Nature Nurtures!

(Photo by Joshua Bertetta; see his blog

at  http://jbertetta.wordpress.com/)

While continuing to explore the value of the NOURISHER or Nurturer archetype in our lives this month, I am reminded that Nature is Herself a Nurturer! We are each embraced and supported by ‘Mother Nature’ constantly, from the air we breathe to the Sun’s gentle nourishment, to the water which makes up around 57-60% of our bodily substances.  We are immersed in and composed of the biochemical elements that compose the very world we live in; our bodies are vehicles created of these same elements for Soul to get about here, to grow and to thrive interactively with others composed of these same substances, nurtured by these same natural forces that convey and express our spiritual essence in this world.

Reposted from Balaji Govindaraji’s FB page

at https://www.facebook.com/balaji.govindaraj1?fref=nf&pnref=story

(quote is from Spiritual Wisdom on DREAMS (pg. 4), by Sri Harold Klemp)

 I am grateful to have my buddy/dog Sophie to take for walks all around the region we live in and wherever we travel. All of the parks in my home town I have named “Sophie Parks.”  We especially enjoy exploring woodsy parks or trails. My heart lifts and breath expands and steadies even on these relatively short jaunts with Sophie. Nature is cleansing, healing, settling, balancing. And so, we can seek Nurture through Nature.

Sophie

How do YOU integrate Nature as a Nourisher in your life?  How often do you allow yourself to do so with your current routines?  One thing any of us can do at any time is to step away from the troubles of the day or the situations in the family or world that may bear down on you. Take yourself and maybe bring someone you love to the Park, the Woods, the Open Space, the Trail into the Mountains, or row your kayak on the Lake, or walk the Oceanside, or camp. My sister Lee, a pastor for the United Church of Christ in Connecticut, walks along the Ocean near her home every day and posts daily photos on Facebook:

Photos by Rev. Lee Ireland (my sister in Connecticut) from her FB page 

https://www.facebook.com/lee.ireland.1048https:

//www.facebook.com/lee.ireland.1048

Nature resonates with your own inner nature and allows your Inner NOURISHER to breathe and to calm you and to direct your attention to that which is permanent rather than transitory.

I welcome your insights and stories!

Call for A Change of Heart!

Well folks I did it again, making the same mistake I made last year in assigning the GOLDEN CHILD, a Leo Archetype (yes) to July, when actually it is the prototypical archetype for the August Leo persona. I guess that’s how strong the charismatic GOLDEN CHILD’s voice (in me, with alot of Leo in my astrological chart) can be!  I will return to the Golden Child posts in August.

JULY holds the primary archetypal energy of the Cancerian NOURISHER. And how apt this feels to me today after the horrendous (again), senseless attack on human life and decency in Nice, France. I feel that as a blogger, I have an obligation to take note of such enormous ripples in the fabric of what could be called righteous or civil behavior. If we begin to ignore such atrocities, if we begin to blur our feelings of outrage and sorrow about them, then we risk becoming numbed and ‘desensitized’ to the evil–if anything can be called that, this is it!–so rampant across the world today.

THE NOURISHER (or, Nurturer) in me calls out for a CHANGE OF HEART! It makes no sense to me that those labelled ‘terrorists’ or ‘Jihadists’ perhaps in their own terminology would conduct such a murderous campaign against innocent peoples–and yes, they ARE that!–simply going about their business or celebrating their liberty and being alive. Are these perpetrators so conditioned by ancient ideas of ‘a life for a life,’ for instance, that they have forgotten to celebrate their OWN lives and to be thankful for the diversity and community available today? I feel that what is needed in the world, especially in those tormented, however wrongly in their own understanding, by feelings of religious suppression or their desire to be righteous against the grain of normal human values and decency, is A CHANGE OF HEART.

Let’s call out for A CHANGE OF HEART from misery and feelings of disempowerment or a desire to control to an appreciation of all that Divinity has BLESSED us with in this brave world, here and now.  An Attitude of Gratitude and Forgiveness can go a long way towards effecting a Change of Heart, whether in the individual or in the world at large.

images are from pixabay.com

 

Love, not Power, guys.  Life, not Death, is what ultimately matters for the sake of learning and loving and going forward to greater awareness even of our own divinity or inviolable existence. Bon Vivant a Tout!

I welcome your Comments and Insights!

A Letter from Your NOURISHER

You deserve in life everything that supports your positive, life affirming dreams and ambitions.  You are here to do all that you can, to BE all that you inherently ARE.

What limitations there are can be gifts, like Stephen Hawking’s Lou Gehrig’s disease, which has allowed him to focus mentally in ways possibly more productive for him than any other condition.

Many limitations can be transcended if doing so would support your highest self-realization in this lifetime. Often we establish self-limitations and settle for less than it is possible for us to manifest or achieve. We might be restricting our own potentials from unnecessary feelings of unworthiness or from simple inertia. (A body at rest stays at rest unless impelled by an irresistible force.)

Enter Your NOURISHER, certainly a kinetic force when you allow her or him to motivate your actions. Your NOURISHER is a part of yourself— a vital archetypal energy form in all humans (at least). Your NOURISHER is that part of your Self that knows you are capable of manifesting your highest potentials and will be your strongest Ally and cheerleader to propel you toward realizing your deepest-felt, positive goals.

Imagine Now that your NOURISHER stands ever available and wants to encourage you to go after that next goal post that moves you irreversibly in the direction of your Heart’s desire. Maybe it is your Life Dream; you do not need to postpone envisioning and realizing a pathway that fulfills your greatest sense of life purpose and Mission in this world. Or maybe it is something as basic as finding the motivation to go to a gym to work out, or to eat a healthier choice of food or drink when you are faced with options.

Your NOURISHER wants the best for you, and from you, at all times and in every circumstance. It wants to help you to succeed in every endeavor, to learn from every experience regardless of the outcome; to strive and to thrive.

I invite you to take time out from your busy routine to sit down with pen and paper and ask your NOURISHER to WRITE YOU A LETTER.  Allow him or her to encourage you. Listen with your Heart. If you like, you can also write back and start a conversation. Welcome your NOURISHER into your Ensemble Cast of Archetype Allies. You deserve to be nurtured and pampered even. Your NOURISHER deserves to express him/herself, too! As a Giver, and as an integral facet of You, you will find that allowing your NOURISHER to nurture your dreams will also spill out as unconditional loving service to others.

I welcome your Comments or stories!

Just Ask! Meet Your Dreamtime Nourisher

How does your NOURISHER Archetype Ally show up in your life or Psyche? Often we are more nurturing of others than of ourselves, but your NOURISHER is there for you too!

One way to get in touch with or to explore your own Nourisher nature is by identifying when and how your NOURISHER appears in your dreams.

Can you think of a dream or perhaps a recurring series of dreams that have included some form of Nourisher character or theme? Cooking or feeding others in your dream, or being fed or served nutritious food by someone in your dream are sure signs of your unconscious NOURISHER persona. Or simply a dream theme involving any form of Giving and/or Receiving a gift could also reveal your NOURISHER nature.

If you don’t recall a specific instance of your NOURISHER appearing in your dreams, or to explore this vital archetype Ally further, Just ASK!

Before you go to sleep, invite your NOURISHER to appear in your dreams, to reveal himself or herself to you. During the day, think lightly about how you will invite your NOURISHER into your dreams that evening.

Remember to write down your dreams, all you can recall on waking. The form that your NOURISHER might take in your dreams could be a bit surprising or disguised, especially at first.

I recall a recurring dream theme from several years ago that involved my suddenly discovering a pet–usually a horse or an aquarium with fishes–that I had forgotten I had, so therefore I had neglected to FEED or to give water to them! I was able in these dreams to find food to feed them, but when I awoke I felt awful and would review what this dream might mean in my life at that time. Was I neglecting to communicate with a loved one? Was it my own Soul I was not nurturing regularly enough? I would take this dream as a sign that I needed to nurture and nourish in any way possible, and usually this led me to some form of giving and/or receiving that would help me feel I had addressed the ‘neglect’ revealed in the dream.

I would ACT on the dream message, and that is something I encourage you to do whenever your dream indicates a needed or a corrective course of action.

Nurture your NOURISHER, and it will serve you well in turn!

I welcome YOUR comments and stories.

 

To Nurture Your Dreams, Be a Nourisher

Sometimes we might not trust our inner vision to steer us in the right direction. We may feel afraid to Dream, wary of being disillusioned “yet again.” This cautious perspective might seem ‘practical,’ “realistic” or even wise.

But when we squelch our Visions, often another part of our Self grieves.

 

What happens to a Dream deferred? 

Does it dry up, like a raisin in the Sun?

Does it fester like a sore, and then run?

Perhaps it stinks, like rotten meat,

or crusts and sugars over, like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags, like a heavy load… 

Or does it explode?

–Langston Hughes

 

Our archetypal Ally for this month is the NOURISHER. I invite you to get in touch with your own nurturing, nourishing part of Self. When do you feel most nourishing and with whom? When do you feel best nourished and how or by whom?

I experienced a lot of Nourishing–from both sides of giving and receiving–during my road trip and visit Home  from June through July. Being with family and with my dog Sophie (my travelling companion and BFF) is a great gift of love for I have lived thousands of miles from my parents and sisters and brother for over 30 years.  We came together—all of us plus several cousins and nephews/nieces—around my elderly mother, Elizabeth—over the 4^th of July holiday weekend. Mom was in the crux of a hospital emergency—not what we had hoped or planned for!—and we all came together to help her survive that visit and return to her familiar nursing home with its loving and competent, caring staff.

Mom is experiencing late stage Parkinson’s. At 88, for her this means she has very little independent mobility. She cannot walk on her own nor can she use her own hands to eat. She must consume pudding quality water and only pureed food which others must feed to her in such manner as not to cause her to aspirate or swallow food into her lungs.

While at the hospital, because staff there were inexperienced at preparing the pureed and pudding quality food and water and because most did not have experience (or time for the patience it takes) feeding in this way, it depended on us, her daughters mainly, to feed her morning, noon, and evening, as much and as best as we could.

And we did!  We bought Gerber’s pureed food to supplement or replace the hospital’s too thick or heavy portions. We developed a formula, with help from a speech therapist, to produce her pudding water, and we added fresh lemon juice and used ice cubes to give her more satisfaction.  She was depending on us for her very survival. Each of us stepped up as best we could. We shared our observations and listened to one anothers’ suggestions. We expressed our concerns with the nurses and aides until finally one doctor in particular became focal in helping Mom recover enough to be able to return to her nursing home.

I know my Mom would do the same for any of us and often she did, whenever we were sick or ailing.  While at first honestly I was afraid of feeding Mom, afraid I might cause her to aspirate, over time I did the best I could along with my other sisters. And she improved! I believe the nurturing care we all gave helped her more than any medications. The love we all shared was a healing force in itself.  It is a healing energy that will never diminish, no matter what the future may hold.

So, I learn from my Nourisher that LOVE is the heart of it all and all that really matters. To NOURISH is to give and to reciprocally receive divine, unconditional Love.

I invite you to journal and/or to talk with a loved one (or send your insights, comments and stories to us, here!) about one or more of your own Nourisher moments.

The Nourisher Archetype

Since the Nourisher is associated primarily with the sign of Cancer and the month of July, as we move toward August let’s pause to celebrate Nourisher energy and form. This is a heart energy; a nurturing, supportive form.

Mother Theresa is an example of a person expressing a dominant NOURISHER persona; Julia Child is another. Masculine NOURISHER examples would include St. Francis of Asisi and the Dalai Lama.

To give, to share, to support, to feed, to gently nourish another’s heart or mind or body is a fundamental facet of the human Spirit and of the Universe as a whole.

Allow me also to re-blog this excellent Daily Quote (7/27/2015) as posted by Theresa at Soul Gatherings, from His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama:

If you want others to be happy,

practice compassion.

To be happy,

practice compassion. 

All of You

Here’s a simple tool you can use to identify your own primary archetypal persona influences: simply make a list of your various social roles.  Parent, friend, spouse, doctor, teacher, artist, writer, etcetera; these are social roles you occupy. List your main roles (I’ll fill in mine as an example for you):

Primary roles

• Pet parent
• Teacher
• Writer
• Spiritual practitioner
• Friend
• Family member
• Single home owner

Next then, consider the following classes of universal persona archetype forms:

ELDER LEADER   ARTIST  TEACHER

LOVER     IDEALIST    COMMUNICATOR

WARRIOR  GOLDEN CHILD   HEALER

NOURISHER   DESCENDER   MYSTIC

Can you associate each of your ROLES with one or more of these twelve archetype figures? E.G.:

Archetype role associations

Pet parent  :  NOURISHER

Teacher : TEACHER

Writer  :  COMMUNICATOR

Spiritual  :  MYSTIC/ IDEALIST

Friend   :  NOURISHER

Family  :  COMMUNICATOR/ NOURISHER

Single home owner : DESCENDER

The archetypal influences you have just identified (with regard to your own list) are what I call your Archemes in LIFE PATHS. You learn how to appropriately occupy and enact a social role by drawing upon or assimilating to character traits of these collective archetypal figures.  As you assume or behaviorally enact these archetypal role types, you embrace these identities on both conscious and unconscious levels at the same time. That means, once you have identified with one of these archetype personas, they are always part of you, even unconsciously while you are expressing other modes. And if you have experienced tension or emotional inhibitions with respect to any of your Role identities, this can create archetypal “shadow” traits that might dog your footsteps and interfere with your sense of self-confidence or competence.

Knowing that your archetypal influences are largely associated with your primary roles in life can help you recognize your own character strengths and weaknesses as well as your self-limiting qualities. Also thinking of your Archemes as an “ensemble cast of Allies” can help you bring together your various role-“guises” to forge and express a more unified Self.

So after identifying your Archemes, you can also look at what strengths you draw from these influences (and you can understand some of your challenges, too).  How can you combine some of your strengths across these archetypal forms to pursue a major goal, one that will benefit from having  “all of you” activated rather than one ‘part’ or another?

E.G. Designing life after retirement [Readers: You can consider your own Major Goal similarly]

Teacher traits:  part-time teaching if needed; continuing with life maps coaching and workshops;

Communicator traits: continue with writing/ publishing;

Nourisher traits: Move closer to family, care well for pets, maintain & expand friendships;

Descender traits: Create space for solitude, contemplation

Mystic traits:  Share ideas in new location, form groups, etc.;

Idealist traits: Go for it! (fulfill Life Dream, travel, beautify environs and home!)

COMBINED:  “service” orientation in all areas.

In sum, as Socrates reminded us all: “KNOW THYSELF!”

I invite your insights and stories!