The Seasons Are Changing...How About You?

Hey Folks! I trust everyone is having a great week so far. Mine has been good...very good indeed!

I've introduced you to Lynn Andrews before. She is a powerful Shaman, writer, speaker,adventurer.

I studied Native American Spirituality with one of her Sisters.

This post is longer than usual, but WELL worth the read!

Enjoy and, as always, blessings to each of you...

Frank

Summer is waning, that time when all that blooms is transforming itself, changing and letting go. Summer is a time of mirrors. It is a time when you take action, and yet remain still within your being. These mirrors celebrate your reflection and teach you what is needed to complete the cycle of seasons in the fall and winter. The end of summer is the fulcrum balance point for the seasonal year.

In the fall, it is a time of gathering, a time of great beauty, and a time of change and letting go. So often we are terrified of change, not only because of the mystery of the unknown but because change implies letting go of what we do know and what we have always held as a kind of security in our lives. Even bad habits can provide a kind of security.

Ani said to me, "Reflection is a beautiful word, don't you think?" She had given me a small shield which caught the sunlight with its mirrors, and I was examining it as we talked. "Reflection means thinking about things in the past or the future. To reflect does not necessarily mean to think about things that really exist. Reflection could also mean a mirroring, yes?"

"Yes," I said, wondering what she was getting at.

"This shield is a mirror for the sun. Now you see the sun reflected in its face and now you don't." I held the small shield up to catch the sunlight, then a cloud layer moved over the hills and the sun was obscured from sight. "There, you see, let the sun go away. It has moved behind a cloud. You are attached to the sunlight, the same way you are dwelling in the past.

"Look into the mirror," she commanded. I looked into the mirror and saw my face. "Has the reflection of your face changed this mirror one bit?"

"No" I answered.

"Has the mirror changed or altered because it once reflected the sun or even the face of God?"

"Well, no." I said, bewildered.

Ani reached for my camera and snapped a few pictures. "The film in this camera clings to your image, forever obsessed with you. The mirror reflects your image now, but it is different from the film that also reflects your face. The mirror is not obsessed with the past like the film. It reflects life, whatever is put in front of it. When that reality shifts and changes, the mirror is left unchanged. It simply sees the new reality. It seems me, does it change me?"

"Yes, perhaps," I answered.

"That's right. Mirrors can change us greatly, because they enable us to see things that we may not have noticed. But remember this, the mirror never changes. The mirror is the sacred witness to everything that chooses to be reflected within its sphere. It has much to teach you.

"Lynn," she continued. "To become enlightened is to become like a mirror. If you have reflected the sun and the sun sets, you can happily reflect the moon. We leak most of our power by the attachment to the images we reflect. We are like the film in the camera. If we become a famous healer in our life, we become a healer, not a woman living her medicine who happens to have developed the gifts of healing. It is the same for everyone - bankers, doctors, housewives. We never see who we are. We are obsessed with our own reflection."

"Is the mirror the source of our reflection?" I asked.

"Only God is the source, and like the mirror we are mirror images of God. The mirror enables us to understand the nature of ourselves, of God. That is all. It is a sacred tool, a device for reflection, just as this physical body is a sacred tool or device for the process of enlightenment into the higher realms. Our physical existence provides mirrors for learning. The mirror is part of the teaching."

The seasons of Mother Earth are a great teacher, showing us that there is a time to plant the seeds of new life and nurture them into existence, a time for full bloom, a time to harvest and look at what we have created as we reflect on where it has taken us in our lives, and a time to move within to dream into existence the seeds for the next part of our journey towards enlightenment. We are now in late summer, still the time of full bloom and moving towards autumn. Fall is a time of reckoning, a time of reflection, a time when all you have sown and all that has blossomed is now to be reaped. Did you find yourself growing in some way this year? What are the mirrors in your life, what do they reflect for you?

In the Northern Hemisphere, we are standing in full radiance and bloom. Do you feel a sense of accomplishment at what you are doing? In the Southern Hemisphere, you are moving into the planting season for the new growth that is to become. Whether you live in the north or the south of our great Mother Earth, a subtle shift now begins occur.

In the north, the days are still warm, but the sun becomes less intense. Leaves begin to change color, going from deep green to a pale yellow, reds and golds. The grasses become lighter, reflecting a golden color like the sun. It is not quite full autumn, but summer is no longer at its peak. Look into the mirror of summer now and see how you have grown wiser over the past few months.

In the south, the days are beginning to warm up, the sun stay out for longer. Leaves begin to grow again, and the grasses are already pushing through.

Wherever you live, there's a wisdom within you that has been growing over the past season, and you begin to express it, like summer shifting into early autumn. Celebrate what you have experienced and are about to experience. You know what life is about, and yet you are humble, ready to move forward.

Great Spirit, whose voice we hear in the winds and the trees, Mother Earth, whose breath gives us life:

Help us to walk in beauty and strength and to learn the lessons that are hidden in the stones and the trees and the waters of the sea. Give us the strength to fight our greatest enemy - ignorance.

Great Spirit, hear the sounds of our grateful hearts, and help us to find the wisdom and joy and power that is locked within each of our souls.

We are the reflections of you, Great Spirit. Join us on our path as we join you for all the days of our lives.

Ho!

In Love and Spirit,

Lynn
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