Green snake in tree

Channeling Snake

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I am channeling snake. I have been given this serpent archetype in rites and initiations with my Peruvian mentors. I spent time cultivating a relationship with snake in my early shamanic training, but a writing prompt made me realize it had been a long time since I spent time with serpent’s wisdom so I come to page to see what serpent has to share. I long to find that reconnection to the body that moves in conjunction with the pulse of life.  Fluid, sensuous. Shedding the past. I want to shed my old patterns like the snake. Wish it were as easy as it appears to the snake. If I could simply find a branch or a rock and rub my head against it and then just slip out of the thoughts and beliefs that hold me back. Scientists say snakes get this layer of lubrication between the old skin […]

Carol tending fire at Palm Springs retreat

Tending Fires

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Humans have been tending fires for thousands of years as a form of survival. The fire kept us warm, kept predators at bay, gave us  ability to cook. Today most of us are not concerned with keeping fire in the hearth to keep the house warm, we rely on invisible energy sources like electricity and natural gas to keep our homes warm and to cook. But we still like a fireplace or sitting around a campfire.  It is like it hardwired into our DNA to make us feel connected, a place to gather and tell stories. I love to hold fire ceremonies. Tending fire connects me to mysticism and ancestors of the land. I love to watch how each fire accepts the offerings and alchemizes them. Some are consumed immediately some take a while to burn. A couple of weeks ago at our first Live Your Opulence Retreat, we had […]

Pachamama Mother Earth by Carol Woodliff

Communing with Pachamama (Mother Earth) A Prayer

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Sometimes in life we have to go to the Divine Mother.   Connecting to Pachamama (Mother Earth), the divine nurturing feminine always grounds me and helps me.   Sharing a prayer or incantation I wrote the other day after one of my grounding to her meditations. A Prayer to Pachamama I sit cross legged on the grass, feeling the sun on my face.  Closing my eyes.   Breathing deeply.   In my suburban backyard on a freshly mowed lawn, I extend a root from my vagina connecting to Pachamama,  the Earth Mother.  An energetic umbilical cord.  Anchor me, nourish me, ground me, feed the soul of me that needs to know that in my human form I am loved, I am her perfect child.  That I belong like the trees and the flowers.  That there is a home for me. It is a longing for connection that drives me outside to be…to slow down.  […]

6 Questions for When Energy is Churning

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Are you feeling the energy churn? If you are energy sensitive, you may feel anxious or exhausted when you look at the news.  And sometimes the energy is mixed with changes we want to make in our own lives so we feel like we can’t separate what is ours (family, job issues, health or money issues) from what we are picking up from the world (political unease, environmental concerns, etc.).  I call this feeling the energy churn.  That internal tornado of feelings that stirs up all sorts of thoughts.  “We need to change.  I don’t know what to do!  The world feels unsafe! I don’t want to do this!” It can be so easy to let the energy churn and end up wanting to pull the covers over your head and check out for a while.  I’ve been having more and more days where I have wanted to pull the […]

Video 3 questions to shift your energy

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I was honored to be one of 18 wisdom keepers sharing a tool to help us navigate the Solstice and the time we are living. This annual solstice online event was created and hosted by Renee Baribeau, Author of Winds of Spirit.  It is always such an honor to join Renee for conversation. Three Simple Questions This year, I chose these three questions that can be used in journaling, meditation or ceremony to call your energy back into present time and realize what power you have to shift. Where do I feel or notice this energy? What is the story that goes with it? Where can I shift? That’s it? Those are the questions?  Yep.  I  find that the most basic questions yield the most powerful results.  I truly believe in the KISS principle (Keep it simple sweetheart).  You see what I did there?  No calling people stupid in my blog! These […]

Love Forward Talk: Family & Ancestral Healing

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It was such a joy to be one of the speaker’s at the  Love Forward Talks in Pasadena, CA on 11/11/18.   Bridget Fonger, author of the upcoming Superhero of Love book and her team produced an amazing event. My talk is about family/ancestral healing and my mother Lucille.  I believe that any one of us who can shift our story and send love back to our ancestors can actually heal our small part of the world.  When we do that, we will never know how many ripples of love we can create.  One note:  I had a brain disconnect and misspoke.  My grandfather died before my parents were married not before the were born!  I didn’t even realize I had said that till I heard the playback!   Otherwise I am so happy with how this speech turned out.  Our goal with the event was to share stories that help all of […]

Take it to the Fire

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Every day there seems to be something that could make me sink into despair if I didn’t have regular practices to help me stay grounded.  It feels like all the darkness is up for healing like a deep-rooted infection, it is asking for our attention.  It is exhausting. We are witnessing millennia of winner/loser and kill-or-be-killed thinking.  It is action/reaction creating a revolving door of retribution and “what about-ism.”  For those of us trying to connect to our highest heart and create a more loving world, witnessing events that seem to show the worst of humanity rising may be too much for us to bear at times. I feel a sense of Déjà vu.  One of my friends and I joke, “here we go again!”  as we talk about the sense that we have been in places like Atlantis and Lemuria as those civilizations fell.  We remind each other that […]