Wouldn’t you agree that one of the most challenging activities you engage in here on planet Earth is relating to your fellow human beings? There must be a reason why TV sit-coms, reality shows, and dramas are almost always …
I’m crushed today, the living embodiment of a grief so deep — and a surviving joy so strong — that nothing else, right now, can take the edge off.
Influence and I had a major love affair. My husband, Eric, once said to me, “I hope you never have to choose between me and that horse, because Influence will surely win.”
Influence passed a few days ago at age 32. Because he was ten years beyond the “expiration date” for his breed (Dutch Warmblood), I began to think he would live forever. And he will. He became part of me, and I of him.
I don’t know if you’ve ever loved a horse up close and personal. If you have, you’re with me right now. If you haven’t, here’s what it’s like.
I was a late bloomer to horses, in fact, embarrassed to admit, on the shady side of 40. When I moved to yet another ranch, I could see people on horseback nearby. Intrigued, I ran right over, introduced myself, and pleaded, “Can I get on?”
The neighbor’s place was a cutting ranch. The horse I mounted that morning was trained to separate (“cut”) cattle and other livestock from herds so ranchers could deal with them individually.
That same day, I quickly learned just how far it was from the horse to the ground. My steed cut quickly back and forth, and I didn’t have a clue. Riding a cutting horse is like riding a tilt-a-whirl without a seatbelt. Yikes!
Undaunted, I sought out a dressage trainer, having witnessed the beautiful ballet-like marriage of horse and rider in that discipline. The next day I met Laura, the perfect trainer, and away we went, searching for the perfect horse.
It took an entire year to find Influence. We looked literally every weekend from dawn to dusk, up and down the length and breadth of California, until my vedic astrologer finally announced, “Eureka, Influence is the one.”
Even though Influence was green (four years old instead of the customary five) and thus technically a bit young for dressage training, and even though I was even greener (a true babe in the woods, having barely ridden), Influence’s breeder released him a year early because (frankly) I drove them crazy. I simply wasn’t able to leave him behind, once we had chosen each other, which was obvious from the moment we met. As young as he was, Influence was so sane, so quiet (even unridden and unbroken), that the breeder finally relented and let me take him home.
Of course, everything was ready when I got him home: the “bassinet,” the blankets, the toys — you name it. I spared no expense for this blessed event.
Influence upended my life in the best possible ways. I took all my meals outside with him, and even slept in his stall for a week the time he had an adverse reaction to a vaccine. Doing so, however, toppled our relationship. Forever after my sleeping on the floor, beneath his feet, he considered himself in charge —a condition from which he never recovered, much to Laura’s consternation. But, given his affable personality, he was very kind and compassionate (if sometimes sassy), it never became a problem. But I must have lost a hat a week to his sense of humor and penchant for hats made of straw.
Influence simply couldn’t fathom why he wasn’t allowed to sit on the couch when my dog (of whom he was insanely jealous) could, so I invited him inside. (Yes, all 1500 pounds.) That seemed to satisfy him; fortunately, he sought the same proximity, not necessarily the same seating arrangement As soon as weather permitted every Spring, we moved outside and slept in a tent near him.
Influence was a stunner, looks-wise. Coal black with a white blaze and four white socks. In fact, he was so remarkable that the breeder talked me into entering him in the annual Keuring where experts came from the Netherlands, searching for the perfect horse. Influence won for North America and came in second worldwide that year. At which time I advised him not to get a big head, telling him “pretty is as pretty does!”
Because Influence spoke perfect English and I spoke decent Horse, we had no trouble communicating. When my friends would pull out their baby pictures, I would pull out his photos. And I’m sure it was no coincidence that I adopted him the year after that my doctor told me pregnancy was definitely not in the cards.
I took Influence everywhere I went: the dentist, the gas station, the grocery store. He would stand patiently in his trailer, nibbling on hay, and wait for me.
We were inseparable.
In an effort to always keep Influence between myself and the ground, the cardinal rule of horsemanship, I decided to expose him to as many experiences as possible to render him spook-proof. (when a 1500 pound dressage horse “spooks,” he moves sideways at lightening speed as you go flying through the air).
We already had a dozen llamas, and Influence had a great time gaily chasing them around the field, never getting within nipping distance of Mama Llama, who wouldn’t have taken kindly to any interference with her herd. He was, however, afraid of the cattle we saw on our forays into the wilderness around Lake Tahoe, so I got him a 1-day old calf I named Bessie, and bottle-fed her in his stall, to get him used to cows. Bessie turned into a stunning black and white dairy cow of the same weight as Influence and they were fast friends, but he continued to spook at cattle in the mountains, telling me “they aren’t Bessies.”
That same year, I collected peacocks, ostriches, chickens, ducks, a goat named Mr. Goat, and a pig, a big favorite in the family. Always subscribing to the belief that anything worth doing is worth doing to excess, I even got a pond of trout to round out the ranching experience.
Influence and I talked about doing the annual cattle drive over the mountains in Nevada, but, fortunately, we backed out on that idea. One of us probably would have been killed — or died trying!
Influence never seemed to age beyond the age of eight (in human years). So, I always had this charming companion who woke up every morning, wanting to know what fun was planned for the day.
My equine friend only got mad at me twice. One time I was putting sunscreen on his white nose when he lost his balance and fell down right in front of me. He said, “You pushed me!” I said, “I did not. You lost your balance!” Two minutes later, all was forgiven.
The other time was the first time he caught me riding another horse. Oh boy, was he ticked off! To communicate his extreme displeasure, he turned his big butt to me and refused to talk to me for the rest of the day.
Fortunately, after I explained to him that I needed more training than he did, my “indiscretions” were permitted so long as I didn’t get too cozy with any of these older schoolmaster horses.
HORSE SHOWS WERE A BLAST
Influence and I attended scores of horse shows and what fun that was! We’d get all dressed up and blow an entire weekend having a ball with other horse-crazy people. It doesn’t get much better than that, except for the countless moments in his stall, or pasture, or in the mountains, or inside the house, when we’d commune with each other, content just to spend precious, peaceful moments together.
END OF THE TRAIL
Sadly, I had to quit riding before Influence was ready to quit due to a mountain climbing accident, but I made sure he had a warm bed, a roof over his head at night, fields of green grass, plenty of horse friends (including a girlfriend ☺︎), and all the treats he could safely handle.
He was bucking and running until one morning earlier this past week, when he suddenly went off his feed. Nothing could be done, and he was dead by nightfall. I was there at his passing and I felt his enormous spirit go through me as he headed for greener pastures in the sky.
It is impossible, still, to imagine his pasture or paddock without him standing there, with that impish gleam in his eye, waiting for me. I know he’s up there, in horse heaven, and that, one day, he’ll be there waiting for me, to usher me through the pearly gates. Rest in peace, Influence, until we meet again.
Never underestimate the power of a change of seasons to awaken your spirit. Last week, we officially crossed over into a new season, as “Old Man Winter” loosened his grip on the weather of the northern hemisphere and made way for the feminine touch of spring. From ancient times, humans have regarded spring as a female persona bringing with her a rebirth of light, warmth, new growth, and new life. You too are eager to welcome an infusion of the Divine Feminine, the gifts of the feminine face of God. The long sleep of winter melts away, and you open yourself to the possibilities for hope and healing that a new season brings.
There’s so much work to be done as you look around you. The gifts of the Divine Feminine are needed to bring harmony, peace, balance, love, and compassion to a troubled world. The powers of the feminine spirit live in both men and women and can be cultivated like spring flowers. If you use them first to heal your inner world, you can bring them forth to help, heal, save, and rescue the outer world in every way you can imagine. What would you do with the power of your Divine Feminine connection?
Bring food to starving children, shelter the homeless (and nation-less), end war, comfort and heal the sick, the suffering, and the heartbroken?
The possibilities are as vast as the universe, but where do you begin? Step one is small and close to home. First, you need enough power to stand up and put your own life back on track. Look within and wake up your connection to the Divine Feminine, the flowing energy of unconditional love. Plug in to that power with your inner resources and you can begin to channel a life-changing, world-changing force for healing and grace. Learn to make your inner light a match for the heavenly light that calls to you!
Here are five ways to wake up your spirit this spring and call forth the gifts waiting to bloom within:
1. Nurture— Take care of the miraculous living being who is you. Are you a loving parent to your inner child, treating yourself with kindness, compassion, and patience? Are you considerate of your physical needs for proper nutrition, adequate sleep, and regular exercise? Do you love and appreciate yourself and respect the awesome gift of life? Do you practice feeling gratitude for all your experiences, lessons, and blessings?
2. Heal— How do you create wellness and wholeness within? Do you have a regular practice for connecting to Source? I believe that the best practices for increasing your light and keeping your psyche healthy are meditation and prayer. Try to meditate for 20 minutes twice a day and connect to Source through whatever form of prayer is most meaningful for you, whether it be contemplation, affirmations, music, art, or moving your body. Connecting to a power greater than yourself eases pain, anxiety, fear, and creates inner peace.
3. Grow—How often do you see the sky, touch the earth, and gaze at distant mountains? You are part of the ever-growing, changing, and expanding world of Nature, even though modern technology tries to suggest otherwise. Stress comes from being ungrounded, when you lose your connection to Mother Earth. Happiness and peace come from immersing yourself in the sights, sounds, scents, and textures of the outdoors. Without regular exposure to nature, you lose the feeling of belonging to something larger than your small self. Watching a flower sprout and bloom inspires your spirit to grow!
4. Express—Do you look within and strive to understand and appreciate your thoughts and feelings? Do you find ways to express your unique experience of life? Keeping a daily journal helps you develop the ability to express yourself. Recording ideas and impressions can help you find patterns in your thinking to help you know yourself. The more you know, the more you grow. As you grow in spirit, you will have the tools to express yourself, share your ideas, build and strengthen relationships. The more you discover about yourself, the more easily you’ll be able to connect and communicate.
5. Serve—Do you serve by placing a warm meal in front of a homeless veteran? Or by showing a struggling child how to read a story or solve a math problem? Do you visit the local shelter to play with the animals waiting for a loving home? Do you march for the rights of others to vote, work, worship, exist in peace and safety? Each act of service in the world begins with your inner sense of purpose and connection to your fellow beings and the Source of all that is. Your inner spiritual work creates inner peace which the world sees reflected as love, hope, and encouragement.
Let the spiritual power of the Divine Feminine help you to nurture, heal, grow, express, and serve this spring! Dedicated inner work is one of the primary ways you awaken your own powerful gifts. You become more patient and tolerant. Your intuition gets sharper, and you start to experience the loving qualities of your inner essence. With a regular practice of connecting to Source, whatever that may mean for you, you’ll suddenly find that there’s space for more light to come into your life and more light to share with the world!
If you are ready to take steps towards your personal evolution, transformation, and growth this Spring, be sure to take advantage of our special Spring Sale event, which is going on right now. You can access an array of Deborah’s most popular, bestselling, transformational on-demand courses at steep discounts. Pick the transformation(s) you’ll pursue today. Click here to learn more >>
Spring officially arrives today, March 20th, at 5:24 PM EDT, as we reach the Spring Equinox. In one of those rare moments of total balance in the Northern Hemisphere, during the Equinox, day and night are both 12 hours long. The sun rises exactly due east and sets exactly due west.
If only we could put our own lives in such balance!
The spring equinox usually heralds a compunction to sweep out all the dust bunnies, rearrange sock drawers, and tackle that mess in the garage. But this year, I suggest that spring cleaning can have a new meaning for those of you who truly seek an expansion of consciousness: try cleaning out your old beliefs, the ones that no longer serve you.
Whether we realize it or not, much of what we believe has its roots in our childhood, when we unconsciously absorbed the ideas and prejudices of our families, friends, teachers, and the culture we grew up in. For example, if you grew up in the south-west of the United States in the past 40 years, there’s a strong chance you assume all Mexicans are illegal and suitable for menial labor only. However, if you grew up in France during the same time period, you might assume that any Algerian you pass on the street should be engaged in manual labor.
Look carefully at the ideas you hold to be self-evident. Do you think that nobody should eat meat? That liberals (or conservatives) are responsible for all our societal woes? That cancer or other illness is somehow our own fault?
Take the time to examine your beliefs. Start with the areas of your life that are causing problems. Are you unhappy with your weight or appearance? Why? What was your family’s attitude toward body image? Did they mock fat people? Praise your sister but ignore you? Compliment those who were light-skinned? Make sure you had a nose job when you turned sixteen? Banned short skirts? Not let you out of the house unless you were wearing make-up?
Are you in financial distress? What was your family’s attitude about money? Were they content with and grateful for whatever they had? Were you desperate for extras? Was saving expected of you?
Are you an activist? Do you listen to a broad range of views before deciding where to focus your energies, or do you assume that your beliefs are the only right ones and the “other side” is completely wrong? Were political issues debated in your home, or were there simply pronouncements that determined which way you were expected to believe?
There are two main questions to ask yourself about any belief you hold: “Where did this belief come from?” and “Does it still work for me, or is it limiting me in some way?”
The most difficult belief to examine is about your basic identity. The famous Indian sage, Ramana Maharshi, started a lineage of spiritual self-inquiry with the critical question: Who am I?
Indeed, who are you if you strip away your dearly-held beliefs? Who are you beyond your occupation, your marital status, your motherhood or fatherhood, your sexual orientation, your bank account, your politics, your gender? Who are you?
One of his students asked Buddha, “Are you the messiah?”
“No,” answered Buddha.
“Then are you a healer?”
“No,” Buddha replied.
“Then are you a teacher?” the student persisted.
“No, I am not a teacher.”
“Then what are you?” asked the student, exasperated.
“I am awake,” Buddha replied.
Right now is the perfect time to reset, rebalance, and re-examine everything in your life. To understand what past traumas have solidified you in your current position and what you must heal from and overcome in order to move forward. A great way to do this, is to connect with other healers and seekers of truth.
And while it may not be possible to hop on a plane and go to a retreat this very moment to jump-start this process, it is possible to relive a powerful retreat that was recently held in Malibu by the Deborah King Center. We’ve distilled the powerful teachings and experiences into 11 hours of life altering material. And you can learn more about it here >>
Over the years there has been a lot of information published about chakras. Often you’ll find that even people who aren’t actively pursuing a spiritual path have heard the term chakra, and may even be able to tell you where one is—a vast shift in awareness since I started studying energy healing three decades ago! Now, the seven major chakras are fairly mainstream.
But what do you know about the higher chakras? Though the higher chakras are much less talked about, they are just as important. In fact, they are essential for connecting you to the vastness of the universe and meeting your higher self.
Before we can discuss the higher chakras, which are the conduits to higher realms, we must first address your seven main chakras, which are your roots. Just like any tree needs a solid base from which to grow its branches into the sky, you need a strong foundation in your lower chakras before you can reach the stars through the higher chakras.
Your seven bodily chakras, which start with your root chakra at the base of your spine and move up along your spinal cord until reaching the seventh chakra at the top of your head, each govern different aspects of your life here on the physical plane. This includes the way you see yourself, how you perceive and interact with other people, and your larger ideas about the world and your place within it. Pretty important stuff!
When in good health, the seven chakras spin gently in the correct direction. This allows the chakras to move energy in and out between your field and the unified field beyond, replenishing your personal field and maintaining your health.
When your energy field isn’t healthy, your body isn’t healthy, so if you feel your chakras could use some cleansing and recharging from energy medicine—and, honestly, whose couldn’t?—consider attending energy healing courses or workshops. If your chakras need a jumpstart, an energy healer can sense where there are blockages and remove them. An experienced energy healer will also be able to open and charge your higher chakras.
While you’re waiting to work with an energy healer or spiritual teacher, keep up a daily practice of meditation, journaling, and staying grounded in nature, all of which go a long way toward clearing the imbalances in your energy field. It may help to schedule meditation and other energy-clearing activities until they become as routine as showering and brushing your teeth.
These practices help to free up emotional baggage that can slow your spiritual progress, and make it easier to connect to the higher chakras and reach the higher levels of consciousness that await you.
Each chakra has its own color and vibrational tone, and as you move up the chakras, the vibrations increase. In the higher chakras, the tones begin to sound heavenly, like angels singing, and it is just gorgeous and uplifting to hear.
Here are 3 more things you may not have known about the incredibly powerful higher chakras:
1. Higher chakras can lead you to your higher self.
The first of the spiritual chakras is the eighth chakra. This chakra is the passageway that connects your personality in this body, in this lifetime, with your immortal soul, the part of you not confined by physicality that spans many bodies and lifetimes.
When you journey to the eighth chakra and beyond, you will be able to meet with your higher self, provided you have done the requisite self-work through energy healing, meditation, or other means. Your higher self is a perfect being made of light and love—it’s you, the ideal version of you— and she can offer guidance no one else can.
Your higher self also has access to the Akashic records, which contain all knowledge, and can answer questions your conscious mind doesn’t know the answers to—past, present, or future.
2. Higher chakras can reveal your life’s purpose.
The higher chakras contain the best parts of yourself, the qualities you came into this body and this life to manifest. When you activate the higher chakras, you can download those qualities and that energy and absorb them into your being. This allows you to act from a place of spiritual truth, in alignment with your soul.
The higher chakras, particularly the eighth, hold the record of your soul contract—the plan your soul set in place before you incarnated, or, your life purpose. You must learn specific lessons in this life in order to evolve, and while your higher self never forgets what those lessons are, your personality can. When you begin to reach the higher spiritual chakras, you are able to get in touch with your higher self and check out the blueprints you made for this life.
3. Higher chakras allow you to experience divine love.
Students often ask what the higher chakras are like, and it becomes difficult to describe because they are experiential planes, not intellectual. I can say that by the tenth chakra you start to feel ungrounded, like you’re floating above your body, so you’ll want to be sure to only go this high when led by a spiritual teacher or energy healer. If you can join me for one of my meditations where I take you to the higher chakras, I promise it will be an experience you won’t forget.
But the greatest gift that reaching higher chakras provides is the experience of Divine love. The perception you have of being a separate being, alone, will begin to crumble as your consciousness expands and you become aware of just how immeasurably large this universe—and therefore the universal field you’re connected to—is.
Cosmic love will change you down to your core. The effects of understanding that you are part of the interconnected world and knowing that you are loved unconditionally will make you more compassionate and loving towards others, and the Divine love will radiate like ripples, spreading through you and out into the world.
If learning to attain states of higher consciousness is of interest to you, then you may want to take a virtual journey to beautiful Malibu, to relive a powerful Deborah King Center retreat with our Highlights of Higher Consciousness Video Series. You’ll be able to tap into teachings on Vedic philosophy, connecting to the Divine, reaching a state of pure consciousness, and so much more! Learn how to access the video series here >>
Did you know that the greatest gift you can give yourself is the gift of abundance? Whatever it is you want—peace, joy, laughter, happiness, strength, a dream career, a better connection to Source, a deeper alignment with your higher self and life purpose—anything your heart desires can be attracted to your life with an abundant mindset and an open crown chakra. With this one shift, you can literally change everything!
You’ve probably noticed that there are people who seem to have it all: health, wealth, successful careers, marriages, partnerships, and most of all, they are honestly happy. From the outside looking in, it may seem as though the material prosperity they’ve achieved created their happiness, but the truth is that it’s usually the other way around. Internal perspective, clarity, and alignment with your soul purpose leads to external abundance. Abundance begins within you, with your thoughts and attitude, and with the proper mindset, there’s no limit to what the universe can provide for you.
The world is a closed circle; energy can’t be created, only transformed, and every single thing on this planet is linked to every other thing through the unified field. This means that you are connected to your neighbors and everyone else, to the physical earth, and to higher planes and Source, and what you do affects your personal energy as well as the energy around you. You see this in little ways every day. Think about how easy it is to get sucked into someone else’s bad mood when they’re nearby—their energy can literally drag yours down.
But the reverse is true as well, and positive energy can also spread like energetic wildfire. In fact, that is what you are doing by studying energy healing and walking the path of light; you are helping to raise your own vibration, which raises the vibrations of those around you, and collectively, the universe at large. This is no small thing—energy may be invisible, but it is more powerful than anything you can see with your eyes, and as it heals you, it heals the whole planet.
It is this same principle of interconnectedness that guides abundance. Your thoughts and emotions have their own energy, and what you think about, obsess about, will eventually manifest. You give it weight by thinking and feeling about it so much. This has been proven in studies that show how effective prayer is. Thought and emotion together push that energy out into the world where the desire can be formed and returned to you. Abundance is as simple as a consistent, meaningful request to the universe, accompanied by giving back what you hope to receive.
So if you spend all your time thinking about the fact that you don’t have enough money, the universe sees that as a request, and you will be provided with a continued absence of money. If you constantly lament the fact that you’re not in a relationship, it will be hard to find one. If you are always worried about getting sick, then the universe will provide you with an illness. The universe will give you what you put your energy into, so if you want to manifest the good, you have to shift your focus and attitude.
If you want more money, start donating what you can spare. If you want more love, adopt a pet. Be of service without expectations. True abundance is an inner knowing that you are living the best version of yourself, so switch from focusing on the lack of what you want to focusing on bringing what you want into your life so you can be that best version.
Sometimes I find students can’t manifest their desires because they don’t really believe they deserve them. If your thoughts contradict your emotions, the universe tends to hear your feelings. You may think you want more peace, but if you secretly feel you deserve to be punished for past mistakes, you will continue to be punished. Energy healing techniques like meditation and journaling to release those negative emotions can help you adjust your thoughts toward the positive, and allow you to attract the abundance you want and deserve.
Another way to create internal abundance is to open your seventh chakra, which sits at the top of your head and is connected to thought, consciousness, information, and intelligence—all aspects of the process of knowing. When the seventh chakra is clear and balanced, divine energy can flow into it from the universal field, expanding your consciousness, and providing you with a greater awareness of what you are truly meant to do. With this knowledge, you then have the potential to manifest the life you want to have—the life you were born to live—and the abundance you seek.
Of course, the Crown Chakra is just one of the several chakras you should focus on in order to find true balance, peace, happiness, and health in your life. And while this is too much to discuss in an article, we do have a resource that will help you gain this transformational knowledge (which can literally impact every part of your life). It is our bestselling Secrets of Chakra Wisdom Course. Learn more about it here >>
The more open your crown chakra, the more connected you are to your higher self, which allows you to really understand your purpose on this earth. Purpose is what many successful people attribute those successes to, and I see this quite often in my energy healing courses and workshops as well. Students who have won the lottery or finally reached the tenth floor executive office suite and are still not fulfilled are usually not following their true path—the roadmap their soul laid out for them before incarnating. Sure, they may look “successful,” but they are miserable, so does that really count as success?
People whose abundance blooms out of motivations deeper and more personal than money or fame are always happier. Real successes are life achievements that are in perfect alignment with your soul purpose and are therefore fulfilling and meaningful on a spiritual level as well as a personality level. My purpose is this—teaching you energy healing and how to live a healthier, happier life, which has made me happier and healthier, too.
When you find what you are meant to be doing on this earth, no matter how much money you make, you’ll have no shortage of fulfillment and joy. And chances are, you will make more money, have more peace, resiliency, love, and everything else your heart desires as well, for true abundance is what you feel in your soul, not just in your bank account.
Of course, becoming the type of person who can welcome and attract abundance requires effort for most of us, a process for overcoming past traumas and healing. And if you are ready to begin your personal journey, consider joining our flagship LifeForce Energy Healing Level I program >>
“You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean in a drop.” –Rumi
Are you ready to step up in spirit? Whenever you’ve asked yourself the eternal question, “Why am I here?”—what answer seems to filter back again and again? “You are here for a reason.” There is no doubt about it. You are conscious and aware in a special way that allows you to feel joy, love, awe, and delight—as well as pain and sorrow. Given these powerful qualities, you must be here on a mission!
Your presence on this page, reading these words, reveals that you know an important secret about your life. You are traveling somewhere. There’s an important kind of growth and transformation that calls to you. You are seeking the opportunity and the means to expand your consciousness, your connection to that vast force field that is the Creator of All That Is, Source, Spirit, or God.
You are part of this omnipresent unified energy field, even if you can’t always see or feel it. Everyone experiences a yearning to connect to that Source, with the ultimate goal of reaching ever-higher levels of consciousness that bring us closer and closer to manifesting that God-force within.
In my work as a spiritual teacher and energy healer, I have the privilege of facilitating this universally longed-for expansion of consciousness. I try to do it face-to-face whenever possible—making it even more thrilling! Growing in consciousness opens the doors for each member of the human family to travel their own path to universal harmony and peace. Each advance in consciousness gives you another glimpse of the infinite, the unconditional love you long to connect with.
Whatever your particular journey has been up until now, rest assured that nothing happens in your life that isn’t part of your Divine plan. Everything will serve your highest purpose in some way. Take a moment to re-imagine your story, to see the obstacles and traumas and challenges of your life as the necessary foundation for your spiritual development.
Ask yourself what may have prepared you to develop the gift of being able first to heal yourself and then possibly others. Where do you stand right now in your spiritual growth? Are you focused, sensitive, compassionate? Do you frequently spend time in nature, meditation, or prayer? Have you begun to work through the wounds and emotional issues from your childhood? The list of possible experiences, qualities, and skills you already possess to help you is endless. Real healing power is inside you; it just needs to be awakened, nurtured, and practiced.
What have I seen students experience as they achieve another step toward their full spiritual awakening? Each step you take to advance your spirit brings you closer to the life you were meant for, the purpose you are here to accomplish. As you uncover and heal your wounds and clear your negative energy patterns, you reveal your gifts and build your power to use them. As you work to grow your consciousness, you will experience greater appreciation for life, higher self-esteem, more compassion for others, heightened awareness of your purpose, a greater curiosity for learning, a sense of elevated spirituality, even greater awareness of the world we all share and the need to heal and care for our shared planet.
How does this spiritual advancement take place? This may sound basic, but there is nothing without love—for the self and for others. Coming together with a common purpose as we do at my live events fosters this love in amazing ways. You can make yourself ready for a spiritual step up with the practices of energy healing, including meditation, prayer, journaling, forgiveness, and being of service. Meditation and prayer put you directly in communication with Source, while journaling puts you in touch with your own emotions and, along with forgiveness, helps you keep clearing out negative energy. Spirit has a purpose for those who are dedicated to being of service to others.
I have found being present with others to be one of the most powerful tools for healing and spiritual awakening. I love offering live events where many can pursue their spiritual paths in community. Remember the Bible verse, “For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.” (Mathew 18:20). Your connection to Source grows in the presence of other like-minded seekers. Helping others on their journey is one of the most powerful ways to grow in spirit.
Here are some of the advantages you’ll experience when you join a live event for spiritual study:
If you’d like to attend such an event, where you are surrounded and embraced by a warm healing energy, consider joining us for the next Deborah King Center retreat. It’s happening in Scottsdale, AZ on Sunday April, 30, 2023 – Wednesday May, 03, 2023, and will provide you an incredible, likely life-changing, opportunity to connect with a community of like-minded healers and seekers of truth, to gain transformational knowledge, and to create memories that will last a lifetime. Click here to learn more >>
How often have you been given a compliment by someone, only to shrug it off in your mind? Perhaps it is a close friend praising your exceptional cooking skills after you have prepared an elaborate meal, or, maybe it is a complete stranger that oversees you drawing in your sketchbook at a coffee shop one Saturday afternoon and is in awe of your natural talent.
You have no reason to doubt the sincerity of the admirer, so why do you not take the compliment to heart?
Imagine how it would feel to believe others when they praise you.
Now, go one step further and think about how — if you fully accepted these positive and empowering messages about yourself — you would interact with the world. The sky would be the limit on what you could accomplish!
Positive affirmations for self-acceptance
One of the most important challenges in life is being able to say, “I love myself” — and believe it.
I know that in my own life, learning the lesson of self-love was the key to actualizing my life purpose.
Years ago, my husband, Eric, and I were in a mountain climbing accident; he almost died from his head injury and couldn’t work for many years. I blamed myself for the accident and, already a poster child for addiction and other self-destructive behavior, my own health started to deteriorate. It wasn’t until I hit a wall that I made an important realization: not only did I have to forgive myself, but I also needed to start liking myself.
I started the practice of saying positive self-love affirmations, which helped me more fully love, accept, and forgive myself.
Positive affirmations are a powerful form of prayer and they work because it is your beliefs and ideas about who you are that manifest into your real life. Carrying around guilt and shame is exhausting and self-destructive: negative beliefs are dense energy that drag you down and are likely the culprit at the root of your physical and emotional problems. When you stop thinking about yourself negatively, you release all that heavy energy and are able to transform your life into one of happiness. And being happy and healthy is your birthright.
As I learned to love and forgive myself, an entirely new world of healing bloomed before me. Not only did I learn to heal myself, but I also discovered how to help others through energy medicine. Suddenly, the message of self-love became a beacon on my road to fulfillment, joy, and service to the world.
Turn the light of love toward the precious life that is in your keeping. Begin or revitalize your own affirmation practice of loving and forgiving yourself. Do the healing inner work that will set you free to love and serve others. You are wonderful and you are worthy—and the world is waiting for your healing joy to come forth!
What is self-love? What is it not?
In this audio seminar, New York Times bestseller and spiritual teacher, Deborah King, will guide you through this important first step of your healing journey. The type of self-love that lights up your soul and illuminates your life isn’t found in a poem, a relationship, or silly a Hallmark holiday — it’s found in care and compassion and will make you stronger and healthier, so your life shines fire bright.
Have you seen those license plate frames that say, “Never drive faster than your angels can fly”? Well that’s a good reminder to everyone to rely on the very real protection of angels, but it’s also a useless worry. You could never outpace your angels—they fly faster than a speeding bullet!
Angels are the best support you can call for, and they embody the meaning of “as soon as possible.” You can’t even send a text faster than you can call for your angels! Summoning your angels can be as informal as sending a mental request, or as formal as a ritual involving an invocation and candles and incense, and any method in between. However you ask for your angels, it’s an instant appeal for help sent through the energetic airwaves, with your angel’s response time potentially clocking in at under a second. Nothing could possibly be faster.
The Perfect Support System
Angels can respond to your call quicker than you can blink an eye because angels do not have physical bodies. Angels are made of light and love—they are pure energy—so they are not restricted to the laws of time and space that humans are. As a spiritual teacher and energy healer, I am often asked by students if they can take up too much of their angels’ time. You are probably just as conscientious and don’t want to prevent angels from helping someone in real danger while you receive advice. But you needn’t worry. Angels have unlimited time, or rather, don’t abide by the rules of linear time, and can therefore help everyone who needs them. Angels exist on a higher plane and they can travel vast geological distances in nanoseconds and even be in two places on Earth at once.
This makes them the perfect support system for you, since they are never too busy to accept your request for help or too far away to feel your energy shift when you are in life-threatening danger. An angel may stall your car to prevent your from entering an intersection right before a madman runs a red light and barrels through it, or give you a warning twinge in your gut to keep you from petting an unfamiliar, unleashed dog you notice later is wild-eyed and looks a little off, or they might have to literally stop a bullet to save you, but angels can always tell when you need an emergency intervention. In non-emergencies, angels can’t interfere with your life without permission.
Calling your angels is like calling spiritual 911, except even faster. But angels can also be of tremendous help in non-emergency situations. Angels can help you with anything and everything, from emotional support during a difficult break-up or the loss of a loved one, to clearing your chakras and processing old traumas, to physical and energy healing. Angels can afford to lend a watchful eye to children or loved ones and offer advice about important decisions or deeper soul guidance when you just feel lost in your life. Angels can even provide directions when you are physically lost like in the wilderness or in a new city. These celestial counselors don’t mind being your heavenly GPS or celestial sounding board—they are always happy to help you walk the path of light, and to keep you safe and healthy.
In addition to the amazing speed of the angels and their ability to help instantaneously, you’ll want to start contacting your angels as soon as possible so they can begin energetically healing your mind, body, and soul. Many of my students remember to call upon their angels when they feel their safely is threatened, but fewer of them take advantage of the healing properties of angels. All angels are angels of energy healing and can help restore your whole being back to its optimal state. But they can only assist you if you ask. With your intention strong and your desire pure, let the angels know how you would like them to help, and I promise, they will respond in some way.
For physical healing, you can ask that an angel apply his healing touch to your wound or injury, even emotional injuries or blockages in your chakras or energy field. If you want to request the guardian angel of all energy healers and energy healing in general, you can call on Archangel Raphael, whose emerald green light often accompanies his powerful healing energy. If you need mental help, perhaps in the form of a burning question that needs an answer, you might call Archangel Uriel for clarity, or if you need guidance on how to find a long-awaited career opportunity, your personal guardian angel is probably your best bet since he has been with you since your birth and knows your past, present, and future better than you do.
To encourage your angels to communicate with you more frequently, you can maintain a daily practice of meditation, which opens you up to the heavenly realms by expanding your awareness. Other ways to increase your ability to connect with your angels are spending time communing with nature, keeping your negativity in check by expressing your emotions, and attending healing courses, especially my course on angels of energy healing, to make sure your energy is flowing freely. Just like with any practice, the more you contact your angels, the easier it will become. Soon, you’ll be interacting with your angels every day.
Whether you need emergency protection, long-term-healing, or immediate guidance to a problem, angels will be at your side sooner than would be possible from any Earthly counselor or paramedic. With angels keeping guard, “as soon as is humanly possible,” as the saying goes, is no longer fast enough.
If you would like to discover more about how to have immediate contact with your angels and have them heal you, please consider joining me for my six-part healing and ascension course, Angels of Energy Healing, where you will expand your awareness, learn how to access the healing energy of angels, and experience the life-changing power of divine love.
What if there was a way for you to get advice anytime you needed it? Not just from anyone, but from an impartial, loving, big-picture-oriented being who could also see into the deepest parts of your soul and knew everything about you, including your future? Imagine the power of that advice! With angels, you can do more than imagine that power—you can feel its benefits in your life. When you know how to call on your celestial companions and receive their heavenly guidance, you can make better choices and remain on the path of light.
Angels tend to be thought of as protectors, and also as messengers for God’s love. They are both of those things, but they are also incredibly gifted energy healers. You can call on your angels for any type of healing, whether you need to cure a physical injury or illness, or need their angelic energy to help clear a blocked chakra, or if you are just feeling a little blue. Angels are the most powerful practitioners of energy medicine you will find. I always invite Angels of Energy Healing to assist in my healing courses and workshops, and I find their advice invaluable.
Angels are also incredibly insightful guidance counselors. They have a unique view of the larger universe as well as your place within it, so their guidance comes from a higher vantage point with a broader view. Angels are experts on the human experience and on you, and that is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to why angels give the best advice. Here are three good reasons you’ll want to start contacting your angels for their divine wisdom whenever you need clarity, direction, or support.
If you would like to discover more about how to contact angels, receive their advice, and have them heal you, please consider joining me for my three-part healing and ascension course, the course where you will expand your awareness, learn how to access the healing energy of angels, and experience the life-changing power of divine love
Writing is a calling. We may write because we have an important story to tell and cannot rest until it is out in the world. Or we may write because we want to help others who are struggling with similar challenges or traumas in their lives. Writing is connection; it is a way of saying, “I am here and my story matters.” Bringing your unique book into the world can be like launching your child into adulthood. You must finally let go but you also watch carefully and pray that others are kind.
From a more pragmatic point of view, A. A. Milne also noted that “Almost anyone can be an author; the business is to collect money and fame from this state of being.” Writing is one of those human endeavors, like music, dancing, or painting, in which the sublime and the practical often collide.
To be a writer is to be an artist. To be a successful writer is also sometimes to be a businessperson, entrepreneur, marketer, public speaker, and all-around jack of all trades.
Few of us can do all these things well or consistently, without burning out, which is why I love to streamline and share what I have learned through trial and error with other writers. Here are five elements to writing a bestseller that I believe every writer needs to consider.
These five elements do not have to be done in the order I discuss them here. In fact, you will often find yourself jumping back and forth between them during the writing process. However, each element is crucial to the success of your book.
During preparation, you probably already have an idea or a message that you are passionate about exploring and sharing. You have a burning desire to get the word out about an experience or trial or tribulation that has happened to you. If you choose to write fiction, you want to build a world that no one has even seen before and make that world real to your readers.
If you are a niche writer who wants to write about healing or coaching or music or space or nature, or anything else that inspires you, you must marinate in the subject for a long time before you start putting words on paper. Doing the work to become versed in your subject can be challenging but rewarding.
If you write fiction, you should prepare by reading other writers in the area you want to be in, to see how published writers create books that speak clearly and powerfully to the reader. If you’re an entrepreneur, the preparation stage includes reading market research to understand how your book idea compares to other leaders in your field.
At the preparation stage, you become an apprentice of sorts. Like an eager student, you want to absorb every bit of information you can find about your niche and the topic that calls to you to write.
The creativity element happens most frequently when you are doing something rote or mindless, such as taking a shower, walking the dog, or sitting in traffic. The previous two elements – preparation and incubation — have been busy moving you along the path to this moment of utter joy and clarity. You feel intensely motivated.
Yet doing so can be hard. Writers from William Faulkner to Steven King have described the evaluation stage as “killing our darlings,” since pruning ideas, paragraphs, and even whole chapters feels awful. Bear in mind, though, that you aren’t really killing them. If you find yourself paring your book frequently, it likely means that you have another book in you. You can save some of your words for later.
In this stage, we also need to evaluate our idea from our Ideal Reader’s perspective, not our own and find those parts of the story that can be deleted without losing the golden thread that ties the book together. Ask yourself, “Is this idea or topic or story an outside-the-box novel idea, or am I beating a dead horse, saying things that have already been said before a thousand times?” Eventually, you will reach the point where you can confidently say, “these are the ideas and stories and quotes that have the most merit so I’m going to use them.”
These five elements are essential to the process, but there is so much more that goes into achieving bestseller status. Truth be told, it can become a bit overwhelming unless you have an experienced helping hand to guide you along the way. That is exactly what we offer with the Deborah King Publishing Services. We help you go through our proven, step-by-step process to go from zero to book launch. And you can learn all about it by clicking here >>
January is a month for reflection and hope. From festive celebrations on New Year’s Eve to the widespread tradition of making resolutions, January gives each of us an opportunity to pause and consider how we might best use our time and energy to thrive. It is so easy to get caught up in the busyness of life, in the ceaseless daily demands that pull on our attention and distract us from the bigger picture. Taking a moment in January to envision and write down your goals for personal and spiritual growth is a gift that will pay dividends over time in terms of a life that has purpose.
In the United States, commemoration of the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday (January 16, 2023) is in keeping with this spirit of reflection and renewal. The federal holiday was established in 1983 and recognized in all fifty states by the year 2000. Martin Luther King (MLK) remains America’s most globally famous and influential civil rights leader. Hiroshima, Japan, for example, acknowledges MLK Day each year, due to King’s unwavering commitment to nuclear nonproliferation. MLK Day is also officially recognized in the Canadian provinces of Toronto and Ottawa.
The Civil Rights Movement in the United States took place between 1954 to 1965. It began with the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education that segregation in the public schools was unconstitutional and culminated in passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Martin Luther King’s public career dovetailed with this crucial period of American history. Already prominent in the Black community as a Baptist minister, King reached national fame—largely via the then new technology of television—as the leader of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. This successful 381-day organized protest resulted in the Supreme Court striking down segregation on Alabama public transport as unconstitutional in November 1956.
Following this victory, King continued to lead civil rights marches throughout the segregated South. He was instrumental in creating the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), headed by Black clergymen, and in organizing the movement around the principle of non-violence. Non-violence, in this case, did not simply mean refusing to meet aggression with a counterattack (though that was crucial).
Instead, non-violence as a tactic drew from a deeper moral and spiritual worldview. In promoting nonviolence, King incorporated the teachings of Jesus and the recent example of Gandhi’s peaceful and successful resistance in India to the British Empire to argue that civil rights activists had to lead by example. Meeting violence with violence ultimately reduced the humanity of everyone involved and provided antagonists with a pretext for yet more aggression. In his own words, now etched in the south wall of the MLK Memorial in Washington, D.C., “darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
To end the cycle of violence, and to embody the righteousness of the civil rights cause, King urged those who participated to remain nonviolent. While by the late 1960s, many activists began to waver in their commitment to passive resistance, King held firm that long-lasting change could only be achieved through sustained non-violence. Indeed, in 1966, following passage of the Voting Rights Act, King moved the marches to the segregated neighborhoods of Chicago and other Midwestern and Northern cities, making the case that segregation was not only a Southern problem but an American one.
It is easy to forget today how radical some of King’s ideas were in their time. As with anyone who is commemorated in a statue, a stamp, or a holiday, the edges of history tend to blur a bit. King was a revered figure in his day, but also a polarizing one, and he was certainly a complicated man who worked under near constant public pressure. By the late 1960s, he began to link the cause of racial justice to social justice and started work on a planned Poor Peoples’ Campaign. His involvement was cut short by his assassination in Memphis, TN, on April 4, 1968.
Yet while King, like all consequential figures, often divided his audience, the lasting impact of his life and work is assured. King was on the front lines of the mid-century Civil Rights Movement from Montgomery to Selma to D.C. to Chicago. He believed that reconciliation was not only possible but inevitable, and, in this, he continues to represent the best of the United States. Just as he drew on the deep heritage of Christianity, and the long history of non-violence, King grounded his speeches and writings in the United States Constitution. He did not seek to work outside of that framework, but rather to have the United States live up to the ideals contained in the Declaration of Independence and the 14th Amendment.
As we pause for a moment in January to reflect, to plan, and to think about our own spiritual journeys, it is relevant to remember that King’s actions and writings do not sit frozen in the past but provide inspiration for the present and future of peace and justice. As he wrote, in an August 1967 address to the SCLC, “we must walk on in the days ahead with an audacious faith in the future.” When we celebrate MLK Day in the United States, we are not only looking backwards at our history, but moving towards a more perfect union.
Calendars are flexible and so is time. The Gregorian calendar, the solar dating system commonly used today, was created by Pope Gregory XIII in the late 16th century. It is itself a revision of the Julian calendar, established by Julius Caesar.
“I like to think of a new year being possible at any moment, as every moment is a kind of doorway,” said Joy Harjo, the United States poet laureate. “You can go any direction.”
Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, arrived this past year in September with the sounding of the shofar.
Sometimes I think of time as fluid, almost reversible, the way that music can be. Playing the scales, I can play them forward or backward, and lose myself in them, for a moment, not having a sense of direction, or, for that matter, a sense of time.
December 31, which comes from the Gregorian calendar, is an internationally accepted marker of the shift from the old year to the new. However, many cultures adhere to different dates and traditions. The Chinese Lunar Calendar, for example, is based on the cycles of the moon and the sun. In 2023, New Year’s Eve celebrations in China (and in Chinese ethnic communities around the world) will begin on January 21 and end on February 5, the day of the Lantern Festival.
In India, there are multiple days and festivities associated with the new year, depending on the region, culture, and calendar that one consults. These traditions began to emerge approximately three millennia ago. To fully understand New Year’s within Indian history requires study.
Here we look at some of the most significant differences and Vedic traditions. In each case, celebration of a new year is a time for joy, spiritual reawakening, new beginnings, and the release of bad karma.
Per the Vedic calendar, Ougadi (Ugadi), the New Year, will take place on March 22, 2023, and is a public holiday, though states and regions may differ from the federal government regarding which days are officially recognized. Ougadi is primarily celebrated as the official New Year by the Hindu Telugu and Kannada communities, though celebrations occur across India with great fanfare.
In Vedic astrology, the timing of the new year corresponds to the movement of the Sun into Aries and the start of the first month (known as the Chaitra month). This is an auspicious time for karma removal, spiritual dedication, and new projects. The Vedic New Year also recognizes the day on which Lord Brahma, the Creator, created the universe.
Diwali (or Deepawali), known in English as the Festival of Lights, is another tradition associated with the concept of a new year and the need to celebrate and reflect. Diwali began as a celebration of the summer harvest and takes place in the fall season. The next Diwali will take place between November 12 and November 16, 2023.
Let me emphasize that India is an extraordinarily diverse country wherein regions may differ culturally, linguistically, historically, and ethnically. Western states, such as Gujarat, and areas in northern India are most likely to associate New Year’s Day with Diwali, as described above.
Other regions and/or cultures may celebrate the New Year at a different time. For example, the Marathi New Year (Gudi Padwa) will take place on March 22, 2023, as per the Hindu calendar. Sikh Indians in Punjabi celebrate the New Year (Baisakhi, sometimes known as Vaisakhi) on the 13th or 14th of April each year, to recognize the birth of Sikhism as a faith and to ask for good fortune in the coming year. As with the Vedas, comprehending the richness of India can take more than one lifetime’s worth of effort!
Several gods and goddesses are evoked in Vedic New Year’s celebrations, again depending upon the region and cultural traditions. For many Vedic believers, Diwali reveres the Goddess Lakshmi, the wife of Vishnu and the goddess of wealth and prosperity. Meditation is one way to honor the power of Lakshmi.
Ganesha, the elephant-headed son of Parvati and Shiva, is also evoked by many Vedic believers as he is the god of new beginnings and good luck and has the power to remove obstacles. The mantra Om Gum Ganapatayei Namah roughly translates as “I bow to Ganesha, who is capable of removing all obstacles. I pray for blessings and protection.” This is a devotional mantra to use when asking for protection and guidance as you navigate the challenges of a new year.
Diwali has spread from India to include countries such as Guyana, Fiji, Sri Lanka, and Singapore (though dates may differ), as well as many adherents of Buddhism and Jainism. While dates and traditions may differ widely, common to all these celebrations is a focus on family, spiritual reflection, knowledge, hope, and joy. Indian tradition holds that adherents should begin to prepare for Diwali thirty days in advance through various cleansing and organizing rituals and customs that clear out the old and make way for the new.
Vedic philosophy is rich and complex, spanning such interrelated concepts as vedic astrology, ayurveda, meditation, and the chakras. It requires sincere devotion, a spiritual teacher, and a commitment to stay the course even when things become challenging. This brief overview of the New Year in the Vedic tradition can give you only a glimpse of the bounty that awaits careful study.
One way to become more familiar with the wisdom that the Vedic New Year brings is to seek out Diwali celebrations. Diwali is celebrated throughout the world and the spectacle of food, generosity, and beautiful colored lights can inspire and uplift. I love the unique traditions and history of this area of the world and enjoy sharing them with you.
In closing, you may also find the Lakshmi Gayatri Mantra to be a powerful way to honor Lakshmi and the New Year and to seek abundance and good fortune: Om Mahalakshmyai Cha Vidmahe Vishnu Patnyai Cha Dhimahi Tanno Lakshmihi Prachodayat.
Much can be learned from the Vedas, including mantras, which can be leveraged to enhance (and often simplify) your daily meditation practice. It is this sort of meditation that is taught in our bestselling Vedic Meditation course, through which you can also receive your very own personal mantra. Click here to access it now >>
I wish you a happy and abundant New Year.
Your success and happiness lies in you. Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulties. —Helen Keller
What makes it feel so good to turn the page on a new calendar year? The open days ahead are waiting to be filled with exciting new adventures, voyages of learning and discovery, meaningful new connections with fellow human beings, the joy of serving those in need. It’s the hopeful promise of new beginnings. The calendar waits for you to chart a course and the possibilities are endless and exhilarating!
There is just one vital ingredient necessary for creating a joyful new chapter in the book of your life. It’s both an awesome responsibility and a glorious opportunity. You have the power to make what you will of your new year. Will it be bright with love, laughter, hope, happiness, faith, and dreams? Only you can decide.
You know it’s true that your mind and thoughts have a say in the future. You are a creator of this world. You came here to contribute to the betterment of all. There are a vast number of ways that you can serve to lift humanity out of the lower energy frequencies that feed fear, greed, and violence. It is in your hands to generate a better world through the power of your heart in alignment with a focused mind. When you align with the love in your heart, you immediately begin to see life with new eyes.
How can you make yourself ready to turn a new page and create new beginnings? Meditation and prayer put you in direct communication with Source. Journaling will put you in touch with your own emotions, and along with forgiveness, will help you keep negative energy from blocking your way. Strengthening your connection with Source is the first step to creating the purposeful and meaningful life of your dreams.
As a light-filled spark of the Divine, your soul longs to experience good and to help others do the same. By focusing on the positive and the good, you’ll be able to bring more of it into your life.
Here are five ways you can shine new light on your life and make this your best year yet:
1. Focus on positive thoughts – Use your powerful creative mind to imagine all the good things that could happen, rather than fearing what could go wrong at every turn. Look at yourself and your endeavors with the eyes of a kindly parent who hopes every good thing will come to their beloved child. Create a dream of your happiest, most purposeful life and nurture it. Use affirmations to reinforce your goal of always thinking positive. “Wonderful new doors are opening for me all the time.”
2. Seek out positive people – Build a circle of like-minded friends. Look for people whose spirit lifts you up and inspires you. Have a beautiful dream and gather together with those whose dreams match yours and who offer support and encouragement. Who is living a life you admire? Who is doing work you love? Who is teaching what you long to learn and how can you become a student in that field? Open new vistas by attending courses and workshops that will expand your life’s possibilities.
3. Speak positive words –Words have power so use them to your advantage. Use your words as affirmations to create self-respect, confidence, and good will. Speak kind words. Practice kindness in order to feel good and be a comfort to yourself and others. Be a role model for loving, respectful behavior. Be “for” something rather than “against.” Mother Teresa declined to join a march “against” war but said she would be happy to support a march “for” peace. Read the work of a spiritual teacher you admire to help build your vocabulary of positive words and ideas.
4. Take positive action—Find ways to serve others while pursuing your dreams. Whatever you love to do, make, build, or create contains an aspect of service and empowerment for others as well. Focus on making a contribution by doing something you love. What would you love to see and do? Expand your vision and understanding with a visit to a new neighborhood, a new city, or a new country. Experience a culture or cuisine that is new to you. Make a new connection with the world in a positive way. Counter negative, destructive forces in the world with a focus on those who are working to make it better. How can you help them?
5. Channel positive energy – Be a role model for well-being in the world. Spread joy and compassion. Take good care of yourself. Notice what makes you feel good. Create a happy mood when you need it—smile often, laugh, dance, sing, hike, swim, head for the playground and swing! Release negative emotions. Make unconditional love your set point emotion.
In your bright new year, you have the power to create the life you want and to help heal the world, as Gandhi said, by being the change you want to see. If you would like to learn more about the field of energy healing and its role in building the life of your dreams, check out my LifeForce Energy Healing I Certification Course here.
And I will be so honored to be with you at the beginning of a bright new year. Join me for my weekly Facebook Live show starting January 24, 2023.
Winter Solstice is upon us. We’re at a turning point as our planet Earth makes its annual rotation around the sun. For those of us who live in the Northern Hemisphere, the next 24 hours will be where we get the shortest amount of sunlight because the sun is lowest in the sky. In fact, the sun appears so low in the sky (because of the tilt of the Earth on its axis) that it seems to set in the same place as it came up—an illusion that makes it look like the sun isn’t moving at all.
That’s where the term “solstice” comes from. The Latin solstitium translates as “the Sun stands still.” Solstice has been a special moment in time even during the Neolithic era, as seen in ancient sites like Newgrange in Ireland, which is aligned with the winter solstice sunrise, and Stonehenge in England, which is aligned to the winter solstice sunset. Back then it was a time for feasting before the famine months of deep winter set in. Cattle were slaughtered so they wouldn’t have to be fed during the winter; the wine and beer brewed from summer’s harvest were now fermented and ready to drink. So, the heart of Solstice was family and friends getting together to feast and exchange gifts, just as we do today.
And because the event heralded the beginning of the return of the sun, it was the time to celebrate the birth of the sun god in cultures around the world. The birth of Jesus was set as December 25th because it was the date of the festival of Sol Invictus, the sun god of the Roman Empire, and to incorporate indigenous Yule traditions into a Christian framework.
The Romans did it up in grand style, honoring the god Saturn with the festival of Saturnalia in the days of solstice. Businesses would close down and there would be big banquets, music, gift-giving, and nonstop parties—with an abundance of candles symbolizing the returning power of the sun’s light.
What does Saturn have to do with solstice? Solstice begins on the first day of the astrological sign of Capricorn, which is ruled by Saturn. That heavy planet is known as a spiritual teacher, preparing you for the obstacles you have to surmount on the path to liberation—like getting through the long dark night of the soul.
In the Vedic tradition, the winter solstice is called the dawn of the year, knowing that the budding flower of time will unfold over the following year. According to Vedic Astrology, the Sun gives access to exploring your future with strength and courage. The sun is the eternal atman, the spiritual life principle of the universe, and the source of much of your energy. It sustains and empowers life through the balance of the seasons.
Just like the first two hours of the morning are when you receive the seed principle of the day, the returning light of the sun at solstice will help you receive the seeds you need to plant for new growth over the coming year. It’s right now, and not January 1st, for the time for New Year’s resolutions.
Join me today in a Vedic fire ceremony for winter solstice to revisit the past year and reflect, without judgment, on what you need to cast off, and to invite in a focus for setting new goals that will help you move in the direction of your dreams. The energy of the solstice supports you in letting go of old habits and beliefs and opening up a fresh chapter in your life. The Sun God starts to rise again, and your soul ascends to spirit.
On the winter solstice, the sun reaches the dark zenith of the underworld, where true light is reborn stronger than before. It points to achieving peace, prosperity, and wisdom.
Since the start of the solar year celebrates the rebirth of the Sun, it’s a wonderful time to meditate on darkness and light, and what they mean for you.
So close your eyes, and take in a deep breath and exhale any tension in your body, then let your breathing become slow, deep, and easy. It is the dark of the longest night of the year. The dark of deep space between the stars and planets. The dark of the depths of the seas. The dark of the womb.
Imagine you are walking alone in a dark forest. It is dusk and there is no moon. You walk slowly on a barely visible path, past trees shrouded in gloom. Your heart is heavy.
You have been through a challenging year and you worry about what might be coming in the next year. You made mistakes, you suffered loss, you had pain. You tend to be hard on yourself, and all you can see are your failures—the times you closed your heart, the times you reacted in anger, the times you saw someone in need and turned the other way. A new year lies ahead, and you know there will be new challenges and new uncertainties.
Not far away from the dark woods you know that people are caught up in a whirlwind of activity. They may have lost sight of the meaning behind the holidays—the rebirth of the Light.
It’s a time of depression for many. Maybe you’re dealing with a difficult diagnosis, or you went through a traumatic event this past year that you’re still reeling from. Or, like so many, you may be feeling the pain of the world—there are so many in desperate situations who are dealing with poverty or war or persecution. Or you may be feeling the pain of the earth as mankind continues to deplete her resources.
You keep walking as night takes hold of the bleak beauty of the wintry forest. The darkness grows deeper.
The darkness holds your unseen worries, the anxious thoughts that circle endlessly in your head and don’t let you rest, the fears for yourself and those you love. Will you be safe? Will you be healthy? Will you have enough sustenance—not only physically, but also emotionally and spiritually?
You may wish for the darkness to dissipate, but the darkness is necessary. It is the womb of your being, where the seeds of your future germinate. What have you planted deep inside yourself? What plans are being formulated for your future? Are you feeding your potential for spiritual growth? Is a desire to serve others, to relieve the suffering of others, ready to emerge?
Let’s take a moment to plant seeds of focused intention. These seeds will grow to be the gifts from the darkness for you. Success lies in finding the solution to a problem. Whatever issue comes to your mind, know that there is a solution waiting for you, that you can find that solution today as you bring more light into your awareness.
Create in the light that arises from the darkness. When you allow yourself to go deep into the darkness, to explore its depths and its edges, you honor both the dark night of the soul and the rebirth of hope and vision.
An old teacher of mine used to say, “You have to kneel before you can leap.” Think about it. If you want to jump up in the air, you first have to crouch down to get the momentum you need to spring up. The same is true for spiritual growth. You have to stop fearing your own inner darkness, the uncertainty of life, the depths of your emotions, the dark night of the soul. You have to embrace that which is hidden and honor all the parts of yourself—the high and the low, the powerful and the weak, the light and the dark.
Are you ready to release whatever no longer works for you?
Are you ready to shed whatever is taking up too much of your internal space? Is negative self-talk overriding your hopes and dreams? Are you letting your light shine brightly, or are you hiding it? Are you tired of not living up to your potential?
Set the intention you need right now to release whatever no longer serves you and get ready for rebirth and renewal.
Feel how those good intentions are lifting the darkness a bit. Join me as we breathe in the crisp night air and inhale the invigorating scent of cedar and pine. The first stars are breaking through the darkness of the night and we can now walk more confidently by starlight. There are sounds of rustling in the forest, but it all seems so benign as we suddenly see through a gap in the trees to a spot of light in the distance.
We come to the edge of the clearing and we see someone who beckons us forward – we feel welcomed. A faint glow seems to emanate from the fringes of her robe, it is a woman, with a wrinkled weathered face peering out from the hood of her robe. She is tending the small fire and invites you to sit with her on the blanket that is laid out on the ground. Join her and warm your hands at the fire, then sit and stare at the flames as the sweet smell of burning cedar perfumes the air.
She tells you her name is Brigid, she is the early Celtic goddess of healing, poetry, and fire, from the ancient lineage of Druids. She has woven ribbons of red, green and white, the colors of the Druid holiday season, into her silver braided hair. She speaks to you gently, slowly, thoughtfully, as she continues to watch the fire, saying:
“You have nothing to fear from the darkness, for she is your mother and the mother of the Light. Forget your burdens for a while. Take rest here. The light cannot return until the darkness is complete.”
You watch as she reaches into a bag and takes out some herbs. She holds the plants to her lips and murmurs a soft chant in a language you don’t recognize, then throws the herbs into the fire. Pungent smoke washes over you, and you grow sleepy. The old woman advises you to lie down and enter a dream state. You feel yourself pulled into a semi-sleep. As if from a faraway land, you hear her voice.
“It is time to be magical, my dear, in this sacred clearing. You are here to honor the gods of the coming light, whose power gives life to everything which is alive. She says:
“We all come from the Goddess
And to Her we return
As our ancestors worshiped Her
On air, land, and sea.
Mother, I feel you under my feet.
Father, I see you where the eagle flies.
You shall reach us, you shall teach us
And reveal our fate!
Burn bright, flame within me,
Kindled in the eternal fire.
In your dream-like state, you feel that deep peace, the peace of spirit that passes all understanding. Knowledge arises within you of how to proceed in life. You gain the wisdom that is the gift of the difficulties you have encountered and overcome.
Slowly you wake up. Looking up into the night sky, you see the stars, twinkling in the dark sky. Brigid says, “See the turning of the wheel, the endless cycle that connects us all. May you be guided to the returning light.” And say with her: I am both dark and light. I am both dark and light.
Slowly you rise from the blanket and offer your sincere thanks and gratitude to this ancient woman who has gently given you such solace, such relief from the sorrows you were carrying alone in the dark. You have received the blessing of the ancients and a spark of new life and can carry on. You feel connected to the Source of all life and can sense the swirling nurturing energy of the dark.
You remember the ancient Vedic prayer for illuminating your life, a famous chant from the Upanishads.
From non-being, lead us to being
From darkness, lead us to light
From death, lead us to immortality
And may the infinite light arise within you.
The Vedas are ancient texts that hold the keys to personal healing, self-fulfillment and enlightenment. Within the Vedas, you can find the Sutras – mystical phrases that hold within them immense transformational power.
Right now, you can experience the “seeding” of these 20 sacred phrases in your consciousness — and transform your personal energy field.
The Shift Network has bundled Deborah’s bestselling Sacred Tools for Modern Master course – in which she teaches the Sutras – with three other offerings. Right now, you can get all 4 bundled for just $98! And you can pick it up by clicking here >>
