We are made of stardust! Foundation 2

Our bodies reflect the Cosmic Creation. 

We are all connected and interconnected forces of nature. We are made up of the same substance as the cosmic universe. Indigenous wisdom guides us in knowing that we mirror the cosmos and that the cosmos are made up of the five elementals, Ether, Air, Earth, Fire & Water, therefore, so are we.  Naturally, the five elementals are the first foundation of this work. As we begin to discover the essence of the 5 elementals in our body, we will begin to understand how to nourish our body, give it what it needs, and make adaptations as we move through the seasons of life. Rupa Marya in her book Inflamed, talks about how our bodies’ inflammatory conditions (diabetes, autoimmune disease, cancer, cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer’s, etc.) are reflected in the inflamed condition of Mother Earth. We are mirrors of the cosmic universe, we are the mirrors of Mother Earth and all the elementals, and the more we align with the forces of nature, the more balance and harmony in our lives.  

Our Grand Earth Mother, Mother Earth, holds these elementals in and around her body. She is vibrating at a gravitational pull frequency that allows her to be energetically suspended in space–Ethers.  Water runs through her veins as she carries this living flowing life to all of nature and life that is sustained by her. As the physical body is mostly water, so is the earth.  Water is life! We have a symbiotic interconnected interdependent relationship with her and she is the Source of all food and medicine. In healing our bodies, we begin to consider how the elements manifest in our bodies. Our grand central sun illuminates everything, bringing nature to life with warmth and essential vital nutrients that allow plants to grow and life to awaken. Fire is an extension of Sun which helps us to transform and nourish ourselves. Air, Prana, Breath, Wind is the force that brings movement, clearing, & fuel to our fires extending into the fire in our kitchens. 

In the wide open space we call Ethers, the Cosmos, the Cosmic Universe, Universal Forces, Galaxies, the Milky Way, Creation, in the void of the Unknown we create our space for healing.       

4 Breaths to Prescence

Reflection: Crawl into the Cosmos-Ethers-Space to keep making a space for your own healing journey with Food as Medicine, Food is Medicine.

How does your body reflect the cosmic creation?

Where can you make space within your being, in your life to reflect the Cosmic Creation in your physical body?

What does this mean to you?  

OUR PERSONAL REFLECTIONS

Ana Personal Reflection When I think about this reflection, I think about crawling into the sweat lodge. The dark space in the sacred Grand Mother Womb of sweat lodge is a space of creation. I crawl into that sweat lodge and all my worries begin to fade away, I softly sink into a space of relaxation and ultimately swim through the cosmos as the sacred gateways open up. In this space, I can set intentions, weave my prayers, bundle my tobacco ties, make my offerings and pull energy from the Cosmos in order to bring my desires into manifestation. I also get to physically detox while activating my parasympathetic nervous system. When I find myself too far away from practices that support my mind, body, soul and spirit, I start to feel myself getting out of balance, my body and mind–begin to scream at me to listen and pay attention. Ceremonial life has actually brought me back to life and helped me remember that life is ceremony! Day to day life and the daily grind of surviving had me so disconnected from what really matters–being in tune with nature, being in balance & harmony. Lately, I haven’t been able to attend many ceremonies, so I learned to bring ceremony into my daily life, because ceremony is life! I now know numerous practices and strategies to support my own well-being and maintain my youthful vitality.  I’ve been practicing Yoga off and on for over 20 years, and one thing I have witnessed in myself over time, is how important it is to be consistent and make space for asana (the movement aspect of Yoga) as a life practice. I’ve been doing it long enough that it is clear to me how much my body requires it. My body will start delivering a strong message to my hips, shoulders and low back, in tiny waves of pain signals delivered into my brain! My body asks, how are you making space for me? My mind comes up with a million excuses and justifications, but…I can see all the emotions roll it, until it gets to be funny to watch as I negotiate my health with myself.  Since I am currently in transition and don’t actually have much physical space for my asana practice, I’ve let myself off the hook with my practice and given myself permission to make sure I am doing my breathing exercises and daily walks with my dog in order to compensate for the lack of my asana practice. Honestly, this is just not cutting it for me. I must engage in my asana practice as part of my daily life practices that keep my body free of pain, aches and discomfort. I know exactly what happens when I don’t–so–that is the question–how do we make space for the most important elements in our lives? How do we make a way in the void of creation, to work these life practices into our lives because they are necessary as a way of life, as a way of being in harmony, feeling good in my body, staying vital and strong as I move through stages of life? Reflect! 

Lisa Personal Reflection. When I think of how my body reflects the cosmic creation, I am reminded that we are stardust; we come from the stars.  As my Auntie told me the story of our beginning, I could picture the scene; Nenteshoe, the old woman from the stars, fashioned us from star dust and then collected us up as seeds and placed us in a bag.  She instructed the coyote which way to go and where to plant us, on this earth star–Ngawa, and at the top of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.  It was told to me that the bag of seeds began to jump around as the coyote carried it through the cosmos. The coyote would open the bag to see what was going on, and in the bag the seeds were bickering and arguing about who was this, and who was that.  Each time the coyote would open the bag to see what was going on a bunch of the seeds would jump out.  Those would become the surrounding nations of people that did not get placed in the special place on the mountain.  By the time the coyote had reached the mountain, there were only a few left, they were the strong ones, the beautiful ones, the ones that would care for the land, the water, the plants and the animals.  I have always thought of myself as an extension of the cosmic universe, and planted here as a Washiw, a daughter of the land.   

This also brings up another vision I had while on a dieta in the Peruvian jungle. I was dieting on 2 different plant medicines with very restricted food intake.  During one of our evening ceremonies, I had another validation of myself as an extension of the cosmos.  As I sat in meditation, I was taken backwards, through all my life's experiences, as a young adult; teenager; child; infant; in my mothers womb.  I could feel the energies of every experience and emotion I had ever experienced, I could even remember the emotions that my Mother was experiencing as I lay wrapped in her warm womb, it was as if the stories of my life were imprinted within the cellular structure of my body, as if someone hit the rewind button on the tape.  Then, I was blasted out to the cosmos, expanding and grasping the oneness of myself with all that ever was, is and about to be; I was floating without form.  Then, the journey ended, and I was sitting in a large empty closet, a kind of janitor's closet, I could feel the dampness and hear the drip drip of a leaky pipe. I was sitting of the cold floor, I thought, “is this it?  This is what it’s all about? This is what is on the other side? Nothing?”  I looked up and saw the shadows of the scenes of my life as if they were floating around and fading away into nothingness.  Then the scene began to dissipate into an array of geometric shapes, billions and billions, of all colors taking form, going from two to three dimensional, and then increasingly complex as the jungle began to reappear in my awareness, the maloka that we were situated in, the mat I was sitting on, the trees, plants, nearby river flowing loudly, and the sound of the shakapa shaking and our facilitator was singing us home.  I was overjoyed to be back in my body, with the others in the circle.  The appreciation that I felt has stayed with me, the understanding that life is a miracle and I am a part of it.