"The Unknown is more vast, more open, more peaceful, and more freeing than you ever imagined it would be. If you don't experience it that way, it means you're not resting there; you're still trying to know. That will cause you to suffer because you're choosing security over Freedom. When you rest deeply in the Unknown without trying to escape, your experience becomes very vast. As the experience of the Unknown deepens, your boundaries begin to dissolve. You realize, not just intellectually but on a deep level, that you have no idea who or what you are. A few minutes ago, you knew who you were--you had a history and a personality--but from this place of not knowing, you question all of that." - Adyashanti Exploration Wow. Thank you for joining me on this 21 day journey! What matters is what lasts, not the high points of the journey. Watch for the ripples that continue to move out in every direction. Watch for subtle shifts in perception. Be curious. Feel the spaciousness of new ways of being. Stay awake, and grateful! I will follow up in a week. Until then, many many blessings! Love - Xochi
Exercise This is the fifth and final exercise of the Alchemies of Horus. You will need to have practiced the other four and have a clear sense of feeling a single serpent rise up within you before attempting this one. You will also find the pathway of the two serpents in Tantra and other ancient traditions. In this exercise as the serpent in your pelvic floor awakens it splits in two, the Black Serpent on your left side that is associated with the Darkness, and the Gold Serpent on your right side that is associated with the Light. As they move up, they crisscross through your chakras. Reference the above photo to guide you along. They meet in the center of your head facing each other hovering over your pineal gland. This exercise does not go into detail about what happens at that point but instead keeps it fairly simple so that you can feel into how the serpents undulate and writhe as you breathe them up. What happens at that point is for you to experiment with and find out! References & Resources The Magdalen Manuscript: The Alchemies of Horus & The Sex Magic of Isis by Tom Kenyon and Judi Sion. If you are local to the Northbay area, please come join us this evening for a magical candlelit Solstice Cave Ceremony at Doran Beach in Bodega Bay! We meet at the Pinnacle Gulch Regional Trailhead at 4:00 to walk 25 minutes to the cave, drum as the sun sets, enjoy a Toltec four-direction ceremony, sing sing and sing some more, and enjoy baked potatoes after the ceremony that were roasting in the bonfire. I mean, think for a moment, when last have you spent Winter Solstice in a candlelit cave with amazing people singing and dancing and celebrating being alive?! For more information, text me or check out: www.guideforconscioushealing.com/ecos-de-la-marea-cave-ceremonies I went to hear Ma Muse and the Thrive Choir in concert a couple of weeks ago and was struck by how the lyrics of so many of their songs resonate deeply with our embodiment journey. So I made a Spotify playlist of my favorite Ma Muse songs for whenever you feel like singing and dancing! What a Time to be Alive! Songs by Ma Muse https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6RmKQsJwIohzcQnbXsiBes?si=aVo0HeTdQZCg9-lFz1MyOA "To be born is to be chosen. You have a task of creativity to realize here that no one else can accomplish. If someone else could bring this to birth, they would be in your place and you would never have been sent here. Who you are, where you are, your time, your mind, your family and friends, your limitation and possibility are not accidental. Even though your life may seem divided and scattered into disparate moments and forms, there is yet a refined and deeper coherence to your life; this is how your destiny is secretly shaped within the creative weave of the eternal. You are an artist of the eternal." - John O'Donohue Exploration of female sexual energy Today's reflection is unique for women and yet extremely beneficial for men to know too. Even as recently as 2011, medical journals have studied female orgasm and concluded that, unlike how male orgasm is necessary in order to fertilize female eggs, there is no evolutionary purpose or other scientific reason for female orgasm...uh...ok....Once again, its time to consult our own experience and stop outsourcing to so-called "experts"! An essential teaching in the traditions of The Sex Magic of Isis and the Toltec Arts of Sexual Energy is that when a woman is deeply loved and appreciated (by another or by herself), she can let go at the deepest levels of herself during orgasm. This opens up a tremendous magnetic vortex in the center of her womb. These tidal waves of magnetic energy bring mysterious strength, charge her light body, rapidly expand her consciousness, catapult her into dreaming, give her the capacity to heal, and greatly energize her creative powers. All of this can circulate within the woman for her own benefit, or be offered to a partner, an idea, a loved one, a project, a problem that needs fixed, a pet, or to the world. Unlike with men, women generate energy with orgasm, and the result is accessibility to one of the greatest, most mysterious powers, the truth of which has been suppressed for hundreds of years. There is so much to explore in this realm, but here is the bottom line: women, start to experiment with this, and don't ever stop! Learn to awaken the slumbering serpent, slowly build potency with your breath and pull your energy up through each of your chakras, allow the magnetic energy to undulate and make you tremble, feel it overflow out the top of your head and fall into pools around the sides of you. Your orgasms must be full-body experiences (which is not difficult once you practice moving your energy up your central column) for the magic to be released. Then, with very focused attention, use the 15-20 minutes after orgasm to BE the medicine. The vibration in your body post-orgasm is still unspiraling and nesting, so hold with intention whatever you want to heal or energize. If you have a partner, encourage them to nest in this magical medicinal frequency. If you have a part of your body that is hurting, hold that. If you are concerned about a loved one struggling, hold them in your awareness and wrap your arms and legs around them. This is somatic prayer! You are vibrating with the frequency of the Power of Creation. Your body is a portal to the Feminine Mysteries of Creation. You have merged with the Great Womb and have the power to offer rebirth to whatever will receive it. Offer to hold the world! And trust me, this is no sacrifice. Offering your medicine in this way does not deplete you--nobody owns you, nobody controls you. As a woman, you are uniquely connected to the Divine Feminine Current of Life because you have the biological technology to bring spirit into form, and so offering yourself as a vibrating, healing, dreaming presence to the world in this way enlivens and heals you. (By the way, this is exactly why you should throw your vibrator out right now! None of this explosive magic is available with goal-oriented battery-operated toys. You have everything you need within you.) One of my favorite realizations is that once you have savored and know this embodied experience well, you can somatically recall it at any time. I use a few quick forceful breaths to awaken the rainbow serpent and move my energy up before I have a healing session with a client. Within seconds I am buzzing with a post-orgasm frequency. There are so many ways to experiment with being the medicine, and oh how I look forward to hearing your stories! "For I tell you now that within the heart and the mind and the body wisdom of the feminine lie some of the greatest secrets and greatest powers--and they await to be revealed." - Mary Magdelen
Exercise Here is a beautiful exercise by the Koren Brothers called Warming In. It is a wonderful example of building potency in your lower chakras using breath, sending it up your spine and into your throat chakra. This energizes you, charges your light body (Ka), and can be used to release and heal by opening you up to access trapped emotions. (I use it when I feel sad but can not access my tears, and it works within minutes.) It brings your nervous system into a parasympathetic state which begins a process of regeneration within your body, a recalibration to your Original Blueprint of Wholeness. As they suggest, when you cup your ear with one hand and put the other hand in front of your mouth, it circulates this energy around and around within your head, and you can feel into how YOU ARE A SONG! YOU ARE THE MAGIC! YOU ARE THE MEDICINE! You are a unique vibrational being who--when deeply connected to the Divine Feminine Current in your lower chakras--has all of the necessary magic within you to experience blissful pleasure, heal, create, dream, and meld with the Flow of Life! Like Hafiz says, your pain and suffering is like holding your breath too long in the middle of a vital performance, in the middle of one of Creation's favorite songs. TRUTH! Let us all start breathing deeply and singing! Let us all wake up to the pleasurable abundance of God's good-morning smooches! References & Resources The Magdalen Manuscript: The Alchemies of Horus & The Sex Magic of Isis by Tom Kenyon and Judi Sion goes into much detail about the innate ability of women to utilize magnetic energies to open deeper levels of consciousness through orgasm. Don Juan and the Art of Sexual Energy: The Rainbow Serpent of the Toltecs by Merilyn Tunneshende goes into wonderful detail about female orgasm, including how women can have intercourse with the elements (water, air, fire, earth) once they are sensitized to the movement of the awakening serpent up their central column. Women uniquely generate greater and greater amounts of energy through orgasm and can use this for their own cleansing, healing and restoration as well as to cleanse, heal and restore the world. The Sacred Sex Rites of Ishtar: Shamanic sexual healing and sex magic by Annie Dieu-Le-Veut is a book that has been very helpful to me. As an historian and a mythologist, Annie claims that humans can once again attune themselves to the Three Pillars of Wisdom--Truth, Beauty and Goodness--using shamanic sexual practices, and in turn create a New World. The book is about Sovereignty and details how, until more recently in history when the church moralized sexuality, women have always had an essential role in making love with multidimensional beings through sacred sex rites, and then brought this essential wisdom back for humanity. Revitalizing these relationships with the spirits of the land is essential for creating the New Earth. Isaac & Thorald Koren are transformational voice leaders and co-creators of Your Big Voice. They help you to awaken inner healing with the power of your voice, and to learn to sing your full range of emotion for whole-being harmony and liberation. Check out their beautiful offerings at www.brotherskoren.com. "The day I acquired the habit of consciously pronouncing the words 'thank you', I felt I had gained possession of a magic wand capable of transforming everything." - Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov
Exercise Repeat one of your favorite exercises from the journey while weaving in and out the words, and feeling them deeply, "Thank you. Thank you. Thank you." Can you feel yourself become more present? What does the vibration of gratitude feel like in your body? Can you feel your heart open? Your mind relax? Your pleasure intensify? Does it make it easier to savor the experience? Expressing heart-felt gratitude is a simple and easy way to exponentially expand your pleasurable experiences in life a hundred fold! "Sometimes when Creation speaks to us, we can only hear a subtle distant cry. It is Deep Beauty, longing to commune with us, longing to be seen, to be spoken with, longing to be shared, longing to be cared for. We hear this cry of love in our dreams, and in the myths of humankind that reveal our true natures to be as wild, beautiful and vibrant as Creation herself...As we become fluent in speaking Deep Beauty, and as we become saturated with beauty, it glows and radiates from us, and soon, the Deep Beauty of every moment is revealed....It turns out that everything is singing along with you in beauty. You know this language. It has always existed within your cells. The love of Creation spoke the unique vibration of you into being, and Deep Beauty is your native tongue." - Francis Rico Exploration "The human perception of Spiritual Energy first begins with a heightened sensitivity to BEAUTY." - James Redfield The first time I began a daily self-pleasure practice, I shockingly did not need to use my glasses for over a week. My vision dramatically changed to where everything was crisp and clear and vibrant and colorful and overwhelmingly beautiful. All I could see was Beauty in everything around me. I wanted to slow down so I did not miss the "show". I wanted to tune into the subtle in order to experience the powerful radiance of even the smallest detail. Visual pleasure was everywhere! What have you noticed from your intention on this Sacred Sensuality Journey to reorient from the problem ("How do I fix this, now!?") to curiosity ("hmmm, I wonder what this is?")? From focusing on hardships to feeling pleasure? From seeing lack to discovering resourcefulness? From perceiving blockage to opening to flow? From rushing to relaxing? From incessant doing to receptive being? From mind theory to sensory embodiment?
Exercise In this fourth exercise of the Alchemies of Horus, you will repeat what you did in the third exercise on Day 16. However instead of taking the energy into the center of your head, you bring the energy up and over the two hemispheres of your brain, just under the top of your skull. This movement of the energy is cobra-like in that the tail of the serpent extends down the full length of your spine to the base while the hood of the cobra is extended over your brain. Holding the image of a cobra in this specific way causes a distinct type of brain stimulation and, according to the ancient Egyptians, is a precursor for an anointing. References & Resources Francis Rico wrote A Shaman's Guide to Deep Beauty: Connecting with the Mojo of the Universe. The Magdalen Manuscript: The Alchemies of Horus & The Sex Magic of Isis by Tom Kenyon and Judi Sion. They offer simple exercises which provide you the experience needed to practice the Two Serpents--the sex magic of the Egyptians, Tantra, the Toltecs and other ancient cultures. The five Alchemies of Horus exercises are to practice alone, whereas The Sex Magic of Isis is for partners and so will not be included in this journey. Have this consciousness among yourselves, which is also yours: Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. - Philippians 2: 5-8 I am here, now. - Buddha Exploration I am very grateful to my friend Ariel for the deep wisdom she is sharing with us today about how choosing embodiment is the only portal to the Christing of humanity, how the spiritual path is not escaping to a heaven "out there", but instead saying YES to being in a human body, here and now. YOU are the New Earth we are dreaming. There is only one thing happening right now on Earth, and we are all wrestling with it in our own unique way. Call it what you will but it boils down to our awakening, our embodiment, our Christing, and the ultimate question is, "Are we in or are we out?" Humanity is in its "piss or get off the spiritual pot" growth phase. We are constantly being presented with opportunities to reclaim our bodies, our lives, our spirituality, our reality. Do we hand our power over to an outside savior, our health to a doctor, our spiritual knowing to a teacher, or do we step into sovereignty, take responsibility for ourselves and claim our divine inheritance? Put another way, the essential questions of this epic time are: Who is in charge, and where is the power? Does is come from outside of ourselves? Are we dominating in power over others? Are we being dominated? Are we looking for ways to strategize and manipulate in order to gain? Or does the power come from within ourselves as a clear unwavering anchor that tethers us to knowingness and trust in the paths of every soul we encounter? Honestly, it is easier to hand over our power than to stand in our divinity. Claiming our full bodies for our full spirits is scary! What is embodiment, anyway? What does it take to be our own source and how does spiritual sovereignty play in? It is about radical faith in our own divine spark. If we want the New Earth to arise, we need to move beyond our obsession with safety and comfort levels, and risk descent into the deep end. Anchoring fully into our bodies is the ONLY thing that matters right now. When we begin our embodiment journey, the magic of our Divine-Human potential (our Christing) will bend our realities in ways we never imagined! Coming all the way down and into our bodies opens up our expansive multidimensionality--and the doors to the universe fly open. The question is: do we walk through? If we are too busy, or if we are leaning hard on outside saviors, we might miss the opening. The truth is that the portals are always there, but the will to pass this threshold is activated through our consciousness and intentions. Are you in? Ultimately these days come and go, and every moment we are closer to our fully anchored divine selves knowing and living as the gods and goddesses we came here to be. Every day more of us remember our angel wings, and our soul's task at hand. The closer we get to fully realizing our spark of divinity, the more we experience Heaven on Earth. Here and now. A Reminder About Poetry Allow yourself one time through, either listening or reading, for your mind to attempt to grasp the "main point". Then move on to feeling and savoring, whether or not your mind understands the poem. Listen to the poem or read it out loud several times. It takes deliberate slowing down to do this. Do you feel the urge in your body to move on? Does your mind want to judge or explain the poem? Make a conscious choice to sink back, feel the poem, open to it, and receive its juiciness. Slowly speaking a poem out loud is where the real magic lies! Notice which phrases grab you, and where they grab you. Allow yourself to be affected by the poem. Let it wash over and through you. Poetry is far more dream-like than normal reality.
Exercise The Toltecs claim, "We are dreaming when we are asleep, and we are dreaming when we are awake." A practice called Dream Bridging is the attempt to bring our sleeping dreams into our waking dreams, which is more commonly called normal reality. This is how we dream a New Earth! A shaman paints their dreams onto a cave wall or plants them in their magical internal womb space, and then allows it to come up and out when the time is right--just like a flower. What dreams are living in you right now? They don't live in your head! Call to them deep in your womb space--the Field of Infinite Possibilities in your lower chakras--and when ignited, they will blossom! Here is how to practice bridging your dreams: 1) Set the intention before you fall asleep to be lucid in your dreams, that is, to realize you are dreaming while in the midst of it. Say to yourself over and over while falling asleep, "I will realize that I am dreaming during my dreams." 2) The next morning write down the various simple objects you saw in your sleeping dreams--perhaps a small round smooth stone, or a blue shirt someone was wearing. Then search for that object throughout the day during your waking dream. One of the objects has been signaled by power as an aid to you and so you will find it! Just stay alert and allow it to come to you. As an alternative, you can also choose an object before you fall asleep and intend to find it in your sleeping and then waking dreams. 3) Once you find the object in your waking dream, ask permission of the energy to take it home with you if possible. Set it close to you when you sleep. If you can not take the object, at least try to touch the object, savor it, and/or take a picture. 4) Once you bridge an object, attempt to bridge other things like people, places, ideas, powers, or something for the betterment of the world, like peace. Years ago, when I first began to bridge my dreams, I was quite skeptical, especially since I have a hard time remembering my dreams in the morning. Then one night I had a very vivid dream where I was practicing Toltec rainbow serpent sex magic. The next morning when I woke up I was surprised to realize that it had all happened in my sleeping dream because it seemed so real and I could remember the details quite well. To be honest, I felt crazy (!) and concluded that I had probably made the whole thing up in my imagination. Within hours, though, I received a text from an acquaintance who I had not seen in over five years. She asked for my address and said she had an intense dream about me during the night and then in the morning Spirit told her to sew something for me. A week later I received eight long narrow banners, the six colors of the rainbow plus one black and one white. Each one has beautiful vibrant rainbow stitching around the edges. Eight large rainbow serpents! More recently I had a dream that I was a temple prostitute practicing sacred sexuality thousands of years ago. I woke in the morning surprised to find myself back in normal reality, again feeling like I must be losing my mind. The dream seemed so real. This time I consciously chose to end my mind's repetitive argument and I arrogantly dared Spirit to bridge the dream! Within hours, my friend Catherine--who I mentioned on Day 5 makes the most amazing flower essences--arrived at my door with a bottle of Sacred Sexuality Essence! She had never given this essence to anyone before, but it absolutely insisted to her that it wanted to come to Xochi immediately. Those of us on this journey are now weaving our dreams together as we intend to ignite the seeds that live deep within us. Perhaps something I have written or a poem or photo I have posted had already appeared in your dreams, and you experienced it again sort of like a de-ja-vu. The New Earth already exists and is just waiting to be dreamed into normal reality! It is waiting for YOU! It will arise within each of us if we stop running away, and shutting down, and fighting--and begin to allow ourselves to sink deep, like Jesus who incarnated in human form, like Buddha who chose immanence, and like Ariel calls us to anchor into our bodies, into our womb spaces. Only then will our dreams blossom, and in just the right time. What an exciting time to be alive! References & Resources Ariel Rose is a New Earth visionary anchored deep into the Great Unknown. She lives in the question of how to draw Heaven to Earth via heart-led curiosity. During these times of the greatest experiment ever, she is learning by doing and hopes to inspire others to do the same. You can connect with Ariel on Instagram at instagram.com/new.earth_rising, or by joining her Telegram channel at https://t.me/NewEarthRises Merilyn Tunneshende wrote Don Juan and the Art of Sexual Energy: The Rainbow Serpent of the Toltecs. The Dream Bridging practice is from this book. If you have not yet ordered a bottle of Catherine's Sacred Sexuality Essence you still can! The blend includes Bleeding Heart Flowers, Jasmine Flowers, Passionflower, Lilac Tree Blossoms, Pink Optical Calcite, Chrysocolla, and Kunzite. Combining the essences of flowers and crystals, this formula strengthens the connection between the sexual energy center and the heart chakra. It helps one fall more deeply in love with oneself, tap into deep gratitude for the gift of embodiment and the opportunity to connect with the external world through the vehicle of our human body. $44 for a bottle, shipping within the US is included. Take 5 drops, 5 times a day. Contact: Catherine Granville, cbgranville@gmail.com, 415/302-9323, www.wildlilacs.com For information on herbs that can help you lucid dream, check out: www.thesacredscience.com/3-wild-herbs-for-lucid-dreaming If you wish to awaken the serpent and begin the process of using your sexual energy to realize your divine spark, here is a simple ritual of intention and Self-Initiation. Grab a candle and two cups, one full of water. As you light the candle say, "Spirit of all life, be my witness here. For the sake of my own elevation and the elevation of all life, I shall strive to be harmless to myself and all others." As you pour the water from the cup in your right hand to the empty cup in your left hand say, "By the pouring of this water, I signify the transfer of my sacred waters of life from the mundane to the sacred. Spirit of all life, be my witness here. Amen. Amen. Amen." - Mary Magdalen (via Tom Kenyon) Exploration The focus of Egyptian inner alchemy is to strengthen the Ka body, also called the etheric double or spiritual twin. It is our subtle luminous energy body, an exact duplicate of our physical body except without the density. When it is sufficiently charged, we are able to travel in our dreams, experience elevated states of consciousness, and have an endless source of creative and healing energy. Eventually we want to shift our identification over to our Ka bodies, as in have a strong internal felt sense of being a light being. In your spiritual journey, at some point it is fundamental to shift from primarily focusing on the Newtonian world of density to the quantum world of energy. We do not disregard our physical bodies--we are not leaving them to go somewhere else!-- but instead we must develop the ability to easily shift from seeing/feeling physical objects to seeing/feeling light beings. This is crucial to perceive within ourselves, as well as in others and all beings. Eventually we want to hold both realities simultaneously. As you magnetize your Ka body, those who see energy will notice your extra radiant luminous body! Moving Life Force Energy up your spine and into your head charges and magnetizes your light body. The more you can feel into this, the easier it is to access at any time without having to do breathing exercises. This energy can then be used for dreaming, creating, and healing. The ancient Egyptians did not distinguish between Life Force Energy and sexual energy. They called it sekhem. The Egyptian system of inner alchemy is about transmuting sexual energy into a major source of spiritual illumination. Awaken the slumbering serpent in your pelvic bowl and watch the magic begin to flow! THE SERPENT It's not about becoming a slithering "Goddess" wearing feathers in your hair... Its not about the "power" of how enchanting you can seem When you swirl those hips and hypnotize the wild eyes of oh so many men... You must shed those pretty layers Peel off the skin of your appearance Unravel your addiction to performance Drop beneath the surface Feel the ripple of that current that lives underneath In the Deep... You see... There is a Supple Secret in the Serpent of your Spine. A Liberation Revealed A key inside a hidden lock Nestled in the space between your Vertebrae Sssssssssssssssss Yes. Do you know the Truth that was whispered into Eve's ear? The one that turned Heaven and Earth inside out? Sssssssssssssssssss This is not about the glamour of your performance Or... The indulgence of a pleasure that is sticky sweet like candy You have known Drunkenness But have you ever been Awake inside the nectar? Sober and Lucid in the Fullness of Love? It's in the cracks in between. Known only through language of circle and spiral. Unlocked with the key of that twisting bending S. Yes. Infinity lives here. Inside the tiniest drop of subtlety. Known through the technology Embedded in your spine. No, not Ma Kundalini. This is even before that. Older than ancient. The Holy Grail. The chalice of Fulfillment. The apple of crazy wisdom. You contain the portal. You hold the key. Vastness. Power. Liquid Everlasting Love. Heaven on Earth is Here. The Serpent knew. She knows. But it isn't what you think. Of course, it never is..... The truth has been buried in the Deep Underground The Resurrection begins now. In the secret garden Hidden in your Spine ~ Maya Luna Exercise In Egyptian internal alchemy, the main task in relation to the sacred pathway of the chakras, called the djed, is to accumulate enough energy in your pelvic bowl to be able to send it, with your breath, either up your spine or up your Central Pillar, the second djed, and into your head centers. This practice is similar to the first ones although you will be moving the energy up into your brain instead of the top of your head. References & Resources The Magdalen Manuscript: The Alchemies of Horus & The Sex Magic of Isis by Tom Kenyon and Judi Sion is an essential read if you are interested in learning about the major ancient traditions of internal alchemy. Tom Kenyon offers simple exercises that provide you the experience needed to practice the Two Serpents--the sex magic of the Egyptians, Tantra, the Toltecs and other ancient cultures. The five Alchemies of Horus exercises are to practice alone, whereas The Sex Magic of Isis is for partners and so will not be included in this journey. Maya Luna is a profound teacher of Feminine wisdom who writes beautiful poetry! www.deepfemininemysteryschool.com. Check out her poetry albums on her website and her poetry videos on YouTube. "For most men, becoming a superior lover involves retraining the addiction to ejaculation. When sex becomes an ecstatic and intensely pleasurable art of spiritual communion in love, then your ejaculation is naturally regulated by your breath and heart-feeling, rather than by your old habits of solitary fantasy and accumulated stress... If you want a deep life, deepen your sexual energy. To know and express your deep being, it’s best to curtail your spilling of attention into millimeter-deep puddles. Then you will have the strength necessary to penetrate through your old habits of body and mind, remaining vigilant and authentic to your deepest truth." - David Deida Exploration I am very grateful to my friend Steve who is chiming in today on how sexual energy moves specifically for men. As men, we discovered masturbation at an early age, typically with no guidance from our fathers and little, if any, discussion with our peers. We used porn and fantasy and within minutes, orgasm. As we got older, whether we knew it or not, we used masturbation to relieve stress, anxiety, as a coping mechanism, to procrastinate and/or to fill a void. Practicing masturbation in this manner is connected to two less than desirable outcomes: 1) When we are with a partner, we either can’t get aroused, or we orgasm too soon, or both. 2) We ejaculate sperm, which is actually our life force, our chi, our prana. The average ejaculation is 2-5 cubic centimeters which contains 200-500 million individual sperm cells. This is an immensely powerful substance that, if kept within the male body, can provide a huge amount of energy, but on the other hand, when frequently expended, it can deplete us. So, how do we change these two things? Reframing masturbation and using the phrase self-love or self-pleasure is the first step. It is essential to no longer make your practice goal-oriented, i.e., don’t focus on the orgasm. Instead put your attention on the subtle pleasures within your body, including the heart-genital connection. Not using external things like porn or fantasy while in a self-pleasure practice is probably the most important part. (Pornography for men is akin to vibrators for women--both are goal-oriented.) Perhaps lighting a candle and playing some relaxing music can help set the mood. At first it will feel totally foreign, but over time, you will become more and more comfortable with yourself and you will find that you’ll have positive sensations. When the goal of orgasm is removed, the whole practice takes on a whole new meaning. When you reconnect with your body in this fashion and learn what feels good and what brings you pleasure without the external stimulation, you will be on your way. The next step is then learning to disconnect orgasm from ejaculation. Yes, disconnect the two! This is contrary to everything you may have ever experienced and can take a good bit of time to get your mind around. However, it is possible. When you can do this, the benefits are vast. One positive is you can prolong your sexual activity to as long as you would like, with the only limitation being your fitness level. To work on this practice of separating orgasm from ejaculation, one must work on moving energy within the body. This is done using the breath and your consciousness. In his books, Mantak Chia discusses the microcosmic orbit. This is a pathway through the chakras or energy points in the body to move energy using the breath. By doing so, one can either bring energy toward the groin as needed on the inhale, or away from the groin if the energy is too great in that area, during the exhale. This practice is best done alone during your self-pleasure practice with the intention of not ejaculating, rather recirculating the energy within the body. It can take months of practice so patience is important but the pay-off is so well worth it!
Exercise The microcosmic orbit is a pathway through the chakras or energy points in the body that we can use to move energy using the breath. As you may notice with these practices sometimes it is suggested to use the inbreath to move energy up, sometimes we use the inbreath to move energy down, and other times we breathe in to build awareness in a certain spot and expand. Remember energy is simultaneously spiraling up and down in your body in a double helix, as well as expanding, all the time! High, deep and wide. This exercise is for both men and women! References & Resources David Deida has written many books on sexuality and spirituality. This quote is from his book The Enlightened Sex Manual: Sexual Skills for the Superior Lover. For men, I highly recommend consulting Steve Gordon for guidance. He is a men’s coach and father of two young boys. He has been more formally studying men’s work for the past 5 years, and his areas of interest include masculinity, relationships, sexuality and emotional growth. But really, it is Steve's raw honesty and gentle yet fierce presence that is his magical medicine! He can be found at www.chopwoodandcarrywater.com. A timeless classic on men's sexuality is the Taoist Secrets of Love: Cultivating Male Sexual Energy by Mantak Chia. "do not choose the lesser life. do you hear me. do you hear me. choose the life that is. yours. the life that is seducing your lungs. that is dripping down your chin." - Nayyirah Waheed Exploration Two weeks down and one to go! We've spent a lot of time noticing unconscious patterns in ourselves that unknowingly have limited our capacity to feel pleasure as well as our resilience to stay with it. It is necessary to untangle these before we begin to consciously work with dancing with and moving our sexual energy. That's what is in store for the last week! Don't be discouraged if you can't "do" the upcoming exercises. It takes practice to learn how to receive the awareness of the sensory experiences of what is already toroidally happening. Remember, what you pursue alludes you. Prioritize having fun experimenting, with curiosity and humility, and you will be right on target! Interestingly, neurologists have shown that it takes at least 20-30 seconds of savoring a pleasurable experience before you create a new neural pathway. This enables you to recall what you savor and have the same pleasurable experience, over and over! Your body doesn't really distinguish between dreams--the dream of normal reality, the dream of a memory, a dream while you are sleeping, the dream of a movie. We know this about trauma but it is also true for positive experiences. Less than 20 seconds of savoring, though, and it usually doesn't "stick" in your body. For example, let's say you are walking down the street and notice a particularly rare and radiant rose. If you go over to the rose and take it in, I mean, truly savor the sensory experience of the rose--luxuriously smell it, stroke the petals, look at it--for about 30 seconds with sighs of awe and gratitude, you will be able to recall its unique color, fragrance and soft feel later. You can enhance the experience even more by telling other people about it. You are communicating to your body that this delicious experience is worth putting your awareness on. You will then notice more beautiful flowers whenever you are out for a walk, ones you would have missed otherwise because your body did not realize you considered it worthy to notice. This is how we become half-cup-empty or half-cup-full people. We train our brains to notice what we want to notice by savoring! This is the call of the Feminine to immanence and intimacy with each moment. Energy follows awareness. Pleasure can expand and, of course, so can misery. On this Sacred Sensuality Journey we are putting our awareness on enjoyment and satisfaction which is communicating to our bodies that yes, we want more of this. I welcome hearing all stories you'd like to share with me in order to enhance your experience of this journey!
Exercise Don't forget to Pause, Breathe, Sigh, Feel, Wiggle, and Touch yourself as you retrain your awareness to shift to your internal embodied experience. Go back and find one of your favorite exercises and repeat, this time with sighs of awe and gratitude. Savor it! References & Resources If you have been enjoying the poetry each day, you can sign up to receive a poem from me in your email box each Monday morning. Its an opportunity to pause, deepen and savor. There is also a library of over 130 ferociously nourishing recorded poems, catalogued by theme. www.guideforconscioushealing.com/wild-words-poetry-blog "I never saw a discontented tree." - John Muir Exploration Everybody seems to be talking these days about Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) regulation and/or Vagus Nerve Therapy and/or Trauma Healing. What they all acknowledge is that healing, digestion, deep rest, immune system functions, detoxification, sensual enjoyment and sexual arousal only happen when you are in a parasympathetic state. For optimal health we would be in a parasympathetic state 80% of our time. Many doctors claim that 90% of all illnesses are caused by stress--the sympathetic overdrive state of "fight or flight". Sounds about right! Fortunately our body has a number of ways of attempting to regulate our ANS by using the vibration of sounds, as well as moving internal water, earth, air and fire. We call these spontaneous efforts burping, farting, sighing, stretching, gasping, crying, sneezing, yawning, screaming, groaning, laughing, goosebumps, peeing, pooping, trembling, shivers, and hot flashes. Unfortunately in domesticated culture we have been conditioned to feel embarrassed and apologize for our body's wise endeavors to keep us healthy! When we yawn or burp or fart or tear up or sneeze we say, "Oh, sorry!" or "Excuse me!" Here are very simple ways to begin to let your body know that you would like to experience more of your life in the parasympathetic state of being: 1) Never, ever again excuse yourself or apologize when your body sees fit to move air, earth, water or fire within you. 2) Apologize to your body right here and now for suppressing the movements and sounds, and for shaming its natural intelligence. 3) Observe a pet or small child who has yet to learn shame about their body's wisdom--see how they so easily allow their body to reset their nervous system in these quick and easy ways, without any story and, in fact, most times barely noticing. 4) Exaggerate each of these gestures and savor them! If you put your awareness on these movements of water, air, earth and fire when they spontaneously happen, you will realize they are all incredibly underrated pleasurable experiences. The louder, bigger and longer you yawn, the more it expands your pleasure! 5) Say Thank You to your body after they occur. The moments immediately following the movements of earth, water, air and fire, as well as spontaneous sounds like sighing, your body releases hormones that give you an overall sense of well-being. If you sink down into the experience with gratitude--as opposed to trying to suppress or control them so others feel more comfortable--I assure you that your body will respond with more and more gracious attempts to bring you back into a parasympathetic state. This new unabashed, unashamed and grateful relationship with your body is a necessary precursor to experiencing orgasmic pleasure!
Exercise Turn on The Pace of Pleasure playlist and feel into your relaxed parasympathetic state of being. Breathe deeply. Savor it. Tell your body YES, this is where you want to live. Tell your body that there is nothing you need to do, no where to go, and so it is safe to feel it all, to digest, to regenerate, to heal, and to ignite. Notice when you have the urge to get up and get busy, or the urge to entertain your mind chatter as if it is important new information (its not!). Keep sinking back down into the music and allowing yourself to open and relax. Remember the Four Gateways to Receptivity from Day 4: Accessing Holy Fire? Try dropping the muscles in your face, opening your belly, resting in the back of your body, and moving with your fluid spine. I enjoy finding a song that is particularly relaxing and then putting it on constant repeat, each time deepening into what it offers. This is a vertical dive as opposed to moving along horizontally to the next song. Some songs are more transcendent and take you up and away; and you can remain in your body while you feel the uplift. Others songs are more akin to resting at the bottom of the ocean or vibrating deep in Mother Earth. And still other songs are a beautiful harmony between the ethereal and the earth. References & Resources Biodynamic CranioSacral Therapy is one of the most subtle and yet powerful ways to invite your body into a parasympathetic state, regulate your nervous system and heal trauma. When you feel safe and calm, your Original Blueprint of Health emerges and your body "remembers" its wholeness. Come try out a session whenever you are in the Northbay area, or find a local practitioner near you. www.guideforconscioushealing.com/biodynamic-craniosacral-therapy I enjoy experimenting with (remember, you don't need anything outside of yourself!) drops of Parasympathetic oil blend from Vibrant Blue Oils. This blend helps drop your body into the parasympathetic "rest and digest" state of your nervous system. All health maintenance processes--including healing, regeneration and arousal--are turned on only when your body is in this state. Applying this blend behind the earlobe on the mastoid bone helps to stimulate your vagas nerve--which begins in the brainstem and travels down the side of the neck where is it most accessible through the skin. You can purchase a small bottle for the discounted cost of $15 (including shipping) to try for yourself here: https://vibrantblueoils.com/parasympathetic-holiday/?cookieUUID=1284843c-ee56-4d7d-a94b-5aba52678037 "There is fire and magic in the blood of an embodied woman. In ceremony, let her offer back her blood to Mother Earth, and to the Great Ocean, and to Brother Wind, and to the faefolk--the spirits of the land-- as a contract for the New Earth." - Quetzalpetlatl Exploration December 12th is the Feast Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe, a sacred and hugely celebrated day both in Mexico where She appeared and by millions of people around the world. The story is absolutely remarkable how, after 5-15 million natives (and some say even higher numbers) were killed in Mexico by the Spaniards around the year 1531, this Being of Light appeared. With the help of Juan Diego, She stopped the killing. The church named her Our Lady of Guadalupe. The first picture you see below is the one that miraculously appeared to the bishop on Juan Diego's tunic. This same tunic is on display at her Cathedral in Mexico City, miraculously never being diminished in almost 500 years. Here's the part of the story that most people completely miss. Does it make sense to you that this virginal-transcendent-completely-dressed-head-covered-and-bowed-compliant-prayerful-14-year-old-looking-girl did something so fierce? Of course not! Check out in the second photo the multidimensional being Juan Diego actually saw--naked, claws, powerful priestess, wings, fangs, earth mother, immanent, natural, open-handed. Meet Tonantzin--Our Blessed Mother! Or some say she was called Coatlaxopeuh, meaning she who comes flying from the region of light like an eagle on fire. (Interestingly, at the bottom of the figures check out the difference between the two representatives of Juan Diego--a European cherub in the first image vs. a flying native in the second.) The Bishop as representative of the oppressive patriarchy could never have handled who She really is, nor could her true image have been put up in the churches all over Central and South America. Being a shapeshifter, Tonantzin gave the Bishop a palatable version of herself. BUT...a new day has dawned. It is the time of the rising up of the Divine Feminine, the Love and Care for Life. We are watching the Church and every other human structure that has been a part of the materialistic patriarchal culture collapse. This epic shift in consciousness includes the unveiling of her Truth, as well as the unveiling of your feral and fiery and ferocious beingness! How have you made yourself palatable to culture? How have you suppressed the power that lives inside of you? How have you limited your ability to experience pleasure and ignition? How have your made yourself "virginal" and compliant and obedient and nice? Enough!! If you don't begin to shed these debilitating and depleting masks, they will eventually be exposed as the illusion that they are and then crumble with the oppressive patriarchy. Domestication is no more than a dream! You are free to choose your own dream...
Exercise You want motivation? Clarity? Joy? An open heart? Intuitive knowing? This Toltec Fire Breath exercise will sensitize you to the Fire that lives within you and guide you on how to work with it. With practice, you can use it to heal yourself and others, journey into other dimensions, perceive multidimensionally, create, and experience more pleasure and bliss. References & Resources Don Juan and the Art of Sexual Energy: The Rainbow Serpent of the Toltecs by Merilyn Tunneshende is a book I keep reading over and over. Twenty-three chapters and at the end of each one is an exercise, each chapter building on the previous one. With discipline, practiced often over many years, its offers an initiation into the ancient sexual energy practices of the Toltec-Mayan tradition, a powerful program for spiritual transformation. The mythical Rainbow Serpent is phallic energy within women and creative power within men. This book will help you awaken the serpent and connect with its energy for healing, creating and dreaming. Women, I highly recommend painting with your menstrual blood! And men, it is of course the same blood that lives in you from your mother. Perhaps for men and women who are no longer bleeding, ask a close female friend if she would be willing to collect some of her blood for you. I prefer the brand DivaCup in which to collect my blood but there are many good brands out there. Here is a wonderful article about the benefits of falling in love with all aspects of embodiment including the fiery blood of life itself. www.naturalbirthcontrol.com/women-painting-menstrual-blood/ |
Daily Practices
An Introduction
Day 1: Higher, Broader, Deeper Day 2: Welcome Home Day 3: Deep Presence Day 4: Holy Fire Day 5: Sensing Your Way Day 6: Your Feral Nature Day 7: Pause & Integrate Day 8: Mojo Yoga Day 9: Earth Day 10: Water Day 11: Air Day 12: Fire Day 13: Deep Rest Day 14: Pause & Integrate Day 15: Sexual Energy in Men Day 16: Awakening the Serpent Day 17: Dreaming Day 18: Beauty Day 19: Gratitude Day 20: Magic Day 21: Mystery |