I'm freshly back from a rich, full week's immersion in the Munay Ki rites, rituals, wisdom transmissions, community circle, and new friendships. Wow! I'm still buzzing and percolating with the downloads, and will watch (and engage) with joy and wonder at how it all weaves into my tapestry and grows.

One of the beautiful things about the week is how we combined intellectual learning, dialogue, community, practice, sharing, fire ceremonies, despacho ceremonies, and other ritual, or sacred theater, shared by Q'ero Elder, Wisdomkeeper, and Shaman, Don Francisco Chura, who came in from Peru to work with our group. What a blessing - he truly embodies blessing!

There's much I want to share with the community here, and will as Spirit moves me, and as it begins to weave and integrate and re-emerge in writings.

In the meanwhile, though, if you want to know more about these jewels from the Inca -- energy masters that they were -- and about the Q'ero, Inca descendents who have helped to keep the Wisdom until it was time to share it broadly as we 'quickened' in consciousness with 2012 approaching, here are two places to begin:

Munay-Ki, the Munay web site from The Four Winds.

And a really nice overview of the Munay Ki rites and meanings, from the wonderful teacher, Wake Wheeler of Sacred Pathways, who led our recent training and immersion for The Four Winds and with Don Francisco. Wake has worked closely with Don Francisco for the past years.

Both will give you an idea of the Spirit and intent, as well as the deeper possibilities available to us. And if you have questions about it personally, feel free to send me a message!

Until next time,

Love and Joyful Blessings,
Jamie

The spirit behind the words Munay-Ki is 'Love Energy' or 'Be as you are'. Combined, it gives a message of Being the Love that You Are. This intention weaves into the awareness that we are all connected in breath and energy; we are the shining facets of the One.

Many of the ancient wisdom traditions, including the wisdom teachings of Jesus, center around this vital message of unity, connection, Love, and being Love.

As with other wisdom traditions, the teachings of Munay-Ki (and other wisdom and teachings guarded and now shared by the Q'ero), encourage and inspire us to go beyond seeing these as intellectual concepts, and weave them into the fabric of our very beings. We're encouraged to practice and live them. Engaged spirituality. Being the change we wish to see.

The Q'ero emphasis on being Love, as we are -- stepping into our Luminous Natures -- reminds me also of Abraham Lincoln's words about being aligned with the better angels of our nature.

What I find particularly beautiful about the wisdom as it is shared by the Q'ero, with their "allies from the North" (Westerners, Americans) who have been engaged by the Q'ero to  help spread the word, is the connection between the more 'transcendent' wisdom and the reverence for and stewardship of Mother Earth, Pachamama, and taking responsibility for our energy and potential.

There are other traditions that make this link, but to the Q'ero, Mother Earth and the Divine Feminine are right at the heart of it, in action as well as word. If we don't link the concepts with word and action, the intellectual concepts are just a series of nice thoughts.

With the craziness in the political scene and financial markets, and ecological and natural threats, with fear being spun everywhere, coming back into our centers, into the temples of our Hearts, and attuning to Love and allowing Love to inform our meditations, our prayers, our thoughts, words, and actions -- this is a prescription for what ails us.

The Munay-Ki simply points to the choice between Love and Fear, and gives us inspiration to choose Love, moment by moment, thought by thought, interaction by interaction, and action by action. What wonderful richness to add to and enrich our practice.

Joyful Blessings,
Jamie

Greetings, All.

I just posted a new entry at my Sophia's Children blog on Celebrating the Autumn Equinox. The themes of Autumn are abundance, cornucopia, release, harvest, and harmony, among others, and can be wonderful to weave intentionally through ritual or reflection. The article includes some suggestions for ritual and reflection (but feel free to get creative and design your own!).

With so many causes for concern and worry, and so great a focus on it, it seems even more important to bring conscious intention to celebrating the abundant gifts of Mother Earth and the potentials for greater harmony and abundant harvests.

You'll find the Celebrating the Autumn Equinox article here.

Joyful Blessings,
Jamie

"There is nothing to fear but fear itself..."

With fear being whipped up to new levels (who would have thought that was possible?), it's important to remember the timeless wisdom that helps us to see through those illusions.

Frank Herbert, author of Dune, called fear 'the little mind killer'. But it also dampens intuition, heartfulness, and our connection with Grace and Divine wisdom - our natural resources!

One great resource I came across recently is an online video interview with Guy Finley, which you'll find at Conscious Media online.

Finley talks about how circumstances and experiences come up as 'invitations for revelation' (and healing), and that there 'are no bad revelations' (since they're all invitations!). I always appreciate the reminder that 'perpetual seeking' is a perpetual merry-go-round, while realizing that you already ARE and you already HAVE is the liberation.

As he spoke about the 'revelation invitations', I also really appreciated his perspective that the 'events' or circumstances came up to point to the possibility of choosing differently, e.g. the Divine offering you a circumstance (repeatedly) and saying, "Here's an invitation to notice your ingrained habit of fear (or worry, anger, pain, etc.) and see that you can choose not to 'answer it' in the same way."

Listen and watch for yourself; it's a really great use of the 35 minutes -- it'll feed your soul for more than just today!

Joyful Blessings,
Jamie