Burning Bowl

Tomorrow night is New Year’s Eve, and New Decade’s Eve as well. Not my favorite holiday by a long shot.

For many years I lived at the north end of Times Square. I could see the ball fall from my window—and the noise was deafening! But that’s not why this isn’t a favorite holy-day for me. It’s because for many years New Year’s Eve was associated with alcohol, and I don’t do alcohol any more.

Instead, my sweetie and I tend to make a dinner of favorite comfort foods, and do ceremony instead. Burning Bowl, to be exact.

In it, we get settled and still and think (and talk) seriously about all the things we choose to release from the old year. Grudges, resentments, illnesses, you name it. Anything can be released if we’ll get conscious about it.

We make lists and then we burn them in a bowl. Done. Finito. Gone.

Relief!

Then we get even stiller and more prayerful and begin to write a letter to ourselves from our understanding of God. What will the next year bring? What are we choosing? Why? What actions do we need to take in order to facilitate these choices?

All bets on what’s possible are off. We’re into dream mode, and since we’re dreaming, we might as well dream big. So dream big we do.

It’s freeing and fun. We laugh and joke about our dreams. We bring light hearts to them, and so, we also bring light to our dreams.

All ideas are worth contemplation. You never know. Dreams are stranger than fiction. And who knows? Maybe we’ll create enough inner peace to sway the balance toward peace on earth, goodwill to all.

Happy New Year!

The New Year Cometh

And, here, better late than never, is today’s.

And along with the new year, a new decade. I’ve heard several people say, “Good riddance,” to the first decade of the 21^st Century. I’m not so sure.

Instead, I think these first ten years have given us a clear mandate. Us in that sentence is humankind.

Sure, some pretty crummy things have happened. From the perspective of the United States, two wars. An economic meltdown. The subprime mortgage crisis. Bernard Madoff. Healthcare. I could go on but you already know the “bad” things.

What’s important is what the bad things teach us.

It’s time to examine our values in a big way, both individually and collectively.

So I’m asking: what’s important to you? I mean it. What’s really important to you?

If you’ll spend some time on this exercise, I can pretty much guarantee that whatever you decide holds the most importance for you, it will be an intangible.

Love.

Peace.

Joy.

Truth.

Honor.

Beauty.

Contribution.

Generosity.

Freedom.

If you’ll pick one for this new year of this new decade and actually use it to help you live your life, you’ll be astonished at how easy decisions become, how making choices with a plumbline is simple, how it’s easy to say ‘no’ when you know what mandates your ‘yes.’

For me, I have, for many years, made my choices based on a simple question: does this enhance inner peace or diminish inner peace? ‘This’ can be anything. Doing my errands today. Taking on a new client. Turning down a client. Writing. Not writing. I use it for everything.

In the next few days, give it some thought. What’s vital for your well-being? When you know this small, pertinent byte of information, your life becomes simpler.

In this new year, I wish you simplicity and elegance, and, as always, buckets of inner peace.

At Home

This is the 12/25 post.

Seeds XI, 52

Seed: At Home

Today is Christmas Day, and most of us who celebrate this holiday spend Christmas at home. Where’s that—for you?

It took me many years to figure out that home was wherever I was, wherever I love, wherever I give. Feeling at home is a choice, dear one, one you can make whenever and wherever you want.

Maya Angelou wrote, “I long, as does every human being, to be at home wherever I find myself.” The better you know yourself, the more at home you will be. Being at home in oneself is an admirable and valuable goal. Choose it.

If you truly choose to be at home no matter where you are, you can be. You really can. The definition of home changes throughout a lifetime. Let your own understanding of home grow with your growth, then you’ll be at home everywhere.

Blessed Season of Light!

Be joy,

Susan Corso

Dr. Susan Corso

Seeds are remarkable gifts. Sown in consciousness, they bring you to the most important part of your being—your Divine Spark.

Check out the Seeds Archive for past messages of inspiration.

When you have friends you would like added to the Seeds e-mail list, send their addresses to me at susan@susancorso.com.

For spiritual nourishment, please visit my website www.susancorso.com

and my blogs Seeds for Sanctuary, God’s Dictionary,

Ode Magazine, and The Huffington Post and

Follow me on Twitter @PeaceCorso.

Oy, Christmas Tree

This is the 12/23 post.

Okay, so the real title of the document is:

Christmas Tree Cheat Sheet: Plans & Prep so as not to necessitate the annual reinvention of the wheel.

It all started because last year we went to get our Christmas tree, put the stand on in the hallway and discovered that we couldn’t get the stand through the door whilst the tree was on it. It was a travesty and it took forever so we decided that since we don’t do this project often enough to remember the little tricks and short-cuts, we’d write a cheat sheet.

{Just so you don’t worry—this year’s tree process was smoother than it’s ever been.}

So, read on, MacDuff, knowing that our process will NOT be your process, not by a long shot. Every house, every family, every tree has its own idiosyncrasies, mishegas, and more.

Here’s the rest (use it as a template for your own cheat sheet!)

It is permissible to buy and put tree up on one day; decorate the next, according to the Queen {that’s me}. It’s better to do this task in the daytime. {The better to see what the hell is going on.}

Bring up all Xmas boxes from basement.

Move table behind sofa. Move armchair to the other side of the door.

Bring scissors and gardening gloves to buy and move the tree into the house.

Wear clothes you don’t mind getting sap on.

Be sure drill (with CHARGED battery), hammer, spike, stand, and New Mexican pink and red blanket are upstairs inside the LR.

Clear hall furniture and rugs before leaving; take watercolor down and store.

Go to Pemberton Farms and pick the perfect tree. (A butch tree is tall and slender; a femme tree is [a] broad.)

Choose which side we want to be the front. Have them trim the lower branches in back so the tree bag doesn’t wick into the water.

Pull into driveway, take tree off car in front of the house, park.

Take tree up front stairs.

Plug in extension cord for tree lights before you go to buy the tree.

Be sure to do the work INSIDE the living room; the stand doesn’t fit through the door. {The stand above is not our stand; I bought ours from an indigenous New Mexican and it’s the best one ever. It has a large bucket for water with a spike in the center; three long legs, and no screws to keep the tree upright—gravity does that. Anyway, I went through every single Google image of Christmas tree stands, and there wasn’t one. This one is the closest I saw.}

Oh wait! Checking again, I found it!!!

{It’s called The Answer Stand and you can get one here: http://www.mitrees.com/answerstand.html. AWESOME! The best one made. Better picture below.}

Drill hole 2-3”.

Put TREE BAG on [cut hole in bottom], and tuck up into the lower branches.

Hammer stand on with top of tree lifted (use BR night table).

Be sure not to mess with it too much (it compromises the hole).

Cut tree net loose, raise tree, and let it sit so gravity can do what gravity does.

Put tree in corner of room. Use books to level it slightly tilting back into the corner.

Add water.

Use goobegone for sap on hands

Vacuum the whole world (forever).

{When we set up our tree this year, we found pine needles from last year’s tree!}

{Oh, yeah, there’s someone you might look for in this annual process. Do you know the fairy Tinselina? She’s the one responsible for leaving those single, stray strands of tinsel to find during the year and remind you that every day is Christmas if we’ll let it be.}

{Merry, Happy, Holy to you and yours (forever).}

Techno Update

Just to let you know … we migrated hosts and I’ll be doing a little catch-up as I get techno-up-to-date. S.

Occult America: The Secret History of How Mysticism Shaped Our Nation by Mitch Horowitz

I saved this book for Thanksgiving weekend because I’d met the author years ago, and I knew it would be a treat. I was right.

Mitch Horowitz is the Editor in Chief for Tarcher/Putnam (full disclosure: they published my God’s Dictionary in 2002). Mitch has been writing for publications in the intervening years. Every article I’ve found has been illuminating and deftly written. This book is no exception.

Occult America: The Secret History of How Mysticism Shaped Our Nation is a treasure trove of little-known and, at the same time, obvious facts. What Mr. Horowitz has done is link the mystical history of the United States into a coherent, fascinating narrative. Being of a mystical bent myself, his words confirmed ideas I’d long harbored though not articulated. I’m so glad he wrote it.

Our story starts in 1693 with German mystic Johannes Kelpius leading a group of outside-the-box thinkers to Philadelphia. Eventually, a psychic highway is established in upstate New York. This locus would be the genesis of much of the mysticism that created America.

Mother Ann Lee and her Shakers had a community there. Joseph Smith of Mormon fame started there. Freemasonry bounced through. The Poughkeepsie seer, Andrew Jackson Davis, was born there. Mesmerism had a hey-day there.

Fast forward historically. The Ouija Board reigned as the country’s best-selling novelty. People were both intrigued and horrified by it.

Wallace Wattles, author of the book that inspired The Secret, pioneered the science of right thinking. Phineas P. Quimby, the Maine healer, inspired thousands of spontaneous healings. (Among whom was Myrtle Fillmore, co-founder of Unity Village, who had been told to expect her own death quite soon.)

Early America was a spiritually rocking place. FWIW, it remains so to this day for those with eyes to see and ears to hear.

Mary Baker Eddy studied with Quimby and created her own Christian Science. She trained Emma Curtis Hopkins who became known as the teacher of teachers when Eddy banished her. Ernest Holmes, who founded Religious Science; Charles and Myrtle Fillmore, who founded Unity; and Nona Brooks, who founded Divine Science, all studied with her.

The Sleeping Prophet Edgar Cayce was part of U.S. history as well. He did thousands of trance readings which helped people both to heal and to understand their past patterning.

Mr. Horowitz writes a well-deserved paean of praise about The Secret Teachings of the Ages author Manly P. Hall. His section on Fascism and the Occult is the clearest I’ve ever read. There’s a kind expose of Baird T. Spaulding, the author of Life and Teaching of the Masters of the Far East—a book series I never was able to take seriously. Now I know why.

“Most people, thought schools, or movements identified as New Age from the 1970s through the early twenty-first century shared these traits:

“1. Belief in the therapeutic value of spiritual or religious ideas.

“2. Belief in a mind-body connection in health.

“3. Belief that human consciousness is evolving to higher stages.

“4. Belief that thoughts, in some greater or lesser measure, determine reality.

“5. Belief that spiritual understanding is available without allegiance to a specific religion or doctrine.”

I agree with every statement, and if you’re reading this, you probably do too. This book is a must-read for anyone in America who takes their spiritual path seriously.

Bravo, Mitch Horowitz. The occult lives in the U.S.of A.

P. S. And what a perfect post for Winter Solstice!

Banquet

Seeds XI, 51

Seed: Banquet

Auntie Mame (Dennis) is one of my very favorite theologians. One of her best Mamisms is: “Life’s a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death.” We deny ourselves a place at the table.

Ernest Holmes, founder of Science of Mind, wrote, “We are fed from the table of the Universe, whose board is ever spread with blessedness and peace.”

Banquet actually comes from French roots which mean table. The table of the universe is. The issue isn’t that. It’s whether we’re showing up at the table. There’s always a place set for anyone who shows up.

What comprises a banquet for you? Free time? Lovely gifts? Singing songs? Dancing with abandon? Reading a book? A day at a spa? What qualifies as banquet to you?

Whatever that is, pull up a chair. We’ve been waiting for you. Now, dig in.

Be joy,

Susan Corso

Dr. Susan Corso

Seeds are remarkable gifts. Sown in consciousness, they bring you to the most important part of your being—your Divine Spark.

Check out the Seeds Archive for past messages of inspiration.

When you have friends you would like added to the Seeds e-mail list, send their addresses to me at susan@susancorso.com.

For spiritual nourishment, please visit my website www.susancorso.com

and my blogs Seeds for Sanctuary, God’s Dictionary,

Ode Magazine, and The Huffington Post.

Follow me on Twitter @PeaceCorso

Roll Around Heaven—an all-true accidental spiritual adventure by Jessica Maxwell

Jessica Maxwell is a funny woman. She’s a nationally acclaimed travel writer who sees her father’s face in the sky soon after he dies. So does her sister who lives a thousand miles away. Thus is our Miss Maxwell “marched,” as she says, “into the divine principal’s office” and told to quit goofing off and start paying attention.

Spirituality is a delectable path. There are as many variations on it as there are souls. Ms. Maxwell’s is particularly juicy and more than a little hilarious. I could not put this book down.

From the vision of her papa’s benevolent face blessing her from the skies to her original spiritual teacher, the Holy Pig Farmer, we are allowed to share both adventures and misadventures as Jessica Maxwell gets her bearings on the spiritual path.

She had me in her Invitation introduction on page xi: “One can only hope that fear-wracked control-freak us-against-them extremists of all faiths come to their senses and recognize the truly radical promise of peace that is at the heart of every one of the world’s great religions.” She’s right, and it’s a statement that only someone who has been through a spiritual becoming can see.

Peace, dear one, is at the center of all spiritual seeking. I can assure you that Jessica has created a modicum of peace through her authentic seeking and finding. Let’s follow what her best friend refers to as “Lucille Ball Trips Over God.”

The Holy Pig Farmer, Lory Misel, guest spoke in a creative writing class for Jessica and that was it. He became her touchstone on the path. We all need one. His primary lesson? You are here to bless the world. We all are, dear one.

The Holy Pig Farmer meets Jessica at the level of spirituality, and at the level of religion. She needed it. “Grace,” he says, “is perfect peace.” Amen. Her journey starts to feel like a runaway train. One day she knows it’s time to get a divorce. Just like that. The spiritual path can be that way.

I loved it when Jessica had the same reaction I do to that dreadful bumpersticker, God is my Co-Pilot. I always want to pull them over and set things straight. Darling, I fantasize saying, scoot over. Let God be the pilot. Jessica writes, “(one would assume that, if anything, one is God’s copilot).” Amen, sister.

After her divorce, she ends up in a relationship that clears her karmic clock, and then, she ends up in a church with a friend where she eventually meets and marries her delicious soulmate.

“Peace,” she says. ” It always gets back to peace.” Yes, it does. Then, one day, she’s in Portland, Oregon and ends up having lunch with Deepak Chopra. It was a God job.

And so the journey continued, and, I’m sure, continues. Jessica Maxwell and her book are the real deal. Inspiring, encouraging, full of enough good humor and awkward learning to make anyone on the spiritual path laugh and keep going. That’s my kind of adventure.

The Gentle Art of Blessing: A Simple Practice That Will Transform You and Your World by Pierre Pradervand

So many books, so little time. I know, I know, we’re all too busy, but this gem of a book, The Gentle Art of Blessing: A Simple Practice That Will Transform You and Your World by Pierre Pradervand is worth every speck of time it will take you to read it. Blessing genuinely makes the world go ’round.

Mr. Pradervand has a rich past of personal development and social justice. His anecdotes come from nearly every continent. The book started as a small collection of words on blessing that the author passed around to friends, family and acquaintances. Eventually, it was published in French and later in English. I am very grateful that Cynthia Black, Editor in Chief of Beyond Words Publishing paid attention when someone told her about it.

This book could revolutionize our world.

So, what exactly is blessing? “By blessing, I mean wishing from the bottom of the heart, in total sincerity, the very best for … people—their complete fulfillment and complete happiness.” The key is, of course, total sincerity. Eventually, what starts as an act of will (especially if one is blessing those who have hurt one) becomes an act of the heart.

Here are some of the ideas in Mr. Pradervand’s original tract:

On awakening, bless this day …

On passing people in the street, on the bus, in places of work and play,

bless them …

On meeting people and talking to them, bless them …

As you walk, bless the city …

Blessing, dear one, is a form of giving. Giving is a form of service. Service is what each life is ultimately about.

Pradervand makes a scrumptious point: “It is impossible to bless and judge at the same time. So hold constantly as a deep, hallowed, intoned thought, the desire to bless, for truly then shall you become a peacemaker, and one day you shall behold, everywhere, the very face of God.”

Even if you don’t, the occupation of the rip-roaring human mind in blessing is far more effective and fun if we’ll use it in blessing rather than in judging. The great Rabbi of Nazareth promised that we would be judged if we judge. We’ve seen it time and time again.

His original pamphlet ended with “P. S. And of course, above all, do not forget to bless the utterly beautiful person you are.”

The rest of the book details spiritual laws which are supported by blessing, and is valuable because it proves how blessing works. Most of those on a spiritual path will not need the proof, but for those who are not, the proofs are there in black and white.

As a spiritual alignment consultant, the question I am asked nearly daily usually begins, “Yes, but how can I practice … (whatever we have agreed is a good idea)?” Blessing is a universally effective spiritual practice. Bless yourself, your family, your friends, and strangers. It will accrue only to your… well, … blessing.

I am blessed to be able to recommend without reservation Pierre Pradervand’s The Gentle Art of Blessing. Practice blessing for 21 days. You’ll never stop.

Gentle blessings upon you and yours. May you welcome All Peace.

The Law of Up Until Now

Seeds XI, 50

Seed: The Law of Up Until Now

Lloyd Tupper is a new-ish columnist for Science of Mind Magazine. In the June 2009 issue, he wrote an article about the Law of Up Until Now. Well, of course the law states that we can change any time we want to. ANY time.

What I like best about this law is that it gives us permission to change on a dime. Right now. This second. Using the phrase “up until now” means that I used to be that way, but now I’m changing, so I’m this way.

It’s Advent. How do you always spend the weeks leading up to the great celebration of light in your tradition? Can you say, “up until now,” and make a change? If you want to, go right ahead. Just because it’s always been done one way doesn’t mean there aren’t myriad ways to spend the time leading up to the return of the light.

Do you shop till you drop? Up until now. Do you overeat? Up until now. Do you spend too much? Up until now. Over-schedule? Up until now.

Go ahead. Make a change. There’s a new now waiting for you this very moment.

Be joy,

Susan Corso

Dr. Susan Corso

Seeds are remarkable gifts. Sown in consciousness, they bring you to the most important part of your being—your Divine Spark.

Check out the Seeds Archive for past messages of inspiration.

When you have friends you would like added to the Seeds e-mail list, send their addresses to me at susan@susancorso.com.

For spiritual nourishment, please visit my website www.susancorso.com

and my blogs Seeds for Sanctuary, God’s Dictionary,

Ode Magazine, and The Huffington Post.

Follow me on Twitter @PeaceCorso