Tend to your gifts and they will tend to you. Steward them and they will steward you. Show hospitality and gratitude for the mystery that supports you and it will show gratitude and hospitality and support to you. There is a Tibetan saying that what you give away chases you, wants you, finds you. It’s wonderful who you are. Love it life it be it. I have been waiting for this day when get rich quick schemes are replaced with get happy and fulfilled schemes or authentic dream schemes. In the dream lie the joy, the abundance and nourishment of the soul. If you dream, if you nourish, if you dance or bake, paint or take care of children, if you nurture elders write stories, pray, walk in nature, love birds, if you garden or hunt, if you wild craft, counsel or cook. If you live these gifts fully you will be tended to. We are all builder, we are all tenders, and if we flower in consistency loving what we love, nourishing our dream, facing all things with pause, then reflection, then action, one step at a time. Then we will always have enough.
The Hopi prophecy says grow your own food or at least one food item. Lao Tzu says rejoice in what you have, be content in the way things are. When you realize nothing is lacking the whole world belongs to you. If we have not been doing what we love, then it is time to start over, to clean house so what has meaning will emerge. What we value is the only thing others can value. What we love others will care about also, the others that really matter. To quote Dr. Seuss, say what you feel and be who you are, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.
Becoming ourselves is a great mystery or as Yates says a terrible beauty. We have to learn something new. How to value who we are and what we have to offer as much as others do. Teacher’s, healer’s visionaries, counselors, bakers, doctors, what is essential has come to the surface and the important question of who are we when there is no almighty buck to follow. Maybe we could return to our hearts. Live simply, simply extend our unique and beautiful medicine, our talents and interests to create a new currency based on fulfillment, tending to community with our talents and bringing and making beauty and soul as a part of everyday life.
We have a choice at this time, to enter a new current, a new way of seeing currency. Remembering our joy and implementing a step by step plan to do what we value each day, to do the hard work of helping others or to play into the lie that we are victims. We are not unless we allow our imagination to be taken by the externals instead of by the drive of our dream and goals. There is an infinite supply of miracles and really it takes very little effort to be one.
What makes you happy? If you don’t remember go on a walking meditation for 15 minutes. Hold in your heart that question and ask to be shown by the great mystery what you enjoy. Nature will show you as you notice, notice the pulse of your heart, notice what you see and hear, and bird’s o wildlife spirit speaks through nature.
Spend time with friends who regenerate you. Talk to one another about how, as Angeles Arrien says, to turn things in a more positive and beneficial direction.
Remember what you enjoy doing in quiet times when you were a child. There is a calling there is a gift there.
Pray, meditate, spend time, reflect, call on assistance to strengthen you, remember the ones who came before. They made it through to bring you into the world, rely on them. What are their gifts that are beautiful…Strength? Courage? What’s good, what’s love, what works? Stay with that and thrive.
We all have a gift that will serve our community, technological, creative, or healing. To teach, nurture, serve, or protect. They are all essential gifts. And no community can go forward unless we all develop and offer our inspired gifts. May we support one another in being real because if there is enough and you are enough, then what are you going to do? It is sure to be the right direction. As the Buddhist quote says ‘if you are headed in the right direction all you need to do is keep on walking.’ There are things that people will always need. People will always need to be fed. Grow food, prepare food, learn about foods that nourish. Learn about foods that heal. People will always need healing and comfort. Develop your innate healing gifts within yourself. That is about listening, counseling, prayers, needles, herbals, surgeries, medical intuitive work, and ceremony. Develop these healing gifts, they will always be needed. Tend to your soul, people will always search for meaning. Deepen your capacity to reflect and access your own wisdom. Wisdom will always be needed. People will always need shelter, protection, nature, and spirit. Human beings will always need beauty, paintings, gardens, wild or otherwise, ways to create and to bring spirit into form. Angeles Arrien says that beauty is a portal to the mystery. What else is needed in the world? What else does the earth need? Human beings will always need this connection. Preserve and protect these resources, this beauty, this aliveness.
As we step deeper into winter we have the opportunity to honor the fourth wind from the North.The North brings wisdom from the well, the dark night of stars, and the cool that bundles us up within ourselves.Even when we are in the world there is translucence when we look at ourselves during this time.Some questions to ask ourselves at this time, in order to both deepen our relationship to ourselves and to winter, are:
What do I like about myself? What are my creative talents wanting to bring into being at this time? What is personal for me? Do I professionalize my relationships or do I receive from those I love in intimate ways?
It is easier for some of us to give than to receive.Receiving requires an openness of spirit.Truly receiving requires self love and a generous dose of intimacy and divine love.Curiosity and openness require that we are not opening from a place of dutifulness or control, but from a place of delight and creativity.
How am I receiving love, compliments, and gifts from others? What am I creating at this time? What motivates my giving? Do I give to myself time, energy, gifts, compliments, acknowledgement?
If I were to give from my heart what would it be?A scarf I knitted.A vase I saw in my best friend’s favorite color.A journal with a poem for the writer in my life.A tea cup for a friend who has committed to spending quality time with herself.Or art supplies with paper for family member who has expressed an interest in drawing again.
All of these gifts are from the heart and show that we have been listening to the soul of our friends and loved ones.
A gift from the heart is personal. It is accompanied often times by a note or sometimes with positive acknowledgement of gifts received from that person.In indigenous cultures give-away is a tradition to honor an event, an initiation, a teacher, a parent or a sibling.The spirit will guide this gift so that it will be something that will be a gift that opens the heart and inspires the spirit.Often times we will give the thing most valuable to us, which means that it carries a story and the soul of that story will be felt by the person receiving it. Especially when we go for a healing we always bring a gift that is equal to the healing we would like to receive.
Generosity is a healing salve when it comes from a creative place.When you have given creative thought and energy to a gift the people in your life will recognize that your gift is of the soul.
Gifts are an offering to Eros. May you give what you love and love through your receptive nature.May you do the work of remembering what brings you joy and giving yourself time to do just that. So spring might come a little bit sooner to everyone you adore.Explore your creativity as a blessing and a form of nourishment to enrich your own soul and bless the lives of others.What you make is beautiful.May you explore and share your gifts.
It is with deep gratitude that I enter this season of harvest – the season of receiving for human nature and gifting of Mother Nature. It is the time of giving and receiving. Angeles Arrien says “we are here for two reasons, to learn how to give and receive love and to create.”
Entering Harvest time ask yourself, how do you receive? Are you aware of the plenty in your life? Where do you feel like there’s more than enough? Where do you feel a lack of abundance? What are you living for? If you had all the time in the world what would you give to yourself? What would you create from all of the blessing that live inside your body? I would ask during this season that you slow down enough to receive our blessings and our loved ones.
Linger with a fresh piece of fruit.
Savor the embrace of a good friend.
Walk with your bare feet on the soft earth of your ancestors.
Breath the fragrance and fullness of all you’ve been given and stand fully receptive in the good you’ve been given. When you are filled with the blessings give them away without any hope of return. The resources are rich. There is an infinite supply and in the allness of this grace and sanctuary, there is no need for yearning.
May you receive your blessings tenfold. May your heart expand to include everything in the Great Mystery.
Spiritual I.D. – Intuitive Development through Shamanism The guidance of the heart always brings us to Spirit work with Spirit understanding the innate intuitive and visionary ability across cultures, peoples and continents.In this 9 month intensive class you will learn:
How to access your intuition.
How to set clear boundaries in everyday reality.
How to access a creative sacred life as a practitioner, leader, doctor, therapist, gardener, mother, father or a minister.
How to access helpful Intuitive skills and personal development skills.
Symbolic language.
Visionary work for self and others.
Shamanic journey work to direct and help others, self and community clarify purpose and extend healing and inspiration.
Developing medical intuitive skills and recognition of Clairvoyant, Clairsentient and Clairaudient skills.
This 9 month class begins September 25th at 7pm and meets every subsequent Thursday from 7 – 9pm at Bastyr University - Room 186. In addition there will be two retreats, (a Dreaming retreat in November and a Year End Initiation retreat in June) and one full day Saturday Intensive. Exact dates for the retreat and intensive will be announced shortly.
The class is $25 - $35 for Bastyr students and $45 for all others. For additional information or to register email or call the office at 206.440.8886.
Making spiritual healings physical through training in extractions house clearing, physical health intrusion, and healing spirits that are lost or stuck in the middle world reality.
Power animal retrieval and safety proficiency in the three different realities. How to make a spiritual difference that creates a physical positive change. Integrity and proper use of power in shamanic and spiritual practice. Completion of the First Year Circle, Intuitive Development through Shamanism, is required to participate in this program.
Classes will be held on the fourth Saturday of each month from 10am – 5pm at the Sundust Oracle Institute (exact location TBD). Please note – September’s class will be held on the third Saturday, and the date in May has not yet been finalized. Class will run from September – May.
Here are the exact Saturday dates:
September 20th, 10 – 5pm
October 25th, 10 – 5pm
November 22nd, 10 – 5pm
December 27th, 10 – 5pm
January 24th, 10 – 5pm
February 28th, 10 - 5pm
March 28th, 10 – 5pm
April 25th, 10 – 5pm May date to be determined
Classes are $165 per class and that is payable before the start of each class. A formal registration will take place at the first class in September. If you are planning to attend please email us or call 206.440.8886 to be placed on our list.
Medicine training assisting the living and those who have crossed in healing resolution and forgiveness work.
Classes will be 3 day Intensives – Bringing practitioners into Shamanic practice, offering soul retrieval and clearing work to community with experienced practitioners present to hold space, share experiences, and guide new practitioners to effective means of sensing and learning to assist the spirits and dreams of their local and global communities.
Classes will teach and provide the following:
Medicine training
Shamanic Techniques for healing mental and physical illness or Dis-ease
How to work with disabling addictions
Counseling techniques in after care
Care of the healer/practitioner
Belonging to a healing community
Integrity in beginning a practice
Sacred Intention work for self, other and local & global community
Blessing ways and healing ways
Wilderness Quest experience offered to explore the territory between self and the Great Mystery. Visioning time to clarify purpose and life dreams.
Completion of 1st and 2nd year programs are required to enter.
The third year class will be in a three day format, starting Friday afternoons from 5 – 8pm, Saturday from 10 – 7pm and Sunday from 10 – 5:30pm. There will be four of these weekend sessions. The cost will be $325 for all three days. The exact location will be announced sometime in September.
Below are the dates for the 2008/2009 class:
October 3rd, 4th & 5th
December 5th, 6th & 7th
January 9th, 10th& 11th
March 6th, 7th, & 8th
Again the schedule for each weekend intensive is as follows:
Friday evening from 5pm – 8pm
Saturday 10am – 7pm
Sunday 10am – 5:30pm
June 28th, 10 – 5pm.
This one day workshop will be taught by Char Sundust.
For: New Counselors, Therapists, Soul Retrieval Practitioners, Massage Therapists, M.D.s, N.D.s, Acupuncturists; continuing educational support for those assisting others in their spiritual growth. An ass-kicking class in practitioner’s spiritual, emotional and physical self care. This class will help those who are new to the field get their practice off the ground.
Date: June 28th *(Please call 206-440-8886 to register) Time: 10am to 5pm Location: 544 NE 104th Street, Seattle, WA. 98125 Cost: $165 Bring: A sack lunch, journal, pen and an open heart
to benefit the education and vision of Sundust Oracle Institute Students and Longhouse Media; Native Lens.
Sunday June 8th, 5 – 10pm At the Daybreak Star Cultural Center,
located within 20 acres of Discovery Park on Magnolia Hill.
The address to Discovery Park is: 3801 West Government Way. Once inside the park, there are signs pointing towards Daybreak Star. Dress to feel however you most like to feel; whole, perfect and beautiful.
We are grateful and honored to present ~
~ A short film from Longhouse Media and a Q&A with the filmmakers
~ Erin McNamee
~ Laura Grace
~ Melissa Rosenberger
~ Sarah Bicknell
~ Char Sundust, Sonny Mishra and Seanix
~ Hoedown with Stu
~ Silent and Live Auctions
~ Psychic Readings with the graduates of the Institute
~ A feast of foods native to our region
Thank you for your generous love and support; May you be Blessed in All ways.
The robyn comes, heralding youth and new beginning. Richness, color, growth, childlike innocence, deep rain, longer sun to linger. In what we have been given, tending to our lives to the richness, the color, the ability to share appreciation in silence or with words and action.
Are you tending to your garden? What do you want to grow and flourish? Give it attention, give it appreciation, call understanding, time. Spend some time watching nature unfold. Enjoy today; it is whatever you have been given to tend.
What are you creating? Are you moving at a pace that gives you life instead of draining or over-extending your life force? Spend an hour in the garden with the hummingbirds or the blossoms, warming into their fullness. They don’t think about it for very long… all they need is a little warmth, a little light.
Shine your light, extend your warmth. And notice how the glorious people and work in your life respond, opening in fullness, offering life to your energy.
If not it may be a time for pruning, so next years garden can flourish in the branches of mutual acknowledgement and appreciation. The garden always responds when tended.
Listen during the sunrise – listen. There is a story here. Every day a new step, a new grace, a new opportunity to listen fully. Listen every morning – she has a gift for you.
Be creative. Create, write, dance, play, sing, take photos – something that enriches your own heart that will serve the next seven generations. If it serves to make you happy the next seven generations will feel that and it will make the world better.
Commit to media that inspires – poems, songs, film – bring media into your home that fuels and nourishes the soul, the Beauty Way in your nature. If it does not inspire, don’t watch, listen, or allow it in your environment.
Notice richness. What nourishes your life? Give everything to it; allow yourself to revel in gratitude.
What a great blessing. Thank you for your gifts. Thank you for your interest in a life of Sacred Intention.
LOCATION: The Nine Muses Ranch, 1033 Red Willow Rd., Kendrick, ID 83537
COST: $375 ($175 non-refundable deposit due by March 25th)
BRING: Paper, journal, pens, bedding, a full heart, and any musical instruments
you have, including hand-held drums and rattles. All lodging and meals will be
provided for the weekend.
Soul Writing Spiritual Retreat for aspiring and seasoned writers. Medicine
wheel class for the writer exploring shamanism as a natural way to access the
greater voice that wishes to flow through us. Poets, short story writers,
novelists, and screen writers.
Entering into greater truth through words; evoking changes that heal the
unconscious. As writers, we have the opportunity to heal the soul and heart.
How do we begin? Where is the middle? And how do we close with devotion and
care?
Writing is a service, a healing modality - the differentiation between our own process
and writing, and writing that gifts other and community. If you love to write or if you
long to write, begin. Now is the only time you have.
Space is limited. Pre-registration is required A registration form is attached
for your convenience. Questions? Please contact Charlene at (206) 440-8886 or
sundustoracle[at]comcast.net.
