Reflections on a Winter Hike

Yesterday  I went for a hike in Shendandoah National Park. The weather was supposed to be perfect: The weather service predicted mild temperatures and sunshine. Indeed, when I reached Sperryville, the little village at the entrance of Shenandoah National Park, the temperatures already registered 43 degrees. Not bad for 9 am in December.

However, when I reached the hiking trail on Skyline Drive that I had selected, the temperatures had fallen to a mere 29 degrees. A fierce wind was howling, making it difficult to open the car door. The sky was dark with ominous clouds threatening snow. I got out and put on my hiking boots. Then I realized that it was way too cold and that I hadn't dressed warmly enough for the conditions. I decided to leave the park and find something else to do.

On the drive back to Sperryville, the temperatures climbed again to 43 degrees. When I got to the base of the National Park, I remembered that one of my favorite trails is accessible from the valley on Route 211, so I decided to give hiking another shot.

When I pulled into the parking lot at the trail head, there was exactly one parking spot left. I took that as a sign that my helping spirits were with me and had reserved the spot for me.

The hike began with a very long and steep ascent. When I finally got to the top of the ridge, I felt hot and the cold wind was welcome. I realized that so often in life, we have our mind set on doing something in a particular way, and when things don't work out the way we thought, we get frustrated and give up, when instead we only needed a to approach the situation from a different angle.

Winter in the mountains is magnificent. With the foilage gone, the sun reaches the forest floor and opens up views of mountain chains accross the valley that normally are obscured. The message of the mountains was very basic: Simplify. Make time for what is important to you. Keep it simple.

So often when we embark on a spiritual practice, we get hung up on the details: Am I doing it right? Do I have right crystals, candles, prayer rug? Do I meditate long enough and in the right way? Why can't I settle down and focus? And how on Earth do you "empty your mind of all thoughts?

This winter I want to encourage you to establish or maintain a spiritual practice by keeping it very simple. A spiritual practice does not need to be complicated. You don't need to buy anything special, though I do recommend taking the time to light a candle. The act of lighting a candle is powerful way to rekindle our inner light, illuminating the pathway to our inner sanctum.

And then just sit. You can begin by keeping your eyes open. Allow them to slowly go out of focus as you settle down. It's okay to sit quietly and observe a sunrise or a sunset and let it's magic restore your soul. Just be.

If you have no patience for sitting still or meditating, you might want to buy a notebook and try writing three pages longhand in stream-of-consciousness style to help you connect with your inner being and to become aware of where you're at. Or you can sit down and write out a conversation with the Great Mystery where you take turns writing out your concern and then you let the Mystery write a reply.

Taking a hike, or a stroll through the park or a walk on the winter beach is a deeply meaningful spiritual experience in itself, especially if you set the intention that you want to be with the nature beings, ie. rocks, trees, lichen, birds, squirrels, foxes, etc.

In other words, throw out the script of how things are "supposed to be." Do not evaluate or judge yourself. Just let yourself have the experience, however that experience is going to be. It really nice to have a beginners mind, because a beginner's mind is free and open like mountain views in the winter.

Medium: A Step-by-Step Guide to Communicating with the Spirit World has arrived

This morning I received the box with 29 author's copies of my book Medium: A Step-by-Step Guide to Communicating with the Spirit World from the publisher, Llewellyn Worldwide, Ltd. I had spent so much time writing, rethinking, and revising every aspect of the manuscript that I thought I would never want to read my book again. Now that I am holding it in my hands, it is beckoning. I can't resist reading it again. I sincerely hope it will reach all who are interested in developing their own spiritual gifts and that it will support them in their spiritual development.

Paying Attention

This evening I was boiling a big pot of water to start a new batch of Kombucha. As the water was heating up I was passing time reading The Quartet by Joseph J. Ellis. The book is very engaging and I was in a particularly riveting chapter, yet I found it hard to concentrate: I kept having visions of hot water "exploding" all over my kitchen counters and floors.

I kept waving away the visions, thinking: "Konstanza, why would you even think something so silly? Go away, vision!" Yet the vision kept coming back. I kept waving it off, thinking: "Stop dwelling on this!"

Finally, it was time to pour the hot water. Remembering the annoying vision, I decided to use extra caution. I moved the gallon-sized Mason jar from the counter into the sink. I also forced myself slow down as I handled the hot water.

Sure enough, once all the water had been poured, the side of the Mason jar that was facing me broke away and all the hot water came gushing out. Had I not moved the Mason jar from the counter into the sink, I would have badly gotten scalded.

Lightening the Energy of Your Home

People often contact me to say that they feel the atmosphere in their home has a "heavy" or "negative" feel to it. They wonder if it could be due to the presence of spirit people who are spreading negativity. On occasion, this might be so. Often, however, the negativity that we sense in our living space is self-generated. Before you attribute what you are feeling to the spirit people, I would suggest implementing the following practices to help lighten the energy of your home. 

1.     Open all your windows at least once a day – preferably all at the same time, replacing the stale air that has been recycled by the central air/heat unit.  As you regularly air out your home you will notice that you are more open to new ideas and fresh perspective that will help you move through life’s situations instead of getting stuck. When we open the windows, we also let in the energies of the season to bring in much needed change. If there is energy in you home that feels ‘stuck’ or heavy, firmly hold the intention that the draft from the open windows clears away all everything that is no longer needed in your space or in your life.

2.     Unclutter your home. Clutter is stuck energy. Usually we accumulate clutter when we hold on to something that has really run its course. It could be clothes that would fit if only we lost the extra 5 pounds that we’ve been struggling with for years. Perhaps it is shoes that you once loved but that are no longer going places, or that pile of books, newspapers or magazines that you never get around to reading. When we clear our clutter, we release stuck energy, creating space for new experiences. The energy of our homes instantly becomes lighter and brighter. If you are holding on to stuff you never use ‘just in case’ tell yourself that should you really need this item again, you will be able to either borrow it from someone or simply go out and purchase it.

3.     Keep your home clean and picked up. As you clean, envision that along with cleaning the physical space, you are also cleaning the energy of your home, releasing old and stuck energies, sadness, anger or negativity – yours or other people’s – that may have come in since your last clean up.

4.     Periodically burn sage, palo santo, sweet grass and frankincense. Sage and palo santo clear the energy of your place. Since both smoke quite a bit you might want to do burn them after you have opened the windows. Sweet grass and frankincense bring in the positive spiritual energies, creating a feeling of upliftment and a sense of the sacred.

5.     Establish a prayer and meditation practice. When we pray and meditate we open ourselves to the presence of the divine and we literally bring these energies into our home. When we pray it is important to not just pray for our individual needs and desires. Instead, get in the habit of praying for the well being of everyone and everything on the planet and pray for Mother Earth herself. Prayer and meditation have a cumulative effect. You will probably not notice much of a difference in the energy of your home if you pray once or twice or meditate on rare occasions. Over time, however, the energies of your prayers become anchored in your physical space, creating an atmosphere of light, love and well-being. 

6.     Call on the spirits of the land and the deva of your home to bless your physical space. Periodically, give them an offering of loose tobacco and thank them for their assistance.  

7.     For tips on how to establish a prayer and meditation practice, and how to avoid undue spirit influence, and how to raise your own energy, I would suggest that you read my book Medium: A Step-by-Step-Guide to Communicating with the Spirit World. The book will be released on August 8, 2016. It is currently available for preorder from the publisher Llewellyn Worldwide, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble.

Message from Rattlesnake

As shamanic practitioner, psychic medium, and avid hiker I am especially sensitive to the spirits of nature all around. Whenever I spend time in nature, magical things happen: Owls suddenly fly out of the bushes next to the trail I am hiking on. Bald eagles dive into the Potomac to catch a fishy snack. Black bears invariably cross my path, even in the dead of winter when they are supposed to be hibernating. And ravens somehow manage to show up even in urban settings where one would not normally encounter them.

A few weeks ago I went on an extra-long hike on the Tuscarora-Overall Run Trail in Shenandoah National Park. I was hiking with my son, who had just come home from college. We were just a few miles from the parking lot near the end of our hike, when he nearly stepped on a rattlesnake.  The snake powerfully barred our path and there was no way around it. It had just struck a chipmunk and was waiting for it to die so it could consume its meal. In the many years that I have hiked in Shenandoah, I had never encountered a poisonous snake, let alone one that was about to have a meal.

For days after the encounter, I had nightmares about rattlesnakes. My empathic heart felt deeply and profoundly for the poor little chipmunk. Both Dylan and I wished there was something we could have done to help it. The snake repulsed me, and it kicked our adrenaline into high gear. Yet I knew that both creatures had shown up as spirit teachers with a message.

A week later, I finally took a shamanic divination journey to ask my spirit helpers about the meaning of the rattlesnake encounter. I thought that I my regular spirit helpers would elucidate the encounter. Instead, I encountered Rattlesnake. She spoke of profound spiritual changes in my life and how I am now being incorporated into something larger, more purposeful and meaningful.

Indeed, these changes seem to pertain not just to the spiritual realm, but also to other aspects of my life. For example, for seven years I used the website builder of a large web-hosting company.  Finally, circumstances beyond my control forces me into switching to new website builder with a different company. It is not a change I would have made willingly and I bellyached plenty. However, the changes really were for the better, because the new company gives me additional opportunities such as being able to incorporate a blog into my website.

The rattlesnake encounter drives home that there are no "good" and no "bad" animals. We humans often want to categorize animals into desirable and undesirable. We think that outdoor cats are horrific, because they decimate the bird population. None of us want to encounter coyotes or rattlesnakes, yet cats, snakes, and other predators provide balance in nature. 

All the animals we encounter in nature can come to us as powerful spirit teachers offering important insight, guidance, messages and understanding for our lives. The next time you encounter a snake in the woods, a skunk on your stroll across campus, a yellow jacket nest outside your bedroom window or sizable spider in your bathroom, let it pique your curiosity.

Use Wikipedia to learn more about the creature and its habits to give you some insight into what the message might be. Sit down in meditation or quiet contemplation and ask your spirit helpers about the message behind your animal encounter. You don't need to know who your spirit helpers are. Just send your query into the universe, and be patient. You will receive the answer. And finally, be watchful and mindful of what unfolds in your life. Review your life events in light of your encounters in nature and let it inform your decisions and emotional responses to life situations.