Leadership Lessons from Dancing Guy

"In the beginning of a change, the patriot is a scarce man, brave, hated, and scorned. When his cause succeeds, however, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot."
—Mark Twain

 This is a powerful and funny and amazing video by Derek Sivers:
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fW8amMCVAJQ&feature=related

Read the transcript at http://sivers.org/ff

Carolina Dream Gathering, June 27- July 1

Bringing Dreams and Community Together

International Assn for the Study of Dreams Conference

June 27-Jul 1, Asheville, NC
 

Five days of seminars, workshops, lectures, exhibits, and events examining dreaming and dreamwork, by over 150 presenters from across the world. Explore the meanings and mysteries of dreams through traditional and innovative theories and therapies, personal study, scientific research, cultural and spiritual traditions, extraordinary and PSI-related dream phenomena, and the arts. Participants will unite the creative energies of our dream community with the ancient energies of the North Carolina mountains and the Cherokee nation. 

Special events include an opening celebration and reception, three world-renowned keynote speakers, a dream art exhibit and reception, a poster session featuring the most recent work in the field of dream research, a dream telepathy contest, a dream hike, and the ever-popular closing costume Dream Ball. More details at http://www.asdreams.org/2010. E-Mail: office@asdreams.org

art by Christi, Raleigh, NC

Aligning with the Earth's Natural Calendar

I've lately been rereading Barbara Hand Clow's trilogy about past life regression and ancient wisdom cultures, Eye of the Centaur, Heart of the Christos, and Signet of Atlantis. They are reminding me of much deep inner knowledge I temporarily put on the back burner because I was being an-author-who-is-marketing-a-book. . . The following piece is from her website, under her Astroflash page. We're not too much past the Earth's New Year's Day, so perhaps we can all still focus back in on beginnings. . .

The New Year is not January 1st! The new year—the Spring Equinox—occurs around March 21, when the Sun enters 0 degrees Aries by geocentric astrology. For Earth, this is when the Sun is directly over the equator. Then it tracks north until it reaches the Tropic of Cancer at 0 degrees Cancer during the Summer Solstice around June 21. Then it turns back and crosses over the equator at 0 degrees Libra during to the Fall Equinox around September 23. It moves south of the equator until it reaches the Tropic of Capricorn at 0 degrees Capricorn on the Winter Solstice around December 21. Then the Sun seems to move north again for its return to the equator for the next Spring Equinox. Of course, the Sun only seems to move in this pattern from Earth's view, since the phenomena is caused by the tilt of Earth's axis as it orbits the Sun during a solar year.

The modern calendar abuses our consciousness! The time to make plans for each year is during the Spring Equinox, not during the so-called "New Year". The most philosophical and spiritual time of the year is the Winter Solstice, which is reduced to addictions and consumerism by Christmas shopping, eating, and drinking. In fact, December 21st to March 21st, the last quarter of the year, is our yearly completion time. The special days and nights right before the Winter Solstice are the most mystical time of the year, and we should meditate for hours during this time. Then when the Sun is in Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces before the Spring Equinox, we should be deepening our understandings of all the things we have learned during the last nine months-the previous Spring Equinox to the Winter Solstice.

The Spring Equinox is the time to identify the intentions we wish to fulfill during the four seasons. Ideas correctly seeded at the Spring Equinox manifest for a year, and I will offer instructions for correctly seeding ideas and manifesting them through the rest of the seasons. During the Summer Solstice, the time has arrived to birth these ideas into recognizable form, like a forming fetus. The Fall Equinox is the time to flesh out, balance, and assess these creations and to weed things out that just are not working. Then the Winter Solstice is the time to enter into deep contemplation to imagine how our personal creations assist others and the planet.

The Winter Solstice is the time to be brutally honest and evaluate whether our ideas enhance others or whether they may actually be detrimental for evolution. A sweet elixir of knowing comes the day of the Winter Solstice when the light begins to return, and each one of us can put greater realities above our personal desires. It is no accident that in Western cultures commercial Christmas is inserted just when people are amazingly psychic and attuned! I suggest you cancel Santa Claus during the Winter Solstice and spend three months reflecting on what you've created during the year.

Inner View of Changing Earth Energies

Karen Bishop, who lives in New Mexico, sends out an energy report every few weeks. I usually find that she is aligned almost exactly with what I sense is going on behind the scenes energetically. I am sharing these segments of her most recent report because I really can't say it any better. . . You can read in its entirety at http://www.emergingearthangels.com/2010/wings4.20.2010.html.

The cosmic tsunami of new and higher vibrating energy is arriving more steadily now, while at the same time, the earth is moving and adjusting as well, as she prepares herself to more fully accommodate these new energies of our very new space.

When we progressed to the point where many, many earthquakes were occurring all over the globe (around the first week of April), much was dislodged and moved out of its previous space. First, the darkness moved up and out, and could be felt as anxiety, panic, depression, or even a feeling of being “spooked.” The energies then progressed into the next stage, resulting in many “endings” and many changes. As much was moved up and out and dislodged from its old groove, many manifestations resulted relating to endings, losses, and a great emptiness. We are also beginning our residency in all ways, in a new state of more light. So then, this means that things were dislodged that no longer fit us, and also means that the light brought to the forefront and revealed anything and everything that no longer fit as well. In addition, things are being “dismantled” and taken apart, only to be put back together again in new ways at a later time.

Endings to relationships, discovering what was really and truly occurring with many relationships (as the light will always reveal what is really there), more endings with careers and geographical residencies, and endings with many connections may suddenly have become the norm. At this time as well, exit points are always created for souls (human and animal) to depart, as this is as well, another severed connection or rather, a departure from an old space that no longer fits. And if experiences of endings were not there for some, at best, a feeling that we perhaps no longer knew where we belonged, a feeling of not wanting to go or do what we usually did, or even just feeling “off” for no particular reason, seemed to run rampant as well. Nothing around us may have felt right, good, normal, secure, or remotely comfortable.

When these disruptive energies began to arrive more fully, accidents, physical ailments, body pain and stiffness from stuck energy that was being hit by all this movement, sickness, chest pain, nausea, and even difficulty breathing were experienced by many.

For nearly the entire month of March, we were in “busy and preparing” mode, as we readied ourselves for who knows what. At our soul levels, we knew that something was due to arrive, and we needed to be ready somehow. The “busyness” time almost seemed relentless, with no end in sight. Then, right before the new energies hit the first few days of April, we may have felt a let down, a subsiding of this “pushing and pulling us along” energy, while we experienced much of everything subsiding and coming to a halt. It was now time for the cosmic tsunami to begin. Even if we had not completed everything that we had set out to complete as we were in “preparation” mode, it did not matter, as the energies were simply doing their job of programming us, and allowing us to participate in whatever each of us felt we needed to, in order to be ready. 

photo from Audubon Society magazine

Courage to Create the New

Here's to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes. . . the ones who see things differently—they're not fond of rules. . . You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can't do is ignore them because they change things. . .they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world are the ones who do.
—Steve Jobs

Few men are willing to brave the disapproval of their fellows, the censure of their colleagues, the wrath of their society. Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential, vital quality for those who seek to change a world which yields most painfully to change.

—Robert F. Kennedy

Building Bridges of Light

My friend, Rod, in Heidelberg, Germany, found this passage in an old book. It sounds like it was written last week.

"The character of political government in the affairs of cities and of states has not changed. Its purpose is to deceive the common folk and to fortify and extend the power of the privileged classes. And since power ultimately means economic power, since its one source is possession—possession of land, tools, means of transportation—it follows that, consciously or unconsciously, the whole function and intent of political government is to keep possession and hence power in the hands of those who now hold it. And since this oligarchy controls the press and thus controls both the news and opinion-based on news, it is clear that its self-perpetuation will not be broken—has not been broken in any country—without some final catastrophe."

—Ludwig Lewisohn, 1929, Up Stream, p219

Rod goes on to comment, "Hopefully, to the white oligarchy, Obama is a major catastrophe. Since every species of creature on earth for the most part totally consumes its environment and then moves on searching for new food, humans (who are intent on transformation) are fighting against an earthly survival instinct at its most primal level. Much of the world's population, though, finds it difficult to be violent in the name of serene love; which means we have a buffer to work within. My wish is that the obvious kite-tail, the last of true American 19th century racism, dissolves in shame and old age, but isn't replaced by a new form of juice-invigorating attackism. Unlikely as this wish is, no one could convince me to abandon my hope. And here's why: love is a synonym for eternity; love is a physical energy and its main property is eternality. And, hope is a derivative of love. Wherever there is hope it is because love is being felt. And I feel hope, lots of love-hope, world wide, world round."

Almost in the next email, I heard from my friend Henry, in Tennessee, who says (partly edited by me), "The shifts in energy on the planet right now are different from anything I've experienced. I have had days while driving where I could feel people in other vehicles experiencing deeply troubling levels of fear about their jobs. It was palpable and disturbing in a unique way. It was a clarion call for me to fortify my own space and to not share the doubt and fear that was all around me. Though, being human, this space of uncertainty has been ingrained in us for millennia. It is this ancient pattern that we have all been 'swimming' in, and it is beckoning a change in us in a truly historic way.

The cataloging of events day to day via the talking heads deepens the worry and concern for those who siphon their existence from outside sources. Long term, this pattern moves us toward seeking an inner space that is not tangent to the mundane corridors of all things that turn to dust. It has the potential of leaning us back toward a more balanced space of becoming aware of our 'oneness'. This is going to be a lengthy, ongoing process for many decades. This is not a dire statement at all. I have been seeing 'bridges of light' that extend across and over the tougher days that are ahead. Beneath these bridges lie the old, worn out patterns that do not serve our evolutionary movement toward openness and awareness as a unified species. 

The other image I have had recently is that of seeing every person's mind as a spark of light in a very large 'net of energy.' It resembles the way the individual synapses in our brain are all connected. From this image I intuited that with all the old patterns that are being shared throughout the 'net' it was a difficult task for the larger 'net' to rise to newer levels, given the increased fear we're now experiencing on the planet as a whole. The quantum affect or potential is still very much alive, but the old patterns, for so many, are dominant and demanding. I will build more bridges of light today. . ."

My friends have made some great observations. It is reassuring to fall back on the truth that love is our ground of being, the substance out of which everything arises in this three-dimensional world. And blocked love, or unexperienced love, gives rise to all forms of suffering and pain. And the avoidance of feeling pain gives rise to all forms of control, violence, bullying, and hatred. But fear in all its guises is no match for love and unity, because it is merely a subset of love and eventually WILL be reabsorbed back into the nondifferentiated unified field. Through will power it fights to maintain its illusions, but it is doomed to failure through exhaustion, outmodedness, and inefficiency.

I too have seen Henry's vision of the Net of Energy. In my vision it was called the HeartField, and it connected all the points of light that were human hearts, of both living and nonphysical beings, as well as of the animals and trees and plants and planets. Strike a tone of love in your heart, and the vibration radiates out and into and through ALL hearts. Perhaps there are several "nets" existing simultaneously, like webs of belief focused at different frequencies. It may seem that the fear-net is dragging down the love-net, but they function in parallel realities, and the HeartField cannot be destroyed by something so small and truly ridiculous as the net of fear and belief in negativity. A bridge of light is a pathway at a higher frequency than an old pathway. All we need to do is keep on the higher vibratory path.

Toward an Empathic Civilization

Two things you might be interested in: The Arlington Institute's newsletter, called FUTUREdition, which culls pertinent and interesting news items from sources worldwide to keep us in touch with the leading edge of transformation.

Second, an article referenced in the newsletter, by Jeremy Rifkin, called "Towards the Empathic Civilization." I am keeping my eyes and ears open for the thinkers who are truly understanding transformation and writing about it. We need all the sane voices possible to help educate us about what's happening, and what's possible. Without a positive vision, the transformation will take longer, and involve greater struggle.

A Celebration of Trees

there is something in the branches
of these trees, so carved
so pruned to perfect balance
so wandering freely to reach the place
they really want to be
seeing them
the artist must seize her soft pencil
for the pure joy of tracing
their jogs and jags and
the forkings and crossings
creating such tantalizing
triangles and trapezoids of clear space
and tracing their paths
she knows the tree soul
and how it is kin to hers
and how it loves her attention
and how it teaches her
how to walk her own road
from deep earth to endless sky

poem and photo by Penney Peirce;
see my facebook page for a full album of photos in my new Tree Study

New Skype Video Interview with Lilou!

 Lilou Macé, from Nantes, France, and I have done 2 new video interviews: one on dreams, one on intuition. You can access them at:
http://www.liloumace.com/Secrets-to-understand-dreams-How-we-can-remember-them-and-what-are-their-meaning-Penney-Peirce_a570.html

The previous interview, on Frequency is accessed at:
http://www.liloumace.com/How-to-raise-personal-vibration-and-why-it-is-essential-Penney-Peirce_a548.html

April Intuitive Way eNews Is Out!!

You can read this month's issue of my Intuitive Way eNews at: www.penneypeirce.com/newsletters/2010/Newsletter041410.htm

Browse the archives: www.penneypeirce.com/newsletterarchives.htm

photo of oak bark by Penney Peirce

Presence: An Exploration of Profound Change in People, Organizations, and Society

If transformation interests you, especially as it applies to organizations, you might enjoy Presence: An Exploration of Profound Change in People, Organizations, and Society, by Peter Senge, C. Otto Scharmer, Joseph Jaworski, and Betty Sue Flowers

The authors explore the nature of transformational change—how it arises and the possibilities it offers. They introduce the idea of "presence"—that the whole is entirely present in any of its parts—to the worlds of business, education, government, and leadership. Too often, they found, we remain stuck in old patterns of seeing and acting. By encouraging deeper levels of learning, we create an awareness of the larger whole, leading to actions that can help shape our evolution and future. Following are a few excerpts from the book's introduction, which can be found on their website.
 
To appreciate the relationship between parts and wholes in living systems, we do not need to study nature at the microscopic level. If you gaze up at the nighttime sky, you see all of the sky visible from where you stand. Yet the pupil of your eye, fully open, is less than a centimeter across. Somehow, light from the whole of the sky must be present in the small space of your eye. And if your pupil were only half as large, or only one quarter as large, this would still be so. Light from the entirety of the nighttime sky is present in every space—no matter how small. This is exactly the same phenomenon evident in a hologram. The three-dimensional image created by interacting laser beams can be cut in half indefinitely, and each piece, no matter how small, will still contain the entire image. This reveals what is perhaps the most mysterious aspect of parts and wholes: as physicist Henri Bortoft says, “Everything is in everything.”

In talking with pioneering scientists, we found extraordinary insights into this capacity for deeper seeing and the effects such awareness can have on our understanding, our sense of self, and our sense of belonging in the world. In talking with entrepreneurs, we found extraordinary clarity regarding what it means to act in the service of what is emerging. But we also found that for the most part, neither of these groups talks with the other. We came to realize that both groups are really talking about the same process—the process whereby we learn to “presence” an emerging whole, to become what George Bernard Shaw called “a force of nature.” As W. Brian Arthur, noted economist of the Santa Fe Institute, put it, “Every profound innovation is based on an inward-bound journey, on going to a deeper place where knowing comes to the surface.”

This inward-bound journey lies at the heart of all creativity, whether in the arts, in business, or in science. Many scientists and inventors, like artists and entrepreneurs, live in a paradoxical state of great confidence—knowing that their choices and actions really matter—and profound humility—feeling guided by forces beyond their making. Their work is to “release the hand from the marble that holds it prisoner,” as Michelangelo put it. They know that their actions are vital to this accomplishment, but they also know that the hand “wants to be released.”

Can living institutions learn to tap into a larger field to guide them toward what is healthy for the whole? What understanding and capacities will this require of people individually and collectively?

We’ve come to believe that the core capacity needed for accessing the field of the future is presence. We first thought of presence as being fully conscious and aware in the present moment. Then we began to appreciate presence as deep listening, of being open beyond one’s preconceptions and historical ways of making sense. We came to see the importance of letting go of old identities and the need to control and, as Salk said, making choices to serve the evolution of life. Ultimately, we came to see all these aspects of presence as leading to a state of “letting come,” of consciously participating in a larger field for change. When this happens, the field shifts, and the forces shaping a situation can shift from re-creating the past to manifesting or realizing an emerging future.

In the end, we concluded that understanding presence and the possibilities of larger fields for change can come only from many perspectives—from the emerging science of living systems, from the creative arts, from profound organizational change experiences—and from directly understanding the generative capacities of nature. Virtually all indigenous or native cultures have regarded nature or universe or Mother Earth as the ultimate teacher. At few times in history has there been a greater need to rediscover this teacher.

The changes in which we will be called upon to participate in the future will be both deeply personal and inherently systemic. The deeper dimensions of transformational change represent a largely unexplored territory both in current management research and in our understanding of leadership in general. As Otto puts it, “This blind spot concerns not the what and how—not what leaders do and how they do it––but the who, who we are and the inner place or source from which we operate, both individually and collectively.”

Free Online Access to the Hypnosis World Summit

Here's a virtual conference you might want to eavesdrop in on if you're interested in hypnotherapy:

http://www.hypnosisworldsummit.com/

It's May 4-13, 2010

Video Skype Interview with Penney

I was recently interviewed by Lilou Mace, from Nantes, France, for her website. You can watch it at:

http://www.liloumace.com/How-to-raise-personal-vibration-and-why-it-is-essential-Penney-Peirce_a548.html

We will be doing a couple more segments in the near future, so you may want to add Lilou's site to your favorites, if you don't know it already; she offers a wonderful array of interviews.