• At this time, I am ready to receive messages during the day.

• I live my life for the day in awareness, listen to the messages from the Cosmos, and adjust or re-create my life in ways that take them into consideration.

• My messages and experiences are recorded in a daily journal.

Steps 1-6 are preparation for these last three. The first six are completed in less than an hour at the beginning of the day. The last three continue throughout the day. Each day can be a struggle to balance the requirements of being a human being on the planet at this time with The Work. The requirements of being a human being include: : work for pay, care of children or parents, preparation of meals, maintenance of health and a seemingly unending list of other tasks. The Work is participation in the energy and spaces created by the cycles of alchemy in the dimensions of our physical, mental and spiritual lives. Realizing that The Work and life’s requirements are fundamentally the same and can be merged together is the way to create and maintain the balance. This requires awareness, acceptance, energy and persistence. It also requires letting go of the parts of our lives that no longer serve us to make room for the new that does.

I’ve grouped the nine steps this way to keep them in perspective for me:

Steps 1-3: Putting on my lab coat: becoming centered and entering my inner work space

Steps 4-6: Putting on my Cloak of Awareness: opening myself to messages from the Cosmos

Steps 7-9: Doing my Work

Beginning with the Winter Solstice of 2011, I’ve begun a daily journal that includes the messages received each day, the experiences that come from accepting them and the results of my attempts to incorporate them in my life during the next year leading up to the 2012 Winter Solstice. Excerpts from this journal will appear on the Page: December 21, 2012 – a year long effort to let go of my reluctance to be fully in a life that I co-create with the Cosmos.

• I state my openness to messages out loud as a decree rather than a request or a prayer.

• I invite my Spirit Guides to acknowledge and manifest their presence and share the messages they have for me today.

• I draw a Tarot Card.

The first three steps of my Practice center me and create a space that sets the stage for the day. In the next three steps, I acknowledge my readiness to be moved by my intuition, put myself in a position to receive messages from the Cosmos, and take an active step confirming this.

Acknowledging my openness to messages from the Cosmos goes beyond holding this feeling within and creates a receptive energy in the world around me. When I say to someone who I love “I love you” the words energize the space and the moment in time as well as my loved one and me. The words may generate a smile or a hug or change the world around me and open the doors to other possibilities waiting to be birthed. So it is with saying out loud words that convey I am ready to receive messages. We may pray for this experience or simply ask it of the Cosmos. I’ve found the experience to be more powerful if I use a decree, a statement of fact, because it requires me to be fully aware and an active participant in the request. A statement that comes from your core and is a personal truth that can be embraced is the most energizing. Here is the decree I say each morning: “I live a life that unfolds by following the messages from the Source of All Things.”

The stage is now set for me to invite information into my awareness that can help clarify uncertainties, resolve problems or issues, spark our creativity and allow new possibilities in my life. There are many ways to do this. The most effective ones seem to be those that allow a person to become more centered and aware such as: meditating, walking alone in quiet surroundings, journaling or even completing a task that allows us to remain undisturbed and focused. I take an active role and invite my spirit guides individually to send me or make me aware of important messages and use this decree to do so: “I acknowledge the presence of you, my spirit guides, and ask that you share the message you have for me today.” I then call out loud in turn, with quiet space in between, the names of these guides. It is a rare day that no messages come but it does occur. I record the messages that do. Sometimes they are confirmations that leave me nodding my head and others are surprises that leave me shaking my head. They are all meaningful and the stuff I work with in my life.

I’ve now made it clear that I’m open to receive the messages or benefits and gifts the Cosmos has to give me. I also have invited them. Now, I take an active step to confirm this. Once again, there are many ways to do this and everyone has to choose what works best for them. For me, it’s drawing a Tarot card. I do this each day and incorporate its meaning into the active choices I make during the day to receive, interpret and act on my intuition which is being activated by the Cosmos.

The final three steps illustrate one way of doing this.

• I try my best to complete my Practice everyday, usually in the morning.

• In my home, a space – a chair in the corner of my office – is devoted to my daily steps. Away from home, I create similar, temporary spaces.

• Breathing exercises from my previous yoga practice are performed to center my awareness in my body.

These first three steps may not appear as significant and necessary yet they are because they set the stage for the remaining ones. These initial steps create a flow, a space and a focus for the Practice.

The rhythms in our lives impact us more than experiences that happen on an irregular basis. Slowly and subtly, like water shaping rocks in its path, the daily flow of of our existence creates who we are on all levels of our life. Putting daily rhythms in our lives is the first step in creating who we want to be. Yes, there will be days when we forget or unforeseen events take over a day. As time passes though, this new rhythm grows from a trickle to a stream that carries us along.

Spaces are places of energy where our lives unfold – the rock near a stream in our childhood, the kitchen, our car, that favorite vacation spot. We’ve created each of these spaces, sometimes by ourselves and other times by cooperating with what the world offers us. Our Practice will happen in a space too so it’s important to consciously create it. The size and furnishings are not as important as the space itself – it’s the place that you go to establish your Practice each day. This place is mobile. You can take it with you as you travel anchored by a small item such as a mirror or candle. It’s the inner space that’s created which is most important.

Being centered in your space is where your Practice will unfold. You can do this using any method that centers you with awareness – meditating, praying, chanting, physical movement. A simple method repeated each day will quickly open the door to a space where you can begin creating what you want.

The next Steps: 4-6 are about working in your space.

So, just what makes up a Personal Practice? A practice is a series or group of behaviors done on a regular basis. It can be very ritualistic with specific steps completed, often in a space set aside for this, sometimes in a particular order, each day. Or it can be a time and space set aside when convenient to complete a set of behaviors such as meditation or journaling or whatever inspires us that day and time. How spontaneous or ritualistic the practice is matters less than its effectiveness in creating a state of centeredness and awareness. It is this state of mind and being that generates our openness to possibilities which is the essential ingredient for the release of our creativity.

Here are the elements of my Personal Practice that will be described in more detail in following posts.

• I try my best to complete my Practice everyday, usually in the morning.

• In my home, a space – a chair in the corner of my office – is devoted to my daily steps. Away from home, I create similar, temporary spaces.

• Breathing exercises from my previous yoga practice are performed to center my awareness in my body.

• I state my openness to messages out loud as a decree rather than a request or a prayer.

• I invite my Spirit Guides to acknowledge and manifest their presence and share the messages they have for me today.

• I draw a Tarot Card.

• At this time, I am ready to receive messages during the day.

• I live my life for the day in awareness, listen to the messages from the Cosmos, and adjust or re-create my life in ways that take them into consideration.

• My messages and experiences are recorded in a daily journal.

I was ready for the next step. I believed that everything – yes, everything – was alive, co-creation was happening with or without me, and it was going on at every moment. I wanted to join in and all I had to do was say yes, right? Well, no!

It was overwhelming. It reminded me of talking to yourself as you approached the peak of a roller coaster climb and just when you had what you expected under control you went over the top. Immediately, without thought or feeling – or remembering what you had just been telling yourself – you were adding the power of your lungs to the screaming and wailing. “I didn’t buy a ticket for this” was the only cogent thought that went through your head at the time. That pretty much is what it’s like to accept that the Cosmos lives and you can create or invent whatever you want.

You don’t have a choice at the top of the roller coaster climb. You just go with it and you survive – and you want to do it again. This happens when you experience the living Cosmos and the possibilities of your participation in it. You will back away, you will block out the experience the first and the second and maybe many times. But, there is a way to make it more comfortable and more inviting to move forward. It has to do with building and establishing a Practice. Not a practice as in a law practice or a business. A practice as in a personal set of tasks and behaviors that are consistently applied in your daily life. This Personal Practice is your individually tailored and unique set of behaviors that prepares you for remaining centered no matter what happens during each day and allows you to move forward with the realization that you’ve been invited to participate in the creation of the Cosmos and the belief that what you most want will be realized.

This Practice consists of a personally created series of steps that allow you to become centered and balanced. These steps are built on a foundation of who you are, what makes you comfortable now and a method of taking in information that supports this foundation as well as new information that allows you to adjust to your changing wishes and needs. It is not a package of steps you are asked to accept and incorporate in your daily life but one that you put together for yourself. It consists of behaviors such as meditation, exercise, writing in a journal, chanting, listening to music that are relevant to you and help you enter a state of mind that is relaxing, peaceful, centered and energized.

Tomorrow, I will share my Personal Practice as an example of one of the first steps in becoming a Co-Creator with the Cosmos.

Co-creating with the Cosmos is the path of the Reluctant Alchemist. How does co-creating happen? Sounds fantastical if not impossible doesn’t it. Ah…but that is how all adventures begin.

And the beginning for me was the realization that everything in our world is alive. It was not such a big leap when it became apparent the only thing not recognized as living was the Earth herself. Rocks, soil, water, air…….are seen as the stage on which we and all other living creatures act out our lives. Earth’s function is to be available for our use. Once our view of life is expanded to include all we perceive and interact with, however, the world becomes the Cosmos – a living, growing entity. Suddenly, we are a member of a vibrant, interconnected community. Even rocks are part of it. They are just the slowest moving creatures in the world.

In this cosmic community, co-creation is not only possible but happening every moment.

After trying to sort all the choices that are necessary to make it through each day, it seems to me they can be put into one of two boxes. A dear friend of mine, Jack Gibb – author of Trust – saw these boxes as Love & Fear. Actually, Jack would say that all of our thoughts, feelings, actions, reactions and choices came from either a place of love or a place of fear. After living my life with this perspective for some time now, I believe in my heart that he was right. Having to choose between two options isn’t any easier than making a choice from among many but it does add clarity to why a choice is being made. And that is important.

Today, in this time of dramatic, sometimes unbelievable change, I see us being faced with a choice between co-creation and chaos.

Each time I make a decision, one of these perspectives colors it. If I see and feel chaos all around me, I’m afraid, off center, out of touch with my core feelings. I’m moved or driven to make a choice that appears to push that chaotic energy away from me even if this involves making no choice which itself is a decision. I may seek help from others but in this frame of mind their suggestions and attempts to help often reinforce the problems I see – a chance has to be taken to make changes; the world is a risky and dangerous place. So, I try to limit my options to hopefully make my choice easier. Or, I make the same decision made in the past because it is familiar and easy. But in the end, I make the decision alone and it has a familiar characteristic. It results in little or no change.

If I see my world in a different way, as not simply chaotic but one that is continually changing and being created, my options and resources expand tenfold. What’s important about this viewpoint is that the world is seen as continually transforming and creating itself and we are an integral part of it. Yes, the world is chaotic. We only have to look at the images of our solar system and all the unpredictable energies and movements of the planets and other interstellar bodies. Or, we can read the headlines in the news. We’re not separate from this chaotic environment because we’re made up of the same material as the stars and our planet. It’s in our DNA. But, since we are connected to all that exists in our world, we can be partners in its continual creation and re-creation. In fact, this may be our destiny. We cannot assume the place and power of whatever or whoever we believe the Source of All Things to be. We can, though, choose to be a partner in this process and use the energy available in the world to continually co-create it and ourselves. This does require accepting the chaos that is an integral part of our world and ourselves and using this energy to fashion a life that allows us to explore all of who we are, to make a place for ourselves and others that is a loving expression of who we are. This perspective also requires that we have a responsibility – the ability to respond. If we accept this, we will find that we have all the knowledge and tools we need to take the chaos in the world and in ourselves to co-create the world we most want to have. And, if we do this from a place of love rather than fear, we will not be alone.

Chaos or co-creation? My choice is co-creation – the One Choice to make them all.

Shakespeare’s statement: “You’re an alchemist. Make gold of that!” captures the essence of this section of my blog.

I believe we are all alchemists – of a kind – and we all do alchemy – to a degree. Some of us have studied the Art and others have even learned the Practice through an apprenticeship that is essential to becoming a Philosopher of Fire. But, most have not and will not find the Philosopher’s Stone any time soon or, as many hope, create gold to hoard and spend. This type of gold, however, was not what Shakespeare was speaking about and not what we’ll explore in these pages. It is gold of a more valuable and permanent quality – the quickening of our transformation, the perfection and realization of our true selves.

The gold of personal change and transformation has rewards well known enough by all that would seem to motivate anyone to do the work necessary to have them. If we are all alchemists and know how to change ourselves, why then are we reluctant to do so? Perhaps the annual rite of making New Year’s resolutions holds a clue. Most of these resolutions are about transforming ourselves – lose weight, stop smoking, be a better partner or parent, stop being critical of others. But how many people actually accomplished their wish list? The reasons that make achieving these goals so difficult are plentiful and well known – not enough time, unforeseen events, health issues, lack of money. But there is more to the story of failed and discarded New Year’s resolutions. Beyond these obstacles and issues, which appear to be manageable with determination and support from others, are other challenges. They are larger and some darker. They are the stuff of the stories of mystery and adventure. There are monsters, caves with guarded treasures, allies and enemies. Our experience of them is what gives us pause and leaves us hesitant to reach for our greatest desires.

It’s the tales of the adventures of The Reluctant Alchemist, that begin this first day of the year 2012, which will explore what we must face and what we can do to claim our destiny and our complete selves.