Power Animal Summer 2012: SHARK!

Da Dah. 

Da Dah. 

Da Dah Da Dah Da Dah Dah Dah 

SHARKKKKKKK! 

Did you catch a glimpse of the sacred, paramid-shaped fin swimming infinity signs around your life raft? Right now, each one of you has a sleek and fearless shark torpedoing through the murky waters of your psyche. It is trusting its impossibly keen sense of smell and instinct, zeroing in on what your soul craves most. Are you going to paddle away as fast as you can and never look back? Or, are you going to glide along side it and apprentice yourself to the best hunter evolution has ever produced? 

Shark people -- those who have accepted their innate sharkiness -- are high achievers. They are doers, movers, shakers, olympic swimmers.  A shark’s biology keeps its body in motion its entire existence: if it stops moving, it drowns. People are like that too, metaphorically, and perhaps that’s why when our lives become stagnant, we sink to the sea floor, and after awhile become bottom feeders, hiding under rocks and living off the algae or waste of others, unable to see the light. Sharks swim in the depths, but also at the sunny surface. They live in balance and in motion; they know how to adapt, get ahead, transition, evolve, survive with efficiency and energy economy. 

Sharks in our American society get a bad rap: successful gamblers, salespeople, seductive lovers... these we call “sharks”. But success does not have to mean hurting others; our intelligence and drive can serve humanity at the same time it feeds our own needs. When Shark rips through our dreams or our summer splashing at the beach, this a good time to take stock of our beliefs about money, accomplishment, competition, persuasiveness. If we fear these qualities and sublimate them in ourselves, we may keep noticing them in others, and soon find ourselves surrounded by a school of sharks (aka projection). We may thwart our own chances of success by acting like jellyfish at the very moment the universe is calling on us to sink our shark teeth into the gourmet meal that has swum into our gaping mouths. 

If you are feeling weak, afraid, exhausted, confused, victimized or lethargic, envision your inner shark rising to the surface. Sharks know what they want, and go for it. They don’t wait for others to rescue them, or to throw fish crumbs their way. When the time is right, they attack. When you need to attack a problem, assert yourself, or pounce on an opportunity, let Shark out of the aquarium and into the open seas. Let it guide you to do what sharks do best... hunt, and eat!

Power Animal Summer 2012: SHARK!

Da Dah. 

Da Dah. 

Da Dah Da Dah Da Dah Dah Dah 

SHARKKKKKKK! 

Did you catch a glimpse of the sacred, paramid-shaped fin swimming infinity signs around your life raft? Right now, each one of you have a sleek and fearless shark torpedoing through the murky waters of your psyche. It is trusting its impossibly keen sense of smell and instinct, zeroing in on what your soul craves most. Are you going to paddle away as fast as you can and never look back? Or, are you going to glide along side it and apprentice yourself to the best hunter evolution has ever produced? 

Shark people -- those who have accepted their innate sharkiness -- are high achievers. They are doers, movers, shakers, olympic swimmers.  A shark’s biology keeps its body in motion its entire existence: if it stops moving, it drowns. People are like that too, metaphorically, and perhaps that’s why when our lives become stagnant, we sink to the sea floor, and after awhile become bottom feeders, hiding under rocks and living off the algae or waste of others, unable to see the light. Sharks swim in the depths, but also at the sunny surface. They live in balance and in motion; they know how to adapt, get ahead, transition, evolve, survive with efficiency and energy economy. 

Sharks in our American society get a bad rap: successful gamblers, salespeople, seductive lovers... these we call “sharks”. But success does not have to mean hurting others; our intelligence and drive can serve humanity at the same time it feeds our own needs. When Shark rips through our dreams or our summer splashing at the beach, this a good time to take stock of our beliefs about money, accomplishment, competition, persuasiveness. If we fear these qualities and sublimate them in ourselves, we may keep noticing them in others, and soon find ourselves surrounded by a school of sharks (aka projection). We may thwart our own chances of success by acting like jellyfish at the very moment the universe is calling on us to sink our shark teeth into the gourmet meal that has swum into our gaping mouths. 

If you are feeling weak, afraid, exhausted, confused, victimized or lethargic, envision your inner shark rising to the surface. Sharks know what they want, and go for it. They don’t wait for others to rescue them, or to throw fish crumbs their way. When the time is right, they attack. When you need to attack a problem, assert yourself, or pounce on an opportunity, let Shark out of the aquarium and into the open seas. Let it guide you to do what sharks do best... hunt, and eat!

Power Animal

Da Dah. 

Da Dah. 

Da Dah Da Dah Da Dah Dah Dah 

SHARKKKKKKK! 

Did you catch a glimpse of the sacred, paramid-shaped fin swimming infinity signs around your life raft? Right now, each one of you have a sleek and fearless shark torpedoing through the murky waters of your psyche. It is trusting its impossibly keen sense of smell and instinct, zeroing in on what your soul craves most. Are you going to paddle away as fast as you can and never look back? Or, are you going to glide along side it and apprentice yourself to the best hunter evolution has ever produced? 

Shark people -- those who have accepted their innate sharkiness -- are high achievers. They are doers, movers, shakers, olympic swimmers.  A shark’s biology keeps its body in motion its entire existence: if it stops moving, it drowns. People are like that too, metaphorically, and perhaps that’s why when our lives become stagnant, we sink to the sea floor, and after awhile become bottom feeders, hiding under rocks and living off the algae or waste of others, unable to see the light. Sharks swim in the depths, but also at the sunny surface. They live in balance and in motion; they know how to adapt, get ahead, transition, evolve, survive with efficiency and energy economy. 

Sharks in our American society get a bad rap: successful gamblers, salespeople, seductive lovers... these we call “sharks”. But success does not have to mean hurting others; our intelligence and drive can serve humanity at the same time it feeds our own needs. When Shark rips through our dreams or our summer splashing at the beach, this a good time to take stock of our beliefs about money, accomplishment, competition, persuasiveness. If we fear these qualities and sublimate them in ourselves, we may keep noticing them in others, and soon find ourselves surrounded by a school of sharks (aka projection). We may thwart our own chances of success by acting like jellyfish at the very moment the universe is calling on us to sink our shark teeth into the gourmet meal that has swum into our gaping mouths. 

If you are feeling weak, afraid, exhausted, confused, victimized or lethargic, envision your inner shark rising to the surface. Sharks know what they want, and go for it. They don’t wait for others to rescue them, or to throw fish crumbs their way. When the time is right, they attack. When you need to attack a problem, assert yourself, or pounce on an opportunity, let Shark out of the aquarium and into the open seas. Let it guide you to do what sharks do best... hunt, and eat!

Amy Beth Katz and Co-Guide Dr. Dave Montgomery at the Homer, Alaska Vision Quest

We are creating our 2013 Quest and "Loving To Heal" Workshops Schedule now... revisiting magical times on our Alaska quest!

Thanks to quester Keith H. for providing the wonderful photos! 

Press Release: The Lizard Thieves

New Book Release Click Here: "The Lizard Thieves: Love Poems" Steals the Hearts of Literature Lovers

Your Animals Dreams

Which animals are roaming wild on the vast velt of your imagination? Any sitings in dreams, or visions? 

I'd love to hear about them: Please join this site and post to start a conversation!

Please Review Amy's Book on Amazon!

Please read and review Amy Katz's new book of poems:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Lizard-Thieves-Love-Poems/dp/0615639917http://www.amazon.com/The-Lizard-Thieves-Love-Poems/dp/0615639917

Black Bear Here

It wasn't more than a couple hours after waking up in my primitive cabin on my first full day in Eagle River, Alaska, that three bears -- Mama and her two second-year cubs -- came sauntering by my window. The next two days I spied other bears on the trail and on the land, and wrote a poem. Yesterday I was editing it at Jitter's Cafe, when one of my vision quest co-guides called me to tell me about his recent questing experience on the East Coast. He shared that for the first time in his life, he had seen one of his "power animals" in the wild that had never visited him in the flesh: a black bear. I was so excited hearing his profound story, I forgot to mention that I was editing a poem at that very moment about a black bear. 

When questers return from their solo, it is the role of the guides to mirror their story back to them. Often that "mirroring" is a poetic or mythical reflection of the significance and transformational elements of their spiritual and material journeys. I love the synchronicity that a poem came to me that poignantly reflects my co-guides experience (and of course, my own) even before he told me his story. I hope this will inspire you, the reader, to pay attention to the wildness outside of you, and within! 

Black Bear Here

There is something about the crackling 

of branches, the sway of green, the parting 

of the grasses; the two dark triangles 

poking up from the sea of Devil’s Club 

like miniature shark fins synchronized in swim.

When she sashays onto the path, her black 

eyes meet mine, blue; the bruise between us heals.

Lightening strikes itself. In between the push and pull

of fear and love, from the cave emerges hope.

She’s only going about her day, like us.

I wonder if the chalky sound of shoes on rocks 

and the danger of our vicious possibilities 

thrills her into awareness, too? 

We only worship light because it leans 

up against the darkness.

We only cherish life when death is panting 

and rubbing up against our trembling thighs. 

We only belly laugh when the relief 

that nothing worse can happen rises up 

as phoenix from the ashes of our grief

into the revelation that we stalk the

fabled beast to encounter ourselves. 

Do bears chuckle like people and parrots? 

I have heard them cry 

when they think no one else is listening. 

Simple Beauty In My Garden

Photos by Amy Beth Katz c

Power Animal For July Lizard

http://paradisefoundsantabarbara.com/articles/power-animal-for-july-lizard-by-backyard-shaman-amy-katz-m-a-2/

From blazing hot days to cold, blusterous nights; parched, rainless deserts to breezy ocean beaches, there is one animal that survives in these extremes and adapts to rapacious changes of landscape and climate, thriving where few other creatures can exist. Meet Lizard.

Lizard is guardian of the Dreamtime, of sacred ceremony, of vision. He taught our indigenous ancestors how to survive without water for days on end, conquer loneliness in desolate places, leave behind the past for a chance at tomorrow and to dance with the sun.

Now, it is your turn to dance for a vision for your people; to go into the sweat lodge and surrender to your own soul and to the soul of the world;  to do push-ups on the ledge of your imagination.

Let Lizard be your guide to the underworld. Imitate him in your backyard. Follow him into your dreams at night, into your waking fantasies in the light, and pay close attention. Lizard has strong senses and perceives with great clarity: a forked tongue in many species allows them to pick up trails of scent and know the locale of friend and foe, danger and salvation, long before they cross each others’ paths, long before destiny has a chance to act. Lizard the symbol is freedom. Freedom to go where you want, be whom you want. Those who don’t know this are trapped like a Lizard in a pet store cage.

Isn’t it time to open the door? Let the wild ones show you the way!

Fear is a vast landscape, and for most of us, lasts longer than a reptile’s tail but evolution has been kind to the lizard, and to humanity. When a predator grabs him from behind, he can release the tail and escape; he may grow another back that is stronger and less vulnerable. People can do the same, metaphorically speaking, by letting go of that which has ahold of them. By shedding our past, our destructive relationships, habits and limiting thoughts, we have a real chance of regeneration. But, lizards can only release their tail once: one “get out of jail free” card. All God’s creatures need to choose wisely and know the difference between real danger and existential fear.

Lizard knows with her body. Her skin is thick, but she has heightened sensitivity. Many of her kind, like chameleons, can open their cells to the sun and change color at will, for purposes of camouflage, communication, and flirtation. How many tones and shades make up your technicolor dreamcoat? Maybe its time for you to show your true colors…

Amy's Power Animal of the Month Articles

AMY's POWER ANIMAL OF THE MONTH ARTICLES

ANNOUNCING: NEW POETRY BOOK BY AMY BETH KATZ, "THE LIZARD THIEVES"

The Lizard Thieves