EMBRACE WHATEVER PLAGUES YOU…AND TRANSFORM YOURSELF!

During the first two nights on Fire Island, a raccoon attacked the garbage pails in our yard and on our deck, making an epic mess of chicken bones and other food scraps. On the second such assault, I was awakened by the noise at 5:20 AM, and went down to investigate.

There it was, staring at me, completely nonplussed as it was using its nimble hands to untie the rope that I’d rigged up to hold the lid on the pail. I scared it away with a loud shout, though it didn’t exactly look particularly frightened. Everyone who knows about raccoons knows that they are persistent and don’t scare easily, so I knew something more was going to be required to prevent further such events during our month-long stay. And I knew that the “something” had to include not just physical measures, but more importantly, accepting that the raccoon was bringing me a message, and that it represented something spiritually.

So, I did my research. 

First, I found a close-up of a raccoon online, which I made into my desktop picture. That way, he would be present in my consciousness on a  daily basis. 

Second, I looked up the spiritual meaning of raccoons, and found this:

“The name ‘raccoon’ is believed by some to come from the Algonquin Indian word ‘arckunem,’ meaning ‘hand scratcher.’ One of the most striking features of the raccoon is the mask that it wears. Although some associate this with thievery, it actually gives the raccoon a very powerful mystical symbolism. When we wear a mask we are no longer whom we thought. We make ourselves one with some other force. We create a doorway in the mind and in the physical world a threshold that we can cross to new dimensions and new beingness. This is the magic of raccoon. It knows how to wear masks for a variety of purposes. Do you need to present a different face to people for greater success?”

This had a lot of significance for me. For one thing, during the last 2 Julys here on Fire Island, the spirits of a group of Algonquin played an important role in our spiritual work (See the FPL post HERE.). 

Secondly, masks have held a negative meaning for me because of my therapeutic work, which to a great extent has always been about removing masks, certainly not honoring them as sacred. This was some fodder for meditation and an opportunity to observe my judgments. I did so, and on the third night, there was no disturbance from the raccoon. In fact, it is now Day 20 without any garbage mischief from Arckunem!

The work related to the raccoon wasn’t done, though. Subsequent to the above, during a spiritual gathering here at the beach, we were asked to help the spirits of a young Algonquin boy and girl. The boy had died at the hands of wild raccoons, and the girl blamed herself for the event. We did our work to help them release their anger and guilt, forgive themselves, each other and the raccoons, and move on.

That agreement was complete, but... 

... The Great Spirit said there was more to do.

During Week 3 of the vacation, a screaming bird made its appearance (though actually we couldn’t see where it was perched as it sent out its clarion calls.). For two relentless nights, this barker screamed rhythmically from sunset to sunrise, making sleep a bit of a challenge. The remedy, or rather the lesson, once again was acceptance, understanding and being of service, in this case calling for a spiritual gathering at the ocean itself.

Our task this time was to assist two other Native American tribes, the Iroquois and the Lenape, the latter being a tribe I had never heard of before, but which it turns out upon doing some research after the fact, did in fact live on Fire Island, and did battle with the Iroquois, as well as the White Man. The Lenape, the translation of which means “original man,” we discovered, are also related to the Algonquin.

We did our work again to bring peace and forgiveness to all concerned, and lo and behold, no more bird screaming through the night.

And so, there it is, folks, loud and clear (often quite literally). Whatever plagues you, whatever aggravates you, hassles you, torments you even, is not in your life randomly, nor meant to cause you suffering or disruption just for the sake of causing you suffering or disruption. It is a call, a message, a beacon to guide you in a particular direction.

That direction is towards acceptance, understanding and service. And you will know that you are on track if by the time you get to the service part, you are not finding it to be arduous or “hard,” but you are finding it to be joyful.

Peace. 

THE ALGONQUIN!

Well, I did it!

For the first time in a decade, I took a month's "vacation." (I put the word in quotes because I worked a half-time schedule, either by phone or twice commuting into Brooklyn for 2-day work stints in the flesh. Still, living and working out of a rented beach house for four weeks was a marvelous break from an otherwise marvelous life in the city.)

The ocean waters off the coast of Fire Island were spectacular this July. In fact, the guy who managed our rental, and is the head lifeguard out in Ocean Beach, said the sea in this area has really revived, bringing not only clean, clear, warm waves to body surf in, but also new levels of thriving aquatic life. We actually saw a pod of wild dolphins one day frolicking and jumping out of the water in playful delight. What? Swimming with dolphins off the coast of Long Island?! Yep. (And for those inclined to be metaphysical, I will tell you that just before the dolphins appeared, a group of us were out in the waves holding hands in a "circle of love" and chanting the "OM" sound. I guess we were speaking the dolphins' language.)

And maybe, collectively, enough people in this area are shifting their consciousness, and through those efforts, cleaning up the ocean here. 
Nicely done, everyone!

There were many moments of meditating and channeling at the beach, especially out by the surf in the morning, a great place, by the way, to send forth intentions and receive information.

Many messages were, in fact, received. One of the earliest pertained to the location of the house we were renting for the first time. Not only was the house on a walkway that we'd been creating an energy vortex on for several years, but this particular house was on a sacred burial site of the Algonquin Indians from many centuries ago. 

Now, understand, I had no prior knowledge of this, nor any particular interest in Algonquin Indians. But when I got this message and looked it up on the internet, it turned out that indeed the area of Fire Island we were on, and Bayshore and East Islip on Long Island right across the Great South Bay, were home to Algonquins centuries before. 


(I believe this Native American connection explains why I greatly enjoyed smoking some tobacco - cigars - and eating grilled meats during the month there, but had no such inclination on my trips back to Brooklyn.)

At one point, we had some spiritual friends over, and during a group session, one of the Algonquins "spoke" to us, expressing gratitude for the energy we were bringing back to the site, and informing me of something I was feeling intuitively - that I had long ago "died" (or been "born" into spirit, as the Algonquin described it) on the site where the house now stood. Apparently, in this particular "past life," I was a white child, raised  and schooled in the ways of the Algonquins, only to die in youth of a white man's disease - the plague. I felt a very powerful well of emotions in connection to this information.

The month was also a time of letting go of attachments. Right off the bat, when we arrived to Ocean Beach during the heat wave right after July 4th,  my beloved MacBook Air collapsed from "heat stroke." Yow! I had imagined I'd be enjoying long hours writing in bliss on my sleek, fast, light MB Air, including writing some music on my Logic program, which no one else's computer on the trip had. 

Okay, then. I surrendered as best as I could to the guidance and spent more time in playful meditation on the beach. And just in case I missed the point, said computer suddenly started working again when I took one of my trips back to Brooklyn! Clearly, my Higher Self was calling for me, through technology, to let go of an attachment.

Another attachment I worked on letting go of, one even more challenging than the one to my MB Air, was my attachment to my love partner. This is, of course, a big one for all of us.

Here's Mark Epstein, Buddhist psychotherapist, on the subject:

"Clinging is as much of a problem in lovemaking as in the rest of life. In order for sexual relations to be deeply satisfying, there must be a yielding of this clinging in a manner that actually affirms the unknowability and separateness of the loved partner. It is the peculiar convergence of awe and appreciation with pleasure and release that characterizes the best sexual experiences. Separate and together cease to be mutually exclusive and instead become reciprocally enhancing and mutually informative. There is wisdom in this state, not just raw instinct."

Indeed. My partner and I have understood this wisdom for a while, but it becomes so easy, especially when you're in love, to "forget about it," to become "lazy" about including healthy separation in a relationship. So, we used my trips off the beach and back to the city, including one that I made without having the agenda of work, to experience separateness. I enjoyed the solitude at home in Brooklyn, and my partner celebrated life at the beach with an old friend. And indeed, as Epstein says above, the separation created an excited feeling between us, reminiscent of first falling in love.

I've written about the importance of vacation over the years, folks, with an emphasis on the reality that vacations are meant to remind us how to properly live our lives all year long. It's really a great way to practice 4th dimensional consciousness, because while on vacation, we allow ourselves to take a time-out from the grind and routine of what we erroneously think of as "real life." We let go of time, of obligation, of repetitive and habitual behaviors, and yet, if we would let ourselves notice it, we'd see that when we return from vacation, our lives have not only not fallen apart from the detaching, but in fact, everything is clearer, calmer and less intense. That is 4D, creating reality from a relaxed, un-stressed, non-linear, quantum place, making room for the Universe, for our Higher Selves to do its work. You see, that's it - when we work, plan, struggle to control, our Higher Selves take a back seat. But when we lay back, our Higher Selves can take over. 

It's really a pretty good deal!