Gandalf and Yoda Go Out On a Coffee Date!!!

Posted on July 30, 2019 by Rod's World

I went to a men’s workshop on the weekend called Isle of Men with 160 of my brothers who are interested in becoming better men for themselves, their partners, their children their lovers, their parents, their siblings, in fact, everybody in their lives. There are strict confidentiality clauses that mean we cannot mention who is there without their direct permission, so today I am writing about what we looked deeply into, the four male archetypes of Warrior, Lover, Magician and King but specifically The Magician as what I discovered about myself rocked my soul.

Carl Jung understood archetypes as universal, archaic patterns and images that derive from the collective unconscious and are the psychic counterpart of instinct. They have inherited potentials which are actualised when they enter consciousness as images or manifest in behaviour on interaction with the outside world. They are autonomous and hidden forms which are transformed once they enter consciousness and are given particular expression by individuals and their cultures. In Jungian psychology, archetypes are highly developed elements of the collective unconscious. The existence of archetypes can only be inferred indirectly from stories, art, myths, religions, or dreams.

Before we move on, let’s be clear about something. Archetypes aren’t personality types. Jung didn’t think you could classify a person as a specific archetype. A man can’t take a test to tell him that he’s a “Shadow.” Instead, the archetypes are simply patterns of behaviour and thought, or “energies” that can be found in all people in varying degrees.

I am in a program called Warriors of Love so had some understanding of the psyche of the warrior archetype and have been on a journey recently with my lover archetype over the last year so was grateful for the insights I received, but when we got to the magician archetype the skill of the facilitator to use stories, art and myths was so much next level it shook me out of my hubris as to what is possible in one’s creative life.

The Magician archetype is summed up by Robert L. Moore,

Moore is probably most widely known as the senior author, with Douglas Gillette, of a series of five books on the in-depth structure of the male psyche, drawing on the account of the archetypal level of the human psyche developed by C. G. Jung.

King, Warrior, Magician, Lover: Rediscovering the Archetypes of the Mature Masculine is an introductory overview of four key sources of energy at the archetypal level of the human psyche.
The King Within: Accessing the King in the Male Psyche centres on the most important and most difficult source of energy for men to access.
The Warrior Within: Accessing the Knight in the Male Psyche centres on the source of energy that boys and men usually learn how to access relatively early in life, but it takes time and effort to learn how to access the optimally mature form of this source of energy in the human psyche.
The Magician Within: Accessing the Shaman in the Male Psyche centers on another form of energy that boys and men usually learn how to access at a relatively early age, but, once again, it takes time and effort to learn how to access the optimally mature form of this source of energy in the human psyche.
The Lover Within: Accessing the Lover in the Male Psyche centres on a very tricky source of energy in the human psyche.

as “All knowledge that takes special training to acquire is the province of the Magician energy. Whether you are an apprentice training to become a master electrician and unravelling the mysteries of high voltage; or a medical student, grinding away night and day, studying the secrets of the human body and using available technologies to help your patients; or a would-be stockbroker or a student of high finance; or a trainee in one of the psychoanalytic schools, you are in exactly the same position as the apprentice shaman or witch doctor in tribal societies. You are spending large amounts of time, energy, and money in order to be initiated into rarefied realms of secret power. You are undergoing an ordeal testing your capacities to become a master of this power. And, as is true in all initiations, there is no guarantee of success.”

It is in the last words of his description “there is no guarantee of success” that shook my soul so greatly. He weaved his magic on the crowd, reading and changing the content of his presentation as to what he felt would empower the gathered men moment to moment. I had forgotten I used to have this ability too.

So what has been spoken about the magician archetype over the centuries? Here are some of the most powerful things I could find:

1. What is in the Magician toolbox you are given at the beginning of your training, an ample sprinkling of pixie dust.

2. Envy and Competition, the two great destroyers of a child’s inner creativity: Jealous Guy.

3. Definition of righteousness

1: acting in accord with divine or moral law: free from guilt or sin

2a: morally right or justifiable a righteous decision

b: arising from an outraged sense of justice or morality righteous indignation

4. Danielle says to live your life from your Core Desired Feelings, and master them as you do in your magician archetype: Don’t Believe a Word.

5. During the Magician process, the facilitator created moments of the purest joy for the participants.

6. Ben Okri OBE FRSL is a Nigerian poet and novelist. Okri is considered one of the foremost African authors in the post-modern and post-colonial traditions and has been compared favourably to authors such as Salman Rushdie and Gabriel García Márquez: Look Away.

7. After Sunday, I do have to agree with this statement.

8. I don’t think any of the men arrived there thinking we would take part in a classic mosh pit, we did: Mosh Pit.

9. A trick in all magicians toolkits, the ability to walk through doors.

10. Escher was possibly the greatest at this. Maurits Cornelis Escher was a Dutch graphic artist who made mathematically-inspired woodcuts, lithographs, and mezzotints. Despite wide popular interest, Escher was for long somewhat neglected in the art world, even in his native Netherlands. He was 70 before a retrospective exhibition was held. In the twenty-first century, he became more widely appreciated, with exhibitions across the world: Its Magic.

11. I included this just to remind you of the power of mandalas.

12. Thank You, mystery facilitator: Touching My Soul.

13. I definitely had this done for me on Sunday.

14. Outside the ordinary rules of life, Yes Please: Shout.

15. And our final lesson from Johny Carson, that we all have the magician in us at the start, some of us just forget it.

There are two main roles that the energy of the Magician flow through—the initiate and the initiator. Or in other words, the mentee and the mentor.

As we just discussed, Magician energy drives us to obtain hidden knowledge. But contrary to the popular adage about professional magicians—that they never reveal their tricks—a man truly animated by the mature Magician archetype is eager to turn around and share what he has learned with others. He desires to elevate the serious and earnest seeker to his level.

This is why the lack of magician energy in modern culture is really at the heart of the issues many men are having today. There is a lack of mature men who have made a rite-of-passage themselves available to initiate other men into the “secret knowledge” of manhood. Dads and granddads, uncles and cousins, used to teach their sons and other young men how to act, dress, and behave like a man. But a lot of men have grown up without such a mentor these days and thus feel lost, directionless, and adrift. Its time we stopped this.

Today’s playlist is all masculine. We begin with one of my all-time favourite tunes by Donny Hathaway. Then two of the four rock bands, Thin Lizzy and Big Country. Flosstradamus provides a rap tune next, then some magic from Pilot. The penultimate tune is by Axel Rudi Pell and we finish with Tears for Fears: Gandalf and Yoda Go Out On a Coffee Date.

On Sunday I saw what the possibility of Love and Respect for All, Everybody Included being the major theme can provide. Until next time we meet, my dear friends. If you enjoyed this, don’t forget to sign up to receive an email reminder when each blog is written.

You Were Born An Original Work Of Art!!

Posted on July 4, 2019 by Rod's World

I am a Warrior of Love, It’s a 12-month long training program that allows you to live your life from Essence/Lifeforce instead of the identity we have built up over our lifetime. this is the link to my mentors’ school: Living as Essence.

My Essence is Unlimited Intimacy, recently as I search for it I have entered the shadowland where it does not exist in my life. My identity has taken me to many dark places over time as my solution is to wish it would go away, definitely not to spend time hanging out with it which is what Arion, my mentor sees as the way into healing and that I also intrinsically know is the way.

I write daily love memes and original Inner Pilot Light prose on my Facebook Newsfeed and have been given two opportunities recently to receive intimacy from two women I rather fancy as possible partners. The first put a heart on a love meme that spoke about being authentically loved. My reaction was to go into deep shadow thoughts about why would she do that and construct a maze around any possibility… I took this to my weekly session and did some work on sitting with the possibility versus rejecting it without any evidence as to it being a possibility. This morning I wrote the following

Dearest Rod,

You try SO hard to be perfect. But how do you think life will be better if you’re perfect?

Don’t you realize that your imperfections make you adorable? Just think what a beast you’d be if you were some Stepford person?

Freckles decorate a face.

Scars suggest a life well risked.

Mistakes make you relatable.

And holes in your jeans give others a place to sneak in tickles.

Relax your perfectionism, darling, and celebrate your glorious imperfections.

I sure do,

Your Inner Pilot Light.

About 10 minutes later a heart emoji appeared underneath it, this time I thanked the person and wished her well on her overseas travel, a slightly different reaction from an entirely different space. Who knows what will happen in either case but it appears shadow work frees up possibilities.

So what have our philosophers and society said about hanging out in shadowland over the centuries? Here is what Jung and his cohorts have said:

1. Shadow and Light, they travel together. Sometimes we forget this.

2. They travel together to remind us that we have a choice moment to moment: So Small.

Walt Whitman
Walt Whitman, 1887
Born	Walter Whitman May 31, 1819 West Hills, New York, U.S.
Died	March 26, 1892 (aged 72) Camden, New Jersey, U.S.

Signature

Walt Whitman was an American poet, essayist, and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse.

4. I think this 17th Century poet, critic, philosopher and theologian is pointing to our building up the strength of our stories as being the truth as we get older: Faded.

5. That smudgy name is the renowned Brene Brown. What if we were not afraid of our fears, but saw all opportunities as joyful?

6. I would definitely agree with this, on my three-month silent meditation retreat I spent the first two months quietening my mind and all the ways it thought I was doing it wrong: Bette Davis Eyes.

7. For one with such fame not much is known of his health issues. He produced the majority of his work from the age of 34 to 44. In 1889 at age 44, he suffered a collapse and afterwards, a complete loss of his mental faculties. He lived his remaining years in the care of his mother until her death in 1897 and then with his sister Elisabeth Förster–Nietzsche. Nietzsche died in 1900.

8. How we label our shadows sometimes, good sense: Pablo Picasso.

9. To dismantle them you must enter them.

10. Which included her shadow and her light: Song for Frida Kahlo.

11. Marcel Proust, was a French novelist, critic, and essayist best known for his monumental novel À la recherche du temps perdu (In Search of Lost Time; earlier rendered as Remembrance of Things Past), published in seven parts between 1913 and 1927. He is considered by critics and writers to be one of the most influential authors of the 20th century. He died seven years before the final volume was published.

12. How many of us are willing to do this: Waiting For The Sun.

13. From a champion of the shadowland of both types, drugs and alcohol, comes a summation after playing in the field for a long time, myself, it was forty years.

14. Shadows of beauty and mystery, not many people I know relate to them this way, perhaps my fellow Warriors of Love: Busy Being Blue.

15. And for our final lesson today we receive our lesson from the Godfather of darkness, Carl Jung.

I am practising sitting with my shadow world and not creating chaos by resisting it, perhaps other miracles will appear in my life as I continue down this path.

Today’s playlist is loaded with ballads. We begin with Carrie Underwood, then a newbie to me, Alan Walker. That song by Kim Carnes follows. Then two obscure bands in The Modern Lovers and TinPan Orange before we move on to the iconic Doors. K. D. Lang finishes this fine collection: You Were Born An Original Work of Art.

I know that I am closer to Love and Respect for All, Everybody Included when my Essence of Unlimited Intimacy is present in my life, I thank the Warriors of Love for creating a space for me to practise in. Until next time we meet, my dear friends.

We Don’t Make Mistakes, Just Happy Little Accidents!!

Posted on June 10, 2019 by Rod's World

I go around to my sister Ruth’s, I call her Ruthie place on most Tuesdays for family connection. It comes out of a practice we used to do of taking our dear mum who passed at the end of 2017 op shopping, think thrift shops for the US nearly every Tuesday for seven years. She advised me that she had visited St. Arnaud, one of the towns we sent 4 years during our childhood. This was 50 years ago, and for some inexplicable reason, I remembered it used to be called The New Bendigo goldfields and that the only remaining item of that name was a derelict cemetery 10 km outside town on the Donald road. Mind you, I have not been there for 30 plus years. I am such a research nerd, no fact, however small leaves my grey matter.

We began talking about our memories of the place, our friends’ names, the local pool and then for some reason I moved onto the mistakes I had made. This is not a complete list, but here goes: 1. Setting the lounge room chimney on fire so that the Fire Brigade had to be called to put it out. 2. Setting the paddock behind our house on fire with matches and lying about it, yes the fire brigade had to come again, who’s the closet pyromaniac. 3. Sinking the other rafts in the Scout regatta by putting holes in their drums with a hammer and nail punch, we were quite inventive with this, I don’t know how we weren’t thrown out. My sister asked me why would you do things like that, I have contemplated it and come up with the devil in me was looking for an escape clause.

What do mistakes cost us and how has society looked at it, here we go:

1. I have never lit a fire again in my life, I say I am terrible at it.

2. The pyromaniac in me needed a couple of lessons: Firestarter.

3. I have come to the realisation that mistakes are just our shadow side talking to us, sometimes in funny ways.

4. This appealed to the People Pleaser in me: U Can’t Touch This.

5. Mistakes are definitely an essential part of our formative education.

6. Mistakes, your own personal Power Ranger: Gangsta’s Paradise.

7. Regarding the fire stuff, luckily, both of my parents were loving and understanding.

8. Marilyn’s mistake: messing with the POTUS: Happy Birthday, Mr President.

9. By the greatest quoter, Ms Unknown, but a beauty.

10. How many of us are guilty of this: Rehab.

11. Sofia Villani Scicolone, Dame of the Grand Cross, OMRI born 20 September 1934), known professionally as Sophia Loren is an Italian film actress and singer. She is one of the last surviving stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood. Encouraged to enrol in acting lessons after entering a beauty pageant, Loren began her film career at age 16 in 1950. She appeared in several bit parts and minor roles in the early part of the decade until her five-picture contract with Paramount in 1956 launched her international career. Notable film appearances around this time include The Pride and the Passion, Houseboat, and It Started in Naples.

Her talents as an actress were not recognised until her performance as Cesira in Vittorio De Sica’s Two Women; Loren’s performance earned her the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1962 and made her the first actress to win an Oscar for a foreign-language performance. She holds the record for having earned six David di Donatello Awards for Best Actress: Two Women; Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow; Marriage Italian Style (for which she was nominated for a second Oscar); Sunflower; The Voyage; and A Special Day. After starting a family in the early 1970s, Loren chose to make only occasional film appearances. In later years, she has appeared in American films such as Grumpier Old Men (1995) and Nine (2009).

12. One, Two, Three, begin the forgiveness: Courage.

13. If you have people around you who do this, time to say goodbye to them.

14. Do Buddhist monks doing a three-year meditation retreat in a cave make mistakes: Hell Yes: Mirror.

15. From this list comes the message, your job is to learn.

Did I stop making mistakes after we moved from St. Arnaud nee New Bendigo, FUCK NO!! I am 64 and am sure I still have several hundred to go, but they all will be part of the beautiful journey we call life.

The playlist rocks tonight. The Prodigy smashes you First, Two rap icons in MC Hammer and Coolio follow next, then a throwback with a tune by Marilyn Monroe. Amy Winehouse follows with the penultimate piece being the spoken word by Bruce Lee, in Chinese with subtitles. We finish with more rap from Little Wayne and Bruno Mars. Enjoy, I did creating it: We Don’t Make Mistakes, Just Happy Little Accidents.

So mistakes, all the more reason we need to embrace my world paradigm, Love and Respect for All, Everybody Included. Until Next time, my dear friends.

I like the Way You Make Me Feel!!

Posted on May 30, 2019 by Rod's World

Its Reconciliation Week in Australia, this is the official blurb for it:

At the heart of reconciliation is the relationship between the broader Australian community and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. To foster positive race relations, our relationship must be grounded in a foundation of truth.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have long called for a comprehensive process of truth-telling about Australia’s colonial history. Our nation’s past is reflected in the present and will continue to play out in future unless we heal historical wounds.

Today, 80 per cent of Australians believe it is important to undertake formal truth-telling processes, according to the 2018 Australian Reconciliation Barometer. Australians are ready to come to terms with our history as a crucial step towards a unified future, in which we understand, value and respect each other.

Whether you’re engaging in challenging conversations or unlearning and relearning what you know, this journey requires all of us to walk together with courage. This National Reconciliation Week, we invite Australians from all backgrounds to contribute to our national movement towards a unified future.

Our local cancel has been showing indigenous directed films nightly, last night I saw a beautiful documentary named Connection to Country: Here’s the Trailer.

So how do you connect to your land, your family and your friends? Lets have a look at what the world has said about it:

1. The one that this is happening with liked my Facebook picture yesterday. Is this a call to action?

2. it is what it is: doesn’t work to wish it was another way: Chemistry.

3. I’ve got the music in me, literally.

4. I can’t hear what you are saying from the sound of the energy emanating from you: Good Vibrations.

5. They aren’t called the gateway to the soul for no reason.

6. The greatest thing you can say to someone: I see You: That scene from Avatar.

7. And they are free.

8. Our indigenous people have a Treaty with the land here in Australia: Treaty.

9. This is what is written on Victoria’s landing page, beautiful: When you remain in your own authentic rhythm and peace you can exist and thrive as both a strong and tender thing simultaneously. Like poetry. Or plants. Or breath,
moving through the body. This is where your power lives.

10. And to the animals and the plants as well: Say Something.

11. All hail a life long friendship, they know all your tricks and when you need to be loved.

12. I don’t want to talk about the hummus: Listen to Your Heart.

13. One word: Brene.

14. My favourite refreshment: Follow The Sun.

15. And our final lesson for today is that what and whoever you connect with, be it the land or a new lover, it’s not about you but how you leave them feeling.

So I hope this helps you strengthen your foundation of connecting with our planet and its inhabitants.

Today’s playlist begins with another unknown pop lad named Asher Angel. Then back to the beaches of California with the Beach Boys. Next is the scene from Avatar that always makes me cry. Then we have the biggest selling indigenous song ever by Yothu Yindi, you can dance if you wish followed by pop diva Christine Aguilera. Roxette is the penultimate song and we close with a live version of Xavier Rudd’s anthem: I like the Way you Make me Feel.

My wish is we all connect through the paradigm, Love and Respect for All, Everybody Included. Until next time, my dear friends.

Everyone Has Oceans to Fly!!

Posted on May 23, 2019 by Rod's World

How do you know the difference between your preferences and your boundaries? I am doing this amazing online public speaking course called RISE with Fleassy Malay, it is the top 5 courses I have ever done, and I have done a lot over the years: Enter Fleassy’s World. and she points out that we often mix the two up, preferences become boundaries and boundaries become preferences. How do they differ, let’s look at their definitions:

Preference is defined as:

the fact that you like something or someone more than another thing or person:

Her preference is for comfort rather than stylish clothes.

I have a preference for sweet food over spicy.

Choosing furniture is largely a matter of personal preference.

It would be wrong to discriminate against a candidate because of their sexual preference (= the sex of the people they are sexually attracted to).

an advantage that is given to a person or a group of people:

We give preference to those who have worked with us for a long time.

Special preferences were offered initially to encourage investment.

Boundaries are defined as:

Like physical boundaries, emotional boundaries define separateness. Your emotional boundaries are the property lines that separate your thoughts and feelings from those of other people.

To me, preferences live in the realms of the examples above and boundaries are those gut feelings that much our stomach churn when we know they are not being respected or people have just walked through them.

So what does our society have to say about boundaries, there were some quite different expressions of it when I looked.

1. Unlimited giving is a surefire recipe for health problems to emerge.

2. Remember the age-old formulae: You are the result of the five people you spend the most time with, choose wisely: Get Up, Stand Up.

3. Lamott has described why she writes: I try to write the books I would love to come upon, that are honest, concerned with real lives, human hearts, spiritual transformation, families, secrets, wonder, craziness—and that can make me laugh. When I am reading a book like this, I feel rich and profoundly relieved to be in the presence of someone who will share the truth with me, and throw the lights on a little, and I try to write these kinds of books. Books, for me, are medicine.

4. You may lose some of your peeps when you put them in place, and who they are may surprise you: Brene’s take on it.

5. Boundaries bring out people’s real nature.

6. Have clarity when you set them, and then stand by them as if you are defending your child’s life: No Need to Argue.

7. Boundaries actually increase your ability to give over time.

8. You have to wake up with you in the morning, so make sure the respect is there: Respect.

9. Teach the people in your life, or they will make it up how they relate to you.

10. If how you relate to people crosses more than the one on one relationship you have some work to do: Crossing Boundaries.

11. Today’s boundaries are how you live your life.

12. Don’t accept an invitation if it crosses your boundaries, as said above no is a complete sentence: Ball and Chain.

13. But always remember there are times your boundaries need to be fluid.

14. Brene: Boundaries equals being courageous: Perfect.

15. Our final lesson comes from the great Persian poet, Rumi. Have boundaries but remember to remain curious.

As we travel along our timeline some preferences may become boundaries and boundaries preferences. that is the joy of being human, each moment is a new experience allowing us to chose to grow or diminish. It’s up to Us, Because We Can, It’s our Time.

The Playlist honours some extremely powerful divas today. We begin with the only male, Bob Marley. The spoken word is next from Brene Brown. The sultry voice of the lead singer of The Cranberries is next followed by the powerful vocals of Aretha Franklin. Then a mini discovery in Mina AlAli. One of the great performances from the ’60s is next by Janis Joplin and we close with Pink: Everyone Has Oceans To Fly.

I don’t really like the other types of boundaries, I am fighting them as hard as possible to ensconce my world paradigm of Love and Respect for All, Everybody Included. Until next we meet, my dear friends.

There’s Enough Sun for Everybody!!

Posted on May 9, 2019 by Rod's World

I am part of the conscious community of Melbourne, we love dancing, workshops and parties. A lot of the people make there living from offering healings, workshops, and dances to the other members of the community. One thing people in the community are naff at is self-marketing. There are over 15 Facebook groups and several Webpages they could offer their products on for free, yet many do not seem to know of their existence.

They post on their personal page and their business page and cross their fingers that it will land on enough of their friend’s pages for people to find out about it. One thing that fascinates me is that not many people take the time to share their friend’s offerings on their personal pages. It takes at a maximum, 30 seconds and is one of the ways that you can best support their endeavours. Facebook algorithms are getting mean as fuck, so reliance on them is at best, stupid. I made a decision several years ago that I would share every event that I came across in the community as my gift to my friends. Recently this is a message I received from a friend I did it for Wow. Rod that is so incredibly kind of you. Thank you! I do often feel I am promoting a million things and it makes it hard to find a genuine connection to my community and audience (even though I know what I offer has value and worth). Having others spread the word is an incredible gift for me. Thank you.

To me, supporting local creativity is a no brainer, but what has society said about supporting each other, let’s have a look:

1. As I said, it takes 30 seconds to post an event on social media.

2. From an often pilloried POTUS, comes this beautiful request: Where Is The Love.

3. You may never know who you heal with your kindness, just be kind.

4. I was stopped in the central mall in our city by a young family one day, He said you may not remember me, I used to be a heroin addict who came to your Centrelink office, your kindness to me over time helped me get off it, you saved my life. What do you say when someone says that to you: People Help The People.

5. Hearts, Ears, and Hands. Everybody has them.

6. Cheap at half the price: Inspiration from Muhammad.

7. Empowerment is what works, jealousy is the booby prize.

8. Shadow and Light, they travel together. That which you focus on has the power in your life: Faded.

9. I have been working on this for over 40 years, it is not as easy as it seems.

10. That’s what friends are for, only one song really: That’s What Friends are For.

11. Find yourself, by losing yourself, not totally logical, but it works for me.

12. Who have you lifted up today, this week, this month, etc. etc: I Can See Clearly Now.

13. This means something totally different down here in The Land Down Under, check out Australia Slang Terms.

14. Pass it along: We are Family.

15. The final lesson is from the world’s curly-haired genius, Albert. Lets live a worthwhile life.

So my call out is every time you see an event shared by a friend, take the 30 seconds to share it, you could be paying their child’s school fees.

The Playlist today is a very positive one. Black Eyed Peas and Ariana Grande kick it off, then Birdy shares a very positive number. The spoken word is from Muhammad Ali today, New to me Alan Walker with his over 1 billion hits follows. Then a posse, Dionne Warwick, Stevie Wonder, Elton John and Gladys Knight combine. We head to the West Indies next to hear from Jimmy Cliff and finish with Sister Sledge: There’s Enough Sun For Everybody.

I love my community, it is a place where my paradigm, Love and Respect For All, Everyone Included is very close to being fulfilled:

Words aren’t Enough To Convey How Much I Miss You.

Posted on May 3, 2019 by Rod's World

I have begun an amazing journey with one of the best Spoken Word artists in Australia if not the world Fleassy Malay, it’s about public speaking and is called Rise: Access to the journey. Fleassy has a spoken word performance Witches, Fleassy’s inspiring poem on women’s empowerment, reached 1,000,000 views in 3 days. It currently sits at over 2,600,000 views in less than one year: Witches.

Truth is Fleassy’s power used to scare the shit out of me, as when she performed she stood in her power, something I had sought for over 60 years and until this year, failed to achieve. Each week of the course I am falling more deeply in love with what gifts she has to offer the world. Each week we have a group Zoom call, this week it was on giving and receiving gifts. I belong to the tribe of the Givers and am incredibly naff at the latter. Each person shared their own version of how they perform them, each one was unique.

So I went in search of my quotes on the subject, not surprisingly there are thousands more on giving than there are on receiving. I think the ones I have chosen display this quite well, let’s begin the journey:

1. It doesn’t say you have to create a cycle of giving and receiving that never ends.

2. The red words are the important ones: The law of Giving and Receiving.

3. Self Care is always an essential part of the recipe though.

4. Dame Freya Madeline Stark DBE was an Anglo-Italian explorer and travel writer. She wrote more than two dozen books on her travels in the Middle East and Afghanistan as well as several autobiographical works and essays. She was one of the first non-Arabs to travel through the southern Arabian Desert. I imagine that she would have had to be a maven at receiving given the cultural conversations of the time in that part of the world: Sweet Child of Mine.

5. Love the name, Peace Pilgrim, and her ethos.

6. And yes, they rhyme: Treasure.

7. The names a little bit clouded, but what a beautiful quote.

8. This is exactly what we discussed today: Superwoman.

9. How good are you at actually asking for receiving help, let alone a gift?

10. From Little Things, big things grow: That magnificent song.

11. Yes, it can fulfil your dreams.

12. Bit obscure, but I love the colours: Singing In The Rain.

13. One of my top ten on the net, I have 5,000 groups, so that says something. if you don’t know him, Google time.

14. Loretta Young was an American actress. Starting as a child actress, she had a long and varied career in film from 1917 to 1953. She won the 1948 Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in the 1947 film The Farmer’s Daughter and received an Oscar nomination for her role in Come to the Stable in 1949. Young moved to the relatively new medium of television, where she had a dramatic anthology series, The Loretta Young Show, from 1953 to 1961. The series earned three Emmy Awards, and was re-run successfully on daytime TV and later in syndication. In the 1980s, Young returned to the small screen and won a Golden Globe for her role in Christmas Eve in 1986: Nobody’s Perfect.

15. The final lesson, there’s that asking word again. Go on, you can do it.

I’m sure as I go through the excellent material provided by Fleassy to transform my listening and ability in the arena of Public Speaking I will fall more deeply in love with what this course has to offer, by the way, it is online so any of you can sign up, we have a few Americans already.

How could I not start the playlist with Spoken Word, so Deepak Chopra leads off followed by The Gunners. Some pop from Bruno Mars and Alicia Keys fill the next two slots. My most ever chosen Playlist song is next, an Aussie classic by Paul Kelly and Missy Higgins. We finish with two uniquely diverse artists, Hollywoods Gene Kelly, and the pop world artificially created Hannah Montana: Words aren’t Enough to Convey How Much I Miss You

So to our beloved group of humans on the Rise journey, I wish you Love and Respect for All, Everyone Included. Until we meet again, my dear friends.

She slept next to the Fires!!

Posted on April 25, 2019 by Rod's World

It took just on a week to get back from the magical land that is known as Confest. The title comes from the glorious minimalist I meet on the last day who had decided to come the day before Confest began, she hopped in her car with a backpack and slept on the earth the entire time, could also do the most amazing earth sounds, I fell in love with her from the moment she shared her vision for the planet.

How do I feel after experiencing my first Confest in 30 years, a mixture of joy and sadness actually. The joy that I have come home again and sadness that I waited 30 years to return. There were hundreds of things to do, workshops, mudtribes, Temple rooms, Silent discos, I chose to hang around our firepit in Tranquility during the day: the drug, alcohol and smoke-free camping area and receive the connections that would come my way and must admit to a silent disco addiction garnered from attending similar events in the Edinburgh Gardens in Fitzroy. They were not the same, the evil energy of drugs and alcohol permeated the tent, still, I danced.

How did the connecting go, fucking magnificently: Saturday night this is the countries represented around our little fire: Finland, Chile, Argentina, Japan, China, The United States, and me as the token Aussie.

The United States started it all with Woodstock, Confest is Australia’s answer. Woodstock’s motto was Peace and Love, how did Confest fulfil that in my heart and how do we as human beings do that on an ongoing basis, let’s have a look:

1, Jimi performed at Woodstock, he would have loved Confest. Died too young at 27.

2. MLK Jnr. knew what was a need, they shot him: Love Your Enemies.

3. Just keeping it real.

4. Heartspace, way to go: Listen to Your Heart.

5. From the greatest of philosophers, Ms Unknown comes this pearl of wisdom.

6. Working together to make the change, Fuck Yes: Let’s Stick Together.

7. Self-love first, the rest will follow, there were 10,000 souls to share yours with.

8. His Holiness recognizes Love and Peace as the new religion that will make the difference, will you: Love is My Religion.

9. If you don’t know who Ram Dass is, check him out, pure gold.

10. Only one song: Stairway to Heaven.

11. Of course, we cannot forget the powerful morning potion after the few hours of sleep got each night.

12. I met dozens of these beautiful angels over the time I was there: Give Peace a Chance.

13. If you truly want to integrate the Confest spirit in your life, do this.

14. And, especially this: We are family.

15. And the final lesson comes from the divine one, Maya Angelou.

What was the most profound moment of Confest for me? When the indigenous elder ran up to me and said, it is good to see you again this lifetime, then performed a ceremony on my face for 15 minutes in the indigenous language, then told me to listen to the forest. Want to know what it said? It said why do these people come here and play the musical instruments of Africa and sing the songs of India, don’t they know we are the oldest surviving culture on the planet and we have our own sounds. We will heal when they leave. it feels like I can hear the Earthsong. By the way, I had never met him in my life.

The playlist of Love and Peace contains some spoken word and all-time classic anthems. We begin with Martin Luther King Jr, then the unusual combination of Roxette and Eminem. Back in time to Bryan Ferry, then Bob’s son Ziggy Marley. Two more old Love and Peace classics follow from Led Zeppelin and John Lennon. We finish all in the family with Chic and Sister Sledge, Lots of live versions because music is just better live: She Slept next to the Fire!!

Confest was a great example of how I want the world to relate: Love and Respect for All, Everyone Included. Until next time, my dear friends.

We Are All Visitors to This Time, This Place!!

Posted on April 8, 2019 by Rod's World

Narrin-ik Mandy. Wurundjeri-wilami-ik, Wurundjeri-baluk-ut. Marramb-ik Dja Dja wurrung ba Nguirai illum wurrung, German ba Irish, Dhunba-njan Woiwurrung. Mundainai-njan Liwik-bulok nugel-ik, ba Lalal ba Gugung nugel-ik, ba Murrup Galada Birrarung, Mundanai-njan Biik-ut. Biik-dui, Baanj Biik, Murnmut Biik, Wurru wurru Biik ba Tharangalk Biik. Bungul-al Wiliam-u. MUndani-njan kirrip-bulok nugel-ik.

This is Wurundjeri language, The native language of the indigenous people who inhabited the land where my home city, Melbourne was established. Translated it reads:

My name is Mandy. My clan is the Wurundjeri-wilam, within the Wurundjeri-baluk patriline. I am also Dja Dja wurrung, Ngurai Illum wurrung, German and Irish. I speak Woiwurrung. I embrace my many ancestors and my many Grandfathers and Grandmothers, and the Spirit River, Birrarung. I embrace the Below Country, On Country, Water Country, Wind Country, Sky Country and the Forest Country above the clouds, which is Bunjil’s home. I embrace my many friends.

Indigenous wisdom was nearly wiped out in my country under harsh policies that did not see the indigenous people included in the census. The following story exemplifies this:

In 1935, an Australian of part Indigenous descent left his home on a reserve to visit a nearby hotel where he was ejected for being Aboriginal. He returned home but was refused entry to the reserve because he was not Aboriginal. He attempted to remove his children from the reserve but was told he could not because they were Aboriginal. He then walked to the next town where he was arrested for being an Aboriginal vagrant and sent to the reserve there. During World War II he tried to enlist but was rejected because he was an Aborigine so he moved to another state where he enlisted as a non-Aborigine. After the end of the war he applied for a passport but was rejected as he was an Aborigine, he obtained an exemption under the Aborigines Protection Act but was now told he could no longer visit his relatives as he was not an Aborigine. He was later told he could not join the Returned Servicemen’s Club because he was an Aborigine.

Their culture is the oldest culture in the world and has much wisdom to offer, here is some indigenous wisdom from around the world:

1. The love of the land is a paramount thing that Western society could learn from them, not the rape and pillage in the name of commercial profit.

2. So many ancestors have handed their wisdom on the next generations: On Sacred Ground.

3. They had so many wise ways, I suppose it was their form of therapy without the expense.

4. A great place to start: Rise.

5. Indigenous wisdom across the planet, Mother Earth, Father Sky.

6. Settlement of new lands 101 by the great? European empires throughout history: Highway To Hell.

7. In my country is has been the women who have cared for the planet.

8. Many governments seem to have forgotten this with their reaction to the Climate Change issue the planet is facing at the moment: With or Without You.

9. My indigenous friend Stevie uses this as part of the name of his organisation Dardi Munwurro – Strong Spirit.

10. Simple wisdom, but we and the planet are always changing, so why not fulfil your dreams: Give It A Go.

11. Add your favourite things you would like to give up.

12. 60,000 years versus 250, makes sense to me: Wiyathul.

13. Oops, missed by that much.

14. Catherine Astrid Salome “Cathy” Freeman, OAM (born 16 February 1973) is an Indigenous Australian former sprinter, who specialised in the 400 metres event. She would occasionally compete in other track events, but 400m was her main event. Her personal best of 48.63 currently ranks her as the sixth-fastest woman of all time, set while finishing second to Marie-José Pérec’s number-three time at the 1996 Olympics. She became the Olympic champion for the women’s 400 metres at the 2000 Summer Olympics, at which she lit the Olympic Flame: Cathy wins gold.

15. And this statement speaks to why we, Western society have so much to learn from our indigenous brothers and sisters.

Ngaga-Dji! Ngaga-Dji! – Hear us, hear us. They are waiting to offer it to us, when will we listen?

The playlist today begins with an artist I thought I would never choose, Yanni. Then Jonas Blue, new to me then we rock out with AC/DC and U2. Timbaland comes next then we honour Australian indigenous folk with Gurrumul and we finish with Cathy Freeman winning gold: We are all Visitors to This Time, This Place.

I also honour indigenous cultures for showing Love and Respect for All, Everyone Included. Until we meet again, my dear friends.

Drop the last year into the limbo of the Past!!

Posted on March 8, 2019 by Rod's World

Fast forward to December 2019. You’re sitting at home pondering the year that’s been…What’s next? My friend Emeli and her crew wrote this as a sub-heading under 2019, ideal vision in Lifebook 2019 On Purpose: Get in Contact.

Em asks 8 questions, they are as follows:

Who are You? What have you achieved? Where do you want to be?
List the top three reasons you want this vision.
Who do you want to be in 2019? List three small actions you can take to make a big change.
What advice would you give to yourself in a year’s time?
What books do you want to have read?
What places do you want to have travelled to?
What hobbies will you have started?
Who would you have kissed more? Hugged more? Made, deep, deep love to?

So, if you are deeply ensconced in your humanity, you will have up and down periods over the year, so what are some of the favourite quotes about the year that was, let’s take a stroll down that lane:

1. Andriy Shevchenko is a soccer player and politician who made Champions League history; on 23 November 2005, he scored all four goals in Milan’s 4–0 group stage drubbing of Fenerbahçe, becoming only the fifth player to accomplish this feat; his company includes Marco van Basten, Simone Inzaghi, Dado Pršo and Ruud van Nistelrooy (while Lionel Messi joined that group in the 2009–10 season and Robert Lewandowski in 2012–13), and the only one to have done it in an away game.

2. By the worlds most prolific quote writer, Ms Unknown, the world gets you: Golden Years.

3. Don’t forget to include the fun factor as well as the hard work during 2019.

4. Two words: Simon & Garfunkel: Frank Lloyd Wright

5. Each of us reaches this revelation at different stages in our lives, will you do it in 2019?

6. And some of it you dread and other bits you say Fuck, Yes too: After All These Years.

7. For the sisters.

8. René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke, better known as Rainer Maria Rilke, was a Bohemian-Austrian poet and novelist. He is “widely recognized as one of the most lyrically intense German-language poets. Obviously, Maria must have been a strong family name to be chosen to keep: Best thing I never Had.

9. One of the shortest professional tennis players ever, Michael’s Chinese name (simplified Chinese: 张德培; traditional Chinese: 張德培; pinyin: Zhāng Dépéi) was chosen by Joe, his father and his English name by Betty, his mother (who named him after her father).

10 Hurts so bad but living so good, great line: Hurt So Bad.

11. Can you genuinely say this?

12. Thirty, the new …..?: The Prime Time of Your Life.

13, Just, because I can.

14. Will it fill up your 1,000-litre cup: A Thousand Years.

15. And the final message is for my beloved Warriors of Love.

Emeli also stated: that we can spend all day making lists of the external ‘stuff’ we want like clothes, cars etc. But what really drives us. I will leave you with that question to ponder over the months of 2019.

Last century songs outnumber the 2000’s in tonight’s playlist. We begin with David Bowie, then further back to Simon and Garfunkel. Some rock from Journey follows, then we move forward to Beyonce. Another oldie from Linda Rondstat, then we finish with two tunes written after the 2YK crisis by Daft Punk and Christina Perri: Drop the Last Year into the limbo of the Past.

So I have a request, in 2019 spread the ethos of Love and Respect for All, Everybody Included amongst your communities, workplaces, families and love relationships.