S. Kelley Harrell's Blog: Intentional Insights - Ancient Healing, Modern Shamanism, page 112

Celebrate the Small Things – Gratitude

My weekly gratitude post, in the Celebrate the Small Things [ongoing] Blog Hop.

I’m grateful for rest, acupuncture, and more rest.

Very thankful for the new blogging opportunity at PaganSquare.

Thrilled with the amazing endorsements for Teen Spirit Guide to Modern Shamanism.

Happy for opportunities to continue to grow, love, and create myself.

What are you grateful for this week? How will you show thanks?

This post is part of VikLit‘s blog hop, Celebrate the Small Things. Participate by following the link and adding your name to the Linky list, then post your gratitude every Friday.  Easiest blog hop ever!

Click here to hop on… the hop, and thanks for coming with me on this journey of self-empowerment.

Photo credit: Shermeee / Foter.com / CC BY

The post Celebrate the Small Things – Gratitude appeared first on Soul Intent Arts.

Celebrate the Small Things – Gratitude

My weekly gratitude post, in the Celebrate the Small Things [ongoing] Blog Hop.

This week has danced a one-step-forward, fall-on-butt tempo. That said, I’m very pleased to have signed a publishing contract with Soul Rocks Books!

Happy that despite a household of illness, everyone is doing reasonably well.

Elated to still be on lowered medication for two weeks, despite aforementioned plague.

Happy to have another blogging platform inquire about writing for them. Now to get more time in a day.

Pleased that I can recognize privilege and First World problems.

Speaking of, thanks to Nick Wale for a great discussion on writing, Gift of the Dreamtime, and creative passion.

What are you grateful for this week? How will you show thanks?

This post is part of VikLit‘s blog hop, Celebrate the Small Things. Participate by following the link and adding your name to the Linky list, then post your gratitude every Friday.  Easiest blog hop ever!

Click here to hop on… the hop, and thanks for coming with me on this journey of self-empowerment.

Photo credit: Shermeee / Foter.com / CC BY

The post Celebrate the Small Things – Gratitude appeared first on Soul Intent Arts.

Weekly Rune – Wunjo

Wunjo – joy – Years ago one of my shamanic teachers told me he hated moments of clarity. He went on to say that they were wonderful, vivid, heart-affirming, though elusive and ultimately not as clear as his ecstasy presented them to be. I knew what he meant, but I remained hopeful that wonder could sustain, that wisdom could override impulse, that awareness could last. He said clarity always preceded a big fall, and he’d grown to despise the feeling of elements aligning.

I can’t say that I share his angst in realizing awareness, or any good thing when it visits, though I fully understand such moments to be delicate and fleeting. This is the message of Wunjo. This week joy is visiting. Savor it. In this moment alignment with All Things delivers the object of dreams, fruits of labor… clarity. If this week was a cake glowing with candles, Wunjo is the wish made behind closed eyes. It is the split second during which every cell conspires in support of deepest desire, and aligned elements usher that manifestation forward.

Know that for this time the clarity is real. It is the result of a lot of hard work and being true to self.

I admit I was very starry-eyed when my teacher revealed this tender point to me.  Even though my instinct told me all hills must be crested and descended, I wanted the view at the top to last. Yet, my teacher wasn’t wrong, just a bit ‘half empty’ in assessing his own process at that time. The reality is Wunjo is the end of a cycle–literally the last Rune of the first aett. It’s a transient state we pass through when we succeed, complete, step into new personhood.  The completion of one passage leads to another. That’s the story of humanity. The end of a cycle gives us the opportunity to pause, reflect, and derive meaning before we move on to the next challenge. It’s our choice to fret what comes next, or draw on experience to grow beyond it.

For the record, clarity does last, until with further experience it yields to some other insight.

Joy lasts in memory, it thrives in sharing.

~*~*~*~

If you’d like to have the Weekly Rune delivered to your email each week as it’s posted, subscribe to its RSS, or via the Huffington Post.

The post Weekly Rune – Wunjo appeared first on Soul Intent Arts.

Celebrate the Small Things – Gratitude

My weekly gratitude post, in the Celebrate the Small Things [ongoing] Blog Hop.

I’m grateful for affirmation from peers and mentors in the writing community.

Thrilled to have had a wonderful birthday with my friends and family.

Grateful for how cool Facebook can be, sometimes.

Thrilled with the reception of Gift of the Dreamtime‘s 9th birthday.

Thankful for the trust and faith of the people I work with.

Blessed to have the opportunity to speak up.

What are you grateful for this week? How will you show thanks?

This post is part of VikLit‘s blog hop, Celebrate the Small Things. Participate by following the link and adding your name to the Linky list, then post your gratitude every Friday.  Easiest blog hop ever!

Click here to hop on… the hop, and thanks for coming with me on this journey of self-empowerment.

Photo credit: Shermeee / Foter.com / CC BY

The post Celebrate the Small Things – Gratitude appeared first on Soul Intent Arts.

Weekly Rune – Laguz

Laguz - Water -  Fascinating that Laguz visits as mere miles from me Chapel Hill is flooded with more rain to come, while across the country in Arizona, wild fires blaze out of control. In that light some greater bid for balance comes to mind, and the ever-humbling knowledge that humanity is but one tiny component of Nature.

Weather shamanism  is all about balance–not controlling rain or shine, but coming into concert with Nature in a way that the atmosphere isn’t just predictable, but the inner scape healthily adapts to it. Thus, when the inner being is tamed, surrounding elements rally in support. Balance is attained. Indeed, Laguz reminds us of the fact that it is our nature to go with the flow, a feat more challenging than just ego surrender.

In order to go with the flow we must be in balance internally, as well as externally. We must be able to release and trust the elements to carry us, without controlling where we go. How many times can we reinvent ourselves along the passage to faith? How many shadows, insecurities, and fears can we confront in the narrow gap between the realization that change is needed and the acceptance of it? A whole lot more than most of us would care to admit, I’m certain.

The surrender Laguz brings isn’t in masterminding a needed outcome or reaching a coveted conclusion, but in letting go in order for it to find us. Laguz reminds us keenly that it isn’t about the destination, but the journey, that when we let go, what we need is already there.

This week consider your relationship to Nature, and honestly assess how well your inner processes surrender to those seeking to provide support around you. Stop fighting the current. Whatever the circumstances, regardless of the weather, let go of what does not serve you and let it carry you.

The post Weekly Rune – Laguz appeared first on Soul Intent Arts.

Honoring Cycles

For years I thought I had reverse Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). I never felt particularly down in the gloom of winter, but in the overwhelming bright sunlight of summer. Funny acronym, SAD. I knew deep down, though, that’s not what it was. This time of year for me is a collusion of cycles ending and beginning, by which I specifically mean birthdays, anniversaries.

Just as there are the micro cycles we see and know throughout our lives all the time, also are bigger ones we aren’t so familiar with, until something happens, until something demands that we respect them.

However sad or appropriate it may be, the last time I was abused was the night before my 7th birthday, which is to say that I remember it vividly. There were candles, a pool party that wasn’t, rallying of troops, and a dire negotiation with the Multiverse–which for whatever reason worked out on my behalf. The juxtaposition of that event with my birthday, the most hallowed of holidays any of us can ever have–the opportunity to stand in the presence of the Multiverse and say, “I’m Still Here…” Well, let’s just say that for a very long time, I wasn’t convinced of that, and even when I was, it wasn’t easy.

I reached a point of quiet on that front some years ago, in my mid-thirties. The sting was gone, though a dull nothingness took up its place. Then something truly miraculous happened, again. On my birthday in 2001, I first held in my hands my memoir, Gift of the Dreamtime. The irony wasn’t lost on me, though I didn’t shrink to that. I realized as I thumbed through those crisp new pages that a new era was beginning. I had to bless the old, take up its weary bones, and let new being take form.

So it has. This year I celebrate my birthday, honor the child who brought me to it, and the support of people from around the world who first read about the crossroads of my birthday in Gift of the Dreamtime. It has become more than my memoir. In the true sense of the ancient healing story, it has inspired many others to listen to their own, to tell them, to share their truths.

This ninth year of its being, you can download the ebook from Amazon for free 28-29 June.

Thanks so much for giving it your blessing on its amazing journey around the world!

The post Honoring Cycles appeared first on Soul Intent Arts.

Celebrate the Small Things – Gratitude

My weekly gratitude post, in the Celebrate the Small Things [ongoing] Blog Hop.

Wonderful run of teaching for the last three weekends. Great inspiration and sharing, wonderful discussion, and unapologetic trust.

I’m grateful for this first month of engaging with the Tribe of the Modern Mystic. This resource I’ve wanted to create and manifest for several years, though as I move deeper into it, I realize how much I have needed it, myself.

Lots of openings to go deeper into projects, thus closure to that raw creation and waiting period. This is relief I can allow.

Foraging and the food frontier manifested a tasty gluten-free blueberry bar.

Happy to be relieved of the cold I had earlier in the week.

What are you grateful for this week? How will you show thanks?

This post is part of VikLit‘s blog hop, Celebrate the Small Things. Participate by following the link and adding your name to the Linky list, then post your gratitude every Friday.  Easiest blog hop ever!

Click here to hop on… the hop, and thanks for coming with me on this journey of self-empowerment.

Photo credit: Shermeee / Foter.com / CC BY

The post Celebrate the Small Things – Gratitude appeared first on Soul Intent Arts.

Engaging the Spirit World

Engaging the Spirit World, Edited by Lupa, featuring the essay “Remembering the Tradition: Timeless Heritage, Curious Fate,” by Kelley.

Available on:

Amazon

Animism–the belief in spirits–is considered to be an integral part of many pagans’ paths. We call on these beings when we create our rituals, when we work magic, and even in our everyday lives. For some, though, spirits are the very center of their practices. This book collects writings from a variety of practitioners, exploring animism in nature, in technology, and even within the human psyche. Speaking from both theory and practice, the authors present personal experiences to demonstrate concepts, and provide ideas and tools for the reader to work with. Featuring essays from Dawn M. Allenbach, Kali Black, Vronica Cummer, Kenn Day, jaymi elford, Taylor Ellwood, S. Kelley Harrell, Raven Kaldera, Erynn Rowan Laurie, Rhiannon Louve, Lupa, Bari Mandelbaum, Paleo, Pia Van Ravestein, Andrieh Vitimus and Mel White.

The post Engaging the Spirit World appeared first on Soul Intent Arts.

Weekly Rune – Ehwaz

Ehwaz - horse – In the year that I’ve written the Weekly Rune feature, Ehwaz has never visited before now. For its introduction, safely fall back on our common understandings of the horse: it is transportation, taking us from one place to another. In that light, the horse allows us access to accomplish what would ordinarily be beyond our capabilities. It works for us, yet despite domestication maintains a wildness of spirit humanity admires and can never touch. In all, the horse allows humans power. It gives us strength greater than our own, and provokes questions of our own domestication.

That’s enough insight to derive compelling meaning for why the horse would visit us at this time. The last few weeks have focused on personal empowerment, encouraged us to be aware not only that our process is happening, but to be actively involved with how it manifests. Where, then, does the horse carry us? What work is it empowering us to journey more deeply into?

Few know that in Nordic mythology the horse was humanity’s fylgia, or “spirit guide,” one who fetches us to wisdom. This totemic image becomes particularly significant coupled with that of Sleipner, Odin’s eight-legged horse, who carried him to traverse the realms of the Yggdrasil–the World Tree, from which he gained insight into the Runes. This movement between worlds, torment of enlightenment, then inability to return to every day life the same hearkens shamanic death.  This metaphor of traveling from the everyday into an etheric expression of it is the original healing story, the ouroboros shamanic narrative we all participate in.

What we need to remember at this time is that initiation is upon us. This time means a piercing of the heart with insight from which we cannot turn away will bring us to a more suitable awareness, that which we crave at our deepest levels. Our travel on the back of awakening is in the process of depositing us on the doorstep of new wisdom.

Let it be. Don’t try to manhandle the rein and control the outcome. This is neither the time to enslave a beast of burden, nor to glide obliviously through scenery without being active in the journey. We are being called to be aware and engaged, to see this journey through to the end. Remember, when the Aztecs and Incas first saw a mounted conquistador, they interpreted it as one animal, a kind of “two-headed centaur. ” [1] While we know the miraculous technology of riding horseback comprises human and horse, let us not forget the animistic bond of seeker and totem. We’re not alone, and we’re not without guidance.

[1]Sagan, Carl. Cosmic Connection, Cambridge University Press, p. 42; 206; 216.

Subscribe to the Weekly Rune feature via Huffington Post.

The post Weekly Rune – Ehwaz appeared first on Soul Intent Arts.

Celebrate the Small Things – Gratitude

My weekly gratitude post, in the Celebrate the Small Things [ongoing] Blog Hop.

It’s been a couple of weeks since I updated, and it’s been a crazy busy two weeks!

Made blackberry jam and syrup for the first time. Both are pretty yummy!  Also, had success with gluten-free biscuits, totally unrelated to the aforementioned jam…

Lots of writing things happening. One manuscript completed and accepted by publisher. Ball’s in my court, now, to create proposal and perch at negotiation table. Really good success with another manuscript being mostly complete. Also, scheming with a wonderful agent next week about my novel, The Last Snow Moon.

Had a little time with a dear friend that I don’t get to see often right now.

I’ve taught every weekend of June, and had our first Tribe gathering. It’s been really busy, but it’s been so wonderful! My schedule has stayed full, and it’s  just fantastic.

First tomatoes off the vine, and loads of fresh herbs at every meal!

In all, wonderful alliances ahead with special people and projects. No doubt this Solstice week and movement of Jupiter into my sign is stirring up support for cool things ahead.

What are you grateful for this week? How will you show thanks?

This post is part of VikLit‘s blog hop, Celebrate the Small Things. Participate by following the link and adding your name to the Linky list, then post your gratitude every Friday.  Easiest blog hop ever!

Click here to hop on… the hop, and thanks for coming with me on this journey of self-empowerment.

Photo credit: Shermeee / Foter.com / CC BY

The post Celebrate the Small Things – Gratitude appeared first on Soul Intent Arts.