Monte Alban

One of the advertised highlights of the trip was a visit to the ancient site of Monte Alban, where we went on our second day.  It is located on a high hill in the middle of the Oaxaca Valley, and was occupied by the Mixtecs and the Zapotecs between 500 BC and 850 AD.   It was also heavily influenced by the Teotihuacan culture which was north of this area. 

This is a massive site with large buildings and a lot of open space.  Right away I noticed the stark contrast between the highly decorated Mayan ruins I visited 2 years ago versus the mostly plain facades here.  Below are some photos.

 When our group got to Monte Alban, and since this was an archaeological tour, our resident archaeologist proceeded to give us a lecture.  I only stayed through part of it, since I was itching to get around the site.  My mission, as usual, was to find the high energy sacred places there.  It didn’t take long.  I got the biggest hit at the altar in the center of a sunken plaza.  I took out my small crystal skull to get imprinted with that energy. 

Building J was the other place here that fascinated me.  It was clearly built with archeoastronomy alignments in mind, but to date, no one has been able to figure out what they were exactly.  It's oddly angled walls and fortress like structure is unique in all of Mesoamerica. 

Here is what remains of a doorway that hints of something megalithic.  

That afternoon, we took a walking tour of the area around the hotel.   The architecture is fabulous, and there are many old churches and haciendas that have been converted into small hotels, museums and galleries.  Hidden treasures were around every corner.   

The Market

Things have slowed down here a bit with the move, so I finally have a chance to write about my October/November trip to Oaxaca, Mexico.  This was not a spiritually oriented trip per se, although I always felt into the energy of every location that we visited.  Especially at the archaeological ruins in the Oaxaca Valley. 

Our hotel was right in the center of the old part of town, which was also the center of the “Day of the Dead” action.  Between shopping at the street vendors during the day, and experiencing the party atmosphere at night, there was a lot to do and see.  I also have to mention that the Archaeological Conservancy put on a really nice trip.  Of course, as with any trip, there are some odd personalities and wacky behavior, but this was at a minimum on this trip.  As I have mentioned regarding other trips I have taken, especially the spiritual, sacred site and megalithic trips, for some reason, people feel entitled to act up and act out whenever they feel like it.  Not so here. 

On our first full day, we walked over to the local market to have a look around.  As it is with many third world countries, there are no shopping malls, so all the goods are sold in stores up and down the street in addition to stalls set up on the street.  These are set up in common areas according to the service or goods being sold.  There are areas where every store sells shoes, or household goods, food or clothing, etc, and areas where all of the beauty salons or barber shops are located.  Fruit and vegetable markets abound, and street food is being cooked out in the open.  Must be the Mexican version of fast food! 

We passed all of this on our way to the main market, where everything under the sun was sold.  Below are some photos. 

 Deep fried crickets of all sizes.

 Bread.

 Belts and hats.

 Nuts and snack food.

 Dried chilies.

 Meats, above and below photos.

 Fried shrimp and fish.

 Copal for burning on all of the Day of the Dead altars.

 Ice for ?????

Trip to Mexico

In the midst of traveling to Cedar City, Utah to find a place to live, and in addition to sorting, packing, and attending to a myriad of details regarding my move, I took a trip to Oaxaca, Mexico from October 25 to November 4^th.  This trip had been booked months before I even thought of moving, and by the time it rolled around, I was ready for a break and a nice vacation.  The theme of the trip was “The Day of the Dead”, and was orchestrated by the Archaeological Conservancy.  For a brief moment, I thought of canceling because I was so busy, but I am glad that I didn’t.  The trip came off without a hitch, and everything went smoothly, which is a lot more than I can say for most of the trips I have been on! 

This celebration is a really big deal down there, and it goes on for days.  It is even more of a big deal than Christmas, and involves costumes and face painting, all with the skeleton and skull theme, marching bands and parades, lots of street vendors, dancing, and the all important visiting the graves of the dead in the cemeteries at night. 

October 31^st is the actual “Day of the Dead”, November 1^st is “All Saints Day”, and November 2^nd is “All Souls Day”.  They like to cover all of the bases!  In addition, each household, business, church, and government building creates an altar honoring those who have passed.  These altars include photos of the deceased and fruit, flowers, bread, salt and water, and other edibles.  Marigolds are everywhere, and are the main flower that is used to decorate the altars.  They can be quite beautiful and elaborate.  At the end of the celebration, anything that hasn’t started to spoil and rot is eaten by those who created the altar. 

This trip wasn’t only about the “Day of the Dead” celebrations. We visited many archaeological sites including Monte Alban and Mitla.  The state of Oaxaca is considered the artistic and craft center of the country, where the artistic talent of the child, no matter what that may be, is fostered and encouraged.  So we visited local villages where people were dying yarn and weaving, carving and painting fanciful animals out of wood, making paper, painting murals, and creating a wide variety of pottery.  Then there was the almost constant talented display of dancing, singing and playing of all sorts of instruments, especially during the many colorful parades we saw passing by.   

On a humorous note, I like to refer to Oaxaca as the place where string cheese was invented.  On our first day there, we toured the local market (more photos to follow).  I couldn’t resist posting this photo of balls of string cheese on a counter.  Like unraveling a ball of string, how do you find the place to start?  It was very good cheese, too.  Solid and chewy. 

Anyway, I am pretty settled here in Cedar City now, and will start posting regularly again.  So sorry for the big gap in posts!  I’ll be posting on the trip to Mexico, and perhaps other interesting events in between.  It will also take me a while to get back into my spiritual mode.  Fortunately, where I am living now is very quiet and womb like.  Just what I need for now!

Finally!

It has been a very long time since I posted  here.  Life has been going at top speed since my last post of at least 6 weeks ago.  Bottom line, I am in the process of moving to Cedar City, Utah.  I took a trip over on October 6th, put a bid in on a house on October 10th, closed on November 8th, in addition to selling my house here to the first person who looked at it.  I had been thinking about downsizing my house and property here, and after my visit to Cedar City in August to study with Paul Smith, I knew that that was where I wanted to go.

So I have been sorting, giving away, throwing out, or selling my possessions ever since in preparation for the move.  Everything has gone quickly and amazingly well.  I even found a good home for my outdoor cat, Snowflake.  That was miraculous in itself!

How did this start?  Before leaving for Utah in early October, I took a trip to my local sacred mountain, Hesperus Peak, and left a medicine bundle thanking the spirit of the apu for being my guardian and protector since 2003, and releasing him from that obligation.  Then, the day after I drove over to Cedar City and before I looked at any houses, I drove up to the top of their local mountain, Brian Head, and placed another medicine bundle asking for that apu spirit to be my new guardian.  I also requested that that spirit help me find a house so that I could move before winter set in.   The above photo was taken at the top of Brian Head at the elevation of 11,300 feet.  I was looking down on the ski resort.

Also in between all of this, I traveled down to Oaxaca, Mexico for an archaeological and cultural trip.  That was fantastic, and I hope to post some of my photos. 

The movers come on November 18th, and I leave the Cortez area the day after.  I do not know when I can post again, but as soon as I am fairly well settled, the posts should start up.  Below is a photo of Cedar Breaks National Monument from the top of Brian Head. 

Sifting Through the Past

A few days ago, I returned home from a trip to the Chicago area to celebrate a big and notable high school reunion.  I hadn’t been back to my home turf for many years, and the whole event represented for me a coming full circle from my high school days.  Some of my classmates were clearly recognizable after many years of not seeing them, and there were others who had aged quite a bit. 

It was fun interacting with the others and reflecting on times past.  Quite a few of my classmates get together regularly in the Chicago area, and they have known each other continuously since high school.  Others moved away and come back from time to time.  I am glad I took the trouble to attend the reunion, and doing so represents a completion of sorts.

On a more personal note, earlier this year my guidance indicated that it was time to downsize my living situation.  I have a lovely house and yard, but it is now too big for me.  So for the last few weeks, I have been sorting through my garage, cabinets and closets with the purpose of donating, giving away or disposing of items that I no longer need.  I didn’t realize how much old and unusable stuff I had!  The downsizing of possessions is the first step in the total downsizing process. 

So with the high school reunion and the reducing of my possessions, a lot of sorting through the past has been happening.  It is actually quite refreshing and feels good to examine, appreciate, and let go of the old stuff.  I do feel lighter!

On an energetic level, we are attached to every item, house, property or car that we own.  The more of this we have, the greater the number of attachments.  This can cause quite a drag on one’s energy field, and can actually siphon off our energy.  Luckily, with fall weather coming on, the yard work here has diminished quite a bit.  The time for hibernation and introspection is near.  This is also a necessity for a spiritually evolving person.  How my downsizing will progress remains to be seen.  For now, it feels really good to go through the process.

Recap of the Dark Side of Reiki

One of my most widely read posts is the one entitled “The Dark Side of Reiki”.  I wrote that on September 1, 2013,  and I still get e-mails about it even today.  I thought it appropriate to write a short follow up to that post.  Before you continue reading this post, please review the original post here. 

Potential clients who have written to me to see if I can remove their Reiki entity and dissolve the associated attunement symbols think that it is a quick and easy process.  There is more to it than that.

First of all, not everyone who receives Reiki training and the connection to the entity experiences negative side effects.  If that were the case, Reiki would have ceased to exist a long time ago.  I’ve thought about this at length, and am convinced that those who report a negative experience have had some preexisting patterns activated by the “dark side” of the Reiki.  These could be related to physical symptoms such as fatigue or sleeplessness, psychological issues such as anxiety or depression, and even a spiritual malaise.  Also, just having a Reiki treatment does not mean that you have picked up the associated entity!

In my case, I knew immediately that something was off after doing my Reiki I and II training.  A short time after that, I studied with a healership teacher who clued me into the fact that I had picked up the associated entity.  After that, I proceeded to remove it on my own.  It took a lot of physical effort and motivation. I was then rechecked and was found to be clear. 

For the rest of you, it is your choice whether you would like to have the entity removed.  For whatever reason, the entity makes its appearance at the very end of a Quantum Sphere Healing session.  Because of that, you as the client will have to have a regular session with me.  There are no short cuts to this.  The attunement symbols, which show up as tattoos on the energy field, are dissolved at that time as well.   Having a full QSH session will also give you the opportunity to clear the dysfunctional patterns that were triggered by the connection with the entity.  I hope this clarifies the issue for those of you who have contacted me about this process.

Clarifying the Process

After my recent Controlled Remote Viewing course with Paul Smith, I have a much better understanding of how the viewing process starts in a CRV session.  Understand that this is not secret or confidential information.  It is readily available if one searches on the internet. 

I referenced the term “matrix” in a post I wrote earlier in the year, and I will expound on this concept further here.  The matrix is an energy field of information that contains patterns for everything that exists in the material and non material worlds.  Paul says that it is bigger and contains more information than the Akashic Records, and I liken it to Skip Atwater’s “everywhere and everywhen” of the quantum field.  My sense is that for every CRV target that the viewer is investigating in the 3D real world, there is an identical copy in the matrix.  It is this copy that the viewer connects to during the remote viewing process. 

Each target is assigned a unique set of numbers that is called the “target coordinate”.  This coordinate represents the location of the target in the matrix.  At the start of the session, the coordinate is read to the viewer by the person who is monitoring the process, or if there is no monitor, the viewer reads the numbers out loud at the same time as they are written down on the viewer’s worksheet.  This is called querying the target, and serves to make the connection between the viewer and the location of the target in the matrix. 

As soon as this connection is made, information on the target starts streaming back to the viewer.  This stream of information is called the “signal line”.  So far, sounds pretty straight forward, doesn’t it?  Not quite. 

The signal line streams information into the viewer’s mind, and in particular, the viewer’s subconscious mind.  The subconscious mind deals in concepts, symbols, descriptions, qualities, and is experienced much like the dreamtime.  The challenge of the viewer, during the CRV session, is to record all of the impressions that stream in along the signal line without interfering with or interpreting the information.  The ideal is that the nature of the target in the real world is pretty much defined by the end of the session.  For beginning viewers, that doesn’t always happen, but after all, that is what the CRV training is all about. 

So I have to wonder, is this how psychics get their information?  In the case of a psychic reading, the information that comes in always gets filtered through the psychic's preexisting patterns, emotions, and preconceived ideas to formulate conclusions that are delivered to the client.  In the case of CRV, no conclusions are reached, as the process is designed to only describe and report, and not interpret.  With a real world target, such as a missing person or a crime, the project manager is the one who assigns the target to the viewers, collects their data, and puts it all together for the client who needs the information.  In many cases in the Army’s Project Stargate Remote Viewing Unit, the viewers turned in their results and never did find out what the target was all about. 

Anyway, now you have an idea as to how the data is connected to and retrieved during a Controlled Remote Viewing session.  I hope to be able to report more as my restarted training progresses.