Hello, dear ones --

It's the longest night of the year. Tonight is dark, dark and it looks like the light will never, ever return. But! tomorrow, the light starts returning, bit by bit. Hold on: it will be brighter, even in deepest February.

I hope tonight you are cuddling with your loved one(s), whether human, four-legged, or Other. That you're drinking something that warms your soul. That you are in touch with your deepest dreams. That you feel, in your deepest self, that small radiance that grows as you give it attention. That you understand that you are part of the Great Design: you, the waves in the ocean, the slow movement of the tectonic plates, the whirl of the stars; all related, all connected.


I have a very strong positive feeling about 2009. If you know your soul's deepest desires, this is the year you can release lots of energy to make it happen. If you don't, this is the year it comes up for you so you can look at it and embrace it.

Enjoy the ride! Enjoy the sights, the smells, the sounds, the people along the way. You are blessed, now and into the New Year, with your own best blessing.

I'll be around this holiday season, cleaning, walking, celebrating my connection to the natural cycle. The website will be undergoing some redesign; I hope to be finished by my birthday (which is when, you ask? January 2, thanks!) I can be reached at heartpsychic8@aol.com, and I'd love to hear from you. Please let me know how you're doing.

with much love and hopes for peace,

Duffi

Darkness and Joy

Hello, dear ones......

It's getting darker out there, isn't it? Not only are we stepping towards the darkest part of our astronomical year, but the news seems very grim. People losing jobs; their homes; continued deaths of our soldiers in Iraq. The tensions between Pakistan and India are really high. The crises in Africa keep getting worse. It seems that no continent is immune from disaster.

Do you think I'd leave you in such a grim place? Truly, at the deepest part of our souls, we are safe. Source, Spirit, Goddess, whatever your name for It is, there is where it rests. A small candle, sometimes, but the radiance is always, always there. Sometimes hard to find: a tiny star in deepest night.

So breathe deeply, dear ones, and feel at that deep place that there is light for you. Whatever your circumstance, wherever you are on your life's journey: the deepest of beauties is in your soul. Expansive beyond your imagination: light. Breathe it in, and feel it permeate your being. Breathe it out, and share it with the world.

Be well, be safe, as we step down this spiral staircase, and come to the deepest place of all.

hiatus

I'm on hiatus until after Thanksgiving. If you choose to email me, I'll respond within 48 hours.


Be well and be at peace during these weeks. If you're travelling, may you travel safely.

Tattoos

Those of you who follow this blog know I'm been promising to write about tattoos for a while. I'm having a really tough time getting started. I've gotten some reflections from a few people; but I could use more. If you have one, or more, and would like to share a few thoughts with me, please email me at heartpsychic8@aol.com. I'll keep your details private; I just need something to work off of.


Thanks!

From One Darn Good Psychic - re: the Election

I'm on the mailing list for One Darn Good Psychic. Her post of today is a classic: a great story, well-told, and notes a huge energy shift for the United States. I didn't see this at all, but I've felt tiny drops of it. Somehow, in my area, we're all a little more relaxed than we were. And everybody is talking about Obama.

So, from One Darn Good Psychic: today's post about our historic Presidential election:

(NB: Her "Chorus" is one of her sources for psychic information.)

Tuesday night, I watched a miracle happen. It had less to do with an election that I expected to be tougher than it was. It had more to do with the energy I saw.
Now - my perspective goes back to the sixties, and a college student, not as ditzy as some of my peers – I was much too conservative to protest the Vietnam war, experiment with drugs, or participate in ‘love ins’. But, I did have ‘my bag’ as they called it. Mine was about promoting race relations.
It was a horrible time for non-whites, much more horrible than many of my white peers, who avoided the problem could imagine.
For instance, in the May of 1966, my white roommate from Rochester Minnesota and I had rented an apartment in St. Paul, but she chose to go back home for the summer, where she had a job. In the interim, I needed to find a roommate to pay for expenses.
It did not dawn on me that a black coed from New York City, a daughter of two professionals from Harlem, and a graduate of a New York private school, would be a problem to the landlady/caretaker of an apartment house in St. Paul, Minnesota.
The caretaker had a fit to think that a black person would be rooming in her building, and did everything in her power to try to invalidate the lease. When she realized she couldn’t without “having stones thrown at her building” she reluctantly ‘allowed’ my black roommate to live in our apartment for the summer.
This did not mean that there was not all kinds of harassment. We got the worst days to do our laundry, I got complaints from the landlady about my roommate having a black boyfriend visiting her, and even more about her playing her guitar at ten o’clock in the morning because she had white tenants who worked nights. My roommate knew nothing about this. I think my landlady feared her, so I got the complaints, and felt the ‘manure’ should stop with me..
That same summer, my belief that ‘interracial marriages were the hope of the world’ led me to meeting, and marrying a Native American, then a GI on his way to Vietnam.
He came back from Vietnam alive, but traumatized, and we had three sons together before our marriage dissolved. We were married for seven years, though some of that time he was stationed overseas.
When I married him, I had no idea that racism also extended to Native Americans – and their spouses. I was both horrified and outraged.
As my children grew, they also bore the brunt of racism. This, I could never understand. Yes, their last name was Ojibwa, but they were descendants of medicine men and shamen of their father’s tribe. And they were raised by their college educated Yankee mother, not their father, so they were raised as white middleclass Americans.
Also, during the time I was married to my sons’ father, I had the chance to interact with people of various cultures, including those who were African American, then still a pretty isolated group.
I can remember one incident in Connecticut, as we were preparing to move back to Minnesota, when a young black man who my ex worked with came to our house to buy a washer-dryer we were selling.
The year was 1970. The man was a very responsible, stable, caring, and hardworking person who sat in our kitchen complaining about how the white man’s culture could not even acknowledge that he and his family were human beings.
He had not been gone more than a half hour when the caretaker of my apartment – a lazy dysfunctional abusive woman - came to my apartment complaining that they would not tolerate people like our black visitor coming onto the premises.
It took considerable effort on my part to contain my outrage and not to give her a piece of my mind – which would not have done any good and might have given her grounds for eviction. But I could not help but think the young black man who visited us had three times the integrity and functionality of this person who thought she was superior simply because her skin was white.
Now, let’s fast forward to 1990: After more than a year of scrimping and saving, I managed to create enough money to take a pilgrimage with a large psychic group to Egypt.
It was my first trip out of the country and very difficult. But one of the things I noticed while in that country was that the Nubian (black) population of Egypt carried a much different energy than the American blacks.
The difference, I puzzled out, was that, on an energy level, they did not feel or see themselves as second class citizens. Once I recognized it for what it was, I immediately felt total compassion for most of the people with black skin (or anyone other nonwhite) in my native land who had to deal with the energy of being second class citizens, no matter how extraordinary they happened to be.
Since the 1960’s, there have been a lot of changes. But one of the constants has been that the majority of our American nonwhite population, no matter how hard they worked, or how they consciously felt, still needed to deal with that energy, on a group mind level, of being second class citizens.
And then Obama, who many call black, but who I call multiracial, was pronounced President Elect.
And, in that moment, there was an energy shift, so profound that it took my breath away.
No longer does the African American, the Native American, the Asian American, or the Hispanic American need to deal with that horrible ‘second class’ energy. In the matter of seconds, it vanished!
No matter how successful Barack Obama is in his term, and I pray, for all our sakes, he will be that beyond even his wildest dreams, his election has changed the racial dynamics in this country forever. That is no surprise – lots of people are saying that – but I doubt many of them saw the profound energy change.
And, of course this energy had less to do with Obama, but the change within the group mind of our nation; it is the release of a toxin impacting all races, held in the hearts of all who live here that began with the enslavement of captured Africans, the near genocide of the Native American, and the exploitation of Asian immigrants.
So today I realize that one of my extremely bright grandchildren, still enough Native American to be enrolled members of a Minnesota tribe, and all bearing Native American surnames, could someday be President of the United States, if s/he so chose.
And I imagine that, in millions of homes around the nation, the parents and grandparents of minorities and/or interracial children are realizing the same thing.
It truly is the beginning of a new time!
If you recall, my Chorous spoke to the election being a test of consciousness of the group mind of the American people.
I think we might have passed.

How we are all connected

Indra's Net is one of my favorite analogies. Thanks to Rob Breszny for putting this in his weekly astrology email:

The Net of Indra is a profound and subtle metaphor for the structure of reality. Imagine a vast net; at each crossing point there is a jewel; each jewel is perfectly clear and reflects all the other jewels in the net, the way two mirrors placed opposite each other will reflect an image ad infinitum.

The jewel in this metaphor stands for an individual being, or an individual consciousness. Every jewel is intimately connected with all other jewels in the universe, and a change in one jewel means a change, however slight, in every other jewel.

- Stephen Mitchell, *The Enlightened Mind*


This is exactly right. Any progess that you make, tiny or large, helps shift everyone else. And we are all beautiful......

VOTE!!!!

I don't do politics in this blog. (Now, in my private life.....) Wherever you are on the political spectrum, you know that it's your duty to vote this year. Of all years. In your life. So just go do it! Tomorrow! Take a book, stand in line, think positive thoughts about......whatever. Just, really, go.

Tomorrow, some beginning notes on tattoos. Really, truly. In the meantime.....


VOTE TOMORROW. Please.

For those of you doing spiritual practice tonight...

GROUNDING is key.


Ground before. Ground after.


Use your favorite technique, or stand outside on the earth in bare feet -- for those of you in New York City......improvise.


This is a night for expansive spiritual work of many kinds. You yourself can expand your ability to open to guidance, or to new friends in the spirit world.


Grounding before will help keep you safe. Grounding after will create a vehicle for excess energies to leave your body and your aura.


Eat, too. Something...grounding. Like potatoes. Or meat.





May you be well, may you be at peace, may you fly beautifully and land safely this Halloween night.


with love, Duffi







ps. If you need help with techniques, search for grounding exercises on this blog.

Dreaming in Darkness

Hello dear ones,

The veil between our reality and others is thinning by the minute. The moon is waning, and we are in the dark moon time. She turns on Wednesday night - 7ish pm EDT, for those who want to know - and we starting moving into the light again. And at Halloween, we can see deeply, in ways we usually can't. Further, more deeply, more clearly. The sight is there for you if you choose it.

Darkness, outside, is a beautiful thing. Get away from the city, into the desert, or at least a suburb, and look up. We live in outer space! On earth, we ride a small blue jewel in the vastness of deep, deep darkness. We glow. The darkness sets us off, like black velvet does the diamond.

Spend some time in the next few days meditating on or thinking about that which you'd like to release: a bad habit, a toxic relationship, a way of seeing that no longer serves you. Sweep out your inner self. Fast, if you like, or just drink lots of water and allow toxicity to leave you. On Tuesday night, join me as I light a black candle, and burn a small piece of paper with words on it that symbolize that which I want to release. (Make sure to have a fire-proof bowl with you to drop the paper into!) Then flush those ashes down the toilet, or give them to the wind. It's over, you're done, that thing will pass from your life. Feel how much lighter you are....in the darkness, sacred soft darkness, the cave of possibility, the Void from which comes all things.


Prepare to dance on Halloween.


with love, Duffi

Readings, Redux

I'm restructuring the way I do my readings.

I'm not requiring pictures for any of the readings. If you want a full picture of your physical state, a casual snapshot of your face is helpful, but not required.

I am also feeling like some aspects of your future may be available when we speak together. Nothing is ever written in stone energetically; you can frequently change the outcome of your situation by changing how you address it.

To book a reading, send an inquiry to heartpsychic8@aol.com. We'll set up a mutually agreeable time. I tend to work fast, so most readings, at least initially, will be a half-hour.

If you have a pressing issue, I am at this point available with 24 hours notice.


May you be well.

OCTOBER

Remember your Keats: "Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness." Only here we've not had mists. The volunteer grape tomato plants in the messy neglected garden are ripe; we pick them off the vine and munch away. The overwhelmingly large buddleia has become a pit stop for the monarch outliers that come through our area; we've seen as many as three at a time stopping and sipping. We also have several volunteer buddleias, one of which must be dug up before the Phlox that Ate Kensington is overmatched. And I need to trim back the lavender before too long. We're definitely in fall.

October is one of my favorite months. The sweet transition to winter, with it's colors and smells, has always cheered me up. I didn't have fall where I grew up, just a rainy season in February. Boring. All this change! though I've been in this area since 1978, still comes as a surprise.

What fruits are you storing for your winter? What treasures are you laying aside so in the long cold months ahead you have something to look at that is beautiful? What is your body saying to you now? Do you want more exercise? More sleep? Should you be stretching, or moving, differently, to prepare you for winter? And what experiences do you want to have this fall? I'm going to try as many new apple varieties as I can lay my hands on. The MidAtlantic region has lots of different kinds, some specific to us.

Winter is coming. This is a beautiful transitional time. Make the most of it, however you can.

Upcoming Topics

Yes, well, I've been down for the count. The count having finished, I'm back up. I've restarted my thinking on two topics: tattoos, and the "minor" chakras in the fingers. I'll be posting soon about both.

Remember, too, that the season has changed, both astrologically and visibly. Look around you and see where you are. Remember your grounding, and put your roots down (even those of you who travel a lot can do this; as humans, our roots come with us) where you are. Feel the earth as it turns and whirls in its dance through space.

So what kind of psychic are you anyway?

Well, I’m concerned with health, and with the management of individual energy.

I teach people how to manage what they have, and how to plug into the Great Source for more, for an endless supply. If you know what your issues are, and your blockages, and what stops you; then, you know which chakras are not working so well, and which are closed off; then you can open up, and loosen up, and deal with your issues, and experience a much deeper, fuller, fizzier sense of yourself.

Each of us comes in with stuff that we carry from previous lives, energetic patterns that we deal with throughout this life. Add to that what our parents were, and what they taught us; our schooling; our early adult choices. So you have a rich stew, bubbling with mistakes, dysfunction, and also joy, connection, and deep experiences.

What I can do for you is to help you figure these patterns out from an energetic perspective. Then I can give you the tools so you can reconfigure what doesn’t work for you, either by shifting the pattern, or by calling in larger, higher, deeper energies to erase or redraw the pattern, so that your life can work better. Maybe you’re going through a period where you just can’t get enough sleep. After the patented Duffi Lecture about how important sleep is, and how you need to at least try to get enough, and how you must make up this deficit as soon as you can!, I can help you plug into sources of energy outside yourself so that getting through this period of not enough sleep doesn’t do quite as much damage.

This work is great stuff. Not always simple, but always effective, and sometimes in surprising ways.

Illness......

is always, always a teacher.

I don't hold with those who say we create our own reality. By that same token, I don't hold with the idea that we call the illnesses to us that we need to teach us whatever spiritual lesson we need to learn. Let's not blame the victim, shall we?

However, I know that in my own life, when I'm sick, there's something for me to learn in the illness. Even with the serious illnesses that I've had, there's a lesson or two or twelve embedded within the illness, whether it's the illness itself, or how I'm dealing with it, or what lead up to it, or how I'm treating it.

Currently, I have a bronchial infection. (No, you won't be reading yucky details!) Now, I smoked in my partially-misspent youth. For ten years. A serious habit, a pack to a pack-and-a-half a day. Next year, it'll be 30 years since I had my last cigarette. I'm clear that one of the reasons that my colds, if not caught early, go to my chest is residual damage to my lungs. Is the damage dreadful? Nah. But I do have to be more vigilant than those who never smoked, or who smoked less, or for less time, about colds, so that they don't go to my lungs.

From another angle, the lungs start at the top of the third chakra, and come up into the right and left sides of the heart. So a bronchial infection is partially about personal power and all the issues related to the heart. For me, the infection always ends up embedded in the deeper parts of the lung. So it's more about how I'm managing my personal power.

See how rich this stuff is?

Hurricanes

The East Coast of the US and Canada, not to mention the Caribbean, are currently being thwacked with a series of hurricanes. No end in sight (unless Josephina poops out). So I'd ask all my readers and those who visit to pray for/send positive energy to/think strong positive thoughts, for our whole slice of Earth.

Following hurricanes is a small passion of mine. (I'm a weather geek.) One of my best memories of this year is following the massive Western storm with my sister, who lives on the West Coast of the US. She was on her computer, I was on mine, and we were talking via cellphone. The storm was huge, as large as those in The Day After Tomorrow (the weather geek's movie).

Let's not forget that when these storms pass Boston, they can swing up into Nova Scotia and other parts of Northeastern Canada and do damage. So our positive practice has to continue until the storm reaches the open ocean.

FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO PRAY, OR SEND GOOD VIBES...

pray for New Orleans and the whole Gulf Coast. It's going to hit earlier than predicted, and very hard.

They need everything we can give them.

Hold them in your hearts

for those of you who are new to this blog

You might want to explore some of the earlier posts; the basic information about chakras; how confidential my work is (in a word, very); the grounding information. There's a lot here that you will find useful. Play around. I'm open to questions or comments. If you need privacy, send me an email at heartpsychic8@aol.com.

May you be peaceful and well this Labor Day weekend.

Hand Chakras

I've been working through old papers from my primary teacher, and found a fascinating piece on the chakras in the hand. As those of you who have been reading this blog know, there is a chakra in the palm of the hand. There is also a smaller one on the wrist, situated just below the fatty part of the palm, where the major veins appear. There are also smaller ones at the pads of the fingers and on the pad of the thumb. I haven't played with them yet, but I will and I will report back.

The density and complexity of our energetic system is a source of constant fascination and delight.

OT: Manhattan

All I had to do was put my bags down on the sidewalk and I was happy. Yesterday, the Met! (Turner, brand-new African art, Osiris, Thoth, 18th century panoramic painting of Versailles, a painting of Ariadne!, the roof garden). The visual stimulation of just walking down the street is magnificent. I love me some D.C., but this is a whole different level. Today the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors, perhaps the Rubin. Certainly endless walking. Home Sunday.

Stress, Rest, and Illness

Stress is part of daily life in any culture. Today we are perhaps more stressed than ever, since we subject ourselves to endless information through television, radio, and our personal electronics; since we eat food that has come a great distance, which was grown with pesticides; since we breathe polluted air. If you travel with any regularity, your stress is even greater. The body needs time to process everything.

Build rest into your schedule. If your schedule does not permit regular, restorative rest, then take a hard look at your schedule. Perhaps you (like so many of us!) are trying to do too much in too short a space of time. Your nervous system needs time to integrate your experiences; your digestion needs to catch up with your meals; your immune system needs to clean out the unknown germs that come from other people. Even a young, healthy body needs rest; or it will get sick.

Illness is, first, a signal from the body that's something wrong. Much drug therapy is more about covering up symptoms than healing first causes. Supplementation, under proper guidance, can be part of rebuilding the body's defense systems and allow the body to return to balance. Illness, untreated, can evolve into something more chronic, which is harder to treat. Taking a look at the chakras closest to the illness can give you a hint about what the energetic root cause is. Sinus trouble? Look to your third eye; what do you not want to see? or what are you seeing too much of? Nausea? Depending on it's location, either third chakra, second chakra, or perhaps a mix; what can't you stomach? what can't you move out of yourself? A second chakra issue can be about deeper digestion or about sexual expression. Tailbone hurt? First chakra; is there a survival issue at play?

If you've read, or have been reading, this blog, you have some great tools at your disposal to help you read your illnesses for their root energetic causes; and some self-treatment options, too.

HeartPsychic will be posting...

pretty erratically for the next three weeks. I do check my email (heartpsychic8@aol.com) every day, regardless of where I am or what I'm doing. So if you need to get in touch with me, you can. I will answer all email within 24 hours.

For the very sensitive among us

Remember that you can only take so much. You may think that you can do a very long day of working and talking; and go to a concert or the theater that night. Maybe for a day or two; but you need rest, space, time to recuperate. To process all the images that are in your brain; to feel all the feelings that were put aside so that you could forge ahead. To think, quietly, to yourself about what happened. To listen to your inner voice. To find your true center.

Some of us live alone precisely because too much human interaction is wearing. We love our fellow humans! but they take up psychic space. And we need time away from them to appreciate them. Quiet; space; time alone. These are essentials, necessities for those of us who are the very sensitive.

Tutorial III: High Heart

The high heart is situated out in the energy field and is a soft pink. In most of us, the high heart is fairly small and a pretty compact energy. It is a connection point for Spirit as well as a manifestation of Spirit in the field.

DAVID COOK AMERICAN IDOL PERFORMANCES

Idol performance - Happy Together

Starting from the bottom --Cook’s feet are well grounded. Most of the performance comes out of the root chakra and the second, which are really activated. This is a very physical performer. His third is almost flat in front. There's a hooded quality to most of the performance. When he projects forward, it's through his heart and his third eye, but it's pointed rather than round. When I got up to the third eye, I saw it so clearly: he's sick! There was a definite sinus infection and a possible migraine in place. He has a hard time staying connected to Spirit when his hair is flat (at least at this stage in the game). He compensates for the erratic nature of the individual chakras and the flows between the chakras by walking backwards and forwards on the stage. So Cook may not be conscious of his chakra flows; but he compensates for those lacks.

Idol performance - Eleanor Rigby

Cook’s heart is open when he starts singing. There is a tiny flash of the high heart right at the beginning. He runs a grounding line down his right leg and out his foot, and send a line up to Spirit through his right shoulder. Whoa, never seen that before.
His third eye flashes open and shut; his throat is withholding a little bit. He swings in and out of a "familiar" way of singing (half-smile) to the edge of his capability. He pulls himself in a little and becomes contained in a lozenge of his own energy.
Then he flings his arms wide! and he takes over the entire stage energetically; it's as if wings on his back unfurled with a snap and stretched all the way out to the edge of the stage. He steps back, into his own unfurled energy; pulls back just a bit; then steps forward and brings all of that energy with him.It's all very full and rich. He isn't reaching out deliberately but the energy is very compelling. He is in command.

BOUNDARIES AND PERMISSIONS

The more I do this work, the more aware I am of the boundaries around sharing the information that I see. Even walking down the street, each of us has an individual, implied privacy to our energies; our energies belong to us, not to the world. When I was first coming into my ability to see, I would see stuff in people all the time.

When I read a performer’s energies, I feel like I have been given permission to do so, since the performance is public and shared. Especially with David Cook, who found a way to energetically reach through the camera, this permission is implicit in the performance; he wanted to reach the audience

There is a huge difference between reading someone's performance energy (this is closed, that is open) and the more detailed work that I usually do. The insights come whether I ask or not; anything that seems private to me (such as disease processes, information about family members, old injuries) stays that way.

For those of you saying to yourselves: "Why is she posting this?!" My next post will be two performances by David Cook during American Idol.

TIPS FOR QUICK GROUNDING

We don't always have time for a full grounding meditation. Here are some ways to bring ourselves back into our bodies that I have found helpful.

*Rock back on your heels. Best done barefoot, you can also do this in sneakers, flat-heeled boots (cowboy boots are fine), and any flat shoes. Stand up straight and rock back very gently until you can feel the very back of the bottom of your heel. Take a deep breath. You've connected to your feet.

*Take a deep breath, and imagine on the exhale that there's a line going from your root chakra all the way down the back of your legs. The line stops at the grounding point mentioned above.

*Notice your belly. Are you holding it in? If so, take a deep breath, and on the exhale, release your belly. Feel the bottom of it, sitting just above your pubic line.

*If you're sitting down, rock very gently back and forth on your bottom. On the inner edge, just outside the root chakra, are two protrusions from your pelvic bones. In yoga, these are called the sitz (or sit) bones. Bring your awareness to the point where these bones are contacting your chair or seat.



Practiced regularly, these quick grounding exercises can increase your feeling of being in your body.

MANAGING YOUR ENERGY

We live in very busy, even hectic times. A lot of us spend our time running from activity to activity. It's important for us to manage our energies well, so that we can fulfill our responsibilities. (We should also all back off a little from taking on too much, but that's a topic for another time.)

Previously, I've suggested two ways to get in touch with Earth energy, by grounding and by specifically connecting to wherever you are on the Earth. Now it's time to take a look at aiding your chakras in their daily activity.

A first step is to become aware of your chakras on and off through your day. Standing in line? Touch into your chakras. Sitting on a bus or a plane? Close your eyes, and touch into your chakras. A simple awareness of where each is and what state each one is currently in can be helpful.

You might also want to meditate on each. Take a few minutes, and bring your awareness to your root chakra. How does it feel to you? How does it look? (What you see and feel is real.) If it seems to need attention, bring light to it by imagining it surrounded by light and feel the richness of its attendant color. It's my bias that you should start with the root chakra and move up.

Sometimes you'll find that one in particular feels off to you. It's our American idea that the direct way is always the best. I've found that this isn't necessarily true. Bringing light to first the lower, then the higher chakra, can surround the one that feels off in light, and allows it to feel safe. Then bring light to it, as above.

Experiment, and you'll find what feels best to you. Remember, what you see and feel is real.

CONNECT TO THE EARTH

It’s critical at this time in our history as human beings for us to feel the Earth, to connect to the Earth. Regardless of what is going on in your life right now, five minutes outside breathing the air (I hesitate to say “fresh”, since many of us live in cities or in areas where the air is polluted) will help you be connected with the Earth.

Try this: go outside, wherever you are. Even if you are very busy, you can do this. If it has to be from a balcony, a loading dock, or on the sidewalk, so be it; but go outside. If you can be barefoot, that’s ideal. We work with ourselves however we are, though, so socks or shoes are fine if that’s what you can do. Don’t let the details keep you from doing this!

Stand up as straight as you can, putting your feet under your hips. Drop your shoulders, and close your eyes. Take a long, slow deep breath in, then out. Allow your consciousness to feel the air on your skin. Note the quality of the air: warm? Cool? Damp? Dry? Whatever you feel, note it.

Open your eyes. Where’s the sun? If it’s nighttime, is the moon out? Can you see stars? What season is it? What time of day is it – not from your watch, but from what you see? Is there wind? What direction is it coming from?

Just keep breathing. Just keep looking. Note the plants, if there are any; what do you see? Are there animals anywhere near you? Even in the depths of Manhattan, there are birds -- and more than one kind. It doesn’t matter if you can name the birds, the animals, or the plants; just note them.

We all know that our Earth is in trouble. And we need to get beyond the pain of environmental degradation to the daily pleasure that is being a part of the whole. A daily practice, a five minute practice, of simply noting where we are, goes a long way towards healing our relationship with the Earth. It keeps us aware of our connection.

We’re as much physical creatures as we are creatures of mind or creatures of Spirit. We are a unique blend. Connecting to the Earth is an essential part of keeping ourselves whole.



NB: It’s not my practice to post Sundays; but there’s an urgency to this today.

FOOT AND HAND CHAKRAS

The most important "secondary" chakra sites are in the feet and the hands. Since my bias is to move from the Earth upward, let's start with the feet.

The foot chakra rests between the ball of the foot and the large pad just before the toes. I've never seen a color, nor read about one, associated with this chakra. As with any other chakra, this appears as a spinning wheel and can be open, closed, collapsed inward, or pushed foreward. The foot chakra's purpose is to be a secondary grounding site; it is also a place to touch Earth energies.

The hand chakra appears in the palm of the hand. Again, there is no color attached to this chakr. The hand chakra, in some systems, is attached to the heart chakra by an energetic pathway that leads up the arm to the heart. This chakra brings energy in, and also sends energy out. In massage therapists. touch healers, and energy healers, this is the spot where healing energy leaves the body system to move into the client. When you first experience energy in your body, frequently this is where it happens. You can even feel it yourself by doing this exercise: rub your hands together until your hands feel warm. Rest your hands, palms together. Then very slowly move your hands apart. You'll feel a subtle buzzing: that's energy.




Information on these chakras specific to rock musicians can be found at: www.myspace.com/duffimac in the blog

CLEANING YOUR FIELD

It feels important at this stage to give you some ideas about keeping your energies clean. We all pick up energetic debris, as we pick up dirt as we go about our daily lives. Our bodies need washing; so, too, does our energy field.

An Epsom salt bath is a classic way to clean your field. Lay in the bath for about 20 minutes, into which two handfuls of salts have been dissolved. This is equally effective in the shower. Starting from the feet, use a handful or two and scrub your body, paying particular attention to the chakra centers. Intention is important here. If you’re in a hurry, just use a smidge on each chakra center. Rinse thoroughly; these are salts and if left to dry on your skin you’ll itch. During times of intense effort, this can be done daily. Otherwise, once a week or so is fine.

Using a sage bundle is also an option. Light the end of it, and use the resultant smoke from the bottom of your feet to the top of your head. (Yes, it smells like pot.) You can find sage bundles at most alternative bookstores. Kitchen sage is also fine, though leaf is preferable to rubbed. Light a small batch of it in a fire-safe bowl or plate, and proceed as above. Doing this in a hotel room is not recommended; you could set off a fire alarm with the smoke.

If you’re doing intense work with the public, you might consider wearing a small quartz crystal. Clear quartz is best for this purpose. The crystal will absorb a lot of negativity. Cleanse it daily by holding it under running water.

A BRIEF TUTORIAL II: CHAKRA COLORS AND FUNCTIONS

A note on language: Lower does not mean less important; higher does not mean more. It’s a mistake to think that the body is a lesser part of the human journey, and the spirit the greater. We are humans: integrated systems, with at least 3 major components: body, mind, and spirit.

There is some disagreement over the color that each healthy chakra should display. (If you want to make yourself completely nuts, know that Tibetan tradition posits 5 chakras rather than seven. There are other chakra systems, too. Everything is mutable.) There’s agreement over the 3 lower chakras; it’s as we look higher that there’s disagreement. There’s also disagreement, once you reach chakra 3, about what functions each chakra manifests. The system I present here is both my understanding from observation and where I’ve come to rest after some study of the material.

The root chakra is red, a rich clear red. It supports physical survival and connection to the Earth. (see Grounding, below.)

The second, or belly chakra, is orange, like – an orange! It serves sexuality and lower-digestive functions.

The third, or sacral chakra, is bright yellow. It is the center of Mind, and digestive functions in general, specifically upper colon, small intestine, and stomach.

The fourth, or heart chakra, is a bright green, though not a Kelly green. It is the heart! and serves as the organizer of our emotional lives, as well as the physical heart and the lungs. It is the bridge to the “higher” chakras, and is the mediator to the human body of Spirit. *

The fifth, or throat chakra, is a vivid royal blue. It is the center of our ability to communicate with ourselves, with each other, and with Spirit; as well as the physical throat.

The sixth, or third eye chakra, is a deep indigo blue. It is the center of “high” sight, the unfelt compassion of looking at things as they truly are, as well as the physical eyes.

The seventh, or crown chakra, is a very pale lavender, or bright white. (I’ve seen both; neither seems normative over a large sample of humans.) It is the entryway for spiritual communication, and our connection to our “higher” selves.




*An interesting theory: the heart brings Spirit “down” from the upper chakras. Spirit, resting in the heart, infuses blood with soul, life, Itself. An idea to play with.

A BRIEF TUTORIAL: ENERGY, CHAKRAS, THE FIELD

We are all made up of energy. In fact, according to my limited understanding of current thoughts in physics, we are more space than solid. Our energies move through our physical bodies in a variety of ways.

One of the oldest understandings of energies coalescing in the body (and beyond) comes from India: the chakra system. It is foundational to energy studies.

Each of us has, according to this system, seven major chakras in our physical bodies. Going from top to bottom, they are:

The root chakra, at the base of the spine,

The second chakra, about mid-belly,

The third chakra, about 2 inches up from the belly button;

The heart chakra, in the center of the chest;

the throat chakra,

The third eye chakra, up from between the eyebrows about an inch;

and the crown chakra at the top of the head.

These look like spinning wheels (chakra means wheel in Sanskrit). Each has its attendant color and function, which I will post tomorrow.
There are also chakras in the palms of the hands and the mid-point of the bottom of the feet.

The aura is the energy field created by the chakras, and by the intention of the individual. I call it the field since "aura" sounds really flaky, even to me!

GROUNDING

Tonight, I'll post what I had promised earlier. Now, I feel strongly that it's time to address a neglected skill: grounding.


For anyone doing trance work, meditation, performance, or public speaking (please, add your own favorite activity of this kind here!), the ability to be present in your body is very important. There are energy pathways in the body that provide for an energy connection with the ground, i.e. the Earth. For some, this is a literal, felt connection; for others, it's a connection that takes place through visualization or in the mind.


One can ground through the feet, or out the spine. It's important to know how to do both, since a leg injury may make grounding through the feet problematic for those whose connection is a felt one. There are chakras in the feet, (cf above) as well as one at the base of the spine.

To ground, stand or sit in a comfortable position. Grounding through the spine requires that you bring your attention to the base of your spine: at the entrance to the vagina in women, just above the testicles in men. Allow your attention to remain here for a moment (or longer). Then reach out through this chakra, the root chakra, and imagine a line of light going down from your spine to the Earth; yes, like a tail. Pat the Earth lightly with this energy and ask permission to enter. Then allow the line to go slowly down through the floor, the dirt, the water, the rock, until you're touching the molten core of the planet. The energy then usually rushes right back up this line to your root chakra. This is grounding. Allow this energy to fill you right up. When you're done with your activity, release this line and thank the Earth.

Grounding through the feet, natural for some, goes through the same procedure. What's important here is to allow the energy that pools in the feet to go up the legs to the root chakra and fill the field. As above, when you're done, release the lines and thank the Earth.


Now the taste of Earth is different in each locality so each time you do any of the above activities in a new place, you must ground in that new place.

CONFIDENTIALITY

My confidentiality is similar to that of a doctor or a priest. I cannot discuss what we discover together, or talk about, without your explicit permission. I will be happy to discuss what we discover together to your designated representative. Otherwise, I keep your confidences.

BIO

I’ve done graduate work in medieval studies at Catholic University; I have a certificate in Massage Therapy from Potomac Massage Training Institute. I hold Reiki II, and completed a 3 ½ year apprenticeship training with Rev. Sue Greer. I am an ordained minister of the Church of Gaiabriel; I am legally able in the State of Maryland to perform weddings, funerals, and baby-naming ceremonies. I’m a middle-aged married woman with a teenage daughter. I’ve lived in Hawaii, Italy, Boston, and Washington DC; I’ve traveled extensively (mostly above the Equator).

READINGS

I offer three different kinds of readings.

The first is a simple phone reading. We talk about what’s currently going on with your life and I tell you what I hear/sense about what patterns are currently existing. These start at a half-hour.

The second is the physical reading. I’ll need a current photo of you. We proceed as above.

The third is the full-physical reading. I’ll need at least two full-length current photos of you, one front and one sideways. The ideal is 4 photos, front, either side, and back. This takes an hour, sometimes more.

In each kind of reading, the physical/spiritual/emotional/mental aspects may take precedence. The longer readings are focused on the physical (since that is my current specialty), but what I sense can take us in any one of the four directions listed above.

I’m happy to take email questions after the readings. One set of questions per reading, please.

CANCER

We are all producing cancer in our systems every day. Cells start proliferating madly; our healthy immune systems attack the cells, and things return to normal. The presence of cancer in most of us is a temporary thing. As I said above, I have a gift for diagnosing cancer. Sometimes I can see that it’s a temporary thing; other times, it’s not being eliminated. I can point that out and you can seek additional confirmation and treatment. And, as I said above, sometimes what I see is the shadow of future cancer. I can’t always tell the difference between present and future cancers.

INJURY

What can I, as a distance healer, do for your injury?

As an example, let's say you've sprained your wrist. You've seen the doctor; your wrist is splinted, you've got your pain pills. What else can be done to help you?

Although I don't have formal qualifications in supplementation, over time I have found, as have my clients, that quercetin with bromelain -- two enzymes -- are very effective in speeding healing. Quercetin is an anti-inflammatory that has helped many as they heal either from injury or from inflammatory processes in the body. Take as directed.

Another useful supplement is arnica, in it's homeopathic formula 6x. Many runners use this habitually before a race. Take as directed.

I can help directly in several ways. In a phone session, I can cue you into a meditative state with breathwork. From here, you can ask your body (or I can ask for you) what it needs to heal. I can also, while you are in the meditative state, send energy to the structures that are injured and support them as they accelerate the healing. I can also send you energy, once we have established a connection and I have your permission, to support the injured portion of your body; and energy to support the healing process in general. I can do this once, twice, or for as long as you decide you need it.

If you're in my area, we can have an in-person session where I proceed largely as above. The sensation of hot hands (which is how healing energy processes through me) on an injury is really soothing.

I also strongly suggest that an injury be treated with as much respect and love as you are able to give it.

Jack White...

...is the rock n roll version of Timbaland. Only White's more of a musician.

We now return you to your regular psychic programming.

FOUNDATIONAL TEXTS

I learn from everything around me: earth and sky, the cats and the birds. I've also been reading voraciously since I taught myself at 4 years old. Here's a sample of the books I've read that have helped me to this work.

Barbara Ann Brennan, Hands of Light: A Guide to Healing through the Human Energy Field. Brennan is an astrophysicist who slowly became a counselor, then an energetic healer. Though I don't agree with her on everything (how dull would that be?), her work is a model of clarity in an often-confusing field. Many people in this field hang up a shingle after a weekend workshop or a year's study; not Brennan (and not me).

Nicki Scully, Alchemical Healing. I love Nicki; she's so true to her vision, so connected to her guidance, and so real. I've taken a class via telephone with her, and it's one of my ambitions to take a week-long intensive. Nicki works largely with the Egyptian pantheon of goddesses and gods. She's another healer who's taken a long road.

Andrew Harvey, The Divine Path. His model is not mine; and he's a great light in our times, since he embodies the Seeker, deeply physical and equally deeply committed to and connected to Spirit. If you want to wrestle with deep/high questions, Harvey's your man: a great guide, a great mind.

There are also the poets: Dante (especially the Purgatorio), TS Eliot, Ezra Pound, Adrienne Rich, Marge Piercy, Marilyn Hacker, Sharon Olds, Gary Snyder.

My introductions are done

We are live. For those who are new to HeartPsychic, please read or skim through all that's here so you know what's up. Questions are enthusiastically welcome! Rates for readings are posted at the bottom.

VH1 Rock Honors Last Night

It was fun watching the performances last night, honoring The Who (whose album Who's Next is one of my all-time favorite albums). There were several surprises from an energy perspective. Incubus was really startling; although I'd known of them, I'd never heard them play live. They really served the music, and were interested in being faithful to the song rather than promoting themselves. I was impressed with how each person playing really knit themselves into the movement of the music. The delight, of course, was Eddie Vedder. I was expecting to enjoy his performance, but here's the thing about Vedder: he disappeared, and only the song remained. Energetically most performers have visible chakra and field activity. Once he had sung a few notes, there was no visible evidence of Vedder's field! Only that of the song! My respect for Vedder, already high, has reached a new level.

Edited to add new information.

TREATMENT

A one-hour reading or full-physical reading can easily include treatment. We can work together on identifying and removing blocks in your energy field, for example, which can help you grow in a wide variety of ways. I can also suggest breathwork techniques, physical exercises, and meditative pratices for you to explore after our session.
Some issues are easily resolved, and others are more deeply rooted. So we may discover that you could benefit from a set of treatments. We can talk about this during your session.

For those living in, or visiting, the Washington DC area, in-person treatment can be made available; please inquire at heartpsychic8@aol.com.

MEDICAL INTUITION

One of the ways my gift operates is by sensing energy patterns in your physical body that express themselves as disease processes. I have a gift for diagnosing cancer. (See CANCER, below). However, my diagnosis is not a substitute for proper medical attention or diagnosis.

CANCER

We are all producing cancer in our systems every day. Cells start proliferating madly; our healthy immune systems attack the cells, and things return to normal. The presence of cancer in most of us is a temporary thing. As I said above, I have a gift for diagnosing cancer. Sometimes I can see that it’s a temporary thing; other times, it’s not being eliminated. I can point that out and you can seek additional confirmation and treatment. And, as I said above, sometimes what I see is the shadow of future cancer. I can’t always tell the difference between present and future cancers.



READINGS

I offer three different kinds of readings.

The first is a simple phone reading. We talk about what’s currently going on with your life and I tell you what I hear/sense about what patterns are currently existing. These start at a half-hour.

The second is the physical reading. I’ll need a current photo of you. We proceed as above.

The third is the full-physical reading. I’ll need at least two full-length current photos of you, one front and one sideways. The ideal is 4 photos, front, either side, and back. This takes an hour, sometimes more.

In each kind of reading, the physical/spiritual/emotional/mental aspects may take precedence. The longer readings are focused on the physical (since that is my current specialty), but what I sense can take us in any one of the four directions listed above.

I’m happy to take email questions after the readings. One set of questions per reading, please.

CONFIDENTIALITY

My confidentiality is similar to that of a doctor or a priest. I cannot discuss what we discover together, or talk about, without your explicit permission. I will be happy to discuss what we discover together to your designated representative. Otherwise, I keep your confidences.

email address

To reach me to book a reading or to ask a confidential question, please send an email to heartpsychic8@aol.com. I'll respond within 24 hours. Thanks!

Welcome!

Welcome to HeartPsychic!

Here's a place to explore your energies from a psychic perspective. All this week, I'll be telling you things about my ideas, myself, and my practice. Starting next week, I'll post a daily energy analysis of a performer; or an idea for you to play with; and as questions come in, I'll post them and discuss them. I work with the chakra system; the human energy field (also called the "aura"); and the energies of the earth, all beings on it, and Spirit.

So:

PREMISES AND FIRST PRINCIPLES:

*We are all connected.

*We all have access to the Universal Energy (called Spirit, Goddess, God, Allah, etc.) The way we have access is less important than the access itself.

*We all have the ability to sense the energy that is around us and around others (people, animals, plants, rocks, created objects). How we sense is dependent on our primary means of sensing: some hear, some see, some feel.

*We are each free beings. We each make our own choices.

a brief bio

I’ve done graduate work in medieval studies at Catholic University; I have a certificate in Massage Therapy from Potomac Massage Training Institute. I hold Reiki II, and completed a 3 ½ year apprenticeship training with Rev. Sue Greer. I am an ordained minister of the Church of Gaiabriel; I am legally able in the State of Maryland to perform weddings, funerals, and other life-passage ceremonies. I’m a middle-aged married woman with a teenage daughter. I’ve lived in Hawaii, Italy, Boston, and Washington DC; I’ve traveled extensively (mostly above the Equator).