Week 4--in which we notice what happens when we change what we are noticing

Beautiful Ones,

What a week we have lived through! What was, is no more. Who we thought we were, is dissolving faster than salt in water. We who care are facing some tough choices.

One option is to crawl back under the covers. And that is not a bad choice. Right now, rest, silence, sleep, and warmth are necessary balms. But eventually we have to get up.

And when we do, when we look around, when we are willing to witness the suffering, when we are willing to feel our own fear and dread, we have the opportunity to do something we might not have done before.

We can begin to notice what we are noticing.
And how the very act of noticing changes what we notice.

Please know that I am not talking about the false spiritual narrative that you, too, can be happy just like your always-happy spiritual gurus, if you will just elevate your emotions. Don’t look at the suffering. Don’t feel anger or pain. Seek bliss!

When I interviewed Andrew Harvey on my radio show in 2017 during the current president’s first time in office, Andrew blew that notion out of the water when he practically shouted: “You’ll be sitting on your meditation cushion when they come for you!”

Gosh, that feels prescient, doesn’t it.

Well, then, what do we do when the barbarians are at the gate?

When our bodies and our hearts are telling us everything is not OK. We know that this isn’t something that will disappear if we just look away.

It’s a tough question. Probably one that’s keeping us all curled up under the covers.

But I think I’ve stumbled upon an answer. An answer that may surprise you. It certainly surprised me.

It happened in the course of months of multi-disciplinary research for the next ART intensive on Divination, coming in March. Cathy Stevens Pratt—my partner in creating the intensives and quite the oracle herself—and I got together for hours on end, days on end, weeks on end trying to get our hands around what divination really is and how to help people experience it for themselves.

Quickly, we realized there is no single reliable source for guidance on oracular divination.

So we widened our search, and began to find information from what appear at first to be very disparate disciplines. Here are a few areas we’ve been exploring:

• phenomenon of future memory
• what happens during near death experiences
• discoveries at the Oracle of Delphi temple
• crazy nature of quantum entanglement
• presence of the past in morphic fields
• oracles hiding in plain sight in your natal chart
• ancient mystery of the omphalos—the navel of the world
• and so much more

One day, Cathy stopped me mid-sentence, held up a tiny book, and said, “This explains everything.”

Well, that got my attention. She held up:

Ways of Attending: How Our Divided Brain Constructs the World by Iain McGilchrist

Cathy was right. This small book explains everything. Not just Divination. Ways of Attending explains everything we’re doing in all the ART intensives, and it totally explains what’s happening right now in our world. When you look at the world we have created, you are seeing the product of attention—distorted, unbalanced attention.

Let me try to explain.

I’m sure you’ve seen colorful images of the left and right hemispheres of the brain. The pictures typically demonstrate that the left hemisphere is about language and logic and the right is about art and music.

But it’s a bit more complex and way more interesting than that. Listen to Dr McGilchrist:

“The brain has to attend to the world in two completely different ways, and in so doing brings two different worlds into being.”

What are those two different worlds?

Right hemisphere experiences the world as:

• whole, alive, complex, unique, forever in flux
• a net of interdependencies in which we are deeply connected

Left hemisphere sees the world as:

• inert, mechanical, lifeless
• a series of fragmented entities that can be grouped into classes

Why does this matter?

“The kind of attention we bring to bear on the world actually alters the nature of the world we attend to.”

So, simply attending, looking, noticing produces the world we live in.

Well, I think we can see that the world we are living in is what McGilchrist calls “the triumph of the left hemisphere” and it’s not a pretty picture:

• everything and everyone is utilitarian, something to be used
• knowledge gained through experience is meaningless, even suspect
• exploitation over cooperation
• loss of any sense of uniqueness
• everything is a matter of either/or, no nuance or complexity
• conformity, obedience, inflexibility

Further, he writes,

“The left hemisphere cannot trust and is prone to paranoia…. Government will become obsessed with issues of security above all else, and to seek total control.”

And, the last nail in the coffin:

"The one emotion that is robustly demonstrated to be more associated with the left hemisphere is anger."

Well, even from these few points, I think it’s painfully obvious that we are living in a world that has been created by lopsided left-dominant brains.

So what does that mean for those of us who treasure right brain values of harmony, cohesion, interconnection, creativity, wholeness, intuition, insight, deep thinking, and explorations into the mystical realms?

Well, as I pondered that, three things happened.

1. First, I yelped with joy when I got to the end of McGilchrist’s book and read:

“I look at the evolution of Western culture, beginning in the ancient world with the extraordinary efflorescence of culture in sixth-century Athens, when it seems to me, the two hemispheres worked in harmony as never before or since…”

That felt like confirmation that we’re on the right path uncovering the beautiful truths about the Oracle of Delphi.

2. Second, in deep soul writing I was musing over how we’ll be strengthening and expanding all the intuitive wise qualities of our right hemispheres in ART 5 on Divination.

Divination is not, and could never be, a result of, or tool of, the left linear brain that can only see parts not wholeness.

But as I wrote about that, I had a big AHA, a classic right brain burst of insight.

I suddenly realized that everything we do in all the ART intensives expands our right brain mystical capabilities.

Consider:

• In ART 1, we activate our subtle senses and realize the world is alive and communicating
• In ART 2, we crisscross the thresholds between worlds by dropping out of conscious mind (left) into liminal space (right)
• In ART 3, we free prayer from the tiny box religion stuffed it in, and fell in love with the magical power, beauty, and joy of real prayer
• In ART 4, we meet the three faces of the Magdalen who invites us to remember the original sacrament of anointing

As I looked at the little chart I was drawing, I realized that without knowing it, Cathy and I have created a whole university devoted to expanding the powers of the right hemisphere of our brains. And that brought tears to my eyes.

3. And then the third thing happened. And it demonstrated so sweetly that attending to love and joy and hope and connection really does change the world.

Last Saturday, my son Jerry tied a blue box to Fritos’ harness. Fritos is a slightly famous Shiba Inu rescue who Jerry and his sweetheart Maura have slowly restored to health.

I think you can guess what was in the box!

And just like that love and joy flooded into my heart.

And my world started to look different. Sweeter. Kinder. More loving. And full of hope.

If you're under the covers right now trying to hide from the barbarians, may I suggest a touch of joy. Maybe it's a loving conversation, maybe it's poetry or literature or music or art. Maybe it's a quiet walk in the park. Maybe it's stroking your own rescue's head. Whatever it is, wherever it is, may you find something to attend to that brings you joy.

The world needs us--the ones who find joy.

to transforming our world from brittle battlefield into joy-filled holy ground, 

Janet

PS #1:

Next Sunday I will open registration for ART 5 on Divination to all my subscribers. This week, members of the previous ART intensives are being invited.

If you'd like to expand your own right brain mystical abilities, the first four ART intensives are on sale through the end of February.

Click on the link, select On Demand, put any intensives you wish in your cart, and enter coupon code ARTSALE to receive an additional 22% off the already reduced OnDemand registration fee.

Then play with how your right brain changes your world until we gather for Divination.

Intensives On Sale 

PS #2:

Fritos has the cutest Instagram page. Monsieur Fritos. He will fill your heart with joy.

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