December 5, 2010

Samuel: Hello dears.

Hello, Samuel.

S: How are you?

Good.

S: If anything could be said of December, I would say it is a year—a month—of miracles. Why is that? No, I’ll go back to it. The month of December is a year of miracles. Why is that? It’s not hard.

Culmination of everything that’s gone on all year.

S: Culmination of a lot of things going on, yes, that probably feeds into it a bit. Aye.

A lot of celebration going on. People are observing, looking back over the year, and looking forward toward the next year, so there’s hope and a lot of gladness around . . . generally speaking.

S: A lot of high energy, hope, laughter, communing, community, all of that absolutely works in it. And to keep you from just guessing, guessing, guessing, it is also because it is a month in which you look for miracles. And because you look for them, you get them. And that is of course, always, always the key to miracles, isn’t it? They’re always there; it’s just a matter of seeing them.

So what day is this? Sunday number five. And there are thirty-one days, yes? I would like to challenge you to experience a miracle every day. Keep a record of it. Start your day asking to see or be that miracle and write it down when it shows up. It’s one of the most fulfilling kinds of exercises you can do because one of the things that happens by too far in this world is, it’s very easy to forget that you are a miracle maker, and that his world is full of miracles every day. And when you look for them, they are there, so that, come January or February, or March or whenever you find yourself moving into one of those, oh, very often it’s post-Christmas funks, you can remember, you can remind yourself, that you create miracles, that every day you see miracles. And if you see them because you’ve asked for them, then you have every right to expect that by asking for particular ones they will just as well come about. What the—what would it be—twenty-six days of miracles you will be writing up? It’s absolutely a reminder but it’s also a key, a key that unlocks trust, because when you see what happens because you’re looking for it, you might start letting yourself look for some other good things, too. Who’s to say? Miracles.

Now, how did your Friday of prosperity go? Anybody want to tell what they did, or, first, what’s that about? What is it I’m talking about there?

It was Black Friday we were encouraged to . . .

S: It was Black Friday.

We were encouraged to maybe create a prosperity map, things we wanted to manifest in our lives.

S: Good.

Look at those things in our lives that we wanted to bring to us.

S: And what is Black Friday?

It’s a time when all the stores make a great deal of their money for the whole year.

S: Right. And when is that?

It’s the day after Thanksgiving.

S: The day after Thanksgiving. It starts on Thanksgiving night, does it? America! It is the day after Thanksgiving, and it’s considered the biggest shopping day of the year, and most of the merchants are hoping to make up maybe all of the low spots in the year, economically speaking. And I encouraged you to change it into a day of personal prosperity.

So Mary Claire and then Stuart, what did you do?

Well, I did two things. First of all, I didn’t shop. I usually don’t, but I didn’t shop and I focused on . . . I’d already had a treasure map, so I actually pulled it out and did the things on that day from that treasure map. And I also got things together in the house, because part of prosperity is also giving. So I gathered up some things to take to a non-profit charity, some things to let go of as well.

S: The thing about wanting to receive: “Universe, I need . . .” and here comes the list. New car, and a new job, and more salary, and a lover, and a—all right, maybe what you’d say is a committed relationship. All right, some people are so stodgy that way.

And you are seeking to bring those things into your life; you are wanting to receive. Therefore, it is vital that you open the door for that. It’s a circuit. It is a giving and receiving circuit. So if you are wanting to receive, you need to give. If you are giving, look to see how you are receiving. If what you are receiving isn’t what you’re wanting to receive, take a look at your giving. Really. Look at where it’s coming from, what you’re giving, and look at how it relates to what you want. For instance, if what you want in your life is strong and committed relationships, you want to give of yourself in all of the other relationships going on in your life in a heartfelt, freely giving kind of way, because that’s what you want back. If you sit and look at your life and you’re thinking, “Well, I’ve got a lot of sadness, and I’m not pleased with things, and I’ve got a whole lot of things that are coming in but none of them are any good,” perhaps you are giving out of obligation and not out of your heart. Perhaps you are giving because somebody else told you it was a good thing to do and it’s not something you’re taking part in, not something that’s feeding you, that’s giving to you. Because you want to receive in that way, so you want to give in that way.

I said to somebody not too long ago, she said to me about needing to bring in some income, and it’s not something I very often do, but I just out and out said, “Darling, you need to be giving to Phoenix.” And she kind of looked at me, and I said, “Because you are fed there. Your friends that are family are there. You receive from this section of your life, tremendously. It’s had a profound effect of your life. Give back, because that’s going to start that cycle.” She started picking up jobs right away—small ones, but picking them up right away. So are you giving in a place that’s feeding you? You want this circuit to go. Sometimes, when it is a symbolic act, such as this, an act in which I am clearing out the old and giving it away because somebody else may find a treasure out of what I no longer need, or something like that, but symbolically I am releasing the old and giving it, well you’re not going to be receiving back somebody else’s cast-offs, but it is Christmas. Because in that case, what is the ruling factor? The intent. This is a symbolic giving, because what you are doing is making room to have. That’s the other thing that keeps you from having.

Let’s see. Gwendolyn, may I please have those, that . . . right there, that? Yes. Please give it to me. [Samuel reaches out with closed fists.]

Gwen: You have to open your hands.

S: “No, I cannot open my hands, because I might lose what’s in them. And I’m very afraid of that because I’ve worked so hard to have it. And it means so much to me, I can’t do that. Can’t you just sort of pile it on top? And then, let’s see, will this work? Will this hold up? Oh no, it won’t hold up!”

You’ve got to have space. You’ve got to have an open hand, and that open hand has to come with an open heart. That’s right. I cannot tell you how often your problem with receiving is because you’re not ready. The want is there but you’re still attached to the old. You haven’t made room for the new. You’re just piling it up on a shaky, wadded-up hand.

So give where you receive. Give what you want to receive. Give out of an open heart. Remember that symbolic open hand, meaning don’t have it already filled up with so much stuff there’s no room for more. And that stuff might be old beliefs, expectations, or it might just be plain old stuff.

Stuart.

What I did you already covered, so . . .

S: All right, Who else did the working that day? Hmm. Well then, that leads us right on through to December, now. Is that a hand up? All right.

Ours was a little different. We didn’t have treasure maps with us where we were, but we did visualization. David and I did a joint visualization where we accepted and acknowledged the flow of prosperity and the focus of the day, much like we do here at Phoenix for other things, and then we talked about how we’d like to be involved in that flow, and what we saw coming into our lives as a result of that flow. So it was mostly verbal, but we thought the same energies were put out there.

S: Lovely. Angela was using a principle that is easy to forget: make use of the energy that’s around you. As a for-instance, it’s Mother’s Day—well, all right, not for a while. On Mother’s Day, I encourage you to think about your own personal, internal mother, goddess self, that compassion, that love. Hopefully you can at least make it up if you did not have one of those. Because the energy going out, and these days pretty much around the world, is an energy focused on love for the mother. So you make use of that energy. Now, this time of year, that energy is energy of what?

[…]

S: Light, compassion, and Santa Claus bringing toys to the good little girls and boys, and reindeer, and eight nights of having enough, and snowmen, and sleigh dashing, and Rudolph—my favorite one. And you have a lot of opportunity to use like energy to affect your personal moment. Now, that could mean that you latch into the energy of frenzy, and stress, and a lack of focus and organization. Oh, wait. That’s anyway, right? Year-round. Or you can choose to focus on the giving, the loving, the sharing, the good deeds. You are going to be able to draw on the energy of whatever it is you are focused on. Don’t let it be the chaos.

What’s really interesting in this is that you can take the same set of events and focus on what you want. So somebody who’s madly dashing about shopping, you can say, “Oh, that’s chaos there at three in the morning.” But, you can focus on the fact they had a list, they knew they had to be at this store, then this store, then this store. They’re organized, they went through, they adapted, they changed, they got.” Same events, just different perceptions.

S: Well, and who’s to say they’re not a late-shift worker and for them that’s first thing in the morning? Aye! So the key there is how you look at it. And even before that, it’s that you look. It’s very, very easy this time of year to get caught up in the shoulds. And I encourage you to work to remove as many shoulds as possible from your holiday this year. I strongly encourage you to remove as many shoulds as possible from your holiday this year. What did I just say?

Remove the shoulds.

S: I strongly encourage you to remove as many shoulds as possible from your holiday this year.

I strongly encourage you to remove as many shoulds as possible from your holiday this year.

S: Thank you, Suzanne. Jim, say that again, loudly enough.

Stop should-ing on yourself.

S: I love that! Now, Bonnie, that would make a good bumper sticker. That’s excellent.

And what are your shoulds? They’re different for all of you. What is it you should be doing? Which holiday should you be celebrating? Because there’s a lot of them this month. What should you do for family and friends, what should you do on Christmas Day or Christmas Eve or Festival of Light. Well, I guess Hanukkah isn’t now, is it? And what about, should you take part in Kwanza? Should you buy lots and lots of presents? Should you go into debt to do so? Should you insist on a vegan meal at your parents’ meat-eating dinner? You’ve got to pick and choose your shoulds.

One of the things that harms so many people, particularly in this country at this time of the year: the should that has to do with gift-giving. Last year I encouraged this and I’m going to encourage it again. Give one, not five or ten. Or maybe, maybe, your friendship is strong enough that it doesn’t require a gift at a particular time of year to prove it. Maybe not giving, but expressing your love for them, why you appreciate them, or a difference they’ve made in your life might be much more meaningful than the pajamas that aren’t going to fit anyway.

What can you do to change the old and create the new to something meaningful? Well, if the shoulds are ruling, come January you’ll be just as nervous as ever when the bills start coming in. And this is absolutely not a year to go out with that on your shoulders.

All right, want to talk about something happier?

Is it A Christmas Carol?

S: A carol? You have a carol in mind?

No, maybe The Christmas Carol story about past, present, and future.

S: No. I’ll save it for later. Having talked to you about the importance of re-thinking the way that you have lived through past Decembers, I now want to talk a little bit about what is common about the many different aspects of the holidays this month. Usually I talk to you about the most common aspect being the element of light. Right? Somebody want to remind me of the different kinds of light that are a part of all of the December holidays?

Festival of Light is the return of the light on the shortest day of the year, and Hanukkah is about the lasting of the light.

The light, meaning the star appeared in the east.

S: Candles are lit representing the light that is within, for Kwanza.

Christmas tree lights.

S: Christmas trees are covered with lights, one of the more pagan aspects of the holiday. Heh-heh-heh. But there is also something else. Yes, the lighting of the menorah each night representing continued lighting of the flame. There is another aspect about this holiday season, and it sort of goes with what I was discussing earlier, and that is it is also a season of gifts. The gifts, the miracles of this season, are a very important part of every one of the holidays. With Hanukkah, there is gift-giving, sure, but its very story is about a great gift. What gift is that? Mary Claire, you made mention of it.

The oil was supposed to run out, but it didn’t. It lasted for the number of days needed for that light.

S: Now this is a bit different than the gift you thought I was referring to. You might have thought I meant something you put in a pretty package, and you put a pretty bow on it, and you hand it over to somebody. And yet, I’m talking about gift in a different kind of way. The gift, meaning the miracle. The gift given from beyond one human to another—that gift. A gift from within that over the centuries continues to reach within. There is the Festival of Light, and the gift for the Festival of Light, and again, Mary Claire, you had mentioned, what that particular holiday was about.

The shortest day of the year, the winter solstice, the miracle of light coming back again.

S: The days are going to start getting longer again. We no longer are huddled in the dark and the cold, with every day getting shorter and shorter, and the darkness getting longer and longer. Oh, no! It is the gift of the longer day. The gift of the greater light. Christmas. If you want to look at it traditionally, religiously, the gift of God’s son born into the world. A gift of a different kind of light coming into the world. If you are looking at the gifts of Kwanza, they are the gifts of internal— what’s the word I’m looking for here?—attributes that represent a changed person. A gift of a new way of living life. The gift in all of these, though, has to do with a gift related to great change.

When the great temple was purified and the people were able to worship in it again, it represented standing up against tyranny. Standing up for what they believed. The gift of faith and the power that comes with it.

At the change of the light of the days, going from shorter and shorter to once again becoming longer and longer, it represents another transition, another change. A change in the season, a change in how you are going to be able to live your day-to-day life, because as the weather gets warmer—the days are longer, the weather gets warmer—you are going to become more prosperous as a part of that cycle. You are going to be able to plant and harvest again. As the year moves on, that one point represents the opening up, the fullness coming back. And it is a gift of prosperity.

When Jesus came into the world, he said—or it was said of him—that he brought a new covenant to the people. Now, that doesn’t mean a whole lot to a bunch of pagans sitting here, now, does it—a bunch of heathens? But it was a moving away from the law of the ancient Jewish system to a new form of self-responsibility. Jesus represented the new covenant, whereas everything had to go through the priest in the old system. In the new system, because of Jesus, you were capable of now reaching straight to God without the intercessor, the somebody else saying, “I don’t think you should say it that way. I don’t think you can do it that way.” It was a gift of empowerment. Personal empowerment, spiritual empowerment and, at that time, societal/cultural empowerment. And the attributes celebrated at Kwanza are a personal commitment to change, a gift you give yourself that represents a greater compassion and humility and strength within your own life and as it touches into the life of those you love, a gift of new life starting within. Each one of these gifts is a power that is available to you simply by doing what we discussed earlier, linking into the energy. This is a season of gifts, and some of the most important gifts you can have in your life are out there waiting for you to recognize them and make use of them.

But there’s one more gift, and a gift that happens when you make use of those other gifts. Faith, empowerment, personal change. And that is a gift you become to the world. And I like to think that all of the big holidays of this season that get covered over in so many things, chaos and should, that once those holidays are over and there’s that nice little lull that comes between the end of Christmas and the beginning of the New Year, that that’s a good time to give yourself the opportunity to think about the gifts you have received and choose to become the gift you are meant to be, the gift you are meant to be, here in this world for others, and yes, for yourself.

You are already a gift in someone’s life—I can guarantee it. It might be because you are a hermit on the mountain and you never come out of your cave and that’s a big gift to somebody. But you are a gift in someone’s life without even trying. Imagine what you could do if you tried. What is a gift you bring this world? Well, I will tell you. You bring the light that this season is all about. And when I say light, I always mean the love of Source, because that is what the light that’s being celebrated truly is. It was the love of Source that brought about the miracle of the oil, keeping the lamp glowing, the light shining. It is the love of Source that brought that avataric Christ into the world to change what had been and create a new way. You are the light that is the love of Source in this world, and the greatest gift you have to offer is that love. And that doesn’t mean you’ve got to be huggy and touchy and kissy—but that’s always nice. It means that you recognize that you are a function of love in this world. [One of the dogs burps, audience laughs.]

I’ll try that again. That you are a function of love in this world. [Audience continues to laugh.] It just felt good, listening to it, didn’t it? Although it was aimed at DC, might not be that way for her, eh? Wasn’t so good for her.

Clear as a bell.

It was a compliment.

S: And how do you give that love? How do you live that love? Because that’s the gift, the gift this world needs in order to transform once again, in order for there to be a new understanding, another change out of chaos and into the light of love. And you, my dear one, you’re here for that very purpose. And you know it. You are the gift that you have been waiting for and that this world has been waiting for. And you can change your life into something of immense beauty by living that love every day and every way the best you can, where you are, with what you have at the moment. The gift you are is the light of this season, this time, and this world. How amazing it would be if you actually believed that! Try it this month. Look in the mirror and remind yourself, “I am a gift of love in this world. I am a gift of love in this world.” And make it so.

Happy all the holidays to you. May you be absolutely the guiding light of every one.

Glochanumora.

Now I should do past, present, future, right? That’s for later. Happy trails.