When a dream is upon us it is difficult to do much else other than be in it. Unless there is an awareness within the dream that it is just that, a dream, in which case we can not only start to engage with it in more dynamic and conscious ways but we can also start to program it. Just like the hoop. When you first get your hoop on there's a whole lot of effort and focus on what you have to do to keep it going. But when you relax and release the mind a symbiotic relationship appears between the hoop and the body where one doesn't necessarily control the other but both show each other the way at which point the body develops the ability to channel. Tantric hooping? Bring it on. Then there's the DreamSpell - a 13 moon Mayan calendar cosmology that traces cycles of time drawing consciousness from the centre into multilayered spirals of perception about the self, life and waves of being. The story of creation becomes cosmic when wheels spin within wheels connecting galactic centres with our own, awakening a consciousness that allows co-creation of a dream which transcends the personal.
This past March at the Sacred Circularities hoop retreat in Bali I discovered a whole new way of life on so many levels. The timing of the retreat fit in well with the end of my first 8 week teaching term of the year offering a space for personal practice. What that practice appeared as was quite different to what I had expected it to be. At the moment there are so many amazing hoop retreats being held around the world that there really is no shortage of divine destinations to beam into where you can seriously get your hoop on and learn as much as possible from a broad selection of rokstar hoopers in a concentrated boiling pot of hot hooping action which feels a lot like a home coming. Such retreats are worth reflecting on for their outstanding good times and pure brilliance - Hoop Camp in Santa Cruz, Harbin Hoop Retreat in Northern California, the ongoing and epic Hoop Path journeys, Hoop Convergence in North Carolina, the UK Hoop Gathering, Spin Matsuri in Japan, Australia's first ever Hoopy Happening coming up in November of this year and a Hoop Dreaming visioned for 2012 in the Australian desert. The global hoop community is stepping up to the dream of expanding our hoop print as far and wide as possible. The Hooping Family Tree Project appeared recently online - WOW. So, leaving Burning Man aside which is a little easier to do when you don't live in California, it makes it quite the challenge to decide on where to sets one's sights when thinking about traveling in the hoop. Sacred Circularities struck me as yet another distinct dreaming of what it is to explore, expand and celebrate the hoop within community - it had a spiritual flavour to it which focused on the sacred using sound, geometry, yoga, energetics and essence as portals of discovery. Switched my galactic buttons on. It was also a little closer to home. I was sold.
It wasn't until I was struck down by the tropical heat and humidity on the very first day of the retreat that I realised why I was there. Head spinning, heart pounding, stomach churning... I realised in shock that I had to stop. Not in a Hoop Camp sit out a workshop to make room for the many more later kinda way. In a sit down, don't move, put your hoops away for a significant moment or two until the space opens to take the hooping beyond the hoop. It was time for a different kind of practice. The journey continued to provide several more amazing demonstrations of Spirit in full force. Not least the news of a dear friend's departure from the third dimension. What it is to grieve outside of a circle of grief. Refreshing actually. A powerful and quick release from one's own deeply imbedded pain and suffering triggered by the passing of others. As we hooped and discussed and stretched and danced and played and rested for several more days a new layer of life's story presented itself to be listened to and heard. Interestingly, this story is about time.
Time is a concept and a tool that we use for what? To make, to create, to express, plan, nurture, worry, wonder... In the Mayan Dreamspell focus is shifted from the 12:60 paradigm of Time is Money to the 13:20 Time is Art. In one system you have the mechanical clocking in and out that supports an economy of finance and mental domination; in the other you have a resonance of numbers that tunes into the harmonics of nature which in turn supports an economy of well-being, encouraging and allowing the mind to expand. The Story of Creation reveals itself for what it is rather than what we insist or resist it to be. We were fortunate enough to be gifted the Dreamspell stories by a Monkey Goddess in the land of those adorable ancestral creatures. As an avid astrologer looking for more always, this new layer of perception has amplified my experience of life. It takes it beyond the planetary influence, surfs along the electromagnetic waves, plugs into the quantum plasma and switches on the Galactic Source centring that we are all being invited to activate as 2012 rolls around the corner. The time is now. What and how do you wish to create?
Speaking of time, I've discovered a wonderful new technique for more vivid and memorable dreaming where I set my alarm 2-3 hours before I intend on getting out of bed so that my head is much lighter when I go back to sleep to watch the subconscious stories. I highly recommend it - it allows you to see what your mind REALLY thinks about life, if you can decode it.
So I returned to Sydney after Sacred Circularities feeling invigorated by an exciting new cosmic system to study but confronted by old ways of being that needed to be released for the full potential of the new level of learning to unfold. Hello transiting Saturn Uranus Jupiter Pluto T square sitting on my natal Moon Pluto Jupiter T square. In a hyper state of awareness of the 13th cosmic year of a 13 year cycle the wheel continued to turn at a speed and intensity that would make the best of us grab the rails in a mild to extreme state state of panic bordering on nauseating despair and full vertigo. It was like riding a tsunami in high heels as a tween that has no idea what it is to balance in such atrocious instruments of fashion but desperately wants to because thats what our culture and conditioning tells us to do. Not my style. Hit the eject button. Time to step outside of the circle as the second term of the year came to a close. The lesson points in a lot of ways to an ability to become less involved to simply observe. When you step on the spiral highway there's just no turning back and when the benchmark is set, well its a step up or step out kind of situation. Sometimes that means fearlessly rejecting it all simply to find out what truly is in a state of complete acceptance and the willingness to allow life to effortlessly be.
Enter Byron Bay - Australia's portal of all things galactic and beyond. The town itself is an odd representation of the rampant unfoldment of culture throughout time and space but the essence of Byron exists beyond the walls of the main drag. For me it's in the hills and the people. I drove far and wide to lands I have lived and danced in before and those that are new to the journey. Meeting friends over fires, dancing to the beat of a drum, sitting in stillness by the full moon, watching the ocean play out its own story, connecting with a community of people interested in conscious community which necessarily means making time for each other in meaningful spaces. Sitting in the temple. Learning, hooping a little, activating a lot, releasing, realising, discovering, watching more and more of the great mystery unfold. When you allow Spirit to guide you decisions are made and delivered with clarity. I blew out of town with a kitty kat in a cage, a new bag of life's tricks and beamed back into the big smoke for another term of the spin.
I've lost track of the weeks, maybe three or four more left, I am in it and enjoying being fully immersed. In October it all changes again as I am guided back to Bali hoops and wheels in tow. This time for longer. If Time is Art then more time must be made to create without distraction. This life we live is precious and must be shape-shifted accordingly. The dream is to live like there is no tomorrow as there truly isn't in the paradigm of the now. The dream is to create something so beautiful that you can't take your eyes from it. It captivates and enthralls, leaving you little else to do but be of service and allow it to lead you where you must be. It is divinely inspired and crafted. Resistance is futile.
As potentially tormenting as it was not to do the Californian hoop camp circuit, not to mention Spin Matsuri in Japan this year the decision feels like it was made for me by an overriding need to do something different or to have the difference done to and through me by forces beyond my control. When you clear and create space for something fresh and new the breeze blows in and there it is - right in front of you staring you in the face. Often in situations like this you have absolutely no idea of what lies ahead as it is an invocation of the void. This is the fun part.
And then... there's Hoopy Time!
More pix AND Watch the video
Create the dream you want to live and discover that you are living the dream.
So where this year leads is anyone's guess... Sacred Circularities is gathering again in Peru in November and South America is calling on many levels. These things seem now to only become apparent in feelings, signs and affirmations rather than thoughts. In the dreaming all will be revealed as it is to be shown and life will continue to be the mirage of reality that it is. Everything feels perfectly right as it is. Even if it does feel WEIRD... but *that* I put down to the planets. Now that's another story!
