02-10-2012, 12:00 AM
Power/Energy
In the Western tradition, we're afraid of the word "power". We think that power is dangerous, that it is not good. But no! Power is only power. It is the difference between being able to do something and not being able to do it. If you want, you can do good things. If you want, you can do bad things, because for that you also need power. But if you want to do good things in your life and in the lives of those around you, you must have power. You need power.
You must decide on how to use it, not based on your ability to use it, but based on your knowledge of power. Sometimes you will not do something, not because you do not have the power to do it, but because you follow a rule of power that tells you not to do it. The thing is to have the power to do everything! Then the next thing is to have the knowledge to use or not use your power. But do not be mistaken -- -- -- we are looking for power when we try to establish a connection with the energetic universe.
Light and Heavy Energy
Power. In our tradition, power means to be in conscious interchange with the universe of living energy. The energetic universe, however, is not a difficult or complex world. It is quite simple, in fact, for it is comprised of only two basic energies, or powers. The first is light or refined energy, and the other is heavy or dense energy. Certainly, light and heavy energies can manifest in many different levels, vibrations, colors, and ways, but for our understanding of power, we will consider all power either light or heavy.
Light energy suffuses the natural world, animating all living beings and imparts "power" to natural objects and places where it accumulates. The more light energy we incorporate into our energetic cocoon, or bubble, the more effortlessly we live in harmony and well-being with others and with the natural world. It is by lightening our energetic body, by incorporating this vital refined power that we are able to raise our level of awareness.
Heavy energy, in contrast, is created only by human beings. This dense power manifests because we do not live in perfect reciprocity with the energetic universe. It results from the flux of our interrelationships with one another, and from the very activity of being and living in the physical world. It is an energetic property of our interrelationships with each other and with the natural world, generated by the power of our emotions, thoughts, and actions. At our current level of human awareness, heavy energy cannot be avoided. Thus, any space humans have occupied, in which they have lived their humanness, accumulates heavy energy. We attract heavy energy walking through a congested city or through fields of flowers. Most often, however, we accumulate heavy energy through our emotional interactions with others. It is generated as we weave our energies among those we love, hate, envy, nurture; it is an energetic byproduct of our pains and sorrows, our fears, our hopes, and our anger. The feelings that drive our thoughts and actions. Although heavy energy is of a type that we cannot help attracting if we are living fully in the current human world, it is a density of energy we do not want to accumulate. It turns the lightness of our energetic body heavy like itself. It keeps us from functioning at peak levels, and it prevents us from engaging the energetic universe as fully as we are able to. Yet heavy energy, in and of itself, is not "negative" or "bad" energy. It is simply heavy. Heavy energy does not have a moral category, you can think of it as ordered energy that becomes disordered. We feed the disordered energy to Mother Earth, but it has no moral reflection.
That heavy energy is not "negative" energy, is one of the most difficult concepts to grasp. In our Western culture we are always trying to reduce everything to dualities, positive or negative, good or bad, right or wrong, and so forth. Heavy is a relative thing. Density or vibration or color may be a better way to understand heaviness, as it emphasizes the relativity.
It is the symptoms of the accumulation of heavy energies that manifest in ways we tend to think of as negative. When we are not in peak energetic form, we tend to not experience full physical, mental, or emotional well-being, either. Too much heavy energy in our bubble, or cocoon, may also reflect an imbalance in our relationship with the natural world of living energy. Then we are isolated from the free flow of nature energies and our place in the great Web of power. From a psychological perspective, heavy energy can be seen as the accumulation of all that does not serve us: negative attitudes, untruthfulness, inability to love, self-destructive or hurtful behaviors, a poor self-image, and so on. If you are experiencing these conditions, then you are probably in contact with an energy that is heavy. Heavy, however, is relative to individuals and the condition of their cocoon, to the energetic power(personal power) that they have at their disposal, as well as how well they can execute their intent. The heaviness indicates an incompatibility between personal power and an external energy. The emotions are only symptoms of being in contact with heavy energy. Fear, for example, is an indication that you are in contact with something that is heavy for you. Incompatible types of energy feel heavy. But heaviness is a relative thing. What is heavy for you may not be heavy for another.
From the warrior's perspective, understanding energy as "heavy" and not as "negative" is crucial, because this perceptual shift is imperative to living fully and consciously, open and receptive to the energies of others and the natural world. If you meet an energy you conceive of as negative, you're only course of action, or probable course of action, is to protect yourself. In the posture of protection, you close yourself off and risk turning your energy body into an "energetic jail". It is rarely beneficial to withdraw from an interchange with the energetic universe. When you perceive an energy as heavy, there's nothing to protect yourself from; you are simply recognizing an energy as incompatible with you. Your awareness of this incompatibility allows you to then act to transform the energy, to in effect lighten it, so that it either becomes compatible for you or simply does not affect you. Even if you cannot deal with the heavy energy, if it is too much for you to handle all at once, it presents no danger to you and there's no need to close off your energetic bubble in the impulse toward protection. Like a stone in the garden that you are trying to move, if the stone is too heavy for you to lift it, you'll simply have to let it lie until you become stronger. But the stone has no capacity to harm you.
We engage the energetic universe, both light and heavy energies, through our energetic cocoon. This is a bubble of energy that surrounds us and suffuses our physical body. It has an outer layer, like a skin, that prevents heavy energy from easily infiltrating deep into our energy body. If we do not cleanse the heavy energy from the surface of our bubble, then it can accumulate, building up and seeping deeper and deeper into the cocoon. As it builds and penetrates, it affects our physical, emotional, and spiritual states. The deeper it goes into our energy body, the more pronounced its symptoms -- the loss of well-being -- may be.
As Thunderbird Warriors, our fundamental task is to always "maintain the ecology of our energy environment". That environment should be light, which is empowering and helps us acquire the personal power to interconnect with the energetic universe in service to ourselves and others. If our environment is not light, then it must be cleansed. The cleansing task begins with the self, as we have discussed with the well techniques given previously. Then it moves outward to encompass larger energy fields, in a widening series of energy circles. After we cleanse our own bubble, for instance, we can then begin to cleanse our immediate environment and the people with whom we are in close contact, such as family members, friends, and colleagues. The cleansing can then be further directed outward, toward those with whom we have difficult relationships or toward whom we feel discomfort or animosity. Finally, we can cleanse physical localities, such as a house where dense energy has accumulated.
Our energetic system automatically releases heavy energies through the base well into the Earth, via the fibers that we extend there. (There is another method to release heavy energies from the cocoon, and that is to open the second well, by spinning it counterclockwise, and then lie down on mother Earth and allow her to draw it directly from you. She thrives on this heavy energy! Afterwords, spin that well clockwise to close it.)
The cycle of cleansing heavy energy and digesting it is completed by drawing light energy into your bubble through the eighth well. This happens automatically. As you release heaviness, you increase your lightness.... Reciprocity. We should always be cognizant of empowering ourselves by drawing light energy in whenever needed, or whenever an especially powerful source is available to us. Other people may be potential sources of light energy. For example when a person, particularly an apprentice on the sacred path, is in the presence of a nahual, then that person has a right to draw light energy from the nahual. There's no need to ask permission to do this, as it is a given. The nahual is an open conduit to the most refined energies and anyone is free to drink from the stream! His heavy energy is light for most of us!
We want to expend our energy wisely. One way we can do that is by being cognizant of "dissimilar" energetic relationships. When we are attuned to the dissimilar energy of a situation or a person, we can begin to identify what is different about us or incompatible between us. We can be alert for, and respond to energetic states that may cause problems in the relationship, creating heaviness. From this awareness grows opportunities for discovering points of similarity and mutual contact from which we can begin to harmonize energies to empower both parties. This can be done by cleansing the heaviness from the energy exchange that may result from having engaged dissimilar or potentially incompatible energies.
All cleansing is mediated through the spiritual stomach, just below the navel. Gaining conscious control over this well takes work. It takes diligence and commitment to learn and to sense control over your energy body. Thus it is extremely important to master an exercise before you move on from it. You can gain a degree of control over your spiritual stomach, the second well, by sitting quietly, executing a trigger sigh, and opening it. Do this by spinning it counterclockwise. Then hold your power hand over the well. Pull your power hand away from your stomach, feeling the magnetic connection, and very slowly extend it to the full extension of your arm. Then bring it back slowly, maintaining the magnetic or energetic feeling. Do this several times until it becomes quite easy to feel that magnetic pull all the way out. Then, without using your power hand, extend your spiritual stomach with your intention. Do it, in and out, until it is easy and you can feel it at all times. Close this well by spinning it clockwise. It is imperative to have control of this well when mulching energy.
This method of dealing with heavy energy shares similarities with the process of recapitulation described by Carlos Castenada. His process is a time-consuming ritualized one; this is not. It takes only a few seconds! Eating energy from others achieves three outcomes. It feeds Mother Earth, which she loves. It energetically cleanses the other person, lightening him or her. It empowers you. This practice has nearly unlimited uses, most practically toward easing a tense or troublesome situation of its heaviness.
So, when would you do this? We do this only with those people and places we interact with regularly; those that affect our own intake of heavy energy. Anytime heavy energy is accumulating: whenever you feel a relationship is out of harmony, during an argument with a spouse or co-worker, when your child is uptight and tense, and so on. You should learn to apply this tool by practicing on people emotionally close to you and with whom you have a positive and nurturing relationship, first. A good friend or family member. The better you know the person and the more securely and lovingly bonded you are with him or her, the easier will be to cleanse a person of heaviness. This technique is similar to the one described above, except you open and extend your spiritual stomach to touch the other person's bubble. Open your well a little at a time, gaining a sense of the other person's bubble slowly and in increments that are comfortable for you. If you are truly touching another person's bubble, then you will fully empathize with that person, feeling his or her heaviness through the same pain or depression or fear as does that person. Once you have connected to the person's cocoon, command to your stomach to digest the other person's heaviness and feed the double flow of energy (the heavy moving down to mother Earth and the light flowing to your head). Your spiritual stomach is able to extract nutrients, or light energy from this heaviness, just as your physical stomach extracts nutrients from food. You will feel the energy moving. If you don't you haven't gotten control of your well, yet... stop!
As with most energy work, to perform this technique, the person should be in close physical proximity to you. Undoubtedly, he or she will feel the empowerment that results from the cleansing. I repeat: he or she will feel the empowerment that results from the cleansing. This is an act of selflessness, not selfishness. It never drains another person, only empowers him or her, as well as you. You're feeding the Earth the energy that she loves. It is an act of service; spiritual reciprocity.
And so to summarize, we must control the energetic environment around us. By doing so we provide a service to those around us, to the Earth, and to ourselves. As a result, we minimize the heaviness that we must ingest on our journey. Focusing on energetic reciprocity at all times will give us the awareness to act in a manner that raises the vibrational level of our cocoon. Any actions, words, or decisions that do not result in increased the energetic harmony of our environment, are a step backward on the path of the warrior. In all cases, the warrior acts to increase energetic flow. Heavy energy for one person may be light energy for another. It's all relative. What is light energy for us today, may be heavy energy for us in the future.
I am thinking that we should coin two new words for our tradition; one for light energy and one for heavy energy. Any suggestions?
Some of this material is derived from a discourse on power by Quetzal Ocelotl, but most of it comes from the understanding given to me by my brother crow on the mountain.
In the Western tradition, we're afraid of the word "power". We think that power is dangerous, that it is not good. But no! Power is only power. It is the difference between being able to do something and not being able to do it. If you want, you can do good things. If you want, you can do bad things, because for that you also need power. But if you want to do good things in your life and in the lives of those around you, you must have power. You need power.
You must decide on how to use it, not based on your ability to use it, but based on your knowledge of power. Sometimes you will not do something, not because you do not have the power to do it, but because you follow a rule of power that tells you not to do it. The thing is to have the power to do everything! Then the next thing is to have the knowledge to use or not use your power. But do not be mistaken -- -- -- we are looking for power when we try to establish a connection with the energetic universe.
Light and Heavy Energy
Power. In our tradition, power means to be in conscious interchange with the universe of living energy. The energetic universe, however, is not a difficult or complex world. It is quite simple, in fact, for it is comprised of only two basic energies, or powers. The first is light or refined energy, and the other is heavy or dense energy. Certainly, light and heavy energies can manifest in many different levels, vibrations, colors, and ways, but for our understanding of power, we will consider all power either light or heavy.
Light energy suffuses the natural world, animating all living beings and imparts "power" to natural objects and places where it accumulates. The more light energy we incorporate into our energetic cocoon, or bubble, the more effortlessly we live in harmony and well-being with others and with the natural world. It is by lightening our energetic body, by incorporating this vital refined power that we are able to raise our level of awareness.
Heavy energy, in contrast, is created only by human beings. This dense power manifests because we do not live in perfect reciprocity with the energetic universe. It results from the flux of our interrelationships with one another, and from the very activity of being and living in the physical world. It is an energetic property of our interrelationships with each other and with the natural world, generated by the power of our emotions, thoughts, and actions. At our current level of human awareness, heavy energy cannot be avoided. Thus, any space humans have occupied, in which they have lived their humanness, accumulates heavy energy. We attract heavy energy walking through a congested city or through fields of flowers. Most often, however, we accumulate heavy energy through our emotional interactions with others. It is generated as we weave our energies among those we love, hate, envy, nurture; it is an energetic byproduct of our pains and sorrows, our fears, our hopes, and our anger. The feelings that drive our thoughts and actions. Although heavy energy is of a type that we cannot help attracting if we are living fully in the current human world, it is a density of energy we do not want to accumulate. It turns the lightness of our energetic body heavy like itself. It keeps us from functioning at peak levels, and it prevents us from engaging the energetic universe as fully as we are able to. Yet heavy energy, in and of itself, is not "negative" or "bad" energy. It is simply heavy. Heavy energy does not have a moral category, you can think of it as ordered energy that becomes disordered. We feed the disordered energy to Mother Earth, but it has no moral reflection.
That heavy energy is not "negative" energy, is one of the most difficult concepts to grasp. In our Western culture we are always trying to reduce everything to dualities, positive or negative, good or bad, right or wrong, and so forth. Heavy is a relative thing. Density or vibration or color may be a better way to understand heaviness, as it emphasizes the relativity.
It is the symptoms of the accumulation of heavy energies that manifest in ways we tend to think of as negative. When we are not in peak energetic form, we tend to not experience full physical, mental, or emotional well-being, either. Too much heavy energy in our bubble, or cocoon, may also reflect an imbalance in our relationship with the natural world of living energy. Then we are isolated from the free flow of nature energies and our place in the great Web of power. From a psychological perspective, heavy energy can be seen as the accumulation of all that does not serve us: negative attitudes, untruthfulness, inability to love, self-destructive or hurtful behaviors, a poor self-image, and so on. If you are experiencing these conditions, then you are probably in contact with an energy that is heavy. Heavy, however, is relative to individuals and the condition of their cocoon, to the energetic power(personal power) that they have at their disposal, as well as how well they can execute their intent. The heaviness indicates an incompatibility between personal power and an external energy. The emotions are only symptoms of being in contact with heavy energy. Fear, for example, is an indication that you are in contact with something that is heavy for you. Incompatible types of energy feel heavy. But heaviness is a relative thing. What is heavy for you may not be heavy for another.
From the warrior's perspective, understanding energy as "heavy" and not as "negative" is crucial, because this perceptual shift is imperative to living fully and consciously, open and receptive to the energies of others and the natural world. If you meet an energy you conceive of as negative, you're only course of action, or probable course of action, is to protect yourself. In the posture of protection, you close yourself off and risk turning your energy body into an "energetic jail". It is rarely beneficial to withdraw from an interchange with the energetic universe. When you perceive an energy as heavy, there's nothing to protect yourself from; you are simply recognizing an energy as incompatible with you. Your awareness of this incompatibility allows you to then act to transform the energy, to in effect lighten it, so that it either becomes compatible for you or simply does not affect you. Even if you cannot deal with the heavy energy, if it is too much for you to handle all at once, it presents no danger to you and there's no need to close off your energetic bubble in the impulse toward protection. Like a stone in the garden that you are trying to move, if the stone is too heavy for you to lift it, you'll simply have to let it lie until you become stronger. But the stone has no capacity to harm you.
We engage the energetic universe, both light and heavy energies, through our energetic cocoon. This is a bubble of energy that surrounds us and suffuses our physical body. It has an outer layer, like a skin, that prevents heavy energy from easily infiltrating deep into our energy body. If we do not cleanse the heavy energy from the surface of our bubble, then it can accumulate, building up and seeping deeper and deeper into the cocoon. As it builds and penetrates, it affects our physical, emotional, and spiritual states. The deeper it goes into our energy body, the more pronounced its symptoms -- the loss of well-being -- may be.
As Thunderbird Warriors, our fundamental task is to always "maintain the ecology of our energy environment". That environment should be light, which is empowering and helps us acquire the personal power to interconnect with the energetic universe in service to ourselves and others. If our environment is not light, then it must be cleansed. The cleansing task begins with the self, as we have discussed with the well techniques given previously. Then it moves outward to encompass larger energy fields, in a widening series of energy circles. After we cleanse our own bubble, for instance, we can then begin to cleanse our immediate environment and the people with whom we are in close contact, such as family members, friends, and colleagues. The cleansing can then be further directed outward, toward those with whom we have difficult relationships or toward whom we feel discomfort or animosity. Finally, we can cleanse physical localities, such as a house where dense energy has accumulated.
Our energetic system automatically releases heavy energies through the base well into the Earth, via the fibers that we extend there. (There is another method to release heavy energies from the cocoon, and that is to open the second well, by spinning it counterclockwise, and then lie down on mother Earth and allow her to draw it directly from you. She thrives on this heavy energy! Afterwords, spin that well clockwise to close it.)
The cycle of cleansing heavy energy and digesting it is completed by drawing light energy into your bubble through the eighth well. This happens automatically. As you release heaviness, you increase your lightness.... Reciprocity. We should always be cognizant of empowering ourselves by drawing light energy in whenever needed, or whenever an especially powerful source is available to us. Other people may be potential sources of light energy. For example when a person, particularly an apprentice on the sacred path, is in the presence of a nahual, then that person has a right to draw light energy from the nahual. There's no need to ask permission to do this, as it is a given. The nahual is an open conduit to the most refined energies and anyone is free to drink from the stream! His heavy energy is light for most of us!
We want to expend our energy wisely. One way we can do that is by being cognizant of "dissimilar" energetic relationships. When we are attuned to the dissimilar energy of a situation or a person, we can begin to identify what is different about us or incompatible between us. We can be alert for, and respond to energetic states that may cause problems in the relationship, creating heaviness. From this awareness grows opportunities for discovering points of similarity and mutual contact from which we can begin to harmonize energies to empower both parties. This can be done by cleansing the heaviness from the energy exchange that may result from having engaged dissimilar or potentially incompatible energies.
All cleansing is mediated through the spiritual stomach, just below the navel. Gaining conscious control over this well takes work. It takes diligence and commitment to learn and to sense control over your energy body. Thus it is extremely important to master an exercise before you move on from it. You can gain a degree of control over your spiritual stomach, the second well, by sitting quietly, executing a trigger sigh, and opening it. Do this by spinning it counterclockwise. Then hold your power hand over the well. Pull your power hand away from your stomach, feeling the magnetic connection, and very slowly extend it to the full extension of your arm. Then bring it back slowly, maintaining the magnetic or energetic feeling. Do this several times until it becomes quite easy to feel that magnetic pull all the way out. Then, without using your power hand, extend your spiritual stomach with your intention. Do it, in and out, until it is easy and you can feel it at all times. Close this well by spinning it clockwise. It is imperative to have control of this well when mulching energy.
This method of dealing with heavy energy shares similarities with the process of recapitulation described by Carlos Castenada. His process is a time-consuming ritualized one; this is not. It takes only a few seconds! Eating energy from others achieves three outcomes. It feeds Mother Earth, which she loves. It energetically cleanses the other person, lightening him or her. It empowers you. This practice has nearly unlimited uses, most practically toward easing a tense or troublesome situation of its heaviness.
So, when would you do this? We do this only with those people and places we interact with regularly; those that affect our own intake of heavy energy. Anytime heavy energy is accumulating: whenever you feel a relationship is out of harmony, during an argument with a spouse or co-worker, when your child is uptight and tense, and so on. You should learn to apply this tool by practicing on people emotionally close to you and with whom you have a positive and nurturing relationship, first. A good friend or family member. The better you know the person and the more securely and lovingly bonded you are with him or her, the easier will be to cleanse a person of heaviness. This technique is similar to the one described above, except you open and extend your spiritual stomach to touch the other person's bubble. Open your well a little at a time, gaining a sense of the other person's bubble slowly and in increments that are comfortable for you. If you are truly touching another person's bubble, then you will fully empathize with that person, feeling his or her heaviness through the same pain or depression or fear as does that person. Once you have connected to the person's cocoon, command to your stomach to digest the other person's heaviness and feed the double flow of energy (the heavy moving down to mother Earth and the light flowing to your head). Your spiritual stomach is able to extract nutrients, or light energy from this heaviness, just as your physical stomach extracts nutrients from food. You will feel the energy moving. If you don't you haven't gotten control of your well, yet... stop!
As with most energy work, to perform this technique, the person should be in close physical proximity to you. Undoubtedly, he or she will feel the empowerment that results from the cleansing. I repeat: he or she will feel the empowerment that results from the cleansing. This is an act of selflessness, not selfishness. It never drains another person, only empowers him or her, as well as you. You're feeding the Earth the energy that she loves. It is an act of service; spiritual reciprocity.
And so to summarize, we must control the energetic environment around us. By doing so we provide a service to those around us, to the Earth, and to ourselves. As a result, we minimize the heaviness that we must ingest on our journey. Focusing on energetic reciprocity at all times will give us the awareness to act in a manner that raises the vibrational level of our cocoon. Any actions, words, or decisions that do not result in increased the energetic harmony of our environment, are a step backward on the path of the warrior. In all cases, the warrior acts to increase energetic flow. Heavy energy for one person may be light energy for another. It's all relative. What is light energy for us today, may be heavy energy for us in the future.
I am thinking that we should coin two new words for our tradition; one for light energy and one for heavy energy. Any suggestions?
Some of this material is derived from a discourse on power by Quetzal Ocelotl, but most of it comes from the understanding given to me by my brother crow on the mountain.