Michael Domitrovich Michael Domitrovich

Suggestion for a Winter Solstice Celebration

A template for observing the Winter Solstice (Wednesday, Dec. 21 at 5:44 AM EST) and an explanation of the how and why.

The darkest hour is just before dawn.

The winter solstice occurs at 5:44 am EST on the morning of Wednesday, Dec. 21st. This ceremony is best done in the hours before dawn on Wednesday morning, or after dark on Wednesday evening.

A ritual like this is designed to honor a key moment in the solar cycle - one of four major downbeats in the score of the solar year - when the sun changes signs and a new season begins. We have a general vibe of when the seasons change - we can all sense the difference between spring, summer, fall and winter - but the solstices and equinoxes are the mathematical points of exactitude when we switch from one season to the next. 

Why does this matter? Whether you care about the astrology or not, when the sun does anything, it affects us all. It’s the source of light, of energy, of warmth that connects us and gives us life. Metaphysically it represents all of that, but in a more immediate and deeply personal way - the sun is considered to be the source of consciousness and our connection to life itself. So observing the solar cycles is an opportunity to honor this point of public connection to each other, while also considering our personal connection to ourselves and our very existence.

The other seasons have their reasons, but the winter solstice is my fave because it’s kind of goth. It’s the moment that our ancestors stopped to consider, “what if we don’t make it through the winter?” The common sense thing to do at this time of year is to be eminently practical (as the sun enters Capricorn), and to release absolutely everything we don’t need while carefully conserving what we do need to get us through the cold dark winter. But there is always the nagging feeling that even if we are meticulous in our conservation of resources we might not make it anyway. So it’s a time for reckoning, of giving so much thanks for what we have - to eat, to sleep on, to keep us warm - while recognizing the true value we have in the things we cannot hold or taste or snuggle. It’s pretty stark. Kind of sweet. Kind of goth. 

Spiritually speaking, its a time of inner housekeeping. If I don’t make it through this winter, what actually matters RIGHT NOW? From where does your power come? What is your power really? What really matters to you? What really gives you life?

We are compelled to say “family,” during the holidays, but even if your family is the best ever, that’s still a tangible, external support, and all that is external and tangible is subject to disappearing in the cold dark winter. At this time of year we are urged to rely on that which is internal and intangible. I’m keeping it pretty non-verbal this year. I’m grateful to be alive, to breathe, to think. When all else is taken away from us we are left with the light, the inner radiance that is metaphysically connected to the sun.

The most potent symbolism of the winter solstice is has to do with light and dark. Today is the shortest day of the year and the longest night (in the northern hemisphere), thanks to the sun being at its lowest point in the sky relative to the angle of the Earth. That’s what the sun is doing while staring down at our pale, sniffly faces. That is the thing that our body feels even if our minds are illuminated by one LED screen or another. That is what connects us to our ancestors, and to each other. We honor the shortest day and the longest night, and treat it as a symbolic dark night of the soul, the darkest hour just before dawn.

And yet it’s not just about the dark. When the sun hits rock bottom, the only place for it to go is back up. When the days are at their shortest, the only thing they can do is get longer, and that’s what happens. The solstice, from the latin sol, meaning sun, and sistere, to come to a stop, is the point where the sun appears to stop at its lowest point before it begins its upward climb. We honor the depth and dark of the stopping, and the long winter that is to come which could even cause our own lives to stop… but we also honor the implicit climb that is to come. This is the return of the light, the dawning of the new, slightly longer day and somewhere, in the not too distant future, the return of spring and the promise of new life.

Note that we don't ask for anything during this ritual. It's not the ideal time for manifestation or making things come to fruition. It's better to cut back, let go, and give thanks.

There is so much more symbolism and meaning that can be discussed here. But for now I leave you with an urging - what I’m writing down to encapsulate this moment in simple verbal form:

“Go in. Quiet down. Let go. Give thanks. Look into the darkness and face your fear. Continue to give thanks. Rejoice at the light in the midst of the darkness. Give thanks for the light. Watch it grow.”

Hope is never impossible.

Don't forget the Holiday Healing Fair is happening in NYC on the 28th of December. It's a great way to give thanks for the light within us and around us. More info HERE.

With love and steadily growing light,
MD

WINTER SOLSTICE RITUAL


What you’ll need - a taper candle, a bowl of water, a bowl of salt or dirt, a pen and paper, and a bunch of little tea lights. If you have a tree or menorah or some other kind of celebratory holiday centerpiece, do this ritual nearby.

1. Turn off all the lights in your house or the space in which you’re doing the ritual. 

2. Arrange all of the tea lights in your ritual area, or place them all over your living space.

3. Pick a clean flat surface and cover it with a cloth if you like. On it place the larger taper candle, a bowl of water, and a bowl of salt. If you don’t have a taper candle that’s ok. Light the candle and burn some sage or incense. If you don’t like smoke, pick a scented candle or just give the room a spritz of perfume.

4. Call on the directions: Turning to the East, say “I call upon the spirits of the East and the element of AIR. Please join this sacred circle and support this sacred space.” Turn to the South and say, “I call upon the spirits of the South and the element of FIRE. Please join this sacred circle and support this sacred space.” Turn to the West and say “I call upon the spirits of the West and the element of Water. Please join this sacred circle and support this sacred space. Then turn to the North and say “I call upon the spirits of the North and the element of Earth. Please join this sacred circle and support this sacred space. Now bend down and touch the ground, and say, “I call upon Mother Earth to ground this sacred space and support this working. I offer thanks for all that you do, Mother, in nourishing and supporting me, my loved ones and all beings on Earth.” Then stand tall and raise your arms to the sky, saying “I call upon Father Sky to inspire and illuminate this working. I give thanks to magic, and all the energies of the higher planes and ask for their to support in this sacred space.” Then, bring your hands into a prayer position at your heart center and bow deeply into your heart and say, “I honor the 7th direction, the center of my being that is the center of all beings. Please let this connection strengthen and support this sacred working.” If you don't like these forces or names for God/Goddess/All That Is, we cool, pick your own. Just pick something that is bigger than you, beyond yourself (archangels, astrological signs, planets, or deities from some other lineage).

5. State your intention clearly: “This is a ceremony to observe and honor the winter solstice, the shortest day and the longest night of the year. I (or we) perform this ceremony to honor the darkness, and to affirm the strength and power of the light as it returns.”

6. Using your pen and a small piece of paper, write down your fears for the winter to come. Write them down and fold them up when you’re done.

7. Holding these fears in your hand, say, “I release these fears to the darkness and surrender them to the void from which all things come and to which all things return.” Bury the paper in the salt, extinguish the taper candle and imagine your fears dissolving in blackness. You can even close your eyes and imagine yourself dissolving in blackness. Use this moment, even if it’s JUST this moment, to let everything go.

8. If your eyes are closed, start to watch the darkness for a point of light. Let that light begin to grow within you. If your eyes are open, or whenever you open them, re-light the taper candle and say, “We celebrate the return of the light, the hope that will guide us through the winter to come, the hope that is always with us, the light that is eternal.” Now you can use the taper candle to light all the other little tea lights, or just use a lighter or matches.

9. Return to your bowl of salt. Sit with it for a moment and watch the quiet, gently flickering lights around you. Look at the bowl of salt and imagine your favorite flower growing up from within. Watch all the stages of growth - from sprout to shoot to stem to leaves. When it starts to blossom let it be the most vividly colored bloom you’ve ever seen. Hold the beauty of that bloom in your visualization for as long as you can, then let the petals fall, let the leaves wither, and watch as the stem wilts and disintegrates. Visualize this cycle fully once, or as many times as you like. Appreciate the cyclical nature of life, and the sweetness of this moment. You’ve just moved through the portal of the solstice, from darkness into light.

10. Stand again and go through the directions in reverse. Give thanks to the sky above, the earth below, and the 4 directions and their associated elements - Earth in the North, Water in the West, Fire in the South, and Air in the East. Return to the central space of your heart with hands at heart center. Give thanks to yourself, to anyone you’ve done the ritual with, to your family, your loved ones, to all of human kind, and to all beings on earth and to the forces of the universe. Thank whomever and whatever you are grateful for. Then pronounce clearly, “This working is complete.” You can leave your fears buried through the winter or dispose of them and the salt or earth by burning, flushing, or burying them when you see fit.

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Michael Domitrovich Michael Domitrovich

Bubble What

Are you an accepting witch? Or a resistant witch? Which witch is which?

Today’s Full moon is in Aries. I’m feeling this as a moment in which the energy released by the last new moon in Libra is now asking to be dealt with. It’s like the new moon presented some questions, the past few weeks have turned up some answers, and this full moon is asking that you take stock of what’s come up so you can decide what to commit to, and how to proceed.

There’s also something pushing us to break through. Everyone I’ve encountered in the last few weeks seems to have worked really hard to integrate all the craziness of the last few months, and wonderfully enough, everyone seems to be taking it in stride.  There is an awareness of what has been dealt with, worked through, and accomplished... even if the experience has been harrowing. “Thank goodness that round is over!”

But there is something else happening simultaneously, something that feels like acceptance, “Now that all that is over, look at where I am right now. There’s no revelation. There’s no fanfare. I’m not even sure what happens next but (sigh!) here I am.”

Acceptance - In the midst of natural disasters, extreme elections, and geez, everything else - if you feel it, that is pretty amazing in itself. I say it a lot, but I am amazed that any of us can get through the day, let alone accept that day as it is. But that’s the thing about acceptance - it’s not emotional. There’s no feelings involved. You either accept or you don’t.

In my healing practice acceptance is associated with the root chakra. The root is the energetic center at the base of the spine, the tip of the tailbone, the perineum, the taint. If the chakras were a string of christmas lights, the root would be the plug, and Mother Earth would be the socket.

Physically the root is associated with survival - the preservation of the entire physical organism - as well as the organs of excretion and the process of elimination. Emotionally it has to do with feelings of security and safety. Mentally it has to do with self-preserving or self-defeating beliefs - the ideas you learn or develop to preserve and prolong your existence. 

Existentially, the root is pretty stark. It says, “I exist.” When I work with clients who have trauma in their roots the opposite holds true: they are usually hard pressed to believe that they are even alive. They lack a certain vitality. They sometimes act as though their life were happening to someone else. This is because the root is so black-or-white. There’s very little emotion in there, as emotion is usually associated with the sacral (2nd) chakra. The root is much more primal, even animal, evaluating most situations as life or death, period. So even if the root is just “off balance” the experience of it is more like, “OFF”.

This instinct can be problematic if you’re trying to have a relationship, or do your job, or forgive someone. The root doesn’t make a lot of room for complexity. But that’s it’s function. Let the heart or the mind (4th and 6th chakras) do all that, just don’t let the root make you an animal, desperate for survival. When you use the starkness of the root’s consciousness effectively, it can help you to see your life SIMPLY.

How to activate the root? Acceptance, duh.

I give clients an exercise when their root is wonky - To draw a dot, then surround that dot with words and phrases that remind them of the people places and things in their life that matter to them at this moment. What are the most important circumstances in your life? Job, family, friends, hobbies, vacations, crippling anxiety, unprocessed trauma, addictions. I ask them to go nuts, to let it all out, and to keep the items as close to the dot as possible. The end of the exercise is to draw a line around all these words and to take in the whole mass of circumstances. Look at the whole picture, and accept it as it is. And that’s it. It sounds simple but it’s very powerful. It tends to ground the plug and turn the lights on.

Why? Because when you get it all out and draw a line around it, you are cultivating basic acceptance. The moment you have even a drop of acceptance, guess what happens. RESISTANCE IS NEUTRALIZED.

Yup. The fidgety bastard cousin of acceptance is resistance. I used to think it was struggle. But struggle is natural; avoidable, but natural. Resistance is a waste of time and energy.

Technically, resistance is anything that is not acceptance. And that's where the starkness of the root becomes awesome. If you are doing anything other than accepting, you are resisting. Sometimes resistance is ok. Even rejection. If something is not good for you and you know it, push it away, don't let it in! The problem comes when we are UNCONSCIOUSLY resistant. When you don't know, for whatever reason. Maybe stuff has piled up and you're overwhelmed, maybe you are low energy and in a foul mood. Maybe you're sick. It's all fair game. But if there is unconscious resistance anywhere in your existence... you're wasting time and energy. All the resistance in the world will not yield acceptance. The good news is, just one drop of acceptance neutralizes an ocean's worth of resistance.

I’m offering a 3-dimensional version of the above acceptance/grounding/root chakra exercise. Because it’s 3 dimensional, there’s an added component in there - about how you’re relating to the circumstances of your life. Once you know how you’re relating, you’re basically assessing your level of resistance. Once you know how much you’re resisting, it becomes much easier to accept. Let me know how you the practice vibes with you.

 

An EdibleSpirit Practice for Cultivating Acceptance

  1. Close your eyes, get settled, and take three deep breaths, in through the nose, and out through the mouth.

  2. Imagine yourself surrounded in a perfect, spherical bubble. Spend a moment visualizing the thickness of the bubble, the light, opalescent hue, the simultaneous delicacy and durability.

  3. Invoke the present circumstances of your life. Imagine the most pressing events that have just occurred, that are occurring, or that are about to occur. No big deal, just use the power of your mind to call up the present circumstances of your life. Don’t judge, go with the first stuff that comes up.

  4. As the first set of circumstances arise, imagine the whole event floating up to you INSIDE ITS OWN BUBBLE! The entire kaleidoscope of people, places, and things, feelings, thoughts and beliefs - all the associations with these circumstances are swirling around inside the bubble. As it gets close to you, you can see, hear, feel, and sense the entire situation in the bubble. Spend a few moments just observing the various elements.

  5. Now imagine the event bubble floating closer until it lands on your bubble! As it lands and touches your bubble, notice your immediate reaction. Do you want to pull this bubble to you? Do you want to push it away? Do you not want to do anything? Then go deeper, ask yourself - HOW AM I RELATING TO THESE Circumstances? Am I pulling them to me? Am I pushing them away? Am I touching them lightly? Or am I not engaging at all? Try not to get into complicated feelings, stick with these very visceral responses - pulling in, pushing away, touching gently, or doing nothing. 

  6. Once you get a sense of how you are relating to those circumstances, awesome, good job. Now, simply ask yourself, “What is the most effective way for me to relate to these circumstances?” Pulling in, pushing away, touching gently, or doing nothing. If you’re unsure - PRACTICE! Imagine swatting the event bubble off your own bubble. Imagine pulling it into your own bubble. Imagine gently touching the membrane between the two. Imagine sitting, doing nothing at all.

Which feels right? Which feels best? You can cycle and explore and try different options. You can go through the whole process with another set of circumstances. You can also imagine relationships, conversations, and work projects inside the circumstantial event bubbles. You could even imagine an event which hasn’t happened yet.

The whole point of this exercise is to objectively observe how you are already engaging your life’s circumstances, maybe even subconsciously or unconsciously. Once you have an awareness of how you’re already relating, you then get to decide whether that is the most effective way. You can make your unconscious behavior conscious. Sometimes you’re doing nothing when it’s really time to disengage. Sometimes you’re drawing something to you that you’d really rather do nothing about. Going through these steps will give you a handle on where you’re at regarding basic acceptance or resistance. You get to decide how to proceed from there.

Happy everything, everyone.
All my love
MD

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    Michael Domitrovich Michael Domitrovich

    What the Flip Is Freedom?

    Freedom ain't just a song by George Michael.

    Freedom. It seems like we know what it means.

    Ditto with independence.

    But did you decide on your definitions or were they fed to you like so many burgers and dogs? NOTE: This is not a leading question, and I am not throwing lazy anti-establishment shade at the USA on Independence Day.

    Linda.

    Linda.

    I’m a word-nerd. I like words with multiple meanings, and I even enjoy tracking how meanings change, and when, and in which contexts. What I don’t dig is when I assume I know what a word means and how to use it, when it’s not actually clear.

    When we use words that are defined for us by someone else, without clarifying what they mean to ourselves, stuff can get pretty messy. The problem is that even if the meaning of a word is hijacked, the word doesn’t lose its power. It retains the original power and adds another, often distorted, dimension to it. This distortion seems innocuous but carries concealed toxicity.

    The real trouble hits when the word is used. We use language to express ourselves. But when we express ourselves with someone else’s idea, without knowing that we’re doing so, the storedpoison proliferates, even if it remains undetected. If this goes on for a long time, it’s possible for the poison to spread in ways we can’t imagine, until all of a sudden it’s leached into the earth, air and water and people start dying. Words can actually cost lives. 

    Today is the day the US was born. It’s a birthday! And birthdays are complicated. I wonder if America is nervous that people won’t show up to her party? Or if she feels guilty for being born? Or if she is gonna get inappropriately wasted? Does America get birthday sex?

    We are celebrating her Birth and her freedom! Independence! From the British! Right? Is that what we’re doing today? Or are we celebrating something else?

    Again, I have no horse in this race. I am grateful for what I have. I love the US because I was born here, and I think we’re born where we’re born for a bunch of good karmic reasons. By karmic I don’t mean to imply that we are born where we deserve to be born because we did well or screwed up. I mean that our birth place is part of a huge set of given circumstances that make up the foundation of what we’re working with in this life: what we have, what we don’t, what we have to overcome, what we use to learn.

    Mostly I love the US because I am aware that the freedoms we take for granted here are inconceivable in so many parts of the world. I may have been taught definitions for freedom and independence, but I was eventually able come to my own conclusions about the meaning of the words. The very fact that I can write a post about freedom, today, without someone stopping me is proof of the freedom I have that so many do not. That has to be honored.

    All I want to offer here is how I’m thinking about freedom today, and hopefully to get you thinking about freedom as well.

    Naomi.

    Naomi.

    What does it mean to be free? Is it about escaping tyranny? Then you’re free?

    Is it about overthrowing your oppressors? Conquering? Then you’re free?

    I argue that if your freedom requires you to retreat or attack, it’s not really freedom.

    True freedom, as I see it, cannot be relative to anything. It must be inherent, unconditional, unaffiliated. It must be able to stand alone. Otherwise how can it be free?

    If you have to attack, that’s not freedom because you are being compelled to engage something. If you have to rebel, that’s not freedom because you are still rebelling against something.

    There may be plenty of reasons to fight for freedom (like WWII) or surrender for freedom (like Gandhi), but these reasons are not freedom in themselves. They are actions taken on behalf of freedom, or in the name of freedom. They are actions that use the idea of freedom as a justification.

    This is the equivalent of using a word that you don't know the exact meaning of. It's probably fine at first, until, little by little, it's not fine anymore. Not at all.

    Christy.

    Christy.

    The good news is, there's a little space inside of us all that is always free. I might argue this is the only space inside of us that matters. It is some part of us, somewhere within us, that is totally unconditioned and unaffiliated; that is pure, that is clear, that is free.

    It might be the quietest place within you, or the stillest. It might be the loudest, or the freakiest. But it's there. You'll know it when you encounter it because it feels like you. It is enough. It works. It makes you feel fantastic.

    And most importantly it doesn't require you to DO anything. It needs no step forward or step back, no attack or retreat. It is still, and in it's stillness it is untethered, unfettered, unlimited.

    You are unlimited.

    And yet, the shitstorms keep raining. Awesome. What then?

    When I was a kid I was chubby, and I was really good at floating. Like the best. I didn't like running or jumping or pretty much any sports. I tolerated swimming because I liked the water. But I frickin' LOVED to float. I was the best at floating.

    When I hit puberty I dropped some pounds and then, one summer, at the beach, I realized I couldn't float anymore. I did not like this. My legs kept sinking, my arms flailing, my head bobbing under the water. "Must be cuz I lost weight," I thought. Maybe it was all my blubber that let me chill like a whale. But that wasn't comforting. I loved to float, I was the best floater. I got pissed.

    Getting pissed didn't help. Then one day a wise teacher said to me, "You're tense. Relax, let go, let the water hold you." It was weird. He was right. I struggled some more, then suddenly released, and bam. I was floating again.

    Freedom is like floating. You have to relax into it whenever you get the chance. The problems will come, the atrocities will occur (and it's more and more likely that they will occur, are occurring, and have already occurred outside our own doors), but if you know what YOUR FREEDOM FEELS LIKE, you will smell it, feel it, sense it coming. 

    This is good, because these days, real freedom, real floating is hard to come by without looking for it. You can't just float anymore. You can'tt get too comfortable with your freedom, because the meaning of that word may have changed since you last checked in. But the acceptance, the relaxation, the release required to float are all criteria that can dramatically increase your ability to find freedom in the midst of the crappiest currents.

    Cindy.

    Cindy.

    My mom woke me up too early this AM. I didn't want to wake up. I wanted to rebel, to conquer, I wanted to escape, to go back to sleep, to frickin' whine. But mom was up. She wanted to go the beach. I was not floating. I was not free. I was tired, and I was pissed. I felt the absurdity of myself being an idiot and creating so much unnecessary drama. I put my suit on and went to the beach with my mom. I didn't attack. I didn't retreat. I went to the beach and I sat.

    "This is freedom," I thought. In this moment, I am lucky enough to have no problems. This moment is always available, even if only for a moment. I sat completely still. I wanted to write this feeling down so I could share it. But I didn't dare. I sat so still.

    And THEN the cutest, whiskery-est, slipperiest, greyest seal poked his head out of the water directly in front of where my mom and I were sitting. We jumped! I grabbed my phone and looked up Seal medicine. 

    I found this, from www.shamanicjourney.com: "Seals are (obviously) sea mammals, and are highly symbolic of our feeling, sensual selves. The seal helps us to remember our connection to our deep inner rhythms, feelings, and knowing, as represented by the sea... When we are afraid of drowning in these depths, Seal being a good swimmer and knowing how to flow with the ever changing current, reminds us how to swim with the current. When we do this, the negative feelings we have created such as worry, fear and anxiety are released form our minds. If Seal enters your life you are being asked to review the ebb and flow of your thoughts and emotions and find and keep up a point of balance."

    I like the idea of flowing, so very much. But in that moment, when Seal popped his snout out of the blue, I prefer to think he was floating. Still. Happy. And Free. Whatever he did next would be in his flow. I respected the his flow. It made me want to be like him. Good thing I'm growing my beard out. I dove in the water and practiced.

    This is my best early morning "running seal pose," (photo by my mom). All the gifs are from George Michael's music video, "Freedom 90"

    This is my best early morning "running seal pose," (photo by my mom). All the gifs are from George Michael's music video, "Freedom 90"

    I floated. I flowed. I went up, and down. And I felt pretty free. On this Independence Day, may we all find the perfect balance between flowing and floating. May we all know freedom.

    Millions of thanks to everyone and everything that has created, sustained, and supported true freedom, in the US and around the world. Oceans of love to all those living under tyranny, delusion, and separation. May we all know freedom now. Today.

    With Love and Firecracker Light,
    MD

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    Michael Domitrovich Michael Domitrovich

    A Suggestion for Solstice Ritual

    A suggestion for Summer Solstice Ritual, June 20, 2016

    No overwhelming astrological insights necessary. This is my EdibleSpirit approved suggestion for a Summer Solstice/Strawberry Moon Ritual. More open than you think.

    1. Light a candle and imagine yourself in a protective shell (shape, size and color of your choosing).

    2. Take 7 deep centering breaths, in through your nose and out through your mouth. Every time you exhale, imagine yourself letting go of anything you don't need. See it as grey or black smoke leaving through your mouth or the bottoms of your feet.

    3. Call in your guides, teachers, ancestors, and the spirits of the land upon which you are doing the ritual.

    4. State your intention: "This is a ritual to honor the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year, and the entrance of the sun into the sign of Cancer, home of the Mother. I (or we) are pausing to observe this moment, and to offer thanks to the ridiculous abundance of Mother Earth.

    5. Since the full moon is an appropriate time to release stuff, and the summer solstice is a great time to prune away the weeds that have grown up around healthy intentions - LET SOMETHING GO! Write down 1-3 regrets or limitations that you no longer wish to subscribe to, especially related to your openness. If you've tried to be open and wish you hadn't, if you're beating yourself up about something, or frustrated by something that's holding you back, just write it down.

    6. Place the paper inside a vase. Fill it with water, and place a bunch of flowers in the vase. Set the vase next to the candle. You can leave other offerings if you like (fruit, candies, or cakes, or anything that you love and would love to have offered to yourself)

    7. Make a promise. Write down 1-3 ways in which you are willing to open yourself. To a new job? A new relationship? To some old part of yourself that you've been keeping quarantined. 1-3 ways in which you are promising to open yourself. Keep this on your altar, tack it on the wall, or give it to someone you trust who will remind you of the promises you've made when you need to be reminded.

    8. Pause and ask your guides and ancestors if there are any messages you need to receive. Alternatively just let yourself feel your connection to Spirit, exactly as it is.

    9. Give thanks to Mother Earth, to the sun, moon, stars, and all the cosmic energies in the sky. Thank your guides, your ancestors, your teachers and the spirits of the land beneath your feet. Bow deeply to your heart and let yourself connect with the center of every being everywhere. Then declare the ritual closed. Leave the flowers and offerings for at least 3 days, then release them in a body of water, or bury them in the earth. If you can't do those, just flush them or discard them with gratitude and respect.

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    Michael Domitrovich Michael Domitrovich

    An EdibleSpirit Approach to Job Hunting

    How to hunt for a spiritual job.

    Werk, werk, werk, werk, werk...

    When someone comes to me for a reading or healing, I respect that they, and their concerns, are as unique and significant as the moment we share. Despite this uniqueness, most of the questions and issues that people bring up during a session can be grouped under three (very) broad headings: Life, Love, and Work.

    Life readings are my fave: dealing with big questions about who we are and why we’re here. I also put guidance concerning psychic development and spiritual awakening under the “life” heading as those gifts and realizations usually pop up to illuminate and empower your experience of who you are and why you’re here in this life. 

    I cut my teeth on love readings while working for an international phone psychic line. When I say Love, in this context, I really mean all relationships, including family, friends, acquaintances, colleagues, lovers and spouses. How you relate to others is how you relate to yourself. The way you love others is the way you love yourself, so relationships=love.

    It's me, MD in the midst of a group reading, waving some sage to keep it fresh.

    It's me, MD in the midst of a group reading, waving some sage to keep it fresh.

    While doing love readings, “on the line”, most of my callers were people wanting to know how so-and-so really felt about them or when they would hear from a lost love again. I did my best to answer all the questions posed while guiding callers stay focused on the bigger themes associated with love and relationships:  acceptance, forgiveness, deservedness, trust, communication, and commitment. Working on the line helped me to refine my understanding of how ancient wisdom can be applied to modern problems, and I’ve got a few thoughts on the subject, which I will share down the line.

    Then, in 2008, as the US economy tanked there was a distinct shift in the concerns of my clients, with a much greater emphasis placed on work readings.

    “When will I find work? Will I lose everything? How do I tell my family what’s happening to me?”

    It was such a hard time for so many people, during which the realities everyone faced seemed to shake them to their core. It was difficult for me, too, to stay centered for so many while feeling the depths of their pain.

    But that is my job as a healer - to stay present, calm, and grounded, no matter what my client is going through - to hold space and point the way to the place where all is well and all is whole. That place is always there, in the middle of the moment you are in, waiting to be found.

    Problem is, in the middle of crippling material realities, like unemployment, bankruptcy, shame and fear, the last thing most people want to hear is an immaterial solution.

    “How can my perspective help me when all I need is money for my mortgage?”

    That was tough for me to answer at first. I would consult my guides, my tarot, my higher self and whatever else could help us find clarity, understanding, and acceptance in the midst of the storm. I turned, as always, to the wisdom of the ancients to provide a clear path to positive identification and acceptance in the moment. I knew if we could find that space together, from there, it would be just a few steps, a handful of choices, and a couple commitments before clear skies and smooth sailing were just as valid a reality as the financial tempest that preceded them.

    I’ve done my best to distill everything I ever learned from all those work readings, and the ones still going on today, into the following three reminders for spiritual job-hunting. My hope is that they will help you to infuse your modern grappling with ancient ease, and in so doing give you some spiritual levity in the midst of so much material gravity.

    1. What do you have to do?

    As in, what is your bottom line? This part is between you and your bank account. What do you need? Like really need? To eat, to drink, to sleep, to live. There are certain basic financial realities which cannot be avoided. Sometimes these realities are logical and valid and true, but most often, the fear that people feel around lack, loss, or not having enough make the question of “What is your bottom line?” too scary to answer.

    Alternatively you may think you absolutely most definitely need really fancy eye cream. You probably don’t need a healer to help you decide whether your rent is more important than your eye cream. And I’m not hating on eye cream! Maybe you really do need it. Maybe it’s worth it for you to not eat or drink for a week to have it. I would always choose food over eye cream, but that’s me. 

    My point is that only you know where your bottom line is. Only you can know and decide what you really need to do to meet it. Once you are honest about what you need to survive, you can figure out how to proceed: whether you can make this on your own as you are, whether you have to cut something loose or sacrifice something, whether you need to hustle harder, or ask for help, or do something drastic. Be honest, be clear, do the math, and know your bottom line and what you need.

    This first query corresponds to your root chakra - getting right with where you are, accepting the present as it is, and in that place of acceptance and presence, taking the first steps in the direction of your choosing.

    2. What do you really, truly, want to do?

    If there were no bottom line, if money was no object, if you had all of your druthers, a pie in the sky, and a pipe dream par excellence, what would you do? Shoot for the stars, please, and be really honest no matter how crazy it seems.

    We give up our dreams so easily! If you’re workin’ 9-5 but would rather be a freelance photographer, STOP pretending like you’re good with your 9-5. Admit it raw! I want this! I want to be a photographer, a designer, a rockstar, WHATEVER. This is such a necessary step as it gives you something to work for, a professional guiding star.

    And it doesn’t have to be that big of a deal either. What you want can be work-related. Maybe you’re in a position of minor responsibility and major work, and you would prefer more responsibility but less work… ADMIT IT. Maybe you don’t even have or want a big ass dream. Maybe you want more time to garden. Maybe you want more time to do nothing. Maybe you “just” want a family and love to balance out your career. Then please, be clear, and don’t keep working towards infinite fame and fortune. Know your bottom line, meet it in the work you’re doing, and then save the rest of the energy to apply to that which you truly desire.

    This query corresponds to your sacral chakra - allowing yourself to want, to desire, to yearn -  and honoring your desires without judging them as unreasonable or frivolous or absurd. This is the key to spiritual peace in the middle of material chaos (and one of the hardest parts of the practice)- keeping the channel of hope and possibility open despite having no visible, tangible, 3-dimensional reason to do so.

    3. How are you maintaining the balance between what you want to do and what you have to do?

    This is not theoretical, or a one shot deal. You don’t just figure out the balance and leave it at that. Balance is discovered while the boat is rocking back and forth. It requires constant adjustment and eternal refinement, and that’s ok. The point is to keep the whole spectrum (from what you have to do to what you want to do) on your radar.

    The easiest way to do this is to write all of it down. Just answer the above question: What do you have to do? What do you really want to do? Write each answer on opposite sides of a piece of paper draw a circle around each, and draw a line to connect the two. This is your work spectrum.

    You can be more specific - formulating a clear plan of attack to get to where you want to be, but you know what they say about best-laid-plans. Things happen. Things change. Sometimes your responsibilities will prevent you from taking action in the direction of your dreams and the balance will tip in favor of what you have to do. Other times, your obligatory load will lift, and the energy freed up will be able to find its way into that which you truly desire to engage. Your mission is not to control the war, but to maintain a birds-eye-view of the battlefield and be ready when the energy of stagnation and struggle gets freed up. 

    This energy will always flow in the direction of least resistance, aka towards what your heart, soul, and spirit truly wish to embody and express… but if you have no clear intention, it’s going to take longer to find its way there.

    Maybe you forget yourself for a moment, or a day, or two. Maybe you’re throwing a hissy-fit. Maybe something horrible happens. Maybe you just decide there’s no point to dreaming and you should just make do with what you’ve got, no need to go wanting something else… All of these responses are fine! It’s ok for you to lose your way, just please, please, don’t let a moment of confusion make you conclude that you don’t want anything.

    This all corresponds to the solar plexus chakra - what are you doing, what action are you taking, and most importantly, what are you committed to. By clarifying your commitment it becomes so much easier to effectively apply your will/energy/life force to the achievement of your goals.

    NOTE: You are not multitasking here - there are two extremes, what you have to do and what you want to do, and your only task is to acknowledge those poles, honor the balance, maintain it, and keep both present in your mind and experience.

    Then, every moment you breathe and every choice you make can be an opportunity to remind yourself of the field upon which you are playing. We are all somewhere between where we have to be and where we want to be. It’s pretty empowering to call out those poles, because by identifying the extremes and edges of our experience, we can remind and reassure ourselves that the midway between where we have to be and where we want to be is exactly where we are. 

    One last thought: There really is no such thing as a spiritual job, but there is such a thing as work that is aligned with your spirit. That work is going to change every time you change - because YOU are what the work is aligning to. The longer you attend to the balance along this spectrum, the more momentum, mojo and magic you accumulate, the more likely it is that you will eradicate all separation between what you have to do and want to do. Meanwhile, the guidance offered here is to help you prioritize the needs of your spirit without denying the realities of your existence. 

    Happy working, happy transitioning, happy hunting, happy finding.

    With love and new-paradigm light,
    MD

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