The Circle

This is a lovely process posted for your enjoyment and enrichment. ~ Whitehawk

Imagine you’re walking in open country. You come upon a vast Circle in an expansive, fertile field. Streams and springs are flowing into this sunny area, providing the optimal environment for life to flourish. This is not a Circle made by human hands; rather, it’s a zone where the energy of the universe flows without restriction. The Circle is not made or run by people, though everyone and everything is included in it. You have your own permanent place here.

This Circle is home to satisfying relationships, meaningful work, inspired learning, endless resources and opportunities, laughter and creativity, and a prevailing sense of ease. Remember a time when you felt carefree, safe, energized and happy–maybe playing with childhood friends, or dancing with your sweetheart. That’s the feeling: a pervasive sense of glad assurance. In the Circle, life is not a series of obstacles to overcome, it’s a steady flow of opportunities.

There is no fence around the Circle, no admission gate, no entrance fee. Regardless of your age, your weight, the color of your skin, your gender, your education, your nationality, your financial status, or others’ opinions of you–you already belong here. No person or condition has the power to keep you out. You alone can take yourself out of the Circle, but your place will always be reserved for you. Your place in the Circle never expires. If you leave, it’s simply vacant until you return.

So come on in. Or you may find that you don’t have to move at all; the Circle expands to include you. The Circle can be as expansive or cozy as you like. Set down all the baggage you’ve been carrying. Isn’t it nice to be rid of that burden? Your shoulders relax, you take a deep breath, and your back uncoils. It’s like getting into a hot tub at the end of a long trudge on a winter’s day. The nature of the Circle is flow, and you are part of that flow wherever you are and whatever you do within the Circle.

Here are some reports of how it feels to be inside the Circle:

“I’m smarter, funnier, and I’m sure I’m better looking!”

“Colors are brighter and I feel alive, like when I hiked Mount Rainier.”

“Problems really do become opportunities here.”

“The only restriction on what’s possible is how much good I can stand!”

For a moment now, purposely yank yourself out of the Circle. Stand at a distance, looking at the Circle while no longer inside it. Notice how you feel when you take yourself out and separate yourself. You may feel lonely, left out, invisible, or disconnected. Being outside the Circle may also feel familiar, while being inside may feel like a wild, unlikely fantasy. If you’re used to struggle, ease can feel foreign and you may distrust it at first.

Now come back to the Circle and make yourself at home in the way that feels best for you. Honor your own pace; maybe step up to the edge, and just barely step inside. There’s no wrong way to consent to becoming part of the Circle. Simply discover what works for you, Just know that you already belong and that your space is always reserved for you, no matter what.

The nature of the Circle is flow, so whenever you step into the Circle, you step into the flow. When you separate from the Circle, you’re resisting the flow. Remember: there’s no way to earn your way into the Circle because you already belong.

Entering the Circle isn’t determined by your worthiness. It depends on your consent. Just check this out. What would it be like if you lived–all the time–as if you already belonged?

Notice this last bit. You’re not just a consumer in this Circle. You are a generator, far more ingenious, inspired, and outrageously collaborative than you’ve ever imagined. The Circle is enriched because you’re in it.

Let’s be clear: the Circle is not a place. It doesn’t have a time zone or a compass point. The Circle is a way of being–and we’re either being in the circle, or being out of the circle. Most of us have embodied a way of being outside the circle. We’ve accepted an implied atmosphere of competition or combat, of domination and intimidation. To dominate or intimidate, it’s necessary to create a sense of scarcity. Not enough thinking keeps us in survival mode, the reptilian brain on constant alert, scanning for threats, preparing to attack or defend. Not enough thinking preempts our higher brain functions, the ones that inspire us to innovate and cooperate. Whichever side we stand on in separation–victim or hero/martyr–we’re operating out of separation.

Choosing to belong in the Circle is an act of sovereignty. We belong because we choose to belong.

Here’s the practice:
Whenever you notice you’ve stepped out of the Circle, consent to come back in. Taking your place in the Circle means belonging to the flow of all life, drawing on its juice and vitality, and making your own contribution to it. Stepping into the Circle means hooking up your individual life force with a life force much bigger than yours–the life force that moves and fuels all things; the flow that constantly replenishes itself.

Repeat this practice several times, making it more vivid and visceral each time.

What if you always lived as if you already belonged?

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Excerpted (and paraphrased in spots for space) from the book, The Trance of Scarcity by Victoria Castle.

Anticareer Bookstore back in business; new titles available

Abundant ones~ Rick’s bookstore on the Anticareer website is functioning again after some down time. Moreover, it has two new meditation CDs that Rick published himself: The Four Directions: At the Crossroads (a guided visualization through the landscape of manifestation & life alignment) and The Full Chakra Meditation (the full version of chakra alignment, including animal, color & energy visualizations). These CDs are just $10 each (plus shipping), and are not available elsewhere. They may be just the ticket to set up your year for optimal manifestation! Here is the direct link to the Anticareer Bookstore: http://anticareer.com/booktape.html

Great journeys,

Whitehawk

AND MORE @ http://anticareer.com

Snow in the Dish

Where I live, the new year brought a blanket of fresh snow — a fitting metaphor for a clean slate, a new beginning.  January 1st offered the sweet scene of neighborhood kids sledding down the toboggan hill in the park.  Brightly colored sleds, hats and snowsuits sailing downhill accompanied by joyful sounds and bounding dogs triggered a nostalgic return to innocence that lifted my soul.

At home, out my back door, I noticed that the dish I fill with food for the local wildlife (as wild as it gets in the city) was piled high with snow.   Then, within minutes, I received email from a friend trying to connect with someone in Colorado, from whom she had yet to receive a response.  “He may just have snow in his dish,” she said, refering to the satellite dish he uses for internet connection. 

Hard to miss “snow in the dish” coming up twice in such short order.  I pondered how much snow many of us likely have in our receiver, perceiver and/or sender mechanisms:  frozen thought forms, emotions, and even outdated ideas of who we are in the scheme of things, keeping us frozen in our tracks when we dearly wish or need to move forward.

We’ve crossed a threshold on the calendar; what better time to pour a catalytic stream of liquid Light into frozen old consciousness, and cross a pivotal threshold in life?  It’s never too late to recreate.  The past is gone, and what’s ours to do now is to create luminous thoughtforms of how we want our lives to be, and then step into those thoughtforms and feel how it will feel to actually live that scenario.   Flesh it out as much as possible (no scrimping on the crucial emotional component), then release it to set up an energetic that the “universe will conspire” to fulfill by way of inspiration for your next step, or “chance encounters” with helpful people, and the like.   Caveat: any conflicting thoughts that may subsequently arise need to be canceled and replaced with the desire again, asap, or they’ll just reduce the established line of magnetic attraction to static.  Not helpful.

This is strategic synchronicity skill-building 101. 

Such ideas are likely well known to the readership of this blog, but some might be served by a reminder as I was, while pondering this snowy vignette. (Besides, it’s been quiet around here lately!)  A microwave dish full of snow blocks useful communications, and a plate full of snow leaves no room for fresh sustenance.   Could be time to do some dishes. 

Wishing you a blessed, delightful, abundant new year ~

Laurie 

The Power of Spirit on the New Year

A number of months ago, a young man, whose mother is a part of our healing community, crashed his motorcycle at high speed while fleeing the police. He had been arrested with drugs some time before, was on probation, and had missed his curfew. When he saw the police car checking him out, he panicked and took off.

As a result, many bones in his body were broken, including his entire pelvic region, and his body had turned ashen grey. His family and friends held a vigil by the hospital bed. That night, at our Poughkeepsie Gathering of the Healing Spirit Circle we entered into a powerful communal meditation and worked to see him healed and whole. I remember having a strong sense that this young man had a choice before him.

Along with his body being broken, and the risk of being crippled for life at age nineteen, the local authorities at the District Attorney’s office were determined to make an example of this young man. He was to be tried and sentenced to jail as an adult with no leniency.

Somewhere inside of him, however, this young man made a choice, and when he regained consciousness, his mother began to work with him. She told him that his thoughts and intentions, when aligned for his highest good, can create new realities and transform the most difficult challenges. She told him not to resign to despair, but to dare open to being healed and whole.

The young man remained in body cast, and was filled with drugs and anesthesia,

Naming It

Hello all; Laurie Pentell here, coming out from behind the scenes as a guest columnist today. It’s been ten months since the Rick Jarow AoA blog went live on WordPress. I’ve enjoyed witnessing this largely successful experiment that opened a channel between Rick and folks interested in his ideas re: manifesting the life and livelihood they desire. Many thousands of guests have visited these pages. Learning to engage life as a grace-full dance of energies instead of a glut of enemies to be conquered is gaining ground — as it must. (Now for this to trickle up our governmental food chain…) The discernment between these approaches is crucial; it’s all about the energy signatures we engage as co-creators of our manifest reality. Are energies flowing in harmonious collaboration, or fractured into opposing dualities much of the way?

Early on, Rick encouraged me to contribute some writing in this space, and I have shied from doing so. Recently, though, I’ve been feeling, observing, and experiencing a few things along a certain theme that I thought I’d share, before the maiden year of the AoA blog closes out. So, while Rick is busy manifesting elsewhere, here’s my offering to the Alchemy of Abundance crucible – involving a manifestation journey of my own. Perhaps there’s something in it for you.

For over a year, I’ve had a slippery hold on a vision for a project I’d like to manifest. Like most creative projects in “this Now,” this one involves a website. In fact, the website is the core aspect; the sun around which numerous planets and satellites would revolve in mutually supportive alignments. The mere expanse and complexity of this project intimidated me, and moreover… the working title I had for it didn’t ignite me. This might not block most people, but I realized recently, looking back at other creations, that I seem to need to name a thing I want to call forth — its signature, or mantra, so to speak — before I can successfully manifest it. So the project kind of sat there, orphaned, burdened with a boring name.

These past couple of months I’ve given more attention to this situation, this name issue, and spent more time focusing on the nature of “the being” trying to come into manifestation. What is trying to emerge here? Who would the primary players be? What is the important service I’m feeling called to provide by way of it? What is the primary theme that is up for me that I dearly want to energize through this expression? I keyed in on the primary theme (not as easy/obvious as one might expect) and then a primary word, and then played with that word, in all kinds of forms and pairings with other words, for several weeks. THE name remained elusive. On occasion I thought I might be on to something, only to find that the domain was already taken, or the vibration just didn’t quite resonate in some other way. On and on.

Last week: a breakthrough…

Prophets Conference Special Offers

THESE OFFERS WERE RE: THE NOV ‘07 CONFERENCE ONLY FOLKS::::::::: 

Greetings all,

As you may be aware, Rick will be appearing at the legendary Prophets Conference in LA the weekend of Nov. 9-11, and also leading a post-conference workshop on Monday, Nov. 12. The conference theme is “Manifesting a Rich Life,” and it features many of the top author/teachers in the field of manifestation, abundance, living the life you’d love, and so on. The intention is to pick up where “The Secret” left off — meaning, to approach “abundance” from a higher perspective, to balance the more material aspects highlighted in the wildly popular book and film. To see the impressive array of presenters who will be joining Rick at this event, please visit http://www.greatmystery.org/events/la07.html and look around!

Open Heart: Open Hand

This summer at Esalen we were playing an inspired CD, “Spirit Rap” by Astarius. During the “transfer period” between one workshop and another, the CD was either lost or taken. I had built this CD into the upcoming  “Alchemy of Abundance” workshop and was upset by its disappearance. We made flyers asking if anyone had seen it and placed them all over Esalen. There was no response. Meanwhile, my colleague and “Idea Tribe” aficionado, Athena Katsaros, suggested that I close my eyes and open my palm every morning as I entered the Dance Dome, where we were meeting. 

I did this everyday, and maintained focus, noting also that the workshop was doing quite well without the CD. On the last day as I walked in and closed my eyes, Athena placed the CD in my hand. Someone in the nearby Art Barn had seen the poster, remembered seeing the CD in some bin, and returned it. 

This is certainly a positive manifestation, but I would have been quite alright if the CD had never been found. I had released attachment to outcomes every time I had simultaneously visualized the CD, for I refuse to be a sniveling complainer before the vast universe just because I did not get what I wanted.  

On the other hand, I had also made posters and placed them in strategic places alerting the community about the CD. I had done everything I could do to maximize the possibility of its return, and then I let it go. 

There are times that we will not get what we want. It is that simple, and it is guaranteed (just as there are times when we will). A CD is a minor object, of course, compared to larger issues: people coming back into our lives or not, our health coming back or not, our opportunities returning or not. What is relevant to me here, however, is the way in which we ultimately choose to live out these various dramas. Are we are becoming clear, free, noble, compassionate, and big hearted through our process, or are we slowly sinking into a grimaced posture of antagonism and complaint? The open hand does not ask for a hand out; it asks to receive the Grace of What Is, and such a small opening can turn a poisoned landscape into a paradise.
 

Manifestation Beyond the Project of Me

Many think of manifestation as “self-improvement” but if that is all it is, it is but another ego project doomed to failure. To renounce manifestation on the other hand, due to some notion of temporality or futility of this world is to remain in reaction to thought (to samsara) and not to break through to the other side. What then exactly is manifestation? 

Advanced Manifestation Program Cover Animation

Advanced Manifestation Animation

Friends:  Rick’s Advanced Manifestation Program’s cover has been animated (or perhaps “energized” would be a more apt descriptor) by its creator, German artist Eleonore Weil.  To see it come to life, click the Play arrow.  Perhaps ride the images toward your own manifestation goals.

Enjoy… Whitehawk

(The Advanced Manifestation Program may be purchased at
www.soundstrue.com, www.amazon.com, and most bookstores.)

A Light on the Hill: Accomplishment in Flow

Among other things, we have been exploring on the BLOG the relationship between “loving what is,” and moving toward “what can be.”

Recently, I had the privledge to spend some time at Light on the Hill, a wonderful retreat center in Van Etten, New York, run by Larwence Muscat and Alice McDowell. I have been coming regularly to Light on the Hill for over 12 years, and during that time, I’ve witnessed an extraordinary manifestation: the conception, construction, and execution of a wonderful building, the “Inner Light Lodge,” that holds a powerful sacred space for workshops, can comfortably lodge over 30 people, has a first class kitchen, a breathaking view, and a palpable aura of luminescence all around it. Since the Lodge was completed over a year ago, various groups have flocked to the center, which is powerfully facilitating high quality of consciousness transformation work.

I know how many people dream of building holistic centers, and I know that Omega Institute’s workshop, “How to Start a Holistic Center,” draws huge numbers of participants each summer. But I also know how few of these dreams ever materialize, and how those that do materialize often wind up struggling with, and cowtowing to, the money economy that they wished to rise above. One thing I have noticed about Alice and Larry over the years is that even as their center grew, they were not consumed by it. They remain relaxed, open, and receiving to all who come by. So I asked them one evening about this question of manifestation in terms of the Lodge.