The Neutrality, The Permanence, The I-AM, and That

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Solar Braids by JanCarol

I believe that there is Something

Whether it is “weird action at a distance” or a soul –

That connects All Life together.

That Something is greater than all of us.

A dear friend speaks to me about “The Neutrality.”  I had never heard that name used before, but it is useful.

I have always called it The Witness (meditation) or The Self (Advaita Vedanta) or Atman (yoga), Causality (also yoga),  the I-AM (Judeo Christian) or That (also Advaita Vedanta), Eternity (many religions) or Permanence.

You can be personal, or you can be neutral.

You cannot be both at the same time, even though that is exactly the definition of you.  You can breathe in, and breathe out – and still be both you (the individual) and You (the Divine).

In a personal perspective, your emotions are large, your thoughts are mile-a-minute and you engage with them and ruminate.  Your problems are insurmountable, and the next goal is all you want.

Stepping back to the “neutrality,” is like getting into a jet plane and looking down – observing – that tiny city – those emotions become tiny, the thoughts – are just brain firings, and the problems and goals – are just one small life.

You can do both, but a shift is required to even perceive the neutrality (most people can’t do it), then you can Be Here Now, truly in the now.

You can get lost in the personality, and have to remind yourself that the neutrality is still there, you are still connected to the Oneness, and the personality fades as you realise that.

This is how you set the ego free.

It is also how you refine the personality, by ‘witnessing’ it.  (a meditation event).  By stepping back into the Permanent, your problems and emotions are diminished, but when you return to the Impermanent, the Personality – your experience as a Divine, Permanent Being – influences and changes your personality.

Personality is the things we are as a human.  Emotions, feelings, memories, thoughts, identity, history – all the things that make up the individuality.

Causality – or beyond  is the permanent part of us.

Papaji and Eckhart Tolle explain.  When you ask, “Who am I?” Papaji wants to know – who is asking the question?  Who is “I” and who is asking to define I?  Eckhart Tolle had a flash of insight when he realised in a state of depression:  “I don’t like myself.”  He then realised that there is a split between “I” and “Myself,” and in his delving into this split, he found the difference between the Eternal (“I” in this sentence) and the Temporary (“myself” or the personality).

The clearest way to be aware of causality is mindfulness.

My first lesson in mindfulness was about train cars.  As you are meditating, your thoughts are train cars going by on the tracks.  Your brain’s job is to think, to produce thoughts.  In meditation, you let the train roll by, observing the train cars, then letting them go so that the next one can come.  To engage in a train car is to “get stuck,” so you go back to the breath, and observe the thoughts again.

Personality is the cars and their contents, and it can be useful to explore the cars and their contents.  There is self knowledge, and a move towards individuation,  to examine these feelings and what they are teaching you about the human experience.  “That” is the observer which watches the cars go by, the cars are always changing, but That is Permanent.

Who is it that observes your thoughts?

That’s Causality.

Once, all of my religion and spirituality existed in personality. “I believe this because -” and I was very invested in religion as the identity of my personality.   Now I am finding that I am able to use my personality (the train cars, the body, the emotions, the thoughts, the passions) to drive my own train, and yet I can still, observe it from a position of Permanence.

First, I explored the Personality, to learn more about why I am Human and made this way.

Then, I stepped back into Objectivity/Causality, to detach from the Personality

NOW, I am plunging that Objectivity back into the Personality to infuse my existence with the Holy.

This is also called “not taking it personally” in the Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz.

Neutrality is the observer, the witness, in meditation.  I am not thought, feeling, pain, relationships, I AM lies beyond that.

There is a movie.  It is projected on the wall.  The neutrality is not the story of the movie, nor is it the wall upon which the story is projected.  It is not the projector.  It is the light upon which all things ride, and the darkness which dances with the light.

Because I am human, I have a mind, and my mind wants to attach to the stories, to the wall, to the projector, to the methods and the practices.  But the truth is, I am not those things.  I am That.

Neutrality is identifying with the permanent, the Whole, the One, That, the Self, instead of identifying with the personality, the temporary, the emotions, the thoughts, all of the things bound up in individuality.

To Channel neutrality is to open oneself up to the openness and possibility of the Divine, and to let go into that, knowing that all will be well.

The permanent will always care for the impermanent, and has a deeper understanding of the layers of causality in this existence.

From Neutrality comes the drumming, comes the words that I share with the people who ask for them.  From the Neutrality comes the connection, the gifts of animal, plant, stone medicine, earth, sea, sky, space.  From the Neutrality comes the gifts of the Gods – though the Gods themselves are personality, they, like me, are channels for the eternal gifts.

 

Medicine Wheel and First Totem

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Our story starts with this symbol:

4 Directions Medicine Wheel

This symbol was given to me by a Caribbean Practitioner (Shaman? Witch? Healer?) of Taino heritage  who gave me a personal totem of Green Parrot.  My first totem, medicine animal.

I was young and egotistical.  I thought I should have a tiger or a bear or an eagle as my personal totem, not a Green Parrot.

I lived in Indiana.  There were no Green Parrots there.  I was arrogant, and too ignorant to know better. (interesting, as Green Parrot now reminds me to not be deceived by appearances!)

This symbol is the Medicine Wheel.

She said, the first part of your journey is to learn the Medicine Wheel.

I spent the next 20 years of my life learning the Medicine Wheel.  I am still learning the Medicine Wheel!  The wisdom and teaching of the Medicine Wheel is the basis for all of my practice, and it is, like any other study, infinite in its potential for learning and growth.

The Four Directions (also called Four Elements):

East – Air – Thought & Ideas

South – Fire – Passion & Play & Innocence, giving

West – Water – Emotion & Spirits of the Ancestors

North – Earth – Physical body, possessions, holding and grounding (including making a living).

As I worked these, and met other teachers, I learned about more directions:

Above – Male energy, Sky Father, Weather, Rain that fertilizes the womb of Earth.

Below – Female energy, Earth Mother, the fertile ground which gives all nourishment

Within – That spark of divine within me that touches the whole world.

Walkside Left and Right – companions of our Creative and Rational sides.

(Walksides, I learned from Tsalagi Wise Man, Don Waterhawk, who learned from Grandmother Twylah.  Tsalagi is what white folk call “Cherokee.”)

So 20 years, I spent, studying, learning and growing within the Medicine Wheel.  The Medicine Wheel divides the Sacred from the ordinary, makes a space where it is safe to Invoke and Create and Perform Ceremony, Ritual, and Magick.   I learned a pipe ceremony, from a white man, who was given the ceremony from a red man.  This ceremony was suitable for white folk to use, and I took it up as a weekly practice.  I gave the ceremony to a half dozen people over my life.  I made a Medicine wheel out of birch frame and sheepskin, with my Totem Animals on it (but there were no Green Parrots.  I had forgotten about the Green Parrot!)

Then I moved to Australia.

In Australia,  the North was the South, and the Water was to the East and the practitioners here sometimes call the Elements of the Medicine Wheel according to – where is the ocean, where is the mountain, where is the lake, where is the wind?  But when I looked at my Medicine Wheel Inside, I could not match it to the elements outside.  The Chinese have 7 elements, including wood and metal.  I began to get confused.  How could I match that within me, to an outer practice?

In Ayurveda and yoga, the elements reside in the same places in the body, and they spin according to your body, not according to which hemisphere of the planet you live upon.

Even worse, how could I teach it?  Everyone here has a different view of the Medicine Wheel!

Some put fire in the North, some put it in the West.

Some put water in the East, some put it in the North

And so on.

So how could I teach this very basic thing, how to make Safe Space – without teaching the Medicine Wheel?

I offer a simple chart for my Circle:

Lately, I have learned that different Native American tribes place different elements in different quarters of the medicine wheel, too.  For me, now, each person needs to find their directions, find their own compass, to understand.  Learning the 4 elements is a terrific place to start, and honouring them in your practice will teach more about where they are on your Medicine Wheel.  It depends on your tradition, your blood, what you are attracted to, the land upon which you walk, and your inner guidance.

I wish I could just say, THIS direction is THIS element, but I cannot.  I can, however say, these elements are vital parts of human existence, and learning and honoring them is a step towards better understanding our place and role with each other and The Earth.

The most amazing thing I gained by coming to Australia – is that every day, I see these birds (Rainbow Lorikeets):

 

And I know that the Taino teacher was right.

It is with great joy that I bask in the medicine of Green Parrots.  I am especially fortunate, because the green parrots I see the most are Rainbow Lorikeets – and their colours are exquisite, and remind me of the integration of my chakras, and of spreading joy.

Rainbow lorikeet in particular speaks of overcoming disability with creativity, freedom, the ability to change my life, and dreams coming true.

I now welcome this Green Parrot Medicine!

Aho, to the Taino woman who set me on this path.

 

 

Is this the Right Path?

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Carl Jung, from The Red Book

Yes, and yes.  No and no.

How many colours are in a rainbow?

How many paths are there to heaven?

How many grains of sand on the beach?

The air that you are breathing – who breathed that air before?

The drops of water in the ocean

The stars in the sky

The blades of grass in a meadow.

The number of hairs on a bunny.

The multitude of biological species required to maintain a human

The number of breaths in a life.

How many plant species are there?  Fungus?  Virus?

 

Anyone who says that it must be this way or that way – is just wrong.  Because we don’t know all the ways it can be.

 

People have their pet ways, Maharishi said do TM, Papji and Gangaji say “who are you?” Patanjali said, “know yoga,” the tribes of South America say, “learn from the plants,” the Siberian shaman says, “let the drum teach you.”  Jews say learn it from the Torah, Christians say learn it from the Bible or the life of Jesus.  Buddhists – well you get the idea.

 

As long as you are learning and experiencing then you are moving on the path, and processing the process, then you are on the right path.

 

Enlightenment Moments and Process

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Carl Jung Red Book “Nature”

I do not believe in enlightened beings.  Only enlightened moments.  Tolle had his flash of insight in a public park, and has spent the rest of his time trying to tell others about it.  That is not enlightened.  His flash of insight?  An enlightened moment.  Everything else?  Human.

It is true that, the more moments of connection and identification there are – the more you identify with that which is permanent, Divine – and like pearls on a string, you can put the moments together for greater connection, more moments of Enlightenment.

Alan Watts talks about the cosmic game of Hide and Seek.  G-d, which has manifest in all of us, hides in separation – for the sheer delight of finding in connection.  Waves and Windows.  The waves are despair, separation, while the windows are moments of connection, bliss.  This is why synchronicity is so important – it reminds us of the connection, of the Oneness of All, and helps us to identify more with the Self than with the Personality/ego.

If, as an “enlightened being” people are looking for you to elevate them, it is an illusion, because you believe in “enlightened beings” so you buy your own story.  You know there is enlightenment because you’ve experienced it, but you’ve felt that every moment since that moment has been faked, an effort to control others, to bring them to that moment, or to bring that moment back to you.

If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him.

“Another self cannot teach enlightenment, but can only teach/learn information, inspiration, or a sharing of love, of mystery, of the unknown, that makes the other-self reach out and begin the seeking process.”  RA, from The Law of One

So someone who was recognized as enlightened fell into despair? Committed sins? Took advantage of or abused others?   Jesus wept.  My God!  My God!  Why have you Forsaken me?

Because the moment, the connection, was gone.

Faith is the belief that the moment will return, or re-manifest.  That even from the depths of despair, the light will come again.  But you have to not fight the darkness, you have to not give into it either.  Surf that wave.  Wait, Be, not every moment of enlightenment is bliss.

That’s why the teachers of enlightenment are selling an illusion.  They are trying to sell you a personality, a person who has DONE IT!  When really, all it was, was a moment.  Or at most, a string of moments, a strand of pearls of enlightened moments.  And the difference between their moment and your moment is one thing:

Grace.

Oh I hate that word, and I love that word.  The question I asked of Neelam (student of Papaji) when I met her, was “how do we court Grace?”  All of these flunkies, these ashram junkies, following the shining white robes and personalities, purity, diet and practice,  thinking this will bring them closer to Grace, will feed them enlightenment, will teach them The Way.  When there is No Way.  There is No True Path.  Only moments.

Anyone who says otherwise, is faking it.  And so, when the acknowledged Master gets cancer or Parkinson’s, commits sex crimes, exhibits greed, or hangs himself, he blows his brains out, or expires in decrepitude.  Because that moment was never going to return now.  And in the depth of the wave – it is impossible to court Grace.

One way to judge a teacher, is by how many transcend his/her teachings.  If a teacher keeps you submissive, under him/her, never gives you the chance to set yourself free and transcend the teacher – Then it is not a teacher, but is a narcissist.

Life is a dance.  We come together, we fall apart.  Sometimes coming together is disastrous.  Sometimes falling apart is purifying.  But we do it again and again, to experience the coming together and falling apart.  The Windows and Waves of Connection and Separation.

Each of us is G-d.  Each of us is a shattered fragment of the divine, the spark in each of us seeking to join to another spark, or two, or three.  That’s why an ashram or a “cult” feels so damn good, you think, this is it, I’m going to merge now.  We will all be One.  Except it doesn’t happen.  So the purpose of this spark in us is to experience the spark in others –

In love

In hate

In anger

In joy

In play

In music

In dance

In art

In violence

In fear

And in love, again and again, until all of our bits, all of the sparks of G-d in this manifestation, this shattering of sparks, this starry sky that is humanity, are done playing and experiencing, and are ready to find again.  Then, we are ready to join, to ascend.

The process.  It’s all about the process.

Shamanism, Belief and the Subconscious

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I was asked – is shamanism just a placebo?  Do you have to believe in it for it to work?

A question that frequently comes up in drum journeys is the “second guess.”

Is it a spirit?  A past life?  An ancestor?  What is this information?

The mind wants us to put it into little boxes of belief and say, “It IS a spirit!” or “This WAS my past life!”  Or even – “I’m just making this up, it’s all imagination!”

I’m going to suggest that letting go of that is most empowering.  It doesn’t matter.

As a child, does it matter whether the learning came from a parent, a teacher, or your own senses?  The teaching is a teaching.

If a symbol comes up in a journey or a dream, it is a direct message which is important to you in the here and now.  It may take the form of what could be a past or future life, or animal medicine, or a tree spirit, or an ancestor.

While we do want to honour the Teachers, one way to honour them is to not impose a belief onto them.  Don’t tell them what they are.  Let them be what they are.

Perhaps you don’t want to believe in Spirits at all – then, for you, these messages are symbols from the subconscious and the Collective Unconscious.  They are still important and vital to you, and gratitude will take you a long way on this journey.

Learn from them, don’t judge them, and let them be whatever they are – free of your preconceived notions and judgements.

Here’s how it works for me:  the subconscious mind is pre-verbal, so it communicates as sensory input, symbols, feelings, images, smells, sounds.  IT DOESN’T MATTER whether you are seeing eagles or trains or hearing whistling winds, or experiencing a past life as an African herbalist.  It doesn’t matter.  It’s information from the subconscious, provided to you NOW, as what is important NOW.

You can ignore it, or you can pay Attention to it.  As you know, the Power of Attention is one of the most amazing things about being human.

If you ignore it, you are “business as usual”

If you pay attention to it, you are given access to a well of information.  The information may seem like nonsense – colours and smells, or it may seem important – riding on a tiger and meeting the Queen of Heaven.  It doesn’t matter.  It’s information, and the act of Paying Attention to it, is healing, teaching, empowering.

Paying attention is giving respect to the teachers.  It is also important to express gratitude that you have been given this new teaching.

 

NOTE:  Sensitive people have less “social filtering” than others, so more of this “stream of collective consciousness” gets in, and too much information can be confusing.

The structure of shamanism gives you a form and system to use to sort through the information.  These techniques are highly recommended for sensitive people.

Medicine Wheel in Yantra form

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Original drawing by the author

These are aligned as if you were sitting in meditation. The red is your seat, the crescent your belly, the triangle your solar plexus, the Star of David, your heart, and the Circle, everything above your heart.

I’m using a marvellous coloring book called “The Shakti Coloring Book,” by Ekabhumi Charles Ellik.

In it, he describes these basic symbols, as used in Yantras, to describe the chakras.  It is very basic, perfect for beginning journeyers, and in the class where this came out, someone got triangles in a Middle World Journey that described relationships.

Additionally, I am a fan of the Medicine Wheel. I believe that it is a basic practice for creating safe space within which to work – but – here’s the conundrum.  The Medicine Wheel has different interpretations according to belief.  Some put the earth in the north, some put it in the west, according to individual belief.  I am sharing Practice, not belief.

The essence of the Medicine Wheel – the 4 elements of Earth, Air, Fire and Water, and the Above-Below-Within – is a vital and real part of every human.  We all have bones and muscle (Earth), breath (Air), nerves and digestion (Fire), and blood (Water).  We all look up to the Sky, and down to the Earth, and Within each of us is a spark of divinity, that miracle called Life.  The elements of the Medicine Wheel are universal and practical.

The application varies, according to culture and belief.

So – here was a way to explain the medicine wheel – Earth, Water, Fire, Air, and Center (circle = within), a very basic Medicine Wheel.

Starting with the bottom – the red square, the 4. Guess what! It is the Medicine Wheel, the 4 directions (however you perceive them to be). Those 4 directions together represent Earth, stability, physical, your safe space, your grounding.

On your feet, it is the 4 corners of the balls of your feet and your heels.
When you sit, it is your sit bones and your feet that make the square.
In numerology, a square is a beginning, a foundation, a building block for everything else.

Balancing on that square is the bowl, the pelvic bowl, the orange crescent. This represents the area between your naval and your pubic bone. This is the seat of your emotions. Your enteric brain. Your intuition.  Water.

When emotions are too much, the bowl spills over, and affects your grounding (the square below). When they are undernourished, you don’t have enough energy to feed and fill the triangle.

The yellow triangle – Fire

Triangles are special in yantric symbolism. A triangle facing point down is a “manifesting triangle” This is the voice of G-d, coming down to manifest in the world. And G-d said, “Let there be light,” and it was so. It is our ability to manifest, as well as the divine’s ability to manifest, as well. The manifesting triangle is receptivity, and female in nature. (think about it as the pubic triangle, to remember)

A triangle facing point up – like the yellow triangle – is a “transforming” or transcending triangle. This is pulling the energy up through your body to make greater awareness and growth. It is a male energy (think about it as male erection).

So – the Star of David is the coming together of these two triangles. This is important, because when the manifesting energy is moving down, and the transforming energy is moving up – these two “superhighways” together, the central column of our being – is what spins the chakras, and gives us energy.  These come together in your heart.

Both manifesting and transforming are essential to growth and completeness as a human being.

Technically the symbol of the Heart in this model is the hexagon formed in the center of the star of David. But the star of David is essential to creating that hexagon. The element of the heart is air – because when you are glowing in your heart, you are invincible. Hurt – passes through you like a knife through air. (it is in the gut that we truly feel hurt). The heart is pure – it can be covered up, blocked, wrapped in barbed wire – but the heart itself is pure. There is no such thing as an evil heart – only a blocked one.

Above the Heart, lies the circle or sphere. This is wholeness, oneness, union with all humanity and with that which is Infinite, Divine.

In the Heart, and the Circle, there is no separation. There are two paths to G-d in your body – through the heart and through the crown. The heart, you need only be 51% pure, but in the crown, you must be much purer. The heart, the love, the lovingkindness, is the clearest path to touching the Infinite, Divine.

Our drum circle is held in a Yoga Studio, and chakras are an integral part of yoga practice.  I thought this was a gentle way to transition from yoga, into shamanism, using basic (but ancient) symbols as used in Yantra medicine.

Making this leap from “Medicine Wheel” to “Chakra Yantra” was inspired by reading Alberto Villoldo’s “Yoga, Power and Spirit:  Patanjali the Shaman.”

What is Shamanism?

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  • A practice and awareness of elements of your inner world; a means for your inner world to communicate with you
  • A means for you to communicate with other realms, realms of spirit
  • Michael Harner, Harner method
  • Journeys – the three worlds
  • Animal, Plant, and Stone awareness, helpers, and teachers
  • Meeting Spirit Guides and Guardians
  • Health and Well being
  • Sensitivity to Environment and synchronicity
  • Healing of self and others
  • Navigation for your inner development

What does a shaman do?

Basic

  • Journeys – lower and middle worlds
  • Animal consciousness
  • Becoming more familiar with Animal, Plant, and Stone guides
  • Purification of self
  • Self-development
  • Far Seeing, Divination

Intermediate

  • Journeys – middle world and upper world
  • Daily mindful awareness
  • Banishing of harmful influences from self
  • Assist in healing others
  • Assist in soul retrievals
  • Group journeys

Advanced

  • Removing harmful influences on others
  • Healing others
  • Journeying for insight for others
  • Soul Retrieval
  • Merging with the shamanic realm

 

How is shamanism practiced?

  • Trance
  • Dance / Yoga / Kriya and Mudra
  • Ritual
  • Fasting
  • Praying
  • Singing / Chanting
  • Drumming

https://shamaniceducation.org/

http://www.fourwinds.com

http://www.shamanism.org

Shaman vs. Seidr

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Technically, I am not a Shaman.  I do not go into people and remove their icky-stickies, or retrieve souls.   The word Shaman is from Siberian use – which is not unrelated to what I do – but it has come to represent everything worldwide, including Ayahuasca ceremony in Peru, and African Medicine practice.  Shaman is an umbrella term, and I can claim it, as I fit under the practice of mysticism, journeying, dreaming, and manifesting those journeys for self-transformation.

I am more inclined to help people transform themselves, than I am to go in and “fix them” or “heal them” by manipulating the energies around them.  I believe that this “healing” is more permanent when the transformation comes from within.

Technically, I am a Seidr (SAY-der), which is less of a healing profession, and more of a Voice in the Wilderness.  Seidr is about seeing patterns and prophecies, using divination and dreams.

From Eldar Heide, 2006,  “Spinning Seiðr”

Seidr is a form of pre-Christian Norse magic and shamanism concerned with discerning and altering the course of destiny by re-weaving part of destiny’s web.

You could call Seidr a subgroup of Shamanism, but it’s not near the mainstream of the practices.  Seidr literally means to bind, to spin, to weave, and the symbol of a Seidr practitioner is a spinning distaff.

Seidr is based in the Nordic, Viking, Asatru tradition.  I use Runes and trance to communicate with the subconscious, with the Powers of the Earth, and to explore relationships.  Runes lead me to geometry, numerology, astrology,  language, mythology, connection to plants, animals, nature, and a code of conduct (The Havamal), as well as the original shamanic source for me.

The Seidr still goes into shamanic trance, she still travels the worlds, so I am still operating under the umbrella of shamanism.  Seidr is more my personal religious tradition within shamanism.

From the Havamal:

I know that I hung on a windswept Tree – Nights All Nine

Wounded by Spear, given to Odin, myself to myself.

On that Tree, of whose roots no man knoweth

And none offered Bread or Mead

I took up the Runes – wailing I took them

And fell back again.”

This speaks to me of the sacrifice of Shamanic Death, and I’ve experienced it in a number of ways.  Shamanic Death is a topic for long discussions later – but it is an essential initation:   the means of seeing that there is more than this world, our lives are tiny and insignificant, and in facing our fears and integrating them, we are stronger, more whole persons.

It is the Hero’s Journey of transformation.  As a Seidr, I hope to help others find their Way, to navigate through the realms of consciousness, to point to tools they can use to expand awareness and improve attention.

I don’t want to help others become like me; it is better to help others become more themselves.  So I don’t preach Seidr, but I practice it.

Recommended reading:

Diana Paxsen, “Seidways”

Freya Aswyn, “Northern Mysteries and Magick”

Katie Gerrard, “Seidr, The Gate is Open: Working with Trance, Prophecy, the High Seat and Norse Witchcraft,” and “Odin’s Gateways – a Practical Guide to the Norse Runes through Galdr,  SIgils, and Casting.”

Raven Kaldera and Galina Krasskova, “Neolithic Shamanism: Spirit Work in the Norse Tradition.”

Mindfulness and Shamanism

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1995 I Want to Heal – Original by JanCarol

Mindfulness is a tool that can be used in shamanism.

One of my Drum Circle ladies asked, so – you just like drift off into trance all the time?

Oh  no!  It’s more mindful than that.  Yes, we go into trance to get new information – but information is also there in the everyday world for us to see.

Today, a praying mantis jumped onto hubby’s hand.  She was beautiful!  All shiny, bright green, and graceful, slender, deadly.  She promised to eat lots of insects, so we gently put her back into her hunting grounds, on a leaf.

Yesterday, white cockatoos flew over my house, squawking and making a fuss.  By paying attention – being mindful in my day-to-day life, I am also tending my spiritual life.

As you know, in mindfulness meditations, you watch the train cars go by:  they are only thoughts, only thinking, only thoughts.  The cars go by, but you do not jump onto them.

In trance, we choose a train and follow it to specific places (lower, middle, upper world) to bring back information to waking consciousness.

Then, in waking consciousness – mindfulness comes to play.  If you saw a cricket in the lower world, do you hear crickets?  Even if it is just tinnitus?  Are there times when the crickets sound louder or quieter?  There are ways that symbols and animals interact with our everyday feelings.

Paying attention is the first step.