on 12 Jan 2020 12:25 PM
  • Gaia
  • Spiritual Awakening
  • Planetary Evolution
English

By Kiara Windrider
16 December 2019

 

“That which is real is invisible to the eyes. It is only with the heart we can see clearly.”

Those lines, expressed by a fox to a prince in Antoine de Saint-Exuprey’s charming fable, The Little Prince, have become a guiding beacon for my perceptions of life.

 

It is difficult, in the age we live in today, to face the truths of earthly existence, and not feel some element of hopelessness, rage, or despair. The more I become aware of environmental realities, and the more I contemplate the insanity of greed and tyranny in our world, the less safe the world seems to become for myself and my children’s children.

 

Where do I find my hope? This is the question that drives me. It is the only question that feels real at times. And it is the answers to this question which will determine whether we go the way of the dinosaurs or rise into collective awakening as a species proud to call ourselves human.

 

Please walk with me as I explore this question. My dreams are confusing at times, as I wander over trails not clearly marked. There are often times I question myself, or question what we have been taught about this world, our origins, our history, and our destiny. The path zigzags and fizzles out sometimes, or takes me over treacherous territory where a single mis-step can mean certain death.

 

Whom do I trust? How do I trust? In a sea of contradictory facts and interpretations this becomes a key question. Where do I find answers that are not contaminated by either ungrounded wishful thinking or self-pitying pessimistic despair?

 

In my last blog series, Shadows of a Dying Age, I spelled out certain scenarios that could mark the end of human civilisation as we know it. These scenarios remain. If anything, they are becoming increasingly likely within our short-term future. It is our response to these scenarios whereby we choose to either go extinct or to rise up like a phoenix from the ashes of a dying world.

 

I have looked to astrophysics, geology, systems theory, and ancient history in my search for answers. I have explored spiritual and psychological traditions, plunging through shamanic doorways both exciting and frightening. I have watched for subconscious fears and expectations that keep me from seeing clearly. Ultimately, what brings me hope and comfort, and where I find my deep trust, is the quiet voice of a living earth.

 

Trust does not grow in a vacuum. It is born of relationship. Building a relationship, as the fox explains to the little prince, takes time, and requires patience and commitment. We have been taught that the universe is somehow outside of us, and separate from us, that our planet is nothing more than a a resource to be consumed, that reality is fixed, and that we are victims of circumstances we cannot control. These perceptions have been drilled into our collective human subconscious so deeply and so pervasively that we believe this to be inescapably true.

 

As long as we believe this to be true, there is no place for true hope, or for deeper trust. We find ourselves inevitably reaping the bitter harvest for all the chaos that we have sown, for the karmic quicksand we continue to create. We try our best to fix the world somehow, but there is no true cure. There is only one logical end to a paradigm of existential insecurity based on the collective belief in separation… and that is extinction.

 

Can we learn to reverse this paradigm, find a path that takes us out into the freshness of a new dawn? Can we learn to walk through the quarries of the gods, discovering the fulness and power of who we truly are? This is the question we must learn to ask ourselves now.

 

 

PHOENIX RISING - 2

By Kiara Windrider
17 December 2019

 

OCEAN WITHIN THE DROP

 “First we experience ourselves as a drop, separate from the ocean,” said the great Sufi poet, Jelaluddin Rumi. “Then the drop dissolves into the great ocean.” We are no longer driven by the roles and narrow demands of a personal self, no longer content to walk this earth for personal pleasure or gain.

 

We find ourselves becoming very sensitive to the silent voices of the world around us, whether human or non-human, visible or invisible. We attune ourselves to the voice of the wind and the waves, the infinite songs of a living Earth. We open ourselves to an intuitive flame which invites us to be guardians and protectors for an entire circle of life. We become intent not so much in taking something from this world as in giving back.

 

Some refer to this stage as enlightenment, and this is a necessary step in our journey of awakening. Our awareness has expanded from personal ego into a planetary self, or even towards the universal SELF. This is not enough, however. There is a third stage that Rumi refers to, “where the entire ocean enters into the drop.”

 

Many of us have become conditioned to imagine that we are small, insignificant creatures incapable of making an evolutionary impact on the Earth. This is certainly so if we are content to identify with the drop, with its limited scope and power. However, as we find ourselves dissolving into the great ocean, we find ourselves entering a realm where the vast potential of the Infinite Self can begin to shine through. A call goes out from deep within our surrendered hearts to be in service to the circle of life… and the universe responds.

 

What happens when the ocean begins to enter the drop? As with the drop dissolving into the ocean, this is not an easy process nor can it be accomplished overnight. It takes clarity and commitment to ride out these strong waves and tides. Our certainties begin to dissolve, our conditioned ideas about who we are and why we are here break down, our hearts and bodies open to vast currents of light that threaten to engulf us, and we find ourselves gasping as great waves move through our being with an intent and purpose we could not imagine.

 

A key word here is ‘surrender’. By this I do not mean something limp and passive. It requires an active intent to clear out whatever stands in the way for this ocean to sweep through, becoming one with this great current of life, and refining our hearts minds and bodies so we become capable of channeling these evolutionary forces unhindered into the world.

 

This journey requires psychological and emotional maturity, health of mind and body, and a focused spiritual intention. To be a channel for light requires, when necessary, to enter deep into our personal and collective shadows, so we can embrace and transform them. It requires a fearlessness of purpose, where we are can allow ourselves to be moved by forces stronger than ourselves. It requires that we let go of personal agendas, and come into resonance with intelligences far greater than our own. It requires that we listen to the way of the heart, which is ultimately a path of sensitivity, trust and joy.

 

Many of have been feeling unsatisfied with old paradigms of growth and spirituality which tend to be primarily focused on improving or changing ourselves in some way. We find that this idea of a personal ‘self’ isn’t real enough or important enough to bother with anymore, that the only thing worth doing now is to let go the personal self so that the universe can step through. If this resonates for you, know you are not alone, that it is Gaia who has called us here, and Gaia who is guiding and inspiring us in this evolutionary journey.

 

Can we open to sources of inspiration, power and guidance beyond what we have known or understood yet? Can we allow the great ocean to start pouring through?

 

 

PHOENIX RISING - 3

By Kiara Windrider
December 18, 2019

 

LISTENING TO GAIA

 I will forever remember my first experience swimming with a humpback whale in Hawaii. As I floated facedown on the surface of the sea, she remained for a long time directly underneath. As we attuned to each other I felt distinct waves of light entering my body through the back of my head, and found myself expanding out spherically until I entered into deep union with Gaia, the name I use when referring to Earth as a living breathing interactive consciousness.

 

The whale was imparting to me a state of consciousness that was normal for her, and I felt for the first time the vast gulf separating our two species. We, who imagine ourselves to be on top of the ladder of creation, have lost connection with our own mother. And having lost touch with this beautiful goddess that our souls incarnate through, we have embarked on a senseless attempt to destroy our own home, and the endless species that co-inhabit this home.

 

I have attempted in my life to keep this connection open, and to deepen this as much as I can. This moment of connection with the whales remains, and has become the portal for an inner space where the drop and the ocean can dissolve into each other, and where the voice of the great ocean can become more accessible.

 

My link with Gaia helps me understand the wisdom of life. It helps me trust something beyond myself in a sea of contradictory voices. It helps me understand our collective past and our potential destiny as a human species. It helps me understand that our journey through time takes place not in a straight line guided by a chance wind, but in cycles that are regular and predictable. It helps me understand that we ourselves are a part of Gaia, and therefore co-creators in this journey of life.

 

Our hearts are connected with the heartbeat of Gaia, who is herself connected with solar and galactic forces linked together through an infinite pulsing universe. There is a galactic heartbeat rapidly pulsing through our solar system now, inviting us to enter an adventure of consciousness like nothing we have experienced in recent human history.

 

There are cycles of creation preceded by cycles of destruction. Shiva, in his ecstatic dance of creation, also represents these forces of destruction. We are at a pivotal point in planetary history where the dance of Shiva is becoming increasingly frenzied. As I have detailed in my previous blog series, and in my book Gaia Luminous, we are entering a time where much of what we have built across the millennia could be wiped away very quickly and suddenly. This is inevitable, but does not need to be painful, for we are also given opportunities for renewal and new creation as never before.

 

As I process all the information coming in, it becomes important to have my feet firmly planted in the ground. I am not always sure how well I do this, but I do know that in the moments when I am being tossed around by waves of uncertainty and fear, that wisdom comes from attuning to the rhythms of Gaia, and to the wider perspectives she provides.

 

As I said earlier, trust does not grow in a vacuum, It is born of relationship. Like all relationships, this relationship with Gaia takes time to develop, and a commitment to learn and listen. We allow ourselves to enter a place beyond the rational mind, where we can listen to the sounds of silence attuning us to deeper cycles of existence than we are currently aware. We listen to the voice of Nature, which is also our deepest inner nature. We enter a place where Gaia has become not only our Mother, but also our Companion and Friend.

 

 

PHOENIX RISING - 4

By Kiara Windrider
December 18, 2019

 

THE THREE BODIES

 According to the yogic traditions of India, we exist simultaneously in three different bodies within any human incarnation, each with a specific scope and function. The physical body clothes and houses the subtle and causal bodies, which together provide an avenue for the Infinite SELF to express itself within space and time.

 

The physical body not only includes the physical systems, organs and senses, but also the etheric network of channels which help us access the vital forces necessary to sustain life. These vital forces, flowing through meridians, chakras and nadis, not only connect us with the elemental forces of nature but also help us stay connected with distinct layers of identity which we could refer to as the personality and soul.

 

The subtle body, which includes mental and emotional functions, provides us with our sense of human identity. This personality structure is established through structures in the brain that have to do with the accumulation of memory, and with the formation of thoughts and feelings. It is a field that extends out beyond the physical body, shaping our experience of the personal self, our innate sense of humanness. In any given incarnation, my sense of me-ness is intricately linked with the physical body and its etheric vitality.

 

Beyond this personality structure, however, is a deeper sense of identity that we can refer to as the soul. The soul, composed of highly refined substance, is linked with a field of consciousness known as the causal body, which extends out well past the subtle body while also fully permeating the subtle and physical bodies.

 

When the physical body dies at the closing of a human incarnation, the subtle body continues to function. We continue to experience our sense of ‘me-ness’, but through senses that are more subtle and refined than what we normally experience while identified with the physical body. Eventually, however, this sense of ‘me-ness’ is absorbed into the causal body, or the soul, which may later choose to express itself once again through a new physical incarnation.

 

Both personality and the soul express themselves within the worlds of time and space. During a physical incarnation they are inseparably linked with the physical body and physical dimensions of life. After separating from the physical body, they continue their existence in astral and causal worlds. While our journey as the personality is about developing deeper awareness and meaning within the realm of the physical worlds, our journey as the soul is about developing a clear sense of who we are as the Infinite Self, existing simultaneously within and beyond the veils of time and space.

 

When these three bodies are coherently linked together, we can maintain a connection with the great ocean of life while simultaneously celebrating our unique existence as a human personality. The full power of our divinity is made available for the personal self to express itself in the physical worlds, potentially even leading to physical immortality. When our minds are clouded with fear or excessive attachments, however, this creates a veil of density which closes us off from the celestial realms, imprisoning us in a cage of narrow perceptions and self-imposed limitations.

 

It is important to recognise that our apparent limitations exist not in the body but in the mind. The body is simply a reflection of the mind. It is the density of the mind that creates an apparent density within the body where we feel trapped within the world of matter. As the mind opens to the realm of soul, the physical body likewise experiences a loosening of perceptual boundaries.

 

Ultimately we find that even as consciousness can move freely through all the vast dimensions of time and space, so can the body. The physical body begins to merge with a body of light, which is created in turn from within a mind of light. This is a profound mystery which we are getting ready now to unravel.

 

 

PHOENIX RISING - 5

By Kiara Windrider
December 22, 2019

 

BECOMING THE OCEAN

 We had spoken earlier about the ocean entering the drop. Many of us are recognising that we are no longer enamoured by the glamour and glitter of a drop-eyed perspective on life, and are feeling inescapably drawn now to become this great ocean. 

 

It can be an intense and powerful process. I remember having recurring dreams as a child, standing at the edge of our seaside home, and watching a massive tidal wave coming my way, half a mile high, with nothing I could do to outrun or escape it. I would inevitably wake up from the dream just before being engulfed by the wave, always imagining in horror what the actual moment of impact might feel like.

 

Perhaps these dreams represent a memory of earlier cycles of civilisation, Atlantis or even earlier, where we did experience such inundations in our long history of human existence. But perhaps they were also a preparation of times to come, where the soul had already begun preparing the body for powerful inundations arising from the great ocean of consciousness.

 

Imagine for a moment that you were inside this dream. Imagine this wall of water coming down towards you. And then imagine yourself receiving this powerful energy, completely surrendering to it as you are swirled and pummelled around in a great maelstrom of activity. Imagine now a gateway opening in consciousness even as the body continues to get battered by the wave, until you find yourself engulfed by the deep stillness of a vast, abiding presence.

 

It may take a few times, as you do this meditation, to get past the initial agitation and terror, and to arrive comfortably into this state of stillness. You are no longer resisting the powerful onslaught of an infinite source of energy. You are surrendering to a power greater than yourself. You are allowing the ocean to come to life within you, and become you...

 

Most of my writings emerge in pre-dawn hours when the day is still young. I fell asleep immediately after I wrote the above lines, and woke up an hour later from a dream where somebody was taking me through a guided meditation, and I had entered into a vortex where all things became possible. Strong energies were coursing through every cell of my body, and I had bi-located to an entirely new world within the dream.

 

Perhaps our night dreams are simple a practice ground where our day dreams become real. The rules for living our lives from the power and perspective of the great ocean are very different from the ‘droppy’ version of reality. The primary difference is that our nervous systems have become much more attuned to realities beyond the personal self, and we have entered into a quantum world where the distinction between inside and outside begins to melt away.

 

Humans are part of the nervous system of Gaia. We have the capacity to touch the energy of the stars, and to anchor galactic waves of light into the earth. We have the ability to share the task of new creation with the vast intelligence of our evolving planet. We have the responsibility to dream a beautiful world awake where all life can co-exist and thrive together.

 

But in order to take on this role, our bodies and nervous systems must be strengthened so we can withstand the oceanic energies waiting to come through. Our minds need to open to limitless possibilities. Our hearts need to be healed, so we can release our tendency for narrow personal interests to over-ride the greater balance of life.

 

It is a deepening process, and does not happen overnight. And then the vast power of the universe can pour through our human vehicles, allowing us to surf these giant waves into greater freedom, allowing us to become the divine co-creators we have always known ourselves to be!

 

PHOENIX RISING - 6

By Kiara Windrider
December 30, 2019

 

SOUL OF THE WORLD

 It has been many years since I first read The Alchemist, by Paolo Coelho. As with The Little Prince almost a lifetime ago, it seared its way into my soul. It taught me about following the hidden treasures of my heart, and about looking for the signs that point the way. It taught me to listen to the language of the stars and the power of the desert wind. It taught me to look deeply into worlds beyond the visible, and to seek the silence where all things belong and connect together.

 

It taught me to listen to the voices locked up within my own heart, voices that spoke of uncertainty and fear, and also voices that spoke of longing and love. It taught me to seek my place in the tapestry of life by discovering within myself the Soul of the World.

 

The Soul of the World is that single living breath of life which moves through all things. It speaks the language of the heart, and veils the secrets of existence. It is where all mysteries are understood, and is the source of all all that we think and do. It is the place of alchemy, where one learns to become the wind, communicate with the desert sands, and embrace the blazing fire from which truth emerges unharmed.

 

The Soul of the World is what I have come to know as Gaia, an intelligence so much vaster than human intelligence, a beautiful goddess that incorporates the consciousness of each species she sustains, a portal into the Soul of God which can only be perceived through the eyes of the heart.

 

To see through the eyes of the heart takes courage. It takes courage to hope in times of despair, courage to feel when you want to shut down, courage to trust in the midst of fear. It takes courage to touch the Soul of the World when the voice of reason wants to take over, convincing you that you will never be wise enough or strong enough or influential enough to make a difference in this world.

 

True alchemy is not about turning lead into gold but in transforming fear into trust, and despair into living hope. It is in giving power to your dreams so the songs of a new world can be heard over the screams of a dying age. When we touch the Soul of the World, we are no longer separate from these external forces of life, and become linked with a great cosmic fire sweeping and renewing the earth.

 

Life and death are not separate from each other for the alchemist. It is only when the fear of death dissolves that the power of renewal can be made manifest. Seasons follow each other in due time, summer becoming winter, and winter giving way to spring, until a new force emerges that transcends the seasons and shapes an entirely new cycle of creation.

 

Love is the force that transforms and improves the Soul of the World, realises the alchemist’s apprentice in his conversation with the sun. “When I first reached through to it, I thought the Soul of the World was perfect. But later, I could see that it was like other aspects of creation, and had its own passions and wars. It is we who nourish the Soul of the World, and the world we live in will be either better or worse, depending on whether we become better or worse. And that’s where the power of love comes in. Because when we love, we always strive to become better than we are.”

 

And with this understanding he reaches through the Soul of the World to the Soul of God. And realises this as his own soul. And with this comes the knowledge that he, a mere boy, can perform miracles... and thus becomes the power of the wind.

 

PHOENIX RISING PART 7-12