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 The Face of God
Chapter Sixteen of: ‘Windhorse Woman – A Marriage of Spirit’
PLUS
(Excerpts from: WOMAN AT THE EDGE OF TWO WORLDS Workbook –
Menopause and the Feminine Rites of Passage)
By Lynn V. Andrews
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'Lily'
By: The
Dreamcatchers
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Ani and I sat in a small tea-house just off the trail leading south out of the village of
Buktimang. A small white puppy wiggled around a corner of the adobe building. He curled himself onto one of my feet and began to chew on my toes. I looked across the rickety wooden table at Ani, whose brown ears were filled with gold coins. A dhaka shawl made out of sewn layers of thin cotton in faded shades of pink and white was draped around her shoulders. She rested gently on her elbows as she examined a thin round metal object in her hand. An old red ribbon was tied to a loop in the top of the shiny disc. Chewing on her lip, she moved the disc in different directions so that it caught glimpses of sunlight and reflected them onto the thatched roof of the portal. At one point she caught the light in such a way that a rainbow splashed across her forehead and dipped into an earthen pot sitting on the
red-mato-covered floor. When a young boy brought us tea, she covered the small shield with her hand and polished it on her sari skirt until he left. I had not seen it before.
“What is that, Ani?”
“Reflection means many things,” she said, ignoring my question.
An unexpected clap of thunder jiggled the rafters as a warm rain began to fall outside.
“Reflection is a beautiful word, don’t you think?” Ani looked at me over her teacup and, squinting one eye, she continued. “Reflection means thinking about things in the past or the future. To reflect does not necessarily mean to think about things that really exist. Reflection could also mean a mirroring, yes?”
“Yes,” I said, as she uncovered the shiny disc again and held it up to the rays of sunlight slanting through the rain.
“This light comes from the sun. You cannot touch it. Does that mean it is not real?”
“No. Although some people say they need to be able to touch something to believe it is real.” I wondered what she was getting at and was fascinated by the way she was playing with the light.
“Now look into the tea water. What do you see?”
I looked into the teacup as a pool of brilliant sunlight was reflected into it, illuminating even the dark bottom of the porcelain cup.
“I see the reflection of the sunlight.”
“Yes. The sun and its reflected light are two quite different things, wouldn’t you say?”
“I would.”
“Which is real?
“The sun is real and the glow of light in the tea water is only the refection of the sun.”
Holding up the shiny disk, Ani said, “This shield is a mirror for the sun. Now you see the sun reflected in its face and now you don’t. Here, you try it.” Ani handed me the disk.
It felt warm and smooth between my fingers. I examined it carefully. It was carefully handcrafted and it felt very old in its simplicity. It was a gold-silver colour as if it were a mixture of metals. It had three circles with dots in the centre in the three directions, and in the north was a copper loop with a strip of red cloth hanging from it. It was a slightly convex circle about 2 and 1/2 inches across and thin but stable. I held it up and saw a somewhat distorted reflection of my face (with mottled red and yellow from the area in the background.) Then I held the small shield up to the remaining view of the sun through the mist of low rain clouds. A radiant refection of sunlight bounced off the table. I played with the light for a while, directing it onto the red mato floor where three children giggled as they huddled together spying on us. Then the cloud layer became more dense over the dark hills and the sun was obscured from sight. My tiny mirror became a flat dense gold colour, no longer as shiny. I kept turning the disk trying to find more sunlight.
“There, that’s your problem. Do you see it?” Ani clapped her hands and laughed after sitting and watching me in silence.
“What – just because there’s no more sunlight?”
“Let the sun go away. You are attached to the sunlight”
“But I enjoy the sunlight on the metal.”
“But the sun has moved behind a cloud.”
“Yes, I’m quite aware of that. Ani what are you getting at?”
“I’m just observing your discontent.”
“I don’t understand. I’m not discontented.”
“You are dwelling on the past. You carry the past inside of you, right here.” Ani tapped her head with her long forefinger. “Let the sun be gone, let it disappear.”
“Okay.” I placed the shield on the table between us.
Ani giggled at me. “You are still clinging to the sun. Like you do to Bahni.” Ani took the shield and held it up to me. “Look into the mirror.” Ani commanded.
I looked into the shield and saw my face.
“Has the reflection of your face changed this mirror one little bit?”
I thought for a while about atoms and molecules and then said, “No.”
“Has the mirror changed or altered because it once reflected the sun or maybe even the face of God?”
“No, I don’t think so.”
“Give me your camera.”
I handed Ani my camera. Deftly she set the flash and standing up she became a caricature of a photographer, kneeling down on the ground and twisting this way and that to catch the right angle and as much light as possible. She snapped several shots as a chicken fluttered noisily out of her way and the children jumped up and down shouting “Hallo, hallo,” with their tiny brown palms reaching for rupees.
“Ha! Ha!” Ani shushed to them in a commanding tone and they immediately quietened down. I gave them a few rupees and they disappeared behind the wall.
“The film in this camera is forever obsessed with the thought of you. Your face is imprinted on its memory forever. The film clings to your image. It is obsessed with you.”
“I understand,” I said, getting confused.
“This mirror reflects your image now,” she said holding the disk up so I could see myself. “But it is different from the film that also reflects your face. Do you understand why?”
I picked up the camera and the mirror. It never failed. Whenever one of my teachers asked me a direct question my mind would go absolutely blank. Ani took the metal mirror out of my hand.
“This mirror is not obsessed with the past like the film. The mirror reflects life, whatever is placed in front of it. When that reality shifts and changes, the mirror is left unchanged.”
“I see.”
Ani looked into the mirror and playfully arranged her hair. “The mirror sees a new reality. It sees me, but does that change me?”
“Does it change you? Yes, perhaps.”
“That’s right. Mirrors can change us greatly, because they enable us to see things that we may not have noticed. Like spinach caught between our teeth or the dark side of the soul.” Ani winked at me. “But the mirror,” Ani held the shield up between us like a sacred effigy, “never changes. The mirror is the sacred witness to everything that chooses to be reflected within its sphere. It has much to teach you.”
“Are you saying that I must learn to become a mirror.”
“Yes, to become enlightened is to become like a mirror. If you have reflected the sun and then the sun sets, you can happily reflect the moon. We leak most of our power by our attachment to the images we reflect. We are like the film in your camera. If we become a famous jhagrini or healer in our life we become a
jhagrini, not a woman living her medicine who happens to have developed the gift of healing. It is the same for everyone – bankers, doctors, housewives. We never see who we are. We are obsessed with our own reflection.”
“Is the mirror the source of reflection?” I asked.
“You are considering what is real, are you not?”
Yes, I’m thinking about whether the mirror is a source.”
Only God is the source, and like the mirror we are mirror images of God,” Ani said, tapping the metal disc with her forefinger.
“Then what is the mirror?”
“The mirror enables us to understand the nature of our reflection, just as the physical body is a sacred tool, a device for the process of evolvement into higher realms. Our physical existence provides mirrors for learning. The mirror is part of the teaching.”
Printed with permission.
By: Lynn V. Andrews
 Rebirth of the Self-lodge
By: Lynn V. Andrews
(Excerpt from: WOMAN AT THE EDGE OF TWO WORLDS Workbook –
Menopause and the Feminine Rites of Passage)
Menopause is a time of celebration. The main teaching of the sacred gourd is to celebrate what you have become. Then you give rebirth to yourself within your gourd-like womb through celebration and ceremony. Celebration is an interesting word, because it implies that you are alive and existing totally and completely within the moment. To celebrate what you have accomplished in your life, to celebrate who you are, what the meaning of your life is, is to stand in the moment, in the centre, equidistant from all positions on the perimeter of your sacred circle. And to proclaim to the world that you are something special, that you have survived in a way that has promoted your life and the life of others. Just simply to have lived through the past few decades is a statement of your power, your ingenuity, and your integrity. We are living through difficult times, times that stress us beyond what my teachers say that human beings should experience. We are all extraordinary powerful beings, who through our love for the goodness of the universe and the light that lives within each of us have survived. And we should be ultimately proud of that extraordinary accomplishment. We are indeed warriors and warrioresses of the twentieth century, shamans in the making, building our way toward enlightenment and new fields of energy and the perfection of play.
Since celebration is such an integral part of this teaching, I would like to spend some time talking about the act of celebration, how, for instance, you celebrate your life in reality. How do you accomplish such a feat? Perhaps this is an idea that is new to you. So many people that I speak with talk about becoming, they talk about healing, talk about recovering. But they have never seemingly become what they speak of. They never seemingly have healed themselves and never seemingly have they recovered. Understandably so, because in a lot of ways, we never get to a position where we feel totally complete, because life is a process of learning, of presenting new mirrors to ourselves and others so we can facilitate growth.
Nevertheless, there are plateaus within the process of learning. The gateway of menopause marks one of those plateaus. Because of the sacred gateway opening last year; because of what people have described as the Kaliugas in India; and what the native people have described as prophecies that have unfolded throughout the history of time, this is in turn a period of history where energy is shifting and opening. But because so few of us have teachers who describe energy as a process of life, we are unfamiliar with these ideas. To us, so many of us, life is just life. The moment we are born, we forget who we really are. We forget that we come here onto this earth walk to become enlightened, that life is a process toward the ultimate light. It is the growth of a great seed that is planted. Your life is an extraordinary tree, the flowering of which, my teachers have told me, is really the process of death. You cannot live without one eye toward the goal of this life, which is death indeed. Death is the opening and the ushering of your spirit into the greater mystery, which makes all of life understandable, but to get to that point, there are plateaus, as I have said. These plateaus are celebrations for what you have become, which is your sacred lodge of the self.
The dome of the sacred lodge, or your higher ceremonies [the highest branches of the tree of life], are only safe and effective to do when the foundation is rooted in bedrock.
WOMAN OF POWER
SACRED WHEELS
By
Lynn V. Andrews
Copied
with permission
from:
‘Woman at the
Edge of Two
Worlds–Workbook
The
Self-Worth and Power
Woman sacred wheels
are aspects of the
teachings of Woman
at the Edge of Two
Worlds, who is an
archetype, a goddess
figure who stands at
the gateway between
the first world (the
first ring of power
in a woman's life)
and the second
world. The first
world is dedicated
to physical
existence: the
raising of a family,
acts of power that
have to do with
career, choices in
relationships, and
dealings with
conditioning of
family and society.
At the second ring
of power (the second
world into which a
woman is initiated
by Woman at the Edge
of Two Worlds) the
great goddess
provides a bridge
for a woman's voyage
to the enlightened,
sacred life that
marks the second
half of her
evolution.
Women all over the
world are struggling
to understand the
true meaning, the
essence, of their
lives. I have
experienced with my
teachers, Agnes
Whistling Elk and
Ruby Plenty Chiefs,
that the feminine
rites of passage are
gateways into the
sacred mysteries of
a woman's existence
on earth, times when
she can discover the
deeper meaning she
has sought. And yet,
these rites of
passage are usually
silent, unmentioned
and mysterious
journeys.
At the nucleus of
the sacred rites of
the feminine are the
sacred wheels that
help each woman
discover her own
personal mystery and
illuminate her
private relationship
to the totality of
her own life
process. As she
develops, she begins
to choreograph the
energies of the
universe in a very
new way. Every woman
experiences and
expresses this new
understanding of
self and sacredness
differently. This
experience can be
profoundly
strengthening and
full of joy. To
ensure such a
positive effect each
sacred rite of
passage in a woman's
life needs to be
fully illuminated so
that the actual
event becomes the
beginning of a new
and beautiful way of
life.
These wheels are
about the sacred
rites of the
feminine. They are
about the uses of
the energy that all
women possess and
how to use this
energy in relation
to your universe and
to the spiritual and
sacred aspect of
your being. In
working with these
wheels, you will be
reintroduced to the
deep, internal
beauty that comes
with age, the beauty
that makes itself
visible by virtue of
its innate power. As
you feel this
beauty, you will
express it, and all
those with whom you
come in contact will
be touched by your
newfound strength,
your heightened
awareness, and the
loveliness that
emanates from deep
within you.
In most sacred
teachings in the
world there are
secret keys that
make the teachings
work like magic.
Without the keys,
the teachings can
become knowledge,
but never wisdom.
They become the
difference between
information and
experience of truth.
When a key is given
to you and if you
handle it properly,
it changes you. When
that change occurs,
a space is created
between the known
ground where you
have always lived
and unknown
territory. It is
within that space
that a true
relationship with
life is born. I
present to you
sacred wheels for
you to work with
through the coming
year. The Sisterhood
and I designed the
wheels as a result
of the needs and the
dynamic energy of
the women I have
worked with through
the gateway of
wise-blood.
The wheel entitled
Self-Worth is a
wheel that involves
inner searching or
an implosion of
energy. Sit in the
centre of an actual
wheel that you
construct or a wheel
in your mind. A
partner can work
with you by sitting
in the four
different directions
as you move around
the wheel. A partner
helps you hold the
"power" of
a direction and
keeps you honest
with yourself. When
you finish, your
partner changes
position with you.
The most important
experience of this
wheel is taking in
energy, or an
implosion of energy.
Experience that
feminine use of
energy to its
fullest.
The next wheel,
Power Woman, acts as
the key for both
wheels by being a
reversal of energy,
or an explosion of
energy, as a
celebration of what
you have found to be
the core energy of
your expression of
power as a woman.
Without the
celebration, the
Self-Worth wheel
goes dormant. Do the
Self-Worth wheel
many times, and then
move on to your
Power Woman wheel.
These can be done
over and over to
centre yourself and
to help you grow
through each passage
in your life. They
are invaluable, as
you will see, as
tools for your path
of empowerment.
Sitting
Owl's comments
As you look at these
Sacred Wheels, you
may notice that they
are equivalent to my
Medicine Wheel as
seen in Volume 1
Number 2, only
rotated ¼ turn.
This rotation
indicates to me that
it is possible to
use any variation of
a Medicine Wheel
with success.
However I feel that
if the wheel is
positioned according
to the nature of
Mother Earth and
Father Sky wherever
you live, it
increases the
success of
connecting your
inner life’s
circle with your
outer circle of the
universe. But the
important thing to
remember is that at
any moment of life
when we make
choices, we must
move between our
mind, emotions
actions and spirit
for balanced and
harmonic judgements
to be made. [Ed.]
Woman
of Power –
Self-Worth
|
NORTH
WEST
Giveaway
Superstition
|
NORTH
Spirit
Lodge
Am
I worthy of
success?
Do I deserve
cosmic
power?
Do I live my
spirit
truth?
Retrieve
your spirit
now.
|
NORTH
EAST
Giveaway
Fear.
|
|
WEST
Emotions
Lodge
I
can’t
express the
goodness of
life if I
don’t love
myself.
Sadness &
hurt can be an
addiction.
I need more
time.
|
WOMAN
OF POWER
SELF-WORTH |
EAST
Mind
Lodge
How do I play
the trickster
self? How do I
trick myself
and others? Am
I a fraud?
|
|
SOUTH
WEST
Giveaway
Judgements
|
SOUTH
Physical
Lodge
Relationship
to my
beauty.
Relationship
to money.
Fulfilment:
*Socially.
*Friends
&
Family.
*Acts of
power.
*Vocation.
|
SOUTH
EAST
Giveaway
Poverty
consciousness.
|
 
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