The Four Winds Foundation

This is an open letter to all Four Winds subscribers, Golden Heart Warriors, Mystics, Shamans, Healers and the curious.

I wrote the following several weeks ago in anticipation of posting it onto our website.  Since then the destruction visited upon Japan has occurred, as well as the New Zealand earthquake and the riots around the world.  So, I really must finish the post since it is so relevant:

It is no secret that we are experiencing difficult times.  Astrologers have long predicted this period as a time of extreme upheaval (Pluto in Capricorn), revolutions (Uranus/Jupiter in Aries), massive floods (Neptune in Pisces) and much, much more.  The Hermetic maxim, “as above, so below…” reminds us that what is happening on the world and cosmic levels is also happening within us. Hopefully, those of you who have been working a spiritual path, or attending many of the classes that have been offered by the Four Winds Foundation over the years will have acquired some tools and skills to help you navigate through these times.  Nevertheless, it isn’t easy, nor will the outcome necessarily be what you hoped for.

I want to offer you encouragement and hope.

Here are a few words of wisdom:

“What you tell yourself about what happens to you (your interpretation) determines the quality of your personal experience. Things happen. But how they affect you depends upon how you describe the experience to yourself. Simply changing the vocabulary you choose to describe your experiences can completely change the subjective effect experiences have upon you. –The Seven stages of Spiritual Unfoldment.

During the Basic Shaman’s Journey class I often quote Michael Harner when I say, “journeying isn’t a way to avoid suffering”, and neither is studying the Qabalah, nor walking the Path of Return, nor being a Spiritual Warrior, nor meditating, nor ‘being spiritual’, nor ‘being good’.   None of these are ways to avoid suffering, at least initially.

There is a purpose to suffering and difficult times. Often it is our first wake-up call.  Most of humanity would never change their lives or ask the deep, spiritual questions without a ‘wake-up call’, without suffering.  It is often suffering that brings us to the place where we finally start to ask, ‘Why?’  ‘Why me?’ ‘I’m a good person, I’ve been doing everything ‘right’, why me?’ ‘Why do bad things happen to good people?’  Or, it may be the realization that your life has become unbearable and you don’t want to live the way you have been living anymore.  Or, it could be a disaster such as what struck New Zealand and Japan.

It is then, when we start to ask the hard questions, that we truly begin our spiritual journey.

If you have been on a ‘spiritual path’ or a path of ‘self-realization’ for a while and something ‘bad’ happens, it can be even harder because deep down inside we believe that because we are ‘good’ and have been doing the ‘right’ things, then nothing bad should happen to us.  I think just reading that last sentence would make you realize how unrealistic that is.  It’s just a hope, but, as Gandalf said, ‘a fool’s hope.’

Well, we really aren’t fools and Hope has a purpose.  After all, Frodo and Sam would have never made it to Mordor if they had not hoped to succeed despite all the evidence that they could not.  So, we must still hope that in the end it will all be worth it.

Those of you that are studying the Qabalah will have learned that the quality that best dissipates the illusion of the Devil (the appearance of pain) is Mirth.  This doesn’t necessarily mean that you laugh at your misfortune when it is something truly terrible, but go out and find something that will make you smile if anything.  Physiologically, this will have a profound affect by releasing hormones and relaxing muscles that will help you heal. Playing or watching very young children can bring a smile because even in times of disaster they will often continue to play and laugh.

But I digress.

What I hear quite frequently from people who are struggling to make sense of what is happening both in their life and the lives of others, are statements such as:

“It must be my Karma.”  (Really meaning, I must deserve this.)

“I must have attracted this to me.”  (Meaning, I am deep, down inside a ‘bad’ person).

“I must have created this.”  (Ditto above)

“The world/people around me/situations etc. are just mirroring back to me what’s inside me.”   (Again, that was a bad person, so I must be a bad person inside.)

ALL of those statements have some truth in them and ALL of them have some falsehood as well.  If you truly understand what those statements mean, they can help liberate you from your conditions, but if you only half-understand them they can make it worse for you.  Those statements are based on ancient Hermetic axioms that were taught only to initiates of the various Mystery schools at the time.  They were kept hidden from most people because without additional teaching, they are easily misunderstood, which is what I see happening in our society today.  It is the ‘New Age’ phenomena, a lot that was once secret has been revealed, not necessarily a bad thing, but not so good either. I see a lot of misunderstanding coming from these statements because that is just what they are, only statements, with no tools or information on how to work with them.

First of all, those statements are NOT WRITTEN IN STONE.  It may be your Karma and it may not be.  Karma is complicated; it is not ‘an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’  It is never retributive or disciplinary. Westerners understand Karma poorly, mainly because they picked it up from the religions of the East without understanding or belonging to those religions, and without realizing that the West has its own equivalent of Karma, ‘The Law of Cause and Effect.’  These concepts are best understood by approaching them from the paradigms that they come from.  The Eastern concept of Karma has a whole body of religious writings, beliefs, cultural contexts etc., to help the Eastern mind understand it, something we are lacking in the West.

There is not enough space in this post to explain fully the workings of the Lords of Karma but perhaps in the future we can go into it in more depth since it really is important.

For now, stop blaming yourself, stop thinking that you must deserve what is happening to you (or that others deserve what is happening to them), stop thinking nothing bad will every happen to you and meet your Life head on.  Realize that everything is an opportunity to grow, to be great, to help, to heal, to be more than you have been – to be the person that you know you really are.  Most of all – love yourself as all the Great Beings of Creation love you.

Debra Chesnut, Founder