Reciprocity – giving back

| Nina

Reciprocity – the act of giving back for that what you are grateful for, what you see as valuable or ‘paying back equal’, whether positive or negative. This is my own, free definition of the word that I first stumbled upon in the book Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmener. She uses the word as a positive reference, as in paying back to Nature.

You can pay back to Nature by tidying the natural sites you visit, tending to plants, animals and elements, by singing or just … being grateful and expressing it in any way you can.

Pay back to the Land by feeding it with good compost, not using toxic materials and covering up bare land.

Pay back to your people by remembering to thank, to call, to give, to help. It might not be a big deal for you, but it could mean the world to them.

As a child I sometimes brought small presents to the Tree that was my friend, but as I grew up and I saw no one else doing the same, I concluded my action must be childish and stopped. In hindsight I wish I had continued, and that I would have had a mentor – it’s easy to wish, into the future or past. Now I am occasionally making talismans for trees – this seems to be a current in me that needs to flow, so I flow with it.

Earlier this year, I noticed a curious thing happening between me and my Spirit helpers. I was calling upon him and my spirit animal to support me as I was doing healings, and they obliged, but with a growing grudge. When I asked him what was going on, he let me know that he would really like some tobacco, as he had been asking for before. I had given ‘spirit tobacco’, but that’s not what he meant he said. Also my animal ally let me know what he was longing for.

I was puzzled. I didn’t know how to do it properly. A few weeks later, I found that Liv Wheeler from @Kontomble_medicine was giving an online class on the subject. I participated and learned that giving material gifts to our helpers in the spirit world is as real and important as their assisting us in this world. But of course! Now that I knew why and how, our home altar got offers installed, and I built/arranged an outdoor altar as well for our ancestors. The information is pouring in at high speed even now, two months later, the ‘orders’ are pouring in and I’m understanding increasingly more about how this reciprocity thing, between the spirit world and ‘our world’, works.

And how energy, goods and cravings work! It seems that in our daily, mind-centered modus we easily get the messages mixed up. What is really my craving or need, and what is theirs? What am I saying when I talk to them? Do I send messages of lack and wanting, or loving gratitude and joy? Remember; our thoughts are the seeds for the future.

Pay it forward, backwards or sideways. Surprise yourself and experience the true gift of giving – the joy and satisfaction of participation in the abundance of Life.

I will be organising a group offering for the ancestors and our spirit allies in January (in Abcoude, the Netherlands). Let me know if you would like to join!

 

Magic, magical – reality

| Nina

I’ve always had a fascination for the unseen world, because with my minds’ eye, I could “see” it clearly.

I can create worlds and storylines, fit in all the elements I want, interact with people and beings and feel it, just as real as ‘this reality’. I now (think to) know this is called creating timelines, sometimes they turn into reality, sometimes they don’t.

There was a time when I was called a daydreamer, with a negative vibe to the message, and I felt very hurt about it.
It wasn’t until I read the books by Carlos Castaneda, Paolo Coelho and others (also anthropological studies, as opposed to novels) about shamanism and witchcraft, and I understood that they are also contemporary phenomena, not only confined to fairy tales! Finally I could put my personal experiences into perspective!

With hindsight I have much more understanding and compassion to the early struggles of the young Nina. The Universe is even so kind as to lift the veil and show me every now and then, where and when I took a turn into my current direction, and what would have happened…if! If I had chosen differently, if I hadn’t followed my intuition. I really don’t need a television, I’m being fully entertained by the stories and beings around me, human and non-human.

In my early adulthood I read the first books about Harry Potter, and swiftly adopted the term ‘muggle’ into my vocabulary… and: I got somewhat obsessed about Hogwarts.

I mean, what if there was a school for these things – magic, visualizing, time travel, telepathy and so on?! I was secretly hoping to find it (while I kind of already was enrolled in it whilst ‘just studying for my BA bookbinding’)…and I’m still wondering about the echoes I keep on hearing about it existing… If you know more about it, let me know!

In the meanwhile, I set up my own :)

It’s not a school, really, and not only for witches and wizards. My Magical Gathering is a meeting place for everyone who knows, or has hunches that there is more to this world than is apparent to the eye… A place to speak with your colleagues, to exchange techniques and knowledge, to assist, support and be your multidimensional self.

You don’t have to dress up (you may, if you wish), you don’t have to prove anything – just come and hang out with the rest the magical bunch!

The Magical Gathering is happening this Sunday, in Abcoude, the Netherlands.
Follow this link to sign up!

 

Ecology, the original economy

| Nina

A practical guide for managing transition stress

Disclaimer: after an edgy start I am offering solutions!

Autumn 2018: Traffic jams. Stressed-out people. Not enough money/time. Frustration.

Is this what we really want?

The economy-paradigm, which has been ruling our culture for quite some time now, seemingly regards “economical growth” as more important than the rapidly diminishing biodiversity and loss of forests and water.
And so it mercilessly whips everyone forth: work more hours, build more roads and heavier internet network, for food it comes up with industrial production and ‘healthcare’ is reduced to expensive pills and medical interventions – do we really want that??

It is within the power of each individual to make small and larger shifts in our lives in order to change the course of things.

I suggest we follow our individual inner guidance as we’re shifting from the destructive era to an increasingly creative and nourishing times. Your Heart feels what is wrong and what is better, whereas your Mind might be programmed to think in a specific way by the society you grew up in. With every change, trust the voice of your Heart over your Head. Why?
Well, how does a seed become a tree? How do two lovers meet? At times in your life there are so many synchronities happening that you just can’t explain it, logically it’s ‘not possible’…

There is an underlying intelligence guiding Nature and its beings, a Life Force that penetrates all organic things, connecting us to our world, our home that we call planet Earth. And that, the intelligence of Nature, wants all its babies – yes, humans too – to thrive and flourish.
Nature speaks to its family – we might say: via intuition or telepathy, nudges, hunches and ideas. Some people hear words or get visions, others hear absolutely nothing but still get a sense of feeling good or bad as they’re about their things.

The permaculture movement uses nature as model and mimics its design. An excerpt from Wikipedia: “Permaculture is a system of agricultural and social design principles centered around simulating or directly utilizing the patterns and features observed in natural ecosystems. ”

I entered this eco-thinking via permaculture, but via trial and error I’ve found that dogmatic things don’t suit me too well. So, whilst I’m gladly giving credit to the permaculture movement for waking me up into another way of doing things, I’m still an advocate of finding your own way.

After some years of intimate connection with MotherEarth and thinking (at various degrees of intensity over time) about our society in relation to Nature, a few key principles* to get those creative thinking-juices going:

  • nature is intelligent; observe and mimic actions in nature, take time to reflect
  • be mindful with resources; collect, store and use wisely
  • take what you need, don’t over harvest – leave the rest for others
  • in nature there is no waste. Reflect before you discard; how can this be useful in another function or to someone else?
  • I prefer local connections in food, resources and services… with the idea of strengthening personal connections, the local vitality and diversity

Nobody is perfect, we’re all a work in progress. Think and adjust, re-think and re-adjust. Have conversations about our actions and choices in relation to our quality of life with your children. Educate the children. Collect the trash thrown in nature by the arrogant (and leave it in a see-through bag at the doorstep of the arrogant).
Do what you can. Work towards making “what I can” a bigger space. Question. Have conversations. Nudge.towards.a.better.World.

And hopefully, before we know it, we’re in a much better scenario, with true freedom, vitality and joy!

* inspired by the ‘Twelve Permaculture design principles’ articulated by David Homgren;

  1. Observe and interact: By taking time to engage with nature we can design solutions that suit our particular situation.
  2. Catch and store energy: By developing systems that collect resources at peak abundance, we can use them in times of need.
  3. Obtain a yield: Ensure that you are getting truly useful rewards as part of the work that you are doing.
  4. Apply self-regulation and accept feedback: We need to discourage inappropriate activity to ensure that systems can continue to function well.
  5. Use and value renewable resources and services: Make the best use of nature’s abundance to reduce our consumptive behavior and dependence on non-renewable resources.
  6. Produce no waste: By valuing and making use of all the resources that are available to us, nothing goes to waste.
  7. Design from patterns to details: By stepping back, we can observe patterns in nature and society. These can form the backbone of our designs, with the details filled in as we go.
  8. Integrate rather than segregate: By putting the right things in the right place, relationships develop between those things and they work together to support each other.
  9. Use small and slow solutions: Small and slow systems are easier to maintain than big ones, making better use of local resources and producing more sustainable outcomes.
  10. Use and value diversity: Diversity reduces vulnerability to a variety of threats and takes advantage of the unique nature of the environment in which it resides.
  11. Use edges and value the marginal: The interface between things is where the most interesting events take place. These are often the most valuable, diverse and productive elements in the system.
  12. Creatively use and respond to change: We can have a positive impact on inevitable change by carefully observing, and then intervening at the right time.

Wealth

| Nina

“Rich and famous”

It was my half-serious joke and secret ambition in the times when I was binding books by hand to become rich and famous.

As I was struggling with the seemingly contradictory elements of time and quality, I found out that beauty starts with inner alignment, and that needs introspection, which again, initially takes time.

The medias are suggesting images of fast rising stars and then everything will be fabulous.
The rising stars, I’m guessing, are beautiful packages, willingly harnassed in front of the money making machine of the ones pulling the strings.
How fulfilling is that, playing a role you’re ‘selected’, or pushed into? (disclaimer: of course there are the exceptions that prove the rule).

* * *

True wealth is inner riches: knowing your Self, deepening the relationship by frequent contact or, even better, continuous contact with your Self, your inner being.
Becoming very intimate with and clear about your values, so that you can act with integrity.
And, paradoxically, being like an empty cup at the same time – ready to receive the lessons and gifts this Life has to offer.

True wealth is love and joy with your friends and family, in all their colourful quirkiness.
But you have to love yourself in all your colours and quirkiness first, and be ready to question the triggers being set off in yourself by others. When you can laugh at the petty things, you can feast at the meaningful moments.

True wealth is savouring the meals at your table with gratitude.
The purity of simple things, the luxury of complicated dishes, the love in meals made by family members and friends, the skills of a chef in the kitchen of the venue you eat at and the magic of creativity in the kitchen made by yourself.
It is an interesting practice to listen to your body and intuition and ask your Self ‘what shall we eat today?’.

True wealth is respect and gratitude to your living surroundings: your home, your neighborhood, the land.
Like our bodies are the temples we’re living in in this lifetime, so is our surroundings the temple grounds.
Being mindful of our inner order makes us more sensitive to the external order. The inner affects the outer, and vice versa.

True wealth is time. Taking the time for your priorities, again measured by your own values and not by the echoes of the world.
It has taken me half a lifetime to slow down. At a slow enough pace, I can see the richness within me, around me and awaiting in the spirit realm, ready to spring forward according to my thoughts, followed by emotions and actions.

True wealth is much richer than the picture being projected by the tricksters of this world.
Turn around, inside, and from the inside tune into the Source humming. In this conversation you’ll find all the needed questions, answers and advice.

Your Heart is the compass, it will tell you which direction is good, which is not, without error.
Follow your longings. Believe in your dreams. Be brave enough to follow through the advice your Soul/the Source is offering.
Wonder. Support. Be kind.
Love.

 

blogpost on true wealth

(image source: gevelstenenvanamsterdam.nl , gable stone ‘Batenburg’)

Intuition and responsibility

| Nina

Visiting a spiritual shop in Amsterdam, I also passed by their antique tarot cards-vitrine.

There my heart skipped a beat, as I stood in front of the Tarot deck I had been using over 20 years ago, ‘Tarot of the Witches’. At that time I was living in a student dormitory and one day I decided to do Tarot readings just for fun for my fellow students.
To my great surprise, a queue formed behind my door – they were eager to get a reading, and listened very carefully to what I had to say.
In a few days I was feeling so burdened with the impact of my readings that I gave my Tarot pack away.

I was tapped-in and tuned-in to what the reading had to say to the person in front of me, but I had my reservations about my ability to assess the common sense of those receiving a reading. I couldn’t assess the safety of the situation and so I stopped.

Recently I had a client who had fallen prey to someone who profiled themselves to be a beauty therapist, but then ended up calling upon angels and chanting mantras over their baffled client. By accident (I hope), it worked as an inverted exorcism, infesting their client with energy parasites and mind control programs.
After a few days of total disorientation the infested person came to me for a healing.
It worked.

I’m having a hard time ‘marketing’ my services since I’m very wary of any kind of ego-tripping. But I can say I’m very happy for my clients when I can help them!

Please, please people – trust your intuition regarding to your own doings: if the techniques you’re using are based on ‘thinking’ or on ‘knowing’, if the choices you make come from your ego or your Heart. Know your limitations, be careful and protect yourself (and those you’re practising with), and keep on learning. Question, read, digest, investigate things until you’ve found them to fit your unique palette (or adjust or discard), repeat.

Also, measure your therapists and mentors with the fine scales of your intuition – if there’s a match in the personalities and vibes of you two, if the person you’re going to trust has integrity to keep their hands off your sovereign power and if they have the best and purest intentions in helping you.

I stopped the Tarot readings 20+ years ago because I didn’t think I was experienced enough to oversee the consequences of my readings. I have given energy healings only for the past 2-3 years, even though I have been in touch with the material and studying it for more than twenty years.
It takes awareness, self-inquiry, study and practice to hone any skill, even when you have natural-born talent for it*.
The energy world is immense, very colourfully populated and you have to know your protection skills, healing techniques, spiritual hygiene practices and your personal limits.

Life isn’t a race, it is a journey. It’s not about arriving, it’s about enjoying the here and now. Have gratitude for how far you’ve come, and joy in knowing you’re going further, one step at a time.

And last but least, love your Self and your fellow travellers!

* not everyone has to do it so slow-mo’ as I’ve apparently done it!! Time is not relevant, the interest is.

 

Intuition and responsibility | Simperi

Daring: ancestral love and self-esteem

| Nina

I have been investigating around the question “why are we so shy to show ourselves? Why are we hiding our talent or services for so long – and why do we sometimes see the same pattern of self-induced hiding in our family?”

We only need to look at the history of suppression of spiritually inclined people in order to know that there is a lot of residual fear in our collective that gets in the way of daring to stand in our power. Ridicule, exclusion and death have often been the risks that the brave souls that dared to live their truth were confronted with.

But those times belong to the past – finally!

In the here and now the awareness of humanity as a collective is heightening, we are connecting with our fellow spiritual souls much easier than before and the ugly truth of the money-driven machinery comes more in sight from the hidden. It is time for a change, time for a soul-connected humanity, motivated from the Heart.

Ugly things still happen in the world, but only as long as we ‘do as we’re told’ even if our Hearts sign an alarm of discord. Take your life force, your power back into your own hands, and critically investigate if the things that take part in your Life match with your ethics, and adjust accordingly. The more awakened, the quicker the change.

In my healing practice I see energies quite visually. When energetically healing a client, I work with these energies directly, and report on what I’ve seen and done after the healing to the client.

I’ve also made it a daily practise to check in on my own energy body and to cleanse it as needed – I call it my daily spiritual hygiene.

Here’s what I found about a week ago, in relation to ‘ancestrial love and self-esteem’.

Shamanic investigation work revealed three points or daggers lodged in my solar plexus, in the third chakra, the chakra of Self.

One was the suppression of the powers that were – the suppression from the lot who was afraid of the creativity and organic, joyful power of people with a strong nature connection, and with a direct connection with the Source.

Dagger number two was the love of our ancestors, who wanted their dear children to survive. Out of fear they would train the new generation to deny their naturally-born talents, to hide them and do as if we’re living in a world void of the spirit world and without any energetic connections.

The third dagger was an entity that took pleasure from me feeling anxious, insecure and frustrated since I didn’t understand what exactly was going on in my third chakra.

I removed these elongated objects and offered them to the Source to take care of them, and I healed my solar plexus area by bathing it in golden light. Spaciousness, relaxation and power is now emanating freely, in a natural manner – as my heart pumps blood, so this power-point pumps personal power, and I am free to be me.

I was left with the problem of relocating the love of my ancestors, the ones that came before me. Carefully I placed it in my Heart, to flow like a continuous stream from the previous generations to this one and the next.

As I’m writing this I hear someone raising a question about the ego – if it is not the ego that has now gotten more power?

In my understanding the ego is a projection of the Mind and it sits actually more in the head than in the solar plexus. It is the manipulator and trickery-being that swells up when we think that people hold us in higher regard than – – – (fill in the blank).

But when I understand thoroughly that we are all equal, every single precious soul is on the journey of their Soul Path to experience, understand and to develop, then how could there ever be a competition?

So no, I don’t experience this as an ego thing but as a very natural state. We are supposed to feel the connection to our planet through our walking, breathing, loving and interacting. We are supposed to have wonderful insights and to act accordingly whenever the accompanying energy is sweet and joyful. And we are supposed to emanate personal power, shine our light, through our solar plexus, through our eyes and through our being. Truly shiny beings!

Do look within – introspect, ask questions and openly, objectively see the answers – and act accordingly. You have the power to heal more than you’d ever imagine. And if you confront things that you currently don’t know what you should do about them, seek a healer, a mentor you can trust. That’s what we all do, and it works just fine.

Blessings to your summer!

 

Instant Return to Balance

| Nina

Carpe Diem – seize the moment

As I was re-visiting my stash of essential oils from the times of making natural perfume, I discovered, to my disappointment, that some of the exquisite oils had lost their vitality. They were flat, bland or outright offensive.
I had to throw away four little bottles of concentrated magic, just because I hadn’t used it it time.

‘Use it or lose it’ , as my dear friend put it recently, referring to life skills acquired along the way.

My blog is a sharing-format of journaling, keeping track on a-ha moments, inspiration and deeper truths.
So here’s my shortlist of tools for Returning to Balance, seizing the moment in an instant. If you have been speed-reading until now, do slow down… and let the following words work in on you. They are concentrated, like little seeds without fluff. They need your attention to expand and flourish.

In order to Return to Balance, please use…

… Gratitude

In a time of ‘instant satisfaction’ – fast food, fast connections and short concentration spans – it is easy to get all ‘electric’; speeding through our days with frazzled nerves, a nagging feeling of missing out on something important and an underlying fear because we don’t take the time to inspect what it is that’s out of whack.

The strongest medicine to heal tension is Gratitude.
In three steps, from easy and light to taking most effort and being the most effective: make a list, regular meditation, giving offerings.

… A Right Attitude for Action Heroes (‘ARAAH!’)

Acknowledge your blessings (<-> gratitude), notice your chances (especially the out-of-the-box, wild-idea chances!) and take action! Use it or lose it.

… Reciprocity

Give thanks where it belongs. To your elders, your partner, your clients, your staff, your children, your wallet, your Self, your home, the nature in all its richness, the fact that you are alive.

Then pay-back, in all the enjoyable, creative, wonderful ways you can.

Be at peace. Be Love. Radiate safety. For what you vibrate forms your reality.
Here’s to creating a better World.

Tree spirit transfer

| Nina

(a re-post from Instagram)

First, a little note on silence. Spiritwork, for me, feels so intimate I often don’t even think about sharing it – but then again we’re all here to share with each other in order to learn so why not.

Last year an important plant spirit ally, Spruce, the guardian of our French home (and ‘husband’ of our Cherry Mama) was – not quite felled by a winter storm but – leaning on the trees behind it.
We tried to push it back up and to fasten it with steel cables, with the help of neighbors, tractor and clever thinking.
We watched its progress with a worried heart for a year, adjusting things when and where needed.

But now he was looking very weary and the ‘fix’ was blown askew by yet another storm.
“Dear Spruce, how are you feeling?”
His answer was exhaustion – he was so very tired of trying to hold on.
My heart squeezed with sadness, knowing the battle is over, gravity had won…But I brought a crystal, and if he liked it, he could go into it and I’d find a new home for him, one that stands strongly rooted in the ground.
I sensed a surprise in his reaction and a slight “I’m sorry”.

The crystal sat snugly in the curve of trunk and branch for 1,5 days. Then I wrapped it in silk and took it with me.

In the Auvergne, France, I knew of a big spruce forest and we went to take a look, but deeper in the forest we discovered it was being cut for timber. Time was up and I took the spirit-crystal with me. Back in the Netherlands I was looking with my inner eye for a suitable new home for the spirit and quite easily arrived at a candidate, but also deciding on a spare location.

I went to take a look. To my surprise, I found this fully grown tree ’empty’, and returned the following morning together with the Spruce spirit in his crystal. Softly pressing the crystal against the trunk of this new tree-home I opened my spirit for observing (trying to explain here that there’s not much use in expecting things to go a certain way) and suggested he’d take a look.

Slowly, with curiosity and astonishment the spirit of the Spruce was stretching along the trunk of his new habitat. I heard him laughing about the thinner branches but he was happy – no, more than that – to feel the tall space, the firm rooting and the new qualities of his surroundings. I showed him telepathically where we are now in relation to where he was before. I explained that this is a park in a village and he’d hear the sounds of village life around him. He is in the far corner of the park, sweetly enjoying this new chance, curious about his tree-neighbors (who ARE at home) and hopefully telling fairytales to curious children who come to lean against his trunk – which is how my own relationship with trees begun.

Thank you for reading, I’m looking forward to possible comments!

 

 

The flow

| Nina

“The flow of Life” is an expression that I use, and also:”follow your flow”. But what does that mean, exactly?
Let me share a short story with you to illustrate it more clearly.

Some years ago, we were camping near a river. Every morning we’d get up early to take our morning bath in the cold, fast flowing river, in the stillness of the golden morning light – before the canoes with loud tourists in them would swarm downstream.

After breakfast, some playing with our dog and reading, we’d return to the river to watch the canoe-show. The most typical family had a strong-willed corporate-kind of father, pioneering downstream with his son onboard. With strong, determined pushes with their paddles, they’d fly downstream at a high speed, their gaze fixed at the yet invisible finish. A little bit behind, and slowing down the father-son vessel, was the mother with their second child, yelling out warnings of dangerous currents here and there, and telling the pioneers to wait for them with an ever increasing irritation in their voice.

The most cautious current-fearing people (not limited by age or gender) would try to steer their canoe in this slight bend in the river, get caught in the currents and then tossed and stuck on the shore before our eyes. So, every now and then we stood up, walked into the river and pushed them free again, and with a friendly smile, wished them a good journey.

But one day there was this single canoe gliding in the middle of the river, apparently with no one on board. No wait, we could see a bent knee and a foot lightly resting on the knee, rising from the bottom of the canoe.

This one canoe that effortlessly flowed downstream, carried a passenger, lying on his back, his head pointing downstream and him gazing at the sky and the tree tops framing his view. He had all the time the river offered him to make his easy journey, enjoying the view and the trip.

This little story floated up from my memory today as I was pondering on some recent events – how, as I am allowing relaxation in my longings and doing, as I have more trust that all will be very, very well even if I’m not pressing on it all the time, Life seems to flow ever so sweetly, carrying perfect timing and wonderful experiences with it. Try it if you don’t believe me! In fact I urge you to do it, what ever your prejudgement might be – just…flow with Life, get in synch, hum along.

I hope this illustrates more the background of the short exclamations of Trust. Relax. Go with the flow.

Wishing you a smooth flow and beautiful views.