​Folks have asked me how phone readings work, how a reader can still be accurate if a peron isn’t sitting right in front of them.  I tell them that their name and the sound of their voice is enough – there is a resonance, a vibration, that allows the reader to connect to their energies.  And, when a reader is receiving messages from Spirit, well… Spirit doesn’t adhere to our earthly time-space-rules.  They (for all intents and purposes) essential vibrations, invisible, and non-densely-packed forms of energetic consciousness.  

​Basically, you will likely not see them or smell them or touch them with your hands as if solid.  They are physical vibrations but not manifest densely as, for example, the trees or humans or animals, or even lightning and clouds.  So, it is that sound waves – a particular kind of vibration – carry much more than just words and music which lend us to listening and hearing in terms of sensation and perception.  The waves of sound vibrations, even those apparently inaudible to human ears, still carry much more than we are often aware of.

​This brings me to a couple of points I want to mention for your thoughts and inspirations and personal research.  First, words are power.  The power of your voice carries the integrity of who you are as an energetic being and vibration in material form.  Your voice and your words and your tone also carry the power of creation.  Therefore, consider The Four Agreements from don Miguel Ruiz, “Be impeccable with your Word”.  The vibration is honest enough and essentially integral to your being.  What could be questioned, then, is are you aligned with your integral and honest essential Being-ness?

​Which brings me to my second point, that this alignment and awareness of such honest integrity and authenticity is what sound healing modalities achieve – a vibrational space in which the recipient is vibrationally coherent with (aligned with) their own essential integrity and authentic vibration.  As far as energy work is concerned, this is the main principle of all of it – whether one uses sound, movement, aromatherapy, magic, crystals, or anything else you could think of.  In terms of sound healing, we can use all kinds of music therapies, voice therapies, intonations, chants, and mantras.  We even have wonderful tools to bring these into play – therapeutic drumming, group chanting and intonation, singing bowls, and tuning forks.  

​These sound vibrations are also used to clear and cleanse the energies of spaces and environments, such as gongs, bells, and tabletop fountains or water-features in homes, courtyards, temples, parks, hotels, and retreat centers - all the places we like to relax and feel well.  Not only do we find nature sounds soothing, but we can sense their shift in the vibrations of a space.  Have you ever opened a window during a steady and gentle fresh spring rain?  Even if there’s a slight chill in the air, inviting that sound into your space for even 10 or 15 minutes can be rejuvenating and cleansing.

The joy of sound healing can start with you simply being deliberate with your words – deep breath, consider who you are, and choose your words without fear (of not reacting quick enough, of not responding correctly, of not being heard, of being wrong, of feeling how you feel).  You can also begin to incorporate the intonations and chants associated with the chakras or the organs in your morning meditations.  In Ayurvedic traditions, the chakras are energy wheels which maybe opened and closed with particular chants – check them out here.  In Oriental Medicine, the vital organs carry Life Force, or Qi/Chi, in particular systems named for the organ.  The practice of Qi Gong (“Life Force Work”) essentially used breath-vibrations similarly to move energies and open flows of Life Force through the body systems.  Learn some of the practice here.

And, of course, aside from finding a sound healer or learning some more sound healing yourself, just be mindful of what you are hearing, listening to, and reverberating in your body, in your mind, and in your spaces – because they are a direct vibrational map of how harmoniously aligned with your true Self that you are.  If you’re interested in alignment, space clearings, and learning other techniques for centeredness, check out Sovereign Space Pathwork here.  Crank up your favorite “happy” song, sing, dance, and enjoy raising your Vibe – it shines out, and the world loves it!

'Tis the Season... to allow your self-care routine to engage all parts of you.  For the body, yes… It’s nice to eat well, treat yourself, rest up, take a soothing bath, enjoy your comforts and treats.  These things are important because we engage in the pleasures and relaxation of our senses, we take care of our bodies, and we engage in modern comfort and the fun of living life.

​For the mind, engage in your meditations.  Enjoy interesting and pleasurable mental pursuits – a good book, crossword puzzles, decent conversation, or anything that stimulates your mind towards ease or fun.  Relationships are also important components to our minds and mental-emotional awareness, so be mindful of your attitudes and thoughts throughout the day, especially in relation to others.  Take care with your emotions and opinions.  Make a deliberate effort to tend your mental-emotional body with gentleness and compassion – first for yourself so that you are in a position to tend it in the presence of others.  

When you look at party invitations, schedules, events, and friendly or familial gatherings and communications of all kinds – even if you’re just running an errand and will be “out-and-about” – and prepare yourself by being aware of your mental-emotional body, your thoughts and feelings.  If you begin to feel drained, unfocused, upset for any reason or to any degree, allow yourself a few minutes to reset your headspace, clear and calm your mind, and realign your mindset with better thoughts to get the ball rolling on higher vibration feelings.
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If you accept an invitation for anything or have anything you feel you must do, prepare your mindset even before scheduling it or accepting it.  Put yourself into a headspace of gratitude, hopefulness, peacefulness, fun and enjoyment, or some sense of good humor.  If you are aware that such an event may have plenty of not-so-good-feeling triggers or expectations for you, choose to not accept the invite or prepare yourself in the same fashion ahead of time including an “exit strategy”, a socially graceful way of excusing yourself once you have brought as much good energy into the situation as you can.  Simply be honest with yourself, set aside expectations of uncomfortable or unpleasant feelings in favor of your desire to feel good, and be aware of your boundaries.  

​And, of course, the part of you which tops all others – your spirit.  Take plenty of time to tend your spiritual connection to your inner light.  Take plenty of time for those meditations that strengthen your spirit, light up your soul, ignite your passion for living, and allow your imagination some joyful play.  Take walks in nature (bundled up if you’re cold) for grounding and centering.  Listen to soul-inspired instrumentals that evoke your joyfulness.  And listen to your favorite music that always inspires and uplifts you.  Awaken your playfulness with family and friends, or even just with your own imagination – engaging in some creative endeavor like crafting, painting, decorating your space, cooking and baking, drawing, writing, composing music, playing instruments, making up songs to sing in the shower.  Find any way to allow yourself to truly laugh and play from within – not just because someone else told you a funny joke or some clown in a movie entertained you but from within your own lightheartedness rediscover your playful and creative side using your imagination, pleasures, interests, openness, and joy.

​In Winter, we have a great opportunity to share and serve others and be grateful for all we have.  However, we often neglect that – after harvest time is time to tend the self and go within.  So many people who experience a difficult time mentally and emotionally in this season may blame it on their loneliness, or their lack of motivation to do and socialize on the weather, and many have a difficult time processing thoughts and emotions and being hopeful for the new calendar year.  They try to force themselves to be motivated by the achievement of goals and resolutions that they sabotage before even getting started.  This is because this is NOT the season for big social events and grand productivity achievements of the final quarter.

This is the season to choose self-care in some solitude over loneliness.  This is the season to tend your health in everyway and cleanse yourself and your space, both inner and outer.  This is the season to tend your inner light and allow that shining inspiration to filter those nearest and dearest to you in support of their inner light as well.  This is the season to clean-up your energy and vibration from all that you released in the last few months, tidying up the residuals, and taking the time to tend and care for the blessings you were given.  In so doing, then, we also look ahead dreamily to how what we have gained will serve us when the time is right, how we are inspired to grow in the spring.  Yet still, we have time and need to take time to strengthen the inner light, to shine bright through dark winter nights with those we love, to celebrate the collective shining light in our homes, families, friends, and communities.

This is truly a season of lights, light in the darkness, and inner light above all else.  May your inner light be tended carefully, may your space be cleansed pleasantly, may your light shine bright for all those who matter most to you, and may peace and blessings be drawn to your light like a moth to the flame!   

A fascinating and scientific approach with experimentation and case studies regarding encounters and conversations with deceased loved ones.  Moody and colleagues set the stage for grieving and bereavement processes while looking at spiritual and mediumistic encounters with our dearly departed.  

In their explorations, they discuss in real terms and experiential evidence with a degree of scientific objectivity particular Spiritualist concepts and other religious philosophies espousing life-after-death, spirit world existence, lucid dreaming, self-hypnosis and hypnotherapies, mediumship, meditation, and so much more.  A world of possibilities, either with personal grieving, healing, and closure or philosophical and spiritual development, I found this read to be an informative sharing of experiences in spirit communication, mediumship, and healing.

With that, I invite you to read Moody's & Perry's book.  Take it in, check yourself, and do your own experiment.  It doesn't matter if it's "just your imagination".  The point isn't whether or not you believe a thing is real or others tell you it's real.  The point is that you validate your experiences, who you are, and own how you will utilize the experience or information given.  Perhaps you'll discover more within yourself than any outside source could have ever provided.

​Cheers to a good fireside read on a cold winter night! 

What is Visualization really?  And what does it have to do with meditation?  

"Visualization" is kind of an umbrella technique that encompasses practices like guided meditations and guided imagery therapy to get your imagination going and your mind focused.  But, it doesn't always have to be about the visuals - the picture of something - in your imagination.  A person's "mental picture" may be of feelings or other sensations of an experience.

Meditation is a great way to calm and clear the mind and allow us some headspace to relax.  It can be used to just get quiet, or it can be combined with various techniques in order to recognize, train, and utilize all facets of our Consciousness.  There are meditative traditions the world over which use things like gestures, hand positions, chants, mantras, postures, body movements, and breathing techniques to work with the mind, its role in and pathway to Consciousness, and its influence on the body’s health & well-being. 

All forms of meditation are equally powerful in personal, spiritual, and Consciousness development, yet forms or techniques of meditation may vary depending on purpose – why are you meditating?  Some folks meditate to relax, to just clear their heads and take a breather.  Different breathing techniques, body postures, self-hypnosis or hypnosis, and visualizations or guided meditations may all help in this relaxation meditation.  The simplest way is to just sit, calmly & comfortably, and stare out the window at a tree, the skyline, the ocean waves, the clouds or the sky, the moon or stars at night. 

You’d be surprised at how quickly your brain can turn your thoughts down or off when you do this.  Sometimes you “snap out of it” and get your mind going again or start yourself awake if you were falling asleep.  With practice you can then consciously tell yourself to look at the tree – no reason, just look, just observe, just watch.  This is a lot gentler than “snapping out of it” or “starting awake”.  This is a way of becoming consciously aware – whether you’re about to fall asleep or not – yet not letting your mind overtake your Consciousness as it stretches to breathe in the experience. 
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When getting ready to do any meditation, remember that you can always set yourself a fifteen to thirty minute timer if you have appointments or responsibilities to tend to, that way you can let yourself relax into the experience knowing you will be alert and awake when the timer goes off.  You can even recite that to yourself as you sit down and set the timer – a little verbal reminder to yourself.  This kind of “basic-goodness-daydream” meditation is the kind of gentle & effortless calming meditation we need to take in our fast-paced lives at least two or three times a day for a bit of balance between our inner world and outer world. 

Any meditation is best begun with relaxation.  But, if the purpose is something other than just relaxing and clearing your head, meditation goes further spontaneously or with use of a technique.  Visualization meditations – like self-hypnosis, hypnosis, neurolinguistic programming, guided meditation, guided imagery therapy/practice, and other visualization exercises – have become powerful techniques in meditation.  They serve to bring your energetic senses (the pure vibe senses corresponding to your physical senses) to the forefront of your imagination where creativity and life force blend according to intention and awareness. 

I often like guided meditations for myself and in group settings, and one time after guiding a meditation someone mentioned that they don’t “see” the visual described but that they feel it.  I, myself, am a very visual person most often, but it has become an art to change-up the language to embrace the various ways our energetic senses and imaginations combine to give us the experience of a guided meditation or visualization.  Everyone is different, and everyone’s energy is meant to flow naturally through their experiences. 

If you are not a “visual” person, don’t shy away from a visualization exercise.  Just feel it instead of seeing it, sense it, know it, allow it to sink into you.  Imagination is a facet of our Consciousness.  Let your imagination flow with the exercise.  If someone says, “See this chakra glowing yellow”, change it.  Shift your attention to your upper abdomen, where your Solar Plexus chakra is located and often associated with the yellow color.  Now, don’t try to see yellow – unless you can remember what the banana you ate for breakfast looked like.  Try instead to feel the energy in that area of your body. 

What feelings come to mind when you think of the color yellow or an object naturally colored yellow?  Does it bring you joy or anxiety?  Do you feel open or blocked?  This could indicate a consistent pattern beliefs or attitudes or behaviors.  It is, for example in chakra balancing meditations, an experience to note because that is what may need to be cleared or realigned or balanced for development and progress.  That’s the point of the visualization in this example – to give your focused attention to that chakra, at least until you move on to the next chakra or step. 

Everyone has an imagination – it’s a part of Consciousness.  Anyone can participate in, effectively utilize, benefit from, and experience a visualization meditation exercise.  When clients ask me how to meditate and ask how I meditate, which is quite often, I usually let them know: just begin by sitting quietly, usually near a window or outside.  Just sitting quietly, observing the scenery and sounds and feels all around you without trying to think or trying to stop thinking, and with – if the mind begins a tirade – a focus on breathing deeply, inhale and exhale, are all you need to begin and continue.  Whatever you are drawn to, whatever flows naturally for your meditation, whatever resonates with the basic goodness in your center (your core), take a step to experience that – a yoga posture, a Tai Chi form, a song, a chant or mantra, a guided visualization or meditative journey, a napping-daydream or lucid dream – calmly and consciously.

​Snake Medicine is all about transforming energy through connection to the Earth.  It really speaks to the dynamic processes of Life and manifestation.  It’s not just physical life and manifestations though, but also spiritual energy which is transformed.  Snake Medicine also speaks very potently to Consciousness development and use of Intuition, as well as healing processes. Transmutation is the process by which energy is taken and changed into something entirely different, mutated and transformed if you will.  

With Snake Medicine, transmutation often refers to how poisons, or venoms, are processed.  Therefore, with everything that comes from the Earth and the Elements – even if it has been altered or changed before encountering us – part of our healing is to take only what we need and discard the rest, not as it was received but as something changed and already processed.  When discarded in this fashion, it leaves the Earth and other Elements to further process the energies present in whatever form and dissolve and distribute them back as raw material to the Aether.  Awareness of this process, use of intuition, understanding transmutation and manifestation, and Consciousness development are a where the wisdom of Snake Medicine can be found in healers of all forms, shapes, and sizes.
 
In everyday life and throughout seasons of change and growth (like one birthday to the next), we find that we engage this process regularly – from digesting our foods, to processing our emotions, to expanding our knowledge and skills, to gardening and cultivating and composting.  The important thing to realize is that we must learn to slow down and cool down so that we can be more aware of the energies around us and within us.  In that frame of mind, we can actually have the freedom-of-will to choose which energy we want to interact with, which experiences we want to grow with, and which unknowns we can accept as challenges to improvement and growth.  Further, Snake Medicine teaches us, not just how to heal and transmute “poisons” but also, how to become aware of manifestation and how to release and let-go so we a more free to create. 

All of the manifestations in yourself, your body, certain parts of your emotions and mind (like memories and learned knowledge), in your experiences of the world around you (people, society, animals, plants, land features, weather, cities, farms, politics, health, stores, theaters, sports, etc.) – all of these manifestations of our modern earthly reality – have already been done.  They are already created and here.  There is no destroying something you don’t like or fear because energy cannot be created or destroyed.  There is only changing, processing, transforming, transmuting your own experience of it and growing from that, and further becoming aware of how to create the future from where you are.  Yesterday’s breath is already gone on the wind to travel the atmosphere.  This breath is right in front of you.  Tomorrow’s breath will be here on the breeze that hasn’t arrived yet but is still traveling.

Thus, the wisdom and awareness that comes with Snake Medicine – the healing, intuitive-awareness, processing and transmutation, and connection to all the Elements – teaches us that to freely create our lives and experiences, we are advised to understand the movement of energy within and around us and work with our own energy to influence our experiences of life. 

The processes of transmutation and the lessons of Snake Medicine are foundational principles of dynamic alchemy – the alchemy of the soul – and Consciousness development.  It all begins with Aether… Bring it down to Earth and become aware of the other Elements as well… Then rise up gently and steadily in an infinite and graceful process of growth and transformation… Having expanded to infinity as Aether itself…  This seems cyclical, like a linear or chronological process bent over on itself and re-connected or twisted and stretched, but it’s not.  It is an ever-present conscious awareness in the participation of the movement of Aether - true alchemy. 
 
To begin working with Snake Medicine safely, you can get yourself a pendant or other representation of the Ouroboros – the symbolic Snake eating its own tail – or a Serpentine crystal.  Meditate with these items in terms of grounding and stabilizing your energies, paying attention to your Body and how your Body responds to your thoughts and emotions.  Pay attention to the Earth element and how it works with the other elements.  Also, you can simply learn more about snakes – reading articles or books, or visiting a local Nature preserve to learn about snakes in your area. 

Another great way to bring in more understanding of the same lessons Snake Medicine teaches us is to learn more about vibrations.  Whether sound therapies, vibrational medicine, music, or new research in quantum physics, understanding vibration brings us back to a sense of being aware of how energy moves within us and around us – like Snake being so close to the Earth that it can sense every vibration emanating within, through, and around it. 

Finally, you can also look to how you receive, process, and release energy in your own Spirit, Mind, Body system by being more conscientious of what your senses perceive and what you do with it in all your experiences.  Try beginning by choosing one thing: your quiet time (meditation, sleep-wake cycles, dreams, spiritual practice, self-care, etc.), or your interactions with people (work, home, social media, news, going to the store, driving in your car, etc.), or maybe your nutrition (what you eat, when you eat, where it came from, your energy levels and health). 

Many blessings on your journeys of self-discovery and the wisdom and grace of your Spirit-Mind-Body system! 

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic.  Comment on the article below or send me an email at cynthia@cassadaga.com. 

​Thank you for the opportunity to share with you.  Peace & blessings!

​It’s the season of Family!  From honoring deceased relatives & loved ones on October 31st, to gathering together and sharing in November & December, this is the season that is all about family, friends, & community.  Whether you go your own way or get wrapped up in social engagements, we are always surrounded by the energies of others – in life & in Spirit – and we can easily forget to take time for ourselves.