This wisdom story is about one of my life transforming experiences while developing the  Mount Shasta Pilgrimage- A life changing walk for world harmony that will begin in September of 2020. 

We are at a new chapter of humanity’s history. 

Our relationship with each other and the earth is changing…

We are moving from masculine competition to feminine cooperation. 

Mankind has been exercising his freedom to do as he pleases with women and our mother Earth for a long time. But what is freedom without justice?

We all must ask ourselves this question If we are to realize harmony within ourselves and outer harmony with all our relations. Every one of us has a masculine and feminine side. Our masculine side is all about freedom. Our feminine side is all about justice. Our masculine side is all about expressing ourselves. Our feminine side is all about listening.

It’s time we learn how to listen. The earth and the Native Americans have had to speak louder because we have not been listening. Our bodies have had to speak louder because we haven’t been listening. Without listening, there is no physical, emotional, mental, and social harmony. Many people are talking but few are really listening. 

I’m speaking from my own experience. One week before our Mount Shasta Pilgrimage scouting trip, a member of our board of directors gave me an urgent warning that the Native Americans do not want us hiking above tree line. It’s against their tradition. Well, I had already planned our route above tree line with the help of a renowned mountain guide. We were very excited to be backpacking John  Muir’s favorite historic route, circumnavigating Mount Shasta at about 9 to 10 thousand feet. I also wanted our elevation to be above the morphogenetic field. What is that? 

The morphogenetic field is made up of humanity’s collective thoughts and feelings.  We experience it most in cities. It is a kind of psychic noise pollution, as so many people are harboring negativity. At the latitude of Mount Shasta, we start to feel the freedom of rising out of the morphogenetic field at about 5-6,000 feet (1500 meters). By the time we reach 7,000 ft (2100 m) we definitely feel freer. Once out of the field, one does not have to deal with the thought forms and feelings of collective humanity any more.  They can more clearly hear only their own thoughts and the blissful cosmic energy. This is one explanation why everyone seems happy while on the mountain.  

So I told my friend and board member I was already committed to hiking above tree-line, a decision I would later regret. Three days into the trip, I broke my wrist falling in the endless scree (loose rock) which is so abundant above tree line. 

I had not been fully willing to listen to my friend, to Native American wisdom, and to the intuitive feminine voice within me crying. She did not want to walk that day I broke my left wrist. 

Almost all the injuries I’ve had in my life have been on the left side of my body, my feminine side.  She’s felt abandoned and even abused by my forceful masculine side for a long time. 

Can you relate? 

Our feminine intuition always knows what is best for ourselves and the whole, and she is available to every woman and man. Most humans have not been listening to her very well.  Its such an engrained old habit to over-control the situation to make our agenda happen rather than listen to the call of each present moment. 

I invite you to hear your inner cry for harmony,  as there is a deep exhaustion in most of us from acting separate for eons.  What is freedom if we are taking sides without listening to the many viewpoints from the whole of existence, and our own wholeness? Acting from the belief we are separate, we take sides, and fight for our freedom, and this has left a great many of us feeling isolated, exhausted, and broken.

We feel broken because we don’t feel heard. We don’t feel heard because we haven’t been listening. Our ache to be heard by others, is really a call within requiring a deeper listening. At times it takes courage to slow down and really listen to the call of the moment when the wheels of our agenda seem to be burning hot. 

For the sake of “freedom,” we would rather not face our feelings and memories of the past that often arise when we finely slow down. For the sake of getting ahead to become financially free in the future, it’s easier to numb out our pain of the past with an isolating addiction like overworking or blaming others or society for slowing us down or “making us feel bad.”

Judgment day arrives (the justice we had been avoiding becomes a harsh experience) when the pain of protecting ourselves from our pain becomes greater than finely embracing and learning from it. There is no where to go but through our healing process, hopefully with mercy and compassion, again feminine qualities we were probably avoiding. 

I invite you now to join me with forgiving ourselves for all the times we didn’t listen. For not listening to Native Americans, to people of color, people in poverty, to women and your own feminine side, to the children and your own inner child. 

If we listen deep enough, we drop deeper than all human drama to an indescribable peaceful stillness within where we know without question all is well here and now. Here, we rediscover our real freedom; a freedom we no longer have to fight for because it is already grounded in the fullness of loving harmony with ourselves and all our relations. 

We need to listen deeper than our differences, especially our different opinions.  

“Beyond ideas of right doing and wrong doing is a field. I will meet you there.“ Rumi

We experience this field of loving unity when the mind becomes still, and our awareness rests in our peaceful hearts.  In our hearts, we are home with God and all our relations. 

From this place we are no longer threatened by someone’s opposite opinion. Instead of arguing with them as though they are against us, we can be willing to hear their different perspective as another part of ourselves to be explored and integrated. This is multidimensional awareness instead of being a singularity. 

I finally got to this place with my friend. I finally appreciated him for telling me about the Native American tradition, and because that tension of potential conflict fell away, I was finally able to see a win/win outcome.  I redesigned the pilgrimage route to be at 7 to 8, 000 feet, below the tree line at 8500, but mostly out of the morphogenetic field.  So we will feel that freedom from psychic noise, we will be honoring the Native Americans, our hiking will be safer, and I am starting to enjoy more cooperative  relationships. 

While writing this article at 5am in the morning the following song came into my head – as tears ran down my face. 

The lyrics go…

Listen-listen-listen – to my Heart’s song

I will never forget you

I will never forsake you 

I added the following verse…

Listen-listen-listen – to our Earth’s song

I will never forget you

I will never forsake you 

Here is a music youtube, the band Shakti Deva of “Listen Listen Listen.” 

To learn more about the Mount Shasta Pilgrimage, go to www.MountShastaPilgrimage.org.