The Bright Blessings of Samhain Darkness
In the northern hemisphere, sunset tonight ushers in the Celtic season of Samhain. (If you want to learn more about Celtic Spirituality and music, by the way, be sure to check out Celtic Soul Experience events coming up the week after Thanksgiving!) www.CelticSoulExperience.com
During this window between Samhain/All Hallow’s Eve and Christmas/Solstice/Midwinter, the veil between the worlds is thin and our ancestors are most accessible to us. It is also the beginning of the dark half of the year, a time to become more intimate with the hidden, mysterious, “shadow” aspects of ourselves.
In the west, our egos tend to avoid the dark. We yearn for perennial spring and summer. But we can’t have light without darkness and, as writer Annie Dillard reminds us “you do not have to sit in the dark. If you want to see the stars, however, darkness is necessary.”
Like all aspects of duality, light and darkness are two sides of the same coin. The experiences that shatter our egos are also the situations that lead us (if we let them) directly to our heart’s truest desires. It is only in resisting some aspects of our experience and clinging to others that we create suffering for ourselves.
You may have heard the story of Persephone, one of the goddesses of ancient Greece. According to Greek mythology, Persephone was Queen of the Underworld. I grew up learning that Persephone became Queen after Hades abducted her and took her to the Underworld. Interestingly, as an adult I learned a different version.
In the more ancient telling of Persephone’s story, she is picking flowers in a beautiful field one day when she hears the plaintive cries of the dead emerging from a cleft in the earth. Her heart opens in compassion and she feels a pull to answer their call.
Although she is young and afraid to leave the realm of perpetual light and pleasure where her Mother Demeter rules, Persephone faces her fear, surrenders her innocence and enters into the unknown with her eyes open. And it is only in the Underworld, where she faces the cries of the lonely and confused souls amidst cold and darkness, that she finds her power and becomes a Queen in her own right.
What does Persephone’s story tell us about creating more of what we want? Paradoxically, when we stay in the world that we know and push the feelings, ideas and experiences that make us uncomfortable “underground,” our power is limited.
When we are willing to go wherever our souls may lead us, particularly when we are armed with compassion, then we become Queens and Kings. We are Masters and Mistresses of the Universe. And because there is nowhere we are unwilling to go, anything becomes possible.
You can choose which Persephone you would like to be—the one who walks consciously into the Underworld, or the one who goes kicking and screaming, too distressed to see where she is going.
Life will take you into the Underworld, there is no doubt. If you enter it willingly, resolving that while you are there you may as well learn something, you are likely to remember the way out. It is when you deny that the Underworld exists, or spend all of your energy avoiding it, that you get abducted. When you are taken to the Underworld without your consent, it is much harder to find your way out.
I was grappling with an Underworld invitation one Samhain season when I wrote this poem:
Prayer to Persephone on Samhain Eve
I am not afraid to bid farewell
to the greening time,
the growing time,
the harvest time.
This year, Persephone, let me join your descent.
Open the hidden door
to the earth’s very womb
and let me slip inside.
Lift the veil from my eyes
and reveal to me the Otherworld.
Lead me through the realm of faerie:
The glistening, glittering, gossamer world of enchantment.
I am not afraid.
Take me further still,
into the darkness.
Whisper sweet words in Charon’s ear
And hush the snarls of Cerberus
So that I may come
to the silent place
the waiting place
the winter place.
I am not afraid, Persephone.
But lend me your strength
when Lady Death greets me
with a frosty kiss
and grant me your courage
when the soft sweet pool of nothingness
envelops me.
Remind me Persephone
that Winter will come,
whether I want her, or no,
and that she bears gifts for those
who are willing to receive her.
For the candle makes no magic
in a warmly sunlit room,
and departed souls can’t come to visit those
who won’t acknowledge death.
Take me with you, Persephone.
I am not afraid.
Only promise me
I may return with you
In Spring.
copyright 1999, Kimberly V. Schneider
Sending you wishes for “conscious” Underworld adventures this Samhain season!
And I hope that part of your celebration this year of that special time between All Hallow’s Eve and Christmas will include at least one of the Celtic Soul Experience events!
Peace of the illumination that can only arrive in the dark to you,
kimberly
The Manifestation Maven
Email this postWhat Does “Follow Your Bliss” Mean?
You’re probably familiar with Joseph Campbell’s exhortation to “follow your bliss.”
But, what does that mean, exactly?
The dictionary definition of bliss is “heaven” or “paradise.”
So, following your bliss means to do whatever, in this moment, brings you into alignment with your true nature. With your essential Divinity. With the God/dess that lives and moves and breathes and experiences its being-ness through YOU.
It does not mean distracting yourself from what feels uncomfortable.
It means being present and fully alive, even when that hurts. It means knowing yourself as the heroine or hero in a grand story-your life.
Right now, I happen to be in one of those rare and precious periods where I can glimpse the wondrous nature of my story. I’d like to share a piece of it with you, in hopes that it empowers you to follow your bliss.
[And if you are curious about what I was hinting at last week when I talked about “Dancing While Your Corn Grows,” I am going to reveal it here! So read on…it’s all part of the bliss.]
Almost 20 years ago, my lifelong interest in ancient and mystical religious practices shifted to the spirituality of the Celtic peoples—the tribes that came to live in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Brittany, western Germany and Spain.
Internationally renowned Irish vocalist and theologian Noirin Ni Riain played an important role in awakening my awareness of my Celtic heritage. Her voice transported me to the Otherworld and helped me remember who I was. And when I facilitated my first ritual in a Celtic Spirituality group, it was her music that I turned to for inspiration.
Years later, David and I named our youngest daughter Bridget, inspired by the Irish Saint and Goddess evoked in Noirin’s version of Ode to Brigid. We used to play and sing Noirin’s song for Bridget as she recovered from heart surgeries, grateful that we had given her a name that means, in Irish, “resilient strength.”
In 2009 I finally went to Ireland for the first time. The music and poetry, legends, landscapes and people nourished my deep creativity and joy; I began writing poetry again and learned to play the Irish drum.
One of the best parts of the trip, however, was meeting two extraordinary brothers, Owen and Moley O’Suilleabhain, who played original music each day at the workshop I was attending. Their musical talent and essential hopefulness healed something inside of me. I felt happy just being around them. One morning, as we were heading out to visit an ancient sacred site, Owen said to me, “you seem to know a lot about Irish spirituality and music. Who do you listen to at home?”
“Oh, I listen to lots of different Celtic musicians, but my favorite artist is Noirin Ni Riain,” I said.
“You follow Noirin?” Owen asked, seeming a little surprised.
“Yes. My Mom and I both love her music. She’s amazing. Do you know her?”
It turned out that Owen and Moley knew Noirin really well—because she is their mother. And she came to perform for us that night.
You can imagine my joy and surprise upon meeting Noirin in person and hearing her sing, together with her sons, whose music I had also grown to love. I left Ireland that year with two goals:
1) bring groups to Ireland for soul-healing workshops; and
2) do anything in my power to introduce Owen and Moley’s music to an American audience.
I did bring a group back to Ireland the following year (I’m doing it again in 2012).
And now I’m bringing Noirin, Owen and Moley to America for a week of Celtic Soul Experience events, including three concerts, an Irish music workshop and a Celtic Spirituality Retreat!
I’m not usually at a loss for words but it is difficult for me to express the absolute happiness I have at realizing this dream, and being able to share the joy with people back home.
I hired Noirin, Owen and Moley to sing for the workshop I did in Ireland last summer and I have seen the magical healing effect of their voices and personalities on person after person. To be able to bring that magic home for you is a spectacular high.
I’m following my bliss!
And, if it feels blissful to you to imagine experiencing the healing, joyful music of Noirin Ni Riain and Size2Shoes (the name of Owen and Moley’s group) at a concert with me, or to be with the four of us as we facilitate a Celtic Spirituality workshop for you, then I hope you will take a look at the events we’ve put together right in the middle of the USA, the week after Thanksgiving.
You can get all the details here:
Wishing you the joy of living your dreams,
kimberly
Kimberly Schneider
The Manifestation Maven
http://facebook.com/kimberlyvschneider
Dance While Your Corn Grows
In the northern hemisphere, we are right in the middle of the harvest season.
(Happy Thanksgiving to my friends in Canada!)
At this time of year I like to take stock of what I have “harvested” in my life and count my blessings.
I also have to remind myself that every dream and project has fallow times and growing times, in addition to reaping times.
It is not always time to harvest, and, in fact, in can be counterproductive to mess around with nature’s wisdom by trying to push things along.
Sometimes, there’s nothing you can “do.” Sometimes, “doing” is a form of resistance. In order to be in the flow of whatever you are gowing, you need to learn to dance while the corn grows.
I’m getting ready for a huge, luscious harvest right now—one of the most joy-filled projects I’ve ever played with because it involves supporting the success of people who have been sources of inspiration, enlightenment, laughter, healing, creativity and fun for me. I’m still pinching myself that this dream is coming true (I’ll tell you all about it next week!)
As I wait for this particular harvest, which is going to happen November 28-December 3 of this year, there are lots of things for me to do (the energetic equivalent of watering and nurturing and tending). And yet, I know—I know I know I know—that the MOST important piece of this coming harvest is stepping into the energy of what I am creating right NOW. If I spend each day between now and November’s end wondering:
o Will my corn grow as big as I want it to grow?
o What if it is not exactly the right flavor?
o What if there is a hail storm?
o What if there’s not enough rain?
o What if there’s to much rain?
Well, that sort of energy just isn’t going to be good for my corn.
I need to dance while my corn grows.
This is the time to look at that luscious, multicolored corn and take pleasure in the fact that it is warming in the sun.
This is the time to sing to it.
This is the time to marvel at how it began as a tiny seed of an idea, and now it is growing into a fertile field of food that is capable of feeding multitudes.
That, my friend, is a wondrous thing.
What are you growing right now?
Whatever it is, don’t wait for the harvest to celebrate the process of bringing it into being. Let your joy be complete every moment along the way.
That is the true harvest. The harvest of your presence to this moment.
Peace of the present moment to you,
kimberly
The Manifestation Maven
www.Facebook.com/KimberlyVSchneider
When Happy Is How You Look…
What does happy look like for you?
Do you smile more?
Have a sparkle in your eyes?
Become indifferent to mirrors?
Several years ago, when I visited western Ireland for the first time, something interesting happened. After a couple of days spent hiking in the limestone landscape of the Burren, visiting ancient sacred sites, staring at the ocean, peering over cliffs, immersing myself in poetry, music and the elements, I stopped caring how I looked.
I quit applying makeup.
I let my hair be wild.
At the same time, I was laughing more. Dancing. Reflecting. Tapping my toes along with traditional Irish music. Lying on the grass. Singing.
Near the end of the week, a couple of different people commented that I my looks had changed since I arrived.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“You look younger,” one replied.
“You seem freer and happier,” said another.
I couldn’t help thinking of the lines from the Fleur Adcock poem, Weathering, about what happened for her when she spent time in England’s Lake District:
“But now that I am in love
with a place that doesn’t care
how I look and if I am happy,
happy is how I look and that’s all.”
What makes you look happy?
If you feel that stepping into the magic that is western Ireland might be an answer to that question, then perhaps you’d like to join us there next summer for Dancing on the Edge: A Celtic Soul Experience! You can watch a slide show of places you will encounter there, and hear some wonderful Irish music at:
www.KimberlySchneider.com/trips
You’ll also find all the details about the program on that page.
Peace of a happy countenance to you,
kimberly
P.S. this Saturday, October 1st is the last day to receive a complimentary updated cottage OR private room upgrade when you enroll in the Dancing on the Edge workshop in western Ireland. If you already know you want to come, reserve your spot now to get your free upgrade!
www.KimberlySchneider.com/trips
Step Back into the Magic of Your Life
What do you, each day, to remind yourself that you are alive?
Where do you place your attention, to awaken yourself again to the magnificence of being?
Do you notice the first smell of fall in the subtly shifting air?
Catch the smile in your beloved’s eyes and let its warmth radiate out from your heart to your fingertips?
Get drawn into another’s contagious laughter, to the point of helpless tears, even though you’ve already missed the joke?
A few years ago, I had forgotten how to notice any of this.
I was exhausted. I had been working too hard to create the life I wanted, not realizing that all the while I was missing it right in front of me.
The capacity to recognize the magic in my day-to-day life had gone numb.
As I later wrote, in a poem called Why Beauty Went to Sleep,
Perhaps she would have said
that sleeping
was the only reasonable answer
to sameness.
After all, even extraordinary awakenings become ordinary
when given over to the realm of obligation.
Better to rest
and wait
for something truly surprising:
a miracle—for once
not of her own making.
And then a miracle DID happen.
I woke up in western Ireland.
What I mean is, I decided I HAD to go to western Ireland, that what I’d been putting off for years could no longer wait, that my soul was starving for what I would find there.
I found: my Self.
I found her in
the way the sun beckons from just beyond the hills,
giggling yellow flowers
spilling themselves haphazardly
over black and white rocks,
ancient places of power
that require getting lost
in order for one to find them.
The green hills, the crumbling ruins, the clean air on my face, the ocean, the dolmens, the rainbows, the laughter, the slowness, the music, the poetry, the quietude, the stories, the ancestral memories, the palpable presence of the Otherworld, the pubs, the fresh seafood, the canopy of stars, the simplicity.
Somehow, I knew who I was again, standing on ground that was new to my feet but achingly familiar to the part that was remembering again what it was to write and sing and dance and laugh.
I was home.
Do you remember what home feels like?
Do you know how to find it?
Of course, you may not need to go to Ireland, or any other part of the world, to remember who you are.
Perhaps you need to stand in the grass in your bare feet.
Or join a choir.
Or finger paint.
Or learn how to make samosas.
I don’t know the sound of your soul’s quiet voice, but you know it.
You know what you need to do.
Take the first step.
Step back into the magic of your life.
Peace of miraculous awakenings to you,
kimberly P.S. If western Ireland happens to resonate with your soul too, you can join me there next summer. Enrollments are already coming in now for the 2012 Dancing on the Edge Workshop. And if you register by September 30, 2011, you can choose a free updated cottage or private room upgrade!
Find out more at www.KimberlySchneider.com/trips
The Antidote to Exhaustion
I hope you had a glorious weekend!
In the U.S. we celebrated Labor Day yesterday—a holiday to honor all those who work.
Ironically, I spent Saturday of Labor Day weekend working too hard and stressing out about all I had to do to get ready for my Managerial Communication Course, which begins this week (I’m returning to my law school alma mater, Washington University in St. Louis, to teach MBA students).
By the end of the day I was exhausted.
I woke up Sunday morning thinking of a David Whyte’s story of his friend and mentor telling him:
“the antidote to exhaustion is not rest. It is wholeheartedness.”
And so, instead of working, or resting, I began the day hiking the foothills of the Ozarks at a park near our home.
Here was my to do list for Sunday:
- sing with the trees
- breathe deeply
- dance with the wind
- expand horizons by gazing out over cliffs
- connect with the flow of the Meramec River
- stop to let the rush of a passing freight train reverberate through my body
- send my soul out flying with the hawks
- kiss the ground with my feet
Not surprisingly, I’m facing this week’s to do list with a renewed spirit and more energy to give my students the best of myself than I would have if I had worked on Sunday (or even just slept in at home).
We all feel exhausted at times.
And if you are feeling that way today, consider:
what little shifts in attitude or activity would invite you into a state of whole-heartedness?
For me, nature is a great restorer—and I also found a lot of satisfaction this weekend in creating some luscious, healthy meals; eating outside; playing ball with Bridget; laughing with David and helping Maddie pick out her Homecoming dress.
What about you?
What brings you into a state of whole-hearted appreciation of your life? (Do you remember? If not, it’s time to experiment until you find something!)
I’d love to hear what brings you into wholeheartedness.
Peace of a full heart to you,
kimberly P.S. I have two available spots left in 2011 for people who want to do individual Soul Retrieval Days with me (one spot in November, one in December). If you are interested in exploring that opportunity, let me know by contacting me at support@kimberlyschneider.com or posting here and I’ll email you an application.
www.facebook.com/kimberlyvschneider
Call upon Your Future Self
You know how sometimes, after you’ve gone through something really rocky, intense or confusing, and it’s all over, you have sudden clarity on the gifts that came out of the experience?
And you think to yourself
“If only I had realized the blessings that would flow, it would not have seemed so hard!”
Here’s the cool thing about that: you can, right now, go back in time to any other moment in your life, and send your Younger Self a bit of love, hope and wisdom. You can whisper “it’s alright. Everything is going to be ok. Keep breathing.”
How is this possible?
Time is just a construct of the mind.
In the Cornucopia Reality, where your Soul, or Essence, lives, there is no such thing as time and space. When you are connecting with your Soul, you can flit around between temporal realities and sprinkle a bit of love here, seek a bit of peace there…it’s all quite fun and magical and a bit like being Tinker Bell…
So, if you happen to be in the middle of a rocky, intense, confusing time right now, you can call upon your Future Self—that part of you who already knows how this all works out, and who has the wisdom to take the long view, and the larger perspective. And you can breathe in that wisdom right here, right now, to guide you and give you peace.
Enjoy playing with your magic time wand! Let me know what you do with it!
And speaking of time, if you happened to have trouble browsing the website for next summer’s Ireland trip when I sent it out last week, we’ve fixed the layout issues that were happening with some browsers. Even if you hadn’t thought of coming with us to the Celtic Soul Experience to western Ireland next year, you might enjoy the lovely music and pictures we have on the site: they will take you to a time out of time!
www.KimberlySchneider.com/trips
And…if you DO want to come to Ireland with us I’ll give you a free updated cottage upgrade or private room upgrade when you enroll by September 30 (while supplies last).
Peace of the Time Beyond Time to you,
kimberly
http://facebook.com/kimberlyvschneider
Catch a Falling Star–in Ireland
Last weekend I remembered who I am.
(I tend to forget once in awhile; does that ever happen to you?)
Saturday night, cool breezes called me outside. I spread a blanket on the grass and lay down to gaze up at the sky.
Almost as soon as I looked up, a blazing bright shooting star streaked across my field of vision, as if to welcome me back to nature. And as I relaxed into the ground, I felt the earth envelop and hold me. My consciousness sank back into my body. Once again, I knew my place on this earth.
I remembered a song refrain from one of my favorite movies (Love Actually):
Catch a falling star and
put it in your pocket;
save it for a rainy day.
Catch a falling star and
put it in your pocket;
Never let it fade away.
In other words, be fully present to the bright passing moments of your life. When you show up for them and let yourself feel their enormity, you can “put them in your pocket” and draw upon them again and again.
I know this works because every morning I go back to Ireland’s western shore during my prayer and meditation time—even though my feet are firmly planted in St. Louis.
Facing east, I feel the clean Atlantic air on my face and I breathe in the lavish, luminescent, lusciousness of the rainbow that sprawls across the sky.
Facing south, I feel the sun breaking out of the clouds to warm my face and I look out over thatched cottages and sleepy cows now stirring in the small village on Galway Bay.
Facing west, I stretch my face over the cliffs at Dun Aengus or feel the spray of the sea as I look out over the back of the ferry bringing me home from the Aran Islands.
Facing north I send my consciousness into the ancient limestone of the Burren and I feel the whispers of the ancestors living in my blood and bone.
Facing center I surrender all my ego’s hopes and fears to the wisdom of the Divine Consciousness that moves and breathes in my life.
With Christ before me, behind me, above me, below me, within me and all around me, I begin my day—having awakened that bit of Eire that lives in me.
I love pulling a “shooting star” in the form of Ireland out of my pocket every day—and of course, even more, I love returning in person to replenish my store of land, sea, sky, poetry and music.
I’m going back again next summer, for another Celtic Soul Experience. If you like, you can join me June 23-June 30, 2012 in western Ireland for Dancing on the Edge: Awakening Your Soul’s Call for Expansion.
Bonus: If you register by September 30, 2011, you can choose a free private room OR an upgraded cottage, while supplies last.
If you want to know more, just go to
www.KimberlySchneider.com/trips
I hope to see you in Ireland next summer! Together, we’ll catch lots of falling stars.
Peace of the infinite sky to you,
kimberly
http://facebook.com/kimberlyvschneider
Empty Nest
Is home feeling a bit lonely with the kids off to college?
Here’s my TV spot from Great Day St. Louis about how to thrive in your empty nest!
http://www.kmov.com/great-day-st-louis/Empty-Nesters-127484638.html
Enjoy and let me know what you are doing to make the most of this time in your life.
Blessings,
kimberly schneider
What Needs to Change Form?
Today is August 1, the first day of the ancient Irish season of Lughnasadh.
Lughnasadh is the season of The Reaper—that harvesting energy that cuts down grain, for instance, so it can be become bread. (In the early Christian church, August 1 became Lammas, or Loaf Mass, a celebration of grain being transformed into bread for the Eucharist).
Why is this relevant now, when so few of us are connected to the agricultural rhythms of our ancestors?
Because we need that transformational energy to help us release what I call “attachment to form.” Form is one of the 5 Illusions, and attachment to form is a huge obstacle to conscious manifestation.
When you are attached to form, you think that in order to be happy, you have to:
§ hold on to what you have
§ go back to the way things used to be OR
§ make sure things turn out a particular way.
This is a recipe for disaster since our egos actually have no control over the details in our lives (have you noticed?)
If we want to be joyful, we need to surrender the ego’s agenda and get on board with the “energy beyond the form,” whether you want to call that energy “God’s Plan,” “the Universe,” your Essential Self, the Holy Spirit (you get the idea).
Paradoxically, when we learn to release attachment to form, we actually begin to manifest many more of the things we’ve wanted all along—and they come in magical, unexpected ways.
So, today, in honor of Lughnasadh, I invite you to ask:
What in my life is ready to change form?
If you don’t know the answer right away, try writing the question out with your dominant hand, and then answering with your non-dominant hand (it sounds crazy, but this simple process often works wonders. You may be surprised by what happens!)
And then, I’d love to hear, in the months to come, what transpires as you release your attachment to old forms and watch with amazement as magic and miracles rush into your life!
Oh, and speaking of Celtic holy days, as I mentioned above, I have been finalizing details for some wonderful Celtic-themed events coming up later this year and in 2012.
Many people have asked if I will be facilitating a workshop in Ireland next year. YES I’ll be going back to Ireland, and I’d love you to join us. I’ll release details and begin accepting applications later this month but for now mark your calendar for June 23-June 30, 2012, Dancing on the Edge: A Celtic Soul Experience in western Ireland.
Plus, I’m working with several non-profit groups to bring world class musicians over from Ireland to the U.S. November 28-December 3rd for a week of Celtic Soul Experience events: Three concerts, an Irish music workshop and a Celtic Spirituality retreat. I’ll have details on that and we’ll begin selling tickets for all the shows and programs by September. Stay tuned!
kimberly schneider
http://facebook.com/kimberlyvschneider
