Breaking the Hypnosis of Fear

There's an old shamanic adage: where you place your attention, there goes your co-creating power. Human beings are prayer-making creatures. We make prayers all the time, though we often call it daydreaming, musing, or being lost-in-thought. One simple way to shift your energies is to put some focused attention on these two prayers.

Option 1: Cleansing the attachment to fear
We are swimming in fear, and fear is like a glue that keeps us attached to the things that we need to let go of. It goes very hard on us when we are hypnotized by fear. When we feel "stuck," it is usually because of the old glue of fear. 

When I was in second grade, my family moved from the inner city of Denver, out to the gleaming suburbs. My mother frequently found me in the basement swinging a spoon back and forth in front of my eyes, mumbling, "You're back in the old house…you’re back in the old house…"

Many people are doing this right now, spurred on by the hypnotists in charge. And it's going to be very hard on them, because there is no going back; there is only going into a fantasy of what things used to be. Conspiracy theories are grounded in abstract fears that harden into bizarre reality for the one walking that ever-darkening road. Conspiracy theories are a twisted form of prayer-making, of asking Spirit to incrementally help you manifest the darkest world you can imagine. 

It's easy to stay glued to the news, and to the anger or schadenfreude on social media, like eating small doses of gloom-sugar all day long.

All of this is completely understandable, because we are in a time of great uncertainty and we are all seeking something to help us make sense of things, some kind of solid ground to stand on, and some way we can bring some control back to life. And I'm not claiming to be free of any of this.

But there are options, and Spirit can help us. This profound time we are in offers us two opportunities for creativity, and creativity is the antidote to fear.

Fear comes from our animal bodies, and it is a natural response to uncertainty. It helps a lot to just remember that - there's no shame in feeling fear because it's wired into us to keep us alive. However, it's good to remember that we are more than our animal body, and we really don't have to let fear hypnotize us.

Asking Spirit to "help me release my attachment to fear" is a potent action right now, in this three days of the new moon of January. Note the wording: it's not "Spirit, take my fears away" it's asking to be released from hypnosis. You'll need to do your own part by putting down the spoon you are swinging in front of your eyes.

The Old Bone Mother of the Celtic tradition is an ally in the work of releasing, as she comes to gather the energies and structures in the world (inner and outer) that need to be taken away so that space opens up for new life to emerge. You can ask for her to help, in prayers or meditations or visualizations. A word of caution: when the rational mind begins to chatter that this is all a waste of time, remember, that's just a cover to allow the small mind to continue visualizing the looming disaster, reinforcing the fear, and offering us (often false) ways to feel in control. The small mind wants to keep us locked in the hypnosis of fear. So bring some balance to this "negative prayer work" that is already occurring inside you.

The spirits in nature are always ready to help. You can ask the cold air of winter to come, or that incredible bright winter sun, or the bare tree branches, or the fire inside the belly of the mother earth, or those sharp winter stars to help you dissolve the glue of fear. What powers do they have? The cold wind can make the fear brittle so it slakes off. The bright sun can evaporate the fears. The bare branches are our teachers in letting go. The stars are like scissors. Ask them in these kinds of words to help release old fear attachments. You have so much help in this. Ask the spirit of cleansing winter to snap loose the calcified energies of fear that hypnotize you and keep you attached to old ways that are no longer useful in the emerging world.

Goddesses of destiny and fate – the weavers and spinners of the next shape of life - are often celebrated in mid-January (for example, the Scandinavian Norns and the Greek Moirai).Finally, at the end of the month, the super-goddess, Brigid of the Celtic world emerges to infuse us with inspiration. I'll be offering some beautiful work with Brigid soon.

The prayer to these Mothers of the New Shape can be as simple as "infuse me with inspiration." That word, inspiration, is shorthand for the delight of the new shape emerging, the regenerative power of the warmth stirring in the belly of the great mother that is always birthing the new into this world. Ask the Mothers of the east to protect you while in labor, and help you replace old attachments with new curiosity and vision.

These two prayers made at this time can shift your underlying energy and feed the emergence of new energies. 

Blessings of the Mothers of Healing and Inspiration be yours. ​