Resources

THE HEART CENTER MEDITATION

I have recorded a 10-minute introduction to The Heart Center followed by a 20-minute meditation period.

Click here to listen.

LETTING GO – IF NOT NOW, WHEN?

It is a great time to consider leaving blame for our wounds in the past.  This step can be a powerful initiation into our own authentic healing.

When we are able to set aside blame and recognize that all transgressions are intrinsic to a divine pattern of individual and collective development, that woundings serve as opportunities to heal our deeper selves, it becomes clear that there is actually nothing that needs to be forgiven.  This recognition frees us from a prison of our own making, the perpetrator-victim state of consciousness.

Earlier stages of life require perpetrator-victim consciousness and identification with that which is deemed right and good and innocent until we are faced head on with the darker aspects of Life through painful experiences of betrayal, loss, collapse or other personal crises.  We repress, deny and defend in order to protect our fragile egos until we recognize that each of us in our own way has been both perpetrator and victim, that we have originated same or similar acts in an attempt to protect our deepest vulnerabilities and powerlessness.

This approach does not seek to excuse or justify the transgressions we experience.  We open to understand that what the ego eagerly interprets as personal wounding and is often accompanied by criticism, disapproval, condemnation and judgment keeps us at a considerable distance from our own deeper healing.

This brings us to the opportunity to initiate life lived through the heart center and its attributes of compassion, innate harmony, healing presence and unconditional love.  This state of beingness, inclusive of all that is and ever shall be, imbues us with transformative resources which leave reactivity, anxiety, confusion, comparison and judgment to the earlier stages of life where they can best serve.

The conscious heart-centered path is certainly the road less travelled.  Yet it brings much needed relief from perfection for those of us who have been blinded by the light of surface consciousness.

Let it go, let it all go.  If not now, when?

A Simple Intention to Let It All Go…

Setting aside reactivity, resentment or need for retaliation for any transgression I have experienced, I open fully to compassion for myself and for those who have hurt me.

CREATING A PERSONAL RITUAL

Personal ritual is the living expression of intention with symbolic actions.  A personal ritual may be used for healing, birthing from one stage of life to another, shifting challenging circumstances, seeking resolution of conflict, completing work with those not present and for many other situations where the desired outcome is not assured.There are four basic scenes to working with ritual…
Scene 1:  Clear Intention and Preparation
Scene 2:  Location of the Ritual Site and Entry into the Ritual Container
Scene 3:  The Heightened State
Scene 4:  The Closing

Scene 1:  Clear Intention and Preparation
What is the intention behind the work that you wish to engage?

• Remember, ritual is both ceremony and visualization to support the process of making intention manifest.  The more specific and detailed your intention, the more energy will be available to support this process. Hold this intention clearly in your heart and your mind.
• Gather the items that are symbolic of key elements related to the ritual and that hold meaning to you…photos, mementoes, gifts, personal items, etc.  These objects should support and become a focusing energy for your intention.
• Open to how you are guided to dress…types of clothing, facial and skin cover, make-up, ashes, paint, ornamentation, adornment jewelry, perhaps no or limited clothing, etc.
• Let go of any notions of specific form and structure as the energy of the ritual, when deeply engaged, will carry you in its own mystery of unfoldment.

Scene 2:  Location of the Ritual Site and Entry into the Ritual Container

• Locate the physical site where the ritual will be conducted which may come forth through prayer, meditation, intuition or direct knowing.  This should be a location where you will not be disturbed by anyone or anything (like cell phones) until the ritual is completed.  Be conscious of the location as to temperature, sound, light/dark, etc. and modify as you are able to limit distractions by the environment.
• Form a sacred container either energetically or physically with which you will conduct the ritual.
• Seal the container energetically and begin by centering yourself at heart level and holding the intention for the ritual clearly in mind.
• Begin the process that carries the energy that you are seeking…this could be movement, dance, song, speaking/prayer/petitioning, chanting, visualization, percussion/drumming or other rhythmic repetitive process or simply lighting a special candle.  Summon all of your senses…taste, touch, feel, sight to become one with your intention.  Engage this ever more deeply until the ritual begins to do you. Surrender to where the energy of the ritual wants to take you if you are able.

Scene 3:  The Heightened State

• In this phase, the ritual is doing you. You, as the surface consciousness are surrendered and being carried by the energies that have come forward in support of the intention in a deeply energetic and organic unfoldment (i.e. you are not directing things, they are unfolding through you).
• In this phase the objects that you brought to the ritual in Scene 1 become important as they assist in keeping the focus of the ritual on the original intent.
• This phase is completed when the energies subside and leave.  Usually you will feel this quite clearly.  The key is to open to and allow the completion as the energies begin to fade.

Scene 4:  The Closing

• After the energies that came forward in the ritual have completed, just be (perhaps sitting or standing) with how your body feels, allowing a moment of the direct awareness of being, of self, of insight or revelation, of your participation in the larger dance of life… in just that moment.  Don’t “think” about it…”feel” it deeply.
• Offer appreciation and profound gratitude for what has come forward to assist you…the energies that have carried you, the participation of others on the inner layers, the ritual space, guidance, and the radiance of life itself.
• Energetically unseal the ritual space.
• Return to ordinary time and space in a conscious manner.  Grounding oneself with some form of movement usually facilitates this process.
• Complete the closing and clearing in your own way.  Over the next day or so be attentive to signs, symbols, dreams and other ways that the unconscious may be communicating with you about your intention.

Jon McIntosh
jonmcintosh.com
970-292-6820