Month: July 2014

Categories
Tools and Tips

Unfolding Wings: The Myth of the Plumed Serpent

Dear Being Energy Community,

When did you unfold wings?  How did you do it?

Lets start by looking at how we can apply the myth of the Plumed Serpent to our daily lives. First of all it calls for daring.  When we decide to do something new, we start a personal process of becoming, a process that moves us from something we know into unknown and unfamiliar territory.

The myth describes the story of a snake evolving into something inconceivable.  By growing wings the snake becomes airborne and changes into something new and undiscovered.  Earth and sky are united, and conceptually, it reveals a personal process that opens us to uniting the contrasts or contradictions within us.  In order for us to change, we need to give something up before the new thought or behavior becomes the new one.

The myth of Quetzalcoatl links the space between the old and the new, and embodies a process of becoming.  For the shamans of Mesoamerica the Plumed Serpent is a symbol of evolution.  It describes the evolution of the cosmos, or the evolutionary process each one of us embodies.

Apply this concept to your life:

When was the last time you dared to try something completely new?  When did you unfold wings?  How did it feel?

For example, when leaving the stability of an old job to start something completely different.  On the one hand it is exciting and fulfilling to move towards something more meaningful, yet on the other hand, it produces the kind of teeth-chattering fear of not being able to pay the rent or mortgage.  What will I lose, what will I have to give up?  What if I’m successful?

What else unfolds in that process?  If I am moving towards more meaningful work and looking for congruence with one of my beliefs or perspectives, like, “I need to contribute something to the world, I need to give back,” what new view will unfold?  I might find that I have reserves of energy I didn’t know existed for working on projects that satisfy my belief of helping others.  I might find that helping others sometimes satisfies me more than the people I want to “help.”  I might learn that I need to take more time to understand the needs of others before taking action to help them.

Certain aspects of myself unfold and in that process I embody contrasting perspectives. The transformative experience creates a wider perspective that moves me toward new behaviors.

The myth of the Plumed Serpent connects us deeply to the universe and all its contrasts, light and dark, life and death.

You may have heard the quote from astronomer Carl Sagan, spoken in an old television series called Cosmos.  In it Sagan said, “We are a way for the universe to know itself.  Some part of our being knows this is where we came from. We long to return. And we can, because the cosmos is also within us. We’re made of star stuff.”  When we connect with the cosmos, the evolutionary process inside of us, we can become something new.

We at Being Energy practice a sequence of movements and breathing techniques, the Quetzalcoatl movements to explore new beginnings, or to intend a shift in our lives. Through the practice of this sequence of movements, we shift our perception; we focus our minds and hearts in the unfolding momentum of the present moment.

We focus on the vibrations within us to activate the sinewy, undulating movement of the serpent moving up through our spine.  We spark our mind-body to remember and manifest an ancient memory of who we are, and who we want to become.

The Quetzalcoatl movements activate the vibratory force within to connect with something new outside of us.  We open ourselves to the moment of our wings unfolding, acknowledge our discoveries and actively choose new paths. When did you unfold your wings?  How did it happen?  What aspects of you need to unfold?

Share your comments, ask questions and keep exploring!

Categories
Community Events

Kalani: A Recapitulation

Aloha Dear Community,

We have just wrapped up an unforgettable experience at Hawaii. The retreat—the first 5-day event at Being Energy—was an ideal setting for the focus theme of the workshop: the recapitulation technique. Over the course of the five days, everything we did, the Being Energy® movements, the recapitulation sessions, was highlighted by the forces of nature. The lush vegetation, the black lava, the tropical heat and the rain, all gave their distinct bodily experience and were an integral part of the experience at Kalani.

Because of the distance to get to Hawaii—its position in the middle of the ocean is part of its special nature, everyone who came had a great disposition and strong intention. We were lucky to have such a wonderful group. Participants came from the mainland US, Alaska, Argentina, Switzerland, England, Mexico, Lithuania and Russia, a crisscross of backgrounds that allowed us as a group to access a wide variety of views.

Besides the workshop sessions, the group got to start each morning bathing in a local hot springs by the ocean. See our photo with everyone doing feet Being Energy movements at the hot ponds!

During the workshop, we began with the question: Who am I? Peeling layers of how we see ourselves: our deep beliefs. The journey throughout was for each one to discover new layers, to add or expand those definitions or break free from some of them. Details over the recapitulation included guidelines on different types of recapitulation: Observing where does my attention go, Recapitulating how did I wake up, Recapitulating our behavior at work, Recapitulating relationships and Recapitulating a specific event. 

The ancient seer’s code gave everyone the chance to experience stopping the flow of their thoughts and leave the ind more readily pliable to see differently and change. These are indeed powerful movements, and they very much resonated with the powerful feel of the Big Island.

On the fourth day, we took those old ideas about ourselves up to the volcano. We took them to Pele, who lives in the lava, to help our individual intentions. For most of the way up, it looked like a storm weather was going to prevent us from making it, but at the end, we descended through a fern forest into the crater floor. It was foggy and mysterious as we hiked across the lava. This is pure earth energy as it gets. In geological time, the lava has barely cooled down for humans to walk on it, but one can still feel the force of the earth coming from deep below the surface under ones feet. This is what Carlos Castaneda called getting a boost from the earth. We each took in this boost to help us turn our wheels—our starting point of Who am I?

It was great to see Being Energy teachers begin to guide some sections of the movements –thank you Keiron. We want to see more and more of this happening at our workshops. We are thankful for the opportunity to have lived this retreat and we want to extend and share this feeling with you, all of the Being Energy community.

Here is a guideline for an easy to follow exercise for you to have a feel of the recapitulation:

Recapitulating how I woke up: Every day we are born again!

  • Practice any Being Energy® sequence of movements
  • Close your eyes
  • Bring your attention to your body, to the sensations in your physical body
  • Travel in Time: go back to feel how you woke up this morning
  • Stay present with the physical sensations and feelings that arose
  • Breathe in and out several times
  • Open your eyes and keep breathing
  • Close your practice bringing your hands to your heart. Try not to make any conclusions about it. Just enjoy the feeling of pausing to remembering the way you woke up

Aerin Alexander, Miles Reid and everyone at Being Energy

Categories
Community

Teaching Children to Gather Energy

Dear Being Energy Community:

When academic Erika Gavin first found the books of Carlos Castaneda she began a journey taking her from Padua University in northern Italy to Tijuana on the US border, devoting her life to the investigation of the mysteries of ancient Mexico.

She first settled in Guanajuato, a colonial city in central Mexico, obtaining a Bachelors in Spanish Literature. She then worked at the University of Guanajuato as a Lecturer for more than twelve years, latterly winning a scholarship for a Master’s degree from the University of Perugia as an Italian teacher.

After meeting her husband Julio, a Math Professor and Taekwondo black belt, and having a son, Aimon, they moved to Tijuana on the USA/Mexico border where Julio took up a teaching post. Erika said, “I was so confident this change was a decision from my path with heart, urging me to experience myself as a mother, wife and instructor, to commit more with my life and my spirit.”

Erika, a qualified Yoga teacher, then began studying with Miles Reid and Aerin Alexander and is now also a fully qualified teacher of the three Modules of Being Energy®. “I was so amazed and excited about the change and openness with which Miles and Aerin were hosting the legacy of Carlos Castaneda. Thanks to Being Energy I feel more stable and have a clearer direction and purpose in my life. I feel I’m finally on the way back home, more aligned with myself and the different aspects of my life… closer to my heart.”

Erika teaches the Being Energy® Daily Awareness Classes live on the web, and three weekly classes together with a monthly Saturday workshop in Tijuana.

The Tijuana classes explore a different aspect of Being Energy movements and silence practices each month. Her next Saturday workshop will be on August the 23rd with the theme of recapitulation.

She has also begun classes for children and teenagers between the ages of 6 – 14. Says Erika, “We are helping them develop trust through drawing attention to their bodies, noticing how everything that happens to us has an impact on the body. We are practicing a series of exercises called Gathering Energy and they love it!”.

She summed up her commitment, “There is nothing more exciting for me than this exploration, this knowledge that comes with every movement of my body. Every time I remember my breathing in a situation where I’m stuck, or the silence surrounding me when I finish a practice, I watch and feel another Erika take charge, more fluid, present, loving, returning to the pleasure of being alive that children experience, the unconditional love for others. Thanks to the work I’m doing with Being Energy I am learning to give and share without wanting to change people, without expectations.”

Categories
Community

World Peace

Dear Being Energy Community,

It has been shocking to read some of the stories in the news again after spending five days in our retreat in Hawaii. We have been inhaling pristine pure air, eating organic foods, celebrating mother nature, and connecting deeply into our souls while in different parts of the world hundreds of innocent civilians were killed in an ongoing battle amongst ego-centered identification groups of fixed beliefs.

I couldn’t hold back my tears when reading about the sixteen civilians killed in Gaza while looking for refuge in the one place they presumed would remain safe, a United Nation’s school. The conflict between Israel and Palestine touches me deeply. The grief inflicted on both sides is so deep and long lasting, sometimes it seems it will never end.

I didn’t sleep for days after finding out about the three Israeli teens killed by a Hamas terrorist group. I thought about their families, the unbearable sorrow, and the unfairness of it all. In a second I was transported 30 years back to when I was living in Argentina under a dictatorship. I was also a teenager and had witnessed dead bodies in the streets. The Argentinian army took over the government and killed more than 30,000 innocent people labeled as “different” or “subversive.”  College students and teachers were tortured and killed. For more than a decade I lived under fear.

Other news stories were about the conflicts in Syria and Turkey, the Sunni militants in Iraq, the violence in Honduras, and the Ukraine disaster of the Malaysia plane with 290 passengers. I put down the paper. I wanted to run and scream, how can I reconcile all the suffering and the contradictory feelings within me?

I did what I have been doing for years. I brought a hand to my heart and breathed; I closed my eyes, and stayed with the agitation that the news stirred in me. I kept breathing and connecting with the feelings until it got quiet inside, and somehow I was able to hold it all. I didn’t deny it, and “get busy” doing something else. I woke up to it.

How can waking up help to build a more peaceful world?

In our retreat in Hawaii we reflected on how we identified ourselves with our roles, with our economic and socio-political position in society.  Instead of saying “I practice medicine,” we say, “I am a doctor.”  Instead of saying, “I get to enjoy taking care of you,” we say, “I am YOUR mother.”  We fall asleep in the safety of what a particular status may bring. We stop thinking clearly: we act on autopilot, believing that we are what we think, without questioning it.

On a larger scale, this ego-centered self-identification creates a psyche that contributes to building cults, extreme political parties, unbalanced religious factions and terrorism. When we succumb to self-identification and labels, we become sleepwalkers.  When we stop questioning, we end up hating anyone that is different from us, anything that contradicts our unquestioned belief system. Cult leaders and dictators feel superior and tend to separate themselves and their groups from the rest. They behave in ways that create fear designed to dominate people, limiting individual freedoms of self-expression. These leaders like to intimidate and dominate through fear.

A path with heart, a place within ourselves where we can take a moment to really look at our actions, our self identifications, our fixed ideas and sit with them, is a path to a different state of consciousness.

Every second, every minute we can dedicate to sitting or moving in silence, meditating on our actions, questioning our belief system, is a step towards peace. We find, as we did in Hawaii, that we are much larger than our thoughts, than our self identified roles. We find that there is a web of energy or love that connects us all. And that is not just a catchphrase, it is scientifically proven.

We invite you to join us and practice:

[checklist]

  • 3 minutes of silence every day
  • Recapitulate your day
  • Look at each person you meet in the eyes. When someone is talking, put your cell phone down, and really connect with that person, even if it is for a few seconds.

[/checklist]

We don’t know how much time we have left. The only time we have is NOW. Use all of your energies to awaken and start building a more peaceful and interesting world.

In Being Energy, our prayers this week go to all people suffering to find relief in meditation and in silence,[separator top=”40″]

Aerin & Miles