Katharine Bainbridge

Healing With The Mother Goddess

May 4, 2017 by Katharine

(photo by Katharine Bainbridge)

In 2010 I left Los Angeles to go on a pilgrimage to the sacred sites of the feminine in Tibet and Nepal.

My first night in Tibet I had a dream. In the dream, I saw the Goddess touch the hand of a woman. While dreaming, I thought to myself, “This is like the Sistine Chapel, but instead of God touching the hand of man this is the Goddess touching woman. Still dreaming I thought, “This is creation.” I then saw a mandala with many symbols, numbers, triangles and circles- the sacred geometry of the Goddess. The dream was awe inspiring; it was also was a very powerful opening to my pilgrimage.

I found out the next day that an Ogress had formed the land of Tibet. This Ogress united in playful union with a red monkey and their union created the Tibetan people.

I visited a Tibetan Buddhist nunnery high up in the Himalayas that was quite seriously veiled from the rest of the world. After walking up out of a valley, following some goats and other Tibetan families up a hill, I heard the familiar song that is sung to Guru Rinpoche. I was thousands of miles away from Los Angeles up in the Himalayan mountains and I was able to recognize the song that the nuns were singing. Hearing this song is an example of the kind of powerful synchronic events that one can experience in the timeless groundlessness of travel.

Upon entering the main shrine room, the now familiar pungent smell of burning butter lamps filled my nostrils; I had to pinch myself with disbelief that I was actually sitting, singing and practicing with Tibetan Nuns. These nuns, of all ages, were surround by massive images of female deities covering the walls. As I got up to look more closely at these ancient images that were painted onto the walls, it struck me like a wave of grief that I did not grow up in a culture where I saw images of myself painted onto walls in any sacred or power filled ways. It was a deeply moving experience for me. I felt so safe. This nunnery was a welcome change from also witnessing, in Lhasa, very young Chinese men walking around with machine guns while grey haired and physically fragile men and women minded their own business performing their prostrations. Tibet is a vanishing world.

I experienced the highest of highs practicing in caves were Yeshe Tsogal practiced and become the first enlightened woman and I also experienced the lowest of lows after literally became ill and vomiting (because the energy was so intense) in Nepal at the Dakshinkali Temple- the Temple of Kali.

My trip included many surprising encounters both good and bad as well as within myself and without. By far, the most powerful was with Nepalese Shaman Aama Bombo.

When I met Aama, I had absolutely no idea who she was. I had no idea that she was actually one the 13 Indigenous Grandmothers. I thought that she was a Nepalese woman who happened to practice Shamanism and I wanted to learn from her. Through my time spent with Aama both in Nepal and while she visited the United States, she lovingly encouraged me to watch her work and to pursue my own healing abilities and to help others beyond traditional western psychotherapy. Through her translator she told me, “Of course you can and will do this, too. You will have to study hard.” Study hard I did and still do; I continue to learn as much as I can whenever and wherever possible. I am so grateful to her for recognizing me and for encouraging the awakening of my own healing gifts. My time with her was a kind of act of creation and it occurred from woman to woman.

How these Grandmothers came to be is an interesting story. It really comes down to one woman, Jeneane Prevatt whose doctoral studies took her to the C. G. Jung Institute in Zurich, where she became interested in the contributions of indigenous cultures. The Grandmothers are gathered from all over the world. Aama just happens to be one of them, and I was fortunate enough to have had a way to meet her through a friendship with another practicing shaman who had studied with Aama for years.

All of this being said, seven years later, I am still digesting the profundity of my pilgrimage.

In a statement from The International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers they say,

“We are deeply concerned with the unprecedented destruction of our Mother Earth: the contamination of our air, waters and soil; the atrocities of war; the global scourge of poverty; the threat of nuclear weapons and waste; the prevailing culture of materialism; the epidemics that threat the health of Earth’s peoples; and the destruction of indigenous ways of life. We believe that the teachings of our ancestors will light our way though an uncertain future. We join with all those who honor the Creator and all who work and pray for our children, for world peace, and for the healing of our Mother Earth.”

This May find a most special way to honor the Earth and the feminine. May is the month, in the United States, where we celebrate Mother’s Day.

This issue of healing the feminine comes up over and over and over again with the women that I work with. Why? Because it comes up again and again within myself. Over thousands of years of Patriarchy demands this healing now.

Aama heals through the energy of Kali. I feel that, like my dream in Tibet, it is the Goddess who was touching her in order to touch me in order for me to touch you.

Women create when working and being together. I also think that we know, deep down inside, that without helping and pulling each other up as women that there is no way to survive.

Let us women find unique ways to work together.

Be well in the month of May- the month that we celebrate our personal mother. Do what you can to assist in healing yourself, each other and this most precious and profoundly magical planet of ours.

IN HONOR OF THE GREAT MOTHER

May Affirmation: The planet is a living body. I am a living body. I am a part of the Earth and she is a part of me. I treat both with loving respect and regard so as to insure a fortunate future of humanity.

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Revolution

February 9, 2017 by Katharine

“I will take the sun into my mouth
and leap into the ripe air
Alive
with closed eyes
to dash against darkness.”
~ e.e. cummings

I have not been able to sit down and write a blog since the election. In all honesty, I have had 4 viruses since Thanksgiving.

Some people are calling it “Trumpitis”.

What I do know is that cold viruses tend to occur, from one point of view, when there is a great deal of confusion in the mind about an issue. There is often a feeling of being overwhelmed and not able to sort something out.

Also, from the point of view of decoding illness based upon the study of German New Medicine, we tend to have more viruses in the winter time because the sun is farther away. Symbolically the sun represents the father principle and when we feel the sun’s distance, as we do in the winter time, there is a aspect of us that feels unsafe and this lowers our systems ability to fight viruses.

Whether you believe these ideas or not, we can all agree that people catch more colds and flus in the winter time.

I happen to believe that cold and flu viruses do come on due to the emotional/psychological conflicts that I described above.

This year, we have more than our share of both confusion as well as a profound collective feeling of WHERE IN THE WORLD IS THE FATHER? Who or what is in actually charge?

Like I said, I have had 4 different viruses.

Because I believe that illnesses are due to an unresolved emotional conflict, I decided to do a little emotional house cleaning.

I decided that the core emotional issue for me was a feeling of “lack of trust.” I then inquired into what was it exactly that I didn’t trust? To say that I don’t trust this new administration is a given. So, I had to go deeper.

The deeper that I inquired, I kept returning to the fact that, for me, too much media intake was creating greater confusion as well as a feeling of mistrust of life itself. There were too many stories, too many headlines, too much “breaking news” for me to even begin to digest anything that was happening. My body was telling me that things were out of balance.

I had to begin to simplify things in my life. I had to remember to breathe. I had to see and admit that I was actually traumatizing myself. I had to make new choices regarding my day. I had to ground myself in my spiritual practices. I had to listen to more music and read more inspirational books. I spent more time outside taking photographs- one of my precious hobbies.

I kept thinking, “Despite it all, I am actually in charge of my own mind”.

I also kept thinking of a scene from the film KUNDUN. The scene that returned to my mind was where Chairman Mao says to the young Dalai Lama, “I have come to liberate you.” The Dalai Lama turns to Mao and says, “You cannot liberate me, I can only liberate myself.”

I thought to myself, “This administration cannot torture me, I can only torture myself out of fear and inner instability and chaos that is created of not trusting life.”

We all need to do whatever we can to have a voice. We need to protest when necessary. We need to help protect those who need our protection and collective strength. We also need to know that certain karmas have to play themselves out collectively.

What we do with our own minds, hearts and bodies in the meantime is what is most essential.

This administration has given me an opportunity to work with my own anger. It has also provided me an opportunity to see a collective outpouring of love and goodwill to other human beings. In Buddhism we talk about things co-emergently arising. In other words, neurosis and awake mind arise side by side. You cannot have one without the other. The idea is to transform confusion into wisdom.

So, I have decided to not focus on a single person or people- instead, I have chosen to see that change is afoot. There are enormous changes taking place all over the world and I am just one tiny person who gets up and has her coffee and sits down to meditate. There is not a whole lot that I can do except to do what is most vital which is to practice a great deal of self care, to care for others and to not contribute my own feelings of anger into the stream.

There are moments where, in my heart, I say, “I love you” to those who frighten me most. Those moments are brief, but they are there. When those moments are there, I feel free. That is the revolution. For me, that is the revolution. In the end, this administration may just, inadvertently, do the opposite of what they intend. They may just, actually, end up bringing us all together.

In the meantime I have some helpful tips for you-

Limit your media intake and this includes all social media.

Take a walk outside and look up at the sky. Use all of your sense perceptions to open up to the world around you and to assist you in getting “out of your head.”

Say “hello” and connect with a total stranger. Smile and wish them good will.

Listen to some beautiful music, or, for that matter, some good rock and roll.

If you are feeling unsafe and untrusting try using the flower essence Pink Lady Slipper.

Smell some essential oils. I happen to like a product called “Cheer Up Buttercup” by NOW essential oils. It is a combination of Bergamot Oil, Orange Oil, Grapefruit Oil and Lemon & Lime Oil.

Stretch often.

Read STRENGTH TO LOVE by Martin Luther King, Jr., HOPE IN THE DARK: UNTOLD HISTORIES, WILD POSSIBILITIES by Rebecca Solnit, and THE SHAMBHALA PRINCIPLE by Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche.

Politely walk away from aggressive conversations.

Try to focus on what you see is actually opening up and awakening in society as opposed to what is crazy making and filling up space with various dramas.

Keep a journal of gratitude.

Do two action items daily to help yourself feel involved and empowered such as writing to your congressman or woman.

Become more civically involved. Donate financially to a worthy cause that you believe it.

Stay connected with the arts. Art tells the truth and this includes all forms of satire.

Also, energy healing is very helpful to balance our nervous system and many people have been coming in for Shamanic Counseling to ask important questions and allow a direct revelation be there own guiding star through these very dark times.

Here is a link to a beautiful piece of music by Keith Jarrett. Listen, open up your heart (because the world needs it), light a candle and BREATHE….

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After The Election

November 21, 2016 by Katharine

“One thing is sure, a great change of our psychological attitude is imminent, that is certain…because we need more… we need more psychology, we need more understanding of human nature because the only real danger that persists is man himself, he is the great danger, and we are pitifully unaware of it, we know nothing of man, far too little. His (her) psyche should be studied because we are the origin of all coming evil.” C.G Jung

“Man stands in his own shadow and wonders why it is dark.” Zen Proverb

I hesitated on writing a blog about the election- until now. My hesitation was, in part, because I was in shock. After my initial shock subsided, I began to be disturbed that I had been in shock at all to begin with. This shock led me to believe that I was quite naive about what is happening in our country, especially in the middle of the country, and that fact truly bothered me.

In the meantime, as Jung talked about the necessity of being able to hold the tension of the opposites, I found myself moving over the what I considered to be “the other side” of my own view point. I visited websites and read articles that were not aligned with my own point of view.

Of course, from the other point of view, things looked exactly like my view but just from another perspective.

It is like those images that you see and are asked, “What do you see first? A woman or a mountain?” From first glance you say, “Well, this is of course a woman’s face! Anyone can see that!” But, upon trying to see where the mountain might be you say, “Wow, there is mountain. How did I not see that.”

As a Buddhist, I immediately went into trying to experience some kind of equanimity. I thought about the greatest dharmic truth being the truth of suffering. I said to myself, “This is nothing new and suffering is endless- that is why where we are is called Samsara.” I also thought, “In the Great Perfection, all candidates, including the victor are perfectly placed in the Buddha fields, in fact, he is showing me something important about myself.” This, is also true. One taste.

But, what erupted after the election disturbed me.

I come from a political family. Because of that, I have never really been very interested in politics. One often tries to distance themselves from what surrounded them as a child. This election changed that for me.

I found that my own ignorance/naivete was a part of the problem. I did not know myself. Because I do not know myself, I cannot claim to know you, either.

While it is easy to split the opposites in two and focus on demonizing one side, one person or another, that is not helpful for the predicament we find ourselves in no matter who you voted for.

This election has been profoundly polarizing. Every single possible opposite has been split asunder: men and women, black/brown and white, us and them, rich and poor, real news and false news, sane and insane.

This is dangerous.

Paul Levy, in his book DISPELLING WEITKO, says, “This collective psychosis or mental virus– which Native Americans have called weitiko- covertly operates through the unconscious blind spots in the human psyche, rendering us oblivious to our own madness and compelling us to act against our own best interests.”

I am far more worried about these opposites being divided that I am by who is actually inhabiting, or not as the case may be, the White House.

These opposites and the massive gorge that separates them is a product of being years and years and years in the making. I was naive enough to think that this gulf did not exist to the extent that it does. I do live in California after all.

Jung talked about the fate of mankind resting in the ability for as many individuals to be able to hold this tension of the opposites as possible.

I, for one, am trying to do just this. When I find myself swerving into one direction or the other, I bring myself back to an image of holding both. I imagine that I am a great big woman who has the capacity to listen to both sides and develop compassion for both. I am not always successful, but when I am, I deeply feel that I am contributing something, at least on a psychic level, to the ability for mankind to not completely destroy itself.

*artwork by Manil Gupta “Love or Parish”

want more information or inspiration?

Healing the Heart of Democracy Resources

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Change is our Constant Companion

October 24, 2016 by Katharine

I had a friend in college who told me that she had been a vegetarian for 10 years before her family stopped serving her meat. The person whom she had become while away from home took longer to register with her family than the person they had known before.

Sometimes I feel this way about myself. Do you?

I just returned from a retreat in Colorado. I spent the better of 12 days relaxing with my own mind meditating. Since I have been a meditator for nearly 25 years, when I sit on that cushion my mind is happy and feels like it has come home.

It wasn’t always this way.

I used to wonder, “Whose crazy mind is this anyway? And, who wants to spend any time with it sitting in silence?” I used to sit on the cushion and imagine going shopping and thinking of all of the wonderful things I could buy if I could just get off the cushion and into a store.

The funny thing is, I am not like that anymore, in fact, I am the opposite. What I have discovered is that I no longer think about much of anything on the cushion except being present with my body and my breath. But, when I returned home from retreat this time, I felt bored. This is the kind of boredom that beginning meditation students feel. I am used to the boredom of doing nothing on retreat now, but not the spacious mind that I bring home with me and the habits that I use to fill up that space.

For example, after returning from retreat my husband and I found ourselves binge watching certain television shows. I thought, “Well, this really isn’t any different from meditating- I am just meditating now on Ru Paul’s Drag Race instead of my own breath.” SIGH.

It is as if my habits did not get the memo that I actually don’t really enjoy this any longer. I watched the hints of my mind try to return as if they were saying, “HEY! Remember me! You enjoy doing this, don’t you?”

But, the honest response is, “No, I actually don’t enjoy this. In fact, it feels a bit repugnant to me.” My habits had not caught on with my retreat processed mind.

This is the way it is. We change. We are changing. There is no greater truth than the truth of change and impermanence. But we feel a kind of lingering haze or odor- a kind of hangover from our habits or who we have been. It can be unnerving.

C.G. Jung once said that “All true things change and only that which changes remains true.”

Allow for change. You don’t have to look backwards. The past is gone. Who we were yesterday is no longer. This is good news. We can and we will change- even if our habits would prefer us to stay the same.

Every opportunity is life asking us to take a chance- to be open to changing. The seasons do it. We can too. We can trust this brand new open space.

Shamanism and the Importance of Direct Revelation In Times of Collective Crisis

August 8, 2016 by Katharine

lotus

(photo by Katharine Bainbridge)

It would be very difficult to not know what is going on politically unless you have been living under a rock.

I bring up politics because for the first time we have a reality television star running for President of the United States. We also have the very first women candidate nominated by a major party who could be President of the United States.

The media is fast paced, maddening and confusing at times. We are constantly tossed between hope and fear. Not only do we have the election happening, but also, other issues that continue to push their way into the collective consciousness: the continuing ecological crisis, Black Lives Matter, terrorism, the Zika virus, the refugee crisis and more.

These are not uneventful times. These are very, very potent times. And, speaking for myself, these times can be quite overwhelming especially to the Highly Sensitive among us.

Trying to maintain mental/physical/spiritual balance, self care and courage is a daily practice for me. I do mean daily. Limiting how much time I spend on social media has been very important.

I have chosen to read more this summer. One of the books that I am currently reading is The Age of Reason by Thomas Paine. While written back in 1794-1795, Thomas Jefferson encouraged Paine not to publish his work fearing the possible reprisal and retaliation against him. So it was finally published in 1802.

I encourage you to read it. In the most simplistic terms, Paine is a critical thinker challenging religion. You could say, “Don’t always believe what you read, even if it is the Bible itself.”

One reason I am rereading this book is that I feel that critical thinking has largely gone by the wayside this election year in particular. It is as if we have lost our minds. When we are frightened, we look outside of ourselves for some kind of authority to tell us what to do. When we are frightened, we can be highly reactive instead of aware and insightful.

From a Shamanic point of view, this relinquishing of our personal understanding and power to an outside authority is very dangerous. To subjugate one’s own autonomy and authority to someone outside leaves you very vulnerable. When we subjugate our autonomy we forfeit our own experience. Experience is necessary for growth. What is the best way forward in life for YOU?

I am currently offering a new service in my practice. It is Shamanic Counseling. Shamanic Counseling is very different from psychotherapy. Shamanic Counseling is a method of experience a direct revelation or insight into a problem.

It is a spiritual method that follows the ancient principles of shamanism. It has as its goal “life-enlightenment.” It is a problem solving system for discovering one’s own spiritual power and the wisdom to deal successfully with daily life.

The Counseling takes place over a series of 5 weeks where the client is trained in this method themselves and has the opportunity to overcome inhibitory fears and gain self confidence while acquiring heart-felt wisdom.

This work is vastly different in its method from Analysis as well as the Energy Healing work that I do.

This work helps heal and restore personal autonomy. It is a way of experience direct revelation for oneself. What could be more empowering?

This method may be good for you for the following reasons:

Do you have some important questions about your life that feel unanswered and you continue to look outside of yourself for answers?

Do you wish to feel empowered or regain some important autonomy that at some point you may have given away to someone else?

Have you been diagnosed with a terminal illness and wish to understand more about your own illness as well as the death and dying process? Or have you had an ongoing illness that you would like to understand better?

Do you wish to feel connected to a Universe that is much greater than you are but don’t know how to access that kind of power?

Are you wanting deeper insight into an issue in your life that confuses you?

Do the current events in the world have you distressed and you wonder how you might actually be a part of helping or healing it in a very practical way?

This method provides the opportunity to to realize one’s own personal spiritual power: and the discovery of one’s ability to obtain extraordinary, very practical, spiritual wisdom and answers to important personal questions.

In these distressing times, it is important for all of us to remain balanced, centered and as Shamans say “filled with spiritual power.”

Katharine

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