Today I begin anew.
Over the last week or so, I found that message – Begin Anew – arising within and around me more than once.
First it simply arose in my awareness. Begin anew.
Then, as I was walking, I noticed a bumper sticker on a car that passed: Begin Anew.
Amazing, right?
Having a more focused Muse Walk on Friday (“Walking the Muse” as I call it), once again it arose clearly in my awareness.
Today I begin anew.
Yesterday morning, as I sat in my morning practice that bridges Dreamtime with waking into the new day, I was moved to pull a book from my bookshelf and opened it to the first chapter.
Can you guess what the title of the first chapter was?

Yes, you guessed right: Begin Anew.
After I followed the intuitive nudge to do two very specific energy shifting practices, I noticed that I felt as if a spell popped, as if a ‘glamour’ had suddenly been dissolved.
That happens on occasion.
We live in a world and culture in which fear-stirring glamours (a.k.a. ‘spells’) are woven and rippled regularly out into the collective mind.
We could consider this a type of ‘energy-psychic pollution‘ in the shared field — ala the Morphic (or Morphogenic) Fields posited by Rupert Sheldrake’s work and known to more than a few sages, mystics, and shamanic adepts over millennia.
Those glamours can feel so familiar, or they leave us with a hazed-over sense of not-quite-clarity, that we can’t quite see through the spell-haze to recognize that we’ve been ensorceled.
In the old stories, and the new stories sharing timeless myths — like Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings and many others — there are always themes of sorcerers who weave glamours and cast spells to confuse or distract or divert the heroine or hero and her or his allies.
Think of The Great Eye of Sauron in Lord of the Rings — Tolkien gave a clear example of that force and its weavers at work.

Yet there are times that, through and with Grace, and perhaps greatly helped by Allies and practices that fortify our receptivity and awareness, the spell pops, the glamour-haze lifts, and we feel and see and hear with the ‘Heart Illuminated’.
Today I begin anew.
It’s a message (and intention or invocation) that’s connected to present-moment awareness and the ‘spacious mind’ that I wrote of recently — the ‘Now’ and the ‘spacious mind’ in and through which we access intuitive guidance, empathy, compassion, creativity, creative thinking, and a much clearer recognition of the wholeness that we are and in which we are.
Perhaps it’s similar to what, in Buddhism, is called the Beginner’s Mind, and in the Jesus teachings is called ‘becoming as a child again’.
I’d guess we’d find it in other timeless wisdom traditions, too.
‘Today I begin anew’ is a reminder that in each moment — Now — we can begin anew, with a shift in perception (and thus energy) and focus that is in greater harmony with renewal and ‘new greening’.
It has a strong connection with the Narrow Mind – Spacious Mind and Decolonizing the Imagination & Soul (and related) themes I’ve written recently about.
We have the possibility to see through the haze-spell that passes for ‘unalterable reality’ and see it for what it is.
Setting Down the Great Sack of Boulders
Often though, if my own experience is any guide, influenced by internalized conditioning and the psychic-soup spell-haze, we drag along an increasingly heavy sack of boulders — like Sysyphus of myth, forever pushing the gigantic boulders up the mountainside.

The great sack o’ boulders includes the guilt boulders, the shame boulders, the blame boulders, the grief boulders, the regret boulders, the trauma boulders, the past lauds and accomplishment boulders, the self-righteousness boulders, the problem boulders, the drama boulders, and the heaviest boulders of all: the “I’m supposed to” and the “woulda coulda shoulda” (didn’t) boulders.
Needless to say — and we know this, because we’ve likely done it — that boulder-sack gets pretty freakin’ heavy, and carrying it steals more and more energy and becomes more and more fatiguing and diminishing.
Today I begin anew.
In this moment I set down the big-ass bag of boulders that have long outlived their usefulness, and release the false belief that there’s some holy, rockin’ value in the punishment and penance of perpetually dragging it.
Then I breathe back that energy and power I gave to it, and I begin anew, re-empowered and in alignment with the All that Is.

Stir and repeat as needed. Again and again. It’s hard at first, and sometimes it’s hard regardless, but it gets easier, and more effective, with practice.
A renewal of heart and mind. In any moment. Now.
Today, in this moment, I begin anew.
An enlivening experiment.
Why not join me?
Big Love,
Jamie
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September 19, 2016 at 11:53 pm
Reblogged this on Laura Bruno's Blog and commented:
One of my most powerfully insightful and healing moments occurred in 2002 right after I had totally lost a personal injury lawsuit for my brain injury — a lawsuit I had not begun, but which at the time seemed like my only way to support myself as I remained almost totally unable to work enough to support myself. As a consolation, a friend flew me from Seattle down to Northern California and we stopped at a bookstore in Santa Cruz.
I could not read more than five minutes without migraines at that time, but I opened a book to a page suggesting I imagine myself as having complete amnesia. In that moment, I forgot about the law suit, the injury, the witch hunts from workers comp, discouraging comments from doctors, family and friends. I forgot about lifelong programming and manipulation, and I allowed myself to forget about all my former plans for life. In that moment, I was free.
As we walked down the street, people kept staring at me and smiling, telling me I was glowing. I could read the menu at the restaurant with no problems, and I was able to eat foods to which I normally had allergic reactions. I did not manage to maintain the total amnesia and spontaneous healing, but I never forgot the feeling. Eventually, I restructured my life so that it matches much closer to the amnesiac me. There is great power when we “begin anew.” Thank you, Jamie, for this message, which is much needed by many right now — individually and collectively.
September 20, 2016 at 2:04 pm
This is such a great story and example, Laura. The wise and True guidance that bubbles through the ego’s cracks. I smiled at the “imagine you have amnesia” guidance … such a perfect experiment. And it’s wild wild wild, isn’t it, how when you’re in a certain embodied presence and frequency that others notice it like that? Thanks for sharing this story from your journey, and for reblogging the musing from Sophia’s Children. xo and Big Love, Jamie
September 21, 2016 at 12:14 am
Thanks and love, Jamie! xo
September 20, 2016 at 10:42 am
Reblogged this on Illuminations Now!!.
September 20, 2016 at 2:08 pm
Thank you for reblogging this musing from Sophia’s Children, EvaMaria and David! I appreciate it greatly. Blessings to you, Jamie
September 20, 2016 at 1:39 pm
Perfect theme for me right now, thank you! I had a moment yesterday after listening to a podcast where the host said something like: what look like memories could have been implanted while we were asleep. And I thought “Dang he’s right”. When I allowed that thought to filter through me… that I had no memories that were truly mine, such a feeling of happiness and joy came over me and I could not stop smiling.
September 20, 2016 at 2:12 pm
Excellent, Ann. That’s what I’d call an eye-opening bit of intel. Whoa, right? A good sip of the Wakeup Juice. Dang, he *was* right! 🙂 (See Laura B’s story she shares in her preface to reblogging this post … should be here in the comments … another good one.) The smiling and light-heartedness are big clues, don’t you sense? Thanks for sharing this bit of intel, too. Love, Jamie
September 23, 2016 at 8:56 am
Lovely piece of writing, Jamie.
September 23, 2016 at 3:09 pm
Thank you, Mike. I appreciate that you found it lovely! 🙂
September 20, 2016 at 2:05 pm
Thank you for reblogging this musing, Thomas, from Laura’s blog (with her excellent story intro). ~ Jamie