New Year's Day

I really feel, in an intuitive, soulful way, that 2012 will be a pivotal year. Not just for me, but for the direction of humanity and all of creation. We are teetering on the edge of spiritual transformation, and I imagine it is going to be a very bumpy ride. I don't think we've seen anything yet! To prepare, we need to shore up spiritual strength and emotional energy, as well as care for our bodies, and by extension, for all sentient beings. Let's declare this the Year of Mother Earth!

"We are all walking a path of initiation, and we all have a choice. We can either keep going on a treadmill of failing our tests--perhaps getting irritated or angry at the circumstances of life--or we can determine to pass these tests and move on with our spiritual development. We can get off the treadmill and begin hiking up a mountain." - Elizabeth Clare Prophet

I think what Prophet is saying here is that it's time to wake up, grow up, and step up. She speaks of the things we need to let go of, those conditions in our psychological being that prevent us from being whole. She suggests that we need to "raise the Mother flame" and "walk the path in beauty." How do we restore the soul back to balance and wholeness? What is needed is a radical reorientation. Recently when something someone said set me off, making me angry, frustrated, and hurt, destroying my serenity, I did not blame the other person, but wondered what, exactly, happened inside of me. Rather than kick myself for getting thrown out of balance, I centered myself with meditative breathing, read an inspiring article in Yoga Journal magazine, talked to my husband, and lit a candle on my fireplace alter, gazing at images of Mary and Jesus.

There is every connection between war, poverty, misogyny, ecological devastation, natural disasters, divorce, rape, child abuse, and all manner of violence and sorrow. The sacred feminine has been rejected and subverted for thousands of years, but consciousness has been rising and people are growing in Wisdom, understanding that for mass change to occur, each must "let it begin with me." We all have so much more than we need. Too many cars, clothes, toys, too much food that doesn't nourish us, many superficial relationships and too few sustaining ones. "Oh the noise, noise, noise, noise, noise!!" (the Grinch).

Clean the house, clear the clutter. I am talking literally and metaphorically. Really think about what you eat, what you say, what you think, what you do. In Kundalini yoga terms, we need to raise the light of the Divine Mother from the base of the spine to connect with the light of the Father in the crown. Prophet says, "When these two unite in the heart chakra, we give birth to the Christ consciousness."

The problem I see is that some of the major world religions are functioning without that Divine Mother, with no image of the sacred feminine. For me, this is Mary, mother of Jesus and all children of God. Neither women nor men--and subsequently our children--will be whole until we restore our reverence for the sacred feminine, honoring the Wisdom and Beauty of women, and beholding God in the Earth herself. She is in the wind, the trees, the moon, and the pull of the tides. "Behold your Mother." --the words of Jesus from the cross.