Reclaiming the Power of the Female Orgasm with Author Naomi Wolf

Catch my podcast interview with international best-selling author, social critic and political voice of reason, Naomi Wolf here: http://www.womr.org/podcast/author-naomi-wolf/

Naomi discusses the complexity of the female nervous system, proper clitoral stimulation, the connection between sexual fulfillment, confidence and creativity, and the effect porn has had on our sex lives. Don't miss it! The best thing you can give your partner for Christmas is joy!

Abracadabra: Finding the True Meaning of Christmas Through the Tinsil

The angels told me that there are two sacred and powerful times around Christmas. The first begins two days before Winter Solstice and is five days long. This is a period for going within. It is a time to focus on what opportunities have arisen in the last year, or over the last month. It is the time to look for the 'crack in the cosmic egg', to observe the crevices of broken river rocks of the Sweatlodge of our dreams. Like Mary through the darkened desert, led by the twinkling stars, we must take the sacred journey of self. As we commune with the proverbial Christ Child (who represents our divine nature, the wisdom of children, and the creativity within) contained inside our bellies, we sort through the aspects of our familial legacies we seek to release and those we seek to carry on. We connect to our own holy nature by the vibrations of divinity within. Unassisted, we birth our authentic selves into being.

In this heightened place, we become world bridgers and portals of higher consciousness, bringing in new awareness and new generations into a changing world. Into a new world that is dependent on global respect and creating sustainable solutions for the survival of humanity. We cannot imperil anyone's lives, without endangering our own futures. Liberated by the truth, with the artifice blown for the little people today, they must help us navigate the new world with the purity of their sacred hearts. Unsullied by the old constructs, the old paradigm of domination and abuse of power, unable to be enslaved despite the old constructs. The angelic wisdom will lead us to the home of the soul, to the center of creation, where we are all One.

Be open to the gifts of the Magi. Make your three wishes to your spirit guides. Declare into the dark of the night what you want when it is in alignment with the better good for all humanity, of course. Let them guide you in creating the blueprint for the coming year. In creating your vision, keep in mind, that it is through interconnectedness, compassion and love that we will all survive and thrive. We all individually need to take global responsibility seriously. We're all in this together. When we envision our futures and take steps towards the actualization of goals, I believe we should keep in mind that creation doesn't happen in a vacuum. Likewise our spiritual journeys are more powerful when they are shared. Some kind of daily spiritual practice is something we each owe our selves personally for sanity and joy. Its also something which really is our duty to our collective consciousness and evolution. If people realized just how powerful they are and how good it feels to know compassion and be able to put themselves in someone's else's heart and mind, they would see that the condition of the modern world necessitates this revelation and this shared practice of daily and weekly spiritual community. Prayer. Energy healing. Sacred sex. Meditation. Merry Christmas World.

Inebriated ZigZag Journeys: From Displacement to Soul Food

Shrouded in darkness, mild flurries caressed the maritime countryside leaving behind pockets of salty snow for Christmas morale. Like a good elfin pan, I crafted into the night listening to old Steve Martin interviews... Our son made some wonderful gifts at school, like a family Christmas Calendar. Very well done! And lo and behold, despite my protestations about the focus on material gift giving, Santa came after all...much to my son's delight.

Everyone knows that the consumerism monster has gotten out of hand, yet we continue to feed the beastly master, unleashing him from his cage every year like clockwork come December. A cocktail of greed, hysteria, guilt, and unsated desires puts a lot of people past the tipping point, as they race around town hoarding booze, chocolate and rubbing their credit cards through tiny slots at cash registers from store to store, like crickets rubbing their legs together. This is the music of Christmas: cha-ching cha-ching, botta-boom, botta-bing. It's the chaotic crinkling of wrapping paper, tissue and bows, ravaged by kids pumped on GMO-cornsyrup-candy who tear through gift after gift until everything is opened, like a frenzy of mosquitoes on supple flesh of a newborn fawn in the dead and still of an ice cold winter. It's the moaning of family members in painful stoopers with aching joints and sore muscles. It's the droning of an antique vampire, a sedated fixture, a living relic of a bygone era, sunken into an armchair, mumbling incantations, musty racism and a percolating fervor for wartime. Spitting judgment through broken teeth and a tense jaw. It's the shrill screams and the frustrated sighs, as everyone shares their genuine love through all the banality of the corporeal machinations and obligatory gestures with uncomfortable relations.

We all know that Christmas is about love, sharing, and community. It's about joy, merriment, and peace of earth. Yet, who surrenders to a theta state recognition of the divine within us all? Who rides a wave of bliss through the perfume isles of Nordstrom's looking into everyone's eyes in dreamy recognition of our interconnectedness? Who stretches their yogic hearts holding Namaste on their lips down the Lego isle of Toys R Us? Who among us feels himself embodying Christ consciousness in line for coffee samples and one inch square pieces of spanikopita at Trader Joe's? Who among us feels herself fashioned in the likeness of the Madonna, touched by God, as she agonizes over which dangling over-sized purse with retro fringe to buy Mother-in-Law?

We plow through crowds of strangers with our eyes glued to tiny glowing screens, racking up credit cards on our zigzag journeys to get to Peace on Earth and Goodwill Toward Men. And when we arrive at our destinations, pumped full of cappuccinos, Bailey's Irish cream, tiramasu, and easy bake mini mushroom turnovers, decked out in our shiny a glittery accoutrement, do we remember to feed our souls? Do we dance like gypsies, sing like naked natives on tropical beaches, do we drink the medicine of the elders? Do we dump the drama of interpersonal relationships and petty frustrations like a cement mixer at a graveyard, before the waist hardens our arteries, ferments in our intestines, festers in our worn down, pathogen-abiding human bio-domes before we get to the place wear cats purr, children coo, and angels steal our inebriated focus twinkling on the tops of pine trees in our indoor living room forests?

Bitch or Bust

This year there just hasn't been any room for the shopping, card-sending and gift-giving. Although, our family did make it to two Solstice celebrations. Tomorrow, I finally get to the post office between two client readings and some ice skating. After some bouts of illness on the home front, it's been all work all the time playing catch up. There's nothing I'd rather do with most of my mental power, energy and spirit, than surrender myself to the loving and intelligent wisdom of the angels, and help convey personal messages to my clients and mind-body insights for their health and well being. My healing practice mandates a ceremonial lifestyle with daily meditation and few distractions from the modern world. It requires my undivided and absolute attention when I am working. The state of mind required by my profession is that of oneness, harmony, fluidity, humility, neutrality, duty, and balance. I must be surrendered to divine love and feel a pervading sense of trust and safety, cradled by Mother Nature's loving arms. Sometimes, every day practical life interjects itself like an alarm clock, Hello...time exits and it's ticking!

Frankly, I was so busy channeling messages about Mary, Jesus, and from Archangel Michael for my clients, that I forgot to buy stuff and send cards. Silly me.

The other deeply satiating endeavor...Thankfully, starting Thursday I will have a week just to write, with the exception of one healing and two classes. I know I've said this before, but it's so true. I wasn't ready to write the book I am meant to write before. My perspective on things has evolved so much. I feel much less polarized, in terms of feminism, my politics and the sacred feminine. I see what's required within the manuscript to blend the insights of an angel medium with the chutspa of a spunky, righteous and rallying 'sex priestess' of a modern revolution. As Naomi Wolf and I discussed in my forthcoming interview with her (airing this Thursday at 9am EDT, on 92.1 WOMR-FM Provincetown), sexual empowerment wakes one from a deep sleep, it increases conscious awareness, it doesn't allow the soul to be oppressed, and it is revolutionary. So, it's back to manifestos for me. Things have kinda come full circle. May even buy copies of Bitch and Bust magazines for myself this Christmas....

Update, it looks as if the online content for Bitch and Bust has gotten a tad more tepid since the 90s. Wow! Doesn't really have the fanzine quality of my own 'self-published' feminist grrrl magazine, I edited back in 1998 called, Pillow Book: Funky Cunts' Guide to the Emotional Universe. We poked fun at tampon and IUD propaganda, explored female sexuality with a post-Sisterhood-is-Powerful pre-matrifocal existentialism. I edited it, drawing from a dozen friends' writings and artwork. Loved the name, but I never knew where to wear the t-shirt.

We created, the Funky Cunts' Guide around the same time I was writing a paper at Community College about the media backlash against women in the early eighties. The backlash had parallels with the early 50s propaganda calling for the post-WWII female workforce to return to home, be good little homemakers, give up wearing pants, quit their jobs and let financial independence be a distant memory. Sadly, in the 80s game shows and soap operas started hypnotizing a whole new generation of moms. Propaganda from right wing groups and ultra conservatives started sending messages for women to get back to the home. Popular columnists like Popcorn and mags like Women's World had a huge hand in shifting popular opinion, or at least the appearance of it by using false statistics, and over time gained a lot of genuine influence.

The 80s created the newly improved material girl prototype (the trophy wife who could be bought and sold), the suburban soccer mom, the hyper-sexualized and infantalized object of desire, the self-esteem galvanizing dead model look which invoked elements of violence against women (and embraced the Victorian ideal), and the trend in 80s sitcoms of having orphaned children with dead moms (Full House, My Two Dads, Webster, Gimme a Break, Who's the Boss, Diff'rent Strokes, and The Hogan Family). (Then, there's the kids' whose moms just up and left Punky Brewster and Blossom.) For my paper, I drew quotes from books by authors Susan Faludi, Peggy Orenstein, Inga Muscio, Lois Banner, Robin Morgan, and Naomi Wolf. There's that Wolf again. Go by her book, Vagina, if you haven't already.

Naomi Wolf on Healing Wisdom Next Week!

Avoid the day after Christmas let down, with wisdom from best-selling author, Naomi Wolf! So exciting!

The Ancient Roots and Customs of Christmas

Listen to Healing Wisdom with Solstice Singer an children's illustrator Terre Seeley! http://www.womr.org/podcast/singer-terre-seeley/

Upcoming Interviews with Naomi Wolf and Other Feminist Authors

Having just now recovered from a fretful viral illness in time to interview the esteemed, venerable, classy, provocative and righteous author and social critic Naomi Wolf, I am getting in gear. I feel there must be some divine intervention involved. Just as mysteriously as it arrived it vanished, but after much prayer. I even contemplated the possibility that I may have a bad case of the West Nile virus or the Black Plague of Madagascar. Dream travel shouldn't result in the invasion of foreign pathogens, should it? Sadly, the small African island, featuring the world's largest avian population with as many as 80 percent of all known bird species has seen a rise in the Medieval vector-carried bacterium in the last two years.

Naomi Wolf is a bright shining star of pure unsullied patriotism, an intellectual mover and shaker promoting civic engagement and the creation of a sustainable democracy at a grassroots level. She is the reviving breath in an oxygen deprived nation. Her recent work Vagina: Revised and Updated, explores the physiology of female sexual organs, placing the highly-politicized power center of womankind in a historical context and helping readers make the mind-vagina connection. I adore her fervor and her unapologetic and personal narrative. Her international journalism includes the investigative report “Guantánamo Bay: The Inside Story” for The Times of London. Her TV appearances include Larry King Live, Meet the Press, The Joyce Behar Show, and The Colbert Report.

In the coming weeks I will be speaking with authors and professors Sandra Ingerman and Barbara Tedlock! So thrilled.

Soul-utions for Holiday Stress

Here's a new class that I co-teach with fitness and dance instructor Tracey Crowell, every Wednesday night through the holidays into the New Year...

Coming at Ya

Do you remember the scene in Westside Story where Maria feels so pretty, and witty and gay? Well, that's how I feel when I think about my upcoming interview with best selling author Naomi Wolf. Sure, we could talk about NSA privacy violations, the American economy, the negative consequences of globalism, man's inhumanity to man. Yeah, we could do that, but you can't change these things simply by talking it out. The only way to fight evil is to become superheroines.

If you can believe the Dalai Lama, it's Western women who will be leaders in helping to save our planet. So, put on your Sheera Princess of Power boots, Xena breast plates, and Eartha Kitt cat ears, and be ready to imbibe in the pleasures of the flesh and be transported by the wisdom of your vagina and your birthright as a woman to be more powerful, more fulfilled, more integrated, more actualized and more divine, so that you can be joyous and be the change you want to see in the world. Not that kundalini asanas or Tantric practices automatically bring enlightenment to the world...but it's a step in the right direction, alongside other things like being of service, creating community, being healthy, and participating in (group) prayer and meditation. Naomi Wolf's [book] Vagina: A Biography, is coming at you! 'Cuz it's a win-win for everyone when women are sexually sated. Gone are the days of spiritual attainment through celibacy for the chosen few; here to stay are the days of ego, body and soul gratification for all.

Now if I can charm Jim Carrey's publicists, perhaps I can interview the Jim-Man about his meditative practice and his mind-body epiphanies. In a recent interview in Energy Times, the esteemed and evolving actor speaks of how eliminating wheat, dairy and sugar from his diet, resulted in emotional purging. He's a wonderful spokesman for natural living and overcoming depression. He also founded, A Better U http://www.betterufoundation.org/about-us/ The new children's book he created with his daughter helps comfort kids about mortality in a cosmic and zen way. If I were a TV talk show host, I'd make him spoon me under an enormous Christmas tree while we croon a Christmas duet in matching pastel pantsuits with big lapels...just before giving away free talking Elvis Christmas ornaments to the studio audience. He could be Dick York, Jimmy Stewart, and Mel Torme in alternating stanzas and I could be Elizabeth Montgomery, Doris Day, and Daisy Torme.

I've been doodling comic strips today in preparation for my psychic awareness workshop that I am teaching tonight. Check back this weekend for my Apocachyx comic strip. The first one is called, "Most Men are Mortals". And I think that's actually the perfect title for my book. But of course, new ideas are always rapturous and intoxicating. I may think better of it in the morning. Okay, scratch that. My feminist husband says that it's reductive. Women have been too long defined by their relationship to men. Et cetera, et cetera. He is my conscience. I thought it sounded marketable, but now I am in agreement. He wants the title to be something long and sassy. A Question. Something Woody Allen might say before lighting a Virginia Slim. We shall see. We shall see.

A Family Tradition

In keeping with family tradition, I use amethyst, Chinese Jade, malachite, and other gemstones underneath the massage table for their energetic properties. I also use a jojoba oil infuser with the essential oils of clove, cassia, myrrh, and cedarwood to create a very warm, safe, familiar and relaxing environment. My mom is an excellent third-degree Reiki practitioner and self-taught massage therapist. She often got me on the table growing up. As a kid, I saw her as across between Caroline Ingalls from Little House on the Prairie and Samantha from Bewitched. It bummed me out to no end that I couldn't twitch my nose like Tabitha. During the healing sessions, she would often intuit messages from my angels or share astrological epiphanies about the asteroids or trines in my natal chart. After a two-hour energy healing/massage I did last night for a client, my six-year-old insisted on having one this morning. I love my snuggly baby boy. He'll always be my baby, even when his toes reach the end of this table.

December Events

With expansive and adventurous Sagittarius in full swing and the legacy-and-foundations-centric Capricorn Winter just around the corner, we have some wonderful opportunities to step into your power, inner awareness and psychic development before the New Year of Enchantment is born.

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The Movement and Guided Meditation series held on Oasis Wednesdays will continue with a new series aimed at helping those focused on physical healing goals, weight loss and connecting with their spirit. Wednesdays at 7pm at the Masjah Center in Harwich. Organic Warming Tea served every class. $15 drop in

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Inner Awareness Thursdays at 7pm at the Masjah Center in Harwich starting December 5th
Clients have been asking for a class to help develop intuition, so here it is. A new class series called Inner Awareness focuses on connecting with your deep self and clarifying the wisdom of your gut instinct and psychic intuition to increase your Law of Attraction capabilities and increase synchronicity and set you in alignment with divine timing. Thursday nights at 7pm. Attendance for all classes is not required. Drop-ins are welcome. $20 per class. There will be fun goodies and tools each class to bring home.

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There will be a Food For the Soul holiday event coming up from Pandora's Garden, so stay tuned for more information! You can contact me at info@pandorapeoples.com or text me at 310-591-6996

Gratitude for the Angels

Feeling grateful for many blessings in my life including the qualities of patience, dedication, perseverance, kindness, being intuitive, striving for improvements and loving joy I see in my clients, friends and family. People are waking up to their multi-dimensionality. They are seeing that they themselves cannot be defined by limiting labels and that the soul cannot be compartmentalized into little boxes. It is inauthentic when we try to fit into rigid definitions of who we think we should be for convenience sake, and we cannot expect others to adhere to rigid and narrow definitions of themselves, to make us feel safer or more in control. Being conventionally grown, doesn't fertilize the valleys and peaks of your soul or its purpose. Aiming to be organic nurtures the whole self and supports good health. If we're worrying about who will accept us as we naturally are, then we are concerned about the wrong people. By adapting to inauthentic behaviors and expectations, we're enabling other people to continue to remain set in limited ways of thinking, instead of challenging their presumptions, preconceived ideas, or biases. The shoudla-woulda-couldas will drive you batty, so stay fresh and be yourself.

The Eight Nights of Thanukah Left Overs*

What's better than turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing and gravy, green bean casserole, yams and pumpkin pie ala mode? All of that with latkes, matzo ball soup, and kugel for appetizers! But, of course Thanksgiving is about more than just cooking and cleaning all day sipping hard cider and slugging down eggnog...

...It's about watching your brother-in-law read the Hebrew prayers off a paper, before ignoring your request to for the family to participate in a round of Shalom Chaverim. I may be a shiksa, but even the rabbi at the Chabad let me shake the lulav. Hey, anyone can misplace their yarmulke three Thanukahs in a row. No matter. At our crib there's pickles and olives to load up on before heart-attack-inducing cornbread rolls break into song, as the hypertension gravy train rattles through town bestowing oodles of stress and gravy across the plates of generations of Feingolds.



Not only did Stop and Shop cease carrying Chanukah candles, (although they carry shabbos candles so clearly there are in fact people who celebrate shabbat in Dennis), but Christmas Tree Shop banished their half a dozen menorahs to the Jewish part of the Cape, Hyann-witz. No dreidels within 30 miles of here, but Tedesci's made sure to stock up on Jewish gelt, which I think tastes a lot better than Catholic guilt, which my family always made sure to have plenty of. (They were Roman Catholic on the Jewish side, my grandmother spoke to me in Yiddish when no one was around.) I do love my Jewish family by marriage, despite them hiding out in the kitchen confessing to me that my son is the perfect example of why they don't like children. Everyone's a comedian.

I cooked, cleaned the walls and all the molding over the house, and almost pulled off a Donna Reed, until an abandoned upstairs bedroom was discovered accidentally during a game of Walkie Talkie hide and seek When the room was seen in all its glory, across between an exploded laundromat and an episode of Hoarders, but without the petrified cats. Ah, the shame. The shame. On the bright side, I discovered that my husband makes a mean matzo ball soup, which will come in handy the day I can't swallow anything that my gums can't smack together.

*According to Chabad.org, you won't have the first evening of Chanukah and Thanksgiving fall on the same night until 2070, provided the Hebrew calendar continues on its 19-year cycle, the US continues to go by the Gregorian calendar, and folks continue to celebrate Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday of November.

Heartfelt Holidays on Healing Wisdom

Law of Attraction Magazine creator and editor Sue Elliot discusses holiday stress with me on my radio show this morning. 9am Eastern Daylight Time on http://womr.org, 92.1 WOMR-FM Provincetown, and 91.3 WFMR-FM Orleans.

Medicine Woman

I love channeling messages from angels, spirit guides and people who have passed over, but every now and then, I feel compelled to go all shamanic on my clients. I even broke out the massage table the other night. Clearing energy that has grown or latched onto the soul, or what shamans often see as spirits/entities/parasites, is very often the best antidote to many ailments: malaise, melancholy, depression, indecision, or confusion. Every now and then my departed mentor encourages me to go all Feudal Japan/Cherokee Warrior Princess on the yucky stuff that can linger in the energy field, and lurk about town. One must be deadly serious about sucking out or shaking loose energetic vampires from the body, or they have run of the town. A note to the nefarious: No screwing around with my ancient spirit, thou art powerless against me. Thy dark shadows cast no sweat upon mine brow, ne'er, nor fear within mine eyes. Someone needs to christen with a Buffy Slay It/Don't Spray It inspired moniker. Hook me up with a costume, preferably fleece with gogo boots. You can pay me in gogo boots or barrels of potatoes, I'm like Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman that way. Kind of.

Future Labiacentric Restauranteer or the Owner of a Holistic Fertility Clinic Masquerading as a Trendy Cantina?

I may be suffering from a kind of fertility awareness syndrome, but I won't run off to join a traveling free-love raw vegan hipster lunch wagon or The Midnight Mavericks Emergency Medicinal Food Circus Mobile Fertility Unit before I complete my book proposal.

My son's bestie slept over last night. She danced to Django Reinhardt, while my son played with her Lego kitchen set. According to her she's half cat and my son really needs cartoons. Even though she won't eat anything but chicken fingers, I see marriage material. They drew out their bedtime a couple extra hours, and woke up too early with smiley sleep deprived faces. Did the "Jewel Train" theme from LeapPad rip-off Nico's All Tomorrow's Parties, or do I just need to go back to bed?

Really wanting a baby girl. To the left, is one of many such meals I cook for my family. Further evidence of my biological clock ticking. Note the step-3-baby-food-like texture, and the labia-shaped presentation of the avocados. My epicurean muff-centric and vulva-focal creations would be most unwelcome in existing P-town eateries. Perhaps I should open up a restaurant which caters predominantly to lesbians and Code-Pink/Riot-Grrrl-gen-x-er-breeders. We can call it Little Italy's Muffia Trattoria, To Be Cuntinued Cafe, The Pussycat Eatery, The Twativerse Tavern, The Clit Cat Club, Big Mama's Hoochie Coochie Cucina, The Rosebud Roadhouse, The Poontang Pâtisserie, or of course there's always, Pandora's Box. I think for a woman with an incredible desire to reproduce, I am holding myself together remarkably well.

Anyone who knows how to pronounce Sleater Kinney will love my retro restaurant chain, which will dress all its waitstaff in grunge flannel over My Little Pony baby tees and wide-wale overalls. There will be a special room for dayglo Bugaboo baby strollers and heavy laptops will replace flowers as table centerpieces. Complimentary BPA-free reverse osmosis water bottles will be given to every diner. Sustainable, cruelty-free locations will include Portland, Williamsburg, Berkeley, and Jamaica Plain. Permanently placed scratch-n'-sniff cupcake-shaped highchairs will accommodate both dogs and babies.

We will cater to raw vegan baby-makers, serving horny-goat-weed-and-kale lasagna, vitex-berry-ovulation-orzo, carob chip vulva halvah and sesame seed Soomsoom for sperm modality, and hibiscus-infused maca-lattes for male vitality. Saw-palmetto-and-celery-root-pâté for libido. Ginseng pad Thai with freeze-dried lychee berry shavings and blanched fennel bulb for premature ejaculation. "86 the 'PreJac'!! Sorry Fellas, we're outta the house special." Wild yam polenta with pea tendril sauce for estrogen precursors. Creamy-hazelnut-and-red-raspberry Lactation Bisque sprinkled with roasted aniseed. Damiana Medjool Date Dykeries? Invitro-fertilization ashwagandha ale? Sperm-donor Scorpion Bowl? Muira Puama Mezcal jello shots?

Newcomer of the Year Award!

Hey, look what I won. I am honored to have received Newcomer of the Year Award at my beloved station WOMR. I'm so pleased to be part of Outermost Radio.

Fundrive on the Fiddle and the Harp.

WOMR-FM Pledge Drive

Up to 47,000, we have 7 grand to go. But we'll accept your love in many forms: a grand piano, an original Pablo Picasso drawing, a $50 dollar membership, a $15 donation. Please, help contribute to our fabulous community radio station. By the people, for the people. http://womr.org 508-487-2619

Make us scream in delight.

Upcoming Guest on Healing Wisdom

My guest next week on Healing Wisdom is author Dr. Roger Walsh, professor of psychiatry at the University of California School of Medicine. His book, "The World of Shamanism" is enlightening. Tune in December 4th at 9am ET to hear us discuss his work. Find out what happens when you get two loquacious writers together to discuss shamanistic principles, psychology and pharmaceuticals.

Women's Night This Thursday Night

Dia De Los Muertos Night #2

In the tradition of Dia De Los Muertos, tonight is the second night to make offerings of gratitude, thanks and acknowledgment for those who have passed on. For family, friends, lovers, ancestors and people who touched our lives. Tonight, my son is making a piece of art for his grandmother Charlotte who passed on before he was born. I've noticed candy these days smells like perfume and cologne, that's probably because they are made with some of the same chemicals. Creating an ancestral offering is a nice art project to do with Halloween candy which is chalk full of artificial flavors, colors and corn syrup. Make sure to use hard candy, because we found that lollipops melt in the glue.

Offerings for a departed loved one could be:

A stiff drink
His or her favorite food
A poem
A song
Flowers
Shells
Rocks
A letter

Departed friends and family members always have messages for those living on this side of the veil, on this lovely earthly plane. Dia De Los Muertos, (All Souls Day), is an ideal time to receive messages from them, to trust your intuition and to open up communication between you and those beloved ones who have passed on. Simple gestures such as the offerings above are a wonderful ways to begin a dialogue, and to honor your feelings, to help move old or new feelings of grief, and to allow them to give you assurances and open you up to signs.

My own grandfather is 'chomping at the bit' for me to finish the writing project I needed to complete months ago. I feel lucky to be under the tutelage of everyone's spirit guides and guardian angels, learning new things every day. The messages coming through have been so enriching, that I cannot imagine having completed the manuscript without the new wisdom imparted to me and my clients through the work.

Dried plants can be offered into a fire, such as tobacco, coffee or cedar, which may be accompanied by a letter which you may choose to read aloud. Or you can simply put a drink or plate of food upon your mantel, coffee table, or bureau, in a loved one's honor. Your altar could have a photograph of your ancestors, a book by your favorite author, a hand-carved whale from your trip abroad, and a candle you light for your favorite aunt or uncle.

Often you will know your loved ones are around because of a sense of peace they bring, a fragrance in the room, or something curious or unusual occurs. For example, twenty minutes after master Hero made his grandmother Charlotte the art piece, he decided he was going to wash dishes, and he did so cheerily, laughing. This is how he behaves on the rare occasion that his Nana visits us from out of state. I can easily picture her whispering lovingly into his ear, happy to be in the kitchen with her grandson.

Samhain Interview with Eclectic Wiccan Healer Adriadne

http://www.womr.org/podcast/musician-and-healer-ariadne/

Hermia from A Midsummer Night's Dream

My client Heather Brown Kotel chose Hermia from A Midsummer Night's Dream as a character from a legend or literature to portray. She is a lovely subject. We had great fun!

HERMIA: I would my father look'd but with my eyes.

HERMIA: My good Lysander! I swear to thee, by Cupid's strongest bow, By his best arrow with the golden head, By the simplicity of Venus' doves, By that which knitteth souls and prospers loves, And by that fire which burn'd the Carthage queen, When the false Troyan under sail was seen, By all the vows that ever men have broke, In number more than ever women spoke, In that same place thou hast appointed me, To-morrow truly will I meet with thee.

HERMIA: Never so weary, never so in woe, Bedabbled with the dew and torn with briers, I can no further crawl, no further go. My legs can keep no pace with my desires. Here will I rest me till the break of day. Heavens shield Lysander if they mean a fray! (lies down and sleeps)

HERMIA: (waking) Help me, Lysander, help me! Do thy best To pluck this crawling serpent from my breast. Ay me, for pity! What a dream was here. Lysander, look how I do quake with fear. Methought a serpent eat my heart away, And you sat smiling at his cruel pray.

HERMIA: Am not I Hermia? Are not you Lysander?

A Client's Testimonial for a Reading and Healing Session

"Hi Pandora thank you thank you thank you!! Right on the money!!! It was amazing! I was on a very very strong parasite cleanse. Probably why my stomach hurt. I am off if it starting today. My body gave the ok today to start u r tea. Brewing it now. You are an amazing healer! So glad I popped into the health food store at that moment :-). You have no idea how much you helped me! S.S., Chatham, MA

Big Brothers and Big Sisters

"Big Brother Big" is not 1984's prequel. Goldstein does not have a hip hop alter ego in a new nefarious comedy. But, that is what your phone will read, when Big Brothers and Sisters of Cape Cod returns your phone call. I am looking forward to speaking with Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Cape Cod on my radio show in one of the upcoming weeks. I personally know how important having mentors is growing up. Having people outside of your family who care about your welfare, expose you to new ideas, viewpoints, places and interests and model good behavior is so important for good self-esteem and confidence in children. Many of the kids in this program come from low-income, single-parent house holds. Their parents enroll them, knowing they will be paired with solid, kind, virtuous, trustworthy, folks with wonderful values who want to help guide someone in need of a mentor.

Big Brothers or Sisters can be retired, single, married, grandparents, of any profession or skill set. All these children need is love, mental and emotional support, and dedication.

After talking with so many folks who have crossed over, I gotta wonder, why do we wait until we die to love people? Why do we place so much importance on romantic love and marriage? How alienated are we from our brothers and sisters on the planet when we are brainwashed into this paradigm that puts sexual and romantic relationships up there with or above career in importance, and the attainment or development of all other relationships down there with stamp collecting? Why wait to open the floodgates of cosmic/divine love?

Cape Cod fosters creativity, virtuousness, community, kindness, fairness, and embodies the values of hard work. It's a place where the working class are valued and where the media doesn't rule the atmosphere of the day. Its small enough, that it keeps people's behavior in check. Unlike in Los Angeles, a chaotic sea of nomads scrambling to knock each other down to get ahead which is known as a place where generally you cannot count on people's word, where people will leave you hanging, where no plans are ever certain, and where flakiness is an epidemic and promises are forgotten. I find the salt of the earth mentality mixed with a pro-intellectualism environment to be such a bastion of sanity and a paradise. Respect is based on what people do and who they are, not on what car they drive and what neighborhood they live in. I love my husband and our son very much and I am happy that he moved us here.

Of course, life is full of dichotomy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-q4foLKDlcE

Artemis Goddess of the Hunt

Autumnal Greek Goddess of the Hunt, is the protector of virgins. She is symbiotic with wild animals, and in her Roman incarnation Diana, is connected with the moon. My model is Andrea Laurie, professional massage therapist.

"Finesse"

"Vision"

"Gently Certain"

Women's Night in November

My Sister

My dear sister is having what one of her doctors suspects to be seizures caused by prenatal trauma. This doctor said that sometimes adolescents who experienced trauma in their early development experience a relapse in seizures. I helped raise my baby sister, taking her delicate elfin munchkin self six to ten hours a day from babyhood through her third year. During this period I think she was having infantile seizures, absent seizures and perhaps even grand mal seizures, which involve the stiffening of muscles, and jerking of limbs. She also seemed to have atonic seizures, where her head would drop down, and sometimes she would collapse. She was born with a deficient umbilical cord, which hadn't properly delivered oxygen or nutrients in that last month of her gestation. She had died for twenty minutes soon after she was born, and it is truly a miracle that she survived.

My sister is having symptoms of partial seizures, with dizzy spells and blurred vision. She is getting brain scans this week. Please, send her your prayers. I'm theorizing though, that she's been having partial seizures for years without us correctly identifying them. There are certain behavioral clues, we may have missed, which include emotional symptoms. The onset of seizures are scary because they can indicate tumors, although that seems unlikely with her history. One doctor was worried about brain pressure, but they believe they have ruled that out. Some types of seizures can even be brought on by low blood sugar or an electrolyte imbalance. She has been steadily progressing in some areas, she can ride a horse Pendragon, at a local stable, with help. She is writing her own Arthurian legend, and I want her to be able to finish it. And go on to write the novel. She has been obsessed with the story of King Arthur for years. She has studied the legend, the historical time period (5th and 6th century), Celtic mythology, and everything related to it.

Today, I spent some time in an old church. Sometimes it feels really good to pray. I think Saint Francis of Assisi may have actually visited me in the nave. I should spend more time on pews. When I told my darling friend Marisa, who had been busy downstairs, she said that he's her all time favorite saint, and that she prays to him. Maybe he will answer mine.

Mediumship, Nuns and Callings

The title of medium is something that one really earns. Like any skill, it's something that develops and improves with time. For me, being a medium isn't like flipping a switch. My spirit doesn't leave or hover over my body allowing a ghost to enter my vessel. The few times I did experience this, walking and talking with someone else's voice...it was very unpleasant. Negative entities and mean spirited ghosts with boundary issues are the worst offenders. The purpose of the work I do is to help convey specific messages for loved ones, help people to discover their limitless nature and healing potential, and occasionally to help spirits cross over by listening to what it is they need to express for them to find resolve before crossing over. While, many of the messages from our spirit guides, friends and loved ones are playful, being an amusement park for the disembodied is not my idea of a good time. And if a spirit makes you feel like a puppet, they have crossed the line.

When I translate messages, usually one of three things happens: one, either I hear very clearly, non audibly, but verbally specific words that are often phrases which were used by the departed; two, I get messages as thoughts or ideas that I then put words to; or three, I get images or feelings that tell a story. Although, my ego isn't commanding the ship, my brain is processing. Sometimes I get words which are not part of my vernacular, the diction I use varies from disembodied person to disembodied person, and mostly reflects the personal essence which I am translating into human terms. If someone had a potty mouth in life, they often have it in death. If someone was poetic, intellectual, sarcastic, whimsical, or outrageous, those elements come through.

Not everyone who passes over or becomes a guide maintains the same personality they had in life, sometimes seem to adopt a personality from a former life, while offering convincing evidence they are who they say they are. Sometimes, the personality is obscured, by a loving light oversoul, that just exudes kindness and angelness. It is always such a pleasure to convey specific information that pertains to both the lives they lived, and the lives they are living now, and the difference and influence they are trying to make in their current incarnation as guides. Every time, I am so eager to do these folks justice. Every time I hope for the best, and endeavor to do my best to convey that which presses on their spirits. It is liberating to be able to bridge the worlds, but it takes so much energy and soul muscle. It really uses so much of my brain and heart, intuition and clarity. Blessed to have had this occupation find me.

Here is a list of the careers I wanted to have when I grew up, in chronological order. Because it amuses me. What did you think you were going to me when you grew up?
Actress
Dance choreographer
Lesbian
Nun
Botanist
Professor of Philosophy
Poet
Novelist
Fine artist
Playwright
First grade teacher
Screenwriter


Who knows? Maybe some of these are still in my future, although I'm pretty sure the nun thing wouldn't work out anyway...Hear my interview with poet, novelist, and playwright Jeannette De Beauvoir (a.k.a. Jeannette Angell) http://www.womr.org/podcast/jeannette-de-beauvoir/

We talk nuns, domestic violence, special friendships, PTSD, veterans, and millgirls.

Circle of Friends

Babysitting is a great way to extend your small family!! Until my husband and I are ready to have more kids, it's certainly nice for our son to get a taste of what having siblings is like. And I actually feel much happier and more comfortable with two or three children in the backseat. My first sonogram suggested that I miscarried a twin early on, with my first pregnancy, so it makes sense that it feels more natural with more children around.

Angel Readings and Healings

The veil is definitely lifted as we move from the Autumnal Equinox through October and November. The angel readings and shamanic healings are always so powerful at this time. I love getting feedback from my clients about the life-changing nature of the work I am facilitating. Together with the guardian angels, elemental energies, and the healing desire of the soul and the body, we do some awesome work! The Soul is such a rich resource of timeless wisdom and creativity. Tapping into the unlimited potential and timelessness of Spirit, is one of the lovely ingredients to solving solutions iat crossroads and times of transition. And, it's just really fun as well!

Upcoming November and December guests on my radio show, "Healing Wisdom" include professor and author Sandra Ingerman, professor of anthropology and author Barbara Tedlock, Dr. Roger Walsh author of the World of Shamanism, and Best-Selling author and feminist Naomi Wolfe, all of which I am very much looking forward to.

Podcast Interview with Lesley Tierra, LAc, AHG

Interested in healing herbal remedies for colds & flu, children, arthritis and post-menopause? Listen to the Healing Wisdom podcast below to hear herbalist and author Lesley Tierra LAc, AHG, and I discuss herbs for Autumn.

Ms. Tierra founded of the East West School of Planetary Herbology, alongside her husband Michael Tierra. Lesley Tierra is the author of The Herbs of Life, A Kid's Herb Book, Healing with the Herbs of Life, and Healing with Chinese Herbs.

Ms. Tierra is a nationally and California State licensed acupuncturist and herbalist who combines acupuncture with herbal, food and inner growth therapies in her private practice. A professional and Advisory Board member of the American Herbalists Guild, she has studied and used ancient mystical, spiritual and shamanic methods along with modern psychotherapeutic techniques for over forty years and co-led women on vision quests for five years.

Here is the podcast. Enjoy!
http://www.womr.org/podcast/herbalist-lesley-tierra-part-1/

Pregnant Princess

Model E.B. Location: White Cedar Swamp Photographer: Pandora Peoples

Wartime Love Letters

Eight Months Pregnant Model, photographer: me, Pandora Peoples