I have just had a realization of something pop into my head. When read your first post asking what people thought about your meditation I didn't have any idea of what it could be about. I waited until I got home from work and was relaxed and I reread it. Suddenly I had an old dream pop up in my head...it was of a dark sort of industrial type place also. It had this large smoker type barbecue in one area and I remember thinking that they must barbecue pork there for someone, but who? It seemed like maybe it was for some employees? I was in this dim space alone and the barbecue stood out and I felt a little uncomfortable there with it, even though it seemed harmless enough. I grew up in the Midwest of the US but now live in the Bible belt or Southern US. I think people here love there barbecue so much and the people I work with can't wait to tell you how they get the best tasting most tender meat etc...they eat a lot of it here. They know all the best barbecue restaurants and try them all over the state. It seems like an obsession to me, I wonder how people can love their barbecued meat so much. I never ate a lot of barbecue, my parents didn't do that at all.
So that dream kept lingering in my mind and I knew it didn't seem to have anything to do with your vision, but for some reason I kept thinking about it. I spent some time wondering why it seemed to linger in my mind--maybe because it was in a location that felt a little similar. Then when I turned my thoughts to your vision it suddenly seemed easier to imagine what it might be about so I suddenly had an easy time writing about it. I was really shocked the next day when you had said "Yes! That is what I felt exactly!" I mean shocked. I was like "Wow...I didn't expect that!" Now what just sort of bubbled up into my mind is that humans treat animals pretty cruelly, we have all these farms that are not so humane, we eat the food and the barbecue is maybe finger lickin' good but did the animal get treated in a manner that was kind and loving in any way? I eat meat but I have been trying for years to eat less or stop eating it but I have not yet got to where I would like to be. We love our pets but look at a cow and just see steaks and hamburgers...I'm not wanting to make the meat eaters uncomfortable, I am a meat eater also, but this is a moral problem is it not? Animals are used for research also, some of the experiments can be very cruel also. I had another dream that I know was my spirit guides telling me to stop eating meat. They showed me animals in a tent living in mud and uncomfortably crowded conditions. I think they want me to stop eating meat right now!! I don't know why it is hard for me to stop, I am humbled by my own inability to learn and stay with a vegan lifestyle. I slowly make changes and often slip back to where I don't want to be. I decided to not be too hard on myself but I do want to change. So my main point is that the vision of the people hanging like hams from the ceiling and being possibly experimented on for me has a similar vibe to our own inhumanity to the animals on this planet. I only just now realized that. Maybe I will try harder to eat vegan!
Starpath, Thank you for sharing! I think you could be right, I did what I was supposed to do and I may not need to revisit this place. I shouldn't have assumed I was disappointing others. I was feeling some disappointment because I was hoping to give more information to those who were curious- but maybe I have shared with y'all exactly what I was supposed to share.
You were cracking me up about the BBQ! Lol, yes, I also live in the Bible Belt (Nashville) and people love their BBQ, that's for sure! It's interesting that you brought up our relationship with animals. I had mentioned that during my second attempt to reconnect with that place, I was unsuccessful, but did receive healing from a past regression. Well, turns out I wasnt using the correct term. What I experienced was healing from some suppressed feelings I had buried in hopes to ignore and forget. It was such a powerful experience that I had tears streaming down my face as I was asking for forgiveness and offering awareness and taking responsibility for my selfish and careless choices, which resulted in my abandonment and neglect of the very animals that showed me unconditional love and companionship. I had replaced their importance with the importance of a relationship with a man who wouldn't accept them. I was so caught up in the idea of this new love- I chose to abandon a lot of myself (including my animals). That was during a difficult time in my life of losing myself in order to really finding myself (death and rebirth). So it was interesting that you were touching on animals and how we treat them...
It is easy to lose our own truth when we find ourselves conforming to what society tells us is preferred or acceptable (traditions, culture, religion, relationships etc.). We all have some part of us that wants to be accepted, wants to fit in, wants approval (etc.). However, no matter how isolating, different or unaccepted being YOU may be, there is nothing more purposeful, fulfilling and admirable than finding YOUR TRUTH, EMBRACING IT and LIVING IT.
Melanie
I wanted to ask this question.
I was not familiar with the term Shaman or Shamanism before I posted on this forum. I have looked it up because of several comments referring to Shamanic drumming and Shamanic ritual..
Does my vision with the Shamanic drumming mean that I'm a Shaman, or supposed to be, or being called to be? What exactly does it mean for me to have a vision leading with a Shamanic ritual?
Thanks
Melanie
I'm on my trip and I really haven't had time to meditate, but I'm returning to this thread because I came across a bit of news that may be of interest to Melanie: one of the DNA sites (not 23 and me, but an ancestry site based in Israel called MyHeritage) has been hacked. So if you worry about genetic information, it isn't just what the companies might do with it... it's also what hackers, that aren't accountable to anyone, might do with it. I've realized my original point that the average person probably wouldn't be personally harmed is wrong. With genetic information, it's possible to take identity theft to a whole new level. And also, if you are not an average person, bioweapons designed for assassination probably already exist. I say this based on some reports of strange infections people in significant positions have suffered, that killed them very quickly but nobody in their immediate environment seemed to be affected as far as I know. I'd say now, unless you have a specific reason to do so (like a nasty type of cancer running in your family) maybe it's best not to get genetic testing. If you're simply curious about your heritage, a genealogy search plus the available information on people of the ethnicity of your ancestors should be enough.
I've read the latest posts of this thread and they all confirm my original suspicion that Melanie is way better at this than me. I'm pretty sure I'm making slow progress, though. And I can tell there is progress in the world, too (and not just my impression - I know it's easy to confuse your own progress with the progress of the whole world, but I'm quite certain this is not what I'm feeling here). When you look at the news, more and more people are going vegan. And wind turbines are everywhere now. We are learning to respect Gaia.
Melanie I can relate to your latest post a lot and many things you've said in other posts. I find that the spiritual journey is a lot like climbing a mountain that has a winding path and a lot of places with big rocks blocking the path that I find out I actually put there myself!!! Then I realize some experience in my childhood or younger life caused me to react in a way that was not for my benefit, but made me feel safer. Then I have to try and heal that aspect of myself and it really isn't always easy to do so. The issue may have to come up several times before I get to the root of the matter or have some big realization that then seems to dissolve the blockage. I am glad you faced the suppressed feelings during meditation. It is healing and so necessary to free yourself from that heavy weight. We all have our struggles and issues but it seems to me that to keep going up the mountain we have to face them at some point. Our spiritual guides and angels are always climbing with us and I'm so grateful for that.
I know I've been a whack job lately re: aliens, BUT I keep thinking that "everything that rises must converge," and there's this confluence of ideas on this site right now with the alien remote viewing stream. What triggered my "oh, wow" thinking is when Starpath mentioned the rows of stars lined up and the story of her name. I reflected on my own very vivid dreams about being on a different plane and part of an interview of some kind and connecting with these stars by exchanging gifts of sage. It made me think of the Star People … The Lakota Sioux and other Native populations see themselves in spiritual connection with the Star People. After watching many Alba Weinman regression tapes and thinking about my own life experience of "half fitting, half not" and being entirely uncomfortable with the notion that aliens are "other" out there, when we logically must have some RNA connection with "others" … everything Melanie and Starpath are communicating seems to suggest, confirm, make me wonder about the messages and prophesy of Native Americans and Star People. Everything in me believes that there is something spiritually so much greater than myself, my humanity, and that if there are alien peoples connecting with us in some way, we share a spiritual connection. Along these lines, there is the prophesy of the sixth generation, which would be the Millennials, and the idea that our physical, past life, and karmic heritage are intertwined with this generation, who must fight "the black snake," which symbolizes oil and the destruction of the environment and Native people.
About the sixth generation prophesy and the “black snake” …
Just one of many, many sites touching on the idea of star people … and some of these sites describe the commonalities shared by posters on this missive stream ...
http://www.crystalinks.com/starseeds.html
Gracesinger I enjoyed the articles you linked. I have some Lakota Sioux in my blood but wasn't raised around the Lakota culture very much. The articles were very interesting for me to read. I have been grateful for this community for these inspiring posts that make me think. I feel like a lot of people may have some alien consciousness as part of their spiritual makeup and although I don't care for the starseed term or description myself I think there is truth to the basic idea of it.
Melanie I can try to answer your question about what does the shamanic part of your meditative vision mean but not in too much detail. Maybe someone else will be able to provide more information than what I am going to try to explain if they are more familiar with the concepts. The most important thing to keep in mind is what Maria said--that your own feelings about the importance and meaning of it are what really matters. You say you don't have any knowledge of shamanism, but on a spiritual level you could be knowing more than you consciously remember or are aware of. You could have had a past life as a shaman. You might have been many different types of shamans from different cultures in many past lives. One of your spiritual guides may be a shaman and may have shared a past life with you and/or trained you in shamanism. The only thing I know about shamanic drumming and astral travel is limited to what I've heard about soul retrieval. In some cases a person may feel that some trauma has left such a deep wound or had such a profound effect on them that they feel their soul has been damaged. The soul may have (in a metaphysical sense) saved a piece of itself somewhere to protect it. The shaman can go find the missing "piece" of the soul that was lost during the trauma so that healing and a sense of complete integration of the soul piece can be gained. They make a metaphysical journey and seem to know where to get the missing soul piece...the drumming helps them go into the trance that is necessary to do the astral travel. I am not sure how they reintegrate the soul piece...you could try googling soul retrieval to get more information. I think there is a lot of information about shamanism and you could read about it and then try imagine what is the answer that feels right to you...
I have had lots of these experiences in the last four decades of my life...astral travel, past life experiences (as in visioning others symbolic experiences during healing sessions or ceremonies or encounter groups) contact with shamanic energies, healings etc.and intense work with dream symbolism etc. I have learned from trying to help hundreds of people that what I know, see, or vision can be extremely powerful but in the end, it was all about what I needed to learn from knowing them and not what I could give to them. And it was exactly the same for them even if they neither understood that or realized it, ever.
It truly is their dream, their symbolic understandings, their own healing,and their path and the path is usually long and challenging and not easy. If it doesn't resonate with you it has no meaning for you. And you will find the teachings and the teachers one step forward and two back.
Everyone is knowing that in different ways and saying and sharing that depending on where we are in our journey. It is lovely to share our experiences and understanding because we might say or share something another is ready for or needs. Everyone here is so giving and sharing here and someone is truly touched by what you share.
Just remember what Maria said and Starpath repeated...It is your interpretation and your meaning. we can share and post and think we are helping; but really it's up to the one who asks the question to find the answer that resonates with and in their own inner knowing.
And that includes anything I just wrote. ??
Group hug and kudos and gratitude for all!
Still on my trip and I've had no time to attempt any serious meditation, but I'm just checking this thread again.
When I was about nine I read this children's book called "The Neverending Story" by Michael Ende and it made a big impact on me for some reason. I must have read it a hundred times or so. I simply loved the idea that by reading a book you could somehow enter it and become part of that world, and I hoped that maybe if I read it enough times it would happen to me. I often think of my spiritual journey in terms of that book because for me, that book was almost like the Bible at one point. One of the things it said was that the path of following your own wishes is always winding and complicated, but it's also always the right path. The same is true for the spiritual journey, I feel.
Starpath, when you said that your name came from a dream with two rows of stars, I had a quick flash in my mind of a cross within a circle, the usual symbol for planet Earth, and then it became bigger and in the center of the cross I saw a triangle. I don't know if that resonates in any way for you.