A powerful presence, Cliff is a tall, strong, kind African American healer I met at the Barbara Brennan School of Healing. For a while I did everything in my power to avoid him, which only made the situation worse. He freaked me out and shook me to the core. When he tried to catch up to me on breaks  I’d run away. I was being stalked. Finally realizing the craziness of it all I started pulling on the thread of feelings bubbling up using shamanic healing, journaling and collaging helped me find the why.

Spring of ’68, at that crossroad of change, not girl/not woman I was bullied in school by a tall black teenager held back because of grades. It was the year of busing, of race riots and the assassination of Martin Luther King. Boy-man intimated the teacher by shouting her down when he got an F on a test. Nothing was done. Sitting at his desk when the teacher wasn’t looking he’d turn around with laughing eyes and voice a whisper threatening “You watch out girl, I’m gonna take you out in the woods and mess with you at lunch today”. My life was hell in 6th grade.

Cliff reawakened that bully experience.

Once I understood “the why” I had lunch with Cliff. Our conversation turned to power. Working with African elders (shamans) he saw a dark side of shamanism- control and manipulation.

As a healer, Cliff was scared of his shamanic gifts that were opening up. Sharing his mission and movement I started to cry. He was here to heal the rage in African American boys, the experiences that shaped my bully.

Power was stalking us.

When the stars lined up Cliff’s presence woke me up to a deeper truth. That each experience, even bullying, brings with it a gift and a blessing. Every part of this experience fills me with gratitude. Healing comes in layers. Many times we think we’re done, another layer is revealed when we least expect it. Your invitation is to dive deep.

Like a layer on a pearl, you can’t specifically identify the irritant, the moment of the irritant, but at the end of the day, you know you have a pearl.- Ken Burns

Transform. Shed what no longer works for you. What’s bubbling up? What needs attention?

How is power stalking you? Start pulling the threads and own every aspect of your story. Then your life will shift and you’ll weave magic back into the communities you serve.

NOTE: This post was inspired by an NPR interview on Bullying. While driving in the car my stalkers name came bubbling up this morning, so I decided to do a internet search. He’s in jail, had numerous run-ins with the law. Seeing his picture I felt compassion. No charge to it. It is done.

“Children who are bullied are four times more likely to have an anxiety disorder as a young adult, compared with people who were not bullied. Now, that might not surprise some people, but you’ve found, as you just said, that people who both bullied other kids and were victims fared even worse. They were 14 times more likely to develop panic disorders as adults.” Within a year of the trauma I started developing symptoms of PTSD and panic disorder that was healed through shamanism and the soul retrieval process.

The post The gift of bullying first appeared on Michele Grace Design & Marketing.

Prior to going you set a strong intention, you asked and it was given.

Now a changed woman you’ve landed home… stepping back into the old routines there is a voice saying ‘nothing’ happened. Who’s driving your healing? You call your healer, your best friend, the sacred other [spouse]…trying to explain this wonderful transformation. They don’t understand-they weren’t there. It’s frustrating.

Maybe your unrelenting mind chatter starts up again telling you what’s wrong rather than what’s right. To much of this and you’re back on the hamster wheel-starting once again the “stormy search for the Self” one more time…

Whoa Nelly! Has this happened to you? It’s happened to me and this is what I shared with a beloved friend and client this week:

Acknowledge the Joy. I spent five years traveling north to Omega in New York State for trainings. Growing up in the northeast woods my time at Omega was a reawakening. Coming back home to Florida (which looks NOTHING like the northeast) I’d land home with a big THUD, then start a grieving process I didn’t understand. We all need time to integrate after BIG Events- retreats, events, weddings, funerals. Please don’t rush back into your old life…

Who’s walking in the door. Who’s showing up? The old you? or the New
You? They are really one and the expression…yet there is a choice “who
am I going to feed?”

Just as you made good plans to leave, take care of you and plan ahead for your coming home.

Create a version of the retreat sanctuary at your home. This may be temporary or it may be permanent; it’s a way to anchor the “new you.”  Set up touchstones outside your home with something from nature that connects you to this moment. It may be holding a rock, smelling a flower, listening to water and wind. Connect to the energy of your home and nature. Give Sanctuary a place to anchor so you ground the New YOU.

Don’t chase the NEW YOU away with your business. You are a newborn.

Embody Gratitude: When we jump back into old routines, trying once again to run the same programs we discount the fact we are newborns. Born again by surrendering the old we become new…This is a profound moment and it’s a bit arrogant if I don’t allow myself time to settle.

All integration from transformation unfolds over time. It may take a couple of weeks (40 days), it may take a couple of months. Allow three [3] lunar cycles to pass. Don’t make sudden changes. Witness what’s happening with love; trust all is in divine order. Embody a grateful heart. You asked and the Universe gave; by not acknowledging this sacred contract feels rude. I know- I’ve been arrogant, rude and inconsiderate. It happens.

Accept your Betwixt/Between state of not knowing. Enjoy it. This is a rich deep time of deep transformation. Before you break out your checkbook for another retreat/event do a check-in.

• Do I really need to get away one more time?
• How is this event going to serve me?
• What am I searching for?
• What’s driving me to wake up and
• when will I know I’ve arrived?

We all have a hamster wheel that runs us, the choice is to say enough…I am enough. I am done. Like Dorothy you’ve always had the Ruby Red Slippers with a heart-felt knowing that no matter where you go, there you are….there’s no place like home.

The post What’s driving you to wake up? first appeared on Michele Grace Design & Marketing.

The pre-natal anniversary challenges you to dance with your shadow in a new way. It’s a letting go process that some years is great, and other years can bring you to your knees.

Mars in Leo comes out of retrograde and turns direct on Wednesday March 10th. Mars is about leadership and passionate action, it also represents rage and anger that serves to distill the truth of something- a pain, a hurt, a betrayal.

This Saturday is my 54th birthday, here is my SoulCollage® card “I am the One who connects.” The little girl’s arms are bound by the foundation of an ancient bridge as her feet dangle in the dark void. She’s holding her ears and crying…

Last month I started working with a book coach, and suddenly found myself bound and frozen, I couldn’t write anything.

By this point in my life I “thought” I’d be done dealing with my PTSD issues. Yet after years of psycho-spiritual integration [therapy, talking, energy work and healing] it’s the gift that keeps on giving.

As a toddler I am held out over a stairwell with the threat of being dropped at the same time energetically bound by the words “good girls don’t tell” and “telling will hurt your mother.”

Words have the power to harm and my perpetrator’s hypnotic suggestions certainly went deep; I now see it as a form of sorcery and dark magic. Incest is domestic violence that leaves hidden psychic scars.

This year emails and comments from women in their late forties and early fifties started arriving thanking me for the New Moon Journal and SoulCollage® process.

Stories of sexual abuse by shamanic/spiritual teachers in the here and now, parents and grandparents in the past…trusted people that betrayed you by their actions. And when I look at your chart and see where Pluto is, I find we betrayed ourselves as young women by not standing in our power because we didn’t know how, the tools were never passed down by our mothers.

Yet you started making SoulCollage® cards and healing your soul loss. I am in awe of your courage.

Good girls do tell and shamanic women turn it into action…

And so I started writing my story not understanding the depth of Chiron moving through 27° Aquarius; the last time Chiron
sat at this place in my birth chart was Spring 1959, when I was 3 years old. The time of my incest, the time of being held over the stairs threatened with bodily harm, tell no one. A new aha is revealed activated by the Pluto in Capricorn squaring Saturn in Libra.

When you tell your truth you may find yourself standing alone. Family and friends may abandoned you. They don’t want to see, hear or feel because _____ [Fill in the blank]. You’ll hear someone say…Are you still talking about it? Why bring it up? This isn’t about them.

They aren’t ready [but you are]. Do it anyway.

Don’t carry your abusers truth in the marrow of your bones.

You’ll feel abandoned. You were and you are. Say it anyway. You’ll feel like you’re coming apart at the seams. You are. It’s okay. You’ll spew. You’ll cry. You are

Shedding the s(k)in of the past so you can live life vibrantly alive today.

“The task of the visionary is to tell the
truth without blame or judgment. Truthfulness, authenticity and
integrity are essential keys to developing our vision and intuition. We
express the Way of the Visionary through personal creativity, goals,
plans, and our ability to bring our life dreams and visions into the
world…

Among most indigenous peoples,
the direction of the East is associated with the home of the Great
Spirit, the place of the rising sun and the place where we come home to
our authentic self. Archetypically, the bell or conch shell
serves as a sonic voice that calls people together and calls us as
individuals to remember our authentic purpose.”- The Four Fold Way

There’s a cycle and rhythm within and around you. Reach out for support. Your inner healer will take over. Divine guidance will show up. This is not a cut and dry be done with it type journey, it unfolds over time.

Maybe months, maybe years. Do it anyway.

Holding it in. . . holds you back, that serves no one. It perpetrates the shame, the guilt. Keeps you living small when you are a powerful catalyst for change.

Why did it happen? leaves me a victim.

What happened? holds me to the past. I invoke the healing power of my story and spin it into light with love.

As a woman born under a Pisces Sun and Aries Moon listen…

Pisces is the chaos we create when we are not connected to Spirit or the
God of our understanding. The energy either creates with us [change] or
against us [chaos]. There is a choice to be made at this new moon in
Pisces on March 15th. Both paths lead to transformation.

What spiritual tools have you
gathered. What lessons have you learned. What in your life now needs
mending? Take a measure from each and create the new, so you’ll be good
to go when spring arrives and the new season begins.

The Pluto/Chiron journey will take you to very deep places. A wounding such as this is a shamanic initiation, re-membering is an shamanic initiation that few will understand and fewer still will tell you so.

Each generation of women has their collective wounds to heal and share. We reach back so other women can move forward.

As a change-agent I am a stand for finding the magic within,
re-membering spins it into power for change.

Your story has value, it serves you and the divine feminine.
To carry a wound such as this makes you a initiated healer- a catalyst.

Chiron is the archetype of the wounded healer and bridge builder. Chiron in your birth chart shows where you are wounded and then brings the tools to heal the wound. Chiron returned at age 50, I thought my dance with Chiron was done. I did my healing work. The universe laughs.

An alchemical transformation, I am in it and know it. Others are in it too, it’s an initiatory event that you now have words for or because of my sharing can better understand “oh that’s why this is happening to me.” Collage the energy of moment, find the mystery of you in bits of paper and glue so you can

Drum, dance and breath light into it with love.

As a wisdom teacher I am recognized for my ability to communicate the visible elements with the invisible- the spiritual aspects of you that are mirrored through your day-to day relationships with family, home and work.

As a trained facilitator in the SoulCollage® process, I invite you to create twelve SoulCollage cards which represent the energy (archetypes) of astrology. Then by years end you’ll have deepened your own awareness of the 12-around and have twelve New Moon SoulCollage® cards to work with, journey to for guidance in manifesting your dreams.

The post Chiron in Aquarius-dancing with Pluto first appeared on Michele Grace Design & Marketing.

Scorpio calls us to see in the dark, trust and transform our shadows, to birth the Light. I love this quote from Colleen:

"Bare Awareness- the place where our mind falls silent with inner knowing."

Listen in now to hear how Colleen healed from chronic illness and how the practice of shamanism transformed her life.

Fall is a time of deep transformation, letting go of old ways that no longer serve us, we are celebrating all things Scorpio.

24 hours before the New Moon go within and connect to what the need is….CREATE a Ritual.

24 hours after the New Moon write it down, express it, give thanks and let it go…DO the Ritual.

Bright Blessings to you.

The post Scorpio New Moon – Seeing in the dark first appeared on Michele Grace Design & Marketing.

"I found you on the web, I am reading your website, this has happened, that has happened"…a personal story is revealed, there's pain, there's a lot of angst and suffering."

"I need a soul retrieval." And in the next breath she said…one psychic told me this, one psychic said that…I feel a groan coming on…

Her merry go-round spirituality is spinning so fast she can't see the brass ring or hear her own inner guidance. When your woo-woo's gone bad; the practical has left the mystic and the chaos is a point of transformation- a cleansing of mind and heart.

These type of conversations are happening more and more as the energies ramp up on. No-name woman's third chakra is blown wide open, she's ungrounded and doesn't even know it; if I ask her she'd surely tell me "I am so
spiritual."

Friday November 13, 2010 the movie "2012- Who will survive" opens for worldwide release in theaters, it's message is going to contribute to the ramping up of the Humanity's core issues with fear, death and dying. One version of Scorpio scripted by Hollywood.

Scorpio is also the place of creative potential, to ride the wave offered…the potential is HUGE. Are you ready for the bigger YOU!

"The key is to remain engaged, get out into the world, do substantive work to initiate change and find those who can pick the necessary agreements to precipitate a new reality. That is the essence of shamanism."-Seeing in the Dark

As empaths you may already be 'feeling' the shift that is happening…

Be the Possibilitarian- cultivate your seeds

Creative rebirth has everything to do with your own journey with the Scorpio initiation. Today James Redfield from the Celestine Prophecy sent this message in his newsletter:

1. 2012 predictions have nothing to do with the end of human existence; this is Hollywood hype. The 2012 predictions are about helping us move into a higher spiritual consciousness. [okay you may already know this].
2. The energies predicted by the Mayans are coming in already, and they peak, not on December 21, 2012, but on October 28, 2011.
3. The energies are accelerating, with a pulse hitting us now, beginning NOVEMBER 8, 2009.

As healers and Light Workers we meet three (3) opportunities for alchemical change through the doorways of Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces. The Scorpio Doorway opens Monday November 16th, are you ready?

The timing of this Scorpio New Moon Teleclass is important. Yes Michele I want to grab a FREE SEAT in the New Moon Teleclass.

The post When your Woo-Woo goes bad… first appeared on Michele Grace Design & Marketing.

In the next New Moon Teleclass I'll share a creative ritual for the Scorpio energies. Mars is about to go retrograde, Saturn in Libra is squaring Pluto in Capricorn and well there is a story to tell. Your story… I hope you'll join me.

New Moon in Scorpio Teleclass
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
7:00-8:00 pm Eastern Standard Time

• Michele will discuss the Scorpio New Moon
• Ideas for SoulCollaging the New Moon energies
• Q&A during the call to take the teachings deeper

Modest Investment $25  Add To Cart

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As a wisdom teacher I witness the alchemical transformation in students and clients time and time again. You
don't have to know astrology or your birth chart to grok the
information, your heart's desire and sincere attention on the energies
at hand opens the door for your magic to unfold.

The post Teleclass- Simple rituals create a shift first appeared on Michele Grace Design & Marketing.

There is a Full Moon in Taurus on Monday, November 2nd, 2009. Full moons bring a release of energy. I left the Money Marketing and Soul intensive frustrated with my tribe of healers especially in light of what happened last month in Sedona. We are playing small…and here’s my reasons why.

I entered a tribal culture that holds the vibrational energy of chicken mentality. You may be a healer, a minister, a therapist, a coach [these are all forms of healing] can can relate to what I am going to share.

Somehow there’s a belief that Poor healers/shamans equal good healers. Last month on FaceBook a friend said his shamanic mentor tells students [I’m paraphrasing] “Don’t expect to make a living as a full time shamanic healer, it’s only a part-time practice, you need to get a real job.”

Are you kidding me? That mentor put together a marketing tier that brings in roughly $15,000 per student. Your healership training does not come cheap. Okay this made me very angry.

Brokeback healer is a belief I’ve heard one too many times sitting in circle, it’s an image that needs to be dismembered especially in light of the times we are living. Old paradigm. If you are angry with people who have money, then you are part of the chicken mentality mindset. It keeps us living small.

Money is a vibrational energy, you allow it into your life to
enrich you, or you repel it because of your tribal conditioning,
Kendall writes-“Money only amplifies who you are, it does not add or
take away.”

The problem is no one trained you in the business of healing; how to take your skill set out into the world…yes the business of being a healer-selling yourself and your gifts through soul-based marketing.

Dances with Chickens

Heart-centered gifted Healers do good things with their money, so why isn’t abundance flowing into your life by way of money? Be honest with yourself…are you carrying a chicken mentality? I have published the New Moon Journal since 1998, and the most commented posts are always about money, especially the BrokeBack Healer postings.

In tribal cultures the shaman was paid in chickens. Livestock was valued and that chicken had great worth. It was an exchange of energy that said what you offer in your healing is valued.

If you bring this chicken mentality to your healership today, then you get paid in chickens by chickens. You attract the vibrational energy of chicken people who think like you, act like you. They are afraid to spend the money on your services because you clearly haven’t explained your inherent value or worth.

It’s a form of HIDING. For you. For them. And by not setting a fair value you perpetuate the chicken mentality. And OMG if you teach others from this place, then you create more brokeback healers. Dances with Chickens.

You spent your good money on heart-centered training with wonderful gifted teachers. Those teachers didn’t have this chicken mentality. While money is not a measure of value in your healership, you probably spent thousands of dollars on that training. Have you ever added the cost and time up?

How’s the return on investment [ROI] working for you? Where’s your Chicken Mentality? There’s a disconnect, can you see it, feel it?

I shape-shifted after working with a chicken client [I’m broke I have no money to pay you but I need help]. No more dancing with chickens… the exercises in the Money, Marketing and Soul intensive made me see my money story; I came to a new awareness about this chicken dance. “I am an expert in my field who’s invested time, money and energy in becoming a safe, well-trained heart-centered healer and teacher.”

Each healer has gifts to share [their art, their presence, their writings], and those gifts may take the form of a book or training. How far have you cast that net to tell people about what you teach?

Last month I offered to showcase a shamanic friend’s wonderful healing tool…I sent her an email offering to talk about her products here on the New Moon Journal. I wanted to get her information out there and share her talents with my readers. The exposure would have driven people to her website. She never responded. Chicken Mentality. She’s hiding.

I’ve given free teleclasses to my community, shared how to be seen in very easy tangible ways. Most of my very gifted shamanic friends and healers have crappy websites or no web presence at all. I have come to the conclusion you don’t want to invest the time and money, because you either don’t have the money or don’t see the value in it. Not having a viable web presence is a form of HIDING. Not having money is a form of HIDING. Chicken mentality.

I can lead you to blog but can’t make you blog…

You barter or trade for someone’s services to create your web site; then don’t get the attention you deserve. Later on you wonder why the website isn’t working for you. You say to yourself it’s just too complicated and I can’t spend any time on it. But really you don’t know what to do, don’t ask and don’t really want to be seen. You are HIDING your gifts and your value. Chicken Mentality.

This Full Moon in Taurus is the perfect opportunity to stop. Me included- no more Dancing with Chickens. The energy of Taurus is in your birth chart. Taurus calls us to task about tribal conditioning regarding self-esteem and self-worth. It’s the place in your chart where money comes to you, flows to you.

Full Moons bring the issues to a head, into the light for healing. Issues of Value. Issues of making good money from your creative gifts and talents that the God/Goddess gave you.

Your playing small is not helping the community you serve or Mother Earth.

Playing small is not wanting to be seen yet commenting on the audacity of James A Ray getting paid $9000 to take people into a faux-sweat lodge. One extreme begets another. It’s a teaching moment. Seek the balance.

Scorpio calls you to surrender what no longer serves you; allow your healing gifts to flow into the world. Come out of HIDING. To be seen, to be well paid with ‘good’ money. We have a New Moon in Scorpio on November 16th. Start to root out the money beliefs, the chicken mentality that holds you hostage. Dance it, create with it, give it form so by next spring you are in the flow.

Full moons bring soul energy to bear on the problems at hand. Big Ones (Soul) and little ones (ego). This time of the year when the veil is thin, you can reach out to the God/Goddess of your understanding and connect. The Nature of God is in all things, all beings, great and small. Your guardian angels, your helping allies are showing up in support.

I am teaching, creating products and writing both here and at Marketing for Healers , my goal is to share the blueprint of marketing for healers.so by next spring there is a tangible shift in your business of being a healer.

The post Taurus Full Moon- dancing with chickens first appeared on Michele Grace Design & Marketing.

Standing here wanting my attention is the 21 year old woman visioning her dream. Before she even graduates from design school a client writes her a $15,000 check. Two weeks worth of work she makes $3,000. Money made her different from her friends.

Three years later at 24 years of age she takes a risk, starts her own business; a client hands her $15,000 dollar check. Holding a solid intent, she sets the path by marketing her gifts. She experiences so many miracles. The money flows in because of her vision… In three years she bills half a million dollars…$500,000. Six figure income. Money made her different from her family.

She is uncomfortable with being different, creating and having money flow easily to her. The innate power to manifest abundance from her vision scares her. She spends $$ as fast as it comes in. She takes care of others. Never pays herself. She NEVER EVER gives herself credit or honors the Spirit of fortune and "good" money.

"When an individual becomes too one-sided, too separated from the depth and truth of human experience, something in the psyche rises up and moves to restore authenticity. The breakdown momentarily sets life free from demands of ordinary reality and activates a profoundly spiritual process, an inner rite of passage with its own healing end."— quoted in "The Heroine's Journey" by Maureen Murdock

The Money, marketing and soul intensive with Kendall SummerHawk* kicked my butt all over the place with the issue of healers [me and you] making "good" money. Kendall is all about connecting with the divine feminine within, holding a clear vision and saying "Yes" to the magic.

By the second day I heal the soul loss around my money issues- having money, making money, money making me 'different' which stopped me from teaching.

Unhealed I would be infecting and transmitting the same "money consciousness" to my students. I invite you to really think about that statement for a minute…

How does your money consciousness impact the people you serve?

  And that my friends is why Spirit cleared the path for me to attend Kendall's MMSI session. I've witnessed one too many friends and colleagues, well trained heart-centered gifted teachers barely make a living with their healing gifts. They write a book that goes no where. They have soul gifts but either hide and/or don't want to be seen. And that is just plain wrong.

Are you saying no to money when you really want to say yes? What ways is your "no to money" showing up in your personal and professional life?

Things will be shifting a bit here at the New Moon Journal. I'll be teaching the blueprint of what it means to say YES-

Yes to the magic!
Yes to a successful thriving healing practice.
Yes to multiple streams of income.
Yes to collaboration and joint ventures with others of like mind and heart.

A strong YES! that gives you permission to make 'good' money in service with the gifts God gave you and the community you serve. Stay tuned. Subscribe now and join my journey as I launch Marketing for Healers- be seen by choice, not by chance.

[AsWeConnect.com]Global Alliance for Shamanic Women Entrepreneurs. Come sign up for the newsletter and check out our join us on FaceBook! and/or sign up for the newsletter here:

Rev. Michele Lessirard, C.Ht. is an authentic initiated wisdom teacher. Since 1995 she has preformed hundreds of soul retrievals, teaches through out the United States and is recognized for her ability to communicate the visible elements with the invisible- the spiritual aspects of you that are mirrored through your day-to day relationships with family, home and work.

As a trained facilitator in the SoulCollage® process, Michele invites you to create twelve SoulCollage cards which represent the energy (archetypes) of astrology. Then by years end you’ll have deepened your own awareness of the 12-around and have twelve New Moon SoulCollage® cards to work with, journey to for guidance.

*IMHO Kendall SummerHawk carries a strong heart-centered energy much like my mentor Sandra Ingerman. Sandra's Sun sign is Capricorn= structure, responsibility. and Kendall's Sun sign is Taurus= value related to self-esteem and self-worth. Coincidence- I think not.

It is an honor to be in the presence of gifted teachers who motivate and support me teaching you being a better you.

The post Money and Marketing, when no means yes first appeared on Michele Grace Design & Marketing.

What does the Owl dance mean?

How would you work with the Owl's message?

I am teaching a Power Animal TeleClass for my friend Anne Marie Bennett next Sunday, August 16th and I wanted to invite my readers to the session.

There are two main types of helping allies that shamans consult and work with in their journeys: power animals, also known as guardian spirits, and teachers in human form. In this teleclass we'll explore SoulCollage® and the relationship of power animals beyond the body chakras.

In building relationship with our helping allies we come to know our true essence; from this place of power we feel more connected and grounded, better able to move out into the world in service to our family and community. During the teleclass we'll explore Nature, power animals and the SoulCollage® process. Michele will talk about power loss, power animals and the soul retrieval process using your SoulCollage® cards.

Attend this Power Animal tele-class and you have a chance to win a copy of Sandra Ingerman’s book Shamanic Journeying: A Beginner's Guide, from Sounds True. The book includes a drumming CD for shamanic journeying.

This class is for both the curious and seasoned SoulCollagers alike. If you have any animal companion cards in your SoulCollage® Deck, please bring them with you to the call, along with a journal/paper and a pen.

Rev. Michele Lessirard, C.Ht. is a shamanic teacher/practitioner and SoulCollage® Facilitator providing healing, counseling and instruction since 1993.

Sandra Ingerman, author of Soul Retrieval and Medicine for the Earth writes-

"Michele Lessirard is truly a gifted teacher. Her commitment to the work combined with her depth of experience brings great compassion, deep wisdom, clarity, the ability to be innovative, and humor to her workshops. We need teachers who know how to address the needs of the present and the coming times. Michele is one of these brilliant and creative teachers who holds a light to help her students thrive and not just survive."

Power Animal TeleClass
with Michele Lessirard
sponsored by Anne Marie Bennett's KaleidoSoul

Date:  Sunday August 16, 2009

Time: 4:00 pm Eastern, 3:00 pm Central,
2:00 pm Mountain, 1:00 pm Pacific,
11 a.m. Hawaiian, 9 pm in London,
11 pm. in Rome, Monday 6 a.m. in Melbourne Australia
and Monday 8 a.m. in New Zealand

Register by paying with PayPal (see button below). When payment is finished, you will be directed to a page that gives you the phone number and access code to call.

$10.00

SPECIAL NOTE: This tele-class is FREE for KaleidoSoul Kindred Spirit Members! Click to learn how to become a Member now. If
you are already a member of Anne Marie's KaleidoSoul, the phone number
and access code to call will be specified in your member's newsletter,
Soul Treasures.

The post Power Animal TeleClass with Michele Lessirard first appeared on Michele Grace Design & Marketing.

Those drama/traumas that get you when you least expect it. If reading this you hear yourself say “well the past is the past”, well then think again. The places we hurt make us more human. It’s the place of your big “WHY”.  As healers we are expected to understand, even transmute the pain; your “blessed wound” is what makes you a healer in the first place. In your birth chart Chiron’s placement and journey through the chart gives you understanding of what is out of balance and how to go about fixing it.

Chiron the Gatekeeper for Walking the Bridge

It takes 49/50 years for Chiron to travel around your birth chart-in astrology it’s called a Chiron Return. Each time Chiron enters a sign he brings the deeper message of your “blessed wound”. Chiron is a bridge builder…he builds a bridge from the personal planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn) to the trans-personal planets (Neptune, Uranus, and Pluto).

“[This story is] for the children within us who knew there were nature spirits, shining ones and more and the children whose lives we touch. May we open our hearts to the compassion and love of the Spirit world.  May the joy of knowing we are supported be with us each and every day.”– Shamanic practitioner Elaine Egidio

Pisces ruled by Neptune is the Gatekeeper of dream time and the fog of our addictions- drinking, drugging, food, shopping, spending, rescuing, hoarding, etc.

How one chooses to numb out when their pain gets too intense…wound= pain. Jupiter represents the energy of the teacher, Jupiter asks us each to expand into new territory, take a risk. Aquarius represents an original thinker, someone who thinks outside the box.

Chiron = Blessed Wound
Jupiter = Teacher
Neptune = Addiction- ways you check out.
Aquarius = Stepping outside the box, being weird because you are not the norm.

Can you see the dance here of these energies? At fifty I breathed a sigh of relief that Chiron was through with me. Whew what a ride!

Whoa Nelly….not so fast. Now at each quarter turn-solstice, equinox, solstice I am deepening my understanding of long standing issues and taking the healing to a new level of love and understanding. Has that been happening with you? Are you riding the wave once again…being rubbed raw to become real.

Chiron activates your big “Why”

Where is Chiron for you? What’s his message?

Spring of 1959-I was three years old, the time of my first official food binge. Because of the sexual abuse, there was a near death experience. So much to take in for such a little one who lived next door to a pedophile.  I ate so many carrots I turned orange (yes I have clear memory of this, I remember a lot of my childhood). It was also the time I saw my first vision (clear sight).

Nature and my dog kept me safe. I heard when to go inside, when it was safe. One day I came in from playing in the back yard and innocently told my mother I was talking to my friends- the nature spirits and shining ones. Mom’s harsh reaction and response to my declaration, “don’t be silly, there are no such things” sent me into a deep silence of shame.

She knew…
before everyone else
she knew.

As a child she heard
and felt things
In people
their homes
in places
she knew.

The Unexplainable and
just plain weird
the good and the bad
she took it on
she took it in
she looked at it
sometimes digested it
she knew.

She didn’t fit
She threw fits.
She felt weird.
Because

No one could explain
this part life to her.
How do you explain
the unexplainable?
She hid it well
kept this secret
for a very long time.

Years later, now a young woman
Dad left her house
She felt it in her bones
the pain of never seeing
her Daddy again.
She cried all day.
Weeks later
the boating accident
then the stroke.
He’s never been the same since.
She knew.

Sitting in the meeting
the urge to leave.
Her child was in trouble
could she be imagining things?
She rushed home to find
Little girl and sitter
locked out of the house
in a thunderstorm
for over an hour.
She unlocked the door
daughter scared for her life
leaped into her arms.
She knew.

Dreaming
she saw her sister
sick and ill.
she woke up crying
two months later
the truth is revealed
about the tumor.
She knew.

Finally one day
she visits The Healer
filled with spirit, laughter and joy.
Who became the mentor, teacher and friend
Re-birthed her gift of knowing
breathing in the truth “I believe in me” and
“I forgive myself for not believing-
I know what I know.”

And so began the journey
to be okay,
with the knowing.
That comes and goes
Flows like the Tides
She knows…

My poem is published in Colleen Deatsman’s book The Hollow Bone: A Field Guide to Shamanism).

It’s the nature of women to know, it’s part of our sacred feminine mystery; the betwixt and between that is not taught. Our mothers, our grandmothers are wounded, and this soul loss is passed down generation upon generation…are you the one to say “enough is enough, I want to know again?” How did your mother travel the psychic waters of Knowing? How do you discount your own knowing?

How the Oracle gets Orphaned: Like many woman I was a psychic sponge; picking up on the energies left me feeling overwhelmed and out of sync; even today my solace is being outside in Nature. The shame I felt from Mom’s reaction and response sent me into hiding.… but the knowing still happened whether I wanted to acknowledge it or not.

Not being raised with ‘good parenting’ skills to understand or manage the intuitive energy of knowing can set up a level of anxiety within that is unexplainable. You can try and root it out in therapy, but it’s spiritual in nature, shame-based and real. Through shamanic healing I came to appreciate how the residual shame of clear seeing, hearing and knowing as a child fueled the IBS. How the Oracle got orphaned became even clearer and dearer to me.

It’s also the fuel for my big “WHY” with women embracing their gifts, helping clear long standing patterns of being invisible, understand how spirit communicates with you. It’s unique to each woman, and certainly takes mentoring and community to allow the gifts to be birthed.

The mother/daughter dance that is so sacred has shifted; I appreciate how my mother just didn’t know what to do with her mystical abused child as a young mother in the ‘50’s.

Even with the shamanic trainings and the healing intensives… I noticed that when I’d arrive for a middle-world shamanic training session my IBS would flare up. After three trainings, and three flare-ups I shared what was happening; during a shamanic healing session the Helping Spirits gave me a new power animal and reconfigured me to the Oracle. I created a SoulCollage® card to honor her presence in my life.

What a difference it’s made in my ability to ground along with settling down long standing food issues… How important the middle world work is- how and why those middle-world teachings are so necessary if one is to step fully into her healership.

Many woman today know the sacred feminine journey has been lost to us as a culture- it’s time to reclaim it, see, feel, know the blessed wound…we need this deep knowing, the ability to clear-see to come up with radical solutions to the world’s problems. This is you stepping into your Aquarian nature. It is right and it is REAL. There may be anger, shame and fear.

The anxiety of knowing as a child, not being seen nor taught how to navigate the psychic waters helped create the IBS and drove me to excess, but things they are a shifting!

The Moon rules the sign Cancer –relating to feminine issues with the 3rd eye, the stomach, the intuitive, feelings and the knowing.

• Maybe it’s time for a Cancer New Moon Collage card to honor the knowing in your own life? Find your Oracle.
• Where’s the Wow in your Mom?
• Find the WOW this month, as you heal, she heals, all your ancestors heal.

Cancer rules all things related to our human mothers and the Sacred Mother. When my mother came home from the hospital her cousin called to wish her well and somewhere in the conversation my mom said “Michele is a healer”.  My “there are no such things” mother lovingly acknowledges my knowing…for me this is a BIG wow. I am humbled.

Withdraw and reside in your wisdom: Stop going to psychic after psychic, love yourself enough to find your own knowing. Be the daughter to say “enough is enough, I am embodying my knowing again with an open heart!”

Earth mamas
Love to
Root around
in the dark places
to find truth.

Believe in yourself
and the Knowing.
It’s a gift to you
from the Ancestors,
the nature spirits and
the shining ones.

To know
before everyone else
knows.

Suggested readings

Divine Guidance by Doreen Virtue, Soul Retrieval by Sandra Ingerman, Psychic Shield by Caitlin Matthews, I Thought It Was Just Me by Brene Brown and SoulCollage® by Seena Frost.

Michele Bailey-Lessirard is an artist, astrologer, shamanic practitioner and teacher. For over a decade she has written about the moon and the stars, performed hundreds of soul retrievals and taught through out the United States. She invites you to “come explore the magic of the moment and the mystery of you found in bits of paper and glue through the New Moon Collage® process online.”

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