Happy Valentines Day!

Here is a wonderful poem from Robert Holden, written and shared for the first time last week.

Robert will be joining us for workshop here on the 11th of April – Shift Happens with Robert Holden

Disappearing into Love

When they ask you what is your
religion, tell them that it is
love.

And if they ask you what is your
politics, tell them that it is
also love.

If they ask you what that means,
you can tell them your
philosophy is love.

If they want to know anything
else about you, tell them your
favourite occupation is
loving.

And don’t forget to tell them
that your nationality is
love.

And that even your blood
group Is love.

Not everyone will stick around
to hear what you say next,
but fear not.

Family and friends may get busy
so as to pretend to forget what
you just said.

It’d drive them crazy now to know
that their blood group is also love,
that their nationality is love,
and that the real work of their
life is love.

One day they will give in, and then
their philosophy will be love,
their politics will be love,
and their religion will be love.

Love gets us all in the end.
We all of us disappear back into
love eventually.

Don’t forget, we are showing Marion Woodman’s film ‘Dancing in the Flames’ here at the Centre on:
Saturday 18th February at 7:45pm – 9:15pm.

For more information are to reserve you space for the showing, please click here.

‘Sacred Ink’ is a photographic and multimedia installation exhibition by Cedric Arnold.

‘Sacred Ink’ features over 45 large format black-and-white photographs taken in Thailand, as well as sound, video and multimedia projections. It explores this unique subculture, its rituals, symbols and people.

Known in Thai as “Sak Yant”, the tattoos represent the complex spiritual makeup of Thai society.

www.cedricarnold.com

A guilt free, delicious recipe for raw chocolate truffles by the wonderful Luna Carreno. Luna’s Raw Chocolates are available in the Alchemy Cafe while stocks last!

Vegan and raw food, no dairy, gluten and sugar to improve health and have more energy. They are simple, nutritious, quick to prepare and delicious.

The raw vegan diet is plant-based and basically includes raw fruits and vegetables, nuts and nut pastes , seeds, grain and legume sprouts, plant oils, herbs, and fresh juices -preferably organic. Organic produce, though more expensive, is much sweeter-tasting and healthier than non-organic. Switching to a raw vegan diet from the modern cooked diet can be a huge step and may produce a serious detox crisis so it is advisable to first take intermediate steps like going vegetarian or vegan and getting off of refined sugar and salt and other harmful or addictive chemicals. Bread, baked goods and flour or grain products in general are perhaps the most addictive foods of all. Our modern Western diet is very taste-oriented and we are basically all drug addicts, so this is the hardest part to get over before you can enjoy the benefits of a natural raw diet, but the fight will be worth it. It usually takes about a month or two for the old food cravings to subside or vanish, depending on your particular state, or method of transition… so let me share this easy and yummy recipe.

Simply Delicious Raw Truffles!

Make sure you don’t eat too many too quickly as you will be buzzing around like a raw chocolate bunny for hours!

1/2 cup coconut oill (when melted) low temperature
1 Cup cacao nibs ground
1/4 Cup Raw cacao powder
1/2 Cup Mesquite or Lucuma
2 Tablespoons Agave Nectar
1 tablespoon Vanilla Extract – organic!
Pinch of Himalayan sea salt

Melt the coconut butter slowly at a very low temperature
Mix together all the other ingredients and then stir in the coconut, agave and vanilla!
Try really hard NOT to lick the spoon constantly when you are mixing this – its like deep chocolate delight
This will be kind of thick and totally edible – but hold back and press into little ice cube trays (love hearts are best) and put in the fridge for a couple of hours until they have set.

Give to people you really LOVE

Venus into Aries – (9th February – 6th March)

Venus continues her tour of the Zodiac and this month meets Uranus in Aries. Quirky and unexpected, strange meetings and interesting encounters ensue. Possibly some odd fashion or shopping decisions too so consult a friend where possible. There is a real chance here to break free of possessive love stories and reinvent the world of relationships where both parties can be themselves, free yet united. Feminine energy will only be honoured properly when the bonds of emotional slavery are broken.

This Tuesday’s full Moon is in Leo with the Sun in Aquarius. It’s the sign of the artist, player and lover. Spontaneity is contagious, and this lunar culmination inspires everyone to express themselves freely. With the spirit of generosity in the air, each person’s uniqueness emerges, and is encouraged to shine.

The Leo full moon is the last of five full moons that take place at the very last degree of the sign. The vital lesson to be learned from the Leo archetype is that talent is not the problem. Everyone has gifts to share. Our challenge is to persevere through our personal transformation so that we can uncover and fearlessly and confidently offer our unique 
piece to the whole.

Archetypes come in pairs. Aquarius and Leo are polarities. The Leo archetype represents the specialness of each individual and the creativity that expresses through each of us. The Leo Lion teaches us to open our hearts to ourselves, to accept and enjoy discovering who we are. Self-worth, self-value and self-love open doors to opportunities and blessings that are not available in any other way. When our hearts are open, we transcend the self-righteousness attitude of thinking we know best for everyone else. We tried that in the Piscean age with disastrous results.
Without heart, our great ideas can devolve into controlling schemes and a bureaucratic maze. Leo unleashes the creativity in each individual so that everyone can be a contributory member of society. Aquarius and Leo are fixed signs, which means that they are more tenacious about holding on to the status quo and what they believe in.
Both the force of resistance and the motivation for change are built into these archetypes. They let go only after they have undergone a transformation of consciousness, which is required to allow effective change to take place. This actually makes sense. Why try to implement ‘reforms’ if are simply window dressing? Both Aquarius and Leo require authenticity to pass ‘go.’
Our assignment this year is to monitor our personal ability to shift our limited and negative programming so that we can take soul-directed action. Our job in 2012 is to upgrade how we react to confrontational situations. Are we able to live in our hearts with ourselves and others?

 The following touchstones can be useful:

* Assume everyone is having a hard time and needs acceptance and love. Know that your simple acts of kindness contribute to shifting planetary consciousness from fear to love.

* Be kind to yourself. Build an inner foundation of love and compassion for your own life. In doing so you are making a significant contribution 
to shifting the global dynamic from conflict to cooperation.

*Ask yourself, am I living in the Divine Flow or running my life on self-will? Being in the flow is the only important thing. That is where we all want to be.

SET YOURSELF FREE 
’Success is as dangerous as failure. 
Whether you go up the ladder or down it, your position is shaky.
 When you stand with your two feet on the ground, you will always keep your balance.’

When we are connected in our body to our Earth Mother, we are nourished and supported from both stable and neutral ground. With a stable base 
and a neutral mind, we can relax into the Flow.
’Hope is as hollow as fear.
Hope and fear are both phantoms that arise from thinking of the self.’

Both hope and fear arise from limited personality/ego-based thinking that creates beliefs, ideas and wishes of what we want or don’t want.

These thoughts then control not only our mind, but our actions and our emotional state. We are a slave to our thoughts and prisoners of our emotions. We are not free because we are not aligned with the Flow.

* TO BE FREE, we must see the world through glasses without the filters 
of our hopes, wishes and fears.

* TO RELAX, we must accept things the way they are, not the way we want 
them to be.

* TO LOVE, we must see others as ourselves. Then we can care for and be kind to all beings.

* The world will be a better place when we allow our heart to speak and our soul to shine.

MARS RETROGRADE IN VIRGO – CLEAN OUT AND LET GO!

As we move through this month Mars in Virgo went retrograde (apparent backward motion) from January 23 and continues through April 13. During the almost 3 month period, we may feel a lack of energy, weighted down and an inability to move forward. There can be a tendency to feel depressed and angry. On the positive side, we get support for deep healing and regeneration.
This is a time for inner analysis, assessment and letting go. Engage in physical, mental and emotional house cleaning and inner prison reform. 
Go inside; get in touch with the resistance in your body. Identify the chains that you create in your mind. Feel the ropes that entangle your emotions. Identify how and where you are wasting or underutilizing your energy, potential and resources.

Virgo grounds us in physical reality and counsels us to take action based on the actual situation, not on our opinion about how things should be or what we wish would happen. Do not resist. Do not prolong your pain. Accept and move on. This is a time to relax and align with the Flowing Mother Force.
The more we set ourselves free, the more our energy flows and aligns with the cosmic flow.

Saturn turns retrograde (8 Feb – 25 June)

Saturn turns retrograde at the last degree of Libra. Like a Judge summing up at the end of a long and complicated trial, under this aspect we can look back to October 30, 2009 to see the full cause and effect of our actions.  Looking forwards in this new awareness – the clarity that we co-create our reality – we can decide to finally release attachment to any stories that create drama in our lives and step into our unlimited potential.

Full Moon – 18 degrees Leo

Mercury is paired with the Sun in Aquarius which indicates that unexpected flashes of brilliance may break old thought patterns and lead us down the rabbit hole to curious places.

Venus together with Uranus continues the Wonderland theme where a suspension of belief opens our neural pathways to new possibilities.

Neptune recently returned home to Pisces after 150 years absence, completes the dreamy feel of this night. Fantasy reigns supreme.

Open up to imagination and utopian visions for the future. That which is conceived, is already well on the way to being realized.

This is the big story of early 2012. Neptune has not been in her home sign of Pisces for over 150 years. Like a giant tuning fork, Neptune helps us to feel into the vibrational universe and see into other dimensions. Pisces is a very spiritual sign and this timely homecoming will bring us all a boost of intuition, psychic abilities and generally a feeling of being tuned in.

Revelation means removing the veils, (so does Apocalypse), and  it is no coincidence that this alignment has come at a point when we are being asked to raise our consciousness and reach a new dimension. Neptune in Pisces will help us resonate to our highest vibration and live in pure alignment with the Source of all that is.

I have left my mind,

And have again found my heart,

Oh, that’s where you were.

#64Wei Ji Not quite finished
Above    Li: radiance,fire; brightness that brings clarity and passion.
Below     Kan: gorge, precipice, snare; taking risks; the danger of swift-flowing waters.

The Wisdom:
Oh, this puzzle of life.
As all the pieces begat by your commitment, love,
And tears begin to come together,
You still have fears and doubts.
No worries, no blame.

What will the future bring?  you ask.

Forget it, there is no future. You are where you are, and that is just the way it is. The blessing, of course, is that there is no past; there is only now, and this now is looking pretty damn good.

We are entering a new era on this planet where nothing is as it seems, and nothing will happen as it did before. Let go of control; there is nothing you can do about it.

Now is the time to be really watchful and clever. An original translation of this hexagram tells of the desperate young fox who wishes to get to the other side of the frozen waters, where he senses there is something great waiting just for him (a metaphor for the ego in action). Off he goes, with no consideration of the season. Springtime is quickly coming, and the ice floor is weakening. In his enthusiasm to meet his goal, our young fox totally blows it: he does not sense the weakness in the ice and does not pay attention to the cracking sounds, which are telling him to exercise caution. Down he slips through a crack in the ice, getting his beautiful fur soaked to the skin in the freezing water. He must struggle to free himself, whereupon he retreats in humiliation and despondency.

Then we are told of the old fox. He too wishes to get to the other side.  However this is not the old fox’s first rodeo. He knows that winter is nearing its end, and that he should proceed with hope and trust but also with caution. The cracks in the ice (Chinese metaphor again) are listened to and noted. Swiftly the artful dodger makes it to the other side.

The lesson of Wei Ji is this: Yes, you are going to receive the freedom and abundance you have been working for, but it may not look like anything you envisioned—it will, in fact, be much better. So in your desire to get to the finish line, don’t be blind and hold on to a vision wrought by the past. Proceed with the eyes and heart of the wise, experienced older fox. Falling through the metaphorical cracks must be avoided at all cost—you have been working too hard to let that happen. But no worries: since you cannot take your weighty old patterns, along with their desires and beliefs, with you, you should know that what lies ahead will be liberation, and along with it, great comfort and a joyous heart.

The ending of one chapter in life is before us and a new one beckons. When we work hard toward a particular goal we can sometimes become exhausted near the end and miss the very thing we need to pay attention to. To bring this chapter to an end with style and grace, you must be diligent and pay close attention to all the things that are obvious and particularly to those things that may be hidden under your surface awareness. Look under the proverbial rocks, both within your own mind and in the task before you. These are the hidden recesses, where coyote, the divisive ego, has dug in and created pockets of denial that can pull you off course.

By Bobby Klein from the I Ching weekly