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August/September 2005 Volume 34Welcome to this bi-monthly edition of our newsletter! You will find these columns contained in our August/September issue:
Metaphors for Life
Carla Woody, Founder Metaphors for Life
GrowthWorks Metaphors of the Journey by Carla Woody This year’s spiritual travel groups to Peru took us from the esoteric heights of Apu Ausangate, one of the most sacred mountain guardians surrounding Cusco, to the earthy humidity of the Manu jungle preserve. While the experience in Ausangate was much more physically challenging, the journey into the jungle was decidedly visceral and organic, each locale offering up its own resident energy. I believe that people are drawn to a particular group itinerary by the need of their core intent. Ausangate advances the ethereal connection between heaven and earth – and the opportunity to travel on the light energy of stars. Manu is a conduit to reach into the depths of those things, old and musty, that call to be healed and released. In the beginning, I always set the framework by telling the travelers that the nature of the work comes through a series of transmissions – through the energy of the land, our guides and sacred ceremonies. This is so even when it appears on the surface that nothing is happening. Everything is happening. Salk’a, the undomesticated energy, works that way. The left side most often exposes itself subtly, to be noticed only by the practiced eye. Aside from the potential storylines that different locales create, the experiences of the group itself often coalesce around certain themes. The interplay of mortality and rebirth were the metaphors granted to the group who camped at Ausangate. But then the woven filaments of heaven and earth are inherent in that metaphor. Some of the travelers had recently lost loved ones to death and others were to be asked to handle or examine the realities of this sort of transition after the trip and their arrival to their separate homes. Yet throughout the journey we were presented with newborns over and over again, one only a few hours old, to bless or name. Eagles flew overhead at our entrance and exit to Ausangate. So even though our bodies sometimes protested, we felt one hundred percent alive – and blessed. That gift endures. The jungle had other metaphors to offer to our second group, that of the river and tests. We floated down the Alto Madre de Dios, the High Mother of God, a major tributary to the headwaters of the Amazon. Interestingly, it flows all the way down from Ausangate where the first group camped a couple of weeks prior. At one point, the boat brought us to a small sandy beach to swim. While that was attractive enough, a short distance away was an incredible waterfall with a rock outcropping below it in the river. What better way to purify ourselves of what we wished to release than to experience such rushing water? How each person approached that invitation, immediately jumping in to swim the expanse or hanging back, going as a group, pairs or alone was significant enough. But swimming in the strong current was a force that caught us by surprise. Each individual responded according to their own predisposition, or need for learning, whether it was to float with the flow, paddle furiously or get tangled up by the underbrush. We all had our process that took us to the other side. Having made it, I know I felt quite valiant and sensed that others did, too! The question then became how to carry home the strength, courage and surrender that the river sought to teach us. This then furthers the test and is the real meaning of our work together. In the moment, did these things seem extraordinary? Sometimes, but most often not. We hiked, meditated, shared food, and traveled by horseback or on a bus, danced and a myriad other things. The entire time, the Mystery was present infusing the right side, not through what was blatantly obvious, but what lies beneath the surface. It is the tendency of the left side to tap us on the shoulder with a metaphor and say, “Look! Witness yourself! Allow!” © 2005 Carla Woody. All rights reserved. Note: For more background on salk’a, the left side and right side, read The Entrainment of Intent by Carla Woody published by Perspective Magazine. Carla Woody is the author of the book Standing Stark: The Willingness to Engage and Calling Our Spirits Home: Gateways to Full Consciousness and founder of Kenosis, an organization supporting personal transformation. Carla has long been leading people toward mind/body/spirit wholeness using integrative healing methods blended with world spiritual traditions. She may be reached by e-mail at info@kenosis.net or by telephone (928) 778-1058.Special Events
Review More often than not, the books, films and music you will find here will not be new or "bestsellers," but those I consider classics. They are classics in the sense that I experienced an impact in reading them that positively flavored my own journey.
The Pilgrimage By some synchronicity two people on our spiritual travel groups brought Paulo Coehlo’s book By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept. It was compelling. Its message so much the flavor of teachings that Don Américo offered, that eight of us read it, unable to put it down. Coehlo is a well-known author with books translated into many languages, but I’d not read anything of his before that. Having just returned from five weeks of my own travels, The Pilgrimage was appealing. It recounts Coehlo’s own quest on the Road to Santiago, a trek across northern Spain undertaken by pilgrims as far back as medieval times. The book has all the trappings of high adventure and the hero’s journey. Coehlo is sponsored under the auspices of a spiritual order, cryptically called “The Tradition.” The pursuit of a prize is involved. He has a guide walking beside him who mysteriously withholds information, who is alternately kind and stern, and gives practices as his student is ready. Along the way, he encounters tests. He is forced to face his own fears and discover his core energy. Perhaps not coincidentally the book seemed to be another metaphor of my own recent group experiences! While I didn’t fly through The Pilgrimage as I did By the River Piedra, that was because I found myself reading a few pages at a time, allowing the underlying messages to integrate - and thrill in the excitement of seeing repeated what is already well familiar to me. Here is such a passage. The secret is the following…You can learn only through teaching. We have been together here on the Road to Santiago, but while you were learning the practices, I learned the meaning of them. In teaching you, I truly learned. By taking on the role of guide, I was able to find my own true path. - Carla Woody | ||||||||||||||||||
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