It has been a very long time since I wrote a blog article. I have been busy teaching and traveling to teach. I am very happy to be able to sit down and write this post.

I love this time of year — The Autumn Equinox. The weather is more moderate with warm afternoons and cooler nights. It is almost sweatshirt weather during the day. You can just barely feel a coldness at the end of a breeze.

Taking time to clean out closets, the basement and garage feels like we are preparing for the coming winter. The maple trees around our home are beginning to change into their colorful coats and even some are losing their leaves already. Even my teaching schedule is starting to wind down. I am teaching next week a space clearing 6 day certification course, a drum making workshop in the state of New York November 1 and my last drum making workshop in Wisconsin (Aquarian Gardens in New Lisbon)November 8. After that last drum making workshop, I will be snuggling in for the winter as I prepare for the 2009 courses.

I love what Ted Andrews wrote in his book Nature Speak about the Autumn Equinox.  He calls the Autumn Equinox the Beginning the Hero’s Journey.  This is the time of year that is about endings and beginnings.  This is a time of new starts as we clean out the old.  We have a harvest this year.  We had an abundant year of inner work, peace, solitude and joy.

As we begin the Hero’s Journey, I am planning gardens for the next growing season. I am planning my courses for 2009 and setting dates.I will continue to teach certification courses in Interior Alignment™ (instinctive feng shui and space clearing), guiding Rainbow, 12 Gifts and A Song™ ascension groups, teaching sacred geometry,drum making, Medicine Wheel Feng Shui and Space Clearing™, Beauty Space and Balance Advanced Space Clearing, and holding the Sacred Space Fellowship August 2009.

Thanks for reading Between the Beats.

Blessed Autumn Equinox,
Neshi

All Rights Reserved. Yvette Neshi Lokotz, Copyright September 2008.

At the Great Lakes Retreat held at Olivet College in July, I presented the first class on Medicine Wheel Feng Shui and Space Clearing. This was a overview class that laid out the basics.

I covered the characteristics of the four directions of the Medicine Wheel using my Potwatomi culture and also drawing from my Interior Alignment training. Since we had a short 2 hours to cover the information, I felt like I was a stone thrown to skip on a lake. I could only hit so many hit spots within the material I brought with me.

I laid a Medicine Wheel drawing over a drawing of my property and home to show how the areas of the Medicine Wheel effect the different areas of my property. Using the compass directions to locate east, south, west and north to lay the medicine down. My drive way (mouth of life force of the property) lays in the southeast as well as the front door of my home. The energies of the east are air, new beginnings, birth, spring, male, and yellow.

As we walked the Medicine Wheel in a clockwise fashion, we walk to toward the south. The energies of the South carry abundance, fast growth, youth, water, summer, female and black. Walking toward the West energies we come to adulthood, harvest, fire, male and red. The energies of the North are about completion, elderly, death, rebirth, earth, female and white.

I had so much fun showing how the Medicine Wheel energies line up with different parts of my property. We also talked about the similiarities to Chinese feng shui. In Medicine Wheel Feng Shui we still have life force energy or chi moving in a clockwise fashion through a space, we still have clutter effecting the flow of the life force energy, we still have to balance the nature elements, we still have the mouth of chi or life force energy, and we still have the balancing of male/female energies (yin/yang). The major differences are between the use of the 5 element theory (air, water, wood earth, metal) and 4 element (air, water, fire and earth), locating how the energetic map (bagua or Medicine Wheel) is laid over a property, and the qualities of the four directions rather than the guas of the bagua.

I can’t wait to teach this course again and to use Medicine Wheel feng shui with my next client.

Blessings, Neshi.

All Rights Reserved. Copyright, Yvette Neshi Lokotz, August 2008.

As the New Moon Solar Eclipse comes and goes today, leaving behind the energy of going from darkness to light and from old to new, I too feel a sense of completion.

I returned home from a week of teaching at the annual Great Lakes Retreat in Olivet Michigan. I taught a drum making workshop, I also taught a single session about Medicine Wheel Feng Shui and Space Clearing - Harmonizing, and also presented a lecture about my Medicine Dress. I love to teach, to share information and be a witness to others spiritual growth.

I have actually been off line for a month to six weeks. As I prepared for the Beauty Space and Balance Advance Space Clearing course which I co-taught with Deb Swingholm and Minnie Kansman in June, I took a week to finish preparations for the Great Lakes Retreat travel and course material. I had held energetic space for both teaching venues for almost a year and now that both are completed, I feel a huge sense of personal completion. Today, I am cleaning off my desk (yes, I can finally see the top of my desk) feeling like I should be doing something, much like when I finished my Masters degree course. After a few years of juggling a full time job, family, and an accelerated Master’s degree course, I had lots of time to myself when I completed the degree — time on my hands.

This sense of completion reminds of the journey through the Medicine Wheel. I began both teaching projects in the Eastern portion of the Wheel where birth and new beginnings occure. As the projects began to come together, building energy, I walked the Wheel through the south and young adulthood. As I moved the teaching projects to the West energies and experiencing the abundance of the south with the sense of harvest from the west energies, the courses came to fruition and completion. As I file away notes and copies of course information, I feel the energies of the North and dormancy as we begin to gathering energies to begin germinating seeds for the next teaching dates for both Beauty Space and Balance and also the Great Lake Retreat for 2009.

Its good to be home and turning my energy towards the upcoming Feng Shui and Space Clearing certification courses I am teaching in September, turning my enery toward the short story I am writing about the Drum Mother for a new book called The Wisdom We Gained, and also spending time with my family.

I am looking forward to writing blog posts both for Two Feathers and Where Energy Flows.

Migwiitch for reading Between the Beats. Blessings, Neshi.

All Rights Reserved. Copyright, Yvette Neshi Lokotz, August 2008.

Listening to gentle rain fall on the roof as you are drifting off to sleep or to feel the ahhhh as you soak in a hot tub of water you feel the comfort from the Spirit of Water. The Spirit of Water can be so soothing and relaxing. Here in Wisconsin we have had a little too much water as rain and severe weather has brought the cleansing and clearing aspect of the Spirit of Water.

My state has been in the national news this past week due to flooding and the failure of dams or levees. We have had a lot of rain in the past few days. The most watched video of the flooding is the result of the water in Lake Delton drain after exploding through an earthen levee. In the video there are houses being torn from their foundations and float away into the Wisconsin River as the lake drained into the river.

I grew up in Wisconsin Dells and know Lake Delton well. I heard about the disaster at Lake Delton within an hour of the levee failure. The news traveled much like the water draining out of the lake…fast and furious. My husband and I drove down to the city of Lake Delton which is about an hour south of where we currently live to see for ourselves. It was sad and surreal.

We have fond memories of Lake Delton. We both worked at a giftshop/museum called Parson’s Indian Trading Post. We met and fell in love here. Paul’s family owned a summer home not too far from Lake Delton near the Wisconsin River. I worked in the “Little Post” located in Tommy Bartlett’s Water Show. I learned how to waterski on this lake to impress by new boyfriend who was to become my husband. Seeing the drained lake felt much like a friend’s death. Their passing marks a new chapter and in this case a whole new book.

As I thought about all these memories and knowing Spirit of Water, I had to consider that maybe this “disaster” is really nature balancing it self. The Wisconsin Dells/Lake Delton area changed so much over the last few decades. It went from a place where people vacationed to be close to nature to a place where people vacation to play in water parks, miniture golf and enjoy carnival type rides. There is a lot of concrete and black top. There is also a lot of hotel and motels to house all those coming to vacation. Once a long time ago, vacationers came to stay in lodges along the Wisconsin River and enjoy the quiet beauty of the sandstone bluffs, eagles, deer and of course watch the Native American dances.

The Spirit of Water is both gentle and powerful. As we can see it can be a major player in a space clearing. In the Medicine Wheel the Spirit of Water is one of the four elements and resides in the south winds or the west winds depending on the belief system of many Native American Nations. The spirit of Water represents or symbolizes emotions.

I pray that those affected by the recent flooding be blessed with a multitude of angels that can help them heal and find peace as they continue on the soul’s journey. I also pray that nature finds its balance gently and easily for the highest good of all.

Thank you for reading Between the Beats. Blessings, Neshi.

All Rights Reserved. Copyright, Yvette Neshi Lokotz, June 2008.

Come join us at a Spiritual Gathering in Olivet Michigan for the Great Lakes Retreat….Where Heaven and Earth Meet. I will be presenting Sacred Drum Making, overview of Medicine Wheel Feng Shui and the story of my Healing Dress at the Great Lakes Retreat this year.

The Great Lakes Retreat begins on Sunday, July 20, 2008 and ends on Friday, July 25, 2008. We are meeting at Olivet College in Olivet Michigan. (www.thegreatlakesretreat.org)

My good friend and collegue Minnie Kansman is also presenting at the Retreat. She is presenting on her book Spirit Gardens: Rekindling our Nature Connection,as well as Fairy Houses and Altars.

I am looking forward to teaching at the Great Lakes Retreat and to spend time with friends. If you are looking for a week where you can learn about spiritual topics, rest, relax and have fun….register by going the Great Lakes Retreat website. See you there!

Have you ever seen an Elk calf? We recently had the rare opportunity to assist our state Dept. of Natural Resources (DNR) in their annual calf count and tagging. I was so excited to be on this outing. We volunteered to walk parts of the incredible Chequamegon National Forest in Northern Wisconsin to look for newly born Elk calf.

The Chequamegon Elk herd in Wisconsin is about 150 in number with about 20 new calves this year. Not all calves will make it to adulthood as the natural life cycle is honored.

Elk are one of the largest of the deer family, only the moose is larger than the elk. Calves are born at the end of May to early June and weigh on average 30-35 pounds. Calves are born with spots just like whitetail deer. Their spots fade by late summer. The spots help to hide them to keep them safe from predators. This camoflage works very well as the baby elk blend into the forest floor.

We found only one male elk calf that weighed 39 pounds and was two days old. I was able to take a couple of pictures but not touch the baby due to leaving human scent. The DNR staff were very gentle with the calf as they took weight, age and gender information. They cover the calf’s eyes so not to cause more trauma and fright.

We also were graced with seeing a herd of 17 adult elk. In the picture you can see the tracking collars that the DNR uses to manage the herd. Seeing these large animals crossing in front of me in my home state was exciting and humbling all at the same time. I felt a surge of energy being so close to Elk Medicine.

According to Ted Andrews, Animal Speak, Elk medicine is of strength and nobility. Elk also teach us how to pace ourselves. Elk are vegetarians eating mostly grasses and vegetation. Those with Elk medicine do well with vegetarian diets as they may feel stronger, stress levels lessen and stamina increases.

We find deer in the Medicine Wheel at the Southeast winds from May 21-June 20. This is known as the Flowering Time. Elk and Deer give birth during this time frame so this part of the Medicine Wheel has the birth totem of Deer. Deer blend into their environment and are sensitive to sound and to movement. This sensitivity makes Deer people sensitive, alert and fast moving. Those with Deer Birth totem can be compassionate and understanding. Although, they may not always be attentive listeners as their minds race so quickly and jump from one subject to another. Deer also tend to herd with the same gender so they feel more comfortable in a community of their same sex peers.

According to Ken Meadows author of Earth Medicine, Flowering Time is the last cycle of the spring season. This part of the Medicine Wheel is compared to the time of youth growing into adulthood. This is a time of information seeking to gain knowledge, but understanding the knowledge comes at a later time in the Medicine Wheel. Flowering Time is a time of expanding awareness and to exercise intuition in order to comprehend things beyond the physical senses. This is a time of transition from spring to summer when trees are in full leaf and flowers are blossoming.

Thank you for reading Between the Beats. Blessings, Neshi.

All Rights Reserved. copyright, Yvette Neshi Lokotz, June 2008.

Spring and The Growing Time  April 20 to May 20

The Medicine Wheel holds and reflects earth energies all through the year. The Medicine Wheel is an energy map that is intricately connected to the energies of the earth. Within these earth energies are animal, plant, mineral, water and air. We walk the Medicine Wheel and experience those energies represented around the life wheel. As in Western astrology there are energies that represent a time of birth.

We are at the cardinal direction of the East. Of course each tribal nation has slight differences as to what energies are represented in each direction.  My Interior Alignment™ training and understanding of the East is that it represents the Spirit of Air.  This is also the area of mental thoughts. The East is spring time, new and rebirth.  It is a time when plants and trees are budding their leaves and spring blossoms and reminds of the color green. From my cultural understanding the East represents the Creator as this brings the sun and a new day.  The East represents the new and rebirth. The direct cardinal direction of the East represents the element of earth, a time of consolidating and the color yellow.

Understanding your birth totem and your clan totem can help you to understand how your home can support you and balance your energies. If you are born between April 20 and May 20 your energies are represented by Beaver as your birth and animal totem. The Beaver is a land mammal that can swim and stay underwater for long periods of time. The energy of Beaver is one of productivity and practical. They are an engineer and architect who can transform the environment to provide comfort and safety. The essence of Beaver is a hard worker, they are always busy with the purpose of security and contentment. Beaver people are adaptive and creative and good at constructing and reconstructing both on the physical and emotional planes. Beaver people are quick to learn and good with their hands and minds.

The Beaver’s elemental clan is Turtle and represents the earth. People of the Turtle clan feel a strong need to establish a stable base or home from which to operate from — to put down roots. The Turtle clan is persistent and tenacious when in balance they achieve great progress and establish solid achievements.

In Medicine Wheel Feng Shui an earth home is natural and organic. It is a home that honors the earth.  You might find natural fabrics, oversized cushions, Native American blankets or a drum hanging on the wall. An earth home is the most sensual home of all the elements. It is a home that satisfies all your senses (sight, hearing, smell and touch).  You may want to have a picture or statue of a beaver or turtle to honor your totems.

What part of your home resides in the East? Were you born in the Growing Time? Does your home balance your energies? These are good questions to start understanding how Medicine Wheel Feng Shui can assist you.

All Rights Reserved. Copyright, Yvette Neshi Lokotz, May 2008.

As we approach a very powerful time of year, I feel the renewed energy of growth and new beginnings. A time of exhilaration as I feel the desire to play hooky and spend time outdoors.

The Spring Equinox marks a balance point of time when energy starts to rise as experienced through tree sap rising and beginning to flow. We also see maple trees being tapped for their sap and we look forward to (okay drool) the maple syrup and candy to made.  This time of year we balance an egg on its end which is a visual of the balanced energies on the exact Equinox.  The Spring Equinox is a time of balanced male and female energies found in the changing and new beginnings.  From a feng shui perspective this can be seen as a balancing of the element of water and the element of fire.

The Spring Equinox comes from the place of the crosswinds on the Medicine Wheel.  The north-east direction celebrates the end of winter and the arrival of spring when everything comes back to life and awakens.

The Spirit, wind, of the East is the influencing wind during this time.  We can begin to feel the aliveness in the breeze and smell the aroma of Mother Earth as the cycle of rebirth begins. We can feel the faster moving energies that come with the equinoxes.

On the Medicine Wheel, the birth totem for March 21-April 19th is the Falcon. Kenneth Meadows, author of Earth Medicine, writes that Falcon people learn the life lesson of adaptability without compromising their ideals and principles.  They spread their wings as a symbol of new ideas and experiences.

Ted Andrews states in Nature Speaksthat the Spring Equinox is a timie to focus on conscious transmutation. I believe this means taking time to become aware of what needs to be changed in your life.

You may consider taking some time to sit in quietness for some time outdoors and consider if there is anything in your life that you would like to transmute, balance, birth as a new project. 

May your Spring Equinox bring you many blessings.  Neshi

All Rights Reserved.Copyright, Yvette Neshi Lokotz, March 2008.

Winter Solstice       

Awakening the Magician Dec 21-23

According to Ted Andrews in his book Nature Speak, the Winter Solstice is a time to slow down outer activities, deeper medications, strong angel contact, intuition, healing, new birth, emotions and dream work.

He also writes that Archangel Gabriel – Giving Birth to Feminine Energies, Creative Energies is the primary angelic realm for the Winter Solstice.  Gabriel is known as the archangel of Love and Hope.  Gabriel assists in the purifying, elevating, and spiritualizing of humanity.  Gabriel is the guardian of the sacred waters of life – the seed and the egg in the male and female.

“Winter Solstice triggers a time in which the Inner Light is kindled in spite of outer darkness.  It is a time to give birth to and awaken the higher self.  Spiritual impulse is born anew within us, adding light and strengthening the love principle within our life.” Ted Andrews

As I consider what Ted wrote about Archangel Gabriel, I connect this wisdom to sacred geometry and ascension information. In sacred geometry the Vesica Piscis is the overlapping of two circles.  In the overlapped portion is the divine energy of Light. When the energy of Light is brought forth, is the balancing of male and female energies (Mer).

In sacred geometry the overlapping of circles creates the Fruit of Life, the Tree of Life and ultimately the Flower of Life also known as the Seed of Life.  The building blocks of all life are found within the Flower of Life known as Metatron’s Cube.  I find it fascinating that Archangel Gabriel is the guardian of the sacred waters as this Archangel is also known for being the announcer of divine messages.

Sowing of seeds for the coming year: These seeds are seeds of abundance, prosperity, love and illumination.

As I consider the link between Ted Andrews’s perspective and that of the Medicine Wheel, I begin to think about how it feels to be in that place of between.  Right now we are in that energy of what the Celtic Ancients called Betwixt and Between (where magic occurs).  When contemplating the Medicine Wheel, the Winter Solstice (and the Summer Solstice) ride the cross winds of the Wheel.  These cross winds are like a switch that brings change – a pause between a change in Nature.  When I think about this pause, it feels like the top or bottom of a full breath.  When at the top or bottom of the breath it is the time when we are either about to inhale or about to exhale — change.

Solstices are opportune times to bring completion of what has gone before and to fix intentions for what will come as we plant the seeds that seem to be dormant but are gathering strength to push through the soil in the Spring.  The Winter Solstice is the time to go within and sort out what intentions will be brought forth.

In Kenneth Meadows book, Earth Medicine, the wind is North North West (NNW) on the Medicine Wheel—Renewal Time.   The north winds encourage patience and inward growth, a renewal of the mind and body.  The north winds also assist to establish intent and purpose.  The north is the direction of the mind and things in the mind – knowledge and wisdom.

The Goose is the Birth and Animal Totem for the NNW December 22 through January 19.  Those born under the Goose Totem have imaginative minds, a great Dreamer.As we prepare to exhale that full breath on December 22, Winter Solstice, we are at the place to begin to dream about the coming year and what we would like to create.

May your Winter Solstice, Yule Tide, Christmas, Hanukkah or Kwanza be loving and joyful.  Many Blessings, Neshi.

On this day of Thanksgiving, I am contemplating how families celebrate this U.S. holiday.  The Thanksgiving Day celebration may have a “traditional” turkey dinner with football on the television or the “traditional” turkey dinner with grownups sitting at one table and children at another.  Some families remember to include gratitude when they say grace and some families are content with just being with family and their gratitude is silent.

In my family, we are a blend of cultures (North American Native American, Aztec, German, and French) we typically have celebrated this American holiday together but not necessarily for the “traditional thanksgiving dinner”.   Yes, we gather for a very large meal and yes, there may be a small turkey on the table (usually a wild harvested turkey), but we also have enchiladas, venison roast, tofu, fry bread, cranberries, wild rice and bread stuffing.  A virtual smorgasbord table of culturally diverse food fills our table.

The thanksgiving begins much earlier than the meal itself.  Some of my family members will give tobacco in the morning, some will go to church, some will be out deer hunting and communing with nature.  The sacredness of this Thanksgiving Holiday actually is year round, as my mother taught her children to give thanks to the Creator for our lives, for what we have in our lives and for our family every day. 

As, I reflect on my family’s way of celebrating Thanksgiving Day, and how I personally observe gratitude, I turn to the Medicine Wheel for a deeper understanding of this time of the year.  This year, Thanksgiving Day holiday falls in the energy of the West of the Medicine Wheel, specifically during The Frost Time - October 23-November 22.

The Frost Time Totem or birth animal is the Snake.  Snake medicine according to Kenneth Meadows, Earth Medicine, learn about patience and allow their many ideas to build in energy before sharing them with others-the art of timing.  This Birth Totem correlates with the Western Astrology sign of Scorpio.  According the Ancients, Snake is the protector of Mystery Schools, guarding access to knowledge and wisdom.

The Power Animal for the Spirit of the West is the Grizzly Bear, who is self sufficient with a profound strength that comes from within.  The Grizzly Bear hibernates in the winter and makes careful preparation during the autumn for the long sleep ahead.  The Grizzly symbolizes the energy of the West for preparation and for gathering within which can be seen as a human’s gathering of information and self knowledge.

The energy of the West brings our awareness to our physical bodies, things that are solid and holds energy.  The holding of energy is regarded by the Ancients as a reflective pause between the transfer of giving and receiving. The Celtic people called this the Betwixt and Between, where magic occurs.  In my imagination, I imagine the pause being like the top of a cleansing breath. 

As spirit with physical bodies, humans can use the energy of the West to get things organized with clear directions, like the Grizzly preparing for the coming time to draw our energies in for the Long Nights Time.  As we gather our energies, our thoughts, our knowledge we can give thanks for how the Universe/Creator provides all that we need.

May you be blessed with a bountifully abundant Thanksgiving day.

Copyright, All rights Reserved, Neshi Lokotz, November 2007