There is only one person worth competing against and that’s yourself!
As the ‘Desiderata’ says,

“there will always be those higher and those lower, those more successful and those less successful than yourself… so don’t fret… relax!”

Ultimately it is about context…
You can reign in hell or serve in heaven, it’s up to you and your choice of activities and venue.

I have recognized in myself recently a new frequency of ‘Being’.
I am a very competitive soul…
I have always been proactive and enthusiastic for success at every level.

The shift has occurred at a profoundly deep level.
I have come to realize I am genuinely happy!

In terms of competitiveness, I am so happy,
I feel as if I have won the biggest prize available!
Not because of a person, business or relationship, but because I have found this place inside myself that is absolutely content.

I feel as if I have already won, so now there is nothing left to do but help everyone else!

All my past competitiveness is somehow transformed into a new vehicle of experience.
All my creativity is enthusiastically focused on how to help other people and survive the coming world challenges with Grace.

This is not because I suddenly have more money; on the contrary, like everyone else today, my cash flow has dried up to a large extent…

I have to recreate myself and my business in order to survive.
Like the world around me,
I am in a state of upheaval and challenged at every level, however I can also say…
despite all this,
I am ecstatically happy and even content!

This is not because I feel loved and accepted by a human beloved… on the contrary, I haven’t been so alone in my whole life; since the disgraceful way my last marriage dissolved, I feel no need to go there again in the near future…

So what’s happening?

I feel filled up with ‘The Holy Spirit’…
I feel as if I am dancing with Krishna…

I have found that ‘frequency of being’ inside myself…
the place that is:

Joyful in the face of chaos…
Trusting in the face of universal deception…
Inspired in a context of fear and…
Enthusiastic in the face of hopelessness…

I must be crazy!

Or… coming into alignment with the ascension process… surrendering my need for applause from the gallery and giving up all sense of competitiveness…
Now is the time for co operation, co-creation and co-mmunity…

The ‘co’… means ‘together’… we will not survive into the future if we act alone… we must work together for the benefit of all… not for our nuclear family or our little local clubs, not for the survival of our country, our religion or our race… but for the survival of our PLANET!

to be continued…

Blazing tales of wonder
Remembering all we have ever been and are about to become
Your sister through chaos and comfort …
Shankari the Alchemist… ever learning, always growing…
Hokulani
Hawaii

It’s one of the seven deadly sins for a very good reason!

Greed kills joy and prevents us from experiencing true unconditional love! Now that… IS really deadly!

Greed…
It’s not our natural state… it has it’s origins in a belief in ‘lack’.
The very thing the Master teacher, Jesus was talking about in the Sermon on the Mount…

Our need for ‘Greed’ comes down to our lack of trust in our worthiness to be loved as individuals.
Greed arises when we live with the false idea… “there’s not enough”…

Not enough love, not enough time, not enough resources, not enough space…

The gaping world of not enough, breeds the energy of greed…  expressed in every aspect of our world.

This is a BELIEF and has nothing to do with what IS.

There are very rich people who are far more greedy than people that have found themselves to be poverty stricken … this is not a numbers game it is an energy game about contentment, satisfaction and trust.

The practice of GREED is built on the belief that…  “I don’t trust that I have ‘enough’… love, money, space’ etc…. so I manipulate circumstances to my advantage so I can have more than anyone else…. This will keep me safe and make me feel loved!”…
Of course this is not true, but we can make it so if we work hard enough at it!

There is a lot of evidence that the practice of ‘greed’ is at the heart of our world challenges today…

As a global race we must refocus our attention to:

“WHAT GENUINELY SUPPORTS PEOPLE TO HAVE A WORTHY, COMFORTABLE LIFE”…
rather than “WHAT SUPPORTS THE FEW TO MAKE THE MOST PROFIT FROM THE MANY… AT THE COST OF COMMUNITY WELL BEING.” …

I often find myself pondering this shift in conscious direction we must take as a global nation.

Things are changing…

My prayer is…

“May we each live a life, filled with joy and creativity… Certain of the Love of the Divine…
Ready every moment and willing to “receive unlimited wealth for infinite possibilities…
Right now!”

To give abundantly and receive abundantly on a daily basis is within the natural order of life on earth… the minute we stop interfering and get out of the way… we are available for miracles, the miracle of Balance, Trust and Love in a fine harmony, called healthy community….

I’m ready… are you?
So what’s stopping us?
Blazing tales of wonder,
Remembering all we have ever been and are about to become
Your sister through chaos and comfort,
Shankari the Alchemist

You know those people who seem to talk all the time? Why do you think they do that?

It is really very simple… they are afraid of being unheard!

It works as a self fulfilling prophesy because you stop listening after the second or third time they say something. This way they get to be correct that they are unheard and ignored… or even, invisible…!

It’s true. There are some people who are afraid if they stop talking, they’ll disappear completely into the chaos of their minds.

There are some veterans around here in Hawaii, who seem to need to talk constantly… probably as an outcome of the mixture of agent orange and feeling abandoned by their country after Vietnam…

If you find yourself talking too much, make a point of asking yourself which one of these is it that you are afraid of experiencing… invisibility, inaudibility or being inconsequential to those around you? Then STOP…..!

Never be in judgment on those in this condition… or, before you know it, you will be judged for the same by others. Instead, speak the truth gently until they can hear it… because these people who talk all the time… are most often deaf to what others have to say! Carefully bring them to a recognition of what they are doing and why.

I often tell my friends… “if you ever hear me tell the same story twice tell me right away… I need to know so I won’t bore you or myself…”

I love words…  I consider myself a wordsmith. I use them sparingly, because I know with certainty… every word I speak is a spell.

A spell, I am casting upon myself and my world…
With consciousness, words can be a great tool of healing and personal empowerment… used UNconsciously, they live up to the old saying “loose lips sink ships”… glug, glug, glug,… there goes your credibility…

It is only your fear that expresses through all that noise… and the truth is, if we can be quiet and listen for the still small voice of The Divine, we would know we are loved and there is no need for all that fear…

Find the silence in your own heart and you will have a treasure beyond price.
Then what you say will mean something.

Let go of needing to describe the world constantly so it feels more manageable.
Rest in the arms of The Divine Mother…
Find a place inside yourself through your breath…
Rest your weary bones in the knowledge that you are heard,
You are loved and you are seen…

Blazing tales of wonder,
Remembering all we have ever been and are about to become
Your sister through chaos and comfort,
Shankari the Alchemist

I am a ‘holic… when I was a child, my father was an alcoholic,
Later on my brother chose to become a junkie… My uncles and aunts… cousins and grandparents all influenced by alcohol… for generations back.
Obviously, I come from a long line of people with addictive personalities…. What to do?

I thought about this for a long time as a child and decided that if I had to be a ‘holic’, I would be a workaholic…  productive and of value in my world.
I feel blessed that I had the foresight to make that choice when I was so young and impressionable.

To be any kind of holic is not recommended because it is indeed unconscious behavior with addiction at the core… so what am I really addicted to?

I am addicted to working… because it makes me feel good.

I like to test myself by overcoming the impossible or by making “the sows ear into the silk purse!”   I have recently decided to devote a lot more of my time to creating interesting employment for others…

Because…
I love to work! I believe others do too… because it makes everyone feel good to achieve their goals.

I create places of harmony and beauty upon the earth.
I find ways to create work for myself that I love….
So my life is a two way street of satisfaction.

If I stop working I get bored and become a little self destructive… so I prefer to have a number of projects at once.  Leonardo was like this…
I am often judged for not finishing this before I start that, but then that’s what a genius does… we all have to stay involved in a creative way if we are to bring our best to any given moment or task or employment…

Just check out the work history of Leonardo and Michelangelo… and all their peers…
With lots of different interests and projects we never get bored…

We can wake up each morning and do what we feel like… swap around and stay interested in the next challenge… the trick is to stay disciplined and on course… which is easy to do if you are really getting the juice you should from the achievements in your life…

Much to the chagrin of my detractors, I have a dramatic ability to bring most projects to a successful conclusion… faster than anyone thought possible.

But then, since I am a genuine eccentric, I was never inside the circle of acceptance to start with… Therefore, my self-definition, self worth and personal approval does not depend upon the opinions of others.

Why not?

Because my spirit is constantly fed to bursting with the amazing beauty and wonder of all I have been supported in creating around me and through me.
Talismans of Power… Shankari’s Bali Retreat, Shankari Jewelry, all the food and flower gardens I have manifested, in Hawaii, Bali and many different countries; my wonderful, talented, inspiring kids; their kids, my expanding musical evolution… I’m currently learning how to play Hawaiian slide guitar and master Logic Pro in the process!,

… the sculpture garden of Archangels from trash and recycled materials in the future here in Hawaii and my current writing… to name the obvious, are some of the ways I express my creativity in service to the earth…

I am a productive human, intent upon making a positive difference with every breath, because it makes me feel good, alive, happy and full of joy… if this is an addiction… I will stay the course rather than take the cure…

What is the cure?

To stare at my navel and contemplate the Vedic Sutras? Do nothing in the name of self healing…
I don’t think so… I know myself well, I’ll become bored, then I’m bound to make trouble…

Truth is, I am the happy custodian of a deep inner peace, because I practice daily self forgiveness, which flows on to others in the world around me… non judgment makes space for a happy life.

I am an addict, a workaholic… I accept the criticism gladly and warmly invite anyone interested in a truly wonderful adventure, with a completely magical experience… to come and join me…

let’s change the world together…
…one addict at a time… starting with ourselves!

Let go of destructive behavior, embrace your need for ‘holic-ness’ to feel alive and then become PRODUCTIVE!
Give it all you’ve got…
The world needs all us ‘holics’, to make a difference…
…Right now!

Blazing tales of wonder
Remembering all we have ever been and are about to become
Your sister through chaos and comfort …
Shankari the Alchemist… ever learning, always growing…
Hokulani
Hawaii

Sometimes people see me running around with such excitement they ask me how can I be sure… How can I be so positive about the existence of my Angels and Guides?

My answer is simple.

I have had a number of experiences in this life where I would be dead if it were not for their intervention.

I will tell you of one such occasion so you can judge for yourself.

It was a full moon, we had just moved into a new house in Bungan Beach on Sydney’s North Shore.  A beautiful old building in the style of a Spanish ‘hacienda’, with a big stone fireplace and wide ocean views through big glass windows.

A hot summer evening after midnight,  I was naked as I passed through the moonlight streaming through the living room windows, on my way to the bathroom.

I entered the dark room… half asleep,  it was pitch black, with a damp, earthy smell, being built almost underground.

I reached out for my toothbrush…
I hadn’t put the light on yet…
I knew just where my toothbrush was and I was enjoying the darkness, when out of nowhere… as if someone were shouting inside my head I heard, “put the light on!”…

Quite surprised by this strange instruction…
I stopped for a moment, reconsidered… then thought to myself, ‘I don’t need the light, I know exactly where my toothbrush is and began to reach out again…

“PUT THE LIGHT ON“…the voice screamed at me again, this time with such force that I felt compelled to obey, switching the light on, wondering what was the big deal…

I looked straight at my toothbrush and discovered to my horror… a large, lethal, black, hairy legged Funnel Web Spider was sitting right on top of the bristles!
One bite from one of these babies and you are dead in five minutes!

The recent rain must have forced it out of it’s funnel home in the ground…
Australia has a few of these deadly sorts… we live with them on a regular basis… without incident.

This is quite amazing since the really scary thing about Funnel Web Spiders is… they actually get up on their hind legs and attack when you disturb them rather than scurry away like most reasonable spiders.

When I realized my situation… naked, with a deadly spider within a few inches of my outstretched hand…

I could understand their agitation and the tone of their instruction.

A cold shiver ran through my whole body as I contemplated how close I had come to certain death…

If I didn’t have friends in “the unseen Real”, I wouldn’t be here today to tell this story,  I would have died long ago!

I absolutely know I am protected in order to live out my contract and fulfill my mission… that’s what gives me such confidence in my every day life.

I am unusual…  I don’t have faith… I don’t hope… I have the certain knowledge of my constant support from the unseen real… call them any name you like… they are there all the time…

My ‘other dimensional team’ and we work together to get things done…

There are a number of these strange stories I will share with you in the near future… in the mean time… remember you are never alone, because you are the leader of a team!

So what goes wrong?
Why do I still do stupid things some time and fail on occasion?
The reason for this is simple… the unseen real cannot protect us from ourselves!
For instance, if I was not in a receptive state and didn’t hear them as they yelled at me to ‘put the light on’…  they could not have helped me any further… we are still ultimately responsible in the third dimension for ourselves… they can only turn up and wait for instruction…. or in this case, give instruction!

Breathe, let go and balance yourself… this is a good beginning to any day and the only way to solve a problem or make a positive difference in your life… when you relax and find the stillness inside yourself, you are far more likely to hear your ‘cheer squad’ and your ‘advisory committee’… because your inside chatter has calmed down.

Open your heart and your mind… learn to stop ‘thinking, thinking, thinking… and agree to ‘be in the moment’, open to all possibilities… relaxed and sure you are loved by God and all those from all dimensions who are part of your purpose and working with you… not as a great service to you… but in service to their own evolution… because you see…

The Angels, Guides and others who work with us, evolve and grow through service in our dimension… to our evolution… without us, they wouldn’t have a job!

So you see, it’s a two way street, where everyone can win… because after all, we know the God Force is not wasteful and does things with surprising economy and swiftness.

We are all sparks from The Divine Flame… playing out our time on earth for the purpose of discovering joy, learning to love our fellow man and give up judgment on ourselves and each other….

Because the greater truth is… if you are in judgment on anything… you have become part of the problem!

Be free.

Give up judgment and fear of abandonment…

Breathe with focused intent and find your inner balance… when you are in a balance, whatever your problem… the answer is within 50ft…  to be sure… the light switch was a lot closer than that!

Blazing tales of wonder, remembering all we have ever been and are about to become…

Your sister through chaos and comfort,
Shankari the Alchemist

I know that sounds crazy.

What’s not to believe?

Gardening is real, you don’t have to believe in it to make it true….

What I mean is… when I look back over my life at the times when I have been the most depressed, or felt displaced, as a natural instinct I would work in the garden to soothe my soul…

Soon enough, I would be having such a good time, I would forget to be depressed and focused on what Mother Nature and I, were creating together.

I remember once being terminally depressed, looking out the window every day,  imagining what would happen if I threw myself out into the abyss… always coming to the conclusion it was simply not high enough and I would get to the bottom and look like an attention seeking fool…

After my worst day I simply had enough…

I ordered a ton or rocks and recreated my backyard.
I planted flowering trees and shrubs, succulents and daisies.
With every moment that my hands were in the earth, my mind was relaxed and my spirit began to heal.

In the end because I had focused my attention on the earth instead on my negative emotions, I had added value to my environment. I brought my mind to rest and my spirit found peace.

As an outcome, I grew more joyful every day. My family was happier and our combined energy began to grow in a new and creative direction.

If you want to ground all that negative energy you carry around… worry, anxiety, fear, grief, resentment, overwhelm, etc….

Take the opportunity to work in the earth…

If you want to set your spirit free…  grow some flowers, plant some vegetables… design a magical environment…

My gardens are all over the world now… I am pleased to say…
Places of peace and beauty…

That’s true Alchemy…

To take one group of energies and through the addition of something secret and special that only you … the alchemist… can provide, you have the power to change your world and the experience the world has of you.

You have the power to alchemize your own depression into a healing force upon the earth.

I am a garden Alchemist, not unlike Rebecca, as I have written about before…

To work with the earth is a blessing… through the gift of the Divine Mother we have the power to transform our world, one plant at a time….

To give up the need for self destruction and depression, transforming the energy into something of beauty and balance that then goes on to feed your spirit day in and day out… a reflection of your relationship with the Divine Mother of All Creation…

Grow your own food if you can… it doesn’t take much to have a fresh salad available from your own garden every night….

Become your own healer, learn to ground your negative energy into the earth and have it return to you as Roses!

Why not?
It’s a lot less expensive than the alternative!

Blazing tales of Wonder, remembering all we have ever been and are about to become,
your sister through chaos and comfort,
Shankari the Alchemist

If I were in charge of the Education Departments in schools all over the world, I would make ‘breathing’ the very first thing I taught children from a very early age.

Just think about it for a moment, How long can you go without food? How long can you go without water? How long can you go without breathing?

So which one of these would you say was the most important?
Yet in our culture we are drowning in information of all sorts about food and water but nothing about breathing!
Breathing is a skill, it’s free and empowers the individual. Perhaps that’s why we never hear about it?

I am self taught, originally from books when I was 18 years old and still in high school. I found the ability to control my emotions through the use of my breath very liberating as you might imagine.

Unfortunately this level of self control and my inability to be intimidated by the headmistress (who had made me wait outside her office for forty five minutes… more than enough time to have practiced my square breathing techniques to control fear to the point of euphoria) I was considered to be “undermining the influence of the teaching staff” so I was expelled from school on those grounds.

Since understanding the power of breath from an early age and exploring many different ways it may be used to empower anything I choose to learn, execute or discover within myself and within the world around me. I am a student of the mysteries in all their forms and I believe there is perhaps nothing more mysterious than the power of the breath when used with absolute intent.

I have studied the connected breath (Rebirthing) that allows you to plug your emotions back into the past to discover the old beliefs held in your deep emotional memory. The ones that keep sabotaging you in the present.
I have learned the power of breath in relationship to martial arts, while studying Tai Chi.

Esoteric healing sound and choral singing are equally as dependant on my ability to control my breath.
Breathing is the essence when I practice yoga or any physical exercise system.
In fact I cannot think of a single thing in my life that has not benefited from my original understanding about the breath.
The deep powerful breath that travels compressed down the back of your throat, is now commonly called ‘The Wijaya Breath”.

When you breathe compressed air down the back of your throat you give yourself access to a much greater lung capacity. When you breathe down the front of your throat you take in small short breaths that do not allow you access to more oxygen for the brain.

I am a body alchemist as much as I am anything else and breath is the most powerful of all the tools in this discipline. The way we breathe influences the amount of oxygen in our blood which qualifies our ability to think and act with precision and purpose. When the blood becomes deoxygenated the body, in an effort to bring more oxygen to the brain responds with the condition known as ‘blood pressure’.

In fact to breathe with power from an early age is a gift beyond price. Let me know if you are interested in learning how to create a new experience of your life on every level by learning how to breathe with intent and purpose. Become your own healing agent, save money on medicine and prescription drugs… breathing is free!

Blazing tales of wonder,

Remembering all that we have ever been and are about to become.

Your sister in chaos and comfort.

Shankari the Alchemist

I am really excited about my art project in Hawaii.
I’ll be back there soon. I’m cooking up a great new idea that will include artists from all over the world. The art is to be created out of recycled materials, mostly found in garbage dumps and waste disposal.

I am planning to create a magical environment that allows all kinds of art to be expressed and all kinds of artists to co-create art together. In the area of Hawaii where I am located it appears at first glance to be almost unpopulated, poor and eccentric. However over the last eight years, my opinion has changed.

It’s a very unusual community.

There are people with great wealth, those with medium means, and those with hardly any means at all. It’s a true desert environment with very little water. We experience the trade winds when they blowing from our perches on the dormant side of the volcano with panoramic views of the south pacific ocean.

Within this community all these different types of people are friends.

The cooperate and support each other. There is no local hospital, police station or school. So only the strongest with the clearest intention to remain in a balance survive.

You may ask, Why would I move to such a challenging place? To fulfill my destiny. Indeed the light is most needed in the darkest places. I hope and pray that I will be supported creating a powerful beacon of light through art and magic on the South West Coast of the Big Island of Hawaii.

Blazing tales of wonder,
Remembering all we have ever been and are about to become.
Your sister through chaos and comfort.

Shankari the Alchemist.

The world is in chaos…

Lately I have been contemplating the entirely human quality known as ’sympathy.’

No other creature on earth has the evolutionary development to express such a frequency of being.

Sympathy… is it good or bad to be sympathetic?

Something to consider…
There are a couple of related qualities: ‘sympathy‘ and ‘empathy’. To have ‘empathy’… to be empathetic is to feel as if you have ‘walked a mile in someone’s shoes’ … you are acknowledging the feelings or experiences of another.
Whereas ’sympathy’ has an inbuilt quality of superiority attached to the action of giving ’sympathy’ or being sympathetic. You do not speak about sharing sympathy… one gives while the other receives… indicating an inherent lack of equality in the exchange.

I have met many people who play ‘the sympathy card’ to get by in life. (Make no mistake… it’s a manipulation). There are some who play it brilliantly. Not like a violin but rather, like a full orchestra… with breathtaking skill and some others can use it with the power of a sociopath.

For those of you who don’t know exactly what a ’sociopath’ is, it’s someone who feels none of the normal rules of human interaction apply to them (because they feel that their story is the most miserable of all and no one will ever understand their pain etc… and so on…). In their version of reality, there is the underlying beliefe that everyone has had it better than them so the “general public” is fair game…everyone can be used for their own ends with no sense of responsibility, gratitude or appreciation…or reciprocation.

In fact at the end, when it has become obvious this is a ‘dependent’, manipulative person rather than a responsible, talented ‘individual’ looking for a break …(they usually have a well refined/rehearsed attitude of pathetic-ness with that ‘deep unrecognized potential’…you feel sure you can help them reveal to the world!) Continue reading ‘Sympathy… is it good or bad?’ »