This is the all Susan issue
- March Holidays -March brings Eastern Orthodox Lent, Ostara (Spring Equinox), and the traditional Easter celebration. All are tied to astronomical events and therefore move around. That’s why Easter can be early or late. Ever wonder why there Easter Eggs and Rabbits at Easter? It’s because people used to have a festival honoring Ester in March. It’s a time of spring renewal, fertility a hence the egg and rabbit symbols.
- Blog excerpt – The Vernal Equinox is coming!!! Spring is in the air!! Can you feel it??Spring officially begins on March 20th. It arrives at 6:28am in the northern hemisphere. Many people take this time to do spring cleaning around their house and yard. It’s also a good time to cleanse and renew the energy in your house. I’m going to go over one of many cleansing rituals that you can do. Feel free to adapt it to what feels good for you and your circumstances. It can be done be yourself and it’s easier with help if you’re cleansing a house or building of some kind.
- Preparations
Gather together a few items. I suggest using a sage stick or incense, matches, a small whisk broom, fan or some means for spreading the sage smoke around the room. A sage stick is easier but if you want to use incense sticks that’s ok. You may need a few incense sticks depending on the area you’re cleansing. You can use incense cones and burn them on a charcoal disk. If you’re doing this make sure the charcoal disk is in a flame AND heat proof container as you’ll be carrying it around your room(s). I would suggest using ritualized sand in a heat/flame proof container if going this route. Sweet grass may also be used. I find that the sage sticks are really the easiest way to go. Start on the top floor of a multistory house or building. - Starting
Using a sage stick I’ll proceed as follows: Joseph helps me so while one travels the room with the sage stick the other uses the fan to blow the smoke into all of the corners. Center your mind and think of your intentions. Light the sage stick and get it smoking. I usually start by thanking the energies in the room I’m in and ask those with helping, positive energies to stay, if they want, and those with negative or non-helping energies to move on. I start by the door to the room and work clockwise around the room fanning the smoke into the corners, around the windows etc. You can use the whisk broom, your hand, a feather fan or anything else to sweep the smoke around the windows and room. Sweep the smoke out the door to the room and proceed in a clockwise manner in the other rooms on this floor of the house.Read more on the blog…Recent Blog Posts - Three Lessons on Responsibility – This post is going to build on Dan‘s and Susan‘s posts on responsibility, Dan in both Lessons from The Practice – Taking Responsibility and Buttons and Susan in Still off the Mountain Top…and diving into that messy bowl called Responsibility. It’s also going to be a nod to NextStage Principles […]
- Life off the Mountaintop – Random Thoughts in the Trenches – In writing these blogs I sometimes will get in my own way. I feel that the blogs must all be stellar, imparting words of wisdom that readers will be in awe of. Well as I like to say…there’s theory and there’s reality. In theory all blog post would be stellar […]
- Buttons – Have you ever been reacting to someone or some situation, and at the same time been completely aware during that moment that your reaction was inappropriate or over the top, but then just let it happen anyway? I did that recently. I received an email, and there was something in […]
- The Wounding – On January 20, 2017, I had one of the most incredible seminal moments of my life. I have been fasting on and off the past several months due to a flare up of a digestive order; I try to avoid pharmaceuticals whenever possible and fasting gives my digestive system time to heal. […]
- Class/Book Notes – Lucid Dreaming and Shamanic Work, Part 1 – We put ourselves in the Circle. Enter from the Eastern Door. circle the fire once, always clockwise. When leaving, always Circle once, clockwise, then leave by the Western Door. The traditional or common definition of Lucid Dreaming is that the person dreaming is aware they are in a dream state […]
- Preparations
As always, you can find all our blogposts on the Blog page
- NextStage Expanded Awareness Society Happenings for Mar 2017
- Introduction to Drumming – This class will take place over a weekend. It starts at dusk on Friday night and concludes Sunday afternoon. Participants do get to sleep, etc., during this time, although some late night, early morning activity should be expected.
At dusk on the first night participants learn and engage in Drum Honoring Ceremonies. These are done to encourage people to become more familiar with their drums and to learn about Drum, also known as First Drum in some cultures. During and after these ceremonies participants will take part in Shamanic StoryTelling, all around Drum.
The following day is spent learning some basic Drumming Patterns. What patterns are taught depends on the participants and the energies present.
As day once again turns to night, participants will engage in a DrumWaking or DrumOpening Ceremony. The purpose of this ceremony is to allow Drum to come into the participants’ drums and bring them to life for sacred and shamanic purposes.
Now, well into night of the second day, all present participate in a TalkingDrum Ceremony, wherein the spirit of Drum in each instrument communicates with the others and with the drummers (what some cultures call “Singers”) as well.
Finally, participants gather on the last day’s morning to recount and share their separate and community experiences. Much time is spent during the second day’s learnings to share and rest as well.
Friday, April 14@ 5:00 pm Sunday, April 16 @ 4:00 pm EDT : $1999 - Have you read Empty Sky? It’s the story of a young boy and his dog who are asked to save the world’s dreams, but to do so they must each make a sacrifice. What would you sacrifice to keep hope alive?
- You can learn about NextStage Expanded Awareness Society happenings via our NextStage Expanded Awareness Society feed
- Have you read Tales Told ‘Round Celestial Campfires? It’s a collection of short stories, some of which are based on experiences in The Practice. Email us if you can figure out which ones are Practice related.
- We’ve also published some short stories for the Kindle. You can find all of Joseph’s writings on his Amazon Author Page and please say hello on Goodreads.
- Introduction to Drumming – This class will take place over a weekend. It starts at dusk on Friday night and concludes Sunday afternoon. Participants do get to sleep, etc., during this time, although some late night, early morning activity should be expected.
That’s all. See you next time.
Thanks for reading and sharing.
See you soon!
NextStage Expanded Awareness Society