The Spiritual Exploration Group is set to meet on September 13, 2010 at Little Nepal Restaurant

No, the 13th is not the “First Monday” – our usual day for meeting. But since Labor Day happens to be on the first Monday of September (as usual!) we thought we’d move to the second Monday to give everyone (including ourselves) a nice long weekend!

Our topic for September should generate some lively discussion; it is “How do you live your spirituality?” What are your practices? How do you put into action what you believe about life, spirit, the unknown? Rosemary and I will offer what works for us, the things that we’ve tried that haven’t worked so well, what we are studying, new practices we are exploring. And we hope you will be willing to share with us your ideas and thoughts on this broad topic.

We will gather as usual at Little Nepal at 6:30 pm for a light, tasty (maybe even vegetarian) Indian dinner, meaty discussion, but we’ll leave the dogma at home!

Blessings and joy!

Notes from the August 2, 2010 meeting of The Spiritual Exploration Group

Our group gathered on August 2, 2010 at Little Nepal restaurant. And, the topic of the evening was “What do your numbers reveal?” We had fun learning how to determine our Life Path and Destiny numbers from our birthdays and full birth names, respectively. This is a particularly fun exploration for Rosemary and me since we share a birthday, in fact, August 2nd!

We first determined how to compute our Life Paths from our birthdays. We distributed forms to make this really easy. I’ve included a copy of the form here in case you were unable to attend or you would like to work with it again:  NUMEROLOGY WORKSHEET (Just click on the link to download the form into MS Word) (And here is another link to a PDF version of the document:  NUMEROLOGY WORKSHEET.PDF)

The main reference book we used to explore each of the profiles for the resulting numbers is: “Numerology: Universal Vibrations of Numbers” by Barbara J. Bishop. Rosemary’s favorite book (packed away with all of our Maryland books) is “Your Days are Numbered: A Manual of Numerology for Everybody” by Florence Campbell.  Of course, with a topic so ancient and broad there are many good reference books available. Please post some of your favorites!

Our next meeting is scheduled for the Second Monday (allowing for Labor Day); we will meet on September 13, 2010, at 6:30 at Little Nepal Restaurant, for dinner, discussion, but no dogma!

The Spiritual Exploration Group is set to meet on August 2, 2010 at Little Nepal Restaurant

The First Monday comes early this month on the 2nd. Please plan to join us for our monthly meeting at Little Nepal restaurant at 6:30 pm for “discussion not dogma”!

Through the past several months we have explored various tools for self-discovery and understanding. This month’s topic is “What do your numbers reveal?” – the ancient examination of various significant numbers that are associated with your name and date of birth. We will offer ways to derive these numbers and then explore what they may mean to you.

Please plan to join us for exploration, good discussion and likely some laughs as we examine our numerology.

Notes from the July 12, 2010 meeting of the Spiritual Exploration Group

The topic for this meeting was “A Surprise”! Rosemary didn’t even share this with me leading up to our Monday evening gathering. And she held our subject quite close until she handed out cards with a short paragraph she had written on each while we gathered and ordered our meals.

She then revealed that our topic was “Past Lives” and that she had intuited and written a brief description of a past life for each of us that she had tapped into! She was quick to add that she had obtained permission from our Higher Selves to do this. We then talked a bit in general about the whole notion of past lives and their meaning and value to us in this life. We all shared these ideas:

It can be useful to consider past life experiences; they can help us understand our current relationships informing us of how we handled conflict in the past or how a great love of the past adds understanding to our current love relationships.

They can shed light on our karmic patterns and relationships; karma is spirit operating to bring us lessons in this life. It is speeding up bringing us those lessons at a faster rate.

And it doesn’t really matter whether we consider past lives to be real, metaphorical, archetypal, or the collective consciousness at work in each of us. The investigation into past lives can be informative to our present lives.

We then shared with the group the past life Rosemary had tapped into for each of us. By way of example I will share mine:

“A pirate who brought on board men who had nowhere to go, inspiring great loyalty.”

Make of that what you will!

Our August meeting is set for the First Monday, August 2 at Little Nepal restaurant at 6:30 pm.

The Spiritual Exploration Group meets next on June 7, 2010, Little Nepal Restaurant, 6:30 pm

Happy Memorial Day! It’s the end of the month and we are now well into summer. We had some really nice warm days last week, a taste of things to come.  Today is an awesome weather day; this is what makes Colorado so special!

We are a week away from the next meeting of our group. I do hope you can join us next Monday for great food and even better discussion. Our topic for June is Angels, Spirit Guides and Other Beings. And who better to lead such a discussion than Rosemary, who is so often in touch with these “beings on The Other Side”?

I will be speeding toward Ojo Caliente as the discussion unfolds, going to help with the mudding of the adobe hall,The Lady, which houses Bolad’s Kitchen. I will attempt to join by phone but coverage along my route can be thin (just like that veil Rosemary sees through!).

Blessings for a powerful and meaningful discussion!
Richard

The Spiritual Exploration Group meets next on May 3, 2010, Little Nepal Restaurant, 6:30 pm

The rapid passage of time has brought us within a week of meeting again! Our “first Monday” is next Monday and we hope you can make it. Our topic this month should create some interesting discussion; it is:
Good/Evil, Heaven/Hell, God/Devil!
What are these polar constructs? Are they emanations of our dualistic way of thinking about the world and ourselves? Is there any reality at all in these constructs? Where did the whole concept of Hell come from? Why would a “loving God” condemn people to an everlasting punishment by “hell-fire”? Is there a way to move beyond these rather primitive ideas and view the world and human consciousness in the world more holistically?

Also, I’d like to note that this will be our 13th topic since beginning the Spiritual Exploration Group in April 2009 (a formative meeting) and beginning discussions of specific topics that May. We are soliciting new topics which you may wish to cover in the next months. Please either post them here as a comment or come to our May meeting prepared to offer up some thoughts. We’ll begin our discussion Monday by sharing some ideas for future topics. (Previous topics can be reviewed through the postings on this blog.)

Notes from our April meeting on 2012

We had a great discussion on the subject: What’s All This Hype about 2012? What’s the Basis for it and What Do We Think Might Happen? I’ve included some notes here and a couple of book references for those who would like to take a closer look.

The basis for the 2012 date becoming so prevalent and popular is the cycling of several calendars around the world. The predominant one is the Long Count Mayan calendar which ends a 5125-year cycle on or around the winter solstice of 2012. The longest time-period examined is the 26,000 year precession cycle we are moving through; this is the length of time the zodiac wheel cycles through one complete rotation around the sun-signs. This is all about moving into the Age of Aquarius. This cycle also brings the solar ecliptic into alignment with the galactic equator. I don’t want to go into all the details here, but to offer a hint as to the significance of the time-period we are in. There’s a lot going on out there!

But more importantly what does this all mean to us, the community of humans? I think there is a collective sense that something is happening. There are many signs. There is an increasing polarization of thought which seems to become more extreme with every newscast. People seem to be dividing; issues are discussed in black and white terms; compromise seems to be an approach of the past. It’s as if two worlds are beginning to form. People are being presented a choice. One of the books we brought up is one Rosemary has been reading: 2012: You Have a Choice!  Archangelic Answers & Practices for the Quantum Leap by Sri Ram Kaa and Kira Raa. Whether anything happens to the physical planet or not, it is clear that choices are being presented and we need to be ready to make those choices, not from fear but with open minds and hearts, consciously.

Of course, we did discuss the movie, a typical disaster scenario which seemed to exploit the hype around 2012 rather than reveal any truth. But there are possibilities of physical earth-changes discussed in the many books on the subject of 2012. Everything from moving into and through a photon belt to a polarity shift of the earth and a shift of the earth’s axis are explored. The fact is we are in the middle of earth changes. Whether we call it global warming or global climate change; whether we believe it is human caused or a natural cycling, changes are apparent. The polar ice sheets and glaciers are melting, the oceans are warming, and our computer models used to predict outcomes of these phenomena are not programmed to cope with the extremes; i.e. we aren’t sure what’s going to happen as a result of the real and current earth-changes we are experiencing.

But this is not cause for fear. It is rather an opportunity to remain open to the possibilities. Change is inevitable; it’s called evolution. And we are called to consciousness and choice. We are called to a higher vision of what is possible.

Another good reference for 2012 is a collection of essays I discovered in my research for the discussion: The Mystery of 2012, Predictions, Prophesies & Possibilities, a publication of Sounds True; contributors include Gregg Braden, Peter Russell, Daniel Pinchbeck, Joanna R. Macy, Ph.D., John Major Jenkins, and many more luminaries on the subject.

As a special note, our April meeting was our 13th meeting of our Spiritual Exploration Group! The April 2009 meeting was a formative meeting during which we discussed possible topics. So, with our 2010 April meeting we have completed discussion on 12 topics! Rosemary and I are discussing the topic for our May meeting and will announce it soon. Meanwhile please be thinking about new topics to add to the list for the remainder of 2010. You can post them on this blog as comments or you can email them to us.

Happy anniversary to our Spiritual Exploration Group! Thank you for sharing with us!

An Essay on Spring, by Don Ellis

Harbingers of Spring

The return of the robin, businesslike in his red vest industriously extracting earthworms from the front lawn, is a sign of Spring so enshrined in American art and literature that it is almost a cliché. So, too, is the first crocus, small and delicate in the garden testing the cold air and the lingering snow as it reaches up, opening itself to the sunshine of the lengthening days. Despite the overused words and oft reproduced images recapitulating these annual events, the events themselves are new and fresh each year. For many, they herald not only the biological reawakening of a new growing season but also a personal emotional revitalization.

For much of the time when I was growing up in the 1940′s and 50′s, the only water we had fell from the sky or was hauled from a spring in jugs and cans. And, even after we got water from a pipeline, our attempts to grow a garden or a lawn met with limited success. So, the harbingers of Spring which touched my youthful soul (and still touch me the most deeply) were different, wilder, more robust.

Spring was heralded, not by the robin, but by the meadow lark standing erect on a fence post, yellow bib bared to the world, loudly trilling a crisp melodious flute like greeting to all, as I passed on my walk to school. Rather than the smooth petite crocus of the garden, I saw the floral face of Spring in the larger, hairy, almost disheveled, yet delicately beautiful pasque flower.

If I could choose to live again the Springtime of my life, I would again choose to live it where the meadow lark announces the season of reawakening.

Perhaps that is one reason I am passionate preserving those wild places where our increasingly urbanized and regulated community can reconnect with the meadow lark and the pasque flower, the dynamic order of nature in contrast to the designed and manicured order of the city.

Walk the Section 16 trail connect with the pasque flowers.

We are at the beginning of a new season!

Don Ellis

The Next Meeting of The Spiritual Exploration Group Is Set for Monday, April 5, 6:30 pm at Little Nepal Restaurant

And the topic for the evening is: What’s All This Hype about 2012? What’s the Basis for it and What Do We Think Might Happen?

There is so much out there on this topic: movies have been made (there will probably be more); some may feel fear around this topic (fear can be a useful tool for the powerful to control others); we seem unable to escape from the talk, the speculation, the hype.

Where did this date come from? Why does it seem so important and demand so much attention? Come explore with us at the usual time and place.

See you there!

The March Meeting of the Spiritual Exploration Group Discussed “Past Lives: Meaningful, Metaphor or Myth”

Our meeting on March 1, 2010, included a lively discussion on the topic of Past Lives. I believe the consensus was that, indeed, there seems to be meaning in exploring the possibility; but there was less agreement as to whether they are real or simply metaphor.

We opened the discussion with some examples. Rosemary offered a story of a police officer who set out to disprove the possibility of past lives and reincarnation. He did a regression with a hypnotherapist and during the session got in touch with a life as a painter. He applied police detective skills to investigate and disprove his own experience! What he found provided substantiation rather than disproof that this past life was real! You can view this story at:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lB_j-chZvR0

There are many examples to be found; as with most subjects a Google search tends to turn up fascinating (true or otherwise) results and stories. Google “past lives” and see where it leads you!

Several members of our group reported on their experiences, including others’ stories from Past Life Regression Healing sessions. The key point discussed from these examples, stories and experiences is the healing that can result from exploring our past lives. And, if the healing is the ultimate result from the exploration then does it really matter if the story is a myth? What we may recall, whether it is from a true past life or from tapping into the collective unconsciousness, can shine light on the present. And if that light helps to clarify an issue, a health problem, a psychological block, then the question implied by our discussion title is irrelevant.

There are many ways to explore past lives. Often they reveal themselves spontaneously through encounters, events, visits to new places. And there are more proactive ways to discover them through hypnosis sessions, regression analysis and even through self-exploration through story telling or writing: make up a story about a past life and see where it takes you. Someone suggested taking multiple photographs, e.g. in a photo-booth; make faces, strike funny poses and see who might show up! Play a game of “past lives” with friends; the story you tell may have some basis in a “real” past life. Use past-life story telling to solve problems; if you write your story with your non-dominant hand you may be surprised what your right brain allows to come through!

Whether myth, metaphor or meaningful, if nothing else, past life exploration can be fun!