Stone & Bone (Part 10) – The Family Tree

Meditation: The Family Tree

Allow yourself to fall into a relaxed state. Feel where your body touches the floor and imagine you are in a great forest. You are seated in a virgin forest in which the canopy of trees covers your head and your heartbeat blends in with the sound of birds and the scurrying of animals. Every breath is fresh and the air tastes like purity. You are in a place that has never heard the sound of car horns. It has never tasted the flavor of exhaust or felt concrete poured over its tannin-scented floor. It is ancient, complete, and absolute in of itself and with each breath you take you become more and more a part of it. This primordial forest is the home of the Mother tree. The tree from which all our lineages are born. The Mother tree whose heart-mind nourishes and feeds all other trees in this cycle, in this existence. Know that She, the Mother tree, is near, with a voice that speaks through every leaf and nourishes through every root.

Now imagine a tree that is near you. A tree that speaks to you in a language your Soul instinctively knows. This tree speaks to you by calling your own Soul’s name and says: “I know you. I love you. I am you.” Then lean into this tree. Feel yourself drawn closer, embraced in the bark of this generous, loving Creation that breathes out the most delicious flavor of oxygen you have ever imagined for you to inhale. Feel the oldness of its bark and the softness of its leaves. Feel the voice of this tree wrap you up in its soothing songs. This is your family tree. This is the tree that nourishes your roots, your waters, since its original birth from the Mother tree herself. Now feel yourself as a part of this tree. Perhaps you are a piece of bark. Perhaps you are a leaf that turns with the winds. Perhaps you are a branch holding up smaller limbs. Perhaps you are all of these things. One with the Great Tree that is your family. Perhaps you will see other family members there. Your parents, siblings, children. Perhaps you will see family members from other places, other lifetimes. Perhaps you will feel your own essence in other forms. Know that you are One with the Great Tree that is humanity. Now feel yourself inhaling the essence of the Tree and with each exhalation make an offering to your Family Tree. Make an offering of Love, of compassion, of allowingness for each and every part of this tree. Know that you ARE each and every part of this tree. And as you exhale Love, compassion, and allowingness, feel the Tree grow stronger. Feel the roots deepen and brighten with Light. Feel the song of the Tree grow more resonant, more Soul-full, more joyous. And with each inhalation accept the blessings of the Tree itself. Accept the gratitude of your Family Tree as your love, your compassion, and your blessings, make its leaves more vibrant, its soil more fertile, and its limbs stronger.  

© 2013 Heather D. Eggleston

Stone & Bone (Part 9) – Ancestral Healing

Ancestral Healing Protocol

A basic exercise for ancestral healing follows. It begins by connecting to the bones of the Earth. Feel this deeply and completely, holding a Stone in your hand. Then connect to your own bones. Feel them within you, alive and bright. Treat your family as if they were distant ancestors and treat yourself as if she were a distant ancestor. It is important you let yourself feel removed from those who are too close. You may feel deeply and profoundly wish to make changes within your family but this is hard when emotions are too close. We must learn to sift between our own voices and the ancestral voices within. So we must connect to our true ancestors and disconnect from them at the same time.

1. Connect to the bones of the Earth by feeling the Stone.
2. Connect to your own bones to feel the resonance.
3. Introduce yourself to your ancestors. Remember as you learn to hear the voices of your ancestors, you also learn your own voice. This is most important.
4. Allow the ancestors the chance to speak through journaling an “imagined” conversation, divination such as tarot or runes, or simple impressions.
5. Make an altar to your ancestors. Put what you feel appropriate on the altar and epoch your history. Photos of yourself and your family, especially with anyone with whom you need to feel healing, should be used. Include slips of papers, notes, and honest offerings.
6. Call on your ancestors to help heal your family line. Tell them you will make yourself an object of healing (and as such, a healer) as an offering. Being such a vessel is powerful and sometimes intense. It implies deep acceptance of role as healer and healed. Remember the only healing is self-healing so we cannot be responsible for the healing of anyone else, even family. Make this offering, burn a light blue candle as a dedication, and lift the veil between your ancient ones and present self.
7. Begin a forgiveness of self exercise. Many times a day say: “I forgive myself and my ancestors for all things done and undone.” This is something small but very powerful. It is important you imprint this on your very Soul. If you make this about your ancestors in the distant past who are now your allies, you will inevitably assist the healing of closer family (parents and siblings) as well. You will heal from both ends of the lineage.
8. Choose a stone with the desire to do ancestral healing. This stone becomes ally and partner. Keep the stone on the altar when not communing with it directly. Sleep with it when you can. Hold it close and know you are loved.

© 2013 Heather D. Eggleston

Stone & Bone (Part 7) – Ancestral Healing

Ancestral Healing

Light is crystallized Love sung on the Mist’s breath

Creation is process

It did not happen once upon a time

All time is the beginning of time

All time is the end of time

When we die we are given to Earth, most often by burial or cremation. Our dust merges with the sediment of Stone and we connect with the ancient ones. And so we think of the realms of the Dead as existing beneath the surface, deep in the womb of our Mother. When we connect to our dead it is through the shared continuity of bone calling to bone. Ancestral healing is the deep work required to clear the blocks, diseases, and fears passed down from one generation to the next.

Why is ancestral healing important?

1. Too often our relationships with parents, children, and siblings are colored by judgment, fear, and pain based in symbolic memories rather than the reality of the moment. Ancestral healing offers an opportunity to step out of such ways of being.
2. We are the product of our lineage and if we wish to be fully present and healthy, it is important we embrace where we came from, however painful it may be at points.
3. We are at the beginning of a new post-2012 cycle. The less “baggage” we have on us as the next cycle is born, the less traumatic the transition.

4. Some people are literally the alpha and omega of their family lines in this beginning of a new life cycle of the Earth. We are here to bring everything full circle. We are the snake searching for its tail. Ancestral healing allows us to embrace our entire family tree.

© 2013 Heather D. Eggleston

Stone & Bone (part 5) – The Nature of Bone

The Nature of Bone

As Stone is to Earth, so bone is to the human. The physical form is “deep consciousness.” It records the imprint of absolutely everything that happens to us. The body does not forget. Indeed, the body cannot forget. Each component of the physical form, the Temple¹, records a particular aspect of experience.

The bones are calcified memory. The connective tissue and muscles wrap themselves around and through bone to connect, protect, and bring mobility. Together the bones and muscles are collective memory moving through space in a process of constant creation.

The skeletal system is the deepest layer of the human body. It is the framework and fundamental structure of the human architecture. The adult human has 206 bones, which are perfectly connected and balanced through the body. The smallest bone is in the ear and the largest bone is the thigh. Hundreds more are distributed in myriad shapes and sizes throughout the skeleton.²
The body is divided into two specific sections: the axial and appendicular skeletons. The axial skeleton consists of the central cord of the body from the skull through the vertebral column. The axial skeleton is extremely important as it contains all the chakra-pulses from the root at the base of the spine up through the crown at the top of the head. These seven centers serve as energy transmitters and translation units for Creation. The appendicular skeleton consists of the limbs (upper and lower), the shoulders, and the pelvis.

The vertebral column is the inner snake of the body. It is the holder of wisdom, transmitter of energy, and host to the seven sacred pulses. Light courses through the column and conducts via the nerves – those elegantly linked transmitters – to all parts of the sacred anatomy. The coccyx is the tailbone, which energetically translates the language of the deep earth and our primal, ancestral selves. It roots us to the past of the Earth as participants in the whole of all existence. The sacrum, which means sacred, is the skeletal balance point on which we pivot. When our sacrum is out of alignment then the rest of the body inevitably follows its mistunement and our entire vertebral snake is kinked and uncomfortable. We do not know how to position ourselves in this space and time.

1The body as Temple is an ancient truth. It is the embodied Soul.

2Moore, Keith L. and Agur, Anne M. Essential Clinical Anatomy: Third edition. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Baltimore. 2007. pp. 9-15 is a great source for the anatomy of bones.

© 2013 Heather D. Eggleston

Stone & Bone (part 3) – Connecting with Stone

When a stone links to a particular human’s bones that connection unlocks a unique emotional resonance that allows the human to go into the state needed for deep healing.

How does this work? When we sense, touch, and commune with a stone it sets out a specific resonance, a language, that is very deep, low, and to our sensations, slow. Our bones, which are the microcosmic reflection of our Mother’s stone skeleton, resonate with this and, when we are in an allowing place for communication, a translation process begins to unfold. The stone holds memory, just as our bones do. By relaxing into a feeling of affinity a memory presents itself. It may be a memory that is familiar (in our bones) or not (perhaps in the stone’s memory) but that memory will then trigger some sort of emotion. That emotion takes us deeper into ourselves to present a shared space, an empathic nexus, with the Stone. From that space the work we need to do together as allies and friends clarifies and begins.
This process will be different for all stones (and humans) as it is colored by their specific personalities, memories, and the needs of the moment. Often what begins as a subtle interaction becomes increasingly strong as trust and love are built between human and stone. Some stones resonate strong and hard, like an old friend you just met, and others may take gentle fostering. If there is a stone that does not resonate well or feels somehow abhorrent do not force the relationship any more than you would with a human being you find unlikable. There is no judgment but also no need to push. Stones are very powerful but they are not going to do all the work for us. Just having stones laying around strengthens a space. Their vibration and resonance makes subtle changes like a soft song in the background of a noisy room. However, when we begin to consciously work with them and listen, truly amazing shifts occur. Imagine a wise old woman who sits in a rocking chair all day; her presence may bring comfort and solace but what if we asked her to tell us a story? What if we asked her for advice? For her favorite healing salve or charm? Then she will be more engaged in our lives and in our spaces. This is what stones are like. They all have a wisdom that will unlock the depths of our own bones and activate our lives.  

© 2013 Heather D. Eggleston

Sacred Anatomy – The Seven Pulses (Part 7) – Breath

The final seventh heart is the crown itself, the Sahasrara. It is at this point that we link with the eternal Breath, the Divine Ruach. This is our connection to the realms beyond our immediate physical Light and where we draw in the Breath. It is the color violet and associated with the pituitary gland, that master gland that governs all other influences within the body. It is where we connect with the non-local mind of the All. The corresponding nerve plexus is the cerebral cortex pineal plexus, which regulates the brain and the central nervous system itself.

My breath is the shared Breath of the All… Today may I be aware of the interconnections.

 

The seven hearts are the main energy vortices, but each organ has its own set of chakras and, indeed, each cell has its own energy centers! We are microcosmic holographic images of the whole and as such each one of our cells is a microcosmic holographic image of us. As above, so below. As within, so without. And so there are infinite centers interacting at every given moment to create balance and homeostasis. This can seem mind boggling but imagine yourself as a great earth with billions of inhabitants living within your system. Your health and integrity depend on theirs and theirs depends on yours. This is very much the way our Mother Earth in her solid state interacts with us. We are her living cells. As we heal we help her to be healthy and well. Our emotions, thoughts, and actions are intricately connected to hers. A friend once said the greatest gift we could give our Mother is for us all to awaken to our Light by remembering we are Love. May we do so!

The seven chakras are the first lesson in esoteric anatomy, which expands the standard mechanistic understanding of anatomy, the external and internal workings of the physical form, to include the subtle layers of the energetic body. Each layer of the energetic body corresponds to one of the seven chakras and to specific elemental flavors of Light. The seven sacred Hearts are the primary connecting points between microcosmic and macrocosmic reality. It is through these centers that we translate the energy of each of the seven elements. 

Sacred Anatomy – The Seven Pulses (part 5) – Mist

The fifth heart is the throat chakra, Vishuddhi, or in our language, the Mist. This center is associated with the Soul’s true song, its voice, and higher knowing. In the throat center we learn how to express what we learned of ourselves in the solar plexus and refined in the connections of the heart. We enter a state of true power in which we must share the very essence of ourselves with the world in the way only we are able. This center is our true song. It is our numerological soul’s urge and our astrological ascendant. It is how we synthesize all of our experiences in a way that will assist others within the labyrinth. It is the true beginnings of bold and active service. The throat is typically thought of as the color turquoise. It is the voice of the prophet, cantor, and visionary. It is associated physically with the thyroid gland who in dysfunction becomes a visible goiter on the throat. The nerve plexus that innervates the throat is the cervical ganglia medulla plexus, which operates the vocal apparatus, arms, and hands, which open themselves to give and to sing as only we can. 

Today I open my throat to sing my Song…

Sacred Anatomy – The Seven Pulses (Part 4) – The Green Heart

The fourth center is the heart or Anahata. This vortex is associated with connection to the heart of the Earth and the group Heart-mind itself. It is through the heart that we connect deeply in a compassionate way with ourselves and others as Souls rather than simple physical, biological beings acting out patterned behaviors. This is, in my experience, the heart of the Greening, in which the tendrils of our individual hearts reach out to those we love and honor and link to in an intricately intimate way. We learn how to love in all ways in this place. There is no sense of power over in this space but rather a sacredness of interconnection and a dream of true intimacy. Like our Green siblings, the trees and plants of our Earth, we link together to share resources and communicate through the subtle turnings of our leaves in the wind. The heart of the Greening is associated with the color green and with the nerve plexus of the physical heart itself, which regulates the entire circulatory system. The heart of the Greening is also associated with the endocrine system, and the thymus gland. The thymus gland is typically associated with the mysterious im- mune system that protects us from disease. The thymus, although allopathically considered vestigial, boosts our ability to heal from and prevent disease by connecting with the larger group Heart-mind. It activates our ability to connect with universal Light to heal more quickly and efficiently than we ever could on our own.

Today I connect my heartbeat to the rhythms of Earth herself and clear the spaces between…

Sacred Anatomy – The Seven Pulses (Part 3) – The Inner Sun

The third center is the solar plexus or Manipura. This is the bright yellow inner sun located at the tummy. This is our fiery heart, our sun. It fuels us, distributes energy, and warms our inner fires. It is the seat of the ego and personal will. It connects with the Earth’s sun, who is the central star of our existence. Like Leo the Lion, our sun is the ego exalted who gives warmth, healing, and energy with his benevolent rays. When we grow in this heart we swallow the sun and elevate our ego to higher service. The navel is the connecting point of our egoic self in its multiplicity. It is at the umbilical cord that we disconnect from our bodily mother and take form as individual beings at birth. It is through the umbilicus that we connect with all the many parallel existences of personal experience. In Ayurveda the navel is the home seat of all 72,000 nadis (energy centers). In Traditional Chinese Medicine the solar plexus is home of the lower Tan Tien (dandien), which sits approximately three cun, or finger widths, below the belly button. The Tan Tien (hara in Japanese) is the seat of Chi in the human body. It is the focal point of personal power and is a major point for meditation in Chi Gong, martial arts, TCM. The physical region is the center of digestion and it is associated with the pancreas, which secretes insulin and balances the intake of sugars to regulate energy levels. The related nerve plexus is also called the solar plexus and it innervates the digestive system. When this system is malfunctioning we cannot properly utilize the energy, physical or subtle, we take in.

Today I swallow the sun that my lower ego may elevate to Service & Love…

Sacred Anatomy – The Seven Pulses (part 1) – Stone

There are seven primary energetic vortices in every human system. The yogic traditions call these chakras, which translates loosely to “wheels of Light.” Shamanic Touch (TM) teaches the seven “tunnels of Light.” My preferred translation is the seven Hearts since each has its own pulsing beat that connects elementally (macrocosm) and then again at the human heart (microcosm).  Each of these centers is a microcosmic energetic converter and a macrocosmic translation unit. Our chakra connects with the correspondent element in the Earth herself. Each of these subtle energy centers connects at a major endocrine gland, which informs its basic function and sphere of influence. It also connects to a nerve plexus that innervates particular realms of the microcosmic body and speaks the language of the macrocosmically connected elemental realm.

The first and deepest of the seven centers is the root located at the base of the spine. In Sanskrit this is Muladhara. This is the red heart that connects us to our tribe. It is associated with survival, instinct, and the ancient wisdom that connects us with all those who have gone before. This space links us with the people of Stone and the ancestral voices. It is the deepest, densest area.  Yet the core issues of life are held here and if we wish to unlock our energy in a safe way with firm foundations we must address the root first. The root holds issues of ancestral healing, financial security, early familial relationships, and issues of safety and abandonment. The rooting heart is associated with our bones and the skeletal structure of our physical bodies and it connects to the macrocosmic stone skeletal body of our Mother. The rooting heart links with the adrenal gland, which governs fight or flight and the regulation of stress hormones. It also corresponds with the sacral-coccygeal nerve plexus, which innervates the lower body allowing us to physically transport our- selves in local space. The rooting heart keeps us linked to our tribe and ancestors, which frees us to move and explore on our own. It is the tether that keeps us safe as we fly.

Today I make offerings to my ancestors that we may heal together.  As their wisdom fills my bones, my voice joins them in Song.