nature Archives

Celebrating Solstice 2024

Posted on 21 June 202422 June 2024 by sherry

Fellow travellers,

A unique and enchanting birdsong called in to me at 5 am each morning this past week during my ambrosia hour rituals. With the increase of light in June in the North, many people all over the world — particularly the northern hemisphere will be celebrating Summer Solstice, June 21st. I love how traditions of this type go back in time before electricity, before technology, before we became so out of touch with the mystery of life. An extraordinary sunset, a life-changing solar eclipse, a fierce volcanic eruption, a novel and captivating birdsong, oh the beauties and wonders of our own sacred planet.

Touchstones & Connection

Traditions shared globally are significant touchstones of our mutual humanity and connectedness, especially those earmarked by nature like a rare total eclipse — because nature is neutral—without race, religion, dogma, opinion, or creed. Nature is always reminding us of our relationship to something beyond our mortal grasping. These awe-inspiring moments often render us small and somewhat insignificant within our human egos, to something great, something beyond even our comprehension or understanding.

In Greenland and beyond however, the fierceness of Nature causing awe, is also causing unsettling destruction to people’s lives. Events out of the ordinary like an eclipse will cause a disruption in the established order of daily life. These events, therefore, have the power to make us feel small — as the locus of control is clearly not ours, but usually something outside of normal, beyond our material world.

Rituals & Traditions

Turns out it’s ok to acknowledge our (surprising to us) identity as insignificant in relation to the great Intelligence that holds this whole spinning universe together. Of course, major disruptions may not be OK in our physical reality and that is where we need grounding, routine and ritual to mitigate feeling overwhelmed or completely devastated. Traditions celebrated through rituals can keep us stable and grounded during turbulent times.

Most of us are painfully afraid of our own inherent, brilliance and light, that part of us—the mysterious, can only be access when the ego truly moves out of the way. That’s what happens when we practice the routine of ritual. Silence, presence and order give way to intuitive brilliance. That solitary little bird who came to my morning ritual so beautifully this week is related to Gemini represented in the month of June. Both ask us to tune into our intuition and remain calm, curious and to balance on the fence as the observer, by practicing equanimity watching all of these events with compassion and yet a clear sense of neutrality.

I celebrate my tradition of sending out a solstice newsletter with you by the announcement of my book Where Science Meets Spirit-The Autobiography of a Paralyzed Yogi, being published and ready for reading. You can find all about my book signing events and where to purchase it on my website: Mary-Jo – Where Science Meets Spirit

Blessings,

Mary-Jo

“No other revelatory experience can do for the human what the experience of the natural world does.”

Thomas Berry Tweet

A Place You’ve Been Before

Posted on 11 October 202120 February 2024 by Mary-Jo Fetterly

After the occasion of January’s Super Blood Wolf total eclipsing moon last Sunday, I noticed with enthusiasm a number of people, commenting that watching the event was transformative, even mystical. That – seeing our galactic lunar companion, go from a luminous flat disk to a deep red, three dimensional, sphere, shifted, not just the night sky, but them. I felt that too.

Some described the experience as “spiritual” or “out-of-this-world”. Clearly there was something to be said for being with the moon and the many, for this dynamic, interactive experience.

Major collective events of the Natural world affect us all on a deep level, especially if we are personally involved or paying attention. They remind us, of the magnitude and wonder of this great universe that we are all a part of, as well as how small and vulnerable our own little concept of “the world” might be.

Experiences that cause a significant physical change often create a paradigm shift in one’s perceptions and established beliefs, and may provoke a wholesale shift in reality. Shifts can also be tectonic, occurring over time, moving along a incremental but accumulative trajectory. Either way – they happen. But what really interests me and I think it might you too, is: what is shifting and how can this be met for the best possible outcome?

Change can be unsettling, challenging the comfort of the status quo, which will either be met with resistance or curiosity. If the event happens in our personal lives – if we are suddenly or consistently catapulted out of our familiar, to a dramatically different state, it may be transformative, but it will likely not be enjoyable initially.

This process articulates the Spiritual journey, the evolutionary thrust of life – when we move from one level of awareness and consciousness to something much deeper and greater. To a place we’ve never been before – exciting

Spirit however is characterized with challenging attributes: paradigm shifts, changeable, creative, invisible, mutable, unpredictable, cataclysmic, evolutionary, curious, mysterious, paradoxical, mystical, indescribable, otherworldly. All of the things our linear minds have trouble with, even though we all want to be on the winning team, the one with the most “spirit.”

My fall 15 years ago today, Jan 25 brought me to my knees metaphorically, where on the precipice of the “unseen” and the “seen” worlds, I had to navigate a decision with Spirit, to meet with curiosity rather than fear, my new paralyzed state.

Humbled by the magnitude of my situation I chose to forego my resistance. That surrender was mostly practical, like a wounded bird, but also intuitive, I knew from other “shifts” that there was no better option. This is process is somewhat inexpressible in words because in that moment your consciousness expands, then your bigger questions of life take on a whole new perspective, that allows your understanding to deepen-where you see the intricate connections and without question feel faith in your understanding of the BIG picture. You may not be able to articulate that Big picture, but you sense it, know it – like a baby its mother. You will then notice yourself experiencing the Infinite of the whole within yourself, which illuminates and diminishes the difficult personal and societal challenges of our human life.

The opinion that these states are questionable or “unreal” without credence, speaks to the difficulty we have with our understanding of the spiritual, or the unseen world. This chasm has been going on for centuries and interferes with our capacity to fully perceive ourselves and the cosmos. That our understanding of Spirit is limited, is only because it is not immune from our human necessity to dissect things into small parts and name them. Thankfully no religious dogma or science has succeeded in doing so.

What animates all of life is an extraordinary, evolutionary consciousness that seeks to continually evolve and experience itself in more and more expansive and expressive ways. Our own personal journey is a unique piece of that puzzle. In fact we are co-creating our reality with the universal consciousness every moment. When we can really grok the magnitude of that relationship we are on our way to personal peace, harmony and fulfilment, realizing the limitlessness of our very own Nature.

Ways to Connect with your Spirit Nature:

1. Accept that not all things real, or of value are physical. Use your breath and your imagination to tap into your non-physical resources.

2. Take time every day to tune in and cultivate a relationship with your intuition, your instinct and your imagination. Notice insights, coincidence & joy.

3. Develop a daily conversation that offers gratitude, respect and recognition for all of the unseen & seen ways that the Spirited universe supports your life.

4. Practice non-judgement. Although useful for measure, judging leads to a stale state of mind, eventual deadening. See non-duality.

5. Rejuvenate yourself frequently in Nature, cultivate perception and presence.

6. Make time everyday to be in Silence or the ‘immeasurable’. Be awestruck!

Blessings,

Mary-Jo

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Your Healing Life

Posted on 11 October 202120 February 2024 by Mary-Jo Fetterly

In the ebb and flow of life and the healing journey, fluctuations are inherent and inevitable. This would include our own health and the relationship we have to our bodies. There will be periods of optimum health and we will all encounter, in varying degrees some experiences where we are unhealthy or out of balance.

Our relationship to our own body is the most fundamental and primary relationship we have, yet it is often our last priority. Add to that the contentious modelling and examples we have in our culture and traditionally in the healthcare system where the body is objectified and diagnosed, leading to a disassociated often fragmented relationship.

In the Eastern healing arts the body-mind interface is a continuous interwoven system, with the concept that what you think and feel is what you become. In Carolyn Myss’ words your biography becomes your biology. This philosophy ties into the earlier concept of how we are fundamentally a part of Nature, moving, changing and evolving with the tides of life. Our relationship to our bodies-ourselves, is a healing, evolutionary process, with its insights being levels of awareness.

We all have a unique journey and ‘body-story’, a tapestry if you will of many moods and modalities which we’ve embodied throughout our lives. Our body, the vessel of our consciousness wear’s these stories or beliefs until given instruction to release them. That is your Healing Life, freeing your body and mind of what is not needed or what does not serve you.

This process is the healing journey, one we may take alone or with assistance. Due to the nature of consciousness the fundamental laws of energy should be applied to this process.

1. Energy cannot be created nor destroyed only transformed. All is one.

2. The body doesn’t lie. Healing can only happen in present time, with a tuned in awareness to the feelings, thoughts and sensory body

3. Confusion is the Brink of Discovery. Working in the non-physical world requires an appreciation and acceptance of paradox, synchronicity and irony. You will never be able to fully understand or explain the miracle of what shifts and heals us, but it doesn’t matter. It’s a blind trust like a baby has for its mother.

I would be honoured to facilitate your healing process if you are being called to do that. I offer years of my own healing journey along with tools from my teachers Carolyn Myss, Rod Stryker, Emilie Conrad, Mariah Moser to name a few, including my certification in Yoga Therapy, BAP-Brief Action Planning Health Coaching and motivational interviewing.