Note From Kendra

Dear Friends,

I experienced another epic annual mother-daughter trip this summer! My daughters and I had decided, as I shared in the June newsletter, to take a road trip and cover an area of the country that none of us had really spent any length of time in - the Southwest. We started in Phoenix, drove around the Grand Canyon, through Vegas, and ended back in Phoenix. The thing that was most awe-inspiring to me was how the universe worked its charm and empowered us to be present to this glorious experience and time together.
 
I had decided early on that I wasn’t going to take my computer and do any work. I really wanted to have the experience you have when you visit a foreign country where you can’t easily get cell coverage and have to unplug from all the “pleasures” of being connected to the web and cell towers.
 
Lo and behold that is exactly what I got!  And my daughters also had the same experience without intentionally asking for it; we were deeply engaged with the present moment and the experience of nature that surrounded us. The Southwest was like a new world for me - vast areas of nothing but God’s painted sky and naturescapes of red rock and beautiful dessert foliage. It was breathtaking every day as we witnessed something new - a beautifully different cast of the sun’s rays and puffy clouds that shadowed the canyon and dessert like nothing I have ever seen before. I feel blessed to live in a country that has so much beautiful landscape. One would maybe argue with my grandparents, but they always said there was so much to see in this country - why consider getting on a plane to explore places in other countries. They spent their retirement years pulling a camper and road tripping to almost every state, creating memory books that made me want to experience the very same thing some day. They, by the way, covered all but two states: Alaska and Hawaii.
 
I have a tenent that I have upheld through the years with my kids and have never waivered: where we go and what we do doesn’t matter. What’s important is being together experiencing new places and creating memories – things that can never be sold at a garage sale or given away in a donation bag. These experiences and memories are precious and priceless to me.
 
We had a glorious trip of relaxation, eco experiences, and crazy joyous laughter creating a week of magical memories and already wondering where next year’s trip takes us.
 

Love to you,

Archetype

The King
(Emperor, Ruler, Leader, Chief)

The King is an archetype of major proportions, representing the height of temporal male power and authority. Both benevolence and cruelty in their extreme expressions are associated with this archetype. (Classic to the cruel King is the collective hope of his kingdom that he should fall from his throne.) The King is associated more with the royal blood and inheritance, whereas an Emperor can arise from common society, as did Napoleon. The bloodline connects the King to the Prince archetype and to attitudes of “entitlement,” one of the shadow characteristics of archetypes associated with rulership.  A resistance to criticism, questioning, and challenges in decisions about controlling his kingdom is also part of the King’s shadow.
 
Throughout history, the pendulum has swung from good Kings to evil, from benevolent, even saintly rulers to greedy, gluttonous criminals. King Louis IX of France-Saint Louis-combined the qualities of a just ruler, fearless warrior, and holy man. The thirteenth-century sovereign lived for the welfare of his subjects and the glory of God. Charlemagne, King David, and Akhenaton of Egypt were among earth’s most enlightened, if occasionally all-too-human, rulers. And then there was mad King George III of England who led the colonies to rebel; King Louis XVI of France, who was synonymous with decadence and excess; and Emperor Hirohito of Japan, who led his country into a devastating war.
 
This archetype maintains the same characteristics on an individual level, whether one’s kingdom is a corporation, a community, or a family. The need to rule and exert control over a kingdom is key to this archetype.
 
Films: Charles Laughton in The Private Life of King Henry VIII; Yul Brynner in The King and I; Richard Gere in King David; Paul Scofield in King Lear (1971); Christopher Walken in The King of New York (shadow extraordinaire).
 
Drama: Richard III, Henry IV, Henry V, Hamlet, and Macbeth by Shakespeare.
 
Fiction: King of the Gypsies by Peter Maas; The Godfather by Mario Puzo (shadow); The Once and Future King by T.H. White.
 
Religion/Myth: Priam (king of Troy); Daibutsu/Daibosatsu (Japanese meditating Buddha as world ruler); Sila or Silap-inua (divine ruler of the Eskimo seen as the air you breathe and the energy that moves both the entire universe and each of us individually); Amun (supreme Egyptian creator god, originally ruler of the air and the force behind wind and breezes); Chief Seattle (Native American ruler); Haile Selassie (emperor of Ethiopia, later deified by the Rastafarian religion). 

Myss, Caroline.  Sacred Contracts: Awakening Your Divine Potential.  New York: Three Rivers Press, 2002, 2003. 394. Print.

Symbology

Leopard
Contributed by Anne Barton.

I recently completed a class in animal communication. It was really eye opening and fun. I learned to trust my intuition and open up to a higher communication ‘network’ that links us to all living things.
 
Our teacher shared this powerful video early in the class, and I’ve been sharing it with all my animal-loving friends ever since!
 
This is a great look at what an animal communicator does and how this can literally change the life of an animal and the people trusted with its care. I highly recommend this video (13:16 min.) I cry each time I watch it… 

Click now to watch it.