ADDICTION ALCHEMY FIELD GUIDE:
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You have been asking and we have been listening! So many of you are reaching out
to learn about the Universal Medicine Wheel for Soul Recovery, and how you can have these gatherings in your
own communities. The Addiction Alchemy Field Guide Workbook will help you assemble your tribal
community for healing, empowerment and adventure!
The Workbook will give
you easy to follow steps to facilitate your own Addiction Alchemy Inner Journey
Universal Medicine Wheel gatherings.
The Addiction Alchemy Field Guide Manual, Addiction Alchemy Sacred Art
Compendium, and Addiction Alchemy Affirmation Oracle are coming in 2020.
"We shall not cease from exploration. And the end of all our
exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the
first time." -- T.S. Eliot
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INTRODUCTION The
naming of a clan is a very sacred process. It is not dictated by the
creativity alone of the facilitator, but is rather more of a download of information that best represents the existing energy
of the group as a whole. Through intuition, meditation, inspiration,
imagination, observation and deep listening the clan is named, not by a
human, but through a human by the unseen energy source that connects us
all one to another.
We are but reflections of one another, until we are
reflecting only what is inside of our heart of hearts from our purest
essence. And we will then each be one to another the most persistent of
reminders of the greatness that lies within each of us. For it is then that we are
projecting the most essential part of our highest and finest selves
from the very core of our being. And so it is wise to pay attention to
everything and everyone that comes into your space. Let no blessing go unnoticed and no message go
unheard. Be not fooled by the wrapping paper on the gift or the cover on
the book.
And so with this, we have the
naming of this Addiction Alchemy tribe on AUGUST 21, 2011:
The Pink
Flamingo
Clan
ENERGIES SACRED ARTS + CREATIVE
PROCESS + COLOR THERAPY + SYMBOLOGY & IMAGERY
+ BOLD + PERSPECTIVE +
CONCEPTUALIZATION & FORMULATION + INVENTION + STORY +
IMAGINATION + PRODUCTION
PINK
FLAMINGO
POWER
The Pink Flamingo is quite the totem for a sacred medicine wheel
journey. Let's just say
that I asked my guides for lots of signs and messages to help me bring
this energy forward. And let me say that my obedience and patience with
this process has paid off. For what has been revealed to me through the
power of this 30 million year old bird is a hint at the creationary
force within each of us as we step into our true power as artists of
life. What an amazing journey this will be! Already the volume on the
creativity has been tuned in and turned up.
“Each moment of our
life, we either invoke or destroy our dreams.” -Stuart Wilde
To be honest, the Pink Flamingo is
already such a prevalent symbol here for the Florida lifestyle, that in
the beginning I could barely take
it seriously. Everywhere you look there are symbols and images of pink
flamingos. But then when I really started to work with the energy I
realized that there is a powerful and deeply moving message here, a
beautiful, glowing force to be reckoned with that we will be delicately
and deliciously excavating right from our own souls. And there is most
definitely a very good reason she keeps showing up over and over again,
from the famous Florida Lottery logo to the infamous plastic yard birds. For Pink Flamingo
has quite a bit to do with two enigmas in life: the creative process and coyote medicine.
“There is something
deep within us that responds to those who level with us, who don’t
suggest or compromise for us.” -Susan Scott
Coyote medicine, for those who do
not know, is the great hall of mirrors, that shows us things about
ourselves, by giving us experiences within our relationships and our
environment, that we cannot see so easily our selves. Isn't it
interesting that the only face in the whole wide world that you cannot
look upon with your own two eyes IS YOUR OWN (that is, without a
mirror)? There are verses in the Bible about men not being able to look
at the face of God and live. What this means to me is that we must bring
our divinity forward in our life through indirect means and "die" to our
own ego in order to allow the true expression of our soul, our super
consciousness. Because what we will create will be a sight to behold!
“Everyone has
talent. What is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark
place where it leads.” - Erica Jong
By the same token, if we try to
deny this process and fail to peer into the looking glass, what we
resist will most undoubtedly persist. Messages will get through, one way
or another. Apparently Flamingo has an important message to deliver,
considering the plastic to natural variety weighs in at 7 to 1! Seems
we've brought this enigmatic symbol to the forefront of the collective
and she's crossing the boundary between nature and art in a most
provocative way, causing us to put words like "fine" into art, and "cliche"
or "kitsch" into what becomes common. Definitely something to think
about, but not for too long!
“Anxiety is the
dizziness of freedom.” -Soren Kierkegaard
Art and socially acceptable need
not live in the same sentence. We reveal who we are by what we create
and we need to become comfortable enough with who we are to really let
our soul sing! This journey is going to give us the safe container for
the expression of that wild child within who may have been stifled and
stuffed in the closet.
“The soul should
always stand ajar, ready to welcome the ecstatic experience.” - Emily
Dickinson
Pink Flamingo's power is in the
safety of the tribal community (some flocks number in the tens of
thousands!), working together with your "flock" to bring forward
something pretty, daring, colorful, soulful, simple and able to be
replicated. Another power of Pink Flamingo is that she reveals to us out true nature in a bold, unmistakable way and she won't stop until
we get the message! Her love of ritual gives us the gift of prolific
production, a formulaic approach, and order to the chaos of creation,
not to mention mass appeal.
“I never perfected an
invention that I did not think about in terms of the service it might
give others… I find out what the world needs, then I proceed to invent”
– Thomas Edison
Pink Flamingo teaches us that what
we put into our heart influences our "colors", the colors of our soul,
and the colors of our expression. Just as she wades in the muddy shoals
and stands at the edgewaters of the shoreline because that's where the
tasty shrimp are, she also stands at the shoreline of our soul because that's
where our real nourishment lives!
So get ready to be tickled pink,
as we embark on this truly incredible adventure into the wonderland of
your magically, creatively expressive self!
PINK
FLAMINGO
MESSAGE
Flamingo in dreams, represents
your sense of community and cooperation. It also indicates new
experiences or situations. Alternatively, it may mean being overly
concerned with your physical appearance (Flamingo's spend twice as much
time preening as most other birds. - of course they do. It takes alot of
work to be THAT fabulous, dahling!) But seriously, because of her
extensive preening she is just that much more water tight and can
actually float instead of having to work so hard to swim!
Flamingo teaches how to maintain balance and movement through the
emotions. She aids in intuitive filtering and spiritual discernment.
Flamingo helps in bringing color, play, fun and vivacity into ones life
along with increasing community activities. Is it time to bring new
life; concepts, ideas, thoughts or people? Is it time to work alone or
with groups? Flamingo will show how to maneuver slowly and gracefully
with care.
Play, of course, isn't all fun and games; it can also combine with
sophisticated training to produce works of improvisational genius.
Musician/researcher Dr. Charles Limb found that for jazz musicians, the
dorsolateral prefrontal cortex -- the area linked to planned actions and
self-censoring -- shows a slowdown in activity during improvisation.
Limb says this indicates the musician is ''shutting down impulses that
might impede the flow of novel ideas," leaving a clear field for
spontaneity underpinned by years of practice. Could this be the
psycho-social reason why Flamingo's often sleep and stand perfectly
balanced on one leg or the other?
Last, but not least we must
address the dreaded association that Pink Flamingo has with what is
known as kitsch. To some, kitsch is the death knell of good taste. To
others kitsch is a deeply rooted essential basic human need like
strawberry ice-cream, knock-knock jokes or pop music.
Kitsch isn't just a term used for
bad art, in fact it can be quite attractive, hence what leads us to the
real beef we have with it. For something to be kitschy, there is an
element of cliché
and commonality that puts us in full frontal contact with our own
personal wrestle with originality, both our fear of standing out and our
need to fit in.
If words like passé
and vulgar come to mind when you think of kitsch, think again. Innocent,
visually uneducated children love kitsch. Their judgment of what's nice
and what's not is as sincere as their words telling grandma she has a
moustache. They want to learn and enjoy life to the fullest. They love
puppies and theme parks. They are instinctively drawn to kitsch. It
visually stimulates them.
Some say we need kitsch to
survive. Without kitsch we would never appreciate antiquities, rarities,
sophistication
and fine art, as it provides the necessary contrast. As we mature and
our tastes become more complex, perhaps the place for kitsch should
always remain to put us back in touch with that simple, more innocent
part of ourselves that has an honest response to something that makes us
feel.
PINK
FLAMINGO SAYS...
CREATE LIKE CRAZY!
It's time to step into my parlor and let's have a little chat. Now if
what I just said didn't throw you off a bit, you're probably in the
right place! Because you and I both know that Pink Flamingo's don't live
in parlors, nor living rooms and they certainly don't "chat" - not in
the physical realm anyway. So if you're comfortable in wonderland,
you've come to the right place. Because here in my world, Pink Flamingo
says, " Everything talks!"
“Security is mostly a
superstition. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright
exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.” - Helen Keller
Walk with me as I help you take
inspiration from the "natural world" and make it your own. Sacred art is
the stuff that comes out of your soul, unedited for human consumption.
It's up to you how you then present that art to the world. It's all
about the container for the wildness and the wilderness within you that
brings out your true self or parts there of.
“I don’t wait for
moods. You accomplish nothing if you do that. Your mind must know it has
got to get down to work.” -Pearl S. Buck
Far better to have a canvas filled
with ink splatters, glitter and duct tape, than a mind filled with the
mental equivalent. Just as useful to have a plastic pink flamingo
reminding you just how magical nature is, than "Salvdor Dali" giving you
a peek into other dimensions. The truth is Art reminds us of ALL THAT WE
ARE, all that we can be, what we really do need and just how vast the
void of creation truly is! Art re-members us and helps us to integrate
all our pieces and discover some new ones.
“I am not afraid…I
was born to do this.” - Joan of Arc
The thing that will truly help you
turn the corner with your art is my special Pink Flamingo message to
you, "It's all in the arrangement." You can go crazy with your designs,
but if you don't "make something useful" the anxiety can become
overwhelming. So make something we shall!
“Far better to live
your own path imperfectly than to live another’s perfectly.” -Bhagavad
Gita
If you think you don't have the
ability to create art, then think again. Everyone is an artist, because
everyone has a soul. Art comes from your soul. So if you say you are not
an artist, you've only maybe been a little afraid of the dark, the void
of creation. But with the power of the flock, you'll easily overcome any
fears or resistance because this is going to be one big PARTY, and
expression of the divine human within us all...a play on shadow and
light...a reveling in the glory of the manifested world.
“I thought how
unpleasant it is to be locked out; and I thought how it is worse,
perhaps, to be locked in.”
-Virginia Woolf
It's time to play, to lighten up,
to experience more joy and delight. Pink Flamingo says, "Let's go,
love. I'll take you there!"
“Come to the edge, she said. They said: We are
afraid.
Come to the edge, she said. They came.
She pushed them and they flew.”
~ Guillaume Apollinaire
PINK FLAMINGO
AFFIRMATIONS
I create from the depths of my soul.
I express myself freely in my creations.
I edit my productions, and flow my art.
I am free from critical judgment.
I give myself permission to play as I create.
I create within sacred space.
I purify my relationship with money.
I bless money and respect the power of abundance.
I ignite the desire to receive in order to share my art.
I release inhibitions on my artistic expression.
I honor my perfectionism as a call to excellence.
I honor mistakes as hidden intention.
I move with my mistakes and use them as guidance from my soul.
I am free to follow my heart's desires.
I am confident enough to enter the void of creation.
I trust that the medicine wheel will lead me to my greatness.
I reveal the glory of my soul in my creations.
My scars, wounds and shortcomings provide guidance.
Gifts reside in what I think I cannot do.
I consider the use of limitations in creation.
I look at obstacles as messages.
I am excited to create my life.
I create my entire life as a work of art.
My life is my magnum opus.
I live in grace, beauty, abundance and divinity.
I invoke the creative muse within.
I am in conscious contact with the whimsical, delicate, frivolous and
unreasonable sides of myself.
I give the parts of myself, which I have denied, expression through my
art.
It is safe, fun and enjoyable to create.
My art delights, moves and enriches the lives of others.
My joy brings joy to the world.
I find my creative voice and express it to the world.
I am that, I am.