Archive for June, 2008

“New Age” spirituality and the Age of Aquarius reconsidered

Posted by Soul's Code on 30 Jun 2008 | Tagged as: Love & Relationships (families included), Everyone's A Guru, Female Mystics, Sacred Days

GUEST COLUMN: ELAINE MURRAY

New Age Spirituality is all about getting back your power. Not that you ever lost it . . . sometimes you gave it away, misplaced it — or forgot you had power in the first place.

And why does the term New Age […]

Kudos to our PEAK EXPERIENCE Photo Contest Winner - Michael Hampson

Posted by Soul's Code on 30 Jun 2008 | Tagged as: Peak Experiences, Confessions, Soul's Code bulletins


Congratulations to Michael Hampson, whose photo, “The Kiss,” won the first Soul’s Code Show us your Peak Experience photo contest. As Michael explains, “This is Drew and Katie at a benefit I organized. The band had just […]

What is a mystic?

Posted by Soul's Code on 24 Jun 2008 | Tagged as: TEACHERS WE TRACK, Everyone's A Guru, Female Mystics, Rites & Role models, Psych 101, Mind-Body toolkit

From a hero’s journey to a great awakening, there are 4 things that spiritual masters like Jesus, Lao-tse and Gandhi share in common

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GUEST COLUMN: RONDA LARUE — More and more people have been asking me lately, “What do you mean by the word mystic?” There’s a lot of confused […]

God is in the Details: Mysticism for the Cosmically Clueless

Posted by Soul's Code on 23 Jun 2008 | Tagged as: TEACHERS WE TRACK, Everyone's A Guru, Rites & Role models, Confessions, Soul's Code Canon & reviews

GUEST COLUMN: AMY LEASK

I’ll admit that spiritually speaking, I’m still groping my way through the universe. My soul may have been around the block a few times, but with respect to its understanding of the how and what and why of my existence . . . it still has […]

YOGA 101: Why Every Breath You Take In, Can Help You Let Go

Posted by Soul's Code on 20 Jun 2008 | Tagged as: Mind-Body toolkit, Yoga

GUEST COLUMN: HEATHER GREAVES

Yoga, like success, is an inside job. Yoga teaches us to journey inside and become an observer, showing us how to be relaxed yet alert, and through yoga we practice the art of letting go.

My FIVE STAGES of Dog GRIEF

Posted by Soul's Code on 18 Jun 2008 | Tagged as: Everyone's A Guru, Confessions, Loss & Grieving

sckato.jpgGUEST COLUMN: BEVERLEY WOOD

In all of my dog-owning years (almost 53 years of them), I have never had to make the heart-wrenching decision to put one down. Until now.

I’ve almost always had a dog (Sun in Sagittarius) but they’ve either died in an accident, died […]

A female mystic shares her prescription for feeling great

Posted by Soul's Code on 13 Jun 2008 | Tagged as: Everyone's A Guru, Prescriptions to Problems, Female Mystics, Rites & Role models, Mind-Body toolkit

Pamela Wilson asks: When you worry, or feel fear, can you say *this* to the anxious voice in your head? “You are welcome here!”

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BEING THERE: PAUL KAIHLA — Pamela Wilson has many moving parts — part poet, part Gestalt Therapist and part enchantress, in the sense that she […]

BARACK OBAMA’s astrology chart: “Grace in a Cracked Vessel”

Posted by Soul's Code on 11 Jun 2008 | Tagged as: Presidential candidates + other Pols, Mind-Body toolkit, Astrology

HUNTER REYNOLDS, an astrologer based at California’s celebrated, Harbin Hot Springs, does a reading of the Democratic nominee for president

Choosing a president is embarrassingly similar to courting a mate. In the initial stages, the temptation is to disqualify, or idealize. […]

PRAYER WALL: California wildfires close Esalen Institute, and Big Sur’s Highway 1

Posted by Soul's Code on 10 Jun 2008 | Tagged as: Mystical destinations, PRAYER WALL

The Esalen Institute is where legends like Joseph Campbell, Abraham Maslow and Fritz Perls did some of their seminal work.

It’s one reason we call Esalen “the cradle of West Coast civilization” in the Soul’s Code slideshow, The 10 Best Spiritual Resorts.

We ranked Esalen No. 2 […]

Why OJAI, CA has more spiritual retreats per capita than anywhere in the world

Posted by Soul's Code on 09 Jun 2008 | Tagged as: TEACHERS WE TRACK, Mystical destinations, Rites & Role models, Mind-Body toolkit

dream-bed.jpgOjai, CA is to spirituality what Silicon Valley is to technology. Due east and a 40-minute hop inland from Santa Barbara, Ojai has more mind-body spas per capita than anywhere else in the U.S. – probably, the world.

How does Ojai pull that kind of rank? For one […]

What is TANTRA? (Hint: not the Kama Sutra)

Posted by Soul's Code on 09 Jun 2008 | Tagged as: Peak Experiences, Rites & Role models, Mind-Body toolkit, Sex & Spirituality

happy2.jpgGUEST COLUMN: PAMM

After years of study, practice and observation, I decided that in one way Tantra is like Christianity. There are over 1,700 flavors (sects) of Christianity with a huge diversity of opinions, doctrines, practices, etc. The same is true with Tantra.

For instance, the Dalai Lama […]

In relationships, besides love, here is the one necessary trait you need to make it last

Posted by Soul's Code on 09 Jun 2008 | Tagged as: Love & Relationships (families included), Everyone's A Guru, Rites & Role models, Mind-Body toolkit

vicki-w.JPG GUEST COLUMN: VICKI WOODYARD

Vicki is a spiritual teacher and writer who lives in Atlanta, GA

Besides love, what one trait have you noticed in couples that have maintained a successful relationship for many years?

The question in the headline is a common one on dating […]

A spiritual seeker experiences a strip club

Posted by Soul's Code on 09 Jun 2008 | Tagged as: Everyone's A Guru, Addiction, Sex & Spirituality, Astrology, Journeys

hunter-reynolds.jpgGUEST POEM: HUNTER REYNOLDS

Hunter is an astrologer whose practice is based at the California spiritual retreat, Harbin Hot Springs

Here at this strip club,
where the seductive maidens of phenomena
undulate on the lap . . .

Madonna, Guy Ritchie and Kabbalah: a marriage on the rocks, divorce-talk over religion

Posted by Soul's Code on 08 Jun 2008 | Tagged as: Love & Relationships (families included), Celebrity Seekers

News that Madonna retained Paul McCartney’s divorce attorney has now stoked revelations that her marriage to film director Guy Ritchie (left) is on the rocks because they’ve parted paths in their spiritual practice.

Forgive us for thinking that a spiritual path was all about bringing people […]

The shock of George Carlin’s death, Tim Russert’s . . . Fear of death, and Baghdad

Posted by Soul's Code on 07 Jun 2008 | Tagged as: Sacred Days, Loss & Grieving, PRAYER WALL

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The mind that is so sure of itself and who it thinks we are — and who others are — goes into shock at the thought of its own extinction. It’s terrified by that moment when it goes from “On” — to forever, .

It’s most shocking […]

My own private INTO THE WILD: Does nature spawn spirituality?

Posted by Soul's Code on 06 Jun 2008 | Tagged as: Peak Experiences, Mystical destinations, Confessions, Mind-Body toolkit, Journeys

smadar-de-lange.jpgBEING THERE: SMADAR DE LANGE

Smadar de Lange is a psychologist and healer who is tenting-it in California’s coastal ranges, near the spot where Robert Louis Stevenson honeymooned

Can you escape from society? Does being a hermit have a transcendental value? Does nature […]

PRAYER WALL: “A Pain No One Can Bear to Live With”

Posted by Soul's Code on 06 Jun 2008 | Tagged as: The Pain Body, Mind-Body toolkit, Loss & Grieving, PRAYER WALL

A house in a small town in Wisconsin where a mass-murder took place last October is being demolished by the owner, local clergy and government.

Soul’s Code contributor Cyndi Ingle asked in a recent essay on peak experiences, Do you need a building […]

PRAYER WALL: to Robert Kennedy’s family and an America lonesome for her heroes

Posted by Soul's Code on 05 Jun 2008 | Tagged as: Presidential candidates + other Pols, PRAYER WALL

It was 40 years ago today in the late, great 1968 that Robert Kennedy was martyred by Sirhan Sirhan at LA’s Ambassador Hotel (the venue was demolished in 2005). The man with the unconscious gun was a Palestinian born in Jerusalem who was initially sentenced to […]

“From my Creative Heart to Yours”: A dancer, writer and artist dishes on her creative process, how to channel your inner voice — and fill yourself with passion and ecstasy

Posted by Soul's Code on 02 Jun 2008 | Tagged as: Everyone's A Guru, Mind-Body toolkit

laura-hollick.jpgGUEST COLUMN: LAURA HOLLICK

As an artist running my own studio, the conveniently-named Soul Art Studio, I often get asked about the creative process — and how my art comes together. One of the biggest topics revolves around ‘where’ the art comes from.

The questions […]