Note From Kendra

Dear Friends,

The love I have for rituals started lifetimes ago for me. And so it comes as no surprise that I am deeply steeped in them in my current lifetime. My draw towards shamanism and spiritual direction fulfills this love deeply and is something that I love to share with people. 
 
I have a particular fondness of rituals around release and gratitude. Of course, within these two categories are hundreds of individual ceremonies that can be done simply and by yourself. There are rituals to invoke, let go, unbind, give thanks, unite, and rites of passage just to name a few.
 
In western culture, we practice rituals such as weddings, graduations, bar mitzvahs and bat mitzvahs, funerals, and births, again to name only a few. All evoke the energy and consciousness of the moment, but do we really know the significance, importance, and history of these rituals? Probably not, but we engage in them anyway because they are traditions.
 
Full moons, new moons, and the equinoxes, as well as the solstices, are perfect times to learn new rituals that can be done on your own - any place, any time. The beauty and power and energy that are within nature teach us the power of death and rebirth and renewal over and over again. As I stood at the ocean’s edge during Hurricane Matthew a couple of weeks ago, I felt nothing but a deep sense of gratitude and a calmness within me as the wind brought roaring waves crashing beneath my feet.
 
I was reminded of the unbinding ritual that I participated in years ago, when I was letting go of everything that no longer served my highest self, in the very spot where I stood watching this hurricane unfurl around me. And once again I was reminded that these beautiful rituals are ancient- that I was tapping into a collective consciousness that has existed since the beginning of time.
 
All is well in the mystery and order of life. Let it be in the engagement of ritual that we find home again.
 

With love,

Archetype

Prince

The connotations of certain words is as significant as their literal meaning in determining the nature of an archetype. Our word prince comes from Latin roots meaning “first” or “chief,” and the word was originally applied to the ruler of a principality or the son of a sovereign, but we often use the term today for anyone preeminent in his field, or for any generous individual.  The adult fairy tale The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery further colored our image of the Prince as an innocent, awestruck explorer.  Yet the true Prince is a ruler-in-training who is in service to the people he will rule, whether that is a literal kingdom or a figurative or spiritual one, as with Prince Siddhartha prior to becoming the Buddha. The shadow Prince can manifest as a young man with great feelings of entitlement, an heir apparent who uses his position solely for self-aggrandizement, or one who stands to inherit an evil empire and so takes on all the negative characteristics of the “king,” like the character of Michael Corleone in The Godfather.  Machiavelli’s The Prince was a guide to using a ruler’s shadow power purely to advance one’s career and self-interest without regard for the needs of others.
 
Films: Laurence Olivier in The Prince and the Showgirl; Henry Fonda in The Lady Eve; Joseph Cotton in The Farmer’s Daughter; Paul Newman in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof; Robert Redford in The Way We Were; Anthony Perkins in Phaedra.
 
Drama: Biff in Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller.
 
Fiction: The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain.
 
Fairy Tales: Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella.
 
Religion/Myth: Rama (the prince of Ayodhya, seventh incarnation of Vishnu, and the hero of the Hindu epic Ramayana); Shotoku (Japanese prince deified as the reincarnation of Siddhartha, the Buddha); Xochipilli (Aztec god of flowers, maize, love, beauty, and song, whose name means “Flower Prince”); Beelzebub (originally the patron god of the Philistines and Canaanites whose name meant “Prince Baal,” demonized in the Judeo-Christian tradition as the Prince of Darkness).

Myss, Caroline.  Sacred Contracts: Awakening Your Divine Potential.  New York: Three Rivers Press, 2002, 2003. 406-407. Print.

Symbology

Contributed by Anne Barton.

It was exactly two years ago that I first shared a message from my Divinity Quest cards. Before picking a card for this issue, I set the intention to provide a message that could be used for guidance by everyone who reads this. 
 
Close your eyes and consider a question you have right now.  It could be about a decision you have to make, or a challenge you are facing, or something you’d like to create in your life – more joy, less stress, more freedom. 
 
Hold that question; then open your eyes and read the statement for this card.  Look at the symbol on the card, in the image below. Try saying the name. (This is actually Egyptian, and it is the name of a specific angel connected with this card. When you say the name, you are calling on the angel). And then consider the statement again.  Repeat it. Does it provide you with a path for resolving your situation?  It’s not meant to tell you what to do; it’s meant to guide you to your own answer or solution.  Sit with it.  Repeat it daily this week.
 
Card Name:
Rasut-krihanas-prabis  (Pronounced: Rah suit-Cree Ha Nahs-Prah-Beece) 
 
Card Statement:
The ability to break free from stagnant patterns requires two kinds of courage: The courage to make the large decision necessary for an effective life-change and the courage to persevere in taking the many small steps to implement it. 

Happy fall!
 
In healing light,
Anne Barton