• Come Sing a Deeper Song
  • Blog
  • Deeper Song Podcasts
  • Deeper Song Center
  • About Cara

Cara Lumen, Passionately on Purpose

Sing a Deeper Song

  • Home

Connect Online

  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • LinkedIn
  • RSS
  • Twitter
Home Archives for Spiritual Expansion

Create a Releasing Ceremony For Yourself 

Posted on February 6, 2019 Written by Cara Lumen

Create a Releasing Ceremony For Yourself
An Inner-world Exploration 

There is “stuff” within us that’s in our way. It may be making us sick. It may be making us unhappy. It may be keeping us from doing something. Some of it we recognize.  Some we don’t. We need to let all those unwanted inhibitors go. We want to release whatever is keeping us from moving forward in our relationships, in our health, in our business.  Can you identify a personal problem you want to solve, and can you also identify the cause?  Think about letting it go. 

Is your body suit showing signs of imbalance?  Let go of whatever is causing that. We may not know the specific cause of an imbalance, but we know we want to release it.

Create a Ceremony of Releasing

You may feel the need to reset your life at the New Year, on your birthday, at the solstice and equinox, the full moons, the new moon.  Or you just may think, “Today’s the day.”

You want to create a Ceremony of Releasing that works for you.  So begin to experiment. 

I do my Ceremony of Releasing through shamanic journeying, which is a form of mediation.  I can get very creative in how I release what I want to let go. 

Put it down and leave it behind

In my meditative journey, I’ve carried an emotion in a knapsack on my back and simply laid it down along my path, only to turn and see it change to water and become a new form to nurture others. 

I’ve carried an anger I wanted to get rid of in a bag with the intuition of burying it, only to lay it on the ground and have it turn to earthworms who actually waved at me as they went off to do good work for the earth. 

The lesson, it seems, is that whatever you want to get rid of that’s harming you can be changed into something useful.  

Let the fire consume your unwanted blockages

Another ceremony for releasing unwanted beliefs, idea, unknown-unwanted things is to put them in a fire.   The fire changes it to smoke, the smoke dissolves in the air and it is released into a form that no longer harms. 

I, however, seem to have a hard time burning things. Destroying even a twig.  I have no idea why.  You will create your own Releasing Ceremony to honor your purpose and intention.

Release your unwanted belief into the earth

In a recent shamanic journey, I thought to place the perceived blockage I wanted to release into pinecones, but I didn’t want to destroy them in fire. So I visually buried them with the intentions for them to grow into something useful.

Release your unwanted blockage into water

Sometimes I go and stand under the waterfall in my Sacred Garden.  That certainly clears things out.  But there’s also a quiet pool there where I can also release what I no longer want to carry with me.

Let water rinse away what you wish to release.

Let air carry away your blockages

Blowing bubbles is a fun way to release whatever you want to release.  You could use a balloon.  Or, you can simply stand in a gentle breeze and feel the air moving through you to carry away what’s no longer needed or wanted. That’s a good one. 

What you release may take different forms

In one of my releasing journeys, I ultimately found myself wearing an imaginary cape that was weighing down my shoulders and affecting how I felt and even how I walked.  Sometimes cloaks feel cozy; this one did not.  I filled this imaginary cloak with all the emotions and beliefs and feelings that no longer serve me.  I thanked them for their service and threw the cape into the fire where there was a loud roaring sound as the flames consumed it.  Sparks flew up, smoke rose, and all those burdens, beliefs, unknown “whatevers” that were holding me down, changed form.  I stood up straighter and felt myself filled with a golden pillar of light, not one of protection but of inner strength. 

This is your releasing ceremony.  Do what works for you. 

You can make a list of what you no longer want.  You can write it on paper, and tear up the paper or burn it over the sink.  Whatever symbolic gesture of releasing you can think of will work. 

You can simply tear the paper up into small pieces over a wastebasket. 

You can dance and release.  You can take a deep breath and when you breathe out release what you no longer want. 

You might pause as you enter your house each evening to mentally shed your work day and bring yourself as a loving presence into your evening. 

You might create a releasing ceremony at the end of your day and put aside anything our have accumulated.  You can release it then or you can put it in a bowl to be mutated by your helping spirits during the night.  Do whatever works for you.

Look closely for what you want to release

A key part of the releasing process is to identify what you no longer want.  Look behind the obvious problem to identify the subtle causes. It may be a belief, a fear, a misunderstanding, a disappointment, an unknown that is causing something physical to appear. The blockage or unwanted energy can take many forms. I found I had expectations of a family member that I had to release. A particular expectation.  Something I wanted, but something that was not going to be given. 

Identify what you want to release and create a symbolic way to release it.  

Blow it toward the flame of a candle. Shake it out with a rattle. Beat it out with a drum.  I have a wind whistle and I can release the unwanted, unknown, unidentified “whatever” to the wind by using my breath.  I can also do that without a wind whistle. 

Set an intention to release

The core of a releasing ceremony is your intention.  You don’t have to know the cause but you do want to have the intention: such as,  “I release whatever is making my back hurt.”  You have no idea what that is, but you can release it.  “I release whatever is in the way of my feeling loved.”  “I release whatever is holding me back from expressing myself fully.”

What’s your intention for your Releasing Ceremony?

Do a Releasing Ceremony often

Some days it’ll be obvious that you need to do some form of a Releasing Ceremony because something happened and it affected you. The sooner you can release it, the less impact it will have in your life. 

On other days you won’t know what you’re releasing but you’ll be willing to let go of what no longer serves you.  You don’t have to know what it is, just notice how your life changes after you do.  

Before entering your home, you might blow any burdens, worries, upsets or disappointments out into the wind.  Just let it go.  Then enter.

Offer gratitude

When you release something, thank it for its service and let it go.  

Perhaps at the end of the day go back over your day and see what you have been given and look for what you want to release.   Do a short releasing breath before you sleep with an affirmation like “I let go of whatever I no longer need.”   

If you’re very attached to it, lay it aside to be picked up after a good night’s sleep, but do put it aside. 

When you do some sort of releasing, a “thank-you-very-much-but-go-away” ceremony each evening – however short, however elaborate – your life will change for the better.  Each day will become a clean slate upon which to uninhibitedly express yourself. 

What kind of releasing ceremony will you devise for yourself?  How often will you do it? 

Deeper Song Process:

  • What would you like to release? Identify it or identify the imbalance it’s causing. 
  • Choose one of the ways to release from above, or make up your own method.  
  • Choose a time for your Releasing Ceremony where you won’t be disturbed.
  • Sit quietly and decide what you want to release. You may want to write it down. You may want to say it out loud. You may want to just think about it.  Choose one thing to release in this first ceremony. As you progress, you can release multiple things during one ceremony.  Try to find the core problem.  Anger might be at the core.  Or fear, or disappointment.  Look for the emotion involved that you want to release. 
  • Create your Releasing Ceremony – whatever that means to you.  Music, candles, silence.  Do it physically or do it in your imagination.
  • Do the work.  Let go of what you no longer need or want and what no longer serves you.
  • In the days that follow, notice how you feel. 
  • Repeat as desired. 

To Sing a Deeper Song, Consider:

Who Needs to Give You Permission?

The Power of your Imagination

Do You Believe In Yourself? 

Our Defense of Non-Existent Boundaries

What Are Your Weaving in Your Reality?

Filed Under: Alligned Choices, Mindfulness, Self Cultivation Tagged With: ceremony, self-awareness, Spiritual Expansion

When I See Myself As Light 

Posted on January 30, 2019 Written by Cara Lumen

When I See Myself As Light
An Inner-world Exploration 

On being Light

I sit in stillness
and my body
slowly disappears.

I move to…
A floating feeling,
A boundless feeling,
An all-encompassing feeling. 

And I know myself to be light.
Only light. 

No body suit limitations.
No human experiences,
Only light. 

And I sit here and shine
in contentment.

I am light. Only light.

– Cara Lumen, November 2018

I sit here in my body suit, aware of my individuality, my separateness and I know it is an illusion.  It is not the truth.  It is not who I am. 

I am light.  

Only I don’t always feel it. 

I can disappear myself when I meditate.  

I can disappear myself when I play my flute. 

I can disappear myself when I sleep. 

I can mostly disappear myself when I take a shamanic journey. 

There are doorways that invite me to enter the Invisible World.  I just have to step through. 

When I see myself as light there’s only one of us. No separation, no other-ness. Just one unified glowing energy. 

When I know myself as light, I’m free to be everywhere at once. When we join our lights in focused intention, we have the power to raise the consciousness of the world.  When we know ourselves to be one light, we experience our enormous collaborative power.

When I know myself as light, I balance my body, using energy to restore and heal.  My body is not separate.  It is light.  I am light. I am energy. 

When I know myself to be light, I can explore the invisible realms, the other 95% of our world. When I allow it, I visit other galaxies, other concepts I never imagined.  I can become part of the Void, the All That Is, The Emptiness That Holds Everything.

When I leave my body suit sitting in my chair I can allow my inner being to return to Source, to enter into the Great Mystery and enjoy being light.  Light with no problems. Light with no worry.  Light with one responsibility – to be light.  To be strong, bright, clear light.  

As I move through my life as Light, others notice.  They see themselves reflected in my shining light.  They see their own light and move to explore it, to own it, to be it.  And their light grows brighter.  As does mine. We merge, our light moving into the collective light, shining a bit brighter in welcome and recognition to those who come to join us. We begin to dissolve our individuality and grateful and joyously become one light. One Light.  One All That Is.  

Begin by sitting in your chair and moving inside to your inner self so completely that your body disappears and you know yourself to be light. 

Because you are. 

You are light. 

You don’t have to become it. You are it. 

What you do have to do is become aware that you are.

Deeper Song Practice

  • Sit in a quiet place where there will be no interruptions. 
  • Follow your breath. Inhale, pause, exhale, pause.  Repeat.
  • Allow your body to disappear.
  • Experience yourself as free-floating nothingness. A molecule – a space between the molecules. 
  • Sit and experience yourself as pure vibration.
  • Begin your journey there.

To Sing a Deeper Song, Consider:

Expand Your Spiritual Heart

Do You Practice Self-Transcendence? 

What are You Weaving in Your Reality?

Where Do You Find Your Inner Circle of Light Beings?

Are You Sacred Space?

Filed Under: Self Awareness, Spiritual Expansion, Transformational Community Tagged With: Spiritual Expansion, transformational thinking, world service

My Three Words for 2019

Posted on January 2, 2019 Written by Cara Lumen

My Three Words for 2019
An Inner-world Exploration

We get to choose. We get to choose the direction we go in, the path we take, who we travel with and how we handle ourselves along the way. Our choice.  Our responsibility for the results.  

One of the ways I focus my new year is to choose three guiding words.  What do I want to feel?  Experience?  Learn?  How do I want to change? For 2019, my three words are vibration, nature and portals. 

Vibration

“If we learn to sense everything from a higher vantage point or vibrational frequency, we may actually see the world as it really is, a construct of our minds and our collective dance. Nothing is what it seems.” Raja Chaudhury

Learning to raise my vibration is the major focus of the coming year for me — learning to feel and sense and be vibration so I can experience and embrace our oneness. 

You know, something simple like that. 

In the past year, I have been consciously and actively exploring the 95% of our world that is invisible. How do you explore the invisible?  I do it through the inner meditative work of shamanic journeying.  I just go where I’m led.  I interpret the metaphors that appear and then I creatively apply the insights I receive.  Journeying in the invisible world is absolutely my favorite thing to do. 

My focus for the new year is to deepen my inner work. A lot!

Nature

One of the key places to learn about vibration is in nature.  It’s filled with subtle messages and lessons.  Observing the seasons teaches me the patience of unfolding. Gradual and almost invisible growth in nature teaches me patience and appreciation for small changes. I learn about balance from the elements.  But most of all I learn about me because I am nature.  I’m an unfolding, ripening, living and dying energy of nature. I want to attune myself with nature.  I want to live an “unfolding life”.  I will create steps that help me become more aware of and feel closer to nature. 

Portals

Rather than “portals” this word could have been “openings” or “doorways” or “sacred paths” but portal seems both important and inviting. Cross the portal.  Take a step through the portal and discover something new.  Portals mean adventure and continuous exploration.  I can do that. 

My plan is to learn to raise my vibration so that I can explore the void and be open to entering and exploring any portal that calls to me. In my journeying, I’m getting very clear pictures of light streaming out of a portal, a doorway that I am to enter, an energy that’s within that calls to me.  The portal is always filled with a welcoming light, an invitation to enter, explore, figure out the message, the lesson, and how to apply it to my life. I’m excited about what I will find. 

The year of 2019

It feels very adventurous, this new year of 2019.  Learning to raise my vibration, deepening my awareness of myself as nature, wandering off into the unseen world to move through mysterious portals, trying to figure out the meaning of what I find and bringing it back to apply to my life in a manner that changes my life and the lives of others who are drawn to my work. 

That’s all…

How I will l access these concepts

First and foremost, I journey – every day. (See Unleash the power of your Sacred Garden) The more I journey, the more I’m shown and the better I get at interpreting the metaphors I’m given. 

I seem to figure things out by writing about them. It may be a phrase that sparks a whole investigation of its meaning to me and ways I can apply it to my life. 

I journal often and keep notes. I keep the entries organized by months and at the top of each month I create a summary that includes shifts, gifts, actions and purpose, so I can, if I wish, review the highlights.  I journal whatever stands out in my mind — how it felt, what it accomplished. Suddenly it’s easy to identify my next steps, the things that did work and also see where time was not so well spent so I can release and replace those. A journal is a powerful self-awareness tool. 

I love to learn and take classes online all the time.  There are wonderful free summits on specific topics where you can meet potential teachers and of course find powerful in-depth courses to support you in your journey. The Shift Network and Sounds True are great sources.  

My plans

I’m particularly excited about the vibrational work. I want to learn to experience myself as pure vibration. I want and need to experience my connection with the Transformational Thinkers who are all over the planet doing this inner work. It makes me feel stronger and more helpful. I don’t know what any of this will look like or feel like or even how I’m going to do it, but there are helping spirits ready to show me the way.

I continue to expand and strengthen my spiritual practice.  I’m in a constant state of exploration and discovery and adjustment as I strengthen and expand my daily spiritual practice, which includes many ways to reach and experience the unseen world. 

Three years ago, my desire to deepen my relationship with nature led me to shamanism.  I have the tools, and I’m doing the work.  But I can do better and much of my focus in the coming year will be on merging with nature. I’ve begun to journey to the elements and seem to be writing poems again — which was always my way to grasp an insight.  I play my flute to begin my day and also to honor the sun going down.  I play my Kalimba Finger Piano to welcome the sunrise.  I will use sound and observation and ceremony to deepen my connection with nature. 

I’m excited and eager to step through untried portals as I move more deeply into the invisible world.  I want to explore the 95% of the world that is unseen. An open door leads to adventure and deepening spirituality.  I want both.  

What three words will you choose to guide your steps in 2019? And where will they take you?

It’s going to be a great year!!!!

Deeper Song Process

  • Write down the highlights of the past year
  • Highlight the satisfying experiences. 
  • Identify the experiences that didn’t serve you. 
  • What three words describe a focus that’ll move you forward in the coming year?
  • Choose those, record them in a journal and perhaps elaborate on how you might explore your choices.  
  • Refer to your three words as the year progresses.

To Sing a Deeper Song, Consider

My Three Words for 2018

My Tree Words for 2017

My Three Words for 2016 

My Three Words for 2015

Filed Under: Alligned Choices, Self Cultivation, Spiritual Expansion Tagged With: self-awareness, Spiritual Expansion, transformational thinking

Know The Power of Our One Light

Posted on December 26, 2018 Written by Cara Lumen

Know The Power of Our One Light

I am light. You are light.  We are light.  The same light.  One light.  When we live in that awareness there are no barriers, no differences. There is only One Light.  

Feeling and experiencing and knowing ourselves as one light is not as easy to do as we might wish it to be.  First, you have to know you are light, then you have to understand how to live as light.  When you learn to live as light you’ll find ways to change both your life experience and the world. 

See yourself as light

Instead of looking in the mirror and seeing eyes and hair and what you perceive as you, close your eyes and feel you, feel you from the inside of your body and let yourself, your body suit, disappear until you are a pinpoint of light, floating in the Emptiness That Holds Everything. Stop and do that now.  Go within.  Take a slow, deep breath and go within so deeply that your body suit despairs.  

You have begun to see yourself as light. 

See others as light

Now, look at another person.  Again, soften your eyes or close them until the body suit of that person disappears and there’s only light where the person was. There’s no person, only light.

Come together in light

Picture yourself and the other light being floating in a void, the Great Everything, as two points of light.  Floating. Moving closer to each other. Allow yourself to merge and become one light.  There’s no longer any separation between you and your friend, you are one bright light. No longer separate body suits, but intertwined, integrated as one light.  

Slowly other points of light began to appear and float toward you.  As they approach you and your friend as a combined light, embrace them, include them, absorb them into the one light you are. Feel that one light grow bigger and bigger as more lights release from body suits and join the One Light.

And that’s the way the world works. That’s the way we are.

Experience the world as Light

When we expand our awareness and feel ourselves as light, our world shifts.  We begin to see the light in everyone.  It’s true that not everyone can see the light in themselves, but those that can also see the light in you. It’s those self-aware lights that come together and become one.  One light. 

Gradually, everything – from the butterfly to the giant trees to the moon in the sky – becomes light to you.  One light.  One interconnected, wholing light.

Shine your light

How do you get to that feeling of oneness from your body suit?  You practice.  Sit with your eyes closed and breathe, breathe in light, breathe out light. You can breathe in light in from your crown. You can breathe in light through your pores.  Just keep breathing until you feel yourself as all light.  

Now walk around all day with the feeling of an internal glow that everyone can see and feel.  Because they can. When they look.  When they open themselves up to feel. When they become aware.

Come together to heal the world

Those of us who know we are light are coming together through our spiritual hearts. As we do, our collective light brightens and deepens and broadens as we cover the earth – with light.  The energy of unconditional love, one light. First in a thin layer. Then in a layer that grows thicker as more and more people turn to the light within them and focus their gaze as a healing force for the planet.  Become light. Join with other lights.  Let us live in a world of light.  

Begin to experience yourself as light in your personal spiritual practice. Breathe in light. TUne into light.  Sing light, dance light, drum light, simply see light in nature, in people, in everything.  What you look for, you find.  Look for the light in yourself. Look for the light in others. And connect with it. 

To Sing a Deeper Song Consider:

Our Defense of Non-Existent Boundaries

Come Out of the Protective Darkness of the Unconscious 

Light and Darkness Cannot Exist Together

What Does Spiritual Friendship Look Like? 

How to Weave the Sacred into the Ordinary

 

Filed Under: Self Awareness, Self Transformation, Transformational Community Tagged With: Spiritual Expansion, transformational thinking, world peace

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • …
  • 40
  • Next Page »
Do not follow where the path may lead, go, instead, where there is no path and leave a trail. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Join the Deeper Song Community

Set your life on fire. Seek those who fan your flames. - Rumi

Recent Posts

  • Messages from a Snowfall
  • Create a Releasing Ceremony For Yourself 
  • When I See Myself As Light 
  • Do Not Conform to the Ways of the World
  • Can You Let Your Life Unfold?

Recent Podcasts

Reflections of a Deeper Song

41 episodes

© 2019 Cara Lumen, Passionately on Purpose · Rainmaker Platform