The essence of life is to care,
The secret of life is to dare,
The adventure of life is to learn,
The challenge of life is to change,
The joy of life is to love.

I found this saying a couple of months ago and have been meditating on it. I realize that it represents the governing principles of inner harmony and balance.

1. To care: To care for yourself as you want others to care for you. It is only when we care for ourselves as though we were the most precious thing in the world that we can truly care for others in this way. Each of us is a temple. When we enter what we consider a sacred place, a temple or place of worship we offer our prayers and signs of gratitude. Do you bring flowers and offerings to your own altar? Offering love, beauty and acceptance at the altar in the temple of your soul is the essence of life. (South: Emotions and Innocence)

2. To dare: Dare to be totally present to yourself and honest about who and what you are. This is one of the most powerful practices of our experience. When we see what our motivations and vulnerabilities are (and recognize that there may be unseen influences like ancestral or past life energies) and can honestly accept them and transform them then we are daring to see, hear and know ourselves at our best and our worst. Climbing a mountain, swimming the ocean, jumping from an airplane, or telling someone else our truth is not nearly as daring as being honest with ourselves about our strengths and our weaknesses. This is truly the secret of life. (West: Past lives and Ancestral Matrix)

3. To learn: Learning about ourselves and the creative nature of the world is the adventure that keeps life interesting, potent, moving, grooving and growing. When we embrace that we know nothing (and everything) and that every moment is an opportunity to grow and learn, then life is the adventure that we seek. No matter how much we learn there is so much more, for the world holds complexity and simplicity beyond our knowing. The balance of being and doing is such a paradox. Learning (doing) and being in a state of wonderment and awe is the adventure. (North: Present Matrix)

4. To change: Other words for change are transform, modify, reorganize, transmute, metamorphose, evolve, and develop. To take that which is not working and transmute it into new ways of perceiving and engaging that serve our evolution. When we are willing (all of us are able when we chose to be) to see what is not working for us, do our personal work related to it, and shift it to a new map of what will support our change, we engage and empower the process of transformation and metamorphose. This is the challenge that we have come to the Earth to experience. As we change, our frequencies and vibration change and we hold energy in the world that assists each of us in stepping into our divine nature. (East: Illusion of the Future transformed into Illumination of the Future Matrix)

5. To love: Most of us are programmed to look for love outside of ourselves. All that we want is within us. This includes love. To love ourselves as we see ourselves in this very moment ..... with our wounds, our vulnerabilities, our challenges, and our strengths is the most incredible joy that can be experienced. To know that we are loved by the creator no matter who we are or what we have done is a joy even greater than can be imagined. Love is truly the magic and the miracle of existence. Once we are able to love ourselves we can truly love another. (Center: Divine Nature - connection to the Divine within and all around us)

These five fundamentals are directives for a way of life on the inner and the outer. When we chose to live in this manner we bring sweetness and power to our contribution in this world. So the questions are: Are you willing to care for yourself as you want others to care for you? Will you dare to expose your own secrets and be present and honest with yourself? Will you chose to jump into the greatest adventure of life and learn about yourself so that you will know the world? Will you embrace the challenge of change so that you can transform beyond your wildest imaginings? Are you ready to accept the greatest joy of life, self-acceptance and love and the love of the Divine?

I celebrate your exquisite nature in all that you are and do. Be the magic and miracle that you are in every moment. Stevi

P.S. Next month will be about Peru. For those of you that are going there this summer I invite you to share your experiences with your community.

Summer Solstice is the peak of the solar cycle. In the midst of the longest day of the year, we simultaneously begin our return to the dark half of the year. Summer Solstice is active: it is about doing and expanding, living the dream envisioned in the dreamtime of Winter. The Earth is fertile, and the womb of the Earth Mother grows ripe with life.

In the mythic cycle of the Goddess, the Maiden Goddess experiences the joy of union with Her creative, sexual, sensual Self and begins to manifest Her creations. Thus, this holiday begins the Maiden Goddess's transition to the cycle of the Mother Goddess as Maker/Creatrix.

Honor and celebrate the many ways you manifest the creativity in your life. Regardless of whether a woman (or a man) physically gives birth, she (he) becomes "Mother" when she (he) nurtures, sustains, and protects life, human or other species, through her (his) life's work and activism.

Where is your passionate energy focused in your life? How do you feed your creative fires? How are you a "Mother/Maker?Creatrix"? How do you nurture, sustain, and protect your creations?

excerpt adapted from Women's Rites, Women's Mysteries by Ruth Barrett 2004 published in We'Moon 07

The following items will be on the website in the next week or so.

Archetypes with Pouch: Steve Olminsky has created wonderful representations of the Archetypes of Serpent, Jaguar, Hummingbird and Eagle. They are perfect for your altar and mesa. They come in a lovely leather pouch.

Extraction Crystals . A new shipment of Lemurian Double Terminated Crystals have arrived and will be on-line soon.

DVD's from Possibilities DNA: These are magnificent DVD's that activate your DNA, Abundance Gene, Enchantment Gene, and Axiatonal Connection.

New CD's: Check out the new selection of CD's including Spirit Whistles by John Beaulieu, Synchronicity by Marina Raye and Master Charles Cannon, and many new offering from Jonathan Goldman.

More new items coming soon! Watch for what is new from Peru.

The journey,
The pathway,
The road
Is filled with blocks
and rubble.... The accumulated mind of
many lifetimes.
We must clear the path
To walk again
Through clear,
uncluttered dimensions.
Leave the pretensions and
The masks to fade away.
Shine the light in the darkness
So you can see the way.
Remove the weights
of the burdened heart
And know the part you play.
Walk, walk life's highest way.

Holly has over 30 years experience working with individuals couples and families. Her experience is traditional therapy as well as having a private practice in spiritual direction and healing methods.

She has been trained in ancient Inca shamanic traditions, Chilean sound healing and in other indigenous healing practices. She has training in advanced pranic healing techniques and specializes in teaching practical, powerful skills to help you heal yourself mentally, emotionally, physical and spiritually

Holly is a former wilderness instructor and white water guide and leads expeditions to sacred places internationally. She is an instructor for a yoga influenced exercise program that focuses on core strength.

Holly is an alchemist of the new paradigm-an activator and accelerator of human consciousness. She is a way-shower, a catalyst and cosmic playmate in the new realities. As a cosmic contract facilitator she will help you shift into high gear-into whom you are becoming-helping you define yourself as a dynamic player in the central role as the creator of your own life and your reality. She will help you rematrix your job, your health, home, finances, relationships and YOU. As a cosmic contract facilitator she will help you move to your next step in the divine plan for your life.

We are here on this earth to learn and to teach, to live in abundance of joy, health, happiness, peace and harmony-to walk in our own power and truth, with confidence and courage. Do you want to download a program that can accelerate your potential?? Do you want to refocus on your goals and hopes and wishes for your future--as an individual? As a couple? As a family? Or as a business?

Holly has studied and practiced shamanism for over 20 years. She has studied with Sun Bear, Alberto Villoldo, Americo Yabar, and Luzclara as her primary teachers. She has also studied Hawaiian shamanism under Serge King, and is an advanced pranic healing practitioner having studied under Master Co. Do you want to refocus on your goals and hopes and wishes for your future--as an individual? As a couple? As a family? Or as a business?

Holly's beginning Workshop this fall is Sept. 7-9 South Significance of the Andean Medicine Wheel -a beginning journey of four workshops w/in 12 months.

Oct.19-20-21-07 Soul Retrieval Intensive Weekend

November 2-3-4-07 Advanced Work for those who have completed one year: Mapping the Transformational Journey: clearing ancestral issues, implants, chords and imprints, curses and DNA work. Mapping the journey Home to our Ascension in the Light! and to our passion and purpose on this Earth!

For more information contact: Holly Gray Schuck - Sacred Journeys - 715.520.2582

Willka T'ika - Sacred flower in Quechua , the language of the Andean people - is not a hotel or hostal in the ordinary sense of the world. It was, from its inception, established as a Garden Retreat, and developed as a labor of love by Carol Cumes; in its essence, it is a living dedication to the heritage and spirit of the people of the Andes.

Carol first visited the region in 1984 and was immediately so captivated, that she continued to return, at first, as part of other groups, then bringing friends who were curious about what was captivating her, and this in turn led to the establishment of the travel company - Magical Journey, which today acts as Willka T'ika's International agent. As she became familiar with the people of the Andes, she realized that there was little knowledge or appreciation of their cultural heritage and spiritual practices, or worse, it was being misrepresented, and so she set out to do the research amongst the mountain communities which led to her book, Journey to Machu Picchu - Spiritual wisdom from the Andes. In 1994, she moved to live in the Sacred Valley and began establishing what is today, the unique and very beautiful Willka T'ika Garden Retreat Center.

You meet the people.Staffed entirely by Quechua neighbors, even a simple stay-over, at Willka T'ika, is an introduction to the Andean people. Following one of the Willka T'ika organized programs, provides one with an immersion into the Spirit of the place and its people, unobtainable elsewhere. As we said above: Willka T'ika is not just a hotel or hostal. Our staff see our visitors as guests invited into their home, and are more than happy to share their knowledge of local herbal remedies for anyone suffering from 'travelers' maladies' . Perhaps that is why the word most often used in the very many testimonials that we have in our guest books, is in fact "Home".

In addition programs are arranged so that you may enjoy ceremonies and interaction with healers from remote mountain communities.

Oh the Gardens! The gardens are laid out as 'Seven Sacred Gardens'. Each is dedicated to a different energy center, or chakra, to provide for personal meditation, healing and rejuvenation. The accommodation, merged into the gardens and constructed in colonial style from local materials, has all either been built anew, on an extension to Willka T'ika, Apu T'ika, or completely refurbished in 2005. We have a large sunlit studio, designed for Yoga but which can be used for any practice including concerts with local musicians and dance groups.

Food made from Fresh Ingredients: Meals are vegetarian using mainly ingredients filled with living energy from our organic gardens. The meals have surprised and impressed some very committed non-vegetarians. (We recently had the owner of a butchery, who, after his stay at Willka T'ika, insisted on vegetarian meals everywhere else he went on his Journey.) The standard of meals has been such that after many, many requests, we now have a cookbook available for guests.

Yoga and other Life Enhancing Practices:Largely through word of mouth amongst the Yoga community, Willka T'ika has already established an enviable reputation as a unique and prime center for Yoga teachers and leaders to conduct retreats. Carol, herself, a long time yoga practitioner, realized that the synergistic combination of Andean culture and cosmology with the philosophy and spirituality underlying yoga, could expand peoples' horizons as well as their yoga practice, and so, from the start of the development of Willka T'ika, one of her prime aims was to create a center which would be a healing and spiritual place for yoga teachers to come and teach yoga.

Accomodations, Healing and Rejuvenation: In the 2004/2005 period, Willka T'ika has been extended by the acquisition of an adjoining property on which Apu T'ika (Moutain Flower), a complex of high grade rooms has been built and allowed the extension of the dining facilities and pre-dinner lounge to provide a convivial atmosphere. The remaining Willka T'ika accommodation has been completely refurbished, and all this without detracting from the charm that has made Willka T'ika what it is to so many of our visitors.

New massage facilities have been added, which together with the Solar Baths and Crystal Bed - brought in from the Casa of Juan de Dios in Brazil, and one of the very few outside of that center- as well as the meditation sites in the gardens, provide a range of rejuvenation and healing alternatives.

For more information contact: To request Willka T'ika Guest House rates and availability for groups, small parties and individuals and make reservations, email us at info@willkatika.com By phone: DeForest C. Wayne 888.737.8070 (PST) 415.710.2466 (cell) 415.520.6004 (fax)

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June 21: Summer Solstice Sun in Cancer at 11:06 AM PDT
June 30: Full Moon in Sagittarius at 6:04 PM PDT
July 14: New Moon in Cancer 5:04 AM PDT

June 25-26 & July 2-3: Margaret Rubys Emotional Interference Patterns of DNA. Teleseminar. For more information contact:
Possibilities DNA Vibrational Healing School
123 South Third Avenue, Suite 6 Lake Plaza,
P.O. Box 1928, Sandpoint, ID 83864
208.265.1507 (telephone), 888.711.9962 (toll free)
w208.265.4551 (fax)
ww.possibilitiesdna.com
info@ possibilitiesdna.com

June 25: Elizabeth Jenkins and Juan Nunez del Prado in Sweden. Master class for advanced students. More information: e-mail info@inkaspirit.com.

June 27-July 1: Society of Shamanic Practitioners Annual Conference, Menla Mountain Retreat, Phoenicia, New York. For registration contact: www.shamansociety.org or call 760-586-8252.

June 27-July 2: Elizabeth Jenkins in Sweden. Workshop levels 1-3. For course curriculum, see Workshops. For information and signing up: info@inkaspirit.com.

July 4-9: Elizabeth Jenkins in Germany. Workshop levels 1-3. For course curriculum, see Workshops. For information and signing up: KindKains@gmx.com.

July 22-July 25, 2007: K'uychi's Revelation: Celebrating our Destiny as the Prophesied Rainbow Tribe Summary: The Heart of The Healer (THOTH) Foundation 7th Annual International Gathering. Sacred Valley of the Inkas (Pisaq), Cusco, Peru. Open to all people interested in cross-cultural shamanism and indigenous earth-honoring traditions. Website: www.heartofthehealer.org. Contact: Laurie Friedler at Gathering@heatofthehealer.org or call 877-314-3778

August 14-19: Awaken to the Divine Ordinary - Join Brooke Medicine eagle, Sunny Baba and Renee Baribeau at Blacktail Ranch in MT. Our time together will include: Sweat lodge, Vision Quest, and Small Group Ceremony. $975.00 includes room & board. Call 760-773-5870 or www.deserthealingarts.com

September 9-11: Inka Intiation with Jose Luis, Santa Barbra. This is the second class four . We will conduct a make-up class with Stevi Belle for those wishing to join our Ayllu (community of mesa carriers) $975. includes room and board. Call 760-773-5870 or www.deserthealingarts for more information

September 15 & 16: Oscar Mokeme - African Initiation #2, NEW Make-up for African initiation #1, September 14. For more information contact: www.pachaworks.com or Eva@pachaworks.com,
207-756-0488

September 14 -16: Swami Kaleshwar's upcoming book tour on the "Channels to Mother Divine and Shiva" is now scheduled for in LA and September 18-20th in Santa Cruz. This historic book tour will include rare knowledge that has never been publicly revealed. www.kaleshwar.org

September 21-23: Empowerment -A workshop for Healers -with Dona Flordemayo. She is a member of the International Council of 13 Indigenous Grandmothers. Spirit will decide our itinerary but our agenda may cover; Working with Visions and Dreams, Protection Cleansing the Spiritual Body, Sacred Breath, Invisible Surgery (Please have no expectations of personal work). Cost $425.00. Some scholarships are available. Call 760-773-5870. or www.deserthealingarts.com

October 12: Eva Rose Geotz - Pachaworks: NEW Building a Medicine Body (formally called Medicine Wheel): A 16-Month Apprenticeship in beginning shamanism/April 4-6 West/September 19-21, April 24- 26, 2009. For more information contact: www.pachaworks.com or Eva@pachaworks.com,
207-756-0488

October 18-19: Anneliese Hagemann ~ Core Issue Class " TO OUR HEALTH" and Defining Your "Life's Path / Soul Mission" Class at Peaceful Meadow Retreat,Boulder, CO 303-442-2490 http://www.peacefulmeadowretreat.com For detailed description of classes and workbooks go to classes and sponsors.

This column will be dedicated to the community and its members. It is a space that will gives you the reader an opportunity to get to know other members of our community and to be known yourself. If you would like to be featured or know someone who would like to be please send a short article about what you do and a picture if possible. Please send your article in my the last day of the month. It may not be possible to publish all that is submitted but we will do our best. Also, if you have events that you would like to have highlighted please send them in by the last day of the month.