Latest / Destination Unlimited with Victor Fuhrman / Rev. Dr. Tracey Ulshafer – The Modern Mystic’s Wheel of the Year

Transcript

Rev. Dr. Tracey Ulshafer – The Modern Mystic’s Wheel of the Year · Destination Unlimited with Victor Fuhrman

0:04
Speaker 1: My name is Victor Furman. Some call me the Voice.
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Speaker 1: I've always been fascinated with human nature, spirituality, science, and
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Speaker 1: the crossroads at which they meet. Join me now and
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Speaker 1: we will explore these topics and so much more with
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Speaker 1: fascinating guests, authors and experts who will guide us to
0:28
Speaker 1: destination unlimited. How may the traditional wheel of the year
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Speaker 1: be embraced by people of all faiths returning to destination
0:43
Speaker 1: unlimited this week? My dear friend, Reverend Doctor Tracy Ullshaffer
0:48
Speaker 1: has crafted this in her new book That unfolds a
0:51
Speaker 1: sacred map, weaving the wheel of the year's seasonal rhythms,
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Speaker 1: the energy of chakras, the dance of celestial phases, and
1:00
Speaker 1: the power of mystical ceremonies to awaken your eternal true self.
1:06
Speaker 1: Reverend Doctor Tracy is the founder of One Yoga and
1:09
Speaker 1: Wellness who has spent more than two decades helping others
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Speaker 1: understand how to heal their lives through various holistic practices
1:17
Speaker 1: that also healed her own. Dedicated to holistic wellness, Reverend
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Speaker 1: Doctor Tracy trains and supports individuals on their healing journey.
1:27
Speaker 1: Her website is one Yoga Center dot net and she
1:31
Speaker 1: joins me this week to share her new book, The
1:34
Speaker 1: Modern Mystics Wheel of the Year, a multi faith path
1:38
Speaker 1: to living in harmony. Please welcome back to Destination Unlimited,
1:44
Speaker 1: Doctor Tracy Alshaeffer. Welcome back, Tracy.
1:47
Speaker 2: Thank you, Victor.
1:49
Speaker 1: This is your third time being interviewed by me.
1:53
Speaker 2: That's amazing. Thank you for having me back a third time.
1:57
Speaker 1: Well, what you share with the world is so special
2:00
Speaker 1: and so beautiful you have to come back every time,
2:02
Speaker 1: so I'm grateful to you. So for those meeting you
2:05
Speaker 1: for the first time, please share your path and how yoga,
2:09
Speaker 1: massage and healing came into and changed your life.
2:15
Speaker 2: Well, I started out pretty unexpectedly on this journey through
2:22
Speaker 2: into holistic modalities because I had a car accident as
2:28
Speaker 2: a teenager and working in an office, pretty sedentary type
2:32
Speaker 2: of life. It compounded and I had a lot of
2:36
Speaker 2: issues with my back and a friend suggested we try yoga.
2:40
Speaker 2: So I sort of went, not willingly, just because we're
2:46
Speaker 2: going out to dinner after. But after a few sessions
2:51
Speaker 2: I started to feel better, and after a little time,
2:56
Speaker 2: I wasn't taking advil all the time, and I just
2:59
Speaker 2: saw of kind I just sort of fell into this Wow,
3:02
Speaker 2: there's something magical happening here with this linking of the body, mind,
3:07
Speaker 2: and spirit into oneness. And it took me on a
3:11
Speaker 2: journey to become a yoga teacher five hundred hour yoga teacher,
3:15
Speaker 2: to become a massage therapist in the state of New Jersey,
3:18
Speaker 2: and a reiki healer, and I just kept going. I
3:23
Speaker 2: kept embodying more practices as they as they worked for me,
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Speaker 2: sharing them with my then community. I opened up a
3:32
Speaker 2: yoga studio in central New Jersey I had for twenty
3:35
Speaker 2: two years as a brick and mortar until I closed
3:38
Speaker 2: it in twenty twenty two. And I still serve that community,
3:43
Speaker 2: but I'm now taking chaplaincy classes. I've been a Doctor
3:49
Speaker 2: of Ministry since twenty twenty and I'm looking to shift
3:55
Speaker 2: a little bit from what I've been offering, or combining
3:59
Speaker 2: what I've been offering, but shifting how I do it
4:03
Speaker 2: to more of a ministerial presence. So that's me in
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Speaker 2: a nutshell. I think, as I've.
4:09
Speaker 1: Shared with you before, you and I must be spiritual family.
4:12
Speaker 1: You must be my sister in spirit. Because a back injury,
4:15
Speaker 1: not from a car accident, but a back injury led
4:18
Speaker 1: me to yoga in the late nineteen eighties, and yoga
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Speaker 1: led to retreats and the facilitating meditation and then hearing
4:25
Speaker 1: the word reiki mentioned that one of those retreats and
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Speaker 1: reiki changed my life completely. So we have that in common,
4:32
Speaker 1: and I'm glad that we've had that sharing and the
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Speaker 1: familial sense that you and I have together. So we
4:37
Speaker 1: had the blessing of meeting while pursuing the Doctor of
4:40
Speaker 1: Ministry degree with the New Seminary back in twenty twenty.
4:44
Speaker 1: What called you to interfaith ministry and what did you
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Speaker 1: take away from that experience?
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Speaker 2: You know, someone asked me this the other day, Victor is,
4:55
Speaker 2: I don't know what. I don't know what called me.
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Speaker 2: I've always had a a calling to understand spiritual presence
5:05
Speaker 2: and and whether it came from my parents telling me
5:09
Speaker 2: at a very young age, we're not going to take
5:12
Speaker 2: you to any specific church synagogue. You're going to figure
5:15
Speaker 2: out what your belief system is on your own, and
5:17
Speaker 2: then me going, wait, what's that? What's a belief system?
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Speaker 2: What what does that mean? I think it. I think
5:22
Speaker 2: that might have spun me on that trajectory, but deep
5:26
Speaker 2: into my my yoga and wellness center, my community. Uh
5:33
Speaker 2: I felt. I felt that I needed to do something
5:39
Speaker 2: different or deep dive deeper, uh into into certain things.
5:44
Speaker 2: I studied a lot of Hinduism and Buddhism just by
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Speaker 2: the nature of yoga, and you know where that took
5:51
Speaker 2: me to provide things for my class. My class has
5:55
Speaker 2: always had a very spiritual bend, always theme baited, strong,
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Speaker 2: feme theme based presence in them. So something around twenty
6:07
Speaker 2: nineteen really was pushing me to go deeper into understanding that.
6:15
Speaker 2: And I had a very deep spiritual life, but for
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Speaker 2: some reason, I felt like this need and I was
6:23
Speaker 2: looking at the new seminary and a couple other places.
6:27
Speaker 2: I was trying to nail down where I wanted to go.
6:30
Speaker 2: I knew it was going to be interfaith, of course.
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Speaker 2: And I was moving a bookshelf. A friend was helping
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Speaker 2: me move a bookshelf, and the Bible fell off the
6:40
Speaker 2: bookshelf as I was telling her I was thinking of
6:43
Speaker 2: going to seminary, and that landed right in my hands.
6:46
Speaker 2: I grabbed it, and that said, okay. There was a
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Speaker 2: force telling me, yes, you need to pursue this. It
6:55
Speaker 2: was like a validation.
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Speaker 1: You got the confirmation. Yeah, I did, absolutely congratulations on
7:03
Speaker 1: your new book, The Modern Mystics Wheel of the Year,
7:07
Speaker 1: a multi pay path to living in Harmony. You are
7:11
Speaker 1: a prolific author, and before we discuss this new book,
7:14
Speaker 1: please share with us about your best selling series, The
7:17
Speaker 1: Accidental Yoghini. What inspired these wonderful books and what do
7:21
Speaker 1: you share with readers.
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Speaker 2: I originally wrote a book The Accidents Accidental Yoghini. Oh gosh,
7:30
Speaker 2: the dates they all fall together these days. But somewhere
7:34
Speaker 2: around twenty fifteen, I had published this book, the story
7:39
Speaker 2: of a woman who has, you know, similar to my background,
7:45
Speaker 2: but different. She has her own physical issues, and she
7:48
Speaker 2: works in an office, and she's unhappy and her life
7:50
Speaker 2: is a mess. And somebody suggests yoga, and Jen willingly goes,
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Speaker 2: and so the story goes that through this yoga pract
8:00
Speaker 2: of course, she starts feeling better in her body, and
8:03
Speaker 2: then she starts feeling better in her mind, and then
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Speaker 2: in better in her spirit, and she turns her whole
8:08
Speaker 2: life around. And flash forward to a couple of years ago,
8:14
Speaker 2: after I closed my yoga studio, I said, you know what,
8:19
Speaker 2: I think this could be a series because of why
8:23
Speaker 2: it's not just one heroin in one story. This is
8:26
Speaker 2: a lot of women that I've known, and a lot
8:29
Speaker 2: of different stories can be told. So I went back
8:34
Speaker 2: and I wrote another book called So. What I did
8:36
Speaker 2: was I rebranded it as a series and made the
8:39
Speaker 2: original one the Accidental Yoghini Kristen and her Story. And
8:44
Speaker 2: then a couple of years ago I published The Accidental
8:47
Speaker 2: Yoghini Padma, and that's about a a young Indian American
8:52
Speaker 2: woman who's a new mom and struggling with all of
8:56
Speaker 2: the things that new moms struggle with and found again
9:00
Speaker 2: found yoga even though it was a presence in her family,
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Speaker 2: she hadn't done it before, and so she gets into
9:08
Speaker 2: it and it does help her. And I'm actually working
9:12
Speaker 2: on a third I put it aside, Actually, Victor, I was.
9:16
Speaker 2: I wrote the first, let's say, third of the third book,
9:19
Speaker 2: which is going to be The Accidental Yoghini Ruth, about
9:23
Speaker 2: a woman who finds a yoga while in a treatment
9:28
Speaker 2: center for sobriety. And I got halfway through when I
9:34
Speaker 2: had the calling to finish this book my doctoral thesis
9:38
Speaker 2: the modernistic s feel of the year. So it's it's
9:42
Speaker 2: I guess the next thing that I'll go back and
9:44
Speaker 2: work with.
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Speaker 1: Wonderful both Kristen and Padma reflect discovery and healing journeys
9:52
Speaker 1: for women. This message is so important, especially after the
9:57
Speaker 1: challenges the current political climate has created for women. What
10:01
Speaker 1: message would you offer concerning this.
10:06
Speaker 2: Oh, boy, Victor, we live in interesting times, don't we.
10:13
Speaker 2: You know. I believe that we all have a journey,
10:18
Speaker 2: we all have a path. I think that there is
10:21
Speaker 2: a very big calling right now for women all over
10:27
Speaker 2: the world to step up, to step in their truth.
10:32
Speaker 2: I have no problem personally with the patriarchy, but I
10:38
Speaker 2: think that there needs to be more of a inclusiveness
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Speaker 2: in everything. I think that we need to find a balance.
10:46
Speaker 2: So women and the nature of the divine feminine is
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Speaker 2: rising all over the world, and and I think that
10:55
Speaker 2: there's a great part of that in my in my
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Speaker 2: books and what I especially with the Accidental Yogini series
11:03
Speaker 2: and especially with Padma, there was a big presence of
11:06
Speaker 2: the goddess. I think that whether you're a man or
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Speaker 2: a woman, integrating that aspect is desperately needed at this
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Speaker 2: time so that we can move into oneness, we can
11:18
Speaker 2: move into unity and balance. And so I feel like
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Speaker 2: that calling is there for all of us. We can
11:27
Speaker 2: step into it. We can lean into it as deeply
11:29
Speaker 2: as we want, but I think it's necessary at this time.
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Speaker 1: The Accidental Yoghini series looks at second chapters, significant life
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Speaker 1: changes that both women and men experience as they reach
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Speaker 1: their late thirties and early forties. How would you suggest
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Speaker 1: they approach and embrace those changes?
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Speaker 2: Oh, always being open. Change is inevitable. The only constant
11:56
Speaker 2: in energy in the world is that things are constantly changing,
12:00
Speaker 2: So we have to be open. I think part of
12:03
Speaker 2: it is embracing the changes and not being afraid of them,
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Speaker 2: not thinking, oh, time is passing me by, but stepping
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Speaker 2: into the next stage with the wisdom that you've gained,
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Speaker 2: the confidence that from what you've learned and how that
12:18
Speaker 2: can then serve or help others is key to gracefully
12:24
Speaker 2: moving through change.
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Speaker 1: In my personal life, I experience these changes as a
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Speaker 1: series of synchronicities, of these non causally linked coincidences. Did
12:38
Speaker 1: you have that same experience?
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Speaker 2: I think that that happens often and part of what
12:47
Speaker 2: I talk about in my new book. If you're not
12:51
Speaker 2: looking for it, you may miss it. You may not
12:53
Speaker 2: be even aware that there are these synchronicities. Is things
12:56
Speaker 2: happening as you're walking through life. But yeah, I agree.
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Speaker 1: And I found personally that when I'm presented with one
13:04
Speaker 1: of these synchronicities, I have three choices. I could say no,
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Speaker 1: that's not for me. I could say yes, but not
13:11
Speaker 1: right now. Or I could say yes with a capital Y.
13:15
Speaker 1: And every time I say yes with the capital why,
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Speaker 1: the next one comes and the next one comes, and
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Speaker 1: I feel very best in that.
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Speaker 2: Way, very true. Yeah, that's the way it works.
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Speaker 1: Absolutely. The Accidental Yogini series was followed by s h
13:31
Speaker 1: exclamation point t Yogi's shouldn't say I teased you that
13:35
Speaker 1: I did not know the S word was from Sanskrit.
13:39
Speaker 1: What inspired that book and what do you share with readers.
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Speaker 2: It's like a little master class in yoga for whether
13:47
Speaker 2: you're whether you know yoga or not. It dives into
13:52
Speaker 2: many different facets of the practice with let's say, a
13:58
Speaker 2: little bit of a of a East Coast New Jersey
14:04
Speaker 2: satirical and sarcastic bend. I I feel like I closed
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Speaker 2: my yoga studio with a little bit of feelings about
14:17
Speaker 2: things and the nature of how some of the yoga
14:22
Speaker 2: world had changed over the years. And it was a
14:25
Speaker 2: way too with humor. With humor and humility to put
14:33
Speaker 2: certain questions out there so that it wasn't like another
14:38
Speaker 2: textbook about yoga. It was a uniquely driven narrative and
14:44
Speaker 2: it will resonate with some people, and it will it
14:47
Speaker 2: won't resonate with some people. But it felt it felt
14:50
Speaker 2: like it was very cathartic for me to write that
14:54
Speaker 2: at that time.
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Speaker 1: Yes, and you had mentioned that your school the one
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Speaker 1: yoga that or you closed it in twenty twenty two.
15:02
Speaker 1: How do you continue your teachings and offerings.
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Speaker 2: Well, I wasn't teaching yoga for a bit. I had
15:10
Speaker 2: an injury I needed to address. It was a major
15:14
Speaker 2: rotator cluff injury. It precluded me from doing a lot
15:17
Speaker 2: of yoga posturing. So I had said to my students,
15:22
Speaker 2: you know, my yoga practice is different these days. It's
15:24
Speaker 2: not about the body so much. Or it is about
15:27
Speaker 2: the body, but it's not about the postures so much.
15:31
Speaker 2: So I went into more of exclusiveness for a bit,
15:36
Speaker 2: I wasn't teaching much. I have a couple of things.
15:40
Speaker 2: I teach to Special Olympics New Jersey. I do a
15:43
Speaker 2: healtha program for them, so occasionally I go and teach them.
15:47
Speaker 2: And I have a private college that I teach a before,
15:51
Speaker 2: but other than that, I was not teaching and I
15:53
Speaker 2: took some time off. I feel like I really needed
15:56
Speaker 2: that to reset a lot of things within me. And
16:00
Speaker 2: then recently I started offering a new class called Yoga
16:05
Speaker 2: for Precarious Times. I felt like something was needed. And
16:11
Speaker 2: in my area, Central New Jersey, we really don't have
16:14
Speaker 2: a lot of the style of yoga that I do.
16:17
Speaker 2: Hota yoga we have. You can find hot yoga or
16:22
Speaker 2: hot vinyasa yoga. It's a very physically demanding I I
16:29
Speaker 2: hate to say the word gym like yoga, but that's
16:32
Speaker 2: sort of what it feels like. It's very more, you know,
16:35
Speaker 2: pushing and competitive. And so I felt like my community
16:40
Speaker 2: needed something during this time that we find ourselves in.
16:43
Speaker 2: So now I teach on Zoom a weekly class called
16:47
Speaker 2: Yoga for Precarious Times, and people can Yeah, we we
16:51
Speaker 2: welcome more new people all the time. It's it's it's
16:56
Speaker 2: spiritually driven, authentic breathing, breath focused, gentle to mild or
17:07
Speaker 2: medium hat the practice. It's it's nothing really deeply physically challenging.
17:14
Speaker 2: So so I find that that's sort of what we
17:17
Speaker 2: need these days. I think the world in its chaotic energy,
17:23
Speaker 2: and and everybody in their headspace all the time. We
17:25
Speaker 2: need to just sit and breathe, be present with ourselves,
17:29
Speaker 2: the full part of us, the higher self, and and
17:34
Speaker 2: and just be in that, in that kind of space.
17:36
Speaker 2: So that's that's what I'm offering these days to the
17:41
Speaker 2: growing community.
17:42
Speaker 1: Will say wonderful congratulations on your new amazing book, The
17:48
Speaker 1: Modern Mystics Wheel of the Year, a multi faith Path
17:52
Speaker 1: to Living in Harmony. This book, as you mentioned, was
17:55
Speaker 1: inspired by your new seminary doctoral thesis. Please share your
17:59
Speaker 1: path on this from thesis to book with a workbook
18:02
Speaker 1: and oracle deck.
18:04
Speaker 2: Wow. Do we have enough time, Victor, Because.
18:06
Speaker 1: Yes we do. This is your show. You have as
18:08
Speaker 1: much time as you need the biggest story.
18:11
Speaker 2: So in twenty twenty you may recall Victor, because you
18:15
Speaker 2: were in my class. We were what is affectionately called
18:19
Speaker 2: the COVID class. We were online and I had said
18:25
Speaker 2: to Reverend Doctor J who runs the New Seminary. I
18:30
Speaker 2: had said to him, I have this really cool thesis
18:35
Speaker 2: idea I think for interfaith ministry. I've put this whole
18:39
Speaker 2: thing together. It's all there, except I can't publish right
18:42
Speaker 2: now because my community needs me, and I need to
18:46
Speaker 2: be full time with them, and so he said, well,
18:49
Speaker 2: I'll put a panel together and you know, conditionally approve
18:53
Speaker 2: you can publish when you want. And that's what happened
18:56
Speaker 2: at the time, and it went into the backseat because
18:59
Speaker 2: my comunity needed me. From twenty twenty to twenty twenty two,
19:03
Speaker 2: I was full time for everybody through the pandemic and
19:09
Speaker 2: everything that was coming. I think that that was a
19:11
Speaker 2: catalyst for great change in our world. And people were
19:16
Speaker 2: just stirred up and mixed up and stressed out, and
19:20
Speaker 2: so I focused on them, put that away, and then
19:24
Speaker 2: when I closed I we've already talked about. I had
19:27
Speaker 2: finished writing Padma, and then I wrote the other book,
19:32
Speaker 2: and then my mother took ill and I started taking
19:35
Speaker 2: care of her. And while she was resting, one day,
19:42
Speaker 2: I had this this pool and again, where do these
19:48
Speaker 2: things come from? I don't know, but for me, it's
19:51
Speaker 2: often just some awareness that drops in and I go, Okay,
19:55
Speaker 2: that's interesting. And so it was pull that out, pull
19:59
Speaker 2: that thesis out, because it's time to do something with that.
20:03
Speaker 2: And so I pulled it out and I read it
20:05
Speaker 2: and I said, man, there's some really good bones here.
20:09
Speaker 2: But I feel like there's more to it. It was
20:13
Speaker 2: broken down into the twelve months of the year, a
20:16
Speaker 2: faith tradition for each month, and and a symbol and
20:23
Speaker 2: a chakra the energy center, and a theme for each
20:28
Speaker 2: one of the months. And I liked it a lot,
20:33
Speaker 2: but it felt like it needed something else, something more,
20:37
Speaker 2: something different, because I thought, if I publish this, are
20:40
Speaker 2: people going to understand all the pieces to it? There's
20:43
Speaker 2: so many pieces to it. What if somebody doesn't get,
20:48
Speaker 2: you know, what a chakra is? Or what would you know?
20:52
Speaker 2: What if they don't get some of these parts, because
20:54
Speaker 2: there's a lot of moving parts. So I started rewriting
20:59
Speaker 2: the book and it came out in a part one
21:02
Speaker 2: and a part two. Part one being these twelve Keys,
21:07
Speaker 2: and then part two being the twelve months of the
21:10
Speaker 2: year broken down using all these keys. And in the
21:14
Speaker 2: process of writing that, one of my former students started
21:18
Speaker 2: a publishing house and I sent it to her to see,
21:24
Speaker 2: you know, just get feedback her thoughts whatever. She said,
21:27
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, so much information here. I love it
21:29
Speaker 2: so much. Have you thought about doing a workbook that
21:33
Speaker 2: people when they're going through the twelve months have something
21:36
Speaker 2: to kind of chart their practice and their process. And
21:40
Speaker 2: I said, well, I guess that's a really good idea.
21:42
Speaker 2: So I sat down and created a work book. And
21:45
Speaker 2: then I said, oh boy, I actually have two books.
21:48
Speaker 2: Now I have two books because this now needs an
21:52
Speaker 2: ISBN and this now needs to be published alongside with
21:56
Speaker 2: the other book. And I was diligently working on all
22:00
Speaker 2: the fine tuning of these two books, these two massive books,
22:04
Speaker 2: when she said to me, have you thought about making
22:07
Speaker 2: an oracle deck? And I said, oh, my gosh, well,
22:12
Speaker 2: now I have to make an oracle deck. So I
22:14
Speaker 2: took a whole left turn. I started working on an
22:18
Speaker 2: oracle deck, which is a whole a story for a
22:20
Speaker 2: whole other story. But so so the massive project launched
22:26
Speaker 2: on eleven eleven, which is a meaningful number for me.
22:30
Speaker 2: It is a book, a workbook which you can purchase,
22:35
Speaker 2: you know, and then an oracle deck, which has to
22:38
Speaker 2: be purchased through me. And I'm doing this tryaud of
22:42
Speaker 2: transformation is what I'm calling it, and I am offering
22:45
Speaker 2: it as workshops and things now, so it's a yeah,
22:48
Speaker 2: it's a It was a big project, but I wanted
22:50
Speaker 2: it to get done before the end of the year.
22:53
Speaker 2: With the holidays pending. I thought this this is a
22:56
Speaker 2: good time a as a gift idea for anybody into spirituality,
23:01
Speaker 2: methodophysical practices, multi faith religion. And also because the Wheel
23:10
Speaker 2: of the Year will in my book starts with January,
23:13
Speaker 2: and so here we go. There's a new year upon
23:16
Speaker 2: us soon, and let's start this program.
23:20
Speaker 1: My guest, my dear friend, doctor Tracy Olsheffer, her book,
23:23
Speaker 1: The Modern Mystics Wheel of the Year. Tracy, please share
23:27
Speaker 1: with our listeners where they can get your book, your workbook,
23:30
Speaker 1: the Oracle Deck, and every other thing that you've created
23:33
Speaker 1: in this wonderful work that you do.
23:36
Speaker 2: Well. My website you can purchase all of these things,
23:40
Speaker 2: and that is one Yoga Center dot net all spelled
23:45
Speaker 2: out one Yoga Center dot net. But the book and
23:48
Speaker 2: the workbook are also available on Amazon. You can find
23:52
Speaker 2: them easily there. And the Oracle Deck has to be
23:55
Speaker 2: purchased through me. I could not sell that on Amazon,
23:59
Speaker 2: So there's those two places would be where to find them.
24:03
Speaker 1: And also the Accidental Yoghini series.
24:06
Speaker 2: Yeah, all of actually all my books are available either
24:08
Speaker 2: through me or online on Amazon.
24:11
Speaker 1: Wonderful and we'll be back with more of Tracy after
24:14
Speaker 1: these words on the own Times Radio network.
24:18
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24:50
Speaker 1: Back on Destination Unlimited. My guest this week my dear friend,
24:54
Speaker 1: doctor Tracy Alshaffer her brand new book, The Modern Mystics
24:59
Speaker 1: Wheel of the Year. Tracy, you open the book discussing
25:03
Speaker 1: the mystics path. How do you define both mystical and mystic?
25:09
Speaker 2: Well, you know what I tried to do in the book, Victor,
25:13
Speaker 2: was not define it myself, but to sort of who's
25:18
Speaker 2: already defined this? Why recreate the wheel? But one of
25:24
Speaker 2: the quotes that I love in the book is from
25:26
Speaker 2: Andrew Vittich and his book Love is a Secret, where
25:29
Speaker 2: he explains unlike Western psychologies, which are more or less
25:34
Speaker 2: understandable to the average person, mystic psychology describes levels of
25:40
Speaker 2: transcendent experience that are virtually impossible to compare with commonly
25:46
Speaker 2: understood modes of behavior. It is often difficult to clearly
25:50
Speaker 2: define and articulate in ordinary language the experience of the mystic.
25:55
Speaker 2: And that says it all, does it not. It's we
25:58
Speaker 2: can talk about these things, but it's very experiential mystic mysticism.
26:05
Speaker 2: To be a mystic, the synchronicities that you spoke of,
26:09
Speaker 2: this is this is all experiential, and we all have
26:14
Speaker 2: a very unique pathway to that and connection with that.
26:18
Speaker 2: I believe everybody uh is already and has already these connections. Again,
26:24
Speaker 2: as I had said earlier, not everybody is aware of them,
26:28
Speaker 2: connected with them, or or has an interest in exploring
26:31
Speaker 2: them further. But but I think that there are these
26:40
Speaker 2: these certain things that a lot of what what I
26:44
Speaker 2: refer to as a modern mystic has these sort of
26:49
Speaker 2: same sort of things that we're interested in, you know,
26:52
Speaker 2: whether it's sacred sites on the world, ancient temples things
26:55
Speaker 2: like that, whether it's meditation, chakra energy work, reiki, things
27:03
Speaker 2: like that. It's it's anything that is that has this
27:09
Speaker 2: experience that brings us further outside of our physical body
27:16
Speaker 2: that connects us in a greater way to the totality
27:20
Speaker 2: of who we are through the through that transcendent piece,
27:24
Speaker 2: I think we can say we're on that mystical path
27:28
Speaker 2: or we are a mystic. Also there is this this
27:34
Speaker 2: key of being activated, being in alignment with the divine
27:39
Speaker 2: through that practice. Right, it's it's a it's a golden
27:42
Speaker 2: thread or cord that comes through it. So there, it's
27:48
Speaker 2: hard to define, but I but I think, you know,
27:52
Speaker 2: we can sort of get there if we understand certain
27:56
Speaker 2: things or or in alignment with them. Is that makes sense?
28:01
Speaker 1: Yeah? And if someone you'll use the expression mystic curious,
28:06
Speaker 1: how should they start?
28:10
Speaker 2: Well, you know, I always say start with the known, right,
28:14
Speaker 2: start with something you're familiar with. You know, if you
28:18
Speaker 2: grew up Christian, then you might want to look into
28:22
Speaker 2: who were the mystics in the Christian faith, Padre Pio,
28:28
Speaker 2: Saint Francis, Mary Magdalene, There's many. If you are Muslim,
28:35
Speaker 2: you could look at roumy Right, there's there's a there's
28:40
Speaker 2: mystics in every path and I and I do discuss
28:43
Speaker 2: them in the book. And I think, so start with Okay,
28:47
Speaker 2: maybe this is what I was introduced to when I
28:51
Speaker 2: was younger, or this is the faith tradition I grew
28:53
Speaker 2: up on. Who are the mystics there? What did they experience,
28:58
Speaker 2: how did they experience God or universal consciousness? And in
29:02
Speaker 2: what ways? And how did they explore it? How did
29:05
Speaker 2: they express it? And I would start there, and then
29:11
Speaker 2: you know, that's what my book is. My book is Okay,
29:15
Speaker 2: hear all these other faith traditions and these mystical practices
29:19
Speaker 2: in them. Let's see if you resonate with any of these.
29:24
Speaker 2: Let's give it a try. Let's let's be a little
29:26
Speaker 2: bit open.
29:27
Speaker 1: Absolutely, many of our listeners may be familiar with the
29:33
Speaker 1: wheel of the year from the cycle of festivals, from
29:36
Speaker 1: each of the seasons. How does your book introduce this
29:39
Speaker 1: concept and bring new insights and practices to it.
29:45
Speaker 2: I for thirty years practice earth based spiritual spiritual practices
29:53
Speaker 2: with the Wheel of the year. So it was it's
29:57
Speaker 2: been very It's been very big part of my life.
29:59
Speaker 2: So I know, I know these sabbaths very well. And
30:04
Speaker 2: again it felt very natural too. If I'm going to
30:07
Speaker 2: talk about a multi faith thing, if I'm going to
30:11
Speaker 2: work this through the twelve months of the year, let's
30:15
Speaker 2: let's spin this wheel with it too. So it's one
30:18
Speaker 2: of the keys. I call it the solar calendar, and
30:22
Speaker 2: we work the wheel with the with the Pagan Sabbots,
30:25
Speaker 2: and I think that it brings this authenticity to ancient
30:32
Speaker 2: spiritual traditions that predate the Abrahamic traditions, because you know,
30:37
Speaker 2: who were the people that were there before these other
30:41
Speaker 2: religions came about, and what did they practice, whether it
30:44
Speaker 2: was shamanism or you know, the Celts, the Druids, the
30:50
Speaker 2: you know, there's Native Americans. There's so many other traditions
30:54
Speaker 2: that that predate some of the religious practices that we
30:59
Speaker 2: consider being the major faith traditions. And I wanted to
31:03
Speaker 2: incorporate that throughout, and I wanted to show that throughout,
31:06
Speaker 2: and so this link to the wheel of the Year
31:08
Speaker 2: was a way to I think, bridge that and bring
31:12
Speaker 2: that in. So it's one of the keys in the
31:14
Speaker 2: first part, and then it also carries through the second
31:17
Speaker 2: part through the months and informs the themes and the practices.
31:24
Speaker 1: One of the keys you introduce is numerology. How does
31:27
Speaker 1: numerology interface with the practice.
31:31
Speaker 2: Everything is energy, everything has vibration and frequency, and numbers
31:37
Speaker 2: are very basic part of that. And so I go
31:41
Speaker 2: over the history of numerology, where did it come from?
31:44
Speaker 2: Who first started it? And then you know, there's lots
31:47
Speaker 2: of different practices that also incorporate numerology. So in my book,
31:56
Speaker 2: I will go through and list what they are, from
32:01
Speaker 2: the astrological houses, the twelve houses of the astrology and
32:06
Speaker 2: what they mean, Chinese numerology and characters, Vedic which is
32:10
Speaker 2: from Hinduism, Kabalistic, from the Jewish tradition, even Egypt and Babylonian,
32:18
Speaker 2: and even more recently like the taro and the numerology.
32:22
Speaker 2: So I basically I you know, again, twelve, twelve months,
32:29
Speaker 2: twelve keys, this is a number. What's the significance of that? Numerology?
32:34
Speaker 2: You basically add the numbers together to get a basic
32:38
Speaker 2: vibrational frequency. So if you take twelve, it's one plus two.
32:41
Speaker 2: That means it's a three vibration. What is a three vibration?
32:46
Speaker 2: What does it mean? What's the meaning behind it? And
32:49
Speaker 2: then okay, March is the third month of the year.
32:53
Speaker 2: How does that energy align with March? And how do
32:58
Speaker 2: I work with that throughout that month? So I bring it.
33:04
Speaker 2: You know, first let's understand what it is, and then
33:08
Speaker 2: let's apply it in the keys.
33:10
Speaker 1: You talk about the practice of sun kalpa. What is that?
33:15
Speaker 2: The sun kalpa comes from the Hindu tradition. It is
33:18
Speaker 2: a heartfelt, sacred vowel. It's sort of it's one of
33:24
Speaker 2: the twelve keys, but it's it is a big part
33:27
Speaker 2: of the whole book because and actually it's a big
33:32
Speaker 2: part of the workbook as you're working through the wheel
33:36
Speaker 2: of the year. As you're working through the year, you know,
33:38
Speaker 2: a lot of people set these new year's intentions or goals,
33:44
Speaker 2: and people set goals all the time, and there's not
33:49
Speaker 2: always a heartfelt resonance when it's created. So a sun
33:56
Speaker 2: kalpa is something that's seeded in the heart. It is
34:03
Speaker 2: it's something true to where you are at this current time,
34:08
Speaker 2: whenever this time is so whereas you've probably heard the
34:11
Speaker 2: word dharma, a lot of people know dharma is the
34:13
Speaker 2: life purpose and that's something that sort of stays with you.
34:16
Speaker 2: It's your basic it's a constant. But as sun kalpa
34:19
Speaker 2: changes all the time because energy is changing all the
34:22
Speaker 2: time and we're changing all the time. So right now,
34:27
Speaker 2: what is my heartfelt val What promise am I making
34:32
Speaker 2: not just to myself but to the world. Because if
34:35
Speaker 2: it speaks to me, then it should be something that
34:38
Speaker 2: also speaks to being of service to the world. So
34:42
Speaker 2: it's it is a deeply seated, true intention, seated in
34:48
Speaker 2: the heart, and it allows you to create a goal
34:52
Speaker 2: that you set up energetically to be successful versus something
34:57
Speaker 2: that you know, out of ego, you just want to
35:00
Speaker 2: you know, have a better body or something like that.
35:05
Speaker 1: It's a calling.
35:06
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah.
35:08
Speaker 1: Another key is astrology, which leads to the question about
35:12
Speaker 1: what is the relationship between astrology and the wheel.
35:18
Speaker 2: The astrology again informs the energy of each month. So traditionally,
35:26
Speaker 2: you know the calendar, we can I don't want to
35:29
Speaker 2: get too much into all of that. The calendar has
35:31
Speaker 2: been changed a few times over the years, and our
35:35
Speaker 2: calendar right now doesn't really sync up with the astrological
35:39
Speaker 2: calendar anymore. So we have to look at those influences though.
35:49
Speaker 2: So the time and time that you were born, the
35:51
Speaker 2: day that you were born, you fall under a specific
35:55
Speaker 2: sign Libra, Leo, Sagittarius, Gemini, whatever your sign is, and
36:01
Speaker 2: those have properties, they have qualities, and they have these
36:08
Speaker 2: really rich stories too. So I've included those backstories and
36:15
Speaker 2: those energy into each month. So if you're reading February.
36:20
Speaker 2: What are the two signs astrological signs that fall in
36:24
Speaker 2: the month of February. What are they about? What are
36:27
Speaker 2: those energy about? And how do they equate to the month.
36:31
Speaker 2: It's all informing. All these keys are constantly informing the
36:36
Speaker 2: energy of the month so that I can come so
36:39
Speaker 2: I can break it down to one theme. And it's
36:43
Speaker 2: not that that's the only theme it could ever be,
36:45
Speaker 2: but it's sort of a concise theme that bridges all
36:48
Speaker 2: of these different energies together. So that's why that's a
36:53
Speaker 2: necessary part of it as well.
36:56
Speaker 1: And another key are the primary elements of air, fire, earth,
37:00
Speaker 1: and water and others. How do these relate to the
37:03
Speaker 1: practice and also to eyre Veda.
37:07
Speaker 2: Well, uh a cup many ways actually, I mean the
37:14
Speaker 2: elements are ever present all the time everywhere. So so
37:20
Speaker 2: another key art is yoga and the chakras and the
37:23
Speaker 2: chakras each have an elemental influence in the rituals and
37:29
Speaker 2: practices that different tradition use. The elements are present, you know,
37:35
Speaker 2: the burning of incense is the element air. Fire, rituals
37:41
Speaker 2: like a like a fire ceremony is the element obviously fire.
37:46
Speaker 2: There's there's cleansing, purification, rituals using the element water. So
37:52
Speaker 2: all of the elements are used in ritual practices as well,
37:57
Speaker 2: and they they inform all of the world. All of
38:01
Speaker 2: what we see, feel, taste, touch, understand, it comes from
38:07
Speaker 2: the elements. They're they're the They're a basic component of everything.
38:11
Speaker 2: So when we talk about everything being energy and everything
38:14
Speaker 2: being inclusive, how do we not go to those very
38:16
Speaker 2: basic components and then also allow them to inform the
38:20
Speaker 2: energy of each month, the practices of each month. That's
38:24
Speaker 2: how they fall in. They inform the yoga practices and
38:27
Speaker 2: how the yoga practices are done. They inform the ritual
38:30
Speaker 2: practices and how they are they are worked. So yeah, there,
38:37
Speaker 2: there's there's I could say more about that too. I
38:39
Speaker 2: feel like that's a whole college course.
38:42
Speaker 1: In And the connection to Ayreveda, I.
38:47
Speaker 2: Mean, ire Veda is the UH sister component to yoga, right,
38:52
Speaker 2: It's the Indian method of health, and it is UH
38:56
Speaker 2: something that talks about primary qualities involving the seasons and
39:01
Speaker 2: qualities within us, the natures within us. So the elements
39:05
Speaker 2: are part of that, you know, like saying that the
39:09
Speaker 2: winter is you know, cold and dry, then it has
39:13
Speaker 2: a certain elemental component to it, et cetera. It's really
39:19
Speaker 2: these are these are these probably require more deep deep answers,
39:25
Speaker 2: but we don't have the time to dive into them
39:28
Speaker 2: as deeply as probably we could.
39:32
Speaker 1: Absolutely one of the elements that people use in any
39:37
Speaker 1: of the mystical and spiritual practices is a sacred altar.
39:40
Speaker 1: What type of sacred alters may readers learn about in
39:43
Speaker 1: your book?
39:45
Speaker 2: Well, I suggest for each month that you create a
39:50
Speaker 2: sacred space to go to, whether it's for your meditation,
39:55
Speaker 2: your rituals, your contemplation, your yoga practice, and have this
40:01
Speaker 2: this altar which would ideally house the four elements, the
40:10
Speaker 2: five elements, earth, air, fire, water, and ether and in
40:14
Speaker 2: the ether element the spiritual part. So depending on what
40:19
Speaker 2: practice we're working on that particular month, then there's you know,
40:25
Speaker 2: certain things that go with that. So in the part
40:28
Speaker 2: two of my book, each month I give up a
40:33
Speaker 2: suggested altar, and it includes the color that the altar
40:39
Speaker 2: cloth might be for the month. The color of the
40:43
Speaker 2: candle might be, the color or the type of flower
40:49
Speaker 2: which goes with the month of the year, the flower
40:51
Speaker 2: of the month, the type of crystal or stone which
40:54
Speaker 2: could be either the burststone or another type of crystal
40:57
Speaker 2: for the month, and why that ties all in I
40:59
Speaker 2: expel so every month the ideas refresh that space, create
41:06
Speaker 2: a new one, put new energy into it, because each
41:11
Speaker 2: time we change into a new month, it's new energy.
41:16
Speaker 2: So I guide people in how to do that as well.
41:21
Speaker 1: My guest is doctor Tracy Olschaeffer, her brand new book,
41:25
Speaker 1: The Modern Mystics Wheel of the Year. We'll be back
41:28
Speaker 1: with more of Tracy after these words on the Own
41:31
Speaker 1: Times Radio network.
41:33
Speaker 4: Humanity Healing International is a small nonprofit with a big drain.
41:38
Speaker 4: Since two thousand and seven, HHI has been working tirelessly
41:42
Speaker 4: to bring help to communities with little or no oh.
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41:54
Speaker 4: and that someone cares to learn more. Please visit Humanityhealing
41:58
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42:04
Speaker 1: Imagine yourself being transported to India, to the banks of
42:09
Speaker 1: the Gangha and an ashram in Rishikesh. Visualize that you
42:13
Speaker 1: are welcome to Satsan with an American Sanyasi who shares
42:17
Speaker 1: the wisdom of her Guru. Your visualization has manifested. Join
42:22
Speaker 1: Satfi Bagawati Saraswati for inspiration and transformation every Thursday at
42:28
Speaker 1: eleven a m. Eastern on Old Times Radio back on
42:34
Speaker 1: Destination Unlimited. My guest this week my dear friend, Reverend
42:38
Speaker 1: doctor Tracy Alshaeffer. Her book is entitled The Modern Mystics
42:43
Speaker 1: Wheel of the Year. Tracy. As we're both ordained interfaith ministers,
42:49
Speaker 1: are their aspects of this practice that all faiths may embrace.
42:55
Speaker 2: So each month there are there's a different faith tradition, right,
43:01
Speaker 2: whether it's Judaism, whether it's Christianity, whether it's is whatever
43:05
Speaker 2: the you know, whatever it is each month. I think
43:11
Speaker 2: anybody that's open to understanding that we have more commonalities
43:17
Speaker 2: than differences, and anyone who is empathetic to working and
43:24
Speaker 2: striving to create that type of unity. It doesn't mean
43:28
Speaker 2: that at the end of the day, your your practice
43:31
Speaker 2: won't be steeped in a certain, certain spiritual tradition, but
43:37
Speaker 2: allow yourself the ability to embrace parts of other traditions
43:43
Speaker 2: that maybe you weren't brought up in, don't maybe you
43:47
Speaker 2: don't know anything about, and then exploring them and seeing, wow,
43:51
Speaker 2: this isn't so much different. From something that I practice here,
43:55
Speaker 2: So I think I think that anybody that's open and
43:59
Speaker 2: anybody that goes into it with an open heart, regardless
44:03
Speaker 2: of what their spiritual tradition is, would be able to
44:09
Speaker 2: appreciate the practices. And I do keep them on that
44:14
Speaker 2: mystical aspect, the mysticism aspect of the practices, so that
44:19
Speaker 2: they are more open and regarded in a way that
44:23
Speaker 2: anybody has access to them.
44:27
Speaker 1: One of the great lessons that I personally took away
44:30
Speaker 1: from my time with the New Seminary was that in
44:33
Speaker 1: virtually every religion and every faith, there is an iteration
44:38
Speaker 1: of the basic rules the golden rule. Do unto others
44:42
Speaker 1: as you'd have them, do unto you, Love thy neighbor
44:44
Speaker 1: as thyself. If everybody embraced those two principles, what a
44:48
Speaker 1: wonderful world this would be, wouldn't it.
44:51
Speaker 2: That would be a really good start. That would be
44:55
Speaker 2: a really good start.
44:56
Speaker 3: Absolutely sure.
44:58
Speaker 1: And the other thing that I learned was that there
45:00
Speaker 1: was a story coming from the ancient Vedas that Brahma,
45:04
Speaker 1: the chief Hindu god, was having a meeting with the
45:07
Speaker 1: other gods, and the other gods were complaining that in
45:10
Speaker 1: those days humans had divine powers. And they said to Brahma,
45:17
Speaker 1: why don't you take the divine powers away from humanity
45:20
Speaker 1: and put it on the highest mountain. And Brahma shook
45:23
Speaker 1: his head and so no, eventually they would find them there.
45:26
Speaker 1: And then someone suggested, why not take those powers and
45:29
Speaker 1: put them at the bottom of the deepest ocean, and
45:32
Speaker 1: Brama again shook his head and said, no, eventually they'll
45:35
Speaker 1: find them there. But then what he said was, I
45:38
Speaker 1: know what I'll do. I'll put them inside of humans,
45:42
Speaker 1: because they'd never think of looking there. Really, this is
45:44
Speaker 1: what it's about, is it?
45:45
Speaker 2: It is everything is already inside of us, and we
45:50
Speaker 2: seek and we seek and we seek external validation, external knowledge,
45:57
Speaker 2: and deeply that wisdom is already residing within us. And
46:03
Speaker 2: if we turn that gaze inward and we allow ourselves
46:07
Speaker 2: to be still long enough to touch upon it, we'll
46:10
Speaker 2: find it absolutely.
46:12
Speaker 1: What are some of the energies reflected in each month
46:15
Speaker 1: of the wheel?
46:17
Speaker 2: Well, there's there's a lot of energy is reflected in
46:21
Speaker 2: each month of the wheel. So uh yeah, I don't
46:26
Speaker 2: know how to compartmentalize that into into an easy answer.
46:32
Speaker 2: I can tell you some of the themes. Would you
46:34
Speaker 2: like to hear those absolutely, So when I got to
46:40
Speaker 2: break down all of the energies of the different months,
46:45
Speaker 2: what did they what were they speaking, what were they saying?
46:49
Speaker 2: And so uh uh, February is the is harmony January.
46:58
Speaker 2: First of all, January is new beginning, That's that's an
47:00
Speaker 2: obvious one. But February is harmony. And why did I
47:07
Speaker 2: choose harmony? Well, I'd like you to read the book
47:09
Speaker 2: to find that out. Rebirth is March, love and devotion
47:16
Speaker 2: is April, fertility is May. So these are these are
47:21
Speaker 2: basic themes, but they they hold together all the vibrational
47:27
Speaker 2: energy from all of those different keys that we're applying
47:31
Speaker 2: to the month, and and then they are informing what Okay,
47:36
Speaker 2: then what practices align with this that we can do
47:40
Speaker 2: for that month that will assist us in then, uh,
47:46
Speaker 2: gaining some connection to the natural energy that's already surrounding us.
47:54
Speaker 2: It's really a way for us too to bring everything together,
48:01
Speaker 2: work it internally, and synchronize our internal world with the
48:06
Speaker 2: outside world.
48:08
Speaker 1: As we're currently in November and approaching December, how about
48:12
Speaker 1: some examples of the connections between them and various faiths.
48:18
Speaker 2: Well, November, it's an interesting month because it kind of
48:23
Speaker 2: tags off of the end of October. The end of October,
48:28
Speaker 2: we have these this sabbot in the Pagan tradition, in
48:33
Speaker 2: the Pagan wheel of the year called Sowen. A lot
48:36
Speaker 2: of people call it Samhane, but that is not it's pronounced.
48:40
Speaker 2: It's actually a Gaelic pronunciation Sowen, and that is the
48:46
Speaker 2: actually the Pagan new year, but it is very closely aligned.
48:54
Speaker 2: October thirty first became known as Halloween or All Hollows Eve,
48:59
Speaker 2: and then Halloween and then followed by All Saints Day.
49:05
Speaker 2: So basically that was a wait for Christianity to sort
49:12
Speaker 2: of say, oh, we're in alignment with this energy, but
49:15
Speaker 2: we want you to think about it this way. Let's
49:18
Speaker 2: steer us towards the Saints. But however you look about it,
49:22
Speaker 2: it's pulling us into November with the energy of remembrance.
49:29
Speaker 2: And there are all of these festivals on November first,
49:38
Speaker 2: the Day of the Dead, particularly, but in Bolivia there's
49:41
Speaker 2: another day. It's either the first or second of November,
49:44
Speaker 2: maybe the third. But there are all these festivals in
49:47
Speaker 2: and around Meso what we call Meso America, so the
49:52
Speaker 2: whole Mexico Central America, all those countries have these traditions
50:01
Speaker 2: based around remembering the dead, honoring the dead, celebrating the dead,
50:06
Speaker 2: different from how we tend to think of the dead.
50:11
Speaker 2: We're more fearful about death here where we're from. But
50:15
Speaker 2: these countries celebrate the dead. I mean they decorate skulls
50:20
Speaker 2: and and and create these offerendas, which are these beautiful flowers,
50:29
Speaker 2: like very ornate gifts that they that they do give
50:35
Speaker 2: the dead to celebrate what they gave to them, what
50:40
Speaker 2: their legacy is, what the bloodline has received from what
50:47
Speaker 2: they created in life. So they're really beautiful practices. So
50:51
Speaker 2: for me, it made sense. Let's look at meso America.
50:57
Speaker 2: It's not as defined as say, you know, Christianity or Judaism,
51:04
Speaker 2: but let's look at messo America because there are common
51:09
Speaker 2: analogies and common threads in Mayan and as Tech and
51:14
Speaker 2: toll tech religions, our faith traditions, and we can pull
51:18
Speaker 2: them together with this thread of remembrance honoring the dead.
51:23
Speaker 2: And then let's do these ceremonies. Let's create an aferenda,
51:28
Speaker 2: Let's maybe do a silent supper or a dumb supper.
51:32
Speaker 2: And so that's how we can kind of weave this
51:35
Speaker 2: time of the year together, and then of course as
51:38
Speaker 2: we move towards the end of November and into December,
51:44
Speaker 2: we have a totally different energy that's more about just different.
51:49
Speaker 2: It's still in that celebration mode, but it goes to
51:52
Speaker 2: a different level, a different energy. So then I created
51:56
Speaker 2: a different pathway for that moving into December.
52:00
Speaker 1: Please tell us about the workbook and oracle cards that
52:03
Speaker 1: are available for the practice and how they're used.
52:06
Speaker 2: The workbook is supposed to be a companion. So you
52:12
Speaker 2: get to the part two of the book and you decide, Okay,
52:14
Speaker 2: I'm going to do these practices every month. I'm going
52:17
Speaker 2: to start in January. I'm going to create a fresh altar,
52:21
Speaker 2: I have a yoga practice for January. I have a
52:23
Speaker 2: faith tradition I'm going to read about I'm going to
52:26
Speaker 2: I have like a little ceremony or a ritual that
52:29
Speaker 2: I'm going to do. And so the workbook allows you
52:33
Speaker 2: to chart this progress, allows you to write certain things down.
52:38
Speaker 2: It does have a twelve chakra chakra assessment, so every
52:43
Speaker 2: month you're assessing each energy center. So for the month
52:48
Speaker 2: of January, it's the first chakra at your root and
52:53
Speaker 2: you will go through an assessment process of that where
52:57
Speaker 2: is my first chakra? Am I depleted? Am I excessive?
53:00
Speaker 2: My balance? To where do I need to create more
53:01
Speaker 2: harmony and balance? I even have a recipe, Victor, so
53:06
Speaker 2: there's food recipes for the chakra for the month. So
53:10
Speaker 2: every month you can also okay, these are the foods
53:15
Speaker 2: equated to that chakra, and here's a recipe, so you
53:19
Speaker 2: can create food that's of the same energy vibration of
53:24
Speaker 2: that chakra that you're working for the month. And then
53:28
Speaker 2: the book, the workbook also has the you know, the
53:31
Speaker 2: yoga practice. In the book, I give every month a
53:35
Speaker 2: single yoga practice, a single pose, a full practice, and
53:39
Speaker 2: a short practice. And you can in the workbook, I say,
53:44
Speaker 2: you know, maybe just sit in this single pose for
53:47
Speaker 2: five minutes and then journal about it, write about it,
53:50
Speaker 2: what came up, what do you feel. There's a part
53:52
Speaker 2: for the rituals as well as other notes, and the
53:56
Speaker 2: oracle deck can be used multiple ways. There are cards
54:01
Speaker 2: created for every month of the year that you can
54:03
Speaker 2: pull out. There are also cards for each faith tradition
54:06
Speaker 2: that you can pull out and you could just place
54:10
Speaker 2: them on your altar. With the various different components for
54:15
Speaker 2: the month, or you can use it as an oracle
54:19
Speaker 2: deck where you pull a card or daily could be
54:23
Speaker 2: a daily reflective card. It could be a weekly reading
54:27
Speaker 2: or a monthly reading, whatever however you want to use it.
54:30
Speaker 2: But they were uniquely created to be used with the
54:35
Speaker 2: book based on the book, so all of the different
54:40
Speaker 2: cards are different key components of the book.
54:44
Speaker 1: My guest, my dear friend, Reverend doctor Tracy Alshaffer her
54:48
Speaker 1: brand new book, The Modern Mystics Wheel of the Year. Tracy,
54:51
Speaker 1: one more time, please share with our listeners whether and
54:54
Speaker 1: get your book, your workbook, your oracle deck and find
54:56
Speaker 1: out more about you.
54:58
Speaker 2: My website's the best site for learning all of the
55:02
Speaker 2: things I do and the experiences, workshops, retreats, anything I
55:07
Speaker 2: have coming up, as well as shopping for any of
55:10
Speaker 2: my books, oracle deck cards. So that's one Yoga Center,
55:14
Speaker 2: dot Net and et at the end. But all of
55:18
Speaker 2: my books are available on Amazon, and you will find
55:21
Speaker 2: my author's page. If you type in doctor Tracy Lshaeffer,
55:26
Speaker 2: you'll find my author page and you can see all
55:28
Speaker 2: my books listed, or you can put the titles of
55:29
Speaker 2: the books in separately.
55:32
Speaker 1: And the oracle cards you have to get through Youth.
55:34
Speaker 2: Correct, you do have to buy them through me, yes,
55:37
Speaker 2: and they are on my website, so that's another option.
55:40
Speaker 2: And another thing, just lastly, is to say that the
55:44
Speaker 2: book originally intended to be done only in hardback full color,
55:50
Speaker 2: and when I did that, I realized how expensive it
55:54
Speaker 2: was going to be to do a hardback full color.
55:58
Speaker 2: So it is expensive on Amazon. I have it a
56:03
Speaker 2: little less expensive on my website if somebody really wants
56:06
Speaker 2: a full color, but the paperback version is available on Amazon,
56:11
Speaker 2: and the hardback as well.
56:12
Speaker 1: Tracy, thank you so much for joining us and sharing
56:15
Speaker 1: all of this wonderful work.
56:17
Speaker 2: Thank you, Victor, always a pleasure.
56:19
Speaker 1: And thank you for joining us on Destination Unlimited. I'm
56:23
Speaker 1: Victor the Voice Furman. Have a wonderful week