A Day Without Women, the Fearless Girl and the Bull

This fearless girl stature was added in front of the Wall Street bull as a statement on how more women need to be allowed into leadership positions.  But on first glance my gut recoiled because what appears on the surface as a symbol for the liberation for women, is anything but.

The bull was/is an ancient symbol of protection for the feminine--not Wall Street.  The Bull of Heaven was also known also as Gugalanna, the husband of the ancient goddess of the underworld Ereshkigal. It was possibly the death of her bull that sent Ereshkigal into a tailspin of inconsolable grief.  In the ancient myth (which is one of humanity's oldest) her sister, Inanna Queen of Heaven descends to face her mourning sister. It was also partly Inanna's fault that the Bull of Heaven died, for she sent it to kill her lover Gilgamesh/Orion after he betrayed her and refused to remain married to her, after he decided to usurp the natural order of the True King's relationship to the Goddess--which was a promise to rule in harmony with the Earth--and instead went on to create eons of patriarchal dominating warrior societies that placed masculine deity above feminine deity and drove the balance of the planet to the brink of destruction.

This myth reveals to us the consequences of ancient feminine rage which belongs to all women who have grown up in a world that has asked us to sever our connection to our depths and our true essence in order for us and our children to survive under Patriarchal rule.  This story also holds the keys to our healing: the Queens of Heaven and the grieving Goddesses of the underworld must reconnect. The Kundalini energy from our lower chakras must flow again freely up to our crowns.  Compassion upon all the suffering we have endured and the grievances we have done to our sisters in order to survive and the trauma that has passed down through our family lines must be acknowledged, worked through, forgiven and transmuted.

Surviving by the Orion warrior code is what we have on display here on Wall Street.  Rather than a symbol of empowerment, it is actually a symbol of subversion of true feminine power.  The bull, the healthy masculine energy, actually serves as a representation of the true strength and protection of the Goddess.  That it is used to represent Wall Street reveals that the Old Kings who once honored the Goddess have been captured and are being used by patriarchy to continue its defamation of life and the earth for greed. 

The death of the bull of heaven can be seen as the death of the healthy masculine in right relationship with the feminine and the earth.  The loss of Gugalanna tells of how the constellation of Taurus was put in the sky according to our most ancient myths. To this day the Bull of Heaven protects the baby stars and the feminine muses which are associated with the star system of the Pleadies and doves and spiritual inspiration.  Also, many indigenous and Native American people associate this constellation with their stories of origion. The bull's horns represent the uterus and the season of Taurus is the Spring herself which celebrates the return of life to earth.  The bull was also associated with ancient priestesses as the carcasses of dead bulls were places from which bees emerged. Bee hives and symbols of bees have been found at these ancient priestess temples, for the hive honors the Queen and the inter-connectivity of all of our vegetation that the bees make possible on earth--bees that are disappearing under capitalistic consumer economy that flourishes by out of balance means. 

This addition of a "fearless girl" invites women to gain worldly power by standing up against our own true strength; it invites us to continue fragmenting ourselves, to deny our depths of pain, our path to healing and reconciliation, and our true feminine essence.  Notice how the bull's tail wraps around the flag pole, representing that feminine line of energy or Shakti which flows upward to activate our crowns.  When women are set against the bull, they are set against their very nature, and their sisters, and eons of war that has worked to keep the feminine fragmenting and warring against itself.  

We are waking up to the machine that is working to split the two sides of the pyramid so that only the top (the fragmented elite) may flourish.  But when women become allies, when we draw courage to descend to our depths and behold our sisters' depths of pain we face the magic that has been hidden from us.  When we discover fearlessness of our depths, we receive the power of resurrection.  The fragmentation of the feminine--which runs through every living thing--heals.  The Goddess rules in Heaven and on earth once again.  

It has been noted by many who study cycles of time that we are moving through a major transition and this is why chaos is erupting around us.  The time of the patriarchal gods which have ruled with artificial means to create power and a life outside of the domain of the Goddess and all the creatures of earth are coming to and end. The Divine Feminine is returning.  Sisters are uniting.  We are agreeing: we will not demonize our Bull, our ovaries, or our feminine priestess power any more.  What is done is done.  It is now Her time to rise again.

Sacred men, I invite you to take up again the ancient vows as did the Good Kings and Knights of Old.  Vow to protect and defend women, the feminine, and the Goddess in all her expressions.  Renounce your vows known and unknown to repress and divide the Goddess within yourself and others.  Receive Her blessing and return to your sacred heart. 

As it was in the beginning, is now and shall be forever, world without end.

<3 Jessica
Dove Oracle Priestess 

 

Jan 29 - Feb 4 "From Where Does My Help Come From?" TARALOMA Earth Temple, Weekly Newsletter

Discover Your Inner Well of Wisdom

Discover Your Inner Well of Wisdom

Wow it has been an intense week energetically.  In response to the rapid news stories and ratcheting up of tensions on the global stage, I have found myself doing my own introverted style of protesting by moving slower, meditating longer, and going deeply inward.  I'm taking more time to sit at the feet of my Inner Teacher to understand and see more clearly what is actually going on and what is my mission during this time.  May we all find that dawning clarity as we move through these times together.  

These past few months have felt like a stripping away of many old ways of being that no longer serve my highest good or the highest good of all.  Things that I thought I saw clearly were becoming clouded, places where I once put my confidence felt like shifting sands.  I was reminded again of the practice of "groundlessness" when this beautiful article appeared in my Facebook feed.  I sighed deeply into the peace I remembered there.    

Being in right relationship with groundlessness is like creating a meaningful link between your certainty and what is truly best for you, which is always found at the edges of what you think you know.  In yoga this expanding edge is known as Yin energy.  Yin is feminine energy, it is expansive, like a pregnant momma.  Yin energy moves into mystery.  Yin breaks up old ways of thinking, prisons of thought, body and mind, reaching always for more life, for life itself is always in motion.  

Conversely, Yang energy is the contracting center, the eye of the storm, the firm pillar of truth which has cataloged all the past wisdom gleaned from Yin's wondrous adventures.  This expanding and contracting energy is much like a heart beat, a score of music, and labor.  There are intense moments as we head for the climax of a song, or the crowning of the baby.  When we can maintain the connection between our center and our growing edges, we can see how we are truly one body learning to come into harmony with the flow of life itself.  Rather than battling and destroying our opposite we learn the sacred dance that creates more life together.  Opposites require a third to emerge, the center is the bridge that holds the tension and allows the dance and expanse of life to continue.  

This is our call now: to see the game of opposites.  To resist the cries for division and the temptation to externalize our fears and our shame on others creating scapegoats so we can feel more righteous and thus grounded (yet in illusion).  Resist the cries for war and take those weapons and transform them into instruments for cultivating the earth again.  Resist publicly humiliating people and learn the art of becoming bridge builders, that all beings may be connected to the center and connected to the growth edges.  No one learns in shame.  We learn in dignity and love.  What we have lost is safe space to be flawed growing humans who have permission to learn from our mistakes.  We have created a sort of gotcha culture that enjoys outting someone else so that we can feel better.  What if all of our accumulated knowledge is really just a giant defense system designed to keep us safe at the expense of someone else?  What we have lost is the playful Yin space to expand into our human potential. 

Our call is to love in the expanse of known and unknown as we each hone in on our mission and role.  Some will be the pillars, some will go to places we do not yet understand.  But we are each doing our part to heal the web of life.  

What we need now is a cosmic faith, a faith that goes beyond good/bad, american/unamerican, right/wrong and win/lose.  A faith that serves the common greatest good of all creatures of earth.  May peace prevail.      

In his ministry, Jesus often took time to be alone.  He hung out in the desert and walked up mountains.  He needed time away from the crowds so he could tune into his Inner Teacher, the Holy Spirit, the Source of Life, the Fount of Wisdom again.  One mantra I have been using to reply to the anxieties being drummed up in the media has been Psalm 121:

"I lift up my eyes to the hills
From where does my help come from?
My help comes from God, the creator of heaven and earth."

Even as I see our leaders hastening to destroy the earth and inflict harm to her people, I trust in our Source.  There are real heavenly powers that exist that are much greater than those who presently rule this world.  We may take refuge under those wings and in the promises of old. Each of our hairs are numbered.  We are deeply known and loved, even if we don't feel that energy coming from systems of power upon the earth--that's not our true Source.  So take heart, go within, connect to your Source and do the work you have been given to do, to love and serve love for the sake of love in your own unique way.  

This week, let's make sure we are all taking some time to slow down and tune to our inner worlds so that our actions are mindful and in line with our great mission and the highest good of all beings.  Together, aligned with the power of our Source, we can do miracles. Nothing will be impossible. We can be a part of establishing a new earth.    

May all creatures be happy and free.

Love,
Jess

ENJOY THIS TEACHING
I'm sharing this message from the on-line course that I developed in my unique exploration of the chakras. The 7 Gates of Resurrection is a seven week healing journey.  This on-line course provides a weekly message, on-line yoga and meditation practices to activate and awaken the seven major energy systems in the human body as we explore each one every week.  This course is unique in that it offers a creative intuitive, imaginative exploration of ancient myths and spirituality of the Divine Feminine.  If you or someone you know is looking for more energy and deep inner healing, I invite you to join me on this journey of transformation.  

Here what people are saying about it:

"New insights through these videos and messages and a beautiful way to share energies! I honor your path dear sister!"

"I'm really loving the 1st of the 7 gates. You've done an amazing job. Thank you for your service warrior Goddess of the light!"

The light in me salutes the light in you.  

Have a blessed, healing week.
<3 Jess

Weekly Newsletter

MINDFUL HEALING YOGA IN MOORHEAD &amp; MEMOIR RELEASE

MINDFUL HEALING YOGA IN MOORHEAD & MEMOIR RELEASE

I'm so excited to announce that I will be offering yoga classes, workshops and available for one-on-one yoga lessons at The Center for Mindful Healing in Moorhead, MN beginning March 11, 2017.  Here's what will be available:

CLASS OFFERINGS
Monday Evening 8-9 p.m. Restorative Yoga.
Come learn how to relax deeply and feel the benefits of allowing your body’s natural healing systems to work for you. This class is especially helpful to anyone suffering from high stress, grief, or difficulty sleeping.

Wednesday Noon: Simply Yoga.
Enjoy the benefits a yoga practice can bring to your life. This class is open to all levels and the instructor will help you modify each pose to suit you.

Saturday 8:30-9:30 a.m. Simply Yoga.
Enjoy the benefits a yoga practice can bring to your life. This class is open to all levels and the instructor will help you modify each pose to suit you.

$15 a class and I will offer options to lower the cost for those who want to purchase a 10-punch pass for $135 offering clients a 10% discount if they buy their classes at one time.

WORKSHOPS
Meditation Workshop on Sunday April 23rd, 4-5:30 p.m.
Cultivate your connection to inner peace. Learn about and practice different styles of meditation to bring more mindfulness and deep healing to your life.  No experience necessary.  Come as you are in comfortable clothes.  Pillows and chairs provided.  $25 per participant

Balance the Body’s Energy Saturday May 13th, 2-4 p.m.
Learn about the body’s 7 major energy centers also known as Chakras.  This workshop will include some gentle yoga postures to help bring more energy to each of these important areas of the body.  Accessible and open to all levels.  $25 per participant

MEMOIR RELEASE MARCH 1, 2017
This book has been over twelve years in the making and I'm almost ready to release it to the public.  Detoxing God is a memoir that tells of healing from childhood sexual abuse, violence in religion and culture that devalues the feminine.  Please like the book's Facebook page to see a trailer and get sneak peeks before the release date.  The book will be available to order on Amazon on March 1, the first day of spring.  

As women took to the streets all over the world yesterday, I could feel the massive shift in energy taking place around the globe. Unity does not mean silencing our enemies.  Unity is a work in progress as each voice finds true harmony with the whole.  This means each person's healing journey is essential to humanity's healing. If our security is dependent upon another person's insecurity, then we are doing it wrong. If we can only feel better about ourselves by comparing our lives to someone's who is worse off than us than we are still living in the illusion of separation.  Our collective healing is connected to our individual healing.  Silence serves oppression. Unity calls for conversation and compassionate listening. Before we can hear clearly the pain in others, we first need to hear it in ourselves.  For as we love ourselves, we love the world. Now is the time for a revolution of love!  It's exciting.  It means we all win, because love wins. 

Blessings and joy,
Jess

Weekly Newsletter

FINDING OUR BACKBONE
Recently I had an intense dream. A tornado was coming. I was frantically looking for shelter. A woman found me and pulled me into her home. She guided me towards the center of the house and showed me a pole grounded in the earth that I could hold onto when the tornado hit. I crawled towards the pole and wrapped my hands around it and held on for dear life.  When the strong winds hit, it blew many things away, but I was safe, even though I had to work hard to hold on. The dream said to me: stay in the center of the storm. There is always a calm in the center. The dream image has continued to nudge me back to the center when I catch myself stressed out by the storm.

In my yoga classes my students and I have been practicing visualizing our spines filled with light. Our spinal chords create a tree of light that branches out to the seven major energy centers known as chakras. As we tune in to our center, to the life that flows through us, we listen to our breath. The sound of our breath regulates our body. It brings us into the present  present time. Trauma does not exist in present time. A new moment does. Trauma takes an imprint of the past and overlays it on the present moment so that we cannot see it clearly. This is the veil of Maia, or illusion.

Sound dissolves the illusions. Sound creates life.  Sound helps us tune into the center, which is why we chant and sing and why a favorite song can bring us home in an instant. Sound causes patterns to form in sand.  Breakthrough studies are showing how cancer cannot live at certain resonant frequencies. It is probably likely that if we humans organized a global event and all sounded together we could dissolve many traumas and pain of our planet. Groups of people meditating have shown to reduce crime rates.  That's how powerful we are when we work together, when we resonate together for the highest good of all.

It is true there is a lot of dissonance in our world, especially as we march towards an unknown unstable future. However, there is also a lot of hope. There is just as much potential for us to find our resolve, to tune in, to reach across the nation and to work together to create a better future. Things must change. Our way of life is unsustainable. We want change, even as much as we fear the unknown. But we can be a part of the change. Every day, every moment, we can move towards the center and breathe. We can visualize our hopes and dreams, speak words of love and comfort, use our energy and our words not to serve our fears, not to fight each other, but to create, to co-create, to co-exist with the One Source which runs through all living beings.

May we each find our backbone, our light filled trees of light. May we be brave to face where we are chained to systems that do not resonate for our highest good and work to keep us distracted from the real work. May we be courageous to try something new. As we each do our healing work and stay centered, we help all beings do the same.

Chaos may be immanent, but we can move to the center and pulse peace out into the world instead.

Love, 
Jessica

 

ENJOY AN INSPIRATIONAL YEAR OF FAIRY WISDOM
This playful calendar embodies the energy of Daphne the Wood Nymph as it celebrates the embodied feminine and the healing that is possible after rape.  Proceeds benefit RAINN. I have ONE left! And it's on sale for $29.99.

JANUARY'S FULL MOON IN CANCER

I am new to learning about the stars, but I see honoring the cycles of the moon as a part of one of my priestly duties as I honor the spirituality of my feminine essence, the Earth, and the cycles of nature.

The crab symbolizes the astrological sign of cancer which is marked by water and the emotions. This sign amplifies the emotions, our tears, and the flood of feelings we experience being human. This sign is also about going home and finding our center as the crab carries its home on its back. 

This month is a good time to reflect on being home in our bodies (maybe nestled in blankets with warm liquids to drink) and discover the deep satisfying healing that is possible when we tune in and honor our essence.   <3

Have a beautiful week.
May we inaugurate our best selves.  

 

Weekly Newsletter

ENTER THE MYSTERY

It seems our culture has lost an appreciation for mystery in its desire to know and control and attempt to avoid suffering (which unfortunately only creates more).  Much like birth and the expanding YIN/feminine energy that adventures to the edges of human experience to discover something new, mysteries are wonderfully messy.  One of my nick names growing up was "Messy Jessie" as it was apparently easy to spot where I had eaten. (My excuse: I'm part fairy and my mission is to leave bread crumbs in the forest!)

But messy can conjure up a lot of shame.  Having our messy lives hanging out of our ego ideal is painful. We do a lot of shadow hiding, a lot of "squirrel!" a lot of "look over there instead!" Our shared reality has been pretty painful lately.  It's been messy.  And we're just not going to be able to avoid it.  But there's an adventure to be had here too.

Lots of little pieces of paper left over from an epic art project stuck to my feet on my walk to the coffee maker this morning.  Before brewing I surveyed the majestic mess of my living room. I also caught a glimpse of the inner critic who informed me that this was not an acceptable situation; this place is way too messy and by the way you're failing at life and you'll never measure up. Oh that critic can be so gloomy sometimes.  Before I allowed the critic's words become THE TRUTH OF MY LIFE I quipped: that's just your opinion, man.  We build resilience when we practice detaching our ego identity from our thoughts. 

We are beginning to shift our collective consciousness in powerful ways as we awaken to face messy realities on planet earth, and at the same time: truly infinite possibilities.  We are all connected to the One Source of Life.  Yes, even the guy with orange hair.  So some of us have yet to incarnate our highest selves, but the potential is always there, and even more so when we keep affirming it is there.  A wise woman reminded me that Scrooge can change overnight, so let us continue to be open to miracles.  

There's a lot soap boxes, rants and slams in the airwaves as we slug towards Jerusalem to find our way back to the sacred masculine and healthy YANG energy.  I'm always looking for that line between tough and abusive.  When is another human being denied dignity and sovereignty because of our flash projections and reactions?  Just because someone else is being a jerk, if we respond with the same mean-spirit then we are being a jerk too.  Standing strong doesn't mean we play the victim either; it means we are empowered to choose how to respond to all that arises with love (and grace because it's an ongoing practice).  It also means we give people room to make mistakes, learn, and grow.  We need messy creative spaces to make art out of our lives.

Staying connected with our bodies is so vital for staying connected to our Source.  Our task in these times may simply be to become more mindfully aware of what's going on in our inner worlds and practice staying home in our bodies.  For bridging the worth of our souls into a world that more easily denies it is truly the task at hand.  As the snakes of consciousness and unconsciousness twine and prepare to face off, tensions and taboos of awakening are bubbling up from our depths.  And sometimes we find ourselves seared by an old wound that is coming up for healing.    

Usually behind the critical voice is a wound that needs to be greeted with so much tenderness (so if the military has given you any of their fancy toys, do not be fooled into thinking Rambo style will fix what only a compassionate mother can). There are so many critical voices in the world today.  So many are quick to find a scapegoat or make a story about who to blame and why.  I know that strategy doesn't work well in my personal relationships.  What if every trigger from here on out opened up the opportunity to practice compassion towards ourselves and others?  What if we practiced compassion as a collective? Can you imagine the collective shift of energy that would ripple over the planet in the twinkling of an eye?  

Life spirals.  We are remembering past traumas.  We are remembering what happened in Nazi Germany.  We are remembering the flash floods and the great falls of ancient civilizations.  Breathe.  And go deep within.  We are remembering our mission and what we came here to do. We have been preparing for this.  We have been called to this.  We have been created for such a time as this.

It was an epic battle between me and my inner critic before I had a cup of coffee.  But I found my way into compassion as I practiced some of my mantras for motherhood:

I bless this mess
I am grateful for the gifts of imagination and creativity
My mess becomes my message
I celebrate this real human life
Order arises out of chaos (WOW there is SO much potential order here!)

And I shook off the dread.  We can all shake off the dread.  Shake off our chains.  Dissolve the thoughts that come with scary Darth Vader music and tune back in to Love.  And when we forget, or we're just too tired, we just simply begin again.  We just practice.  Life is just a practice.  We came here to remember that we come from love and we shall return to love.  We are just waking up on our journey in between.
 
Have a compassion-filled week <3
Namaste,
Jess

Are you ready to reconnect and heal your relationship with your body?
Are you interested in learning some practices (including simple yoga) to move old energy out of your body?
Do you want to feel more alive?
Do you want to learn more about the 7 chakras of the body and how to optimize your energy?
Do you enjoy learning about ancient myths and mystery teachings?
Are you open to going on a creative imaginative healing journey?

My 7 Gates of Resurrection program is now available to download in its entirety!
You'll receive:
+ A message and a teaching on each chakra (7 lessons total)
+ A practice in the form of yoga or meditation to help activate each of your chakras and bring healing to your body in each major energy center
+ Creative, playful, imaginative portrayals of various aspects of the sacred feminine as we explore the myth of Innana and Ereshkigal
+ Channeling, songs, mantras, and more!
+ A discount on an intuitive Oracle Reading with purchase

These seven mystery teachings will help you activate and heal each of your seven chakras through wisdom teachings, yoga, meditation and creative imagination.  

Here what people are saying about it:
"New insights through these videos and messages and a beautiful way to share energies! I honor your path dear sister!"

"I'm really loving the 1st of the 7 gates. You've done an amazing job. Thank you for your service warrior Goddess of the light!"

Each lesson contains a practice for the entire week, so you are investing in 7 weeks of personal transformation for only $10 a week!  Are you ready to be initiated into deeper healing?  I'll meet you at the first gate. 

May the essence of your soul shine ever brighter in your earth temple
<3 J

 

LOCAL UPCOMING WORKSHOPS:

Prepare for birth with: Birthing Best Practices, January 28, 2 p.m. Mojo Fit Studios

Ignite your Valentines with Couple's Yoga, Friday February 10, 6:30 p.m. Mojo Fit Studios

Celebrating my biggest yoga class yet at Mojo Fit Studios this Saturday!&nbsp;

Celebrating my biggest yoga class yet at Mojo Fit Studios this Saturday! 

Weekly Newsletter January 1-7

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

TARALOMA Earth Temple has so many ways to support your physical and spiritual growth this year:  
+ Do you want to feel good in your body?
+ Learn and practice yoga at any age?
+ Experience the calming benefits of meditation?
+ Feel healing shifts in your energy?
+ Ready to adventure in spiritual growth?
+ Want to explore ancient myths and mysteries?
+ Recovering from patriarchal religion that devalues the feminine?
+ Interested in finding the gold of your inner world through dream work?
+ Curious about cultivating a relationship with the Divine Feminine?
+ Looking for a priestess/teacher/muse to catalyze your transformation?
+ Ready to weave together your unique gifts and heal your ancestral line?
+ Interested in meeting your spiritual guides?
+ Interested in using the Tarot, intuitive readings & oracular divine transmissions to get insight and guidance about your life?
+ Enjoy a little goofiness from the Goddess too?

Visit www.taraloma.com and check out the SERVICES page to discover all the ways my ministry can support you.

I'm so excited to introduce my first mystery school course, 7 Gates of Resurrection which explores the energy of the divine feminine and offers a mystery teaching, creative imagination, yoga, and meditation practices for each of the 7 chakras.  These inspirational teachings will help heal and activate these major energy centers in your body while providing you with practical exercises and practices to tone and feel great.  Starting TODAY all seven lessons are available for download at the time of purchase!   Learn more here.

YOGA VIDEOS ON SALE!

OPEN YOUR HIPS AND YOUR HEART: ALL LEVEL YOGA PRACTICE

MEDIATION ON THE NEW MOON, THE TRIPLE GODDESS, CARRIE FISHER & MOM

Many blessings and love to you this 2017.
The light in me salutes the light in you,

Namaste,

Jess

Dove Oracle Priestess at TARALOMA Earth Temple
www.taraloma.com

Weekly Dove Oracle Message Dec 25-31

LOOK UP! THE ANGELS ARE BUILDING A GOLDEN LADDER FROM HEAVEN TO EARTH

LOOK UP! THE ANGELS ARE BUILDING A GOLDEN LADDER FROM HEAVEN TO EARTH

The veils are thinning, do you feel it?  Do you feel the sudden spiral of energy you put out in the universe looping right back to you?  Once upon a time, this action/reaction cycle took many generations to come full circle so that "the sins of the father" in biblical vernacular, were visited upon generations to come.  Now, in some instances, the circle of exchange is almost instantaneous.  Notice: are you generating creation or creating a destructive negative feedback loop? The other day I made a rash decision that hurt someone's feelings and I immediately took the hit in the back of my heart center.  I could feel the effects of my actions right away. This is a painful, yet helpful teacher--just like the hot stove teaches you "don't touch!"  So our learning is now accelerating.  

Growing up the teachings of "we reap what we sow" was often eclipsed by so many ideas about God's grace and forgiveness and what one favorite priest called "warm Jesus" that many of us lost that inner/outer connection between our faith and our real lives as we continued to create (consciously or unconsciously) negative feedback loops that severed our souls from fully incarnating in these bodies designed to be temples of light on earth.  We have fancy high tech terms to justify our non-growth, non-learning, non-changing, our entrapment in sin and nothing can get us out but Jesus.  So we give up growing because the hopeless distance between the poles feels impossibly far off (or too socially risky).  

My "happy holiday pictures" I post on Facebook likely don't reveal the challenge it has been to avoid sudden heart pangs and a few ugly cry sessions that took place under my covers last week.  I was considering why this Christmas season in particular has been emotionally challenging for me, and I almost feel I can trace this sadness through the annals of time--to the time when humanity fell, when we were enslaved, when the teachings of sacred mothers were eclipsed and erased, when women and land were divided and conquered, when a war machine of money making destruction overtook our planet to bring us to this near breaking point.  

Breakdown?  Breakthrough.  -Jerry Maguire

This dark time of year usually brings to the surface  so much loss, so much old heart ache, so much unveiling of deep places of ancestral wounds that long for healing, not only within me, but in the human collective.  

Today as I was reading my Great Uncle Phil Froiland's account of our family line, I learned that my Great Grandfather had a brother who passed away on Christmas Eve of tuberculosis at thirteen years old.  His name was Thorvald--which also happened to be the name of my beloved dog during my teen years--which were also punctuated by trauma when I was thirteen.  

I gasped aloud as discovered/remembered this family trauma, and I FELT how the past echos through time, through my body.  How many years was I unconsciously grieving for him?  May he rest in peace.  May all who have died rest in peace.    

During these dark days of the year, and especially this year, I feel the echo of my personal and our collective history even more intensely.  The pain that echos through our personal lives (never mind also the ancient past) can be so daunting to face.  So daunting that we automatically sever our connection from the intensity and from the integrating principal.  Trauma severs.  It severs us from our gut, from our heart, from our feet, from our head, from our family, from our community.   

To feel deeply these days is challenging for we are a traumatized people and there is much unembodied pain looking for a host to help it heal--or keep recreating/feeding the negative feedback loop of a trauma wheel.  Beings are now coming to me in dream state asking for help to cross over.  One of my healer friends recently confessed: the veils are so thin!  It made me think of end times and the prophecies of the dead rising--maybe we will just all be able to more clearly see those whose trauma is living on in order to be healed and released.  

We are a fragmented people. We are afraid of something terrible, not knowing exactly what or who lives in the shadows of our minds, not recognizing the log in our own eyes, mistaking a speck in our neighbors for everything we loathe and fear in ourselves.  As I move into the role as a seer, I must also acknowledge how I am also guilty of much unclear seeing.  At times it feels impossible to escape our projections. Sociologist,  Peter Burger ignited the 60s with the idea that reality is socially constructed, that the deepest order of society – the sacred cosmos as sacred canopy.  Our imaginations and feelings are just as important in shaping our reality and the healing of our planet--maybe even more important than unembodied thinking.  

The healing path is not always up the mountain to some kind of abstract, ungrounded, non-messy, unmattery, disembodied purity, but down towards the cross at the center of our collective suffering--deep into our flesh and bones.  We move towards the eye of the storm which we must go through in order to find relief. 

In the center, the life force, the light of which we are made, activates in our spine, like the tree of life branches out into our seven chakras.   Light and shadow ascend and descend up the spinal chords like the snakes on the caduceus flowing from base to crown.  The paradox of the bird vs. snakes is brought to resolution: the earth and heaven unite and light in its smallest form fractals into infinity like the sacred star of David as the life force awakens us to see all things new.

[Science now confirms that the
merkabah is the shape of the photon--a double amplituhedron-- the smallest particles of light which make up the entire structure of our vast universe.]

As I worked to complete Level One of my Dove Oracle Priestess training, I began to practice honoring the gift of feeling and learning how to release it and transform energy.  I've often been accused of being "too" sensitive.  I've not always been good at blocking everything out in order to "focus" or "think rationally" or "penetrate my reality" in this sort of culturally idealized hyper yang fashion that Americans relish.  Instead of seeing my innate difference as a weakness (and feeling shame about it) I'm working to honor and open more to this yin essence. It feels, in SO many ancient ways, taboo.  Because to be "a girl" has been a pretty lowly place in the "success ladder" of our cultures--for eons.  Because witch hunts and Inquisitions, and families siding with power in order to survive, families having to choose between soul and bread.  But these days are coming to an end, as the inside is starting to look more like the outside.  As the feedback loop accelerates, we can integrate and build the cosmic sacred shape together on earth more effectively.  

If yang is penetrating masculine energy, then yin is receptive feminine.  What does the spiritual path look like with less penetration (less convert everyone) and more openness, more balance between the opposites, more equanimity?

More relatedness to mystery and play. 

I think in some ways it also means (for now) that we may feel more pain as we work to face the gaps in our inner and outer worlds.  As we make these connections within we are also constructing the golden ladder between earth and the highest dimensions of the universe, creating a meaningful link between self and Source, as repairing damage to the spiraling helix in our DNA simply by witnessing pain with compassion, we can change our spiritual DNA and we build the sacred canopy more effectively together.  

Pain transmutes and also reveals a light side once acknowledged.  Resurrection happens. My practice has been not to attach to the pain (more practice needed).  Not to create a shame or a blame story, (more practice needed) but to work to view it like a Sacred Mother would gaze upon all her traumatized crying children as she looks down from the divine heart at the root of pain and heals us with her love rather than severing us with further yang/judgement/trauma of which we have had enough.  

Whatever arises, love that.  --Matt Khan

The Sacred Mother has two faces, so beware, for she also comes like Kali wielding her knives severing the "thinking" severing the male head, maybe the patriarchy, and whatever attachments continue to poison the earth and her children.  Kali, like Medusa, reminds us that even crazy has a symmetry, has a root, has a door, a lock, a key to healing and transformation.  Death is a door to new life.  The Dark Mother brings a different death than the unceasing hamster wheel of the corporate machine: She initiates us into the natural mysteries of the life force as they work in a woman's body, they also work throughout the holographic structure of the entire cosmos, which is also a sort of womb.  She teaches us the way of resurrection.

Many of us judge ourselves so harshly and hate ourselves (or our nature or our perceived weaknesses) so intensely it's virtually unconscious.  When we can't see the log in our eye we use someone else in our life to hold that which doesn't seem to fit into our ego-ideal. With holiday visits fresh, this won't be too hard to feel our way into.  I know I have held the shadows and deep fears of many.  I know I have put my shadows and deep fears on others to bear too.  May all of our collective mess become like great fertilizer upon the land.  From the mud, the lotus.  

Energy is energy and it is always flowing and changing.  Pain is also energy that has the potential to be transmuted to serve our collective healing.  May it be so.  Rather than building up defenses against future pain by trying to control everything, we are learning another kind of courage and strength, that which knows how to open up more, expanding into unknown.  This is Yin/feminine energy.   While the masculine categorizes what is known, the feminine branches out.  It's a flow.  

We can act like bees in a hive and create the dance of life, or we can act like locust and destroy creation.  We have too many locusts and not enough bees these days.  Be a bee.  

Fires of transformation call us to descend our core to face the roots of our collective suffering, to help burn away illusions.  To live is to change, and yet we cling to the known and fear the unknown.  To be fashioned in the holy blacksmith's hands, we enter a great mystery of relationship as we are taught how to ignite the soul light to shine inside of our sacred matter.  Love anchors into the earth of our bodies and spans the dimensions of the heavens.  The golden ladder is growing.  

We are a precious and beloved people.  During these sacred days of rapid growth and awakening, may love come down evermore connecting this golden ladder to the earth to mend together our every wound, that we angels may ascend and descend again.  May we work to restore creation to the sacred balance, may we awaken and feel the true worth and beauty of our souls, may we see more clearly our path and our part in building the sacred canopy together.

May all beings be happy and free as it was in the beginning, and shall be forevermore, especially in 2017.


Love,
Jessica

Enjoy this song from my Peace Before Us Christmas album <3

And one more gift:  a 20 minute Peace Practice filmed at Sacred Passages Chapel in Wimberley, Texas by typing in the pasword: MayPeacePrevail <3 

Weekly Dove Oracle Message Dec 18-24

LOVE ENDURES ALL THINGS
Many of you are tired.  Many of you are feeling ground to the bone.  Take heart, for you are being made into pillars of stone, pillars of earth.  Old Kings are now awakening, your Sacred Women are rising.  The true rulers of the earth are returning to their places.  Do not fear little ones, for it is the Creator's pleasure to restore all of creation, to heal every wound, to wipe away every tear.

Remember to love.  Love is patient.  Love is kind.  It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrings.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  (1 Corinthians 13: 407).  

(Painting by Emily Balivet)

Love always prevails.  So do not fret when you are faced with dark times.  

Do not fret because of the wicked; do not be envious of wrongdoers,

for they will soon fade like the grass, and wither like the green herb.

Trust in the Sources of Life, and do good; so you will live in the land, and enjoy security.

Take delight in creation, and the divine will give you the desires of your heart.

Commit your way to life; trust Source, and Source will act.

Your Creators will make your vindication shine like the light, and the justice of your cause like the noonday.

Be still before the Creators, and wait patiently; do not fret over those who prosper in their way, over those who carry out evil devices.

Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath. Do not fret—it leads only to evil.

For the wicked shall be cut off, but those who wait for the divine shall inherit the land.

Yet a little while, and the wicked will be no more; though you look diligently for their place, they will not be there.

But the meek shall inherit the land, and delight themselves in abundant prosperity.

The wicked plot against the righteous, and gnash their teeth at them;

but the Sources of Love laugh at the wicked, for they sees that their day is coming.

The wicked draw the sword and bend their bows to bring down the poor and needy, to kill those who walk uprightly;

their sword shall enter their own heart, and their bows shall be broken.

Better is a little that the righteous person has than the abundance of many wicked.

For the arms of the wicked shall be broken, but the divine upholds the righteous.

The Creators knows the days of the blameless, and their heritage will abide forever;

they are not put to shame in evil times, in the days of famine they have abundance.

But the wicked perish, and the enemies of creation are like the glory of the pastures; they vanish—like smoke they vanish away.

The wicked borrow, and do not pay back, but the righteous are generous and keep giving;

for those blessed by the Creator shall inherit the land, but those cursed by him shall be cut off.

Our steps are made firm by the Creator, when Love delights in our way;

though we stumble, we shall not fall headlong, for Love holds us by the hand.

I have been young, and now am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread.

They are ever giving liberally and lending, and their children become a blessing.

Depart from evil, and do good; so you shall abide forever.

For the Creation loves justice; they will not forsake the faithful ones. The righteous shall be kept safe forever, but the children of the wicked shall be cut off.

The righteous shall inherit the land, and live in it forever.

The mouths of the righteous utter wisdom, and their tongues speak justice.

The law of their God is in their hearts; their steps do not slip.

The wicked watch for the righteous, and seek to kill them.

The Creator will not abandon them to their power, or let them be condemned when they are brought to trial.

Wait for the Creators, and keep to their way, and the divine will exalt you to inherit the land; you will look on the destruction of the wicked.

I have seen the wicked oppressing, and towering like a cedar of Lebanon.

Again I passed by, and they were no more; though I sought them, they could not be found.

Mark the blameless, and behold the upright, for there is posterity for the peaceable.

But transgressors shall be altogether destroyed; the posterity of the wicked shall be cut off.

The salvation of the righteous is from the Source of Life who is their refuge in the time of trouble.

The divine helps them and rescues them; the divine rescues them from the wicked, and saves them, because they take refuge in LOVE.  
(Psalm 37)

I wish you and your loved ones a blessed sacred week.  May you experience the power of even a little light as it shines in the darkness.  

Love, 
Jess

CELEBRATE THE SOLSTICE WITH ME!
Enjoy a cozy atmosphere, holiday cheer, energy cleansing & releasing, time to set intentions for the new year, sacred songs, and treats!  And live stream in if you can make it to Fargo!  

CHANNELING IS...EVIL?  
Enjoy this throat chakra activation: 

Weekly Dove Oracle Message Dec 11-17

 

SOUL SPEAK
Some poems for these shortening winter days.  Less words.  More dreaming.  Infinite creation.   

Mom's Old Jeans
The creation of the world begins with a thought
Spoken
Day after day
Year after year

Images conceived
And squeezed into small words
Like old jeans
That do not fit after the babies come

Last year's wineskins
Simply will not hold
This new life
Within

~

I Call Myself Back

I know this sweet pain
The new life that comes
As the skin tears

It's all worth it
We know
The ripping of the two that became one
And strangers again
The holes in the fabric of our lives
That we cannot mend

I know this darkness before me
This eternal hope
Expands the space between
The unknown
And the unlived dream

I call myself back again
From the places I have lost her
From the other lives in which I have sewn her

I call her back to me
Let me be whole again

Let me be holy

~

Terra

Terra you're dying
And my father is crying
The phone is ringing
The preacher man is passing
It's time to answer your call

Dark your earth like Mary's womb
Guards the seed before the boom
Calvary
How sharp is your sting?
It's time to face the tomb

My mermaid is keeping
Secrets lost from my speaking
She's smiling
While I'm scuba diving
I've got to find the key

Because these airplanes keep
Coming down
Headed for the church upon my ground
Her terrorists don't need his apologetics
She's got to sing her own song

Oh Terra
Can you spare a little room
For a girl's mustard seed
To bloom?

She says
Dreams can rise
From the ashes of our lives
Like a phoenix take to the sky
Oh girls come on and rise

After your old dreams die
There is new life
 

Read more poems.

Hear more music, including Christmas songs.

Have a beautiful week.  Be gentle with you.  That's the work now:  LOVE THYSELF, then you shall love the world well.  

<3  Namaste, Jess

Weekly Dove Oracle Message December 4-10

A LITTLE LIGHT CAN DISPEL A LOT OF DARK
I just heard the news that the Pipeline will be rerouted from Standing Rock!  My heart is swelling with joy and I am remembering the wisdom that Gandolf told Frodo: even the smallest person can change the course of the future.  What good news and encouragement for our Native people and all of us earth creatures who are working to heal ourselves and the world to experience how standing for love wins.

May we be encouraged as we stand with love in the battles of our own lives that we are indeed working with a force that is much bigger than all of us for our highest good.  For as my dear friend reminded me, "we come from love and we shall return to love."  So take heart, we are not alone.  We are here to learn the power of love.

I want to invite you to this special ceremony on Wednesday, December 21, at 6:30 p.m. in Fargo, ND at Winds for Change (or tune in to our live stream!) to celebrate the Winter Solstice this year.  This is one of my most favorite times of the year because 14 years ago I had my first child on the Solstice and I became a mother.  This year I am celebrating the completion of my Level I Dove Oracle training where I am becoming a different sort of a mother--one who is birthing herself and her voice, as I share and practice sacred oracle work.   During the darkest night of the year, I will offer every participant a special blessing, energy clearing, sound healing as we set our intentions for 2017.  We will meet in a cozy warm room blessed with so much love.  I hope you can join us and pass along the invitation to others who would benefit.

Visit here to reserve your spot and get more information.  Blessings on these darkening days.  May we each discover how bright our little lights can shine <3

Have a great week!
Namaste,
Jess

 

Weekly Oracle Forecast Nov 27- Dec 3

CLAIM YOUR SOVEREIGNTY & EMBRACE YOUR DIGNITY
How do we move into more conscious and dignified relationships during this time of intense transformation?  Listen to a clip taken from my message in the 7 Gates of Resurrection (Gate 3) to learn how to align yourself with cosmic law as you practice your authentic sovereign power.

GATE TWO INITIATION AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD
Receive a yoga practice focused on the second chakra, a meditation, a mantra, an inspirational message, and more for only $12.  Or begin the journey at GATE ONE.  This teaching is from the 7 Gates of Resurrection Initiation:

WINTER SOLSTICE CELEBRATION
Add some candle light, blessings, sound healing, prayers, setting of intentions for 2017 on the darkest day of the year as we celebrate the Winter Solstice at Winds for Change in Fargo.   Join us here at 6:30 p.m. or we will have a live feed option too!  Click here for details.  

The light in me salutes the light in you, namaste, nameste <3

Jess
Dove Oracle Priestess

Weekly Oracle Forecast Nov 20-26

IT'S TIME TO GROUND AND CENTER

A wise country song once sang, "If you're going through hell, keep going."  
It's time to move to the eye of the storm.
Move to the place of compassionate witness.
Let there be sacred space between you and the other.
Let our edges find the sacred symmetry between our universe and the universe of each sacred being.
Let our core find the sacred symmetry of soul with source.  
This is a time of great awakening.  As the light of our days decreases, we anchor in.  We root deep.  We take time to assess:  do I need this for the journey?  If it does not serve the highest good of ourselves and all beings than the answer is likely no.
Now is the time to go within.  Change begins here.  Make peace with your soul, and the whole world shall be at peace. 
We are the point of power.
We are the ones we have been waiting for.
Just breathe.  For the present moment contains everything.  

ENJOY THIS 10 MIN GROUNDING PRACTICE + MEDITATION
My gift to you.  <3 May you find your soul grounded and expansive this week.  

Many blessings,
Jess

BEGIN AN INITIATION OF HEALING: GATE ONE AVAILABLE
Gain an understanding of an ancient pattern of healing and resurrection on this imaginative journey... (click image below)

TAKE A PEAK INSIDE THE TEMPLE AND HEAR SOME OF MY STORY

EXPERIENCE THE MAGIC OF THE SEASON
Join me for a Winter Solstice celebration in Fargo at Winds for Change at 6:30 p.m. (or join in on live feed wherever you are) to bless the 2017 year, to experience a sound healing, intuitive readings, meditation, setting of intentions and more <3  Click the image below to learn more.

2017 YEAR OF FAIRY WISDOM CALENDAR
(Haven't you looked at Donald Trump enough??)  This sweet calendar comes with fairy inspiration and notes all of the full and new moons, plus the super eclipse next summer!  Get one before they run out!

Weekly Oracle Forecast Nov 13-19

SO ORANGE IS GOING TO BE THE NEW BLACK

I think the Buddha was onto something when he said that what makes us one is our suffering. It's our attempts at denying the suffering that really creates all the problems.  When we can't even feel the depths of our suffering, that we have to project it upon someone else in order to contain it, fears, self-loathing, self-hate, all this stuff can seep out of us and onto someone else because it can appear too big to contain, too other to own, too much of a threat to our ego and our present way of life.

Orange is the color of the 2nd chakra which is all about creativity.  

Chaos precedes new life.

I had to find a baby picture of Donald J. Trump so I could reach beyond the walls of our mutual self-protection and practice to connecting my heart to another expression of creation.  In my transmission below I find myself beholding a wounded little boy who was taught at a very young age to shut down his connection to his feelings in order to be a man.  This is the soul of the man I want to retrieve for all of us, because it is also an aspect of our humanity and our collective consciousness, for all souls come from the one source of life.  

The way through is to love all parts of self, for we are each a reflection of our wildest dreams and deepest fears.

DT's grown up image triggers that part of me that was able to deny my own suffering for many years, that part of me that knew how to push down my true feelings, wants and needs in order to fit in and go with the flow and find acceptance in the dominant culture.  It reminds me of an overly critical voice I used to have, that treated myself with less respect than I deserved because I was complicit with a culture that devalued the feminine and things considered weak. 

For years I blamed the culture.  That was a part of my awakening.  Then I had to begin to face my complicity.  I had to look into the wound and face all the ways in which I devalued myself.  I had to claim my sovereignty and move from my victimhood into power as I picked up the girl who was waiting for a hero, as I work on being the change I wish to see in the world rather than pointing out the faults of everyone else.

I have been learning how to love those "unlovable" parts of self for many years now.  I understand how a wounded child can wall themselves off, putting the scariest faces in front of their most vulnerable aspects.  If we can stop reacting to the walls of fear, we can learn to compassionately see behind the veil, behind the scary protective masks, the wounded child who is throwing a tantrum.  

If I can be a good mother to myself, I can also mother other wounded children. 

Each of us holds within us a sacred core, an inviolable spirit.

Each of us has sacred vulnerable edges that long to expand into the unknown.  

May Jacob's ladder connect the sacred dimensions of soul and universe.

The shadow appears to be healed.  

Great mothers, it's time to rise.

The opposites are designed to hold tension, structure, soul, spirit, light--not to war against one another.  Children, be at peace with your brothers and sisters.  

Once the suffering is witnessed with compassion, the dread dissolves and joy rises again.   The Great Mother shows compassion for all who are brave enough to enter her chaos and witness her suffering, which is our own.  For as we own our complicity, we can die to the old ways of life, experience transformation, and rise again.  We are a part of an ancient story

Humanity's wounds go way back.  Some of us have been working on healing them.  Some of us are still focused on blaming someone else for our suffering and willing to do to others what was done to us as we find our way to more awareness.

Though it appears chaotic, this is the terrain of new life.  We are indeed moving towards oneness; not the kind of oneness that forces conformity, but the kind of oneness that creates unity consciousness as it honors all expressions of life as an expression of our One Source.  

Suffering cannot hide underneath the rocks anymore.  It is out in the open to be seen so that all can be healed.  

May rage lead to us to transform existing structures of hate.

May grief lead us to self-love.  

May fear lead us to refuse to stay asleep in our lives any longer.  

We are the ones we have been waiting for. 

We are enough.  

We were made for such a time as this.

Donald J. Trump as a toddler.

Donald J. Trump as a toddler.

This is an oracle transmission I did last week after I was in a deep meditative state as I asked what can heal us now?  I share the vision that came to me.       

I'M EXTENDING ENROLLMENT IN THIS PROGRAM UNTIL THIS FRIDAY:
Visit HERE for all the details.

Dove Oracle Message: All Saints Day Transmission

As I step out in this new role I plan to offer these special divine transmissions exclusively to my 2017 Annual Members.  

A Silver Annual Membership includes:

  • Divine transmissions (like the one above) sent to you in an email on every New and Full Moon PLUS special transmissions on high holy days or any other time I feel the spirit nudging me to share.  
  • TARALOMA Earth Temple weekly E-zine which includes weekly Oracle Forecasts, Cat Lady Card Readings, and more

A Gold Annual Membership includes:

  • 50% off your first Oracle Reading
  • One free yoga video of your choice


Thank you so much for supporting me and my children so that I can continue to focus on being a clear channel for divinely transmitting during time of great awakening.  

~ ~ ~

What does it mean to be an Oracle?  It means to honor the very essence of the Divine Feminine nature, to be a vessel, a mouth piece for the Goddess.  I recently learned about what happened to the Oracles at Delphi, how they were captured, raped, forced only transmit messages from the male God, Apollo.  Hearing this story awakened my cellular memory.  The days of women being forced to be a mouthpiece for patriarchy is over.  The days of women being raped and silenced by patriarchy is over.   The true meaning of virginity is about being whole in one's self.  Not sacrificing soul and self for others, not forcing and dominating others to believe like we do.  No longer must women be cut off from our spiritual heritage and forced to serve the patriarchy.  We are returning to our right relationship to the Goddess.  We are coming into sacred balance, honoring the yin and the yang, the sacred feminine and sacred masculine, while talking honestly about the shadows of both, so that all may be healed.

 (Pick up my Fairy Calendar which notes the Moon cycles.)



 

Weekly Oracle Forecast Nov 6-12

I AM THE LAND

When I was 13 I was raped behind the high school on a freshly laid slab of concrete.  My therapist has suggested maybe not introducing myself like this.  Some Native Americans have been given names that tell of their brave stories and triumphs.  I feel I need a new name.  Maybe:  The Land that was Conquered has been Redeemed.  It wasn't long after that fateful day that I had been renamed the "school slut."  I was the new girl in a small town to which my military family had recently relocated.  I quickly learned the power of stories and rumors to sweep us away from the truth as my peers and I were suddenly caught up in a myth that was much bigger than we were.  

I was chosen, as many girls are, to hold the archetype of the "school slut" in the junior high imagination.  I was the girl who was elected to usher the community into their deepest sexual fears and darkest wildest fantasies.   

My ego identity wasn't well prepared for this new role. I was naive, weird, a mystical school girl who loved spending hours alone in her room reading Nancy Drew, listening to Amy Grant and speaking in tongues when I prayed.  In public I was extremely shy.  At home I was blissfully wild.  I had only kissed a boy once and while it was magical, it was also completely terrifying. Still, I was at the developmental stage where it was time to break away from my family of origin and connect more with my peers--which was difficult because I was... different.

In this quest to connect with my peers, I focused on escaping my Queendom of Nerdom where I had reigned for many years and was addressed by the titles of "Prude" and "Goodie-Two-Shoes" by my constituents probably because my royal clothes included I LOVE JESUS T-shirts and I went to church every Sunday and Wednesday.  This is the girl who begged her mom for contacts when her family got orders to move between 7th and 8th grade in a bold attempt to ascend the social ladder.  She also stopped wearing those t-shirts and another myth came to pass: the ugly duckling became a swan who couldn't see herself very clearly. 

I didn't tell my parents what happened that summer until I was 37 years old (just three years ago) in an effort to make amends and make some sense of the chaotic teen years that followed that incident which included an attempted suicide and being sent away to live with extended family in another state until the rumors blew over.  In many ways my life has continued to echo this trauma which erupted something like a pipeline expelling barrels of toxins a day.  I have grown up with parts of self and soul feeling helplessly dirty like the animals and the rivers and the oceans covered in black oil, as I tried desperately to clean up and hide this big mess which included a lot of self hatred and deep shame.  That stuff can take years to heal.  Many never recover.

~

I am revealing to you the trauma I am working to heal, not for anyone to feel sorry for me, that's not the point.  I'm not the point.  I'm just playing a role, just as you are, in a story that is much bigger than ourselves.  I'm sharing my story so that we can remember our mission in the grand scheme of things.

~

My great grandfather was a circuit rider preacher.  He rode his horse around to minister to the early settlers in the plains of the Dakotas. In one visit (sometimes annually) he would marry, bury, baptize, and absolve the whole community.  Pastor Froiland also served in Mayville, North Dakota where my grandmother grew up.  My ancestors had a homestead near Estoria, South Dakota.  Like many around these parts, we inherited Native land in the Homestead Act.  We received the land as "a gift from God" thanks to some crafty theological work called: The Doctrine of Discovery which contained the harmful ideas of Manifest Destiny. This doctrine basically declared white Europeans more holy than the earth based indigenous heathens, and gave settlers divine permission to dominate and assimilate the Native Americans, their children, their way of life, stealing their lands like the Hebrew people stole Canaan, doing evil in the name of God.  See how these larger traumas echo throughout time.  

~

When I was 13, I quickly learned how in my world the tender feminine body was grounds for seizing and dispensing.  I felt used and thrown away like all the other plastic containers that are tossed into landfills.  No wonder men retire and get depressed.  We are taught that we are valued for what we produce, not for who we are.  At a young age I learned that my inner world was not valuable to the dominant culture.  I learned my role was to be object, not subject.  What my culture did and continues to do to the Natives, it also does to me and you, for assimilation is its own kind of rape.  It denies the beautiful diverse expressions of humanity.  It denies depth, dimension, and soul for a 3D concrete reality that insists the highest law in all of creation is not love but: might makes right.  We each must choose which law to obey, Divine Law or the ruling powers of this world which are presently bent on destroying creation. Things are a lot out of balance.  (Trust me I'm a professional yoga teacher who knows balance when I see it.) 

~

The spirituality I inherited from my ancestors was lofty and intellectual and disconnected from the body and from the earth. It had to be, for it bore the karmic consequences of being a part of the dominating and assimilating culture. My spiritual stories tell of being kicked out of the garden. The Natives do not, for they are the original caretakers of the garden.

~

My ancestors are hardworking, passionate people who fight for justice.  My grandmother has made repeated trips to the Holy Land to advocate for Christian Palestinians and fight against human rights violations. (She's visited there over 18 times, and she's hard to keep up with even in her 90s!)  My ancestors were upstanding citizens that pitched in to help their local communities as pastors, choir directors, and teachers who valued access to education and supported women's suffrage.  As ministers they also forgave the settlers for their sins.  But I'm not sure we are totally forgiven yet because the wounds of generational trauma still squirm under our stoic Scandinavian codes of silence.  Wishing the problem would just go away does not make it go away.  I know that the word repentance means "to turn around"  and that true forgiveness restores and reconciles us with God and God's creation.  True forgiveness heals.  As I behold the stand off between police and Natives in Cannonball, ND, it is clear to me that many of my people are not yet reconciled and that there is healing yet to come.   

~

As I behold the police in all their weaponry, I am reminded of my family's military life growing up on bases. I know so many good men, including my father, who are drawn to the military to serve their country with honor.  I want to remind good men that honor is not found in blind obedience, that's why Jesus was always asking: whom do you serve?  Because you cannot serve God and money.  So use your honor and integrity and strength to truly serve the greater good and not the powers that wish to destroy that which is good. Honor and service to others is found in defending the sacred, so make sure you can truly discern what is sacred and what is not. 

~

A long time ago I was asked to initiate people into the Underworld, at the time I had no idea that this initiation would eventually lead to a ministry as a healer.  As a 27 year veteran Queen of the Underworld and newly Dove Oracle Priestess, I now understand that the fires and trials we go through of are not for damnation but transformation. What appears to us as impending destruction is merely the beginnings of birth pangs.  

What appears to be a catastrophe, over time, becomes a strong foundation from which to live a good life.

-Dr. Rachael Naomi Remen

Denial will not help us through the birth canal that surrounds us at this time.  Facing the pain and using it so that it can be transformed into new life will.  I tell you the truth: it is sin and the ruling powers of this world that are out of alignment with Divine Law that will finally be destroyed and there will be a new heaven and a new earth.  So keep doing what is right.  For the second coming is near.  

~

My hair is the same color as the golden prairie.  My eyes reflect the cornflower blue sky which canopies wide over these Dakota plains.  When the moon is full, I bleed. When I am excited or sad, I flow like a river.  When I am pregnant, I bloom like the crocus in spring.  I am intrinsically connected to creation.  I am the land.  The land is me.  You cannot separate us.  We were born connected.  What is done to the land is done to me.  What is done to me is done to my children and and my children's children for many generations to come.

~

When my children were born I began to worry about the water.  What is in it?  Is it clean?  Is it safe?  Mother knows why the waters are sacred, and why they must be protected.  We are surrounded by water in the womb.  We are surrounded by water in the body.  We are surrounded by the watery atmosphere that nourishes our life.  In its smallest expression, water is light, water is star stuff, tiny six pointed stars that remind us of who we really are.  Mother knows that the health of our bodies and our babies is connected to the water

~

I am wearing my Grandfather's alb (there are a lot of Lutheran ministers in my family) and my Grandmother's ancestral jewelry.  I am here upon this land where my Great Grandfather may have ridden his horse as he made his circuit.  This is not my land, but it is my spiritual country.  I am here to make amends for myself and all who wish to join me.  For many generations we have been able to deny our connection to our bodies and the land.  In this generation we cannot.  The time has come to turn around.

~

My rape was but an echo of a much larger rape that is happening to the earth, and maybe this is why we as individuals are supposed to stay silent, lest we wake up and see that the rape of the earth is connected to the rape of the dignity of our humanity.  For what we do to the earth and to others, we ultimately do to ourselves and to our children and to our children's children. The sins of the father are passed down to the next generation.  But look, the time of rebirth is at hand.  The veils are parting.  We are beginning to see: we are one human family.

~

On November 3, 2016 I stood around the sacred fires at Standing Rock with over 524 spiritual leaders from across the country to present to the Native American Elders the Doctrine of Discovery to burn.  "We were wrong," we declared.  My body quaked with relief and I sobbed.  Never before have so many people of different ancestral and religious backgrounds gathered together in peace, in prayer, unified in cause and love for one another and for the land.  

Friends, this is not just going to go away: this is going to renew our world.

Young and old Native woman spoke with trembling lips and tears running down their faces, "We have been waiting for you all to come for a very long time.  Seeing you all here, this heals us.  We are so happy that you are here.  We forgive you."  

On that day I received absolution for myself and my people from the Native women as I stood in my ancestor's ministerial robes.  Their tears washed the black snake of rape from my body, as they affirmed something that has been difficult for me to hold onto: if the land is sacred, then so is my body. So many years the slick toxins of self hate and shame polluted my body and kept me severed from my instincts.  I am a conquered land no more.  I am redeemed.  As I receive their forgiveness I am invited to return to the Garden, to return to my body, and to return to my soul.  And so are you.

Love, 

Jessica
Dove Oracle Priestess at TARALOMA Earth Temple.  
See what services I have to offer you here!

Introducing TARALOMA Earth Temple Mystery School On-Line Courses beginning in January 2016! &nbsp;Learn more here.

Introducing TARALOMA Earth Temple Mystery School On-Line Courses beginning in January 2016!  
Learn more here.

Weekly Oracle Forecast Oct 30-Nov 5

Voyage.png

WHAT TO SLAUGHTER, WHAT TO BREED?
These are high holy days marking the end of the harvest cycle.  Long before Pope Boniface put a new twist on the ancient Celtic celebrations in an attempt to Christianize the nature religions in the 7th century by renaming this feast "All Hallows Eve" from ancient times people have marked this time of year with reverence and wonder.  Later Martin Luther donned Halloween 'Reformation Day' grafting the Protestants into the tradition too.  In The Episcopal Church we celebrate All Souls Day and All Saints Day at this time. No matter what your religious preferences, people throughout history and around the world agree that this is a time to celebrate the end of harvest time and to remember the dead.

I am scrambling to put together creative costumes for my children and dreading the influx of sugar and corn syrup in my home, I know it would be easy to miss the deep spiritual energy that is available to us during this time.  As I was brushing up on my Halloween history, I also learned that the livestock were judged at this time as it was decided which to slaughter and which to breed.  Who stays in this realm and who goes on to other realms.  During this time, the veil between the realms is thin; we can make peace with those who have passed and take some time to prepare to face our own death someday.

Here is what I plan to do:  I will take some time to sit at my altar and honor my relatives who have passed and ask for their guidance as I move into a new season of my life with the intention to honor them and bring healing to my family line.  I will take some time to honor all who have died, all souls stuck between worlds, and offer guidance to the light.  I will honor the earth as her energy is moving into the underworld.  I will take some time to reflect on what needs to die in my life and what needs to be nourished into more abundance.  

I would love to hear some of your ideas to commemorate this sacred time in the comments below and also what you plan to release and what you plan to nourish.  (Tonight is the new moon!  A potent time for seeding intentions!)  

One thing I have put a lot of energy into over the past year is studying and practicing the way of the ancient priestess as I began a Dove Oracle Priestess program.  My sisters and I discovered many old fears which have needed to be slaughtered along the journey as we were initiated beyond many taboo thresholds to reconnect with our core feminine essence and unique sacred nature.  Through hours of studying ancient esoteric mysticism and refining my meditation practice, I have discovered an opening to the 'thin places' and I have experienced divine guidance coming through with more grace and ease.  My training will end on the Winter Solstice on December 21 where I will come into the world as a Dove Oracle Priestess.  If you are in the Fargo-Moorhead area I hope you will join me for this special event (details to come!).  

Enjoy these pictures from our last retreat, and explore www.taraloma.com to discover how my ministry is unfolding with several new offerings for 2017.     

The light in me salutes the light in you!  Have a blessed week <3

Jessica

Weekly Oracle Forecast Oct 23-29

From the photo shoot:&nbsp;Sacred Wood Nymph, A Year of Fairy Wisdom 2017 Calendar, standing on the chopping block used for gutting fish.

From the photo shoot: Sacred Wood Nymph, A Year of Fairy Wisdom 2017 Calendar, standing on the chopping block used for gutting fish.

SOAP BOXES & CHOPPING BLOCKS, WHO IS RIGHTEOUS?

(Excerpts from a sermon preached this morning at Shepherd of the Moravian Church, Fargo, ND)

What does it mean to be righteous? 

People used to stand on top of soap boxes in the public square (to make themselves taller) and to sway the crowds politically.  We have many such metaphorical soap boxes today: the podiums of the debates, social media, even this pulpit—though I’m pretty sure I'm tall enough for everyone to see me without any extra help.  We must be careful when people take to these places of power and assert that they are right and someone else is wrong, for when we create the soap box for preaching rightness we consequentially participate in creating it’s opposite: the chopping block.  A truly righteous person who stands up to speak the truth will only put their own sin on the chopping block—not a group of people, not strangers, not their enemies. 

For to be righteous is to be fully integrated as a human being.  To be righteous is to be made whole.  To be righteous is to be healed from the illusions about ourselves and others.  To be righteous is to be able to see clearly one’s own wrong, ones one shadow, one’s own sin.  For our mistakes and our sins can be our greatest teachers.  For once we know better, we are able to do better. 

Once we have tasted of that inner holy sanctuary and been in the presence of the Holy of Holies, once we have been looked upon by our beloved and seen fully for who we really are, once we have been loved beyond what we feel we may deserve, once we have tasted this grace and this joy, then we know to be righteous is to be humble.

The New Testament gospel text for today in the book of Luke show us two characters: which of these are righteous?  The Pharisee believes he is righteous and he goes about declaring all of the ways he has followed the social norms, the way he has followed the laws, the way he is righteous according to human standards… less than human actually, because he is enslaved and possessed and blinded because he has confused the powers of this world with the divine.  He has conflated them.  He cannot see his own sin.  He cannot see his shadow.  He cannot see the ways in which his actions harm others because according to this Pharisee only he is righteous and he looks with judgment upon others.  He has not integrated his shadow.  He lets other people hold his shadow, he lets other people take the blame for the consequences of his actions, in order that he may FEEL righteous, but he is not righteous. 

In modern day psychology this is called projective identification: this is when you gaze upon a person and for better or worse they illicit a strong response within you, usually before you know them very well which makes ample room for the projection of self.  Usually a part of self that we are uncomfortable with and haven’t been able to integrate yet within our own self-consciousness. (In broad strokes: if it is a positive projection we idealize them, if it is negative we demonize them.)  We gaze upon someone else and those things that remain untended within, those sheep which have not yet come fully into the fold to receive the love and acceptance of the Good Shepherd wander off among the wolves.  Parts of self wander off to the chopping blocks.    

We have cast off our sins upon others so like the Pharisee, we may FEEL righteous, but those of us who blame others in order to feel better about ourselves are often those who feel most cut off from the love of God.   And in our panic to make things right, we grasp for control in order to ease the anxiety.   A fellow yoga teacher reminded me recently:  we can justify anything with the mind, but the body doesn’t lie.  If our righteousness depends on us rationalizing our superiority to others, then it is not righteousness we have found: but the ancient chains of slavery that we have been trying to escape since the Hebrews fled Egypt.  If our righteousness depends upon rationalizing our superior to others, we are still enslaved because we have confused the powers of this world with the divine.  We have conflated them.  And we cannot see our own sin.   

So do not use others to hold your sins.  Do not objectify others.  Do not allow others to serve as scapegoats to hold our own shadows.  Do not enslave yourself to sin.  The old ways have passed.  No longer can we place our sins upon a scapegoat to rid us of our anxieties.  Jesus has already agreed to become the scapegoat for all of humanity’s sins.  Our mistakes are here to teach us.  Once we learn from our ways of wrong, we are free.  But we cannot be free unless we are willing to face our sins. 

Jesus says that he goes to prepare a banquet before us and that ALL are invited.  This means not only all parts of ourselves, not only each one of us, but every living being that has sprung from the light of source, all are welcome home. 

Who is righteous?  The righteous receive the invitation to return home, to enter the holy of holies, to walk through the sheep’s gate.  The righteous hungers and thirst to be in the presence of the One Most High.  The righteous have beheld the sin of turning away from source, of betraying self, of betraying soul, of betraying God, of betraying the earth, of betraying other people, of becoming complicit in acts of evil that lead to destruction of creation, that lead to years of traumatic pain, the righteous are able to behold the immensity of what we done in our consciousness and unconsciousness. 

The righteous are able to behold and to beat our breasts and say ‘oh god have mercy on me, what have I done? How did I trade in this beautiful gift of life, of soul, of light?  How did I trade in my inherent dignity and divinity to act like a monster?  How did I trade that in to live a half-life?  How did I trade it in to settle?  To compromise?’… not the kind that aids in human growth and peace, but the kind of compromise that actively works to keep people unconscious, that actively works to wound others, that actively works with systems of power that want to prey on the weak and exploit the small, with powers that actively want to destroy the earth and treat God’s creation as if it’s a garbage can. 

Wake up oh sleepers and rise from the dead, and the light shall shine upon you again.  Come Lord Jesus, restore us, renew us.  We behold what we have done to ourselves and others, we behold the pain we have inflicted on others, we are not afraid to descend into the truth of our being and to behold the depths that we find there, we walk with courage knowing that you have walked this way before us, and as we descend into the truth of our being, we will not lose love.  New life may be painful, but we will be transformed, it may be scary, but ultimately as we make the hard journey of becoming conscious of waking up to the powers that God has given us to co-create and to bring into existence divine love on earth.  We know that we walk this journey not alone.  We walk it with the saints who have gone before us, we walk with Jesus our teacher and friend, we walk with with Mary and Mary Magdalene, we walk with the Holy Spirit, we walk with all the women and men who have hungered and thirst for righteousness for ages and ages, we walk together with eyes wide open to the horrors that we face, to the pain of humanity, to the systems and structures of power which continue to enslave us. 

We open our spiritual eyes now to behold any place in our life that is in need of forgiveness and healing and we open our heart to receive the light of love pouring into our bodies now.

We receive who we are.  We receive the soul of ourselves into our bodies.  We declare that our bodies have been created as temples of light to shine the One Most High who lives within us.  If you wish to receive a healing integration,  say your full name, first middle and last or your baptismal name, say it three times inviting the light of your soul, that part of the divine which broke off and became you, to live fully in your body, and to expand into the world for the highest good of all beings.  You are also a face of the divine.  Receive who you are.  You are the one you have been waiting for.  Come Lord Jesus come.  Lead us into the holy of holies, lead us into the temple of our bodies, keep us awake, keep us conscious and learning. 

May the angels surround us as all the righteous people of the world rise up with humility and courage and love as we invite Divine Love to reign within us and upon the earth now and forever.       

Amen.