The Alternative Reality Beckons

Ecstatic Trance Postures - Rx for Difficult Times.

By Laura Lee 

Like the rest of the world, we have hit “pause” on all social gatherings and activities, so CI’s regular summer season workshops are on hold until it becomes clear that we can all gather and travel again. And so, Paul and I find ourselves gifted with time — time for our own Inner Sabbatical, a chance to find the silver lining in the cloud. Time to start each day with our inner spirit work, to tackle projects too long on hold due to lack of time and life’s busy-ness and other demands, to catch up with friends and family wherever they too are on lock-down. It’s been good medicine, propelling a much needed inward swing of the Pendulum, away from confusion and sadness, back to center, to fast-forward towards balance and healing.

I long ago heard a Lakota elder comment on the spontaneous gatherings, (often during the full moon, but any moon will do) where many of us found our way to secluded spots in Nature to drum, dance, chant, and sing with the coyotes, to generally whoop it up in that age-old tradition. He said that in times of uncertainty, it is their custom to call to the spirits for help. Its a natural impulse, and the spirits certainly heard us then, and they hear us now, when we take our dive into the Alternate Reality. We are indeed calling the spirits when we perform the ritual of the spirit work that Felicitas revived and handed to us:
 
“Come, Spirits of the East, South, West, North, Upper World, and Mother Earth, join us now….”
 
And we can also take a few moments to dance, sing, chant, and drum whenever we feel the need in our busy day, spontaneously — with ourself, our partner, pets, whoever is handy in our household. And if we cannot as this moment gather with our neighbors, we can also call the spirits in this way for us all, on all realms, knowing our friends and family from this other realm are ready to join us.

While It can feel that finding joy in difficult times may be a radical act, we remind ourselves that we are simply doing the inner work we are called to do, with joy and comfort arriving all on its own. Delivered direct from Spirit, it surely is what we need now, and has always been. We are grateful all the various avenues of contacting that realm, and especially grateful for the deeper dives that Felicitas Goodman’s life work reveals, and how easily the door is thrown open.

So though we cannot meet in person to share this work, the inner landscape of the Alternate Reality connects us throughout time and space. Geography need not be a barrier, and there is much work to be done. Choose any posture in the CI Canon — there is healing to be had. Worth the price of admission are the known, lab-revealed benefits this trance state, healing we all can use anytime, and especially now. Lowering our blood pressure, and stress hormones. A surge of the beneficial “well-being” hormones. A chance for our brain waves in Beta during our waking hours, to simultaneously move into that delicious, soulful, deeply mystical wavelength of Theta, the better to integrate them. And there are so many, many more physiological benefits that we sense while in that state of ecstatic trance. We may await further testing to discover all the benefits, but no need to wait to enjoy them; we know they are there.

And most importantly, our trance experiences will reveal much in what is meant for us to know, release, embrace, shift, emerge, heal, divine, to find new measures of comfort and much needed wisdom and perspective. The Universe always has a lot to say, perhaps even more in times of trouble — so dive in! 
 
If a “Global Reset” is truly underway, let’s dial in the wisdom of our ancestors and the Eternal Message of Spirit. If the Alternate Reality is beckoning you, please do share your experiences and insights with us for inclusion in an upcoming newsletter — let’s give this realm a voice and add our collective insights to the global conversation on what it all means, and where we are going.  

Have your tools for the Journey? Check out our down-loadable rattle and drum audio tracks, and handbooks of CI Postures. See links below.

Trance Audio Induction:

  • NEW: Ready for Download! We now have the official rattling and drumming induction for download.

Handbooks: 

And here’s the list of Postures we are doing this week. I like to select from all the categories of postures, as with any of the postures in our CI Canon, aspects of each are shared among all.

Healing — These postures are our regular “prescriptions” among among our favorite & frequent go-to for a good dose of balancing and emotional release and comfort. The Empowerment Posture in particular revs up our strength and determination, to power us up — our emotional well-being and immune system need all the help it can get just now.

Spirit Journeying —  Who doesn’t want to get out and about when sequestered in our physical realm? These postures have been quenching our “wonderlust” as well as our wanderlust. Poppy Pod Posture is an easy, standing Spirit Journey posture that often invokes communing with our Earth, the plant kingdom, the insects. I’ve been thanking the plant kingdom for the herbal medicinals, and the fruits, vegetables, and grains making up the major part of our healthy diet, and for greening the Earth.

Divination —  So helpful in times of confusion to provide fresh insight, to answer questions for answers we seek when we can’t quite get there on our own. The Egyptian Diviner posture offers a cosmic perspective. I’ve been led to see how the grand cycles of time, of life and death, life’s ups and downs, with our path growing rocky or smooth, as how Nature’s gears move forward, and find the beauty in that, along with the inevitability. Embracing that gives me solace and comfort, for within those cycles lives the promise of rebirth.

The Initiation Postures — Also high on my list at the moment, we are spending time with Sekhmet, Inanna, Ishtar, Feathered Serpent, the Venus of Lausell. All are an avenue to visit with the Goddess in her many aspects, to be schooled in Women’s Wisdom, to help bring it back to the fore. Initiation can propel us through the death of an aspect of ourselves and open the way for what’s wanting to emerge. Not always easy, but ultimately rewarding. Be sure you’re ready for some deeper work. Perhaps we are all being thrown into this, ready or not, as we seem to be in the midst of collectively letting go and embracing new strengths and perspectives, as well as honoring those passing, these are making that passage more powerful.  

Metamorphosis Postures — Now that our world is finally acknowledging the reality of climate change and the destruction our species is wreaking on the planet, it’s a most fitting time to take a journey wearing the fur, fins, feathers, fangs, jaws and paws of our fellow members of the Web of Life, to walk in their moccasins, see through their eyes, hear what they have to teach us. Viruses are a member of the Web, too, calling for better understanding, while flexing its hold on us. How powerfully and fully the Metamorphoses postures immerse us in this sacred exchange. Tip — be fully rested and alert to engage. The Cernunnos Posture puts less strain on the knees, should your knees not be up for kneeling or sitting cross legged, as you sit on the floor with your knees only slightly bent. Or adjust any of the cross-legged posture by sitting on a chair, and crossing your feet with knees bent only as much as is comfortable.   

Celebration Postures — What do we have to celebrate at the moment? With the Singing Shaman, one of our few postures with vocalization, I’d say it’s the opportunity to add our voice to our prayers. And not just our own voice, this is an extraordinary posture in which we often find our ancestors have joined in, adding power and dimension to the journey. We celebrate with this vast, ancient, timeless community in the Eternal Now, adding our voice to theirs, their  strength to ours, building bridges between the realms. Be aware that this posture can also lead you to heart-felt and deep release of Mother Earth’s agony.

I want to include a poem by Lynn Ungar that was emailed to us our friend Cherilynn Morrow.   

Pandemic

What if you thought of it
as the Jews consider the Sabbath—
the most sacred of times?
Cease from travel.
Cease from buying and selling.
Give up, just for now,
on trying to make the world
different than it is.
Sing. Pray. Touch only those
to whom you commit your life.
Center down.

And when your body has become still,
reach out with your heart.
Know that we are connected
in ways that are terrifying and beautiful.
(You could hardly deny it now.)
Know that our lives
are in one another’s hands.
(Surely, that has come clear.)
Do not reach out your hands.
Reach out your heart.
Reach out your words.
Reach out all the tendrils
of compassion that move, invisibly,
where we cannot touch.

Promise this world your love–
for better or for worse,
in sickness and in health,
so long as we all shall live.

–Lynn Ungar 3/11/20

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