Everyday Mysticism: Grace Cathedral, Hildegard of Bingen, and Labyrinths

Hildegard of Bingen: Spiritual BadA**

Hello! After a long and much needed break, we're back and ready to chat about mysticism, astrology, and more!

What is everyday mysticism?

Everyday mysticism means to live your life in a conscious way. It means finding the small miracles in the world because small miracles are always there. Find the silence. Understand your heart. Listen, and if that doesn't work, listen again. And again. And again. (Turn off the cell phone to really listen to your soul.)

How can I do that? 

Journal. Even five minutes of writing can reconnect you with your true purpose. Meditate. Silence isn't just golden, it's the key to unlocking what you really need in the moment. Carve out time for YOU. In our hectic, tech-driven world, it's important to power down so we can plug our souls into something bigger than us - universal energy and love.

Sacred labyrinth power  with
Dr. Lauren Artress

On Happy Ganesh's Facebook and Twitter pages, you mentioned a book called Walking a Sacred Path by Dr. Lauren Artress. What made you recommend  that book to your hundreds of followers?

I'm a big fan of what I call "meditative walking" - when I throw on some sneakers, grab my iPod, and talk a very, very long brisk walk. I love either walking in our neighborhood or walking in the local woods. Trees inspire and revive me. Nature gives me a feeling of excitement and adventure: my inner five year old goes, "Where are we going?"

That love of contemplation and nature drew me to Walking a Sacred Path - but, as the universe truly works in divine and perfect ways, usually when I least expect it, I didn't know I was being "drawn" to it. I bought it at a book sale because it was fifty cents! Much to my great surprise, I learned later that Dr. Lauren Artress , the author, is  responsible for the labyrinth at the welcoming and wonderful Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, one of my favorite spiritual spots!

 I had a chance to visit Grace Cathedral over Christmas 2013 and I was so moved by the beauty and tranquility of the space that I began to cry. Due to the holiday festivities, I didn't have a chance to walk the labyrinth but I look forward to doing so very soon. Movement is sacred. And at the heart of the labyrinth lies awareness, answers, visions, truth? All of the above, perhaps.

 One of my favorite quotes from the book is about the spiritual philosophy of Hildegard of Bingen, a 12th century mystic and theologian:

Hildegard of Bingen was [...] an author of theology that knitted together nature and spirit, cosmos and soul.  She described the [Spirit] as the greening power of God. Just as plants are greened, so are we as well. As we grow up, our spark of life continually shines forth. If we ignore this spark, this greening power, we become thirsty and shriveled. And if we respond to the spark, we flower. (Walking a Sacred Path, Artress, 1995, p.15)

What will you do this week to contribute to the "greening" of your soul and inner life? Will you use walking or hiking to hear your spirit? Or will you choose another form of awareness?

Inspiration

I'm sitting here listening to my friend April Claxton, CEO of The Movement Within being interviewed by Nate Klarfield  about her children's book Goodnight Just the Same (listen below). It's a project that's getting a lot of attention - and one I've very excited to have edited.

Nate Klarfield Interviews my friend April Claxton on Stonewall Live about Goodnight Just the Same

I'm truly inspired right now. I've watched April grow and change throughout the two years I've known her - and this truly speaks to me. Imagine all the ways we can learn to become present - if we allow it.

I'm on the cusp of a large self-change myself. The more I am involved in this work, the more I am starting to realize that - after all - the two worlds of education and intuition are not separate. No "worlds" are separate. They are as united in the world as we are united in ourselves. Nothing is outside of us. I talked to a close friend of mine the other evening about life change. She said "I'm doing what I'm meant to do." How many of us can say that?

Can you say that? Can I?

How deeply can you own yourself? Your sexuality? Your creativity? What makes you YOU?

I own myself today. I own all sides of me and all parts of me - the parts that have worked in corporate, the parts that have worked as a medium and astrologer, and the parts of me that haven't felt united. That's my goal - to accept and not just LOVE myself - but to get excited about what I'm here to do and my life.

That's my dare for all of us this week.

Live your truth. Make it one with yourself. It is WHO YOU ARE. Dance in it. Own it. Do what you came here to do. Period.

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News and  Changes

It's coming!!!!!!!! The August 4th Tricking the Goddess Poetry Reading at Books and Books in Fort Lauderdale is coming! It will be at 6 pm. Mark your calendars. Those who came out to the reading at Hollywood Vine really enjoyed it.

Also, the Goddess Initiative party from June 18 has - due to a space issue - been canceled.

The Radio Shows - both the one on The Movement Within Channel Weds at 6:30 and the one that was meant to start on the Happy Ganesh channel on Monday have (ironically! changes!) been quieted until further notice

But this blog will still offer fantastic astrological, writing and inspirational information. No matter what changes Happy Ganesh undergoes, you can rely on this blog and on the clear, astrological and intuitive readings that I continue to offer.

I'd also like to thank everyone who reads this blog, especially to my clients. Since Happy Ganesh opened in 2009, you've helped us grow and change - and you've held the space for me as much as I've held the space for you.

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Here are some questions to get you inspired.

1) What are you DOING to live your dream?

2) What are your blocks and fears around living your dream? Be specific.

3) What would you do if you were safe?

4) What would happen in your life if you were safe?

5) What is your ultimate goal in your life?

6) Be still and listen to your heart. What does it say?



All my love,

Marissa

Writing Wednesdays (late): The Poetry Reading

[caption id="attachment_203" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Tricking the Goddess "][/caption]

Tonight, I read from my soon-to-be-published poetry collection, Tricking the Goddess. I was joined by two other delightful poets, my good friend Dr. Kristin Berkey-Abbott (author of Whistling Past the Graveyard and I Stand Here Shredding Documents) and Shefali Chokski (Frontier Literature).

For those who could not make it out tonight, we'll be reading at Books and Books at the Fort Lauderdale Museum of Art on August 4th at 6 pm.

 

[caption id="attachment_202" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Reading from Tricking the Goddess"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_201" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Hollywood Vine (and me)"][/caption]

There's something amazingly rewarding about reading your own work to a crowd of appreciative people.

Tricking the Goddess is on the hunt for a publisher before the August date! When it is due out, I'll post here about it. :)

Here's text from the promo flier, including some blurbs from Edmund Skellings, the Poet Laureate of Florida and Dr. Berkey-Abbott.

 

About Marissa Cohen and Tricking the Goddess



“[Cohen’s work is] powerful, both intellectually and emotionally.”

– Edmund Skellings, Poet Laureate of Florida



“The reader may feel some guilt, because Cohen's poems are so imaginative, such an enjoyable treat, even in the face of such sadness. It's a comfort to know that we have Cohen's poems as a guide to navigating the unfamiliar terrain [of loss].”

--  Kristin Berkey-Abbott, author of I Stand Here Shredding Documents and Whistling Past the Graveyard



In Tricking the Goddess, Cohen writes with dark humor and vulnerability about the aftermath of her mother’s death. In her new life, spirits unexpectedly speak and old friends help her find faith. What will it take to return from “Cancerland”? Cohen explores themes of loss, change, and empowerment in this soon-to-be-published collection.

Marissa Cohen uses her fiction, poetry, and nonfiction to explore women’s creative and spiritual experiences. In 2003, she received the Letters Honorarium from the National League of American Pen Women. She has worked for numerous publications, including the award-winning Bella Books, the Sun-Sentinel, and the Palm Beach Arts Paper. She also regularly contributes to She Magazine with her book review column “On the Shelves.” Also a professional astrologer and intuitive, Cohen is the president and founder of HappyGanesh.com, where she regularly writes about astrology and the transformative power of creative writing. She lives in Florida. For more information about Marissa, please visit www.happyganesh.com

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I'm off to dream of books.

Til next time,

M

Writing Wednesday: The Universe and You

[caption id="attachment_23" align="alignleft" width="224" caption="Spirituality is an Intensely Personal Road. "][/caption]

 

(Note: This article contains YouTube videos. If you're reading this entry in an email, please click through to the blog to see the videos!)

In honor of this week's Writing Wednesday, let's talk about the eternal divine within. I believe the sacred is in you, and learning how to connect to our deeply personal and individual spiritualities is, I believe, a lifelong and intensely personal process.

1. Do you believe in a Higher Power? If yes, does it have a name? Do you call it God? Goddess? Jesus? Luck? Chance? Fate?

2. What is your personal sacred code?

3. What does talking to a Higher Power mean to you, if you pray to one? Do you call your communication prayer? Does it have another name?

4. Describe the face of your own inner divine being. What does it look like? What is the feeling associated with it?

5. What is your favorite communication or "prayer" with the divine? Some of my favorites are "I'm lost", "Help", "F-- This!", or "Thank You."

Some book recommendations are

The Feminine Face of God by Sherry Ruth Anderson and Patricia Hopkins: Anderson and Hopkins explore women's views of spirituality, including testimony from nuns, Buddists, pagans, female rabbis, and women of all kinds, creeds, and belief systems. From the questioning stay-at-home mom to the woman leaving her relationship after fifty years, the book delves into our eternal questions: If God is me, what am I doing here? What is meaning? What applies to me?

The Language of Letting Go by Melody Beattie: Self-help household name Melody Beattie wrote this as a daily book of meditations to help us let go, find health, and trust our inner timing. (Melody Beattie also gave the children's book I edited rave reviews. To learn more about April Claxton's wonderful Goodnight Just the Same, click here.)

The Cloister Walk by Kathleen Norris: The poet Kathleen Norris went to live with Benedictine monks for two years. "Here, she compresses these years of experience into the diary of one liturgical year, offering observations on subjects ranging from celibacy to dealing with emotions," says Amazon.

Women, Food, and God: Geneen Roth was featured on Oprah for this one and it's fantastic. She connects our intimate relationship to food to our intimate spiritual relationship. Wonderful meditation on the ways that our relationship to food parallels our own abundance or perceived lack of  support from a higher power.

The ways that we feel into - or don't feel into - our individual paths can often make or break us in small ways. Here's to loving and accepting our own personal paths, whatever they look like and whatever questions they pose.

And here's a song, "Universe and You" by KT Tunstall.



For any Gray's Anatomy fans out there, here's the "very special musical episode version" that aired last week.  Dr. Arizona Robbins (Jessica Capshaw) sings to her partner Dr. Callie Torres (Sara Ramirez) , now in a coma. (Who was a weepy mess? That would be me.)



Love

Marissa

The Debby Connection (and Writing Prompts)

[caption id="attachment_163" align="alignleft" width="231" caption="Pencil Sketch of mom Debby, done by my father in 1976"][/caption]

 

My mother's name was Deborah. When she died of cancer in 2007, she left me some of her precious books, among them Gibran's The Prophet and a well worn copy of Creative Visualization.

Over the years, my dead mother has shown herself to me in odd ways. Every time I do a professional event for the spiritual and intuitive side of Happy Ganesh , always and without fail the first person that I meet is named Debby, usually Deborah.

Always.

(At the last event I did, I found myself talking to two young women who were both "daughters of Debby." Predictably, their mothers spelled their names Deborah. I was not surprised.)

The day I moved into my office space, her favorite song was playing on the radio.

When I questioned a rocky relationship, I opened a book to a handwritten note of mom's, scrawled on an aging yellow sticky note, which read: "It matters how we treat the people we love every day, not just on holidays."

Recently, I wasn't sure how to proceed with certain career goals. I'd been looking for - and found - mom's copy of Creative Visualization, a book published in 1978, years before The Secret and Esther Hicks's work came to fame. Since I teach visualization and manifestation, I'd been looking for that particular book, never dreaming that it survived the book purges to Goodwill. But it had. I was fearful about my career, feeling worried, wondering how I would keep my head above water. And it was in that place of fearfulness that I opened the book, looking again for answers from my mother. Another one of her sticky notes, tumbled to the floor, all the glue long since gone. When I picked it up, it read - in her backhanded, rounded print, "To thine own self be true." Amazingly, she'd drawn a small heart after the words.

When I have questions for her, things that only a mother could answer, she seems to collect herself across the gap between life and death to just show up. It's pretty amazing.

Sleepless a few nights ago, I pulled another book of hers off my shelf. God, Sex, and Women of the Bible by Shoni Labowitz, a feminist rabbi. (My mom was pretty cool, I have to say. I feel lucky to have had a mother who read stuff like this - and who shared it with me!) Sometimes I ask books what I need to know, as if their wisdom will help me find answers. I asked this particular book. I opened at random - of course - to the Deborah chapter.

Color me unsurprised.

I've been wondering about, among other things, career improvement. Crossroads. What do I do? That's what I asked. The book "answered" "Once you have discerned what you want and it feels right in your soul, then ask: What do I need to do to get what I want? Then go for it! Passion moves a woman like nothing else can."

That's her way of reaching me. She knows that books are one of my favorite escapes and it makes me happy to know that she will show up in that favorite place of mine, to give me faith.

Writing Prompts

What gives you unexpected faith?

What phenomenon answers your prayers/wishes/dreams?

Have you had experiences where you believed (or in some cases, flat out knew) that your deceased loved one had come back to help or support you?

 

(Crossposted from happyganeshwriting.blogspot.com)

Hodgepodge

[caption id="attachment_104" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Happy Halloween!"][/caption]

First of all, a shout-out to all the people who came out to Modern Zen's Round Robin event. You may be reading this because you added your name to my mailing list that night. We had a fantastic time. Intuitive messages get the energy moving and it's a (trick or) treat to meet so many new people.

The four-Monday astrology class goes into its second evening on November 1. We'll be talking about Venus and Mars signs. Local and want to sign up? Contact Modern Zen. To see the class schedule, go here. Want a private astrology session? Contact me.

BOOKS!!

If you like reading fiction or nonfiction books about spirituality, check out our Facebook page to join the new Happy Ganesh Book Discussion Group! The HG Book Discussion Group focuses on fiction or nonfiction books about inner growth, spirituality (of ALL denominations), the creative process, spirituality/travel, intimate relationships, and being more present in life. These are topics that I love to explore.
Right now, The Cloister Walk by American poet Kathleen Norris is a new favorite. Award-winning poet Kathleen Norris lived with monks for a year and in that time, explored her own sense of creativity and the Divine. She discusses in the book her own growth as a poet in the silence and schedule of living within a religious community. She also goes into how this year-long experience helped her to see her marriage in a new light, as well as her relationship with her creative forces. Norris's other books are "Dakota: A Spiritual Geography" and "Amazing Grace".

Have you read this book too? What do you think? Thoughts welcome.

What are you favorite books on these subjects? What books have opened you to new ideas? To joy? To challenging yourself? To creative exploration?

Have a safe and happy halloween.

In friendship,

Marissa,

Happy Ganesh President

Image Credit: lobo235

Balancing Mediumship with Knowledge

Balance is important in every aspect of life. I have never noticed it as accutely as I do being in the "business" of spirituality. If I neglect myself, my heart, my needs or my own ability to stay grounded, I can see a difference in the way I connect to everything around me, including my clients. The way that I connect to myself comes first. It's the cornerstone of this work, so that in my own connection, I can exist. Once that connection is made, I hold space for clients.

Today, I stopped by the library and, now, a huge stack of books awaits me. Everything from Elizabeth Kubler-Ross's classic, On Death and Dying, to books about American Medium Edgar Cayce, and books on manifestation. If I see how others navigated their own spiritual questions, surely I can understand my own path.

Books and learning help - but when I step into a mediumship session and it's on and the air is alive and someone's loved one is talking to me, well, there is no book to guide me through that.  There never has been. In those moments, mediumship (or channeling or reading for someone) is like the working definintion of Present. As in "I am present." Being somewhere else is out of the question because I am connected. We are - all three of us in the room - me, the dead person, the client - all connected.

We become connection.

The truth is that we are all connected, I believe. The dead don't leave us, ever. We only think they do. We become fixated on the physical - of course we do! I know that I do, and have. Of course we miss our mother, our father, our child, or spouse. We miss the physical presence, don't we? The holding, the hugging, the words that we can hear, the face we can touch.

In almost every mediumship session, the first question a client asks is "Is my loved one ok?" In my experience, the answer is always yes. Not only do they not leave us, but I believe that if we think about them, they come. All the cliches are true - as close as a breath. Nothing leaves us.

But in that is also very real grief. When people come to see me, it's there. It's a part of this type of work. I understand that. It's also there for me, some days, too - "healer, heal thyself".

I'm committed to this path. I am not sure exactly what it means and I can only see the angles I can see today. But I am here to learn and understand, and to connect, and to hold space for you to connect.

Thank you for reading.