Author: Staff

Spiritual Halloween. What’s the Real Meaning of All Hallows Eve?

With just a short stroll through any grocery store in October, you’ll be quick to realize what one of the main icons of Halloween has become: candy!

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I’m not going to lie, dressing up in costume and collecting free candy from everyone in the neighborhood growing up, made Halloween one of my favorite holidays.

But in addition to candy, costumes, spooky fun and ghoulish decorations…

I bet you’ve sensed or felt deep down that spiritually, on Halloween, there’s something more!

Maybe that’s why you’re here reading this now…

And you’re right!

There is a deeper spiritual significance that underlies the mainstream fascination with Halloween largely revolving around trick-or-treating, haunted houses, Halloween costumes, and spooky fun.

So what is the true spiritual meaning of Halloween?

A great place to find the spiritual meaning of Halloween comes from looking at the origin of the holiday.

Halloweens Origin As Samhain

Halloween’s origins can be traced back to the ancient Celts who celebrated Samhain (pronounced sow-in).

Samhain was the final harvest festival of the season, celebrated at the exact point between the Fall Equinox, and Winter Solstice (Right around October 31^st).

Samhain marked the end of the growing season, the entrance into winter months… And was seen as a powerful turning point in the wheel of the year representing the cycle of life, death, and rebirth.

In the wheel of the year cycle; Samhain was the time of death.

The time in which the trees shed their leaves, animals go into hibernation, and the days grow short and cold…

Samhain was a celebration of the ending or death of a cycle, and entrance into the inwardly focused period of rest, and stillness that is winter…

It was a celebration of darkness… And I don’t mean darkness as in “evil”, but rather a darkness that represents the unknown, the void, the subconscious mind, the realm of intuition, and all we cannot logically see or comprehend.

Samhain was also a time when the veils between the realms of the living and the afterlife were said to be thin. Learn more about the thinning of the veil here. 

The ancient Celts tapped into this energy with rituals to celebrate death, to honor those in the afterlife, and to gain insight into the darker hidden realms of existence.

Their belief was that in integrating and accepting the darkness… The knowledge and power of the light is also renewed.

The Spiritual Significance of Halloween Today

Now that you know the earliest history of Halloween…

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I want to share a little perspective of how you can add a spiritual twist to your Halloween celebrations today.

With Halloween being a celebration of the ending of a cycle and the death of what has been…

It’s a powerful time to honor and release what all has died and moved on from your reality.

Release and Let Go!

The time on and around Halloween is a perfect opportunity to release and let go!

Consciously make an effort to let go of lower emotions, and energies tied to past situations, thoughts, and patterns…

Take some time to cleanse your energy with a salt bath, a cleansing meditation, or just by consciously cleansing your energy with light and returning to love.

Letting go also includes taking the time to honor and release all that you have achieved in the past year.

Just as can be seen by the trees who are modeling this for us now by losing their leaves…

When you shed and let go of all that has been, and let what has been completed die and fall away… You tap into the power of the cycles of life, and the opportunity to make way for new creative possibilities and opportunities to appear.

Connect with The Realms of Spirit

Since Halloween is a time in which the spirit world is more active, and the veil between realms is thin…

It’s a perfect time to consciously tune into the realms of spirit too.

This could be honoring your ancestors and loved ones in spirit. Looking for signs from deceased loved ones.

Or just heightening your intuition, and tuning your natural psychic abilities so you can connect with the guidance and insight of your guides and angels.

Learn a simple process to connect with your Spirit Guides here!

Or learn to connect with your ancestors and loved ones in Heaven here.

Halloween and Psychic Protection

Because Halloween is a time in which the veils are thin, and many celebrate the holiday without awareness…

It’s a good idea to consciously keep your energy clear and protected, which is really easy to do with a bit of awareness, love, and light.

This is especially important if you go to a Halloween party where people are drinking alcohol, or you go see a scary movie or attend a haunted house or somewhere that fear energies are being generated and called in, or where people are or focusing on the lower spookier spiritual realms…

Learn simple psychic protection techniques for Halloween or anytime here!

I do want to make one thing perfectly clear… Halloween is not a holiday to be feared!

It’s just wise to give a little extra effort towards releasing what no longer serves… Honoring your intuition, and honoring the incredible life beyond what we can see, and understand from our perspective as being in the physical.

I see Halloween as a great opportunity to welcome the unknown, reflect, release, and bring a little extra magic and intuition into everyday life.

Maybe this year while you’re taking your kids trick-or-treating or passing out candy in your neighborhood you’ll remember:

Death is no barrier to love, and as the wheel of life turns, and death appears…

It is just paving the way for the next cycle of rebirth, where we’re reset into an experience that’s entirely new.

Happy Halloween! 

How do you like to celebrate Samhain or Halloween? Comment below and let me know!

With love, light, and gratitude,

A Look Into The Symbolism and Spiritual Meaning of Turkey

This past summer I stayed on a large property that was surrounded by forest.  And much to my delight… A large family of Wild Turkeys regularly strolled through.

I don’t know if you’ve really looked to notice… But turkeys are incredibly beautiful birds.

Okay… maybe a bit weird looking from certain vantage points… But when you really look…

Their skin and feathers are slightly iridescent and in certain lighting, they seem to contain an entire rainbow of colors. Male birds are especially colorful, and fancy, when they puff up their chests and spread their feathers in a beautiful peacock-like display.

It’s not just the males though… Female and baby turkeys are also quite iridescent and beautiful…

Turkeys are quite the regal birds really.

It was so fun to watch them zig-zagging through the yard, the mama turkey clearly teaching her younglings about how to eat and thrive in the world… And the males gathering together to cockily strut their stuff and (as I imagine) talk about how beautiful they are.

Anyway…

My time with the turkeys this summer really helped me to attune to their energy and understand the unique spiritual medicine and all they have to offer.

So just the other day when I was offered the option to “reserve my Turkey” at Natural Grocers… It really hit me how culturally disconnected we’ve become to the sacred wisdom of turkey. And instead of honoring and learning from these wise birds, we literally have a mass-slaughter and holiday designed around eating them.

This, and because I recently kept seeing so many turkeys, I thought I’d share with you here a bit of what I’ve learned about the magic, wisdom and guidance of the turkeys.

The Sacred Nature of Turkey

When you look deeply into Turkeys appearance… It’s clear to see that they are really magical birds. So its no surprise to find that turkeys were considered sacred by ancient Mexican cultures like the Aztecs, Mayans, and Toltecs who honored turkeys for their striking beauty and cocky confidence and price.

Certain Native American tribes also honored Turkey as a spirit of abundance, sacrifice and fertility.

So what is the spiritual meaning of Turkey?

Turkey Totem Meaning

As a spirit animal and ally, turkey reminds us of the power of honoring nature and being in deep communion and connection with the Earth.

Turkey reminds us to honor ourselves, honor the Earth, and to care for and nourish both. When we do, so many blessings of abundance, community, authentic connection, harmony and fulfillment can align as a result.

Cultivating a harmonious relationship with the Earth is one of the key teachings of Turkeys wisdom…

And one we’re surely in need of in the world today!

Ironic that Turkey seeks to teach us how to have a harmonious relationship with the Earth and culturally we literally “eat the messenger”?

Harmonious Relationship with Mother Earth

When you do cultivate a relationship of harmony, gratitude, and love with the Earth…  This becomes a solid foundation for your own vibrant wellbeing on both the mental, emotional, physical and spiritual levels.

As a totem, turkey is a wise and intelligent guide who can help you to cultivate greater abundance and fulfillment by harmonizing your relationship with nature and all of life.

Turkey’s also are strong symbols of the importance of community, sharing, and authentic connection.

What Does It Mean When Turkey Crosses Your Path?

If a turkey has crossed your path through either seeing turkeys in the wild, appearing in a dream or meditation… Or you’ve come across pictures of turkeys somewhere, even online…  

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You might ask yourself how you’re honoring and nurturing yourself, and what you’re doing to connect with and care for the Earth.

Are you tuning into all you have to be grateful for and openly receiving and flowing forth blessings in life?

Turkey also reminds us to be grateful and aware of the many blessings in life. A call for gratitude… And a reminder for you to shine your unique light, and express your unique soul qualities and inner brilliance. Like the beautiful male turkeys strutting their stuff and showing off their beautiful feathers for all to see… It’s time for you to reveal more of your brilliance and beauty in the world.

Turkey Feather Meaning

Turkey feathers are a beautiful symbol of abundance, a sign of the power of co-creating with Mother Earth, and a reminder that now is a fertile time for creation.

And like all feathers, a reminder of the presence of Spirit.

With love and blessings,

Understanding The Veil and What A Thin Veil Means

The Veil is Thin and Getting Thinner… Have you heard this?

I’ll bet you have… But let’s take this a bit deeper and dive into the heart of what it really means.

What Is The Veil?

I think the best place to begin looking at this topic is by answering the question: “What the heck is The Veil anyway?”

The Veil is first and foremost a metaphor… Because veiled in the illusion of time and space is the highest truth of who you really are.

So “The Veil” is essentially the barrier between you in the physical and the spiritual realms.

It’s also sometimes called The Veil of Illusion because the very purpose of The Veil is to provide a barrier between spirit and the physical world… But the reality and underlying truth is that spirit and the physical are interconnected, and any perceived blocks or barriers are simply illusion.

“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one” -Einstein

In other words, The Veils of Illusion are part of the programming of reality. They are the constructs that hold back your infinite spiritual awareness, so you can perceive yourself as a limited physical being.

As The Veils dissolve, thin or fall away, truth is revealed, and you can experience beyond the physical…

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This can unfold in many different realms ranging from perceiving non-physical beings, experiencing your multidimensional self, simply expanding consciousness, tuning into higher awareness, or receiving clear guidance and inspiration from Spirit.

The Thinning of The Veil

We live in a time period in which the Veils are naturally thinning due to the ongoing ascension process and the incredible influxes of plasma light and ascension energy.

This energy is triggering more and more people to awaken to higher consciousness and direct spiritual experience. As more people wake up across the planet and begin to stand in empowerment to perceive and reach beyond The Veil… The rate at which The Veil is thinning further accelerates.

Glimpsing Beyond The Veil

When you consciously direct your attention towards the realms of Spirit, you’ll likely have experiences where you glimpse beyond the veil. These glimpses, spiritual experiences — whether they happen spontaneously, or from consciously working towards opening your psychic abilities — attunes your energy to Spirit, and anchors Spirit into the physical further peeling back The Veil of Illusion and freeing your conscious awareness…

The process of gradually peeling back the Veils of Illusion raises your frequency, expands consciousness and empowers you to enter into a heightened state of awareness.

As more and more individuals wake up and experience beyond The Veil, this gradually and yet consistently Thins the Veil on a collective scale.

Yes this is happening now, and yes, the thinning is accelerating.

Where and When Is The Veil The Thinnest?

Okay… So we talked about what The Veil is and how it is consistently thinning…

But have you heard of times like Samhain/ Halloween, “the witching hour” or maybe you’ve heard of or been to certain sacred sites or “thin places” where The Veil is naturally thinner?

I’ll confirm it for you… There are absolutely certain times, and many, many different locations where The Veil between the physical and the spiritual is naturally thinner.

Liminal Space

One of the hidden keys to finding these thin times and places has to do with the liminal.

Liminal comes from the Latin word līmen, which means “a threshold”…

So liminal spaces or places where the veil is thin are the spaces where you have left something behind but are not yet fully in something else.

For example: The space between where the Ocean ends and Land begins is a liminal “crossing over” space where if you stand there…

You’re not quite in the Ocean, and you’re not quite on Land… You’re in-between space, both in the Ocean and on Land… And in a sense, in neither.

As a result of being “in-between”, in a liminal space, peering through The Veil, which is the “in-between” of Spirit and Physical also becomes easier.

So these points of in-between, both on the Earth, and found in time, are places where the veil is naturally thin, offering a boose in glimpsing beyond The Veil into the realms of Spirit.

Times/ Places Where The Veil is Thin

Additional liminal times or places where the veil is thin include:

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The boundaries between land and water…
Where the desert meets the forest…
Earth meets rock…

Or where mountaintops turn into sky…
Meteor Craters (where Space meets Earth)
Volcanoes or Hot Springs (where the core of the Earth meets the surface)

Sunset (the in-between day and night)
The Witching Hour (the in-between midnight and dawn)

Samhain (the time of the year between Summer and Winter)
Beltane (the time of the year between Winter and Summer)

The hypnogogic state (the state between dreaming and waking)

Waterfalls (the space between Water and Air)
Natural arches or tunnels (Where Earth meets Air)

Places where its foggy or misty (also where Water meets Air)

Different thin places grant you access to different aspects of Spirit, and different spiritual dimensions. For example, to keep running with the shoreline where Ocean meets Land… It’s not necessarily going to provide clear access beyond the veil to talk to your grandfather in Spirit… (unless maybe he was a surfer) … But it will likely be a place where its easier to communicate with the spiritual beings who are present in that space.

Beyond the Veil

Although the veils are certainly thinning now… As physical beings, the realms of magic and spirit largely remain just outside of our everyday awareness and normal waking consciousness.

This doesn’, however,r mean that we can’t consciously cultivate a profound relationship with Spirit…

And through this, further, peel back The Veil of Illusion to expand consciousness and anchor the light and wisdom of the spiritual realms into life to help bring about positive change and transformation in the physical.

A great place to start cultivating that relationship and peeling back The Veil is through meditation…

Check out our collection of free angel meditations here…

Or get the most up to date Angelic Activations and Meditations inside of The Angel Solution Membership here!

With love and blessings,

Theodore Roosevelt (1858 – 1919), the 26th President of the United States, was ambitious, aggressive, occasionally contradictory, always dynamic. He was a physical fitness enthusiast, soldier, cowboy, politician, explorer, conservationist, big game hunter, and writer. His unusual blend of talents and commitments resulted in a life of action which mirrored the emergence of America on the world scene in the twentieth century.

Attending Harvard University, this go-getter competed as a boxer and graduated at the top of his class. He was elected an assemblyman at the age of 23, the youngest member of the New York State Legislature, where he was a champion of municipal reform. When the United States went to war with Spain, he organized a regiment and led these ” Rough Riders” in the capture of San Juan Hill in Cuba. Returning home as a hero, he was elected Governor of New York. He was elected Vice President of the United States in 1900, and after President William McKinley was assassinated, he became the youngest President in American history, serving from 1901 – 1909.

Much of the physical and mental energy of Theodore Roosevelt went into his warrior ethic which was expressed when he said: “No triumph of peace is quite as great as the supreme triumphs of war.” Yet, on the other hand, this indomitable President used his passionate feelings for the natural world to introduce conservationist legislation he pushed through during his years in the White House.

To Name This Day . . .

Spiritual Practice

“Passion is what disturbs and confounds the safe and the settled in your life,” writes Gregg Levoy in Vital Signs, as if describing the life of Theodore Roosevelt. “Passion is the impulse toward growth, which, by its nature, protests boredom and ennui, refuses to bump mindlessly along on the conveyor belt, and has little patience for the ‘been there, done that’ attitude that there’s nothing new under the sun. It is what stirs your interest in life, helping you awaken from the trances and entrapments of the everyday, which block the natural migration of your energies.

“Whether passion takes the form of colorful intensity or contemplative alertness, it constitutes to a vibrant life, a keen awareness of where the impulse is, and a determination to plug into that place. It helps you stay engaged with the world and enjoy it as a function of the primary calling of all creatures — maximum aliveness.”

Why do people with high energy and incredible pep impress those who work or socialize with them? Has this been the case with you? Who has inspired you most with his or her “maximum aliveness”? What practices have you tried which can deepen and enhance your zeal?

On April 14, 2014, gunmen entered a boarding school in Chibok, Northern Nigeria, and kidnapped 276 girls. The perpetrators of this terrorist attack were part of Boko Haram, an Islamist extremist group that has been at war with the Nigerian government since 2009. They have terrorized the country, destroying villages, leaving some 28,000 people dead and forcing three million to flee. Their most known atrocities have been committed against women and girls, who have been raped, taken to a forest hideout, and forced to marry the terrorists.

The fate of the Chibok girls became the focus of a global media campaign with the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls. In the early hours of the kidnapping, 57 girls escaped. Three years later, 103 were released. The others remain in captivity.

This documentary follows the released girls as they adjust to life after their shared trauma. The Nigerian government puts them up in a safe house in the capital of Abuja, where they receive medical and psychological assistance and attend school. The filmmakers received exclusive access to the girls but have to rely on secret journals to learn what had happened to them in the forest. Government officials, fearing that Boko Haram will not release the remaining girls, insist that the girls not talk about their past, only about the benefits they are receiving now. Although many are still deeply traumatized by what they have experienced and seen, they enjoy trips outside the safe house and visits with their families. Eventually they enroll in the American University of Nigeria.

In contrast to all the attention given to the Chibok girls are the stories of the “Forgotten Girls,” as many as 2,000 other women and girls who have been taken by Boko Haram. In interviews in Maiduguri, where they have gone after escaping from the forest, even though it is home to many members of Boko Haram, they talk about being raped, tortured, and observers of atrocities. One of them, Habiba, got pregnant in the forest, escaped and gave birth, only to discover she is HIV-positive and have her baby die. She reaches out to two brothers, who witnessed the killing of their parents, and they create a new family.

In 2014, ISIS (in Iraq) and Boko Haram were responsible for 51% of all terrorism-related deaths, according to the Global Terrorism Index. In 2015, terrorism increased most significantly in Nigeria, where deaths increased by over 300 per cent to 7,512 fatalities. The fifth edition of the Index, published in 2017, noted that deaths from terrorism had fallen. But the statistics, as this documentary proves, only tell a small part of the story. The effects of terrorism cannot be estimated or ever thoroughly revealed. Films like Stolen Daughters create empathy for the survivors and help us, if only partially, to understand.

“There is a light this world. A healing spirit more powerful than any darkness we may encounter. We sometimes lose sight of this force when there is suffering, and too much pain. Then suddenly, the spirit will emerge through the lives of ordinary people who hear a call and answer in ordinary ways.”
— Richard Attenborough

“On Her Shoulders” is one of the Most Spiritually Literate Films of 2018. (Find screenings here.) It provides an emotionally engaging portrait of a Yazidi woman from Iraq who has taken upon herself the daunting task of bearing witness to the genocide perpetrated by the Islamic State (ISIS). She is speaking today for more than her own people. She has become an activist for women victims of rape and the millions of women all over the world who have suffered sexual harassment and abuse.

“Always do what you are afraid to do.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Nadia Murad was born and raised in Kojo, a small village in Iraq. Calling herself, a “simple woman with simple dreams and hopes,” she says as a teenager she planned to open a salon to help women see themselves as special. But in 2014, the Islamic State attacked the town with the intention of ethnic cleansing; they were determined to exterminate the Yazidis, an ethnic minority whose monotheistic religion, Yazidism, ISIS regards as esoteric and non-Islamic.

The invaders killed Murad’s mother and six brothers along with 700 people in the village of 2000; only 15 men were left alive. Throughout Iraq, an estimated 5,000 people were killed in the following weeks, and more than 7,000 women and children were captured.

Murad and other younger women were abducted and forced into sexual slavery. She was raped, tortured, and exchanged among the militants. When she was able to escape, she was only 21 years old. Grieving the murders of her family and community members, traumatized by her own terrible violations, she nevertheless made a life-changing decision not to cave into fear but to begin a campaign to honor those who died and those who left Kojo to become homeless refuges. She continually asks, “What must be done so a woman is not a victim of war?”

“Courage is the most important of all virtues, because without courage you can’t practice any other virtue consistently. You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage.”
— Maya Angelou

In the opening scene of On Her Shoulders, Murad is seen receiving the admiration of a pressing crowd of men and women who are immensely appreciative of her telling her own and their stories and advocating for justice for the Yazidis. In speeches before the United Nations Security Council, the United States House of Representatives, and the House of Commons, her courage seems to be gathering momentum. Murad’s vision is affirmed by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon of the United Nations and by the articulate and charismatic Amal Clooney, a British human rights lawyer.

“Freedom is invisible; the chains on any one of my people were the chains on all of them, the chains on all of my people were the chains on me.”
— Nelson Mandela

As vividly portrayed in On Her Shoulders, Nadia Murad has heard a compelling call to share survivor stories and advocate for justice for her people. But her advocacy takes a toll on this remarkable young woman. At times, she admits she would not mind living just a normal life. Fortunately, she has the supporter of her translator and friend, Murad Ismael. He accompanies her to speaking events and gatherings with Yazidi refugees.

Interviewers keep trying to make her into a celebrity, but she insists that it is not her story alone they should be concerned about but what is happening to the thousands of women and girls still held by ISIS and other terrorists. An estimated 5,000 Yazidi people were kidnapped by the Islamic State in 2014 and about 3,000 remain in captivity. Murad insists they must not be forgotten.

In 2016, Murad was named the first United Nations Goodwill Ambassador for the Dignity of Survivors of Human Trafficking. The same year she was awarded the Vaclav Havel Human Rights Prize. In 2018, she and Congolese Dr. Denis Mukwege were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for “their efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict.” She shared the award “with Yazidis, Iraqis, Kurds, other persecuted minorities, and all the countless victims of sexual violence around the world.”

Watching Nadia Murad’s spiritual journey as she bears witness to the killings, violence, and abuses of ISIS, we recognize her very special calling to bring light to those in darkness — those entombed in suffering, depression, and feelings of helplessness. She would probably be the first to humbly say that she is just a young woman speaking the truth. But, oh, what her presence means to the world.

We are reminded of this story by Kent Nerburn in Make Me an Instrument of Your Peace:

“We are not saints, we are not heroes. Our lives are lived in the quiet corners of the ordinary. We build tiny hearth fires, sometimes barely strong enough to give off warmth. But to the person lost in the darkness, our tiny flame may be the road to safety, the path to salvation

“It is not given us to know who is lost in the darkness that surrounds us or even if our light is seen. We can only know that against even the smallest of lights, darkness cannot stand.

“A sailor lost at sea can be guided home by a single candle. A person lost in a wood can be led to safety by a flickering flame. It is not an issue of quality or intensity or purity. It is simply an issue of the presence of light.”

We here at Spirituality & Practice are great cat lovers! Frederic and Mary Ann have fostered countless cats through the years, finding loving and nurturing homes for their charges. Others became permanent residents and members of the Brussat family. Their current co-habitant is Puja.

Patricia and her husband Bo were not looking for a cat when they walked into a pet-supply store one day and saw Angelo — on a field trip from the SPCA — looking soulfully at them with alert green eyes that said, “Take me home!” They needed a mouser and were happy to make Angelo part of their family.

Cats are our teachers, companions, playmates, and so much more. What better way to celebrate them and all their feline relatives than with their own special day (though they most likely think every day is their day!), National Cat Day.

Founded in 2005 by Colleen Paige, a pet and family lifestyle expert and animal behaviorist, National Cat Day helps to galvanize the public “to recognize the number of cats that need to be rescued each year and also to encourage cat lovers to celebrate the cat(s) in their life for the unconditional love and companionship they bestow upon us.”

As Charles Dickens once mused, “What greater gift than the love of a cat?” Today cats can be found in 34% of American households, making them the most popular house pet in the United States. But there are some startling statistics about the fate of cats in the U.S.: “Estimates reveal that there are approximately 4 million cats entering shelters every year with 1 – 2 million being euthanized.” What a terrible waste of opportunities for the sharing of love. Even if you can’t adopt a cat, you can make a donation to a local rescue. Or you can volunteer to clean a cage or sit and play with a cat for a while. Who knows? You may just fall in love!

Cats are masters of attention and being present, but that’s just the tip of the tail of what they have to teach us. In honor of these precious companions, we have gathered some of our favorite resources to help you see all the myriad gifts cats bring to our lives.

To Name This Day:

Quotes

• “Having five cats around the house helps me have no expectations. They are not goal-fulfilling creatures in any human sense. There is little one can expect of a cat.”
  — Clarice Bryan in Expect Nothing

• “The same attitude of relaxed gentleness is most beautifully seen when you watch cats climbing trees. When a cat falls out of a tree, it lets go of itself. The cat becomes completely relaxed, and lands lightly on the ground. But if a cat were about to fall out of a tree and suddenly made up its mind that it didn’t want to fall, it would become tense and rigid, and would be just a bag of broken bones upon landing. In the same way, it is the philosophy of the Tao that we are all falling off a tree, at every moment of our lives. As a matter of fact, the moment we were born we were kicked off a precipice and we are falling, and there is nothing that can stop it. So instead of living in a state of chronic tension, and clinging to all sorts of things that are actually falling with us because the whole world is impermanent, be like a cat. Don’t resist it.”
  — Alan Watts in What is Tao?

• “The love we give to a pet, and receive from a pet, can draw us more deeply into the larger circle of life, into the wonder of our common relationship to our Creator.”
  — Kevin E. Mackin in Blessing the Animals by Lynn L. Caruso

• “With my cats, I am learning the lesson of the sufficiency of the moment. No yesterday, no tomorrow, only the magic of today, of this single instant. No remorse, no regret, no yearning, just the play of now.”
  — Jeffrey Masson in The Spirit of Silence by John Lane

• “Cats, in particular, teach us to be ourselves, whatever the odds. A cat, except through force, will never do anything that goes against its nature. Nothing seduces it away from itself. Contemplate ways we can strengthen our resolve to live our lives as who we really are. See the beauty, for instance, in foregoing an ‘important’ meeting or gala events in favor of a warm fire at home and a restorative nap. What makes us purr with contentment? Find it and let it, easily, find you.”
  — Alice Walker in We Are The Ones We Have Been Waiting For

• “Brother David Steindl-Rast says that anything we do with a whole heart is prayer. By way of example, he recommends that if you come home from a long day too tired to say an Office, to pray a shower. Also to be prayed are gardens, walks, thunderstorms, conversations with cats and other creatures — any awareness or action that engages the core of stillness in which our hearts find wholeness.”
  — Maggie Ross in The Fire of Your Life

Books

• Cat Sense by John Bradshaw offers a mix of fascinating history about cats and helpful suggestions for caring for these independent animal companions.

• Guardians of Being by Eckhart Tolle and Patrick McDonnell is a celebration in words and illustrations of dogs and cats as spiritual teachers of stillness, joy, and being present.

• Zen Cat by Judith Alder and Paul Coughlin contains quotations matched with pictures of cats and kittens.

Children’s Books

• Captain Cat by Inga Moore is a rousing tale of adventure, cats, and greed based on an old Italian tale.

• The Cat with Seven Names by Tony Johnston is about a gregarious and wandering cat who visits six lonely people in his neighborhood and becomes their reliable companion.

• The Coconut Monk by Thich Nhat Hanh is set in Vietnam and models the path of peace and nonviolence through the example of his two animal companions, a cat and a mouse.

• Homer, the Library Cat by Reeve Lindbergh recounts the quest of a cat who lives in a quiet house with a quiet woman to find another place in his town where silence is appreciated.

• I Am Tama, Lucky Cat by Wendy Henrichs is about an adorable cat who in return for a monk’s kindness brings good fortune to the temple.

• Moo Kitty Finds a Home by Valerie Lee Veltre is a heart-touching tale about an abandoned cat and his quest to find a new home.

• When Cats Dream by Dav Pilkey takes a trip with cats into their dream world.

Book Excerpts

• In Getting Older Better Pamela Blair offers new vistas for women over fifty. Here is an excerpt on love and how she turns to her cats for physical comfort when her husband travels.

• Kim Rosen’s Saved by a Poem is an astonishing presentation of the transformational power of poetry. Here is a poem by Jane Hirshfield in which a cat is saluted for being able to live “amid the great vanishing.”

Films

• Puss in Boots is a razzle-dazzle animated feature about an outlaw cat who dances flamenco; he’s a survivor able to handle all challenges before him.

• The Rabbi’s Cat is a French animated film about the unusual quest of a rabbi, a skeikh, and a talking cat to discover the essential unity of life.

• When the Cat’s Away is an irresistibly charming film about the magical and surprising ways in which community is created in large cities.

A Prayer for Healing Action in the World

Upon hearing the heartwrenching and horrifying news of the shooting assault on the Tree of Life Jewish congregation in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, we asked Rabbi Ted Falcon of the Interfaith Amigos for a response. He immediately wrote back to share his reflections with us.

And so we pray this news …

Blessing always calls us to the immediacy of the present moment; it is an invitation to mindfulness. In the case of hearing terrible news, we are invited to share blessing in this form:

“Blessed are You,
Eternal One our God,
Universal Presence,
the True Judge.”

Something bringing pain and suffering has occurred that is outside of our control, and we are asked to be fully present to that pain with energies of blessing.

Next Post: A Prayer for Our Role in Climate Change