I haven't blogged much recently because I've been extremely busy either working on books or traveling. The result is that there are lots of new books available - dream interpretation, crystal alchemy, energy healing, an all degrees Reiki manual, and the upcoming crystal grids books were all topics of books I completed within the past year. There's another I've completed but am not ready to tell you about yet, so keep an eye out!

Jim and I have been traveling every few months - some as quick getaways and some extended trips. Two of the places we've visited are highly sacred places to me: Mount Shasta in Northern California and Sedona, Arizona. Both are places where the energy is just different. It's healing, loving, and accepting. In fact, because Mount Shasta is within driving distance, we've been there twice in about a five month period. It's a little bit more of a haul to get to Sedona, but we visited twice in the past year and hope to return once a year or so. 

Mount Shasta is believed to be a healing vortex, and I can definitely attest to its healing and restorative powers. The town is filled with light workers - psychics, energy healers, astrologers, and others. And although I haven't seen any, I've also heard it's a great place for UFO spotters. Legend holds that the mountain is also home to multiple highly evolved beings that live inside of the mountains and the nearby Black Butte and Castle Crags. 

We like to stay in the small town of Mount Shasta at the Shasta MountInn, which is a small B&B that's the perfect, peaceful location. The photo above of the alpenglow was taken from the second story deck of the Shasta MountINN, so you can see the view is fabulous as well. 

One special feature of the Shasta MountInn is its Vogel crystal healing bed. It provides a powerful healing experience. It combines light and color therapy, Vogel crystals, sound, and vibration. 

I also really love that tiny town has 8 or 9 metaphysical and crystal shops as well as some of the purest water in the country. You can even visit the headwaters of the Sacramento River while you're in town and gather some spring fed, pure water that has filtered for seven years through the mountain before it forms the Sacramento River. The waters are said to be healing, and many people gather the water for drinking when they visit. The headwaters are also said to be an energy vortex where one can encounter angelic beings and gain sacred understandings. 

Another healing place in the area is Burney Falls, which is located about a 50-minute drive from the city of Mount Shasta in McArthur-Burney Falls Memorial State Park. Theodore Roosevelt called Burney Falls "the eighth wonder of the world," and the local Ilmawi believed it was a power spot and used it as a place for meditation and vision. The falls are fed by an underground aquifer, and they are also believed to be the home to a water sprite called Undine, who is seen emerging from the mists of the falls. 

It's a quick 1/3 mile hike from the upper falls down to the base of the falls on mostly paved switchback trail, and it's well worth the short walk.

While in the area, you can also take a short 10 minute drive down I-5 south to see Castle Crags, a 225 million year old 6,500 foot tall rock formation. Legend suggests Castle Crags is the remains of the ancient civilization, Lemuria and the remains of the lost continent of Mu. 

When I visit Sedona, it always feels like the mothership calling me home. Sedona has a very special energy, and it's also known to be surrounded by multiple healing vortexes. The town is friendly and filled with an eclectic mix of artists, spiritual seekers and teachers, energy healers, retirees, and tourists. It's also one of the most physically and energetically beautiful places on the planet. 

The photo above is the Chapel of the Holy Cross. It's a Catholic chapel, but it is also one of Sedona's easiest to feel healing vortexes. I performed a distance Reiki healing session for a large group of people here, and it was incredibly powerful. In fact, I had my own healing experience at the Chapel of the Holy Cross last year when I was in Sedona.

I had experienced a major blood loss event and had lost about 50 percent of my blood. I was barely ambulatory, but Jim and I had a non-refundable trip to Las Vegas scheduled, so we decided to go anyway. I barely made it through the airport in Portland and actually had to pre-board the plane. At the time, I could walk maybe five to ten feet before I'd need to sit down and rest.

Instead of exploring Vegas, which is virtually impossible to do when you're as ill as I was, Jim spent each day driving to different places nearby. The first place we drove was Sedona. The chapel sits up on top of a hill, and there's not a lot of parking, so Jim dropped me off at the bottom of the hill below the chapel and went to park the car. While I was waiting for Jim, I experienced a surge of energy and walked up the hill to the chapel with no trouble at all. Suddenly, I felt incredible. I was able to not only walk up hills, but I was able to walk around Las Vegas and at Bryce Canyon (also an incredible sacred healing location) without any of my earlier issues from the blood loss. It was a profound healing experience for me, which is why I decided to channel distance Reiki from that location on this last trip. 

Sedona has multiple vortex sites in and around town, although many of them (such as Bell Rock and Courthouse Butte above) require a hike to get to the very center of the vortex. However, even nearing these huge rock formations allows you to feel the energy . of the vortex, so if you're not up to hiking you can still experience on a milder level how the vortex feels. The two easiest to reach vortexes are at the Chapel of the Holy Cross and the Airport Vortex. With both of those, you can park and only need to walk up a short hill to get there, and at both the views are spectacular.

We also hiked to the Seven Sacred Pools which is on the Soldier Pass hiking trail. It's a relatively easy walk along wide, rocky trails to get to the pools, and the scenery along the way is incredible. It's about a .6 mile walk to the pools from the trailhead.  The pools are a natural sandstone formation with seven pools tumbling down over the red rocks. This was a sacred site to local indigenous peoples, and it has a peaceful and beautiful healing energy to the location. To me, the seven pools felt like a place to balance and clear the energy of your 7 sacred centers, your chakras.

We also took a small, 6-seat sight seeing plane trip over the Grand Canyon. Being above the earth in such a way inspires awe for just how amazingly created this world we live in actually is, and for me it instilled awe and an understanding of how perfectly our planet has been formed. 

I visited Bryce Canyon last year on my trip to Las Vegas, and we will visit there again next spring. It's an incredibly beautiful place that was once home to the Paiute. There is a Paiute legend about the canyon that Coyote turned bad people and creatures into the rock formations in the canyon, which are called Hoodoos (also called fairy chimneys or earth pyramids).

While visiting, I experienced a profound sense of the sacred there. I believe the Hoodoos are the source of the sacred energy because I experienced a similar sensation in Oak Creek Canyon outside of Sedona, which also has hoodoos.

Finally, another place where I truly feel sacred and healing energy is on the island of Kauai. I haven't visited in a few years, but I wanted to include it as one of the sacred places I've visited. Kauai and the Hawaiian Islands are another place some people believe is the location of the ancient civilization Lemuria. And whether it is or not, to me it has an untouched beauty and sacred energy that never fails to renew and heal me.

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Kunzite (a.k.a. spodumene) has a gentle energy and a soft pink to lovely violet color. You may also find it in a soft green or yellowish colors, as well. It is a monoclinic crystal, classified as a lithium pyroxene.

​Metaphysically, its monoclinic structure makes kunzite protective and expansive. Expansive crystals are good to work with when you need to facilitate personal growth, and kunzite can help you grow emotionally. It can also help you protect your emotions, so it's a good crystal to carry with you when you're feeling emotionally unsteady.

Pink kunzite is a stone both of the heart and the head. It can help bring negative thoughts into your heart center to help begin to heal them. It can also help you grow and expand love energy in your life. 

Violet kunzite supports the expansion of intuitive or psychic energies as well as providing psychic protection. Green kunzite is similar to pink in that it supports both the mind energy and heart energy. Yellow kunzite strengthens self-esteem and can protect you against negative thoughts you have about yourself as well as negative self-talk. 

I talk a lot in my books and classes about transmuting negative energy to positive, but what does that really mean? Negative and positive are polar opposites; they represent polarity or duality, which is what we all enter into when we choose to become embodied as human beings. 

Negative and positive are also value judgments. In general when you ask someone, which is "bad" and which is "good", they will likely answer that negative is bad, and positive is good. And perhaps in our embodied experience of duality, this is often true. However, in ultimate reality, they are equal. For example, in electricity you need both positive and negative poles for currents to flow. In chemistry, you need both for molecules to attract to form matter. Our bodies are made up of matter formed from opposite polar energies, which forms the basis for one type of energy healing, polarity therapy. 

Taoism and other Eastern philosophies express the concept of polarity as yin yang, the balance and distribution of opposite energies flowing one into the other, each containing the seeds of the other. Both energies require the other to make a whole, and each has equal opportunity for expression in the physical world. Neither is inherently good nor inherently bad; both just are, and both are necessary when we are embodied.

This moves beyond philosophy and embeds itself deeply into our lives, although our value judgments often make the experience of duality uncomfortable for us. For example, we may deem sadness as "bad" or joy as "good" although they are both the same thing: emotion, existing on a spectrum. You can't fully experience joy if you have never understood sadness. 

So while we see polarity as a series of opposites with one side more desirable than the other, in fact duality is always a spectrum with one opposite flowing into the other in an endless cycle. Each expression along that spectrum has equal value. None are inherently good nor bad. They just are. It is how we choose to allow those qualities to express in our lives that truly matter.

I can provide some examples of spectrum energy to illustrate. Hot and cold are opposite energies in our world of relativity, but they don't feel like the same experience to us at all. With one of these energies, we shiver and bundle up. With the other we sweat and strip down. Hot and cold are the same energy. They exist as a spectrum, and while some of us may prefer one or the other, in fact both have equal value. Both are merely an expression on a scale we call temperature, and we can choose to some extent which expression of temperature we'd like to experience by the clothes we wear, what we eat and drink, how we move, and how we control the climate in the spaces where we live, work, and play. Neither hot nor cold are inherently bad nor inherently good. Both are necessary expressions of temperature that nourish the natural world and make it possible for varied life to flourish on our planet.

Here's another example: beginning and end. In our embodied experience, everything appears to have a beginning, a middle, and an end. In fact, life is just this: birth, living, and death. This cycle continuously expresses throughout our lives in various ways such as idea-creation-usefulness-obsoletion (rotary telephone anyone?). These cycles repeat endlessly, over and over again as we move through our own process of creation that we call our lives. And often, we apply value judgments to the parts of the cycle; we see one part as good, positive, or desirable and its opposite as bad, negative, or undesirable. In doing so, we often fail to recognize that value judgments aside, each expression we chose of an energy always contains the roots of its opposite. For instance, endings always hold the seeds for new beginnings. Anger holds the seeds for forgiveness. Fear holds the seeds of love.

So when I suggest that you can transmute negativity into positivity, what I mean is this: your experience in each moment exists along a spectrum that we call duality. In those experiences, we often ascribe the qualities of "good" or "bad", "negative" or "positive", "desirable" or "undesirable". And we have the ability to choose how we quantify the experience and how we choose to allow it to express in our lives. To transmute negative to positive means choosing what you consider the more "positive" expression of a quality that exists on the spectrum. In other words, choosing the expression of joy if you find that more desirable than sadness, or choosing abundance if you find that a more desirable expression than lack. 

Astrology contains great examples of this. In astrology, your "sign" is part of your karmic imprint. Each person is born with a karmic imprint, which are qualities that will express in your life making you the unique person you are. However, you are never "stuck" with the qualities you are born with based on your astrological chart. Instead, you get to choose how those qualities express in your life. For example, my sun sign is Sagittarius and my rising sign is Libra. Both of these have several influences on my personality, but for simplicity's sake we'll stick to a single one: both Sagittarius and Libra are often free-spirited. However, both Sagittarius and Libra can also be restless and easily bored. These are the opposite expressions of the same thing, and at different times I choose each expression. Sometimes, I am restless and bored, which is not an experience I enjoy. And so, when I find myself choosing this expression, I can transmute it from what I judge as its negative pole (restless and bored) to it's positive expression (free-spirited). 

Another example that shows up in my chart are the opposite energies of easily hurt and compassionate. One of those feels negative to me while the other feels positive, but in fact, one flows into the other. In my life, the ends of this spectrum are inseparable, and each is necessary for the other. The things that hurt me allow me to feel greater compassion. I need the hurt experiences to help me be more compassionate towards others and towards myself. Here's another: my chart suggests I am flighty and disorganized but creative and enthusiastic. Certainly both are true, but I choose the creative and enthusiastic expression more frequently because it feels more desirable to me than flighty. However, my creativity and enthusiasm often lead to my disorganization, and my flighty nature often is what sews the seeds for new creation. They are both expressions of the same energy, and each is necessary for the other.

So when I talk about transmuting negative energy to positive energy, what I mean is choosing that aspect of a certain energy that feels more desirable to you in the moment. Which expression of an energy do you choose in this moment? And realize, the expression you choose is neither right nor wrong; it's merely right for you right now. It can change from moment to moment, and sometimes the expression needs to change in order to serve your highest good.

I have two tattoos that remind me of this. On the front of my right shoulder, I have butterflies, which represent yin energy to me. On the back of my left shoulder, I have a hummingbird, which represents yang to me. Together, the two remind me of the balance and flow of the spectrum of energies and the importance of allowing the expression of both in my life. The energies join together and intertwine in a cyclical dance that shifts and evolves to continue to serve the highest and greatest good. 

I was talking with a friend this morning about ringing in the ears as a sign of psychic information, and it occurred to me a blog could be helpful. 

Everyone receives their psychic information differently. Many of the signs are subtle; we've learned to ignore things such as ringing in our ears because it mostly seems like an annoyance when it could actually be psychic information trying to get through.

Persistent ringing in the ears, often presenting as a high pitched frequency, can be a sign of psychic information. I've had mine all my life, and I learned to ignore it because it was just always there as background noise. I recommend this technique in some of my classes if you've always had this as I have: use it as a meditation focus. Instead of ignoring it, clear your mind and then focus on it. If your mind drifts, return your focus to it. Start with short five minute meditations and work your way up. Release expectations but be open to anything. It can be eye-opening (or ear-opening)  to try this.

I am also a medium. I hear from and communicate with dead people. One of my signs this is about to occur is I feel pressure in my ears. It feels kind of like the pressure you feel as you climb to elevation, but it's fuzzier. It's difficult to describe. When I feel the ear pressure, I know information or communication is forthcoming, so if I'm available in the moment, I stop what I'm doing and focus on it.

Another sensation I get just before I receive psychic information or when a spirit is present and wants to communicate is through my sense of smell. I smell something similar to ozone. There's an edge to the scent that smells similar to what the air smells like just before a thunderstorm or a lightning strike. 

Other signs include sensations in my body that don't make sense. I ask, "Is this mine?" If it isn't, then I focus in on that to see what information I receive. For example, I may feel as if my airway is constricted (although I can still breathe - it feels like a tightness in my throat), I may have a random ache or pain, I may feel sudden onset of dizziness, or similar. This is common with empaths, and it's important that, while we learn to receive the information, we also disassociate from it so we don't allow it to stick in us and become dis-ease. If we believe those sensations are ours, we often accidentally embody them until we become ill in some way. I find empaths often have a lot of health such as migraines, random aches and pains, fibromyalgia, autoimmune disease, and other symptoms of illnesses that are often undiagnosable when you go to the doctor. 

While I receive the physical symptoms as information almost constantly when I'm in large groups of people (I'm picking up everyone else's aches and pains), I do find this version of psychic information incredibly helpful in my energy healing practices because it tells me what my healing partner feels. I also have a technique I use when the physical sensations arise so I don't embody the symptoms. I ask, "Is this mine?" Usually it isn't. So I say, "Thank you for the information," and then I push the sensation down my center column, down my legs, out through my feet, and into the earth. 

Other sensations that could indicate possible psychic information include having persistent thoughts that suddenly appear in your head and don't change or go away (again, ask yourself, "Is this mine?"), emotions unrelated to my current experience, sudden knowing of verifiable facts you have no way of knowing, seeing things out of the corners of your eyes, having other visual disturbances such as seeing a shimmering similar to heatwaves, having strange tastes in your mouth that don't make sense in the current context such as tasting cigarettes or alcohol when you don't smoke or drink, or any other sensations that simply feel out of place. 

If you are experiencing a lot of physical sensations like I described above, it's important to have them checked out medically first to ensure there isn't a medical reason for them. Sometimes there is, and I'd hate to have you miss a medical condition because you believe your symptoms are psychic. However, after receiving the medical all-clear, then pay attention to the symptoms as they arise. Ask yourself, "What is this trying to tell me?" If you have time, focus on the sensation for a moment and see what arises. For instance, do you see flashes of images, receive persistent thoughts, or notice vibrations? Pay attention. Keep a journal and note what the sensation seems to be telling you. Then, say "thank you" and then "Not mine" and release what you're feeling so it isn't stuck in you.

It's important you learn to stop ignoring your signals, trust the information you receive,  and then release it. This is how you build healthy psychic practices while still protecting your own well-being. 

 

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Hotei (also known as Budai) is often commonly referred to as the laughing Buddha. He is jolly and joyful with a smile on his face and often holding symbols of abundance. In Japanese culture, he is one of seven Japanese Shinto-Gods - the God of Contentment and Happiness as well as Abundance and Luck. He's also the patron of children, bartenders, and fortunetellers. Perhaps with my psychic abilities, that last one explains why I've always felt so drawn to his image. Rubbing his belly is said to bring luck. Some believe he was also a bodhisattva (a person on the path to buddhahood). 

Hotei's image is often confused with the Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, but this is inaccurate. Hotei is based on a wandering Chinese Chan Buddhist monk who carried a cloth sack. His names in Chinese and Japanese literally mean "cloth sack." He lived from 830 to 902 CE. It is said along with his worldly possessions, he carried candy in his sack, which he distributed to children to generate happiness. It is also said his main teaching method was laughter. 

Hotei is now a symbol of joy, luck, and abundance. It is especially auspicious if he is given as a gift to another, conferring luck and abundance on the receiver. Place him at or above eye level (never on the ground) in your home or business to cultivate joy and abundance. 

Have you ever been to a business where you've noticed a friendly-looking cat waving its paw? Usually the cat is placed right next to the register or in the store's entrance, waving at customers and beckoning them to do business.

This is Maneki-neko. His name in Japanese means beckoning cat, and he is a Japanese good luck talisman, although is use has become popular in feng shui, the Chiniese art of placement as well. His waving paw is actually a beckoning paw, inviting all to come in to the business where he is displayed to bring prosperity to the business owners. 

Maneki-neko originated in Japan's late Edo period, probably around the mid-1800s. One of the most popular myths about the cat is that a stray cat one day appeared in a merchant's shop. Although the merchant had barely enough to feed himself, he fed the stray and made it well. The cat was so grateful, he sat in front of the store to beckon customers inside, bringing the merchant prosperity.

The paw Maneki-neko is beckoning with tells you what he beckons. His waving right paw attracts monetary prosperity and luck, while his left paw welcomes success in the forms of clients or customers. While Maneki-neko is most commonly seen in businesses, he can beckon other types of energy you'd like to cultivate in your life based on his color.

• Red beckons positive relationships and romantic love.
• White beckons positive energy.
• Green beckons health.
• Gold beckons monetary wealth.
• Calico beckons all of the energies.
• Black protects and wards off dark energies.

The cats often hold something in their non waving paw - usually symbols of wealth such as gold ingots or gems. These items further invite wealth and luck. 

In your home, place Maneki-neko in the prosperity sector, which is in the southeast. You can also place him in the southeast sector of your home office. In a business, you can place him in the window to beckon customers, in the prosperity sector, or near your cash register. At the register, face him into the shop (away from you) so he beckons the prosperity towards you. 

I've never been particularly drawn to peacock ore - also known as chalcopyrite. I mean, I always knew it existed, and I've even written about it, but it was never part of my personal collection.

So if I was somebody who believed in coincidences, I'd think it was a fun consonance that peacock ore showed up in the mail for me unbidden and unasked for not once, but twice on the same day in two separate packages delivered by two different carriers. However, I'm not someone who thinks that way. If peacock ore showed up twice in the same day, perhaps there's something in the vibrational energy of peacock ore I need in my life right now.

In the past few years, I've actually been drawn to peacock colors of vivid teal and purple. I even had highlights of those very colors in my hair for a while, and when we redecorated our living room a few years ago, I chose variations of blue from muted to dark with 4 peacock accent pillows. A few days before the peacock ore showed up, I also ordered an item from an artisan that was in peacock colors. Of course, until the peacock ore showed up, I made no connection.

Our soul sends us signals like that, and sometimes we just think of them as creative urges or imagination until something happens that finally causes us to recognize the pattern. Clearly there is something here in this energy that will support me on my path right now.

On the day the peacock ore arrived, I was working on an article about mysticism and the path of the mystic. The packages both arrived while I worked on it. And one of the alternative names for peacock ore is the Stone of the Mystic. Chalcopyrite has an orthorhombic lattice structure. Orthorhombic crystals are blockage clearers and cleansers. They can help unstick you. The primary colors in peacock ore - teal blue and purple - vibrate in ways that affect all three of your upper chakras -  throat, third eye, and crown.

Especially potent is the combination of the blue and purple. This can facilitate connection between psychic or intuitive vision, inspiration, and communication, which allows you to be better able to share your own unique and vision with others in whatever way you communicate, whether it's in writing, verbally, or through any other form of expression such as art or movement. As a blockage clearer, chalcopyrite can also remove energetic blockages so you are able to receive intuition and communication more clearly from your higher self and from higher realms. It truly is the stone of the mystic in the way it facilitates the process of receiving information from your higher self, guides, and even the Source, and it helps you create an effective means of communicating those inspirations with the world.

So why is peacock ore in my life right now? Recently, I've felt channels of inspiration open up far more quickly than I've been able to communicate them, and there are times I struggle with expressing some of the information and inspiration I receive. This is especially true with channeled information, which is of a high vibrational nature. While I receive the channeled information effortlessly, knowing when and how to communicate it and with whom to share it is definitely something I could be better at. 

My guess is peacock ore has come into my life right now to help me in this process. It is clearing blockages and opening me up so I can receive and channel more information and then express it in the way it needs to be shared so it reaches the people who need to hear it.

I'm always grateful when the universe provides me with such a clear path and obvious message. It helps me to continue my own spiritual growth in ways that I believe genuinely serve the greatest good. 

Mirrors in bedrooms are very common, but they can do wonky things with chi energy in a place that is meant for sleep and romance. 

The best advice is to remove mirrors from your bedroom - even the little ones. Mirrors bounce chi around, which can disturb sleep. They also represent the element of water, and one solid feng shui rule is to keep all water elements out of the bedroom, including mirrors or pictures of water lest the water douse the element of fire, which you'd like in a shared bedroom if you want to keep passion alive. 

Likewise, feng shui wisdom suggests if you have a mirror that reflects your bed in a marital bedroom, it is like inviting a third person into your relationship. If you're into that kind of thing, no worries. However, if you're not, keep this in mind: feng shui wisdom suggests a mirror reflecting the bed could cause infidelity in a committed relationship. 

I've known these mirror rules of feng shui for quite some time, but sometimes I play fast and loose with them because I believe I can adjust the energy in my spaces using other methods as well. Until just recently, I had a jewelry cabinet with a mirror on it in my bedroom simply because it was the only place I felt there was a good space for it near where I got dressed.

Recently, we had some visitors from another realm come into our house with some off-putting, heavy energy. I'm not a fan of uninvited spirits hanging out in my home so as soon as I became aware of the energy, I did an energy cleansing. As I was walking through the bedroom with my palo santo, this cabinet that has been there for a few years started to give me a really bad vibe. I felt impelled to get it out of the bedroom right away. Now it hangs around with the other water elements in my bathroom. Problem solved, and perhaps not surprisingly, I've been sleeping better since its removal as well.

There is an exception to the no bedroom mirrors thing. You can have one on the inside of your closet door, but keep the door closed. 

If you're struggling with sleep or the energy in your room feels off, try covering or removing mirrors. There's a good chance it will allow the chi to settle, and you'll sleep better.