How many of you immediately recognized that the word nowhere is a simple joining of the words now and here? 

Being a nothingness freak and a serious word freak, this sort of thing rides around with me like a clue to the secret of life.

Be here now. Where, exactly? Now. Here. The present we are seeking, the moment, the oneness, that feeling of connection with all that is, the aha moment that happens when we let it all go and see what emerges, is where we want to be. And it is nowhere.

Nowhere man got a bad rap for being like nowhere, man. We were primed to be where it's at. Well guess where that is? Yep, something very much like the void. Which isn't a problem, because, when we examine the nature of matter and the nature of mind, there, um, isn't a lot there. The universe is a hologram, you may have heard. There's a black hole in the center of our galaxy.

The more scientific data confirms the illusion of separateness mystics, sages and shamans have explored for eons, the more we humans, right here, right now, can connect the dots and do the thing we can now do, more than ever. Break free from old programs and limiting, fear-based patterns and come from a place within ourselves that is in the oneness zone, the gap, the field. From here, or there, or the now here that allows this state, amazing things are possible, and preferable, to keep the orbs spinning in harmony and resonance. 

Now is the time for this heightened, transformative shift. Some made the jump eons ago, and throughout our rough history. But now's good for a big swing of many humans discovering, claiming and enacting their own way out of fear, pain and misery. In my own work and in the work I do for others, this is the thing that keeps coming up. And doing the thing is often precipitated by things falling apart, no longer working, whether it's health, wealth, relationships, or the world around us. How the world appears around us and what we have to do with the perception. It's tricky but again, that's the illusion talking. For those free from all that, it's not tricky at all.

As we navigate our personal struggles and plot lines to the tricky-free zone of joyful creation, we get to play with our now here dials, and how they dial things up. That's what they're for. How near–or if you're into anagrams, how neer–is the tricky-free zone of joyful creation, for you, at any given moment? Is it dependent on externals? For the sages the trick was not to be swayed by externals, including when it's happening directly to you, as in ouch. Remembering the aha during the ouch takes presence.

Reading how positive thoughts and projections create positive results can, on a bad day, incite a rogue wave of incredulity, cynicism, or even anger when things go wrong, on the news or closer to home. But what if it didn't? What if you held firm, here, now, in nowhere where all is, and continue the altruistic, openhearted vibe? I'm pretty sure this is not a new idea. Like that story of the Buddha getting fired at by arrows while he sat there meditating in the zone, and the arrows turning into flowers. Nowhere is a place in which the 3D rules and regulations don't apply. 

Four planets walk into a bar... 

Yes, friends, here we are in the Grand Cross: can you feel it? While I'm not an astrologer, getting some info on alignments that might well be influencing your life right about now can be useful. Pam Younghans is an astrologer, and her take on the energies of the cross, April 20th (yesterday) through the 23rd, put me in mind of the classic start of a joke, which led to this post.

But this Grand Cross (or Square) ain't no joke! When Mars, Pluto, Uranus, and Jupiter square off at table 13 (each at 13º) in mutable signs, (Libra, Capricorn, Aries, and Cancer, respectively), it's sort of like those old black & white TV cowboy shows, when the poker game in the saloon gets tense and everyone stops talking. Even the phrase squaring off can mean that kind of tension; I mean these are two pairs of hefty planets in opposite signs all perfectly squaring each other. We're talking 90º angles, a shape with four sharp edges and four corners to negotiate, with massive force fields and agendas to go with them. Whether you're talking geometry, architecture, physics, astrology, or dramatized poker games, you're talking balance amid tension.

How we balance ourselves is the thing here. I hadn't yet read Pam's metaphor of the four planets sitting at a square table, Mars and Pluto opposite Jupiter and Uranus, yesterday, when the topic of tightrope walking came up spontaneously. Now I do the math, I get it: balance and tension. Without both of those, the tightrope walker's out of luck. If they're not kept in harmony, the tightrope walker's out of luck. Moreover, they must be kept in harmony under changing conditions and circumstances. Crosswinds, for instance, or their metaphysical counterpart: fear. Even the word crosswinds has a cross in it; the long balancing bar the tightrope walker carries makes a cross with the thin line in the sky.

Cross, square, opposites, tension: a golden opportunity to rebalance. To cross from one mindset to another, release in order to turn tension into real ease. To negotiate real ease out of the oppositions, within and without, may I suggest turning the square into a square dance? The old program would be a standoff, a tug of war, for and against. If you win, I lose. In a more mutable stance, with movement and fluidity, think of the square dance, when the caller calls the partners to make a star with their hands in the center and wheel around. Now that's reel ease! 

And yes, I'm having fun with words. But what you can do with pairs in a square, with balance and tension and fluidity and ease is a beautiful thing. You can join hands and swing your partner round and round, you can release and turn to the left or right, do-see-do, make circles and stars and figure-8s and promenade. Like the Traveling Hoedowners do! Watching them, and hearing the caller do that cool thing of singing On the Road Again with the calls as part of the tune is a hoot. And in our personal square dance, it's good to remember you call your own tune. You are the caller of your dance, and like this guy it seems handy to have some practice, know what you want to sing and then sing it with style. Yiha

Whether you take up tightrope walking, square dancing, astrology or – as Pam suggests, "we may find that balance through meditation and dreamwork ... shamanic journeys and psychotherapies" – I hope imagining oppositional forces as a swingin' dance, set atwirl with flounce and bounce, wordplay and natural fun lightens the work of realizing, releasing and re-patterning old standoffs ready to blow. 

There's magic in the air, or to be more accurate, in the solar system, the galaxy, the universe , and we are part of it! We are needed, loved, and supported in raising our frequency and creating new direction for our lives. Moving into new light, new realization of choice, new self-knowledge and out of fear is fully supported by the heavens today, tomorrow, New Year's Day, and into the year ahead. The key is to know and to choose and to practice, so the outer appearances of the exact opposite lose their authority. A little info can really help us do that with gusto.

Remember The Wizard of Oz? All that way and all those trials and tribulations (all those scary flying monkeys!) to get to see the Wizard, and what happens? At first it appears he's the great and powerful authority, as he intimidates them and tells them to get lost. But that's not really true, is it? Same deal here, if we pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. And the Source of All is with us on this. It is us on this one.

Said another way, we are aligned with the Source of All That Is if we know we are. Aligning conscious choice and subconscious mind takes, well, alignment. It's key to disempowering the old conditioning, and it takes doing, but it's doable. And the alignment of the planets and the energies available to us now makes alignment the thing to do. This week we are getting a super boost with the Super Moon and other alignments. Here then are some ways of furthering that, for maximum uplift and forward motion in this turning of the year.

If you want to know more about the planetary alignments, one source is astrologer Pam Younghans, who writes her NorthPoint Astrology Journal weekly reports. This week is a corker! And might well put you in the mood to feel supported in removing the chains of fear and servitude from your personal belief system and taking your rightful place as authority in your own life. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain who is working overtime to keep you in the old paradigm. And boy is it getting old. Unsubscribe for the New Year!

Another boon to this important work, for your personal life, the care of the planet and all creatures, and the uplift of the human race, has just been published. It is the third channeled text from Paul Selig, The Book of Knowing and Worth. All of his work is of great benefit in this personal transformation call to rise.

And from my services, I suggest that now is a powerful time for divination work. Here we stand a moment in stillness, poised between past and future. When you think about it, we are every millisecond of every day, and that's a lively perspective to keep in your pocket. But on these last days, we are inundated with looking back at the year in review. And if we choose to go there, I suggest we focus on the positives; the negatives are hurled at us and obsessed over in our own minds quite enough. We have been conditioned to focus on what we don't have, what we don't look like, can't do, can't afford, haven't done, aren't allowed to do. To feel powerless and unworthy, not as good as those we imagine have everything they wish. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain, and shift focus. You'll discover you did a lot of good stuff and have made progress. With what you learned, experienced, accomplished, or even failed at, you know more now what means the most to you, what you want for your self and your life now, what feels right and good and lovely, even if it seems a major leap from where you are. Even discovering your areas of deepest fear is work well done, because it's much more ready to be transformed. Now now now.

Now we look ahead and create what we are dreaming of. We choose to lose what keeps us in fear and servitude. Because we can, and we have a lot more to give that way. Journeys and divinations are excellent for this at this time. During this powerful Super New Moon, they are especially potent. What is your question? Ask the oracle. (To clarify: it isn't me, I am just the receiver.) A full strength divination can be done as a journey, or with divination tools, as an in-person or Skype reading. 

Another idea is a new service, just hatching. As of, um, this morning. It will soon have its true design and form on the website, but I don't want to wait for its official launch, because the time is so gonzo, and it could come in really handy for you or those you wish to gift. So here is a special offer, in this blog, for whomever stumbles on it. The oracle. A flash divination. Boom.

For this stupendous week, here's what to do. Email me or use the Contact Form on the Scheduling & Payment page to let me know you want a flash Oracle, when, for whom, and what about. Give me the email to whom it should be sent and your email as well if you are not the recipient. Pre-pay for the oracle by choosing the $40 Phone Conference service for each oracle ordered. That's it! I will do the rest, with my bevy of divinatory tools. No journeying in the flash oracle. Here's how the flash oracle goes.

I will pose the question, intuit the divination method, draw one answer or divine a single oracle. In a flash, the oracle is given. Photos are taken of the process, and the email with them is sent. Done! It's a flash path to guidance, done in a sacred state in sacred space.

Yesterday's inaugural oracle received this feedback from the recipient: WOW! This blew me away. Thank you so much for this thoughtful, useful, wise, wonderful, brilliant gift. Magical!

I offer this oracle service as a special offering for this powerful time, and am available for a flash flood of flash divinations through this Super Moon week.

However you interact with the universe this week, may it be magical, powerful, harmonious, and full of love and light.

We in the Pacific Northwest are enjoying stellar fall weather! Day after day of blue sky, bright sun, golden leaves drifting down through green sylvan glades, woodsy ridges awash in color, Japanese maples of such brilliant vermillion they seem made out of stained glass or garnets. Through this panorama the full moon flies past the night stars, Flickers call their agreements, deer wander the lawn, and I take it all in as I cultivate the spiritual warrior within, and conjure the new hoop of the next chapter of my storied life, seemingly out of nowhere.

As you know, intrepid reader and fellow soul traveler, I receive a lot of guidance from all sorts of channels. This morning's comes in from 1) the congruence of a book I found in the back of a shelf I haven't seen since I moved here three years ago, 2) a medicine card I pulled without ado from a deck from a drawer, and 3) a quote that tied them both together. As I grok the wisdom and feel the assimilation energetically inside my body, 4) Flicker chimes in–yep, right on cue right here and now–flashes her pink underwings and affirms, as Flicker always does for me, that Spirit is here and knows I'm paying attention. During that entire sentence, Flicker has been voicing from the red cedar she flew to a sentence before. These synchronicities are vital to How Things Happen in my world, and fire my imagination. The photo shows my faux bird nest of stone eggs and feathers I've found here from Flicker and other species. 

The card I pulled spoke of the Spiritual Fire within, the Luminosity we carry–scratch that–the Luminosity we, and all things, actually are. We are Light. Everything's frequency, moving light. Mathematicians and Quantum Physicists have cool ways of notating that, and lots of fun words like quantum foam. These gorgeous fall leaves are shifting their frequency and we are onboard for the ride. Wow! What a light show. The card advised letting go of all drama and simply letting the truth of being Light inform my cells, my consciousness, my world. Flicker agreed.

I took the book, Sandra Ingerman's Medicine for the Earth, out to the sunny porch and opened to a random page. The beginning page of the chapter on Imagination. In Sandra's transmutation work, imagination is a key component. Within the chapter is a quote from Caroline Casey, Imagination lays the tracks for the reality train to follow. Ingerman advises letting that one soak in for a bit.

Dreaming your reality into being is using the creativity, the luminosity within you and your sentient connection to the light all around you to imagine, to 'cast forth enchantments' as 20th century mystic Neville put it (and Ingerman mentions). The power of the imagination directs light and frequency–Flicker agrees! Imagination sees the scene so completely it is shimmering in the light. The sounds, the smells, the tastes, the colors, the clothes... actually this is starting to remind me of the theme song to Green Acres a little. For imagination to lay the tracks for the reality train, you gotta get into it. Really dream it up big time, exactly as you want to see it. Do it, live it, be it, for real. Then when you bump into it you recognize it. Oh. Yes. There it is.

It's interesting to note what comes up in resistance to this creative work, this creative playbook, of imagination. All the authority figures who pooh-poohed the power of daydreams, who put down your abilities in the dreaming up department, or dissuaded you from the worth of imagination, the imaginary helpers and magical happenings we love to create from an early age, so naturally. These self-styled reality experts pop up from our wearied neural pathways to wag a finger or roll their eyes, give a withering lecture, certain of knowing better about what's what. That's not how things happen, they say. But you know what? These too are imaginings, reality-shaping ones as any other. If for such a mind, that's not the way things happen, well, for them it is not. Period. The reality train coming in on those tracks will look a bit different. And yes, Flicker is discoursing all through my final edit of this paragraph, in the little bubbly chirpy vocal patterns they do so well. You tell 'em, Flicker. Word.

It could be said that, frequency-wise, now more than at any previous time, we are able to use the power of Imagination, free and clear from old conditioning, to transmute trauma and toxicity within and without, and create something much more pleasant for us all. It does require getting some clarity, feeling our feelings and examining our fears, learning how to feel the luminosity within, open to influxes of light and circulate it through us. It takes a little practice to state our personal choice and empower our decision making abilities, choose love not fear, no matter what. It's only ourselves who can turn off old programs, give the old voices a cookie and a hug, rose-colored glasses, and maybe a security blankie for a lengthy naptime. As I just corrected a proofreading error in that sentence, hours after the initial posting, a quote box on the edit page delivered, from Walt Disney himself, this golden nugget: If you can dream it, you can do it.

Do you have an initial excited response to such a statement, followed by a negating 'well it's nice but it's not really true' type thought, or a 'that may be true for some people, but not for me'' thought? Sometimes it helps me to imagine a delete button, a mute button, or a lovely hamper in which I toss the old conditioning fears that pop up to block the Imagination in full swing. Sometimes I crumple up the curmudgeonly 'scratch pad imagination-stupifying thought' and toss it over my head into the imaginary metal wastebasket of some old classroom. A little movement, some sound effects, are fun sometimes. Whoosh! Zap! Or the vintage sound of the phonograph, or tape, winding down as the plug is pulled. The sudden clarity of a gong. Flicker calls also work, really really well. They cut right through.

My accountant says he tells his negative self-talk, Thank you for your opinion. Now shut up. Whatever your transmutation method, dare to dream, and ditch the downer dialogue with diligence. Enjoy your railroad building. Your reality train's looking beautiful already. 

I'm not sure I just saw an albino dragonfly float directly past me, but I did. I just don't remember ever seeing one before, and I've seen many dragonflies of various colors, shapes, sizes, and wing patterns. Dragonflies are big with me. They've embossed letterhead and business cards for my practice. My house is full of them, in cloth, metal, china, stained glass, beadwork, you name it. People see I have dragonflies and give me more dragonflies. 

Clients and friends call me up and say I visited them as a dragonfly, riding around crowded fairs on their baseball caps, or appearing in the desert where there aren't dragonflies because there's no water. As a shapeshifter, it's one of the things I guess I do.

So when dragonfly appears, such as on this beautiful fall afternoon after days of cold hard rain, I take it as a sign. When this white dragonfly appeared and disappeared just now... well, that's some big medicine. Dragonfly medicine. White Dragonfly Medicine. Whew. Let me explain.

Dragonflies are being studied scientifically because of their brains, their eyes, their wings, their having been on the earth for so long. They have powers that astound, and endurance that prevails. And yet they live most of their life under water, without wings, as larvae. Imagine being able to see all around you at the same time, and to instantaneously fly in any direction. They seem to dart in and out of visible reality because they don't have to travel in one direction or turn around. They don't think, 'Oh, wait, what was that over there? Am I going the wrong way?' They simply go, as their inner guidance system directs. I don't imagine they do much second guessing. I bet they don't keep mental lists of what they didn't do, where they didn't go, mistakes, and the like. 

As a totem, they remind us that we create our own reality. Repeat after me, 'I create my own reality.' And we might as well get really good at it, and create lives that are fabulously us. This requires some alterations to the stuff that created our neural pathways and early adaptive strategies before we knew that much about what was going down. It's a people thing. Largely subconscious, pretty unavoidable, fairly resistant to change. But, with attention, intention, and practice, possible.

And boy howdy, that's exactly what I'm doing. And, if you're like me (and I know I am), sometimes during the process of creating a new chapter from scratch there are moments of such uncertainty it can seem impossible. And then dragonfly pops up, nonchalant, easygoing, just cruisin' on by, saying hey. You got this. I'm impossible, friend, but here I am.

Dragonfly has been a special power animal teacher since an orange and blue one came up to me by a wild river and gave me one of my early songs, when I was seventeen. But I've never seen an all white one until just now. In this present moment, I am doing some personal work akin to surgery, removing old blocks, burdens, and bindings that are acting like sea anchors. It's time to rise out of the water, grow wings and fly in any direction, and act natural. Okay! Let's do this. 

Are you in transformation mode? Are you re-inventing yourself, changing old mental patterns, releasing entanglements, searching for what's next, your purpose, your lost energy, your creative zazzle? In journeys we fly through time and space without the encumbrance of time or space, effortlessly shifting direction with the energy. Sometimes this happens in dreams. And sometimes, with dragonfly's help, in ordinary reality.

Cloud watching is almost a full-time job for me, and yesterday did not disappoint. Her Majesty, Mt. Hood, was working her magic with changing conditions from the east, and by late afternoon had created thunder, lightning, rain, and a vibrant rainbow, plus the wonderful changes in the fragrance of the air, the negative ions and ozone, all of which produced a shift in my inner state of mind. Posts from entranced friends in Oregon and Washington attested to the magical power of a summer storm on our psyches and spirits.

Living near Her Majesty for three years, I've felt her power and how she exerts it to change conditions around her. Sometimes she whips up electricity, sometimes sends alpine winds down her sides, cloaks herself in dramatic clouds, froths the river in green glacial melt on a hot day... she has a stunning repertoire. And then, I remember that when she was an active volcano, she helped create the epic Columbia Gorge over millions of years. The forests, waterfalls and sylvan glades we enjoy on weekend hikes were created through fiery explosions and lava flows which wiped out everything in their paths, over and over again, for millennia.

Major life force energies like volcanoes and floods, beautiful phenomena like snowflakes and rainbows, and every day weather like this morning's quiet cloud cover, result from conditions. Create the conditions for rain, and rain falls. You may have seen reports about Dutch artist Berndnaut Smilde, who creates clouds inside galleries as an art installation. Viewers gasp in wonder when the cloud appears, and it is quite magical. But, like creating an oil painting by applying oil paint onto a canvas with a brush until an image is completed, the artist creates the artistic expression of a cloud in a room by creating the conditions that makes clouds form, having to do with proportions of humidity and temperature. You can watch YouTubes of the artist creating a cloud in a room.

Changing conditions in the mind also changes conditions in the physical plane. Body symptoms and conditions, living environment, relationships, abundance and manifestation capabilities, happiness and inner peace are some of the areas that change when the conditions we hold in our minds as true are allowed to shift. What seems impossible, like producing a cloud in a room, or healing a longstanding condition, will continue to appear impossible if conditions do not change, because the conditions for the transformation are not in existence at that time. Wishing or worrying are not effective in creating change in conditions, although they do play a part in attracting or repelling the conditions that create change. 

Maybe I love watching clouds so much because I can view nature's transformative powers and their results in real time as an ongoing master class in the ultimate mystery school. The mountain, too, seems to say, are you watching? Are you listening? I'll show you again. We too have the power to change our lives, our bodies, and our world, the whether, if you like, around our personal sphere of influence. Group mind changes conditions in society and can effect global shifts in consciousness. Working with ourself is the starting place for changing conditions: looking at our thoughts, our fears, our held emotions – what we believe to be true, or possible. And who has the power to affect conditions.

Like the mountain, we do not hold all the conditional cards: there are other elemental forces that interact to create conditions at any moment. Rather than a skirmish, it can be a dance, a graceful intermingling of energies, realizing all is an expression of the one. Working – or playing – with the interweaving of forces, in alignment with a necessary degree of internal power conditions, including knowing, intention, fearlessness, trust, detachment, nonresistance, and love, is the work of transformation. Clearing negativity, removing obstacles, repatterning thoughts, letting go of old hurts and resentments, releasing fear changes static conditions so that transformation can occur.

Sometimes it is helpful to ask for information, energetic transmission, clarity, guidance, support and practices to assist in changing mind and heart conditions so that the 'weather' within and without us can change. Each of us can cultivate our inner connect, our stillness, our intent, to transform conditions in our lives. And then, the sweet showering from the sky begins.