Rahima Warren's Blog, page 3
July 10, 2017
Why Read Fantasy?
When looking for something to read, what does your soul long for?
Something juicy, freeing, or inspiring?
Something that leads you deeper into the mystery of life?
That opens your heart and thrills you with wondrous possibilities?
The best fantasy novels offer all this wrapped up in a fascinating story with strong characters and lyrical writing. At the least, they offer an escape into worlds of imagination where we can go on adventures beyond the confines of so-called reality.
In... Read More
The post Why Read Fantasy? appeared first on The Star Seer's Prophecy.
July 20, 2015
A Path to Peace
Radiant Stillness by Rahima Warren
A Path to Peace
Quietness, stillness at the core…
Still Point of the Center…
Remaining still within always,
Knowing outer flux as Maya
The Dance of Illusions
The Play of Matter
A Matter of Play,
Divine in all ways – and –
Always the Essence is Stillness.
From the Center, from the Core
spin the Universes,
the Dance
the Play.
Enjoy the Dance
the gossamer illusions
the delightful weavings
of form and story
the unceasing Fountain of
darkness and joy.
Always returning Home
to the Stillness
to the Silence
to the Source,
The eternal pool of Stillness
at the Core of your heart,
at the Center of your soul.
© Rahima Warren
July 6, 2009
The post A Path to Peace appeared first on The Star Seer's Prophecy.
July 13, 2015
Shame and Self-Forgiveness
Rahima Warren
Someone tells me that they didn’t like something I said to them. I apologize and we hug. But I am left with a yucky feeling inside. “I was a bad girl!” says the child in me. “You were a bad girl!” roars the inner critic. I cringe and try to hide out: watch TV, read a book, anything to get away from this horrid feeling. But of course, that doesn’t work. It’s still there when I turn off the TV or put down my book.
As I have learned, I need to face up to this yucky little monster and get to know it. “Okay, who are you? What are you made of?” As I feel into it, I sense it is compounded of shame and fear.
Where did this come from? I ask myself. As a psychotherapist, I know shame is often used to control children’s behavior. In my family, there was lot of shaming criticism from my parents, and we four siblings did the same to each other. This is surely one of the sources of this yucky feeling.
As a student of sociology and anthropology, I also know that humans are very social animals. To survive, our ancestors needed the acceptance and protection of our family and tribe, especially as children. In part, shame is an instinctive reaction to a threat of rejection, based on fear of being cast out to starve or be eaten. I recently watched a nature show where a baby primate was cuffed when she misbehaved, and was under threat of death if she did not show the proper subservience to the alpha male. This is how far back the instinctive fear-shame reaction goes. Its purpose is to keep us within the bounds of our tribe, to keep us safe.
But I sense there is something else. Underneath, I am assuming that I should never make a mistake, thinking that I can always do the best thing for everyone. How unlikely! Why do I cling to this absurd notion? Oh, I see. Believing I can and should be perfect helps me maintain the illusion of control. In my child-mind, I believe that I have the power to always do the best thing for everyone. As long as I never make a mistake, no one will reject me or cast me out of the tribe. I am in control and can keep myself safe.
Making a mistake or being criticized or rejected punctures this illusion of control and safety, and my shame/fear rises up. I criticize myself for my failure, and keep on believing I should be able to be perfect, and therefore safe. This just sets me up for more shame/fear in the future. How can I step out of this trap?
I am human. I make mistakes. And sometimes, out of their own pain, shame or fear, people are rejecting or critical even when I have not erred. There is no getting around this. It’s a fact of life. The question is: Can I hold this shame/fear with compassion instead of self-rejection?
Shame festers in the darkness when we try to ignore it. By facing up to it and inquiring into it, I already feel the shame dwindling. I take a deep breath and remind myself that I am not really under threat of being cast out or killed. I take another deep breath and smile to myself. Now I feel some self-compassion and self-forgiveness coming in, some gentleness for myself, some relaxation of tense ‘fight or flight’ muscles. I’m not perfect. I make mistakes. And that is okay.
Contemplation Questions
How do you react when you make a mistake, or feel rejected or criticized?
Does shame arise? How do you respond to that? With anger? Defensiveness? Despair?
What helps you find some compassion for yourself? Forgiveness for yourself or the other person?
The post Shame and Self-Forgiveness appeared first on The Star Seer's Prophecy.
July 10, 2015
Writing From Darkness
Writing from Darkness:
How The Star-Seer’s Prophecy Trilogy was Born
Rahima Warren
When I first began receiving and writing this story of wounding and healing, evil and redemption, suffering and forgiveness, I had no plan or purpose to write any such thing. But the story came through me in a dark, wild, creative rush, and I did not resist. It was a process of writing from darkness… from the unknown… from the fertile void.
Through my own inner work, I had learned to allow inner darkness and ugliness to be safely expressed through art and writing. Finding myself compelled to write and edit this dark yet redemptive story was (and is) an intense and challenging, yet soul-satisfying, task.
However, even after Dark Innocence (Book One of the trilogy) was published in 2012, I had no idea why this story had come through me. And so, in a deep meditation, I asked about its purpose. I received that the mission of this story is “to end the inner and outer culture of hatred, revenge, and punishment, and to evoke an inner and outer culture of compassion, forgiveness, and healing.”
To do this, the story takes the reader on a transformational journey on the hard path through the underworld of the soul and psyche, and into the dark heart of forgiveness. Forgiveness is not for the faint-of-heart. It requires the spiritual courage to confront our own trauma and shame, anger and vengefulness, and to reach for the light of greater kindness, compassion and forgiveness—both for ourselves and for those who have oppressed or harmed us.
The process of writing this trilogy has been, as Alison Nappi says, one of bearing “witness to the nature of the unspeakable and formless fears of our collective psyche.” Although I personally have not suffered the kind of abuse I write about, still it exists in me, as it clearly is part of the collective human psyche—whether horribly acted out in life (as in the childhood experiences of some of my psychotherapy clients), or portrayed in many forms of art, including film and television. I hope that my books may help a reader see “a light at the end of the dark tunnel,” in a way that “reveals inherent sacredness” even in the darkest of experiences. (See quotes below.)
A warning: If you seek a fun escape story, this book is not for you. The Star-Seer’s Prophecy confronts the evil and cruelty that we humans suffer and inflict in our dark innocence, and holds forth a vision of the healing, compassion, and forgiveness so needed in our world.
However, if you seek a deep, rich story that explores the fierce gift that is life as a human being… takes you on a transformational journey… and portrays the kind of courage needed to endure and transcend the worst of experiences, you will want to read Dark Innocence and Fierce Blessings. (The final book in the trilogy, Perilous Bliss, is under revision and will be out next year.)
These powerful quotes reflect my experience of writing
The Star-Seer’s Prophecy
“Often the most powerful and successful translucent art deals with the darkest and most difficult aspects of our humanity, but in a way that reveals inherent sacredness.” —Arjuna Ardagh, The Translucent Revolution
“Writing about trauma is more than simply documenting experience— it’s about illuminating life on earth. It’s about transforming tragedy into art, and hoping that somehow that piece of art may help someone else who’s gone through something unbearable and doesn’t see yet that there truly is a light at the end of the dark tunnel.”
—Tracy Strauss, “A Topic Too Risky,” Poets & Writers Magazine (Sept./Oct., 2013)
“Art is high alchemy. As writers, as artists, we take the most devastating of our human experiences and we turn them into something of healing and service to the world. We drag the ugliness out of the shadows while it’s kicking and screaming and we bear witness to the nature of the unspeakable and formless fears of our collective psyche. We reveal it to the world for what it is. We transform it, like magicians, and invite the world to gaze upon itself, to watch itself shape shift and contort before finally giving up and letting go, dissolving the barriers of shadow and light….”
—Alison Nappi, Lies You Were Told About Grief
The post Writing From Darkness appeared first on The Star Seer's Prophecy.
September 22, 2014
All Earth Is One Life
In meditation, I was watching my breath, keeping a focus on belly and heart, feeling how the breath connects these two centers of awareness. This led me into a state of deep stillness.
Out of this stillness, came a powerful receiving:
“This world is going to be so different in the future. The ones who will survive will be humble. They will be the ones who let go of the belief and feeling of human superiority and dominance, who let go of this approach to the world. The ones who survive will be the ones who bow down in humbleness to the Earth, to Life. The ones who know that these forces are so much more than we can comprehend, so much greater than us. The ones who know that we humans are the servants of Life, the servants of the Earth, and who choose to live as such.”
I am impelled to share this message, in the hopes that it may not be too late, that we can wake up to our peril, to our unity, to our ability to drop into humbleness and begin to work together to serve the Earth, to serve all Life – and so to save ourselves.
Spirit Animals who have come to me in my dreams tell me that they love us and are praying for us.
Hawk Brother said: “Walk in this awareness that we Spirits of Nature sing for you as you struggle to birth the new perspective, this great addition to awareness and comprehension, this new form of Spirit in the Universe. It is so difficult! Walk with compassion in your hearts for yourself and your brothers and sisters.”
For Hawk Brother’s entire message and amazing perspective, go here:
http://www.soulplay.com/dreaming-earth/HawkKachina.jpg.php
Another deeply wise and powerful message came from Ermine:
“You are in the midst of this vast struggle with your own Nature to find your Wisdom. We are here to assist you, to remind you of your Source, to model ways of Balance, to mirror your own Nature back to you with our thriving or dying. Accept this gift and honor yourselves for this titanic struggle you must face—to succeed in achieving Balance—or to die, in your turn, making way for the next great Child of Earth.”
http://www.soulplay.com/fierce-truth/Sacrifice-Means-Making-Sacred.JPG.php
May we all find our humbleness and wisdom in time!
With love for all my brothers and sisters of Mother Earth,
Rahima
The post All Earth Is One Life appeared first on The Star Seer's Prophecy.
ALL EARTH IS ONE LIFE
Messages for Humanity
In meditation, I was watching my breath, keeping a focus on belly and heart, feeling how the breath connects these two centers of awareness. This led me into a state of deep stillness.
Out of this stillness, came a powerful receiving:
“This world is going to be so different in the future. The ones who will survive will be humble. They will be the ones who let go of the belief and feeling of human superiority and dominance, who let go of this approach to the world. The ones who survive will be the ones who bow down in humbleness to the Earth, to Life. The ones who know that these forces are so much more than we can comprehend, so much greater than us. The ones who know that we humans are the servants of Life, the servants of the Earth, and who choose to live as such.”
I am impelled to share this message, in the hopes that it may not be too late, that we can wake up to our peril, to our unity, to our ability to drop into humbleness and begin to work together to serve the Earth, to serve all Life – and so to save ourselves.
Spirit Animals who have come to me in my dreams tell me that they love us and are praying for us.
Hawk Brother said: “Walk in this awareness that we Spirits of Nature sing for you as you struggle to birth the new perspective, this great addition to awareness and comprehension, this new form of Spirit in the Universe. It is so difficult! Walk with compassion in your hearts for yourself and your brothers and sisters.”
For Hawk Brother’s entire message and amazing perspective, go here:
http://www.soulplay.com/dreaming-earth/HawkKachina.jpg.php
Another deeply wise and powerful message came from Ermine:
“You are in the midst of this vast struggle with your own Nature to find your Wisdom. We are here to assist you, to remind you of your Source, to model ways of Balance, to mirror your own Nature back to you with our thriving or dying. Accept this gift and honor yourselves for this titanic struggle you must face—to succeed in achieving Balance—or to die, in your turn, making way for the next great Child of Earth.”
http://www.soulplay.com/fierce-truth/Sacrifice-Means-Making-Sacred.JPG.php
May we all find our humbleness and wisdom in time!
With love for all my brothers and sisters of Mother Earth,
Rahima
September 15, 2014
Safety vs. Surrender: A Dilemma
Staying Safe or Surrendering:
Facing a Dilemma in Creativity and Spirituality
Many years ago, I had an awe-inspiring glimpse of the Flow of Divine Creativity. It appeared to me as a cosmic Fountain of Creativity, endlessly flowing upward with an outrageous infinitude of vivid, colorful images: trees, cartoons, volcanoes, tulips, cars, babies, tigers, paintings, skyscrapers, movies, soldiers, roses, stars, drums—everything tumbling upward forever!
I saw that what we human creators do is tap into this infinite Fountain, and channel one little stream into manifestation, whether we are a musician or a parent, an architect or a writer, an artist or an engineer. Certainly this is my experience of writing my visionary trilogy, The Star-Seer’s Prophecy. A certain dream character had been haunting me for years. One day, I wrote a short story in my journal about this character, hoping the little story would make him stop bothering me. Ha! I’d tapped into that Fountain and now the Flow was sweeping me away!
I could have fought it and tried to get back to my life and my career as a psychotherapist. However, my spiritual path is a path of surrender. Our ego-minds are all about keeping control and staying safe, so any ego-effort to understand or get close to the Divine is doomed to failure. Only by surrendering that ego-control can we open ourselves to the Divine, and to our creativity (which are aspects of the same Flow.)
The Divine (however you name it) is not concerned with our staying safe and small, but with our blooming into our full, beautiful, creative selves. If I had ignored this flood of creative inspiration that I had tapped into, I would have stayed in my safe rut, and never discovered the wonders of allowing my creativity full rein (or in my case, reign!), or faced the “growth opportunity” of offering my book to the world. Instead, I surrendered to the passionate outpouring of this character’s story, whose name turned out to be Kyr. With no idea where his story was going, no outline, no plan, I just wrote whatever came through, no matter how dark or brilliant.
Kyr’s path is also one of surrender. At first, he has no choice but submit, since he has been born and raised as a slave of the Soul-Drinker, an evil sorcerer-king with vast powers that no one can combat. Then he is rescued and faces a choice: cling to his deathly loyalty to his master, or to take the unknown hard path toward life, love and the Light.
Kyr’s journey toward the Light is a journey of surrender. At each step of the way, he has to surrender his old view of who he is and what he deserves, and open more and more to his true nature. I suspect that may be true for all of us, but it is rarely easy. The ego-mind wants to stay with what it knows, no matter how awful, and to stay small, with the illusion that this makes us safe.
In Dark Innocence: Book One of my trilogy, there is a scene where Kyr surrenders his pain and remorse to the Goddess. After all these years of rewriting, editing, publishing and now doing my best to let the world know about Kyr’s dark, intense, yet healing and inspiring story, that scene still touches my heart.
Contemplation Questions
Have you experienced that dilemma between safety and surrender?
Does surrender play a role in your spirituality and/or creativity?
Have you been “haunted” by an inner character in your dreams or imagination? How have you dealt with him/her? Have you tried letting them tell you their story?
I’d love to hear your answers! Please leave a comment, if you are so inspired.
September 1, 2014
Transitions
Dear Friends & Subscribers,
Since a major life transition (my mother’s death in February), the flow of life has taken me on various adventures, some more challenging than others. I am exploring this new phase of being. I am still not sure who I am becoming, but part of this is about listening more to guidance and following it without over-thinking it.
At this time of transition into Autumn, and of major transitions on our Mother Earth, my guidance says to share Bear Shaman’s message with you. Bear Shaman emerged in a painting I did out of my sorrow over the destruction of nature and the coming climate chaos.
Bear Shaman brings a message of hope and celebration of changes at the time of Autumn. Please click on this link to see the painting and read Bear Shaman’s message. I would love to hear how his message resonates with you.
Many Blessings,
Rahima Warren
May 6, 2014
Keeping Inner Peace
A DREAM OF PEACE
Recently, I dreamed that I was walking with a group of people with the President toward a meeting with the enemy. The President had a new, special power. He could say just one word, and it would become true, no matter what. I was wondering what word he should say. I realized that of course, he should say “Peace.” Then I noticed that I was not feeling peaceful. So I consciously focused on shifting into peacefulness. I felt shifts in my body/energy into a condition of peacefulness.
“Many people think excitement is happiness…. But when you are excited
you are not peaceful. True happiness is based on peace.”
Thích Nhất Hạnh
FALLING OUT OF PEACE
I woke up still feeling this, and resolved to stay in this lovely, peaceful place. The next thing you know, I was irritated at my jacket zipper for not co-operating promptly. Sigh. So I took a moment to breathe and relax back into peacefulness.
Later, I noticed my old inner judge-voice making sharp, self-critical comments. Ouch! I was surprised by their meanness. Being in a peaceful state allowed me to notice these comments more clearly than ever. And to see that they are not true, and not from my essence, but from a part of my brain that thinks being safe means being small and scared. Again, I took a moment to breathe, to let go of that scared, critical energy, and to relax back into peacefulness.
Throughout the day, I went through this many times. The least little thing that didn’t co-operate with my expectations, and I frowned, tensed up, or got irritated. But as soon as I caught myself, I could shake it off, and return to inner peace. Animal researchers have found that is what our wise brothers and sisters (the animals) do when they experience a shock: literally shake it off, and go on. I found that giving myself a little shake and breathing out strongly does help release irritation, frustration, tension, even anger or fear.
RETURNING TO PEACE
Of course, that means I need to stay aware of what I’m doing with my body and energy, and notice when I shift out of peacefulness. In particular, I find it important to pay attention to my breath and my face. Am I holding my breath? Am I frowning? Is my jaw tight?
I used to think that I should just do the inner work, and the body would follow along. But it turns out to be a two-way street: when I take a deep breath, and relax the muscles around my eyes and in my jaw, my inner 
experience shifts toward peacefulness. It also helps when I let myself have a “little Buddha smile,” as Thic Nhat Hahn advises.
“Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile
can be the source of your joy.”
Thích Nhất Hạnh
I tend to be hyper-vigilant, always on the alert for threats, so I also need to take time to practice returning to peacefulness, through meditation, chanting, journaling, and walking.
Instead of just watching for threats to my safety, perhaps I can use my hyper-vigilance to be alert for the moments when I drop out of peacefulness.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Contemplation Questions
What tends to knock you out of peacefulness?
What helps you keep inner peace?
What happens when you let yourself have a “little Buddha smile” (even though you may not feel happy)?
(All art and writing (except quotes) © by Rahima Warren)
Leave Blank:Do Not Change:
Your email:
November 8, 2013
Bumbling Along the Path of the Heart
Bumbling along the Path of the Heart
By Rahima Warren
Born to love. We all are. But then come all the circumstances, limitations, attitudes and apparent deficiencies we encounter in life. Makes it hard to remember to “Be Love Now” (as Ram Dass suggests in his book of that title). Despite the challenges, I’m spending a good part of my life bumbling along the path of the heart, exploring many ways of returning to the love I knew before I was born. It’s a bumpy journey, with lots of ups and downs; pretty much always two steps forward, one step back.
At a recent retreat, my heart opens so wide and golden in a meditation that afterwards I am a bit bemused. I feel like a chick that has just emerged out of its shell. I am in unknown inner territory, having expanded beyond another layer of constriction, of old conditioning from childhood. With the guidance of our wonderful retreat leader, I am able to settle more into this new territory of the heart, which Ram Dass calls loving awareness.
At home after the retreat, I am feistier, and have less patience with old beliefs and senses of obligation that can take me away from this new space, if I let them. I am feeling more peace, gratitude, clarity and open-heartedness.
And then I listen to the news, and instantly start cussing the stupidity of “those jerks.” My old pattern of judging and condemning—of expecting the world to be different than it is—is still strong in me. My heart contracts, and peace and love disappear from my awareness.
Instead of condemning myself for this, I ask myself: Can I hold this judging mind of mine with loving awareness, without trying to change it?
And it’s kind of a little miracle. As soon as I ask myself this question, I relax, breathe, and feel peace and love returning to my heart. I don’t even have to do anything. Just turn my mind in the direction of loving awareness, and it flows back into my heart.
Seems to me that this journey on the path of the heart is like the ebb and flow of the ocean:
Gentle Heart (c) by Rahima Warren
Expanding, allowing love and peace to flow in
Contracting, expecting the world to be different than it is; going into fear, anger,judgment, etc., often because expansion is scary to the ego
Noticing my judging contraction, my resistance to the way reality is being right now
Asking myself if I can hold my contraction (fear, judgment, etc.) with loving awareness
Expanding, relaxing, breathing; allowing love and peace to flow in
Repeat until I can let go of my attachment to my fears, judgments, etc.
I find the trick is to notice, to witness what I am doing without judging or condemning myself. My new practice is to then ask myself if I can enfold whatever is disturbing me in loving awareness. I have to admit, sometimes my ego’s answer is ‘no,’ but seeing that usually makes me laugh at my pouty, righteous self. Laughter is a great way to relax, breathe and let go into peace and love. When I am afraid, asking this question helps me embrace my fearful self with love.
We tend to think of love as an emotion, and there is emotional love, cause of much joy, despair, romance and drama. But then there is the love that is the nature of the Universe, and since we are part of the Universe, it is our nature too, our original nature that underlies our personalities. It’s the love I have been returning to (with more or less success) since I found the path of the heart. I love Ram Dass’s description of this love (called agape by the Greeks):
“Imagine that being in this love is like relaxing endlessly into a warm bath that surrounds and supports your every movement, so that every thought and feeling is permeated by it. … This love is actually part of you; it is always flowing through you. It’s like the subatomic texture of the Universe, the dark matter that connects everything. … Unconditional love really exists in each of us. It is a part of our deep inner being. It is not so much an active emotion as a state of being.”
Ram Dass, Be Love Now
I find it helpful to realize that unconditional love or loving awareness is not an emotion but this relaxed way of being, this state that for me feels warm and open-hearted, yet neutral with no judgments or expectations. Just being present to what is with loving awareness. I am slowly bumbling my way toward this state of being. The times I have been in this state teach me that it is worth all my efforts.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Suggested Contemplations
How do you experience love?
What steps have you taken on the path of the heart?
What happens when you expand beyond a layer of contraction or old conditioning?
I’d love to hear of your experiences or thoughts about the path of the heart!
