, such as a puzzle toy stuffed with treats, or simply hiding treats around the house will make your absence less stressful. Other options for dogs and cats include collars and plug-in devices that release calming pheromones.

To maintain your bond while you’re gone, place a piece of clothing that you have worn recently in a prominent place, such as on your bed or couch, to comfort your pet. Similarly, you can leave the TV or radio on — there are even special programs just for pets — or set up a camera so you can observe and interact with your pet remotely. Some of these come equipped with a laser pointer or treats you can dispense.

Using supplements or medication

In some severe cases, when the animal harms itself or causes property damage, medication or supplements might be necessary. These alter the brain’s neurotransmitters to create a sense of calm.

While some are readily available without a prescription, it’s a good idea to get advice from your veterinarian to determine which are safest and most effective for your pet’s situation. Medication can help reduce the anxiety, making it easier for the pet to learn new coping skills. A behavior modification plan accompanying the use of medication can help manage this problem.

Separation anxiety is difficult for both you and your pet. But a few simple changes can make a huge difference as life returns to some semblance of normal.

 

About the Author:

Lori M. Teller is a Clinical Associate Professor, Veterinary Telehealth, at Texas A&M University

 

21 Jun 2021
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Becoming Wordless

At this point, I do not know what to say anymore. I am beyond words. Every experience that we go through, every downloaded message, each cosmic astrological event, every solar event or Mayan time portal, and cosmic gateway, it all keeps rising up to yet another inconceivable level in a matrix of spherical directions. Creation is simply unleashed, and we are riding a wild wave that is not controllable or containable as we once were. I feel I know nothing at all. As I feel like leaping out of myself and into the great unknown, I also feel “The Presence” saying “Wait for it … Please wait for it”. So I dance on the edge of wanting to toss it all and make a run for it.

So here I could use a bunch of high vibin’, hypnotic, ungrounded, buzz words to try to convey what I am seeing right now. But at this point, spoken language is just not hitting the mark at all. Looping and nearly meaningless language is happening everywhere in an attempt to describe our current experience. We are going beyond speaking. And being ungrounded, floating about in a sea of already plateaued verbiage, is the last thing we need right now. Remember … being a living, awakened master includes our physical body this time around.

One truth I really disliked learning back in the 90s, (when I was downloaded as I spent the night in a Mayan Sun Temple in Palenque, Mexico) is that we can’t push our awaking or our ascension clock. Believe me, I tried and I tried for a long time. I was clearly and firmly told that this is a divine timing no human could access or use with their will, ever. And of course, I didn’t listen for a long while. So we can’t force ourselves to wake up, to be a living master or ascend, until we face everything else in our lives. This has been and always will be a step by step-by-step process, while living in the present moment and with whatever that moment contains.

There will be an unending number of cogs in the wheel of waking up and ascension. It is not a destination. It is a ceaseless process of life in all eternity. It is a process of being aware, authentic and grounded. And no one is exempt from this process. No one in a human body can escape this process either. And best of all, no one will miss their time! No one! Not even if you already believe you have. It can’t happen.

But back to this moment … Since the last full moon, it has been simply crazy and overwhelming and we feel lost in time itself. In this month, we are living through 5 retrogrades, with Saturn, Mercury, Jupiter, Neptune and Pluto, in this beyond anything we have experienced to date, solstice energy, (SUMMER SOLSTICE is June 20, 2021 at 11:32 PM EDT) all culminating with one of the most sacred days in the traditional Mayan calendar on June 28th (** More on this Mayan day WAJXAQIB BATZ below). In this collective soup filled with cognitive dissonance that we live in these days, the TRUTH is boldly rising without restraint. It will rise up out of all the noise around us, and a new balance will begin to manifest. I have been told that more “surprises” are to come. This is certainly an incredibly blistering fast time, and it will keep coming with little respite until late October, or later, from what I can see. So we have a good bit of work to do before we plateau again and have a much awaited rest.

All your authentic, humble, grounded efforts will make the best of the new frequencies pouring into you and the Earth right now. So stay calm, be firm and grounded in the present, and be peaceful with your current experiences. Don’t get caught up in the incongruent energies in the collective. Allow yourself a lot of rest, don’t waste energy by trying to push forward and allow the future to unfold. Take care of your body, get real with yourself, be out in nature, and, most of all, be prepared for the opening crack in the door that leads to the new surprise that is coming. You won’t see this coming … so I am told.

So I will leave you with this because I do have words to use here … I had a surprise little vision. I was in Egypt in a temple called Dendara. There were many little men packing up the temple’s sacred objects. I don’t know if they were actually little or I was just big. They were packing up, and they started moving the boxes up an amazing flight of stairs into the light of the sun. I followed behind them. Soon I was in a wormhole tunnel going through to a new place. And that is as far as I was allowed to see. So there you go! Again we can’t push it … But IT IS COMING!

What you believe, you will empower.
What you fight, you will feed.
What you hate will be harmed.
What you love will be blessed.

Blessed Solstice EveryONE!

 

** WAJXAQIB BATZ June 28th.
This is the first day of the Cholq’ij Calendar; during this day the Ajq’ijab’ (Maya Spiritual Guides) and the Maya community join to celebrate with Fire Ceremonies of gratitude to the Ajaw (Great Father) and to pray for blessings for this new cycle. According to the Maya, the world was created in one Mayan month (twenty days). The process of creation begins on Jun (1) B’atz and ends on the day Wuqub’ (7) Tz’i, completing the first twenty days of the Cholq’ij (Calendar of Life). After this final day of creation, the day Wajxaqib’ (8 B’atz’ arrives, which is considered the Cholq’ij New Year. When Maya people celebrate the Cholq’ij new year, they are celebrating that the creation of the world has been fulfilled, and the beginning of a new cycle of 260 days.

~ Aluna Joy

20 Jun 2021
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Every Moment Counts: 2021 Summer Solstice

“This is what you shall do; Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labour to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem…”
~ Walt Whitman

 

Greetings Earthlings,

I feel, therefore I am. This is the mantra for Cancer, the Cardinal sign in the Zodiac for Water. Our bodies made up of 60% or more of water, as is our planet. In a channelling I did ages ago, a source postulated that water is Goddess Consciousness made visible. That is to say, the supernal Light of Consciousness becomes embodied in as water in a 3rd dimensional level. It permeates everything and carries the spark of atomic and biological Life.

The blood flowing through our veins is just another type of water. Water is the main component in the constitution of the atmospheric envelope around this planet, and miraculously this planet is perfectly positioned to the Sun to sustain organic Life. Whenever astrophysicists encounter a planetary body that has even a smidgen of water on it, then it is cause for celebration because it could support LIFE!

On Monday, June 21st, at approximately 3:33am UT (4:33am BST) the position of our Sun will ingress into the sign of Cancer. The Moon will be at 9 degrees of Scorpio, which will add to the intensity of this Solstice moment, technically the longest day of light in the Northern Hemisphere. Everything becomes more visible as it were, and things and situations will stand out more. The very next day at 22:00 UT, Mercury will station direct in Gemini.  It will already be at a standstill at the time of the Solstice.  What happens next is that the truth will out. About quite a few things. A seminal moment in coming to grips with the Zeitgeist we have been living through for 18 months.

The archetype of Cancer it represents cuddly stuff. Warmth, protection, nurturing, childbearing and child-rearing, fecundity (in a polite sort of way), and Mother. She also is the Goddess aspect of Divine Mother. But you do not want to see Mama upset, cause if Mama is not happy, ain’t nobody happy. The shadow side of Cancer (Capricorn) can be smothering instead of mothering, being told what to do because it is for your own good you know, and passive-aggressive control tendencies.

However, with the Solstice, the strongest intuition is to connect with Consciousness as expressed in bodily form.  Spirit AS the Body. No boundaries, no separation, no distinction. God/Goddess as your essence and form.

Our innate body sense is often ignored in favour of the mind, and both end up suffering. We innately KNOW what is right and correct, and if we go against that with our logic, we will not have an incredibly happy time of it. This has recently been brought home to me on a personal level. If we do not listen, and nurture, and harmonize, our bodies will reflect the disjointed or stressed-out state of our mind and emotions.

On a more expansive scale, we can be aware that this is exactly what the planetary biosphere is doing.  Nature is telling us something is wrong, and doing so without blame or judgment, but with an urgency that seems to say; “you can no longer ignore these conditions…either within you or without you.”

Nurture is Nature…and is our nature. We ignore this at our peril. To nurture our thoughts towards a more loving way may be found in observing how Nature provides unequivocally for all creatures and living things. Yes, that reflects what Jesus is reported to have said; “behold, the lilies of the field, how they neither spin nor sow…” and other metaphors like that.

During a walk recently I stood at a fence overlooking a meadow that was filled with wild plants and flowers and watched as hundreds of bees of all types were busily moving from flower to flower. In the space of a few minutes, I could telepathically and emotionally feel what was transpiring. Nature was nurturing the bees, and in turn Her plants were benefiting. In short order, I was suddenly part of the natural order.  Observing yet participating. To my surprise I discovered that there were tears on my cheeks. I came to realize that what is transpiring in the world of humans has no power as great as what I was briefly part of in this moment. None.

Our species seems to have stepped so far away from the relationship that could so nurture and educate us.  The opportunity on Monday is to pause and connect with the twin energies of Sun and Mother Earth. An opportunity to remember, and to embrace this deepest of truths: we are loved, we are looked after (if we permit it), and there is a compassionate order that abides in Nature.

What shall we do with this moment, and the ones to follow? How then shall we live? Please re-read the words of Walt Whitman that this post began with for some inspiration. Examine closely what you value, and where you store up your riches. The key is surrendering into the unknown while following your Nature, by being as real as you can be. Sounds like a tall order. Maybe it is. But that is what the little mind will always tell you. Time to listen to deeper wisdoms and be nurtured from the bosom of the mother.

 

About the Author

Isaac George is an internationally recognized intuitive mentor/coach, evolutionary astrologer, conscious channel, self-published author and musician. After a life-altering spontaneous kundalini awakening in 1994 he explored various healing modalities, including hypnotherapy and Reiki. In 1998 he began spontaneously channeling Archangel Ariel and other dimensional intelligences.

Originally from the United States, Isaac currently resides in the UK and offers Spiritual Mentoring sessions and programs and Evolutionary Astrology consultations.

09 Jun 2021
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Spectro-Chrome: Healing With Colored Light

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to be able to use colors as a way to make your life healthier? The truth is, you can. Dr. Alexander Wunsch, who is based in Germany, is a world-class expert in the use of light as a therapeutic healing agent, and is a human treasure trove of information on a topic that very few people understand.

In previous interviews, we’ve discussed the history of photobiology and how LED lighting can compromise your health. Here, our focus in on the therapeutic use of colored light, which Wunsch began experimenting with nearly 25 years ago:

“My first approach was colorpuncture from Peter Mandel. One evening, I met a friend of mine. I told him I would like to go deeper into the colorpuncture issue and learn more about that. He handed me a book by Darius Dinshah, ’Let There Be Light: Practical Manual for Spectro-Chrome Therapy’ …

I thought this is really a fascinating color system. It’s not only a color therapy method, it’s also a beautiful color system — [the way] Dinshah arranged these 12 basic colors, how they compose the Spectro-Chrome color wheel is a pleasure by itself, because it’s very symmetric and there’s a very logical plan behind it. I started to evaluate this method on my own.”

Why Chromotherapy Was Relegated To The Dustbin

As noted by Wunsch, who has studied the historical rise and fall of photobiology, in the 1920s, there was a strong push to weed out so-called “quackery” in medicine, although there was no evidence-based medicine to speak of as of yet.

All physically-based treatments were targeted for elimination, for the simple reason they were unwanted competition standing in the way of the burgeoning drug industry. In this crusade, the Spectro-Chrome method was one of the hundreds of targets of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

“If you have a brave patient who takes the pills every day, he’s a good customer … If you have a client who’s treating himself with colored light, you might sell a lightbulb to him, but that’s it,” Wunsch says.

“There was a hype for blue light [in those] days. It was very popular. Light therapy, think of Kellogg, for example, was very popular. The medical experts in a way had problems with the spreading of these physically-based methods. It was more or less a logical step to [ban] the method …

Dinshah did one thing quite early in his chromotherapy career. He thought, ‘OK. If the doctors aren’t ready for the method, I will address all the knowledge I collected around the diligent use of colors to the laymen.’ His motto was, ‘Spectro-Chrome for every home.’ This was his aim. He wanted to spread the word about the effects of colors so that everyone would know how to treat himself or herself by using colored light.”

While there are well-documented health benefits associated with the red, near- mid- and far-infraredspectrum, the Spectro-Chrome method created by Dinshah focuses on the visible part of the light spectrum, on the rainbow and the extra-spectral colors.

Systemic And Local Use Of Colored Light 

You can implement colored light therapy either by shining light through a colored filter, or by wearing colored glasses, so that the light striking your retina is of a particular color frequency.

“You could say there is systemic use and local use of colored light. You would shine the light onto a body part, which can be the eye or the skin. There is a dermal application, and there is an ocular application. You can treat systemically, which means you are taking a light bath, covering the full body surface with the light, [or you can do] local treatments. 

The ocular treatment is somehow in between the local and the systemic. You’re treating only the eyes, which is locally defined, but the eyes are the window of the brain, the window of your vegetative system, so the treatment of the eyes is also a systemic treatment,” Wunsch explains.

“In the 1930s, when the Spectro-Chrome method had been banned already, there was some kind of modification, which is called Syntonics Optometry. Syntonics optometrists used the colored light exclusively for the eye. They addressed also systemic disorders using this ocular pathway. As a basic principle in phototherapy, it does not matter what kind of technology you’re using for the light source.

[What’s] important is that you cover the wavelength band and that you reach certain intensity levels. Intensity levels are already something that is very close to modern phototherapy. Spectro-Chrome [produces] effects based on information, not intensity. This means you can use large, huge colored projectors, but you can also use the small little light [that] might have comparable effects.”

What Can You Treat With Colored Light?

The premiere textbook for Spectro-Chrome is “Let There Be Light,”written by one of Dinshah’s sons, Darius Dinshah, current president of the Dinshah Health Society. This book lists more than 320 different disorders that have been successfully treated with this method

Wunsch goes so far as to say he would not exclude any disorder from the potential treatment with colored light, because you can, at bare minimum, benefit from symptomatic treatment. That said, one concrete example includes the treatment of skin burns:

“[Dinshah] understood green as the central color … the color which balances all the different body functions, mental functions and partly also emotional functions. The colors with longer wavelengths compared to the green, he called the infragreen colors. The shorter wavelengths, he called the ultragreen colors …

[W]hen you think of the classical signs of inflammation … you have the reddening, the erythema, you have heat, the inflammation. You have too much inflammatory or flame effect, so to say. The tissue gets red. The tissue gets hot. The tissue is painfully altered. You have hampered function …

Too much of red, too much of heat gives you already the idea of which color to use. You would use the ultragreen color to compensate for the long wavelengths, which become apparent by reddening, fever or heat. An acute inflammation would be treated with ultragreen colors and vice versa. 

The chronic inflammation or the chronic disorder should be treated by the infragreen colors. You’re always aiming to reach the green after a certain while, because this is the balance. This is the middle between the extremes.”

To Cool Heat (Red) Symptoms, Use Violet Or Indigo

This is not to say that there’s not a certain level of complexity involved. For example, you need to be cautious with ultraviolet (UV) rays and shorter wavelengths when you have a wound, as exposing wounds to sunlight can result in more severe scars. Wunsch explains:

“If you have inflammation … sometimes it comes along with an infection. Some germs, some bacteria, are aggravated or they benefit from shorter wavelengths. UV light can induce inflammatory reactions. We can tell this, for example, from the erythema caused by sunlight. This was one of Niels Ryberg Finsen’s findings that short wavelength light acts as an inflammatory.

If you have too much heat and you want to cool it down, it’s important to lower the activity of the metabolism. The metabolism is more or less represented by the activity of mitochondria. If you have an overactivity of mitochondria, then you would increase this over activity, probably, if you are using long wavelengths, because the long wavelengths definitely activate mitochondrial activity, metabolism and energy production, which we know from photobiomodulation.

So yes, you could treat a skin burn with a certain intensity of long wavelength light. This is not what Dinshah did [though]. For severe skin burn, which is induced by long wavelength, which is a thermal skin burn, he would use violet or indigo in the first phase.

The reason is, when we talk about the thermal skin burn, we have blistering. We have excretion or secretion of liquid. We want to reduce these secretory activities. Here, the violet or the ultragreen colors in general are much better than the infragreen colors.

There comes a moment in the process of wound healing where we definitely need the longer wavelengths as well, where we start and compensate for the excessive heat, for the excessive infragreen. We compensate for that using the ultragreen colors. 

Personally, I [had] the best experience using the indigo in the first step. If you treat a skin burn once or twice with indigo, you can even keep this injury from developing a blister … [I]f the blister does not fully form, it will hold and it will stay on the skin, even if it’s thermally modified. It will stay as your own natural wound dressing for the first few days. This gives the deeper layers the time to regenerate and restore.”

Practical Example: How To Treat A Burn With Colored Light 

If you were to get a sunburn, or accidentally burn yourself on the stove or hot instrument, how exactly would you treat it using colored light? Wunsch recommends using a simple incandescent lamp equipped with an indigo filter. Post-surgical wounds also benefit from indigo.

If you’re even the least bit handy, you can easily build your own Spectro-Chrome color projector. For a mere 50 cents, you can purchase step-by-step instructions to make a color projector with a 25- or 40-watt reflector lamp, some cardboard and glue from the Dinshah Health Society.

The book will also tell you exactly which filters you need to get to achieve the recommended Spectro-Chrome colors. Rosco and LEE are two companies making colored filters.

A drawback with these filters is that since they’re made for theater lighting, they also transmit white light. In other words, they’re not as saturated as the true, original Spectra-Chrome filters were. To achieve the required saturation, you’ll need to combine two or more filters according to the recommendations of the Dinshah Health Society (detailed in “Let There Be Light”).

As for the lamp, Wunsch builds his using a military angled flashlight, available from Amazon. They’re specifically made for adding filters for signaling purposes. Once you’ve made your projector, simply shine the light onto the affected area.

“The first one, two or three days, depending on the reddishness, on the heat in the tissue, you start with Indigo and [then] switch over to blue … In the classical and original Spectro-Chrome method, you would treat for 30 to 60 minutes …

[A] 10th of a millimeter under the skin surface [is] the capillary layer. All the colors of the rainbow reach the capillary layer. They reach the bloodstream. This is one of the direct actions. If you shine colored light onto the surface of the skin, it will automatically come in contact or it will automatically reach the bloodstream.

This is the reason why Dinshah recommended treatment duration of 30 to 60 minutes. He wanted to make sure that your whole blood comes in contact with the treatment color several times during the treatment session … Personally, from my own experience, after five minutes of treatment of thermal skin burn, the pain turns into a kind of tickling discomfort.

When you remove the indigo light, after 10 minutes or so, this tickling discomfort disappears almost immediately. But as soon as you treat it again or tonate — tonation [means] the use of colored light — if you go on treating it and the tickle and discomfort reoccurs, there is still [more healing to be done] …

In my experience, as long as the tickling and discomfort reappears under the influence of the indigo light, you should go on with the treatment. I had a third and fourth degree skin burn on my wrist. I treated this for more than two hours. I was able to prevent it from blistering. It healed up within two weeks or so. 

After two or three days, you can use the turquoise, the green and the Lemon. Depending on the progress of healing, you adjust the color which fits to the actual condition,” Wunsch explains.

How Color Affects Your Skin 

Contrary to the application of ice, which will only act superficially, the indigo colored light will act on different layers of your skin. Superficially, the indigo light will reduce the inflammatory reaction. In the deeper layers, there will be photobiomodulatory active radiation as well, because when you use an incandescent lamp combined with an indigo filter, you will have:

  1. A basic field consisting of near-infrared radiation
  2. A controlling field, which consists of the color indigo (approximately 430 nanometers or nm), which addresses the reduction of the metabolic activity on the surface

Incandescent light is an analog full-spectrum source, and when you place a filter over it, the majority of the wavelength will be indigo. However, almost all older glass filters and modern gel or plastic filters allow infrared, especially near-infrared radiation, to pass through. Were the filter to excessively absorb heat, it would break or melt.

“The filters from the old technology, you always have a transmission in the long wavelength part of the spectrum as well,” Wunsch says. “This, in a way, fits well to the principle of Fritz-Albert Popp, who said there is a supporting field in the long wavelength part and an information field in the visible and probably also in the UV part.

But for the Spectro-Chrome method, we use the information part in the visible section of the spectrum, and we use the supportive energy from the wavelengths we also know as being effective in the realm of the photobiomodulation.”

Treating Low Back Pain With Colored Light

Another common ailment is back pain. Wunsch, who is trained in the Alexander Technique, osteopathy, craniosacral therapy and acupuncture, notes that the area where it hurts is not necessarily the specific site of the problem. In acupuncture, specific meridian points will help alleviate back pain, but you could actually use a laser light on these points instead of a needle. You can also use temperature or vibration or other physical stimuli.

“Normally, the Spectro-Chrome method uses the whole body tonation. There is a set of questions you can ask, and then you will get an idea how to treat it. Is the back pain acute or is it chronic? If it’s acute, you would probably use the indigo, because indigo also relieves pain. An alternative would be violet or purple. These three colors are classical pain relievers.

If it’s a chronic event, you would not necessarily treat the area of pain, but you would start with whole body tonation using lemon … As a standard, if we are talking about a chronic condition, the basic color, which is always part of the treatment regimen, is lemon.”

Spectro-Chrome Glasses For Day And Nighttime Use

Another alternative is to use Spectro-Chrome glasses. Similar to a color bath, the glasses will provide systemic treatment, and they’re a lot easier to use than setting up a room for full-body tonation, as you need to make sure the room is pitch-dark aside from the colored light, the temperature needs to be optimal since you must be naked or near-naked, and you need a projector and all of the necessary filters.

“The glasses resemble a kind of ultimate life hack, because you can just choose the best color for the moment or the situation out of the box … When we just imagine the colored world that surrounded us as early humans in the step in the Savannah, in the rainforest, in the river scape, the coast landscape, the desert, the mountains, all these settings are linked to certain colors, which are predominantly active in this scene. 

The seasons, they add that color characteristics to the location and to the climate. Normally, our physical and mental body expects colors from our environment. When you are in a concrete desert and you look around, especially during the day when daylight is on, you would miss a lot of these colors. During the night, you will not have colors for longer periods of time …

I would not recommend for someone who is in a chronobiologically disordered situation to use the blue light or the blue glasses at nighttime … [T]here are colors that are recommended for the use during the daytime and other colors are recommended for the use during nighttime — those are the purple and magenta colors. Purple is the color that has the highest impact on sleep quality … 

[P]urple activates bromine … [B]romine was used in former times … for sleep disorders. Magenta stimulates lithium and alleviates depression. It’s the color addressing soul-associated disorders. Lithium salts are used for depression treatment in pharmacology as well. Instead of administering lithium, Dinshah would administer magenta. Magenta, purple, those are colors that should be used during the nighttime.”

A Remarkable Success Story 

A powerful testament to the effectiveness of color therapy comes from Wunsch’s own family, on his wife’s side. A male relative was diagnosed with liver cirrhosis at the age of 50. The university clinic gave him six months to live, telling him to go home and get his affairs in order. Using Dinshah’s method, he exceeded this grim forecast by a factor of 72.

“He traveled from Germany to Dinshah’s place [in Malaga] and learned all about the diligent use of the Spectro-Chrome method from Dinshah. He took a set of filters home and started to treat himself as you would treat a chronic condition, with lemon and red. Red is the color that addresses the liver. He was able to add another 36 years to his life.”

Personally, I believe chromotherapy is a safe and powerful alternative healing strategy that nearly anyone can add to their self-healing toolbox. For $100 or so you can obtain all the information and supplies you need. Just like liposomal C, which I believe should be in every emergency kit to treat acute infections, a light with an indigo or violet filter is another must to radically accelerate burn healing.

Again, you’ll want to get Dinshah’s book, “Let There Be Light,”from the Dinshah Health Society. (It’s also available on Amazon, but you’ll pay as much as five times the price.) Once you know which Spectro-Chrome colors you need, you can buy the required filters from Rosco or LEE and fashion a projector, either using Dinshah’s inexpensive projector plans or an angle head military flashlight. Alternatively, invest in a set of Spectro-Chrome glasses, available from Innovative Eyewear.

 

~ Dr. Joseph Mercola

Original article here

05 Jun 2021
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State of the Planet Update: “True Facts”

For years I have been entertained by a YouTube artist who calls himself “zeFrank1”. He (or she?) creates nature videos that resemble the classic nature programs I use to watch growing up. What makes these unique is the combination of biological facts with a strange type of narration that occasionally includes toilet humour. You remember that sort of joke…the kind you heard or even shared when you were a teenager. This video series is entitled “True Facts”, and if you want to learn more about the strangest animals, sea creatures, and insects on our amazing planet, and have a good chuckle at the same time, then go to YouTube, click on the link and see what happens. Who knows, you might even learn something…while grinning.

I am getting to the point of this, so try not to get impatient. From my perspective we have been gradually losing our grip on “traditional” reality, facts and truth for about 15 years now, and it appears this trend will not be easing up anytime soon. One of my recent guests on my radio show offered a one-word reason as to why — the Internet. You got me red-handed…that is two words. Anyway, if we are living in the “truth is whatever I think it is” era, we might as well get comfortable with fibbing a bit. After all, who is going to know anyway? Not when every waking minute we are confronted with multidimensional layers of fraud, obfuscation, dodging, and yes, the occasional outright lie. Is it any wonder that when it comes to trust, our compasses are spinning wildly?

Trust begins at home. Do you trust yourself? Do you trust yourself to be honest with yourself when you discover you have been pulling the wool over your own eyes? How about if someone other than you is doing that job for you? Recently read somewhere that true awareness or intelligence is only real when one can see through the bull**** and remain relatively calm about it. Sounds familiar to me, as I think I have been doing that since the time I was first ushered into kindergarten.

My purpose for the long preface is to prepare you for the Solar (partial) Eclipse arriving next Thursday, June 10th. It will occur at 10:52AM UT (add an hour for daylight savings). This is a New Moon as well, with Sun-Moon at 19 degrees of Sagittarius, old Mr. “Seeking Truth” himself. They are joined by retrograde Mercury, which might muddy up facts, or truth in general. Mars will be exactly at the 29th (Anaretic) degree of Cancer that day too, which always brings intensity to the foreground, and in this case, it will be rooted in the question of safety and survivability. The Crab may have a hard shell, but incredibly soft and vulnerable insides.

My best guidance to this eclipse is to forge ahead with any intentions you may have lying around waiting for a good starting pistol to go off, but also be super aware (intelligent) to the inevitable truth and fact twisting that may come down the pike. That includes anything you might be deluding yourself with. A good example is over rationalizing your position within any structure or relationship as being necessary for your survival, when in truth you might be better off cutting the ropes and sailing away on your own ship. At the very least do not let yourself stand pat because that was what Mom or Dad would have done.

One of the other best ways you can navigate in muddy waters is to seek the dry land and comfort of that still, small voice within you that is always saying, “I got your back.”  The Oversoul, Higher Self, Divine Identity, is not something “out there.”  It, you, is your best friend. Listen to him or her like they are your best friend.

 

About the Author:

Isaac George is an internationally recognized intuitive mentor/coach, evolutionary astrologer, conscious channel, self-published author and musician. After a life-altering spontaneous kundalini awakening in 1994 he explored various healing modalities, including hypnotherapy and Reiki. In 1998 he began spontaneously channeling Archangel Ariel and other dimensional intelligences.

Originally from the United States, Isaac currently resides in the UK and offers Spiritual Mentoring sessions and programs and Evolutionary Astrology consultations.