Multiple realities, one planet

It seems as if the world is splitting in two… if not more!

As my friend and Nature Being expert Atala Toy wrote recently, we are shifting into a time of two Earths, one planet, a prophecy that only began making sense to her in our present time. “Many ancient seers spoke of a time when two Earths would emerge,” she writes. “Now, as that long-foretold time arrives… We are experiencing a deepening divide in perception. Around the world, people interpret reality through drastically different lenses.”

She continues, “Two people can share the same room, hear the same message, and walk away with entirely opposite understandings. It’s as if they live on two Earths—sharing space, yet vibrating on different frequencies.” (Read her full article here.)

All around us, we see this divergence happening… Separating across perspectives, drifting apart according to resonance. Many of us are, in many ways, returning to original ways of being, reconnecting with the consciousness of the planet (who is evolving with or without us), and other beings who share this world with us, like nature and star beings, who have long been “invisible” to us—because we fell out of frequency with them.

Another dear friend, naturopath and teacher, Dr. Michelle Peal, received a related vision: last year, her Angels showed her a vast elliptical orbit of multiple Earths, each cycling through a stationary Earth. In her book, The Birth of Quantum Energy: The Pathway to Ascension, she writes, “Each of the Earths… has lessons to teach mankind. If the Earth passing through… is the one that had the lesson you needed to learn, then you would translate over to that Earth seamlessly. Your higher self would handle the choice for your greater spiritual growth and development.” In her vision, there are as many coexisting perspectives as there are Earths orbiting, as we choose the one that resonates with what we next need to learn. (Get the book here.)

Multiple, dissonant perspectives can coexist simultaneously. Each is valid, and none is “better” than another, as that would be a judgment. Above all, each is a matter of choice. This doesn’t always feel true, as we witness old paradigms violently crash around us and are being constantly pulled at by media and newsfeeds, and even our friends and family, to join in the fray.

The so-called “urge” is to fight… to fear this change and “struggle” to create anew. That is not an instinct, however; that is the program… Within an outdated paradigm, we’ve been taught that the only way to implement change is to (re)play the game of fear and opposition. To fight and change who has power over whom. It is a game that has been played over and over for thousands of years… but that has no winners, not in the long term, anyway.

As Audre Lorde wisely said, speaking against a backdrop of hundreds of years’ history of enslavement within the U.S., “We cannot dismantle the master’s house with the master’s tools.”

So then, how do we dismantle old paradigms when all we’ve known are the tools that emerge from them?

It means a total release of the current system, a total letting go of the past… This is the part, I think, that stings many the most. I’ve watched people hold onto past hurts for decades… generations. Heck, it took me decades to let go of traumas from my childhood… and even as we speak, I am working with my ancestors to heal pain carried over generations.

Because, there’s this idea that if we let go, we’re saying that past injustice—current injustice!—was and is okay, acceptable. That we condone what was done. But nothing could be further from the truth… By letting go of the past, which fuels many of the current conflicts, we choose to no longer resonate with a reality in which such injustice can exist. By letting go of the past, we free ourselves to move forward.

Let me say that again, because it is that important:

It is only by letting go of the past that we free ourselves to move forward.

Another way to think of it, within the context of multiple Earths, is that—you can’t take the past with you. It will keep you tethered, stationary. No longer moving, and therefore no longer learning and growing.

And at the highest resonances, we choose instead to step into a present-future created of something altogether different.

Seer and psychic Amanda Ellis seconds this idea, relaying a channel from Princess Diana and the Sacred Feminine, which speaks to projecting peace. During this time, as “the war machine” ramps up, we need to ramp up the “peace machine… The heart apparatus.” Basically, these so-called “foregone conclusions” that (yet again) conflict can only be “resolved” through violence are being touted as “the only way”—and yet we know that there are alternatives to this. It is more important than ever that we align our energies with the resonance of the world we wish to inhabit.

To align with those highest resonances? Breathe into Gratitude and Trust…. Trust in God, Yahuah, the Universe, or whatever your name for the Divine Will of which we are all part.

By remaining in that energy, that is the world we inhabit. It’s simple quantum physics. Our subtle quantum entanglements with the world around us have the most profound seismic impact.

Think about what is within your power to change… and change that. All too often, we get caught up in fights that are not our own—but that the larger machine would have us believe, highlighting our senses of powerlessness, fear and frustration. These low-vibe energies get us nowhere.

But if we take full responsibility for our own energetic imprint… Now we’re getting somewhere.

If you feel called to march in protest or write your local government official, by all means, do it. (Just check the energy within which you’re doing it… because whatever your energy, you create more of it with every action you take). Or if your guides are telling you that today, more than anything, what you need to do is stop reading this article and go walk amongst trees, bare feet on earth, to soothe a harried nervous system and ground and commune with some of the greatest natural teachers that share space with us… Do that. Trust your intuition.

Looked at another way, if we want to see more forgiveness in the world, where can we be the energy of forgiveness ourselves? How can we bring that forth, ourselves? Is there someone we need to forgive to move forward?

If we want to see more peace in the world, how can we cultivate the energy of peace within ourselves?

This has been playing out in my own life, as I’ve been challenged by my guides to be conscious and intentional when my emotions flare. So, before an angry outburst, that could cause psychic violence and lasting damage, I pause. (It sounds minor, but it really isn’t… for years, the only times I felt “powerful” were when I screamed my rage and frustration… Inherited from my lineage, I repeated what I’d experienced—until I chose to break the cycle.)

In that pause, I allow the emotions to flow through my body, and—before resorting to knee-jerk scolding or yelling—I walk myself through it. What’s really going on here? What needs to be communicated? And how can I communicate it without the intense energy of anger… which usually has the total opposite effect to what I want…?

By being more compassionate and peaceful (and responsible) in my life, I’ve felt the ripple effects of this in my relationships, and I’ve witnessed my kids—now grown, but still sharing close quarters—respond to this loving touch. (This total responsibility for our energy and action is at the heart of spiritual maturity and ho’oponopono, an ancient Hawaiian way of being that you can learn more about here.)

Does spiritual maturity = perfection? Erm, no. Of course, we make mistakes… we’re human! But we learn from them, come back from them quicker, and recommit to do and be better. It is an ongoing refinement, the great adventure of being human.

Whatever our resonance, it begets more of the same. Choosing frustration and annoyance begets more… Choosing love multiplies love.

As a friend and client, a seasoned therapist, puts it, this ability to not get caught up is imperative for a healer. “We can’t help anyone if we’re in the hole with them,” she confides. “There needs to be a measure of distance.” Clear boundaries, so we maintain perspective, I would add, and put strong emotions in this category… Emotions are valid and important messengers, so not to be ignored or suppressed—but handing them the steering wheel is like putting a toddler in the driver’s seat in terms of the actions we take. We must—we get to!—maintain perspective, another sign of spiritual maturity.

It means that every time we reach that fork in the road, we choose the road of clearest energy over the road of garbled or activated energy. That we choose the beneficial over the non-beneficial. Go where our innermost guidance leads us, as much as humanly possible—and with energies faster and more intense than at any other time in our history, even the smallest, most nuanced decisions have more impact than we can foretell.

As lightholders and peacebringers, it is more important than ever that we connect with the wisdom of our hearts, and make our decisions from its highest resonance—to BE that higher resonance on the planet. It literally defines the world in which we live, and impacts the people and fabric of reality around us in ways that we have been taught to greatly underestimate.

Stepping onto an emerging New Earth is the same as co-creating it. We must forget everything we’ve been taught in recent years and return to our innermost truth, which speaks in the universal language of love and trust.

The energy in which we live our lives determines which Earth we move forward on…

Now is the time for diligence, faith and love. Now is the time to be fully and consistently intentional with how and where we put our energies, to maintain a high state of resonance. (Here are some ways to do so.)

So, the choice is yours. Which reality do you choose? Which Earth do you choose to co-create?

With so much love,

Charisse

Photo by Javier Gonzalez

What is dowsing and why it’s more important than ever

As seen in Spirit of Change magazine.

For many, dowsing conjures images of a white-haired man with a forked stick looking for water. Dowsing’s roots go much deeper than that and much farther back than the tools we now associate with dowsing, such as the pendulum, forked stick, or dowsing rods (L-shaped bent rods). So far back, some believe, that it is encoded in our DNA.

Dowsing taps into our original way of knowing

“Ancient peoples did not view the world the same way we do. They view themselves as part of the world, not separate from it,” said Sandi Isgro, President of the American Society of Dowsers, in a recent interview. Sandi has been, in her words, “an unofficial dowser my whole life and an official one for 30 years.” As a dowser, she’s found water for wells, cleared houses and property, worked with spirits and found missing objects.

Founded in Vermont in 1961, the American Society of Dowsers (ASD) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to teaching and spreading dowsing knowledge, developing dowsing skills, archiving its findings, and recognizing dowser achievements.

“So, dowsing was that innate knowledge that was very strong back then. Our ancestors would ask for direction or guidance and talk to the animals because the animal was a brother, the bird was a sister….The land was part of them, not separate from them,” Isgro explained. “They were not walking on the land; the land was allowing them to walk on it. The land supported their footsteps. So, it’s a whole different worldview than what most have now.”

The same worldview is preserved by Native and Indigenous Peoples: “The spirit world is connected to the mortal world, the sea is connected to the land, and the sky is connected to the ground.”

Dowsing taps into this original way of knowing, born of our profound interconnectedness. That connection allows for an exchange of information with the network of all beings who live on Earth, seen and unseen, including Earth herself, a living being. People have always dowsed, though they may call it by another name.

Giving voice to your superbeing

Lee Barnes described it as accessing your superconscious or your “dowsing intuition.” Barnes is a long-time dowsing educator and professional water well dowser with over 25 years of experience dowsing wells, sacred sites, geopathic energies, and map dowsing for moving hurricanes.

“The basic premise is we are superbeings,” Barnes explained. “We have one part conscious, and I‘d say about a million parts subconscious. Dowsing gives a voice to your subconscious,” which is still plugged into our original way of knowing.

“I teach people to dowse first with things they can confirm, like using L-rods or a pendulum over a known water pipe, or even a visible stream. But eventually, you learn to be aware of, ‘How does that feel in my body?’ Ultimately, we don’t need the tools to tap our dowsing intuition.”

Another way to look at it is that our brains are our conscious minds, while our bodies carry our subconscious and intuitive knowing. And, the part of all of us, no matter our background or ancestry, that remains connected to our original way of knowing, is our hearts.

Your heart is where your truth resides. It is here where we connect with the vast interconnected network of information that is our original way of knowing. One could say that dowsing gets us out of our heads and into our hearts for the answers that are true for us.

Anyone can dowse

Tapping our original way of knowing, or our dowsing intuition, may sound mysterious, and a skillset reserved for psychics and intuitives who were “born with it,” but we can all dowse and learn to hone the skill. You’ve done this anytime you’ve trusted your gut or followed a gut instinct.

For example, have you ever walked into a room, then turned right around and walked out for no other reason than something felt off or not right? That was your subconscious, your connection with all that is, sending you a warning: “Get out… now!”

Or have you ever randomly decided to take a different route to work one morning, only to find out later that you avoided a big accident or traffic jam? Or better, like a recent “wrong” turn I took, which landed me on a gorgeous, tree-lined road. Halfway down it, I gasped when I spotted not one, not three, but eleven(!) deer peacefully grazing in the warm dusk light.

Developing and practicing this skill set allows you to access that field of information more intentionally and specifically.

So, what is dowsing?

Dowsing, then, is any time you tap into this field of information, born of our deep connection with each other and our environment.

Some prefer to define dowsing by its instruments; in other words, it’s only dowsing if an instrument is being used to ask for information, like a forked stick, pendulum, set of dowsing rods, or some other implement. They don’t reject body or deviceless dowsing; they just call it something else.

The first definition is the most inclusive and accessible. It’s also aligned with First Peoples’ perspectives — this exchange of information is more a way of being and walking in the world than a doing. That said, to truly harness the benefits of dowsing requires practice and intentional inquiry — going beyond intuitive hits to ask clear questions of this field of information — and just as importantly, trusting the answers you receive.

“Dowsing allows you to find out information — the information that is true for you. That is the biggest benefit of dowsing,” Isgro reiterates. “The more you practice it, the better you get at it, and the clearer the information you get.”

As it’s traditionally known, dowsing is used to find water, lost and missing items, and other items invisible to the eye — even missing people. Dowsing can also be used beyond these pursuits as a tool for daily life and work to support just about any endeavor. Many healers and energy workers already use dowsing to enhance their practice. For instance, if you’ve ever muscle-tested or otherwise tapped into your body’s response to get an answer for yourself or a client…surprise! You’re dowsing.

Dowsing has become my go-to tool to check my energy’s alignment, confirm messages I receive intuitively, help steer my decision-making, and give me clarity and peace when my brain can’t see a clear answer. Like Sandi, I was an unofficial dowser years before I started learning how to use the tools. I’m what some in the community call a body or deviceless dowser.

Adding a tool like a pendulum allows me to receive more nuanced feedback, ask for clear direction when I’m stuck in indecision, or move past resistance or blind spots in my area of inquiry with an objective response.

Many people use dowsing to test whether products are a right fit for them, pick the best produce at the market, or choose which business strategy to follow. At the supermarket, here’s how I do it: I pass my hand over the fruit or vegetables, the same way you might when picking a card from an oracle deck. When I feel a pull or little tingle in my hand over a particular fruit, that’s my “yes.” I don’t question it, and pop the produce in my cart.

The more you can learn to tap into and trust this powerful interconnected knowledge, as many dowsers will tell you, the easier and better life gets.

Why dowsing is more important than ever

We live in a rapidly changing information age. In every moment we are bombarded with information pertaining to a thousand questions we didn’t ask, let alone the myriad answers we get when we specifically search for information online. There are experts in every corner offering conflicting advice.

Now more than ever, we need to be able to identify, “What is my truth? What is true for me?” No matter what the experts say, what Google says, what social media says, or even what your loved ones say.

How do you know what’s right or true for you? You can dowse for it.

Although we are all indelibly connected, our perspectives are unique. Your truth is different from my truth — and both equally valid and important. Dowsing helps you identify your truth, which is critical in navigating our noisy world.

In addition to the sea of information we unconsciously swim in, the energies we are experiencing as a collective are rapidly shifting and escalating, according to Dr. Michelle Peal, a naturopathic doctor with over 30 years of experience in holistic health, dowsing, and working with energy modalities. “To say that we have changes one right after the other is an understatement.”

“We’re very much habitual creatures,” Dr. Peal continues, “but you have to allow for this shift in energy. So, what was good yesterday may not be good today. You’ve got to be diligent about making sure you’re in alignment with your heart. Dowsing is the most important tool you have in your toolbox.”

How to dowse for alignment with your heart

Dr. Peal teaches a simple technique to ensure that you are aligned with your heart. Although her preferred tool is the pendulum, this exercise can be adapted to any method:

Holding your pendulum in your dominant hand, place your non-dominant hand over your heart. Take a moment to connect with your heart space.
Ask your pendulum to show you your “yes” response. I recommend asking out loud, if you are able, especially if you’re new to dowsing. Commonly a circular swing clockwise, everyone’s yes is unique and correct for them. There is no right yes. Lee Barnes’, for example, has been counterclockwise for as long as he’s dowsed. The point of this exercise is to get your current yes, since we and our world are constantly changing.
Once your pendulum has swung its response, take your non-dominant hand off your heart and gently lower it to your side. When Dr. Peal does it, she keeps her palm open and facing out, and a little away from her body. You want to make sure not to jostle or bump your body or pendulum hand in any way.
If your pendulum continues to swing with your heart’s yes, hooray! You are in alignment with your heart. You are now free to move about the cabin. Anything you dowse will now be accurate because you are in alignment with your heart, which is in alignment with the interconnected web of our original way of knowing and being.
If your pendulum starts swinging differently (say, circles in the opposite direction or switches from a circle to a line or vice versa), then your energy is not in alignment with your heart’s energy. Rest at ease because the fix is easy.
To get back into alignment with your heart, place your left hand over your heart, your right hand over your left, and take a few deep breaths, in through the nose and out through the mouth. As you breathe, tune into feelings of trust and gratitude. Then, try the exercise again.

Dowsing is an easy way to check ourselves, get real-time feedback on our decisions, and build our trust and communication with the world of which we are an integral, interconnected part. The best part is, anyone can learn how to dowse!

What the sun on the summer solstice taught me about courage

In June, in celebration of the summer solstice, I took listeners through a spontaneous solar activation, a guided meditation and visualization on my podcast, Wise Body, Ancient Soul.

What really came through when I tapped into the sun’s energy were embedded messages of courage, confidence and love. The sun never doubts its brightness, never questions whether its presence is appropriate… whether it’s too much or too little…

The sun just SHINES.

I was reminded of all the times that I muted my light or turned down my volume because I thought it would make someone else feel more comfortable.

Because I thought it would make me more acceptable. More lovable.

Because I thought it would keep me safe.

Coming out of a childhood marked by some physical and emotional abuse, I carried a lot of wounding around that… right into my first marriage.

My then-husband (or “wasband” – I love that term!) was so afraid he’d lose me to someone else that he’d follow and watch me constantly. If I made myself visible in some way, like coming out from behind our cafe counter to wipe down the tables, or climbing a ladder to reach a shelf at a local bookstore, he would accuse me of trying to catch someone’s attention. To, ultimately, betray him.

Believe me. There were all kinds of things wrong with this scenario. And, I tell you this, not to think that he was a bad person, because he really wasn’t. I don’t think he ever treated a partner like that before or after me. Or to see me as a victim, because I wasn’t without agency. As a young adult, I made choices along the way that kept me in that dynamic for years.

And one of the choices I made was to try to make myself smaller, less vibrant, to try and get him to trust and love me. (At least, that’s what I thought would happen.) So one by one, all of the things about me that had first drawn him to me, I shut down and put away: my radiant confidence, the way I could have a conversation with anyone, my sashay walk, my funky style. I even, in a desperate move to earn his trust, chopped off all my hair, going from hair hanging to my butt to a close-shaven buzz cut.

Yup. Extreme.

In hindsight, I could see how our “wounds were dancing.” his insecurities and my insecurities fed each other to create this dynamic. I brought in a void from an absentee father and an open sore around how I was mothered. My wasband brought in relationship dynamics learned from a critical mother who constantly berated him and his father.

For each of us, control was what we grew up thinking love looked like.

As I re-learned how to be in my body through dance, I reclaimed my power. There were many other factors too: therapy, support… Refriending my body, however: this was KEY. Key to healing old wounds and releasing old stories. I share more about this journey (and steps I took back to my power) in my book, Shameless.

The sun offers similar support. In the solar activation that downloaded, I got loud and clear:

The sun shines its loving rays without judgment or criticism.

Grandfather Sun doesn’t just shine on the beings that he believes “deserve” it. He simply shines.

Love, like the sun’s rays, is an energy, an offering.

There are no expectations attached.

It can be received, rejected, amplified, or dimmed. The sun isn’t responsible for how people receive its rays–its only responsibility is to continue shining. Continue being its giant, solar self.

We can be bold and shine our light all over everyone in the exact same way.

Sometimes it just takes an extra boost of courage. If that resonates with you, check out the episode and solar activation practice here.

The power of the body to communicate and heal: a dancer priestess’ tale

World-renowned Cairo dancer Dina was teaching and performing in Chicago for the first time. And true to “Egyptian time,” her solo show had begun hours after its scheduled start, long after the show in which I had danced for the performer myself. I’d skipped the banquet dinner to save money and had been drinking the freely offered ice water as we waited for the prima donna to begin.

Hence our predicament. Since the show started 30 minutes before, a growing but insistent pressure on my bladder had been stealing my attention. Glancing around the room, I met the panic-stricken gaze of more than one dancer in the audience as we realized that there would not be an intermission. More than one of us desperately needed a break… And not one of us wanted to miss a minute of what was happening on stage.

Famous for her frequent and stunning costume changes, we knew that our only chance as an audience would be to coordinate our pee break with her next transformation—which heartbreakingly only gave us a few minutes. We later learned that her impossibly lightning-fast changes were only possible with the aid of multiple sets of hands backstage, quickly removing and replacing costume pieces amidst rapid-fire curses and prayers in Arabic.

Finally, when Dina dashed off stage, a handful of us jumped out of our seats as if on cue. We made a break for it. We ran full-tilt toward the nearest restroom, high heels muffled by the carpet underfoot, cocktail dresses flying.

As we hustled down the blandly appointed hallway, my face flushed with more than exertion. I kept reliving the fiasco of my performance earlier that evening. In front of Dina!! I kept reeling to myself.

A studio-owner friend had choreographed a sassy melaya leff for herself and a few of her most advanced students, and at the last minute, her right-hand dancer canceled. I’d agreed to sub for her and quickly picked up the choreo over a few late-night rehearsals.

The melaya leff is a theatrical dance named for the melaya, a large black shawl that the women of Alexandria used to cover from head to ankle at the time the dance was popularized, in the 1950s. Meant as a modesty wrap, the melaya could also be artfully hugged to her curves to advantage.

In truth, the way the dancers wrap and unwrap the melaya, exposing the short dress underneath, and even swinging the ends coquettishly, would never happen on the streets of Alexandria. If she chose to wear a melaya, she remained covered, and more likely than not, she would be wearing a full-length galebayya, or caftan, underneath.

Perhaps the inspiration for the melaya leff dance was sparked by a momentary readjustment of the shawl that might sizzle an onlooker’s desire: the way a woman would recover when a corner of her shawl would slip—flashing a glimpse of her brightly colored galebayya.

Or the way she might intentionally adjust and gather her melaya just so, following acceptable custom while also highlighting the sway and curve of her hips as she walked, lowering her lashes as she passed the target of her attention.

So, a certain amount of fantasy and flirtatiousness is allowed for with the melaya leff dance. There are limits to what is acceptable, however.

I was still early enough in my dance career not to have learned a cardinal rule of performance: don’t debut a costume on the night of the performance. Do a run-through in full costume. And for God’s sake, at least try it on before you show up to the gig.

I’d been so focused on learning the dance that the ruffled, stretchy dress had sat in the bag Monika handed to me at the first rehearsal.

So imagine my shock when I put it on, and the dress barely covered the essentials…! So short, it was more like a tunic than a dress. I had forgotten how much more slender the dancer I was replacing was than me. And had totally underestimated how my curvier hips and butt would change the fit of the dress.

My mind reeled. I can hardly walk in it and maintain my modesty; how will I dance in it??

I looked at the other ladies in my group, and all of their dresses reached nearly to knee, and for Monika, all the way to mid-calf! I was the only one with so much leg exposed.

Backstage, the shocked and judging looks from other dancers gathered from all over the country to celebrate Dina’s visit told me everything I needed to know. I had passed the limits of propriety.

All my body shame came right to the surface. At that time, I never exposed my thighs. Not at the beach, never. Years of sidelong glances and comments by my mother, whose slender legs stuck straight down from a tiny, flat butt. And growing up as the weird curvy anomaly compared to my much taller, slender siblings.

Thank Goddess, the costume included a netted mask. It would be harder to identify me among the audience members after the show, I tried to reassure myself.

As the saying goes, the show must go on, so I danced as best I could, as Dina watched mutely, her face impassive but for a slightly raised eyebrow.

In hindsight, I can see how my discomfort with the costume was more my story than anyone else’s. If anyone would be open to stretching the bounds of costume propriety, it would be Dina. In Egypt, raqs sharqi is highly regulated, down to what you can wear on stage. Actual roving teams of council members visit and review dancers’ performances to make sure that they aren’t being “immoral.” When Dina had built up enough clout in the industry that she could change up her costume to just within the bounds of what was permissible, it was more than an act to get attention; it was a political protest. She was thumbing her nose at the establishment, and their discriminatory treatment of dancers.

If anyone could handle a little extra thigh, it would be Dina!

Fast forward to Dina’s show and our flight to the bathroom. Out of order, a hastily printed sign on the door read. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” one of my beautiful compatriots panted.

“To the men’s room!” I crowed. This was an emergency. We needed to get back to the ballroom before we missed a minute more of Dina’s performance.

***

Until seeing her dance live in person, I’ll be honest: I wasn’t sure what all the fuss was about. Dina was clearly important within the dance form. People all over the world emulated her signature movements and costume styles. And, her costumes were fantastic.

But it wasn’t until that night, once I could focus and settle into what was happening on stage, that I understood her magic.

Earlier that day, taking workshops with her, I’d been surprised by her petite stature; she couldn’t have stood any taller than me, at 5’3”. She taught us a choreography that she seemed to be making up on the spot.

That evening, as I watched her dance number after number, I tried to identify the warmth that was washing over me, and finally, it dawned:

Love. I felt waves of love coming off of her as she danced.

I couldn’t pinpoint it to a move or expression. She wasn’t doing anything complex or overtly intricate. It was simply her being so fully present with us, offering her soul to us as she danced. With So. Much. Love.

The warmth felt like generosity. Like healing. It felt like an exchange older than time itself.

In Arabic music, there is this concept of tarab, or “ecstatic change.” It describes a building of energy or tension that is then released in a shift of the music. The best singers, musicians, and dancers, understand this concept in their bones and can shift the energy of the room through it.

How does one explain the release of emotion that is tarab?

How can one explain the waves of love from the dancer?

It is like a wave breaking apart on the shore, then gathering to break anew. Endless, rhythmic, infinite.

Like the most perfect resolution.

It is not unlike the climax in the act of lovemaking. It is an ecstatic transformation, the shift, release, and change into something new. When done right, it touches the very core of you.

It is a concept that is named in Arabic music, but that I feel also describes how we impact the world around us. How we are able to, by casting our energy, shift and change the very form of the things around us. It may seem like a miraculous or outrageous claim, and yet we know from quantum physics: our intention as we gaze upon an atom changes the way it behaves.

As I felt the waves of love rolling off Dina as she danced, I felt myself transformed. I understood at a level I hadn’t before the power of this dance to heal and change, not just the dancers (as I’d experienced), but the people we share it with.

I better understood my power, seeing it modeled by Dina. In an instant, my embarrassment and shame about my performance earlier that evening dissolved. What mattered wasn’t what my costume revealed; what mattered was how I felt. How the witnesses to my dance felt. What I intended to express.

Experiencing Dina perform was the first time I viscerally understood how love could be transmitted and amplified by the body, through dance… and how powerful and healing that transmission could be.

***

In a tiny village on an Egyptian hillside, there remains a scant handful of elderly women who remember the old dances, learned as children from their mothers, and their mothers’ mothers.

They perform these ancient rituals only on moonless nights, long after whatever moulid or festivity has settled down, and only the most devoted linger, hoping for the rare sight.

As onlookers shut down and pocket the ubiquitous phones, and the fire dies down to embers, a cloak of darkness falls around the gathered circle.

As if materializing from thin air, two white-haired men emerge from the shadows to pull a pair of stools close to the fading fire’s edge and sit with their drums. One balances a wide, shallow frame drum on his knee with one hand, while with the palm of the other, he sounds a limping, sonorous bass beat: Doum-tek-DOUM-tek… Doum-tek-DOUM-tek…

The other holds a dumbek across his knees, palm, and fingers of his right hand rolling across its snakeskin top. His left hand moves in and out of the drum’s ankh-shaped body, subtly lilting its tone up and down. He begins by echoing the larger drum’s rhythm, then improvising lightly around it: Prrrrrr, Chek-DOUM-chek, Prrrrr, chek-DOUM-chek.

As the drummers settle into the ceremonial rhythm, the elder women step forward. The dark burqas that drape them from head to toe whisper a hushed rustle. Their bare feet pad silently in the dust. They raise their arms and begin to dance, their undulating forms barely discernible against the deep darkness surrounding them.

As their hips twist and tremble, as one bends at the waist, and another sways, time rolls to a stop, its movement halted, and its illusory nature revealed.

The circle is transported, to a time when women’s bodies represented the sacred mystery of life, and the dancer priestess stood shoulder to shoulder with the shaman warrior as a guiding seer to her people.

Then, it was understood that her song and dance thinned the veils between worlds, allowing unseen wisdom and energy to be channeled through her body, healing and activating anyone within reach of the transmission.

The elders dance like this, covered in near pitch-blackness, as a protection for themselves and their audience. If officials get wind of the illegal display, any witnesses would be able to say to their interrogators, “I couldn’t say who was dancing, sir; they were covered, and it was a dark, moonless night.”

Of course, they know exactly which of the town’s elders hold the threads of ancient wisdom, preserving them through the present. Each woman’s burqa is individual and unique to her: the hem of Fat’ma’s is embroidered with little flowers, while Shahina’s veil has a gently scalloped edge.

Saayidah has been old for as long as anyone can remember; no one knows her true age. But when she moves on these nights, her body is like a young woman’s.

But to protect the sanctity of this ritual and the women who risk their freedom to perpetuate it, all tacitly agree to this farce.

One young man, standing a bit back from the small crowd, covers his eyes, unsure how to respond to the uninhibited pelvic circles of a woman old enough to be mother to his grandmother. He is confused, for his imam has drilled into him that a woman’s physical body is dangerous and distracting to his pious devotion to the Prophet, and yet, all that he feels rolling off the joyously dancing women is pure, unconditional love, in wave after pink-colored wave—so palpable he could swear that he tastes rose petals on his tongue, their unmistakable fragrance filling his nostrils. Humbled, he drops to his knees.

A young woman, holding a sleeping baby to her breast, begins to quietly weep; the grief over her mother’s passing, which had been held like a brittle leaf under a stone heavy on her chest, has suddenly, inexplicably given way. Her sister takes the now-fussy infant from her arms, so she can freely rock to and fro, now holding herself as her sobs break free in loud, open-throated wails.

Two men, one with the unmistakable salt-and-pepper of age, and the other with a few hairs of silver glinting in his beard, had attended the evening’s event carefully. Arriving separately and at staggered times, they avoided any but momentary eye contact as they purposely wove their paths not to cross.

As the women dance, however, under cover of the moonless dark, the men sidle toward each other inch by inch, their eyes never leaving the undulating forms. When finally, each feels the warmth of the other through the cloth of their sleeves, one rough cotton and the other fine silk, their fingers outstretch, curl, and intertwine.

Hand-in-hand, the lovers’ heads tilt toward each other. Together, they feel the energy of the dancers gently wash over them, releasing the shame that they had been taught to feel about their love, and overwhelming them with a sense of safety and belonging.

Another woman begins to stomp in rhythm with the wise elders, swaying forward and back as she slips into a trance. Several of the women near her close in around her in a protective circle, providing a screen of privacy, as well as their own encircling arms, so she doesn’t inadvertently fall or hurt herself.

Eyes closed dreamily, tears begin to fall, and the woman’s hands begin slapping a syncopated rhythm over her body: palm to upper arm, closed fist to torso, clapping down the length of her legs in a display that would have been considered shameful outside the circle of her family’s women. She feels a warm flush sweep over her body as blood circulates to joints that have been stiff and sore. They prickle and fizz as if the stars themselves have entered her bloodstream.

Later, she will have no memory of her instinctive dance, nor will any of the women who encircled her ever speak of it. The woman will notice that she is able once again to bend and kneel. During the next call to prayer, she is surprised that, as she lifts her shawl to drape over her head and around her shoulders, her elbow no longer twinges with pain.

Healing doesn’t mean you’re broken.

Let’s be clear about the healing process.

You are not broken.

I repeat: You are not broken.

To be clear, when I talk about healing, it’s not from the perspective that there’s something to be fixed. No, it’s not that at all. What it is, is that:

We, as souls, leave this trail. These seeds of wisdom, these fragments, these fractals…

This happens anytime we have an experience where there is more to it than we can absorb or learn at that moment. Call it a traumatic experience, call it a loss, call it an unexpected turn of events. Call it a momentous meeting of souls.

It can happen in this timeline or even in previous lifetimes… Yours, or an ancestor’s… Sometimes the unwinding of these experiences takes generations.

As we navigate the spiral of our life’s path, as we progress, we integrate these pieces we leave behind.

We re-call. We re-member. We re-piece together.

We re-incorporate—literally. As in corp, meaning: of the body. We reincorporate these pieces of our soul, these pieces of ourselves that we left behind…

Pieces like a jeweled treasure map, right?

If there is something that needs to be healed, it is simply a part of your soul that’s ready to rejoin with you.

That’s it.

It doesn’t mean that you’re broken.

It doesn’t mean that there’s something to be fixed. Not at all.

Rather:

It’s like we become ever more whole.

Ever more aligned.

Ever more on your purpose, or in your purpose, right?

Ever more in your body, which is where so much of this wisdom is carried.

Just trust it. Just 100% trust it, and trust yourself. More than we’ve been taught to trust ourselves.

You are perfect. If you’re on the journey (and we all are), you just haven’t met all the parts of yourself yet.

Watch the inspiration for this article: YouTube | Instagram

Wonder if you’re ready? Trust your path. (Here’s why.)

Watch the inspiration for this article: YouTube | Instagram

We hold so much wisdom in the body.

One of the things that I experienced visiting the Philippines, where my mother’s side of the family is from, is that my connection with my ancestral land was 100% transmitted through my body: Eating native foods. Feeling the earth under my feet. Meeting whole tribes of people to whom I was related.

(No, seriously… In my mom’s hometown especially, it seemed like everyone was my cousin…! I mean, the mayor is my cousin. You know? It was wild. I’ve never experienced that level of familial ties or rootedness anywhere else).

And although I was walking into that experience knowing that I was called there to heal some intergenerational stuff and even which ancestors were guiding my steps… that hasn’t always been the case.

I was reminded because the other day, I listened to a podcast host talk about visiting her ancestral lands. She wondered aloud, Was I ready?

She had her daughter with her, who had her own needs and pulls on their time—so although the host felt so awakened by her trip, she looked back with this twinge of… It could have been better.

And I really resonated with that because I’ve had those same feelings. Had I known then what I know now, could that experience have been different? What if I hadn’t also been dealing with whatever drama was happening in my life?

In short: Was I ready?? Could it have been better, could I have been better?

So I just wanted to take this opportunity to reassure you (and remind myself): You are (and were) right on time.

Trust your path and your body’s guidance to show up wherever and whenever you get that call.

Because guess what? Your ancestors guided you there. Or your own soul, beckoning to you from a prior lifetime. The messages came to you through an instinct, a feeling, to GO.

And you heeded that call. And maybe you weren’t consciously engaged at the time, or don’t feel ready NOW.

And, what I got so strongly on my trip to my motherland, as I scooped and ate the most exquisite papaya, or heard my relatives’ laughter, or saw a million and one sights that read home to my DNA… is that:

You don’t always have to KNOW or be consciously engaged in, “And now I am healing my ancestral line.” Or: “I am aware that I am uploading codes and downloading information and healing my bloodline…!”

Because: it happens in the alchemy of your body.

Simply by being you, and heeding your soul’s call.

Just trust that. (I’ll repeat that, for me: Trust yourself.)

Trust that the moment that you’re called is the moment that you’re 100% ready. Because there’s so much that happens behind the scenes, underneath it all… Our ancestors’ dreams and wisdom, passed down through blood and bone; our own soul’s mandate as we came into the body… We’re not always aware at the moment when we’re fulfilling a soul contract or learning a lesson we aimed to learn before coming into the body.

A great example from my own life: I studied French in high school, and there was a foreign exchange program offered and paid for by the school. Of course, I signed up. I was 15 years old.

It would be decades before I recalled my lifetimes in the south of France, where the sacred feminine was revered for thousands of years. Generations of priestesses, sisters, and initiates lived and died there… and I was one of them. More than once. That realization didn’t come in really vividly for me until just a few years ago. (That is a story for another day.)

And yet, there I was, called to the south of France at age 15. And I ended up being matched with a family in Lourdes, of all places…!

Lourdes is famous for its healing waters and connection with the Holy Mother. A young girl named Bernadette saw visions of her there in 1858. (Our Lady was there much earlier than that, just not sanctioned by the Catholic Church until documented miracles began to happen after Bernadette’s vision and unearthing of the spring.) Millions of pilgrims travel there each year.

I was aware of none of this, not being raised Catholic, and having no conscious ties to the Mother, I mean I didn’t know that She was even a thing…! But I was completely called there. I was the only student in the program housed in Lourdes. I started speaking the language like I was born there; I came back with this really strong, Southern French accent that blew everyone away.

And, what I can tell you is, there were so many things that needed to be healed yet, at that tender age. For one thing, I was so painfully shy. I remember arriving at the home of my French family, being shown to my room, and then not wanting to come back out of it that first night. I was so scared! I literally made a sign that said “Bonne Nuit” and put it on my door.

I’m sure they had this whole dinner prepared for me and everything. And in hindsight, I’m like, Oh, God, the social awkwardness…! But that’s where I was at that time. And, it was exactly where I needed to be in that moment.

Because in spite of all that, seeds were planted. Information was uploaded and downloaded. In fact, this experience helped pave the way for my remembering past lifetimes. It helped prepare me for later downloads when I got the full-on, tears gushing down my cheeks, visceral memories of being part of this sisterhood.

So I just wanted to put this out there: Trust your path. Just trust it. When you’re called to go to Glastonbury, or the Philippines, or the Black Hills of South Dakota, or wherever, even though maybe it isn’t under the circumstances you would prefer, trust the call.

Trust where your body takes you.

There are no accidents. In fact, that argument you might have had on your trip, let’s say, with your daughter, may have been part of ancestral healing that needed to happen. Processing echoes of the past, healing or bringing knowledge or wisdom forward.

What you’ll find is, looking back, you’ll go, “Oooohh… That’s why of all the towns in France that I was called to, I was called to Lourdes. And of all the programs that I could have been invited into, I was in the one that went to the south of France…”

As you progress down your path, the pieces will fall into place. Why a particular place, at a particular age, under those exact circumstances… So you might think, Oh my gosh, I was called there when I was 21. I was SO not ready to do the work…

And yet: you were probably called there at age 21 because something momentous happened to an ancestor or in a past life at that age. There’s never any accident.

So trust, trust that there is always a part of you that knows who you are and the whys and wherefores behind what is happening at any given moment. That part resides in your beautiful, sacred body.

And as you learn to trust that instrument of your soul, that physical focus of your soul, that temple of your soul…

As you learn to trust your body, it just makes things so much easier, and the journey that much richer.

So… Happy Travels!

From my heart to yours, I love you. Take what you need and pass it on.