Sitting With Sensei

*You Are The Medicine*

Sensei - Hello! It's good to see you!
Student - Yes, yes! It's been too long! I've been meaning to visit you for a long time and finally I'm here.
Sensei - Where have you been? What have you been up to?
Student - Well, I've been here in the city, practicing what you taught me. I'm a successful Reiki healer and teacher and I want to thank you for giving me this wonderful gift. When I first began training with you, I could never have imagined where this path would take me.
Sensei - I am pleasantly surprised to hear this! When you walked through the door, I wasn't sure if it was you.......you look so much brighter and more confident! I remember you as being very introverted.....and I could see that it was more than just shyness. You had this air of alienation and melancholy about you. But I could see how intuitive and empathic you were. It was so long ago.......11 or 12 years?
Student - Yeah, almost 13 years since I saw you last. I was a hot mess back then! I was in early recovery from drug addiction. I was reclusive, brooding, depressed. I was feeling deep remorse and shame for having messed up my life so badly. Without Reiki.....I can't imagine what would've become of me.
Sensei - I could see how much you were suffering, but when you were getting Reiki treatments from me, you wouldn't open up and talk to me about how you were feeling. I felt powerless, like there wasn't much I could do for you. It seemed like you were heading for some sort of crisis, yet you kept coming to class and took all the levels........now it's all coming back to me! When you signed up for my Reiki Teacher Apprenticeship Program, I thought you might finally come out of your shell during our coaching sessions, but.....
Student - I freaked out and ran away! I wasn't well enough to handle that much responsibility. The thought of co-teaching with you, attuning students and leading guided meditations........It was terrifying! And you're right, I was a crisis waiting to happen. I'm here now, partly because I feel like I owe you an explanation for my disappearance......about a year after I went missing from my apprenticeship, I was diagnosed with late stage cancer of the liver, and told I had 2 months to live. I was only 29 yrs. old. I did not know this at the time, but I was going through my astrological Saturn return, which everyone has around age 29. I've studied astrology for many years since then and I know how difficult it can be if you have a lot of unresolved issues going into your Saturn return. In my case, it damn near killed me! Now I understand that for me the emotional aspect was unprocessed grief in my lungs suppressed by anger in my liver that was eating away at me and expressing as cancer.
Sensei - Well, I'm glad you survived to talk about it! I can see now that you had a deeply transformational healing crisis. You look great and you're just oozing Reiki out of every pore! Tell me all about it!
Student - The cancer had spread from my liver to my stomach and lower lungs. The chemo was horrible, It just made me feel sicker and the cancer kept spreading. My life had fallen apart; I had relapsed on drugs, lost my job, my apartment, everything.......but I hadn't lost my will to live. I was in the ICU just dying, but I was praying my ass off and giving myself Reiki non - stop......
Sensei - What about your family and friends? Did they......?
Student - There was no family.......I have no siblings and my Mother had died of a heart attack when I was 25....... I never knew my father. At that point, I only had a couple friends but they were addicts too and could only show up for their drugs. To make a long story short, I died of organ failure in the ICU and left my body in full consciousness. I was hovering in the air over my emaciated body, when two huge balls of light came out of nowhere, one white, the other golden, and they merged with me. It was like my awareness exploded into an infinite timeless space of divine love-bliss. I had heard the stories of people having near death experiences and this was it! There was no fear, no pain, no time....... and I understood everything perfectly......myself, the world, the universe......and I loved everything perfectly! I was in that state for an eternity, and then suddenly I was back in my body. It was still riddled with cancer but I knew it would heal. It's hard to put this into words, but I knew my body would heal because I knew for sure that I was not my body. I was the source of Reiki. My essence, my soul, my spirit was perfect love, wisdom and peace........it was absolutely clear to me that my body was a temporary suit of clothing for my immortal soul, and that the divine Reiki energy would infuse my body, dissolve the cancer and restore me to health and happiness. My recovery was a long slow process, but it was also easy because I had no fear and plenty of faith. Yes, there have been many challenges and I've made mistakes and learned lessons along the way......but there was no resistance to what was arising. My inner child had been reborn .....my sense of wonder! And to this day, there is an absolute certainty that life itself is a miracle that I can embrace unconditionally.....
Sensei - You have been blessed with the greatest good fortune! You have had the ascension experience out of the body and a massive enlightenment, and now you are experiencing it in the body!
Student - What do you mean Sensei? And what's the difference between ascension and enlightenment?
Sensei - Most people have an experience similar to yours when they die. They transition out of the body into a higher, less dense dimension. That is a form of ascension (rising out of the body into a higher dimension) that may involve the experience of enlightenment……merging with the infinite eternal source of light also known as the dissolution of the ego. The other form of ascension is what the earth and everyone on it is experiencing now - shifting in the body into a higher, less dense dimension.
Student - Ok, now you're talking about the "New Age", right?
Sensei - Yes, also known as the Golden Age or Age of Aquarius.
Student - Right! Now you're reminding me that I saw how the transition into the new world would happen in my near-death experience. I knew that we would make it and that war, poverty and disease would fade away. And this is actually happening now! The great awakening is real! Yet some people still think we are headed for some horrible catastrophe........
Sensei - Yes, yes.....nuclear war, a pandemic that kills everybody, or some natural disaster like a comet hitting the Earth or a pole shift. But those gloom and doom fears are sourced in unhealed trauma imprints from the past. Reiki can heal them!
Student - Yes it can! I have helped many people heal trauma, PTSD, panic attacks, depression, heartbreak......
Sensei - I've been practicing and teaching Reiki for 27 years and I'm still delighted and amazed at how well it works!
Student - Me too, and my own life is a testament to the power of Reiki. I was a lost soul and now I have inner peace and fulfillment. And the longer I practice, the better it gets!
Sensei - Well, you've made my day. Keep practicing! There is always more to explore, more to learn and teach......and remember, addiction of any kind - drugs, sex, power over others, money, violence, or any behavior, belief, disease or wounding that is unnecessarily limiting always has buried treasure hidden underneath it. That treasure is your true divine nature; the source of light, love, peace, wisdom, talents and creativity within you! That treasure must be shared freely in service of the greater good!
Student - Thank you for sharing your gifts with me Sensei! (student bows to Sensei).
Sensei - (bows to student) You're welcome! And thank you for sharing your story with me. Let's meditate and share Reiki for a while before you leave!
Student - I would love to!

Hummingbird Medicine

Birds in general are showing us how to fly free and open our hearts and minds to the spaciousness of the blue sky realm while still having both feet on the ground. They are the intermediaries between the celestial and terrestrial realms and they will give us messages from the spirit world in their songs and flight patterns. In all cultures they are well known as omen bringers. You may have heard that if a bird flies into your house, it is a sign of imminent death. This actually happened to me! In the 70’s, I was living in a rented room on the top floor of a big house in New Jersey. A bird flew into my room through my window and we later got the news that one of our roommates was killed in a car accident in Philadelphia. When the bird came into my room, I did not know that it was a death omen, but I remember how uncomfortable it made me feel. Wild birds belong outside – they never come in the house. It was unnatural and upsetting.

Birds are related to reptiles because they lay eggs and have scaly legs and claws, but they are warm – blooded, unlike the typical coldblooded reptile. In a sense, birds are feathered serpents, like Quetzalcoatl, The reptiles have powerful kundalini/snake medicine and birds, being winged reptiles, mirror the freedom and connection with the cosmic which is the result of full kundalini activation.

Hummingbirds are very unique and extraordinary creatures. They are the smallest of the bird kingdom and they are extremely delicate and beautiful. Their wings and hearts beat at very high rates and they can hover in place or fly backwards. They are very swift and can fly up to 35 mi. an hr. They get their name from the hum generated by their rapid wing vibration. When at rest, their hearts slow way down to a mere fraction of their active waking rate. Their beaks are very long and sharply pointed, enabling them to feed on only the sweetest of flower nectars. Like bees, they serve as pollinators – one of the few bird species that does this. Like other birds, they also feed on insects.

The two paragraphs below (copied from Wikipedia) have some fascinating info on the sounds they produce and their beautiful translucent coloring.

"Sonation During Display Dives"

"The outer tail-feathers of male Anna’s Hummingbird (Calypte anna) vibrate during display dives and produce a loud chirp. When courting, the male ascends some 30m before diving over an interested female at high speed and producing a high-pitched sound. Experiments showed that the birds could not make the sound when missing their outer tail-feathers, and that those same feathers could produce the dive-sound in a wind tunnel. The bird can sing at the same frequency as the tail-feather chirp, but its weak syrinx is not capable of the same volume. Many other species of hummingbirds also produce sounds with their wings or tail, including the wings of the Broad-tailed Hummingbird, Rufous Hummingbird, Allen’s Hummingbird, Streamertail, as well as the tail of the Costa’s Hummingbird and the Black-chinned Hummingbird."

"Wing Structure and Colours"

"Many of the Hummingbird species have bright plumage with exotic colouration. In many species, the coloring does not come from pigmentation in the feather structure, but instead from prism-like cells within the top layers of the feathers. When light hits these cells, it is split into wavelengths that reflect to the observer in varying degrees of intensity. The Hummingbird wing structure acts as a diffraction grating. The result is that, merely by shifting position, a muted-looking bird will suddenly become fiery red or vivid green.[28] However, not all hummingbird colors are due to the prism feather structure. The rusty browns of Allen’s and Rufous Hummingbirds come from pigmentation. Iridescent hummingbird colors actually result from a combination of refraction and pigmentation, since the diffraction structures themselves are made of melanin, a pigment."

The Medicine

Hummingbirds are revered in indigenous cultures, especially in Central and South America, where they proliferate. To have Hummingbird as your power animal is indeed very fortuitous!

Hummingbirds are masters of vibration. Their rapidly vibrating wings give them an unsurpassed buoyancy, speed and maneuverability in flight. They can shift from a very swift heart rate while in flight to a very slow rate while at rest, allowing them to conserve energy. Their beauty, delicacy and refinement matches the flowers that they pollinate. Flowers are like chakras and Hummingbird’s long pointed beaks and their pinpoint accuracy in using them allows them to extract the sweetest nectar.

When we have Hummingbird Medicine, we are adept at modulating our frequency, enabling us fly freely in multidimensional realms, and our mastery of vibration and finely tuned focus allows us to obtain the sweetest joy–nectar from any situation with pinpoint accuracy. When at rest, we can go into deep meditation in the innermost silent still point, and when active, we can move with grace, free flowing adaptability, refinement and efficiency, excelling at sharing our gifts in a way that helps others open their chakras and blossom into the beauty, bliss and freedom of self–realization.

Astrologically, we can see that Hummingbirds embody the qualities of Uranus (unique, flight, freedom), Mercury (swift, agile messenger), Chiron (mastery of vibration, pinpoint accuracy) and Venus (beauty, grace, refinement, delicacy). I humbly offer you the precious gift of Hummingbird Medicine!

Geordie Numata
Oct. 13th, 2011