The Sakhu Scrolls
Newsletter of the Sakhu Healing Arts Center
Volume 2, Number 1
August 2010
Tehuti Explains Non-Linear Time
Swerving Hips and Eyes of Light
Four New “Sakhu Initiates” to Divination
Archives
Below you will find three articles.
The first includes lessons from Tehuti concerning the nature of non-linear time.
The last two take you on a journey into the ancestral realms as I recount experiences from our recent Introduction to Shamanism workshop.
The Archives include our Premier issue of the Sakhu Scrolls from 2006.
Enjoy!
August 2010
Tehuti Explains Non-Linear Time
Swerving Hips and Eyes of Light
Four New “Sakhu Initiates” to Divination
Archives
Below you will find three articles.
The first includes lessons from Tehuti concerning the nature of non-linear time.
The last two take you on a journey into the ancestral realms as I recount experiences from our recent Introduction to Shamanism workshop.
The Archives include our Premier issue of the Sakhu Scrolls from 2006.
Enjoy!
Tehuti Explains Non-Linear Time
8/13/10
A lesson on the omnipresence of time:
…We are unveiling a key to mastery of time. Time is also a place. Times have locations. All of time exists simultaneously, right now.
Once again I am perplexed for a moment.
How can everything that has ever happened still be happening?
Why not? There’s plenty of room for these things. Of course, you do not perceive them all, simultaneously. And this is key. Your experience of time is connected to the “location” of your consciousness. Where have you placed your awareness?
…I recall the words of ancestors I’ve heard in the past, “master time.”
Continue to master your understanding of time. Reflect on how this impacts on your daily life, this omnipresence of everything that has ever happened.
Understand the power this gives you to know all that has ever happened, and to transform it, as you have healed younger aspects of yourself (by traveling to them).
I recall those silly movies about time travel and the dangers of altering past events.
I sense that it is not this simple.
When you travel to events in different time frames it does not “throw off” present occurrences.
This is a linear view of time.
Traveling to another time frame to bring healing is as natural as “traveling” from your kitchen out to the garden to plant some flowers.
This is the privilege, the bounty if you will, of the interdimensional traveler…
…The past is still happening and the future is already happening!...
A lesson on the nature of “potential” realities:
…If you return to the moment of your “conception” and choose to be born to different parents, then you merely align your consciousness with an alternate reality; you create another “potential” to experience. Yet, of course, you cannot “undo” the lifetime that you have already experienced. You simply transfer or transport your consciousness to another reality…
For more information regarding this teaching, give us a call at Sakhu at (718) 773-3338.
A lesson on the omnipresence of time:
…We are unveiling a key to mastery of time. Time is also a place. Times have locations. All of time exists simultaneously, right now.
Once again I am perplexed for a moment.
How can everything that has ever happened still be happening?
Why not? There’s plenty of room for these things. Of course, you do not perceive them all, simultaneously. And this is key. Your experience of time is connected to the “location” of your consciousness. Where have you placed your awareness?
…I recall the words of ancestors I’ve heard in the past, “master time.”
Continue to master your understanding of time. Reflect on how this impacts on your daily life, this omnipresence of everything that has ever happened.
Understand the power this gives you to know all that has ever happened, and to transform it, as you have healed younger aspects of yourself (by traveling to them).
I recall those silly movies about time travel and the dangers of altering past events.
I sense that it is not this simple.
When you travel to events in different time frames it does not “throw off” present occurrences.
This is a linear view of time.
Traveling to another time frame to bring healing is as natural as “traveling” from your kitchen out to the garden to plant some flowers.
This is the privilege, the bounty if you will, of the interdimensional traveler…
…The past is still happening and the future is already happening!...
A lesson on the nature of “potential” realities:
…If you return to the moment of your “conception” and choose to be born to different parents, then you merely align your consciousness with an alternate reality; you create another “potential” to experience. Yet, of course, you cannot “undo” the lifetime that you have already experienced. You simply transfer or transport your consciousness to another reality…
For more information regarding this teaching, give us a call at Sakhu at (718) 773-3338.
Swerving Hips and Eyes of Light
I’ll go ahead and say that the Introduction to Shamanism workshop was a hit!
The last group healing was phenomenal, so I wanted to share it with everyone. KenRa and Karimah worked on Joseph, and I jumped in to take a peek at the end.
Here’s what I saw:
KendRa appears dressed in all white, adorned with tiny bead strands around her head wrap, neck and waist. She swerves her hips like a belly dancer as her arms gracefully wave in front of her. The amazing thing is that Joseph, who is receiving the healing, actually felt fabric brushing against his skin! When I described how I saw KendRa dancing he said that this is exactly what he felt!
I also saw Karimah. Her movements were quite different. She emerged with huge, dark black feet, and simply stomped all around Joseph’s body. I recall a past reading where it was revealed that she is from the Black Foot tribe. She then takes a thick, dark mass out the left side of Joseph’s abdomen, placed it in her mouth, and begins to chomp it down. I thought to stop it and check things out, as I was unsure if she could safely consume this mass, but she simply looks directly into my eyes with a hypnotic stare, and calmly continues. I can feel her deep sense of balance and strength. As she chomps away, I receive a message that she has an amazing capacity to transform and transmute energies that are generally considered to be harmful. She can devour things that would “kill” someone else. She simply burns and destroys them.
I also receive the message that her light brown eyes, which are striking in their brightness, are in fact not light. Her eyes are dark. Tehuti continues, It is the light from within her, shining bright that gives the impression that her eyes are light. And I was told that she must continue to let this light shine!
Karimah giggled as I shared about the healing work! She said that she was indeed eating something from the same area I identified on Joseph’s torso! She also noted that she too had a moment of hesitation, wondering if she should be eating this, but sensed that it was alright to continue. Joseph then shared that he actually felt things being pulled out of that part of his abdomen. In fact, he felt all of the interventions as we worked. He even felt when Kendra and Karimah did a quick check of his head area and found it to be balanced. He sensed he was being “checked out,” and that everything was found to be alright, and then the energies moved on!
A powerful team of healers is emerging. I hope you’ll join us this Sunday!
The last group healing was phenomenal, so I wanted to share it with everyone. KenRa and Karimah worked on Joseph, and I jumped in to take a peek at the end.
Here’s what I saw:
KendRa appears dressed in all white, adorned with tiny bead strands around her head wrap, neck and waist. She swerves her hips like a belly dancer as her arms gracefully wave in front of her. The amazing thing is that Joseph, who is receiving the healing, actually felt fabric brushing against his skin! When I described how I saw KendRa dancing he said that this is exactly what he felt!
I also saw Karimah. Her movements were quite different. She emerged with huge, dark black feet, and simply stomped all around Joseph’s body. I recall a past reading where it was revealed that she is from the Black Foot tribe. She then takes a thick, dark mass out the left side of Joseph’s abdomen, placed it in her mouth, and begins to chomp it down. I thought to stop it and check things out, as I was unsure if she could safely consume this mass, but she simply looks directly into my eyes with a hypnotic stare, and calmly continues. I can feel her deep sense of balance and strength. As she chomps away, I receive a message that she has an amazing capacity to transform and transmute energies that are generally considered to be harmful. She can devour things that would “kill” someone else. She simply burns and destroys them.
I also receive the message that her light brown eyes, which are striking in their brightness, are in fact not light. Her eyes are dark. Tehuti continues, It is the light from within her, shining bright that gives the impression that her eyes are light. And I was told that she must continue to let this light shine!
Karimah giggled as I shared about the healing work! She said that she was indeed eating something from the same area I identified on Joseph’s torso! She also noted that she too had a moment of hesitation, wondering if she should be eating this, but sensed that it was alright to continue. Joseph then shared that he actually felt things being pulled out of that part of his abdomen. In fact, he felt all of the interventions as we worked. He even felt when Kendra and Karimah did a quick check of his head area and found it to be balanced. He sensed he was being “checked out,” and that everything was found to be alright, and then the energies moved on!
A powerful team of healers is emerging. I hope you’ll join us this Sunday!
Four New “Sakhu Initiates” to Divination
The Introduction to Shamanism workshop held at Sakhu this past weekend was quite wonderful. I particularly wanted to draw attention to the experiences of the attendees who were new to this practice. Joseph, Angela, Nia, and Marcia all had splendid journeys into other realms, to encounter past lives, chat with a plant, or receive healing. With their permission, I am honored to share some of what they experienced.
See below for information regarding future events at Sakhu.
Nia journeyed into a plant that usually sits on the windowsill of the healing center. The plant had much to say about how much he loves living in the healing center, and how he enjoys the events that take place here, and the “good conversation!”
Joseph experienced a healing where he felt a rubbing sensation in his eyes and various sensations in his throat and belly. It turns out that he had an eye injury years back, so it made sense to him that his eyes would be a focus. As for the throat, he explained that he suffers from sleep apnea. He could feel that his throat was being cleared to begin to relieve this condition. As for the belly, he has had digestive problems for many years. At one point he heard a voice say, “Now you can never say that you don’t believe in spirits!”
Marcia had a wonderful conversation with a dolphin who, at one point, hovered above the water, motionless, as they dialogued. He said the words of a mantra that she chants every day, and provided some beautiful insights regarding her Buddhist practice. As a result of this weekend, Marcia has dispelled many of her fears and hesitations about venturing into the spirit realms.
Angela breezed in quite late! Yet she astounded us as she immediately dove in and had a very powerful encounter. She experienced a past life when she was a tree! An elder who appeared with deep wrinkles all over her face explained that she too was a tree. Angela also learned that the plant I had placed beside her was her child in that lifetime, and she felt the love between them. She also discovered that, during the time of slavery, this elder had escaped and fled to her freedom! Angela, who had always hated the appearance of her feet, had actually been given the feet of this elder. These glorious feet have not only fled and achieved this woman’s freedom, they have traveled the world across lifetimes. Angela wept as she realized that she is still running today, presently training for the New York City marathon.
There were so many highlights but I will share just one more. Penny, who has gradually been exposed to the spirit realms during gemstones readings at my office over the years, has taken a dramatic turn over the past few weeks. More recently, she had to make a more consistent connection with two specific guides, and found that she could see many more. During the shamanism workshop, her sight expanded so that she was receiving messages for all those present in the room. She was also able to identify particular guardian spirits that were standing right beside each of us. She is truly gifted and we look forward to seeing where she will choose to channel these powerful gifts.
Thanks to all those who participated!!!
Join us for our weekly Sacred Circle where we meditate and share messages from the ancestral realms.
For information regarding gemstone readings and healings as well as chakra rebalancing, call us at Sakhu. You can also check out the “Gemstone Healing” page on our website.
For information concerning future workshops, events, and services,
please call the Sakhu Healing Arts Center at (718) 773-3338
See below for information regarding future events at Sakhu.
Nia journeyed into a plant that usually sits on the windowsill of the healing center. The plant had much to say about how much he loves living in the healing center, and how he enjoys the events that take place here, and the “good conversation!”
Joseph experienced a healing where he felt a rubbing sensation in his eyes and various sensations in his throat and belly. It turns out that he had an eye injury years back, so it made sense to him that his eyes would be a focus. As for the throat, he explained that he suffers from sleep apnea. He could feel that his throat was being cleared to begin to relieve this condition. As for the belly, he has had digestive problems for many years. At one point he heard a voice say, “Now you can never say that you don’t believe in spirits!”
Marcia had a wonderful conversation with a dolphin who, at one point, hovered above the water, motionless, as they dialogued. He said the words of a mantra that she chants every day, and provided some beautiful insights regarding her Buddhist practice. As a result of this weekend, Marcia has dispelled many of her fears and hesitations about venturing into the spirit realms.
Angela breezed in quite late! Yet she astounded us as she immediately dove in and had a very powerful encounter. She experienced a past life when she was a tree! An elder who appeared with deep wrinkles all over her face explained that she too was a tree. Angela also learned that the plant I had placed beside her was her child in that lifetime, and she felt the love between them. She also discovered that, during the time of slavery, this elder had escaped and fled to her freedom! Angela, who had always hated the appearance of her feet, had actually been given the feet of this elder. These glorious feet have not only fled and achieved this woman’s freedom, they have traveled the world across lifetimes. Angela wept as she realized that she is still running today, presently training for the New York City marathon.
There were so many highlights but I will share just one more. Penny, who has gradually been exposed to the spirit realms during gemstones readings at my office over the years, has taken a dramatic turn over the past few weeks. More recently, she had to make a more consistent connection with two specific guides, and found that she could see many more. During the shamanism workshop, her sight expanded so that she was receiving messages for all those present in the room. She was also able to identify particular guardian spirits that were standing right beside each of us. She is truly gifted and we look forward to seeing where she will choose to channel these powerful gifts.
Thanks to all those who participated!!!
Join us for our weekly Sacred Circle where we meditate and share messages from the ancestral realms.
For information regarding gemstone readings and healings as well as chakra rebalancing, call us at Sakhu. You can also check out the “Gemstone Healing” page on our website.
For information concerning future workshops, events, and services,
please call the Sakhu Healing Arts Center at (718) 773-3338
ARCHIVES
The Sakhu Scrolls
Vol. 1, No. 1 (2006)
Letter from the editor:
Welcome to The Sakhu Scrolls; a publication of the Sakhu Healing Arts Center. The Sakhu Healing Arts Center is a sanctuary serving the African Diaspora that is dedicated to healing and transformation locates in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. The Sakhu Scrolls is the voice of the healing center, with articles from practitioners, instructors, and performers who work with the sanctuary, as well Sakhu Healing Arts Center affiliates. This, our premier issue, is dedicated to the heart center.
It is our hope that the words contained within these pages will greatly inspire you and enhance your overall well-being. In an attuned state, all things are possible. The forces that surround us can either distract and diminish or enlighten and augment. We endeavor to be a vehicle that keeps you aligned with the energies that will lead you to your highest attainment. When you are in tune, greatness abounds. The universe conspires to assist you. Obstacles that seemed insurmountable dissolve without effort. There is clarity in things that once appeared incomprehensible. You know when you are connected to these energies; you simply feel right.
We hope that on these pages you will find transcendent energies and perhaps share your experiences with us. We explore numerous modalities to bring about this alignment; energy healing through gemstones, movement, meditation, diet, and artistic expression, to name a few. You will find the modality that resonates with your unique constitution. We look forward to sharing with you, hearing from you, and, if it is our good fortune, meeting you in the near future. Until that time, may your load be light and your footing, sure and steady.
Peace and blessings,
Julie
Julie R. Spooner, Ph.D. is a licensed psychologist and shaman. She works with children and adults; individuals, couples and families.
She can be reached by phone (718) 773-3338 and by email [email protected]
You may address any general comments regarding this newsletter to Julie.
Table of Contents:
Page 2
Featured Gemstone: The RUBY
Julie R. Spooner, Ph.D.
Page 3
Across Dimensions: Shamanic Visions
Julie R. Spooner, Ph.D.
(Gemstone Healing: The Ruby Serpent Goddess/ Three Shamanic Journeys)
Page 6
The Energy Centers and Kemet –JRS
Page 6
The Scene of the Weighing of the Heart of the Dead –JRS
Page 8
Featured Gemstone:
The RUBY
Julie R. Spooner, Ph.D.
Rubies range in color from crimson red, to pink, to orange-red. This mineral is said to stimulate the heart chakra, activating the loving, emotional side toward nurturing, bringing spiritual wisdom, health, knowledge and wealth. It also assists one in attaining one’s ultimate values. The ruby is known as a “stone of nobility,” gathering and amplifying energy. It is a protective stone, shielding one from psychic attack. It is also useful in disputes as it promotes gentleness and discourages violence.
The ruby helps one to transcend the tendency towards martyrdom, helping one to recognize that there is an option with respect to whether we experience anguish and/or suffering. It helps us to free us from the need to experience these travails.
The ruby encourages one to follow bliss. It promotes wealth and happiness, dispelling darkness throughout the body and spirit. The energy of the ruby is vivid and intense, promoting creativity and expansiveness to transform one’s surroundings.
The ruby stimulates circulation, and helps to heal heart disorders related to blood flow. It also helps the body to dispel toxins, and can help with the development of the child in the embryonic state.
(Based on Love is in the Earth, by Melody)
Across Dimensions: Shamanic Visions
Julie R. Spooner, Ph.D.
This section is devoted to information from the beyond. Each issue, we will include several shamanic journeys. In this issue, Julie shares her experiences.
More and more urban dwellers are engaging in a process known as journeying. When a person journeys, a portion of his/her spirit or consciousness travels to, or is able to perceive, other dimensions. Quantum physics theory acknowledges the three-dimensions most of us consciously perceive, as well as the fourth, fifth dimensions and beyond. Through a minor shift in consciousness, it is possible to perceive these other realms. Many cultures refer to these realms as the spirit world. It is where ancestors and spirit guides can be found. In these realms, the non-linear aspect of time is apparent. Things occur at greatly varying speeds so that, for example, a long and intricate incident can transpire in seconds of three-dimensional time. One can travel to events from the past as well as to possible futures.
The possibilities for healing through interdimensional exploration are immeasurable. Imprints from alternate lives can be healed, and interventions to dis-ease can be made on the energetic or sub-cellular level. Interventions on this level more readily impact our emotional and spiritual aspects along with the physical. All of this undoubtedly seems far-fetched or even absurd to many who were acculturated in the West. However, to a rapidly increasing number of us, these phenomena are not only a possibility, but a daily, lived experience.
Gemstone Healing: The Ruby Serpent Goddess A friend of mine shared her experiences studying with a renowned shaman of the Dogon tradition of West Africa. In exchange for a divination, I agreed to do a crystal layout for her. We met in my office, and I mainly expected to lay out the crystals and let the gem-spirits take over. I placed my long crystal above her head along with several lapis stones and amethyst. I then placed my ruby on her heart and other stones at her feet. As I sat down to read, I felt I should at least say a little prayer and remain connected to her for a moment. I bowed my head, eyes closed, and began focusing on the intention to have the gem-spirits heal her and raise her spiritual consciousness.
Right after the prayer, I see a small slit emerge in her heart area and the ruby slides in. A ruby-colored woman emerges inside her chest, moving quickly and gracefully. Soon she pops back out and is sprawled across the chest, kneeling with her knees spread wide. She is frantically pulling blades of black grass out of her chest, throwing them in all directions.
She then re-enters the heart area and travels down the body to the belly, clearing dark colored entities. She then darts quickly to her head and does the same. All of this is done at a rapid pace, with fast, graceful gestures. At one point, she popped out of the chest again and danced furiously above the heart and belly, near the ruby stone.
This was all most surprising after a simple prayer, without the assistance of drumming or even conscious breathing that I usually employ. It is even clearer that the crystal mountain of my first journey foretold an intimate connection to gemstones. I was also struck by the intensity of the ruby-spirit’s enthusiasm. She moved so quickly and danced so boldly, it seemed she had a clear mission she could not wait to fulfill. I was honored to think that I might be able to help these gem-spirits to share their healing bliss. This ruby spirit appeared in numerous forms, providing lessons which will later be discussed.
Three Shamanic Journeys:
Below I have included three journeys I experienced involving the ruby gemstone.
September 13, 2005
I emerge on the coastline, feeling solid and powerful; clear. I do a gesture several times which seems to gather my strength; bending my knees a bit with arms out and bringing my arms to my sides as I stand tall. I then turn to face the land; arms above my head, hands facing outwards like a flamenco or belly dancer, leg out in front with my toe pointed, touching the soil. I feel the power of this pose. I begin to trace a heart into the ground with my toe.
I then burst into acrobatics; back flips into the air. I recall my love for gymnastics as a child. I then return to the heart and finish tracing it with my toe. It fills with a jagged surface made of a ruby stone. When I lick it my mouth becomes bright red and it tastes like a cherry! I know that this tracing of the heart is a ritual to invoke love and heal my heart. During later journeys I notice the ruby heart is often still there, in the soil of my sacred space.
October 7, 2005
About a month later, I embark on a journey to heal my belly with Bear, an animal spirit. On the coast I spread light energy from my hands; it emerges as I gesture towards the sky.
I sense the ruby heart behind me in the soil. I kneel before it and try to make it smooth as it has cut me in the past! This time it becomes a rasberry smooth surface with that taste. I begin to be covered with rasberry-rubiness; my hair and skin. Then a red, purply, shimmery dress. Then am wearing a red-purply veil and lingere, with thoughts of a bride.
I ask the ruby to tell me about herself. A ruby colored serpent emerges. Then a female figure seated in prayer and meditation.
I sense that it is through prayer and meditation and purification that I will find love.
September 28, 2006
For the purposes of this newsletter, I attempted a journey into my ruby stone to see if I could glean any messages. I found myself with my arms above my head, flamenco style, with a bent leg out in front of me, toe touching the ground. Soon I find myself swinging something over head. I attempt to contact the ruby and find myself devouring it like a watermelon. As I attempt to open to a message, I see a glass chamber. Soon the Ruby Goddess emerges from the earth, rising into the chamber with shocking blue eyes. Then I find her seated on her lotus behind me, in her usual spot. Her ruby heart pounds rhythmically, bulging out of her chest. She offers it to me, placing it inside of my chest.
I hear thoughts. A couple of phrases I had recently pondered about the sanctuary.
“The courage to love one another.
The courage to love ourselves.”
She continues.
Locate the immense love in your body; the spirit you carry inside.
Nurture it.
Dance, do art, create, touch, meditate, be in nature- those things that awaken your passion. NURTURE THEM! And share it with another. (For me I heard that I am to make my jewelry using gemstones)
She swings a chink of diamond on a gold chain. I have thoughts of a long chain with gemstones…
Love can heal.
Love should be the driving force of all transformation. Revolution.
(I ask about me and her, our work. She speaks of proper initiation to find love. She walks around me, gesturing towards the earth all around me, like a blessing, long ruby dreadlocks hang below her waist. A love initiation…)
(For information on Julie R. Spooner, Ph.D., see bottom of Letter From the Editor, pp.1)
The Energy Centers and Kemet
-JRS
In Kemet (ancient Egypt), energy centers in the body were explored. Several carvings depict aspirants seated in the lotus position with the energy centers indicated. The kundalini energy that rises up the energy centers along the spine was represented by the two coils of the staff of Tehuti. This image later appeared as the “Caduceus of Hermes” in Greece, and it was later adopted by the modern medical establishment. Thus the origins of the “charkas” can be found in Africa. (More on this topic in the upcoming issue of this newsletter!)
Serpents on the staff of Tehuti
The Caduceus of Hermes
The Scene of the Weighing of the Heart of the Dead
[From the Papyrus of Ani (Brit. Mus. No. 10, 470, plates 3 and 4).]
In the classic text of the Kemetic (ancient Egyptian) spiritual tradition, the “weighing of the heart” is said to take place at the time of death. During this ritual, the fate of the soul of the deceased is determined based on an evaluation of the person’s moral conduct throughout his/her life. -JRS
From: The Book of the Dead (The Book of Coming Forth By Day and By Night),
E.A. Wallis Budge
Vignette: The Scribe Ani and his wife Thuthu enter the Hall of Double Maat, wherein the heart, symbolic of the conscience, is to be weighed in the balance against the feather, emblematic of Right and Truth. In the upper register are the gods who sit in judgement…on the standard of the scales sits the dog-headed ape, the companion of Thoth (Tehuti), the scribe of the gods; and the god Anubis, jackal headed, tests the tongue of the balance.” On the left is the soul of Ani in the form of a human headed bird. Thoth the scribe of the gods “..holds in his hands his reed-pen and palette with which to record the results of the trial.” In this ritual, Thoth stands as the “judge of Right and Truth.”
Thus let thy conscience, which resides in the heart, be light as a feather!
Vol. 1, No. 1 (2006)
Letter from the editor:
Welcome to The Sakhu Scrolls; a publication of the Sakhu Healing Arts Center. The Sakhu Healing Arts Center is a sanctuary serving the African Diaspora that is dedicated to healing and transformation locates in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. The Sakhu Scrolls is the voice of the healing center, with articles from practitioners, instructors, and performers who work with the sanctuary, as well Sakhu Healing Arts Center affiliates. This, our premier issue, is dedicated to the heart center.
It is our hope that the words contained within these pages will greatly inspire you and enhance your overall well-being. In an attuned state, all things are possible. The forces that surround us can either distract and diminish or enlighten and augment. We endeavor to be a vehicle that keeps you aligned with the energies that will lead you to your highest attainment. When you are in tune, greatness abounds. The universe conspires to assist you. Obstacles that seemed insurmountable dissolve without effort. There is clarity in things that once appeared incomprehensible. You know when you are connected to these energies; you simply feel right.
We hope that on these pages you will find transcendent energies and perhaps share your experiences with us. We explore numerous modalities to bring about this alignment; energy healing through gemstones, movement, meditation, diet, and artistic expression, to name a few. You will find the modality that resonates with your unique constitution. We look forward to sharing with you, hearing from you, and, if it is our good fortune, meeting you in the near future. Until that time, may your load be light and your footing, sure and steady.
Peace and blessings,
Julie
Julie R. Spooner, Ph.D. is a licensed psychologist and shaman. She works with children and adults; individuals, couples and families.
She can be reached by phone (718) 773-3338 and by email [email protected]
You may address any general comments regarding this newsletter to Julie.
Table of Contents:
Page 2
Featured Gemstone: The RUBY
Julie R. Spooner, Ph.D.
Page 3
Across Dimensions: Shamanic Visions
Julie R. Spooner, Ph.D.
(Gemstone Healing: The Ruby Serpent Goddess/ Three Shamanic Journeys)
Page 6
The Energy Centers and Kemet –JRS
Page 6
The Scene of the Weighing of the Heart of the Dead –JRS
Page 8
Featured Gemstone:
The RUBY
Julie R. Spooner, Ph.D.
Rubies range in color from crimson red, to pink, to orange-red. This mineral is said to stimulate the heart chakra, activating the loving, emotional side toward nurturing, bringing spiritual wisdom, health, knowledge and wealth. It also assists one in attaining one’s ultimate values. The ruby is known as a “stone of nobility,” gathering and amplifying energy. It is a protective stone, shielding one from psychic attack. It is also useful in disputes as it promotes gentleness and discourages violence.
The ruby helps one to transcend the tendency towards martyrdom, helping one to recognize that there is an option with respect to whether we experience anguish and/or suffering. It helps us to free us from the need to experience these travails.
The ruby encourages one to follow bliss. It promotes wealth and happiness, dispelling darkness throughout the body and spirit. The energy of the ruby is vivid and intense, promoting creativity and expansiveness to transform one’s surroundings.
The ruby stimulates circulation, and helps to heal heart disorders related to blood flow. It also helps the body to dispel toxins, and can help with the development of the child in the embryonic state.
(Based on Love is in the Earth, by Melody)
Across Dimensions: Shamanic Visions
Julie R. Spooner, Ph.D.
This section is devoted to information from the beyond. Each issue, we will include several shamanic journeys. In this issue, Julie shares her experiences.
More and more urban dwellers are engaging in a process known as journeying. When a person journeys, a portion of his/her spirit or consciousness travels to, or is able to perceive, other dimensions. Quantum physics theory acknowledges the three-dimensions most of us consciously perceive, as well as the fourth, fifth dimensions and beyond. Through a minor shift in consciousness, it is possible to perceive these other realms. Many cultures refer to these realms as the spirit world. It is where ancestors and spirit guides can be found. In these realms, the non-linear aspect of time is apparent. Things occur at greatly varying speeds so that, for example, a long and intricate incident can transpire in seconds of three-dimensional time. One can travel to events from the past as well as to possible futures.
The possibilities for healing through interdimensional exploration are immeasurable. Imprints from alternate lives can be healed, and interventions to dis-ease can be made on the energetic or sub-cellular level. Interventions on this level more readily impact our emotional and spiritual aspects along with the physical. All of this undoubtedly seems far-fetched or even absurd to many who were acculturated in the West. However, to a rapidly increasing number of us, these phenomena are not only a possibility, but a daily, lived experience.
Gemstone Healing: The Ruby Serpent Goddess A friend of mine shared her experiences studying with a renowned shaman of the Dogon tradition of West Africa. In exchange for a divination, I agreed to do a crystal layout for her. We met in my office, and I mainly expected to lay out the crystals and let the gem-spirits take over. I placed my long crystal above her head along with several lapis stones and amethyst. I then placed my ruby on her heart and other stones at her feet. As I sat down to read, I felt I should at least say a little prayer and remain connected to her for a moment. I bowed my head, eyes closed, and began focusing on the intention to have the gem-spirits heal her and raise her spiritual consciousness.
Right after the prayer, I see a small slit emerge in her heart area and the ruby slides in. A ruby-colored woman emerges inside her chest, moving quickly and gracefully. Soon she pops back out and is sprawled across the chest, kneeling with her knees spread wide. She is frantically pulling blades of black grass out of her chest, throwing them in all directions.
She then re-enters the heart area and travels down the body to the belly, clearing dark colored entities. She then darts quickly to her head and does the same. All of this is done at a rapid pace, with fast, graceful gestures. At one point, she popped out of the chest again and danced furiously above the heart and belly, near the ruby stone.
This was all most surprising after a simple prayer, without the assistance of drumming or even conscious breathing that I usually employ. It is even clearer that the crystal mountain of my first journey foretold an intimate connection to gemstones. I was also struck by the intensity of the ruby-spirit’s enthusiasm. She moved so quickly and danced so boldly, it seemed she had a clear mission she could not wait to fulfill. I was honored to think that I might be able to help these gem-spirits to share their healing bliss. This ruby spirit appeared in numerous forms, providing lessons which will later be discussed.
Three Shamanic Journeys:
Below I have included three journeys I experienced involving the ruby gemstone.
September 13, 2005
I emerge on the coastline, feeling solid and powerful; clear. I do a gesture several times which seems to gather my strength; bending my knees a bit with arms out and bringing my arms to my sides as I stand tall. I then turn to face the land; arms above my head, hands facing outwards like a flamenco or belly dancer, leg out in front with my toe pointed, touching the soil. I feel the power of this pose. I begin to trace a heart into the ground with my toe.
I then burst into acrobatics; back flips into the air. I recall my love for gymnastics as a child. I then return to the heart and finish tracing it with my toe. It fills with a jagged surface made of a ruby stone. When I lick it my mouth becomes bright red and it tastes like a cherry! I know that this tracing of the heart is a ritual to invoke love and heal my heart. During later journeys I notice the ruby heart is often still there, in the soil of my sacred space.
October 7, 2005
About a month later, I embark on a journey to heal my belly with Bear, an animal spirit. On the coast I spread light energy from my hands; it emerges as I gesture towards the sky.
I sense the ruby heart behind me in the soil. I kneel before it and try to make it smooth as it has cut me in the past! This time it becomes a rasberry smooth surface with that taste. I begin to be covered with rasberry-rubiness; my hair and skin. Then a red, purply, shimmery dress. Then am wearing a red-purply veil and lingere, with thoughts of a bride.
I ask the ruby to tell me about herself. A ruby colored serpent emerges. Then a female figure seated in prayer and meditation.
I sense that it is through prayer and meditation and purification that I will find love.
September 28, 2006
For the purposes of this newsletter, I attempted a journey into my ruby stone to see if I could glean any messages. I found myself with my arms above my head, flamenco style, with a bent leg out in front of me, toe touching the ground. Soon I find myself swinging something over head. I attempt to contact the ruby and find myself devouring it like a watermelon. As I attempt to open to a message, I see a glass chamber. Soon the Ruby Goddess emerges from the earth, rising into the chamber with shocking blue eyes. Then I find her seated on her lotus behind me, in her usual spot. Her ruby heart pounds rhythmically, bulging out of her chest. She offers it to me, placing it inside of my chest.
I hear thoughts. A couple of phrases I had recently pondered about the sanctuary.
“The courage to love one another.
The courage to love ourselves.”
She continues.
Locate the immense love in your body; the spirit you carry inside.
Nurture it.
Dance, do art, create, touch, meditate, be in nature- those things that awaken your passion. NURTURE THEM! And share it with another. (For me I heard that I am to make my jewelry using gemstones)
She swings a chink of diamond on a gold chain. I have thoughts of a long chain with gemstones…
Love can heal.
Love should be the driving force of all transformation. Revolution.
(I ask about me and her, our work. She speaks of proper initiation to find love. She walks around me, gesturing towards the earth all around me, like a blessing, long ruby dreadlocks hang below her waist. A love initiation…)
(For information on Julie R. Spooner, Ph.D., see bottom of Letter From the Editor, pp.1)
The Energy Centers and Kemet
-JRS
In Kemet (ancient Egypt), energy centers in the body were explored. Several carvings depict aspirants seated in the lotus position with the energy centers indicated. The kundalini energy that rises up the energy centers along the spine was represented by the two coils of the staff of Tehuti. This image later appeared as the “Caduceus of Hermes” in Greece, and it was later adopted by the modern medical establishment. Thus the origins of the “charkas” can be found in Africa. (More on this topic in the upcoming issue of this newsletter!)
Serpents on the staff of Tehuti
The Caduceus of Hermes
The Scene of the Weighing of the Heart of the Dead
[From the Papyrus of Ani (Brit. Mus. No. 10, 470, plates 3 and 4).]
In the classic text of the Kemetic (ancient Egyptian) spiritual tradition, the “weighing of the heart” is said to take place at the time of death. During this ritual, the fate of the soul of the deceased is determined based on an evaluation of the person’s moral conduct throughout his/her life. -JRS
From: The Book of the Dead (The Book of Coming Forth By Day and By Night),
E.A. Wallis Budge
Vignette: The Scribe Ani and his wife Thuthu enter the Hall of Double Maat, wherein the heart, symbolic of the conscience, is to be weighed in the balance against the feather, emblematic of Right and Truth. In the upper register are the gods who sit in judgement…on the standard of the scales sits the dog-headed ape, the companion of Thoth (Tehuti), the scribe of the gods; and the god Anubis, jackal headed, tests the tongue of the balance.” On the left is the soul of Ani in the form of a human headed bird. Thoth the scribe of the gods “..holds in his hands his reed-pen and palette with which to record the results of the trial.” In this ritual, Thoth stands as the “judge of Right and Truth.”
Thus let thy conscience, which resides in the heart, be light as a feather!