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December 2005/January 2006 Volume 36Welcome to this bi-monthly edition of our newsletter! You will find these columns contained in our December/January issue:
Metaphors for Life
Carla Woody, Founder Metaphors for Life
GrowthWorks Walking the Edge by Carla Woody A while back I came across a website showcasing a short documentary on Linda Schele. She was a dedicated researcher who also co-wrote such books as Maya Cosmos and A Forest of Kings. In an audio clip of the documentary, she referred to herself as an Edgewalker, also the name of the film. She was not an archeologist or anthropologist at all, but an artist. Yet because she was ignited by her passion for the Ancient Maya, she was committed to trespassing into areas normally restricted to those two aforementioned professions. Expressly due to her dedication and willingness to get her hands dirty by bumping up against the sanctioned in-group; as well as many sweaty back-breaking months spent at Maya sites, she was a major contributor to our current understanding of this ancient culture. In the process, she made a place for herself within the established and credentialed group. I have a friend who is a horticulturist. He is quite sought after by moneyed clients, as well as by the local government in the large Western city in which he dwells, for his cutting edge design work. He calls himself an “idiot savant” where plants are concerned and the horticultural academic circle in his area disdains him. He has no formal schooling but what his heart and mind tell him about the land and ecological needs. You see, news of difference rarely comes from within the recognized circle where the group-mind has generally lulled those within it to sleep or caused conditioned knee-jerk responses. It comes more often from those outside the recognized bounds, or those who are willing to walk the razor’s edge risking disapproval and ostracism by their colleagues, neighbors and families. It comes from those who are willing to inject so-called radical ideas and discoveries into mainstream thinking. The ways that we have evolved are expressly through modulation of, or distinct departures from, existing techniques, ideologies and ways of being. There is a new movement afoot today whose tender seedlings sprouted all the way back in the mid-nineteenth century. Factories were born then and the Industrial Age was ushered into existence. Sweat shops, child labor, long hours and low wages in sometime desperate conditions found its way into American culture. Perhaps as a balance to what they saw around them, Transcendentalists such as Julia Ward Howe, Henry David Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Louisa May Alcott, and others emerged and wrote of their ethereal explorations and subsequent ecstatic states. In The Transcendentalist published in 1842, Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “The Transcendentalist adopts the whole connection of spiritual doctrine. He believes in miracle, in the perpetual openness of the human mind to new influx of light and power; he believes in inspiration, and in ecstasy. He wishes that the spiritual principle should be suffered to demonstrate itself to the end, in all possible applications to the state of man, without the admission of any unspiritual; that is, anything positive, dogmatic, personal. Thus, the spiritual measure of inspiration is the depth of the thought, and never, who said it? And so he resists all attempts to palm other rules and measures on the spirit than its own...” The Transcendentalist philosophy tilled the soil and grew quietly to branch into inquiries such as Spiritualism, Theosophy, the Work and the Golden Dawn. Madame Blavatsky, William Butler Yeats, G. I. Gurdjieff, P.D. Ouspensky and those like them drew teachings and rituals from ancient Egypt, the Sufi tradition and elsewhere to create experiences glimpsing the ultimate reality. While these organizations and their members remained on the fringes of polite society, they were well known in artistic circles. Indeed, it has always been that the seeds of change can first be seen with artists of various sorts, avant-garde thinkers and scientists just outside the mainstream. These are the people who dared to ask the questions that moved us all along, albeit sometimes kicking and screaming. These are the ones who nurtured the young seedlings of “out of the box” thinking so that today we have wider choices in spirituality, technology, healing, schooling, and so on. Sidestepping pat dictates and asking the unpopular questions opens the doorway for attainment to dwell. Particularly in these times, it is upon each of us to recognize and remove our fears in order to ask, “What else?” and “How else?” Pebbles skipped upon the pond ripple outward to create movement in the entire body of water. - Excerpted from Navigating Your Lifepath. © 2005 Carla Woody. All rights reserved. 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.
Animal-Speak A good number of years ago I lived in Dayton, Ohio. Ted Andrews lived a few blocks from me. Back then he was still doing personal readings and I was fortunate to receive one from him. There are many things he told me, but mostly one sticks with me. His attention was drawn to my hands in particular. He asked if I was a healer. Back then I really didn’t even know what he meant and told him no. He was insistent that there was fire energy converging all around my hands and head. I told him I was an artist and he said, “Maybe that’s it.” But didn’t sound convinced. What I know now is that he was aware of my evolution and foretold the path I would take – even as I myself was clueless! Ted Andrews has written a good number of books ranging from psychic phenomena to the mysticism of the Kabalah. I consider Animal-Speak to be a classic. It takes the reader through the symbolism of animal totems, various animals’ characteristics and behaviors. It’s a wonderful learning tool at any time…and recently when I had a close and meaningful encounter with a bobcat, I can assure you that I consulted Ted’s book. It was right on. - Carla Woody | ||||||||||||
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Kenosis LLC - PO Box 10441 - Prescott, AZ 86304 - 928.778.1058 - www.kenosis.net info@kenosis.net | |||||||||||||
