To Listen to Animal Totem Music by Arvel Bird
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About the Four Directions
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About the EAST Direction
- Direction: EAST
- Animal Totem: EAGLE
- Element: AIR
- Property: MASCULINE
- Season: SPRING
- Time of Day: DAWN
- Qualities: DRY
- Sense: SMELL
- Taste: SOUR
- Sacred Plant: TOBACCO
- Life Sector: THE GOLDEN DOOR ~ BIRTH
- Lesson Path: ILLUMINATION & NEW BEGINNINGS
- Energies: FREEDOM, VISION, PERSPECTIVE
- Colors: YELLOWS and GOLDS
Michael Teachings
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About the SOUTH Direction
- Direction: SOUTH
- Animal: COYOTE / WOLF / RABBIT
- Element: FIRE
- Property: PHYSICAL
- Season: SUMMER
- Time of Day: NOON
- Quality: HOT
- Sense: SIGHT
- Taste: BITTER
- Sacred Plant: CEDAR
- Life Sector: YOUTH & ADOLESCENCE
- Lesson Path: INNOCENCE & PURIFICATION
- Energies: PASSIONATE, POSITIVE, AFFIRMING
- Colors: FIERY REDS, ORANGES & MAGENTAS
Michael Teachings
- Soul Age Perspective: BABY and YOUNG
- Internal Monads: 2ND and 3RD IMs
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East is the entry gateway to the "sacred circle" of life. Corresponds to Spring, birth, new beginings ~ all starts in the east ~ from where the sun rises, we begin a new dawn. Each day is a good new day with a fresh beginning, and a new start. East is the direction of air, mental activity, conception, including children and new borns. It is the time of change, for all is a new beginning. New ideas and seeing the light. Enlightenment. Change. Spring is the season when all things begin to grow and awaken. Yellow is the path of Life, to begin the walk, to shine in all that you do. The sun rising in the east empowers each of us. The energy to do and to begin the action of the mind and heart is there.
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| Growth in the South; it is the time of Summer. From the bloom we transform into the fruit of the labors. It is the time of mid-day, the hottest part of the day, the part when the sun is overhead and no shadows are cast. Maturing and growing into an adult to be that who was are. Childhood and adolescence. It is the time to accept the change and learn, to understand. Young adulthood; parental programming and cultural imprinting. Red is for fire, passion, time of fertility. The South is the place of passion in all things, sex, fertility, mating - the fires that burn within. The direction of fire, like the phoenix, we can rise from the flames, we take and rise again from childhood into being an adult in the direction of the South.
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About the WEST Direction
- Direction: WEST
- Animal Totem: BEAR
- Element: WATER
- Property: FEMININE
- Season: AUTUMN
- Time of Day: DUSK
- Qualities: WET
- Sense: TASTE
- Taste: SALTY
- Sacred Plant: SAGE
- Life Sector: MID-LIFE, MATURITY & ADULTHOOD
- Lesson Path: INTROSPECTION, GOALS, THE VOID
- Energies: COURAGEOUS, REFLECTIVE
- Colors: BLACK, BLUES and TURQUOISE
Michael Teachings
- Soul Age Perspective: MATURE
- Internal Monads: 4TH and 5TH IM
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About the NORTH Direction
- Direction: NORTH
- Animal Totem: BUFFALO
- Element: EARTH
- Property: SPIRITUAL
- Season: WINTER
- Time of Day: MIDNIGHT
- Qualities: COLD
- Sense: TOUCH
- Taste: SWEET
- Sacred Plant: SWEET GRASS
- Life Sector: LATER LIFE, OLD AGE & DEATH
- Lesson Path: ANCESTORS, TEACHERS, GUIDES
- Energies: GATE-KEEPERS, MYSTERIOUS, WISE
- Colors: EARTHY BROWNS, GREENS & *WHITE*
Michael Teachings
- Soul Age Perspective: OLD
- Internal Monads: 6TH and 7TH IM
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Maturity and later adulthood; the time of Autumn harvest, the time of the setting sun - twilight. The daylight fades and brings a new awareness in this time of gradual change. When the darkness comes we must look inward to find the light and have courage. To understand what we see in the darkness may not be real, but only shadows. Mid-life crisis; shedding unwanted imprinting and programming. This is the emotional part of ourselves, like the flowing water, we must learn to go with the flow of life. The time of the West is when we learn that we are responsible to all things and to each other. It is the time to prepare, to finish things, for the time of Winter is coming. We gather ourselves and family, working together to prepare for what is to come. As the place of emotions it is the place of family and love - of responsibility from our hearts, because of the love. It is hard work and team efforts. Black symbolizes change from this life and entering the cave of the inner self, and assessing progress that has bee made thus far on the goals for the life, as well as assessing what must still be addressed and completed.
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| As we get older, our hair turns white, and we come to our time of winter. With experience and age, we gain wisdom. Now we have time to rest and to contemplate the lessons encountered throughout the life experiences. White (and purple) also symbolize purification and spirituality. The North also represents the element of Earth, and the colors green, brown and white. North is purity and wisdom, a great place of healing. This is the time after midnight, and reflects the dreamtime, the "after-life" and the astral plane existence. North is the place of winter. This reminds us to stop and listen. That we must have prepared for the long time of winter. Having been in action through all of the other seasons, we now rest and contemplate, in order to understand the wisdom we have been given, as well as sharing this wisdom gained through the life with others as an elder. It is the direction of the ancestors, the elders, our teachers, guides and those that have walked the path, or the good red road, before us. It is the direction of contemplation, consolidation, completion and rest, as well as teaching and instructing those who would be receptive to such wisdom and who would walk the "good red road" in generations to come.
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Prayer to the Four Directions
- Creator, It is I.
- Thank you for today’s sunrise,
- for the breath and life within me,
- and for all of your creations.
- Creator, Hear my prayer, and honour my prayer.
As the day begins with the rising sun,
I ask, Spirit keeper of the East, Brother Eagle,
be with me.
Fly high as you carry my prayers to the Creator.
May I have eyes as sharp as yours,
so I am able to see truth and hope on the path I have chosen.
Guide my step and give me courage to walk
the circle of my life with honesty and dignity.
- Spirit keeper of the South, Wolf,
- Be with me.
- Help me to remember to love
- and feel compassion for all mankind.
- Help me to walk my path with joy and love
- for myself, for others, for the four legged,
- the winged ones, the plants and all creation
- upon Mother Earth.
- Show me it is right for me to make decisions
- with my heart, even if at times, my heart becomes hurt.
- Help me to grow and nurture my self worth in all ways.
Spirit Keeper of the West, Brown Bear,
Be with me.
Bring healing to the people I love and to myself.
Bring into balance the physical, mental and spiritual,
so I am able to know my place on this earth,
in life and in death.
Heal my body, heal my mind and
bring light, joy and awareness to my spirit.
Spirit Keeper of the North, White Buffalo,
Be with me.
As each day passes, help me to surrender,
with grace, the things of my youth.
Help me to listen to the quiet, and find serenity and comfort
in the silences as they become longer.
Give me wisdom so I am able to make wise choices
in all things which are put in front of me,
And when time for my change of worlds has come,
Let me go peacefully, without regrets, for the things
I neglected to do as I walked along my path.
Mother Earth,
Thank you for your beauty,
And for all you have given me.
Remind me never to take from you
more then I need, and
remind me to always give back more than I take.
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Human - Animal Essence Contact
Animal Wisdom Classes
Channel: Terri Claire Benning
Friday, January 17, 2003
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MICHAEL: We are cleaning up and clearing the energy fields now, and will be with you all more directly shortly. Please allow your breath to simply relax and let go of whatever else is not part of your now moment. Just allow all tension and the day's stresses to fade away, and invite your full essence consciousness to join you in this NOW moment. We will meet you each HERE, now.
Very well, our channel has requested that we speak about your Medicine Wheel meditations, thus this is the topic we will now comment upon this evening..
1. FIRST PRACTICE:
Balancing the Lower Centers ~ Emotional, Intellectual and Moving
There are many valid ways to focus your intention and attention toward more consciously aware essence contact experiences, both with self, and with other fragments, including with those of the "animal essence" variety.
One may choose to do this type of focusing practice through an avenue which best suits your own particular needs and preferences, paying particular attention to that center which is most natural for you to align with and to attune yourself towards.
One of the keys to successful focusing or meditation techniques includes the balancing effect of the least utilized center, as well as that of the most often utilized or the “natural” center.
For instance, our channel is in the emotional center, intellectual part [also referred to as the trap] and for this fragment bringing in, or adding the utilization of the least natural center, in this instance, the moving center, allows her to bring balance to the effects of the intellectual center trap.
Bringing in movement or motion allows the emotional center to then open into the corresponding Higher Emotional center as the “point of access” to the higher planes of existence and to join with the group energy field in her work with us. (As well as with those of other higher plane teachers with whom she has worked, of course.)
We offer this as an example of the benefits of the practice of using the least utilized center in order to balance the functioning of the other two centers, thereby opening further access to the higher centers required for more consciously aware essence contact experiences to occur. Not until the lower centers are in balanced function will the fragment be in a position to begin to gain mastery of the higher centered essence contact experiences as well.
So, the first practice then is the BALANCING of the three lower centers; the emotional, the intellectual and the moving. Through this balanced functioning, will more readily accessible and easeful transitions into the higher centered experiences of essence contact be enacted.
2. SECOND PRACTICE:
Focus, Intention, Attention & Establishing Sacred Space
Find a place where you feel safe, at ease and comfortable. Choose an opportunity when you will have adequate time in order to FOCUS [attention and intention] upon that which you wish to bring into the circle with you.
You may wish to spend 15 minutes, 20 minutes, or 30 minute intervals with your “focusing practice.” How long you wish to be with your practice is entirely up to you to ascertain. It is not how long you spend in “focused practice”, but how FOCUSED your attention, intention and how strong your desire is for such essence contact to occur in your "practice" that will determine it's essential value to you, personally, regardless of the length of time actually spent in the practice itself. [For instance, 20 seconds of fully focused intention and attention is far more effective, potent and essentially impactful than would be 20 minutes of unfocused distraction, interruption or intrusion in the meditation practice.]
This can occur in an instant of essence contact recognition, or it can be long and languishing; this is entirely up to you and your essence to determine. A period of prolonged contact is no more valid than a brief, but keenly and intensely felt experience, we would add. Time, as we have commented upon in our prior discourse on this subject matter, means little to nothing where Essence [and essence contact experience] is concerned. It is the impact itself and not the amount of time spent in essence contact, that is most relevant to Essence.
You may choose to contact your loved ones, or your animal essence "spirits" in any location that feels good and safe to you, whether it be indoors or outdoors. Establishing your sacred space is an important aspect of the focusing practice, however, because it is the definition of this sacred space that will determine what you might term your psychic and psychological boundaries while engaged with the essence contact experience.
Again, HOW you choose to establish such a ‘sacred space' for yourself to work within is entirely up to you. You may choose to use some type of physical object, such as a special stone, a favorite figurine, a long string or a marker of some other kind, which delineates your personal sacred space and establishes the parameters of what you might term your “essence contact vehicle” for the journey you are about to embark upon. Or, you may choose instead to simply mark your sacred space [or sacred circle] with a mental image of the animal spirit essences (and the “directions” or the specific positions they may fill within your circle) which you may wish to contact in your journey and/or that you may wish to guide you to your inner answers in your process of discovery. Defining your sacred space is, however, an important component of the second step toward what might be termed "shamanic" journeying.
3. THIRD PRACTICE:
Issuing The Invitation ~ Response & Receptivity ~ Essence Contact
We would suggest that an invitation to join your sacred circle, or your sacred space, be issued to the Essence concerned [whether human or animal essence], in some form. This need not take on an overly formal tone however; a simple heartfelt invitation to join you will suffice. When you can sense or can feel that Essence energy join with you in the circle, even if you cannot yet see it, literally, per se, simply allow your focus to begin to expand itself into a greater harmony and resonance with this spirit being, whether it is another fragment or an animal essence makes little difference in terms of the mechanics of a conscious essence contact experience. In fact, we have observed that many fragments blend, merge or connect with animal essences quite naturally and readily, when quite often “fragment to fragment” essence contact may elude them completely.
We would offer that such “animal essence contact” experiences are often initiated by the animal itself, and thus is not always an “invited” contact, per se, especially where there may be strong past or present lifetime experience with the particular animal essence concerned. Upon occasion, if the intention for essence contact to occur with one’s animal essence is strong, the animal itself will feel and respond to this unspoken request. This is not at all uncommon in fact.
We would also comment here that many of the animals offered in our channeling for each of you came to us through their own volition, even as many of you have “found” us in your spiritual advancement toward the older soul age cycle levels. They are "with" each of you because the animal essence has chosen to be with you, and not simply because we may have ”said so” or because we may have “called them in” for you, you see. We have simply opened our “collective essences” to receive those essential energies that were “up” for the human to animal essence contact experience, you could say. We have simply facilitated introductions as it were, if you wish to perceive it in that way..
Many of these animals have known or have experienced some form of contact with you in previous incarnations, in one form or another, OR, they may be animal essences who are seeking more direct human contact experiences in their own evolutionary cycle for their own reasons and purposes. These animal essences have come forward to make more conscious essence contact with you, even as you have chosen to do so with their animal essences in kind. All is chosen, even in the world of animal essence contact experiences and what you might term “shamanic” undertaking as well, yes?
There is much for each of you to learn about yourselves, your own essence and your animal essence friends and companions through such exploration and journeying experiences, regardless of the modality chosen by each of you. Some may prefer to work with one tradition and others with another, which is, from our perspective, far more arbitrary than is the Essence Contact experience itself. We would encourage each of you to utilize whatever modality best suits your own needs, desires, preferences and overleaf configurations, and even to create your own unique style, if you so choose.
The “sacred circle” is a symbol common to nearly all indigenous traditions in one form or another, and is a underlying symbol that almost all essences recognize on a conscious level; and thus, how it is appointed or adorned is entirely up to each of you.
We would like to offer you an opportunity to experiment and to explore this information in the course of the upcoming week's time frame, and to create a ”sacred circle” that is uniquely your own. How each of you choose to envision this circle to exist for you is your choice. Then, we would invite each of you to simply “BE” within this circle of friends and to invite the animal essence (or animal spirit) that would like to assist you first with your FEMALE side (left side energy), and then with your MALE side (right side energy), and to make a note of what you each experience in either a journal, or in writing of some type. This will allow each of you both to practice your focusing techniques and to sharpen your essence/personality connection at the same time. It will also serve to facilitate an initiation of sorts into what you may term "the shamanic journey" experience, or into the “essence contact experience,” more precisely.
We will return to meet with you again and to explore more of what you have learned through your application of the materials. Our channel requires a brief pause...we will return shortly and continue with a few Q and A from the floor.
[SHORT BREAK]
We would like to add here, before beginning the Q and A, that the secondary center, or what some of you term your “trap” can often impede essence contact experiences, through the workings of the NCF influences, and the false personality perceptions. Recognizing this tendency then, will serve to assist you in furthering both your human and your animal essence contact experiences.
[Personal Questions Have Been Deleted For Privacy Sake]
Copyright 2003 ~ Terri Claire Benning ~ All Rights Reserved
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