This is an edited post from January 7^th, 2014. I’ve deepened my understanding of the Twelve Holy Days. May you find value in this exploration of an age-old spiritual tradition.

It’s winter for real, now. The light may be returning after Solstice, but for most of us the air is cold and it’s more comfortable indoors. Or maybe under the covers.

Today is Christmas. I’m not particularly Christian, but I find value in many symbols from many different spiritual traditions. Tomorrow begins the Twelve Holy Days.

Solstice, December 21st, marks the moment in the northern hemisphere when the day is shortest, the longest night. The tightest contraction, if you will. There’s a span of time where things stop. The days aren’t immediately longer. There’s a resting. When early Christians chose the 25th of December as the birthday of the Christ, they did so for a reason. This is when we begin to experience movement again, just the inkling of expansion. The Sun appears again.

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In our 30 years each of seeking, sitting, studying and experiencing depth initiations, my husband, Tom, and I realized there are recognizable patterns in most spiritual practices and resulting changes in the human experience. Adopting a practice changes you. It brings what is true in your experience to light. It will help change patterns that no longer serve.

We have synthesized the practices we have studied, practiced, and now teach into a body of work we call Direct Access Techniques™.

Our in-person Spiritual Practices 101 workshop was a great success and we are very proud of what we put together. We are excited to bring it to you as a home study course! We recorded the guided meditations, and compiled the teaching and discussion points into a workbook. The workbook includes an overview of categories, styles and purposes of practices in an accessible format so that you understand why you would take on one practice over another in any given time. We provide online support to help you establish a practice and receive answers to your questions as you do so.

Recently I realized there was an ingredient in my own process that I have not always included in my private work with clients. Meditation. Many of the techniques I use are spiritual practices, but if the mind hasn’t learned to steady itself a bit, it can be very difficult to remember even the intention to practice. It is important to begin with the simplest, and most powerful form – concentration on the breath to steady attention, opening into mindfulness of the present moment.

A local psychotherapist and meditation teacher once told me he tells his new clients, “You can take on a meditation practice and we’ll be done with therapy in 3 – 6 months, or you can not meditate and we’ll be done in 3 years. Your choice.”

Taking on a meditation practice is a gift of great kindness to yourself. You may think you don’t have time, or it’s “too out there” to meditate, or you’ve “tried it and can’t do it”. With all the research that shows the benefits of taking on a regular practice, it is well worth questioning those thoughts that prevent you from committing to this simple form of self-care.

There are very real physiological benefits of practice. Research suggests that the following conditions can benefit from taking on a regular practice:

• Anxiety disorders
• Asthma
• Cancer
• Depression
• Heart disease
• High blood pressure
• Pain
• Sleep problems

Do you experience any of these? And, do you notice that these are the ills that we associate with the modern world?

Here’s something most of us don’t understand when we first receive meditation instruction. You can’t do it wrong. It breaks my heart when I hear someone say, “I tried meditation, and I just can’t do it.” This is simply the voice of the Inner Critic sabotaging your efforts toward self-care.

We will continue to record the guided meditations in our ongoing classes and add workbooks to further develop this body of work, adding new home study courses. The Spiritual Practices 101 is the foundation upon which it all rests, and will be a prerequisite for any future in person or home study modules.

We are excited to share this with you!

To register for either course, email Durga@DurgaFuller.com and I’ll walk you through the process.

Blessings!

I didn’t go into Lent with high spiritual ideals. It was a mindfulness exercise. But, perhaps unrelated, I’m more in touch with some mysterious thread, or, more appropriately, a thread of mystery. Was it uncovered because I’m more rested from consuming less caffeine and getting more sleep? Perhaps. It may be a combination of that and being hit by the hardest virus I’ve contracted in many years. Fever is harder on me than I remember it being in my youth. Being brought to my knees seems a particularly Lenten activity. The part of me that knows there are no accidents tunes into this.

I’m simplifying somewhat. This thread has actually been growing and strengthening for many years. It’s the core of my work. The core of my life. But, there’s a confidence in what is known that has reached a new threshold.

What is known is:

A wild woman herbalist in me who likes to sniff and boil and steep and sip.

A shaman dropping into liminal space and moving toxins out of this body system. I’ve seen Lyme literally dropping out of my body. A spirit teacher ripping a length of DNA that had developed from ancestral trauma and habit, and knit my building blocks back together without them.
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I realize some of you may still be in the ice and snow. Let me assure you that it won’t be long. She is moving her way across the land.

The fact that it’s Lent is part of my contemplation. My friends keep asking if I’m Christian when I say that. Well… yes and no. I’d call myself a Shamanic Christo-Budheo-Pagan these days. A Gnostic Mystic. A Laughing Fool. Lover of Food and Tribe. Pretty hard to pin that identity down, there’s just too much richness in the wild tapestry of life to try to fit it into a box.

For me, Lent is an opportunity to bring attention to areas of our lives that are often unconscious. Self-care. Other-care. How can we shine the light onto our habits, into our thought patterns?

Lent asks us to release habits or substances that may be blocking sacred expression. It also asks that we bring in acts of service. Where can we move out of our tendencies to be self involved?

And, how can we be joyful and free as we do so? Renunciation and service do not have to be an onerous task.

This is a valuable contemplation whatever your spiritual or religious orientation.

That’s my inquiry this season. Where does this rumination take you? I’d love to hear. I’ll share my discoveries along the way.

I’m offering three events this month, please RSVP if you’d like to join us!

Community event
Third Saturday with
The Cook Awakening
The Green Potluck
It’s Springtime, y’all! And, St Patty’s Day, or “Bring Back the Snakes” Day, as a dear friend calls it. And, Lent. Can we put all these together into a theme? Why not! Think green, fresh, Irish, and letting go of what no longer serves. Choose a part or all of the theme, just make it delicious. I think I’ll try and track down a nitrate-free corned beef, and cook up some cabbage.

No grains or refined sugars, please!

Saturday, March 15th, 11 am – 2 pm
Fee: one potluck dish to share
SE Portland address given upon RSVP
Contact Durga for suggestions, no one turned away for lack of imagination

Community event
Field Trip!
Wild Stinging Nettle Harvest
Nettles are ready! We’ll meet at the far end of the parking lot at the Sandy River Delta Park – take exit 18 off I-84 near Troutdale, OR. Call or text me at 503.422.8346 if you get lost. We’ll head out by 2:15 pm.

Sunday, March 16th
2:00 – 4:30 pm
Sandy River Delta Park
No need to RSVP, but we will be heading to the nettle patch by 2:15

Community event
Spring Equinox Bardic
Performance for Fun
This is an opportunity to have fun and/or go deep. Read a poem, sing a song, share a dance, or channel an extemporaneous offering. The earth is turning green again, it’s been a long, hard winter. Let’s celebrate Her return! Any offering is wonderful, but one in the theme brings cohesiveness to the evening. Kids welcome, including in the performance.

Saturday, February 22nd, 5 pm gluten-free potluck, 7 pm Bardic
Fee: one potluck dish to share if you come earlier, and a performance for the later portion
SE Portland address given upon RSVP
Contact Durga for suggestions, no one turned away for lack of imagination

It’s winter for real, now. The light may be returning after Solstice, but for most of us the air is cold and it’s more comfortable indoors. Or maybe under the covers.

Sunday marked the twelfth day of the Twelve Holy Days. I’m not particularly Christian, I find value in many symbols from many different spiritual traditions. And this year, the Twelve Holy Days felt very significant to me.

Solstice, December 21st, marks the moment in the northern hemisphere when the day is shortest, the longest night. The tightest contraction, if you will. There’s a span of time where things stop. The days aren’t immediately longer. There’s a resting. When early Christians chose the 25th of December as the birth day of the Christ, they did so for a reason. This is when we begin to experience movement again, just the inkling of expansion. The Sun appears again.

Those first 12 days of expansion are a time when we can experience the coming energy of the year. What will come into our lives? What intentions will we set? The 12 Holy Days are a time when God or the Universe or the Holy Spirit or your Higher Power, whatever words resonate for you, can be heard in the quiet. Some traditions say the 12th day, January 6th, is when the Magi visited the baby Jesus. When the Sun became known to the conscious mind.

Whether you know it as such or not, this is where your authentic New Year’s Intentions come from – your Highest Self speaking to you about your next steps in life.
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Self care is a dance. I wish it were straightforward, a prescription the doctor could write and we could fill at the pharmacy, take once a day, and be done with. That would be simple, wouldn’t it?

But, especially when you have chronic health challenges, it’s often a dance whose steps seem to be changing every day. Sometimes because the way an ailment expresses itself goes through a transition, sometimes because you start a new treatment or supplement regimen, sometimes because the season has changed, or perhaps your hormones are changing due to aging. You may decide to remove a food from your diet to see if it makes a difference in your digestion or energy level and an entirely different set of symptoms you weren’t even consciously aware of disappears.

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