Archangel Raziel

Archangel Raziel is one of my main guides. He appears to me frequently in meditations.

Archangel Raziel painting by Mackenna Morse

The first time I met him was in a meditation class taught by Karen a couple of years ago. It was a group meditation on the Great Bear constellation, which holds inside it the Big Dipper, as well as seven sacred rays of energy/light inhabited by Archangels. She walked us through each ray so that we could feel the energy of each one during this meditation. In the final ray she told us that we would see a beautiful and powerful angel.

I thought maybe I did something wrong because I saw a wizard. And, honestly, I felt kind of dorky and “Dungeons and Dragons” about it.

So, this wizard I saw raised his right hand and pointed at me, and swooshed his arm up and down, creating a chakra system of light orbs in front of me.

When the meditation was over, and we were invited to share, I told her that I saw a wizard, instead of an angel. She said “That is Archangel Raziel!” I said “No.. I don’t think it was an angel.. he had a white cloak and no wings… and a long beard… like a wizard.” She said, “That’s what Raziel looks like. It makes sense that you saw him because he oversees the seven rays inhabited by the other Archangels.” I was really excited when she told me that, but was still second-guessing myself.

So, when I got home I did some research to see how Archangel Raziel is depicted. Much to my surprise – he does not have wings, or a halo, and he does look like a wizard. But, all of the images I found made him look like a whispy, white bearded, feminine looking man. I didn’t remember him looking quite like that.

So, I did some more meditating on my own and asked him to let me have a good look at him. His face popped up right in front of mine and I could see every detail of him, as if he were human. I could see that he looked like an old Jewish guy with bushy eyebrows. Kind of like a Rabbi. I  could see that he had a dark, coarse beard (not a flowy, white one). Sometimes his eyes looked dark brown, and sometimes blue.

As embarrassing as it is, I should tell you that at that point I didn’t even realize that Archangel Raziel is a Jewish, Kabbalistic Archangel. I thought that all Archangels were Catholic because that’s all I had ever heard of. It wasn’t until I had been working with him for a few weeks that I actually did some reading about him and learned that he is a deity of Jewish Mysticism. When I figured that out, I was even more excited that he appeared to me like an elderly Jewish man – sort of validating. I felt really dumb since there are pictures of him with the Star of David… but I also know that he is a teacher of Sacred Geometry and esoteric knowledge, so I didn’t really put it together.

He works on my chakras a lot. In one meditation he was even stirring the top of my head (crown chakra) with a big wooden spoon, like it was a cauldron.

During this time period while I was discovering Raziel, the symbol of the Hamsa (upside down hand with eye in palm) kept showing up in my life. First, I was given a beautiful antique necklace with this symbol in the center of the pendant. I did not know what it meant, but loved the necklace. I figured it was in relation to Reiki and how the energy flows from the palms. But, when this symbol was showing up constantly for me in many different ways, I decided I better do some research. I found that it is called Hamsa and is a Kabbalah symbol that wards off the evil eye. When I saw “Kabbalah” I knew it had been Archangel Raziel showing these symbols to me.

I decided to try to do a painting of Archangel Raziel so that I could show everybody how I see him. I included the Hamsa symbol in his own hand, as well as on his left shoulder. In the center of his chest you can see the Star of David – and in red over the star is another symbol that he has been giving to me. I am starting to learn that this symbol is somehow related to Archangel Tzaphkiel. For a few months he had been giving me this symbol on it’s own, and I could not figure out what it was. Finally, a couple weeks ago, I got some clarity when he showed it over the top of the Star of David. I saw that it is actually a part of the Star. I can’t wait to learn more about what it means. Right now, I can’t seem to find any information about it.

Being raised in West Michigan, with basically no Jewish population, learning about these things is all new to me. Even though I was not raised Christian or Catholic, I know all about their stories and symbolism just from growing up immersed in that culture. I feel like I am starting from scratch with this stuff and trying to teach myself. It is very exciting and new for me… but at the same time I feel like a total novice with no real knowledge!! So, I will just continue to share as I learn.

If you are Jewish, please be patient with me and my lack of knowledge. I welcome insight or advice from anybody out there who would like to share!

Tzaphqiel / Tzaphkiel / Binah

I am very excited! A new guide has contacted me. I don’t know much about her but am trying to learn what it all means.

Her name is Archangel Tzaphkiel.. and I believe she is also known as Binah, or she resides in the Binah area of the Kabbalah Tree of Life. I just learned of the Kabbalah Tree of Life last night so I don’t really know much yet.

After I did some reading about the Tree of Life, I asked Archangels Raziel and Michael to introduce me to more Kabbalah Archangels to teach me about accessing mystical wisdom. They brought in several angels, and I believe it was  Tzaphkiel who did some beautiful energy work on me. I could feel her fingers touch my face. It may have been some sort of attunement.

I just read that she represents the “Rising of the Divine Feminine” which I don’t completely understand yet… but Archangel Raziel has been giving me a sacred symbol for several months which Karen said her guides say represents this transition to “Divine Feminine Energy.” So, it must have something to do with her trying to reach me.

I am so glad that I invited more Archangels into my life. It always amazes me how responsive High Masters and Guides are when you invite them into your life. It’s also really cool how when a new guide comes into my life, and I do some research about them, I find so much synchronicity and clarity in regards to other areas of my life… like they’ve been right there all along just waiting for me to figure it out so that we can have an open line of communication. (They are much more powerful when they work together WITH you)

My Weird Night

 

Vigo from Ghostbusters II

You probably remember this guy. Yeah, one of the scariest villans of all time, Vigo from Ghostbusters II.

 

Well… last night… I had the weirdest night’s sleep.

First of all, let me fill you in on some background. For the past two weeks or so my husband Chris and I have both noticed nocking in the wall that is between our bedroom and our living room. This does not sound like an animal in the wall, or pipes flexing (there are no pipes in this wall anyway). This sounds exactly like knuckles tapping on a door. Firm, but polite. It’s a friendly knock, like a “tap tap tapity tap” – the kind of knock a friend makes when they stop by.

The first time I heard it was weekend before last. I was taking a nap in the afternoon while Chris was sitting on the couch on the other side of the wall watching TV in the living room. I woke up out of a deep sleep when I heard “tap tap tappity.” I opened my eyes and looked around, thinking that for some reason somebody was knocking on the open bedroom door. Nobody was there, so I sat up, confused – thinking it was a dream.

When I got up Chris asked me how my nap was, and I told him that I woke up from hearing knocking. He told me “I have been hearing it tonight, too! I’ve been sitting in the living room and I keep hearing something knock on the wall.”

“Whatever,” I said, “It’s gotta be our gnomes.” Which is a different story.

“Or something logical and legitimate,” he replied.

Okay, whatever… the knocking has continued for a couple weeks and we both hear it. It’s not every day – but every couple of days. When it happens, I declare that it’s a gnome, and he tells me that that would be entirely possible if gnomes actually existed. We have agreed to disagree.

So, back to Vigo. *shudder*

Last night I kept getting woken up by this knocking on the wall, while Chris slept soundly next to me. It happened about 6 times. The strangest part was that every time I opened my eyes, I was facing our spare bedroom (AKA my meditation room) across the hall and could see this tall, scary looking man in that room (who looked just like Vigo to me) just staring at me. He didn’t move, but I could see him breathing like a living person.

Immediately when I see something when I first wake up I always assume it’s a dreamy image that I am confusing with real-life. So I always test it by opening my eyes nice and wide and sitting up and focusing to see if it moves or disappears. Well, this gentleman did not disappear.

The first time I woke up, I was trying to make sense of who it was. “Oh, it’s Archangel Michael,” I thought to myself, “but why is his energy so scary?” I projected to him in my mind, “Michael, please stop scaring me. Why are you being so intense?” No response. Another very scary wave of stern, staring-at-me energy shot back at me and I laid down and prayed to Michael to eliminate all the fear and negativity in my room. With my blanket over my head like a little kid, I fell back asleep.

This happened about 5 more times, but instead of trying to reason with this scary guy I just called on Michael each time to help me out, and fell back asleep.

This last part is weird and seems unrelated. I can’t explain it.

When the sun started to come out I woke up again, and to my surprise, I saw in the room across the hall, what looked to be lush, green jungle foliage. Out from the leaves approached a man with a striped animal. It looked like it had zebra stripes on it’s rump, but wasn’t shaped like a zebra. It was such a bizarre animal that I don’t know if I could describe it. This man looked friendly and had bones and grasses on his body – like an indigenous American. I don’t know if he was there to help me or what, but I went back to sleep because I was exhausted.

OH! I just found the animal that he had with him! I have never heard of this animal. It’s called an Okapi!

Here is a link with information about the spiritual significance of Okapi: http://www.linsdomain.com/totems/pages/okapi.htm

Anyway – I think I need to cleanse and bless the house tonight.

First Meeting with “Nock-lop”

He looked sort of like this man.

Reviewing my meditation journal… this is another meditation from Karen’s class on December 11, 2009.

I met a new guide in this class. To me he looked like a Native American. Later on, after talking with Karen, and then doing some research online, I think he might be an ancient Mayan man. When he showed up I recognized him from a past life meditation I did on my own in which I saw myself living in some sort of mud hut and a man who looked very much like him was my husband. He brought home two rabbits that he had hunted for me to cook.

Anyway, when he showed up he was wearing a suede skirt type of thing with suede boots or moccasins.

As soon as he entered into my meditation he got down on one knee and held his hand out to give me a gift. I was trying hard to see what it was, and I believe it was a small leaf, 3 corn kernals, and some silver beads. Then he handed me about 6 brightly painted eggs that looked like easter eggs.

I have found a lot of information online about corn and silver beads being important and sacred to Mayans and other indigenous people. But, I am having some trouble finding information about eggs… specifically brightly colored, painted eggs (like Easter eggs). I did find that the Mayans used eggs to clear auras or energy fields.

EGG: Used and it still use to clean the energy that involves humans, (the aura). Some Shamans in the South of México still use this method. After cleaning the energy or aura, mixed with some praying and chanting, they brake the egg and dispose of it in running water. http://hubpages.com/hub/MAYA-SYMBOLS-AND-MYTHOLOGY

He told me his name, but I had a hard time making it out. It was something like “Nock-lop”, “Nom-lomp”, or “Mont-lomp.” Maybe somebody who is familiar with the language could help me figure it out… ?

Since I believe we had been married in a past life, I asked him for marriage advice. He didn’t say anything, but he handed me an armadillo. I looked that up later and believe it represents setting my own boundaries and maintaining my individuality. This is not something that my husband does not want me to do – but I have my own guilt issues in regards to making my own choices and being independent. I have gotten much better about that since this meditation because I took that advice to heart.

At some point he also gave me a mountain lion skull. I did some research and found that mountain lions are also called cougars and pumas. This animal spirit guide represents leadership, but I am unclear as to why he gave me a skull. Maybe just because I like animal skulls and bones so much.

He kept telling me that I was a good person and not to worry because my guides are never going to leave me and I can always depend on them.

First Meditation with Panda

Panda with Bamboo

Reviewing experiences that I wrote about in my meditation journal…

This one is from a meditation class in Karen on December 11, 2009.

I met my Panda animal totem for the first time in this meditation. I was surprised to find a panda when Karen brought us down to meet one of our animal guides because I never really thought about pandas as an animal that I had a special connection to. Now that I have met this guide I have a very special place in my heart for panda bears.

He was holding a piece of bamboo. He immediatly picked me up and sat me on his lap in a hugging position, like a child. I buried my face in the soft fur on his big shoulder. He was rubbing my back and told me, “You don’t have to be afraid little Mackenna. I’m here for you.”

I immediately started crying – a lot. I couldn’t stop for the whole rest of the meditation. The love and total comfort that I was feeling from Panda was really intense. I felt totally vulnerable like a child. Luckily everyone else in the class had their eyes closed so only Karen could see me rubbing tears all over my shirt.

Then, Panda showed me his piece of bamboo, pointing out how the middle was hallow. I couldn’t figure out exactly what he was saying about the hollowness of the bamboo, but he was telling me that it was important for some reason.

He was very gentile and smiled at at me.

Future Update:

In a later meditation class I met Panda again, and he told me that I should get a stuffed panda to embody him so that I can feel connected to him in “waking life.” So, for my birthday this year (Feb 2010), my friend Amy asked her two sons if they would be willing to give “Aunt Mackenna” one of their panda stuffed animals as a gift. They chose a really awesome panda for me that I absolutely love. He looks like a real panda, like my guide, and he is *just* the right size so that I was able to prop him up on my bamboo plant that I have growing in my meditation room. I love him so much and am very grateful to the kids for gifting him to me

A few months after that I went to a meditation class hosted by my friend Danielle, and she discussed a meditation by Osho (who I later discovered that I am not a huge fan of) that was all about hollow bamboo. I totally forgot, until today while reviewing my meditation journal, that my panda showed me that imagery as well. I believe this is the meditation that Danielle spoke about in that class: http://www.spiritual-teachers.com/hollowbamboo.htm.

I just did a little online research about bamboo in Chinese symbolism, and apparently the hollowness of bamboo represents humility inside a strong but modest exterior. Bamboo in general is a symbol of longevity and flexibility. I wonder what this represents for me. Something to ponder.

Ghosts in Cartoons

Cab Calloway featured in Betty Boop cartoon, Minnie the Moocher

Okay, this is just a silly post. I am listening to jazz (my favorite) at work, and “Minnie the Moocher” by Cab Calloway came up on my playlist, which made me want to watch the old Betty Boop (my other favorite) cartoon.

Got me thinking about how I always got so excited when there were ghosts in cartoons. It was scary and funny all at once, but mostly scary. Then I wondered… what other ghost cartoons did I love when I was a kid? Why not post a fun blog about animated ghosts in honor of the first day of Autumn – the spookiest season of all?

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First up: Minnie the Moocher Betty Boop cartoon featuring Cab Calloway. What can I say? Awesome music and great Max Fleischer animation. They don’t make cartoons like this anymore.

I take it back, they do make cartoons like that anymore. The Squirrel Nut Zippers made a music video that is an awesome nod to Max Fleischer. They even did the whole Cab Calloway dancing bit at the beginning.

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Here is my favorite cartoon ghost. Nope, not Casper (lame). It’s the not-so-scary, depressed ghost from Ren and Stimpy! “I couldn’t even scare a paranoid schizophrenic.” Awesome ending.

And, then there is a deleted scene. When I was a kid Ren and Stimpy wasn’t censored. I actually don’t really understand why they removed The Bloody Head Fairy. I love his voice.

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Do pink elephants count as ghosts? When I was a kid I always thought that’s what they were and they REALLY scared me. I guess they’re actually an acid trip or something. Eh, still scary. It’s the lack of eyeballs that really does it.

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Here’s another one from Fleischer Studios called Swing You Sinners. It takes about 5 minutes to get to the good part. I guess I just love jazzy ghosts. My FAVORITE part is the frog-looking ghost who is skatting at about 7:34. “Rit dit didit didit!” It’s so awesome.

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Oh man, it’s pretty obvious that this blog is bias towards jazz and Max Fleischer.  I can’t help it! They were really scary and awesome when I was a kid! Here is another one. (St. James Infirmary)

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This is probably the most famous ghost cartoon (besides the Casper series). Mickey, Donald, and Goofy as the original Ghostbusters. God, I love Donald.

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This one, from Fantasia, is not goofy at all – it is just plain old scary. When I was a kid I would freak out if I even heard the song Night on Bald Mountain.

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Happy (pretty darn early) Halloween!!!

Seeing Things

This artist has really captured what Spirit Guides look like to me: http://www.gallerykat.com/spiritguides.htm

I don’t have the skills yet to really harness my “abilities” like I would like to,  so when I see guides and spirits it ALWAYS takes me by surprise – and they usually disappear too quickly for me to figure out exactly who or what it is.

I most commonly see orbs, or sparks, and they are almost always cobalt blue. I am sure that they are usually Archangel Michael. However, when I see the sparks on somebody, I usually assume it’s one of their personal spirit guides, even if it’s blue.

Occasionally I will see a light behind or next to someone in the shape of a human figure. It doesn’t last for more than a few seconds for me. They are always colored and I get the feeling that they are spirit guides. Someday I will have my third eye fully open so that I can hold on to these images longer and also see these figures more clearly.

In meditation classes taught by Karen I often see a bright pink figure next to her – and it sticks around longer than the light figures I see around other people. She told me that she thinks it is Jesus who I am seeing because he is always by her side, helping her while she is teaching classes. That’s pretty cool.

I really weirded out my friend Vince once time when we were out to dinner and I told him I saw two light figures standing behind him at the table. I thought it was really cool and I just had to tell him, but he was really freaked out by it. I felt really bad about scaring him and decided that maybe people will think I’m crazy if I tell them this stuff, and that I should keep these things to myself. So, now I usually do.

I don’t only see guides. Occasionally I will see people who have passed. A friend of mine whose dad has passed is the one who gets me in the most trouble. For some reason his dad shows up for me at parties after I am well into the evening. He will show up loud and clear, giving me images and messages for my friend. Being, well, drunk by the time he shows up… My inhibitions are basically dwindled down to nothing – so I have no problem telling my friend (and whoever else is around) every detail of everything his dad shows me. I always feel stupid about it the next day.

That’s it for now. I’ll talk about other stuff that I see some other time.

Energy Cleansing

Native American woman smudging

Periodically I have to cleanse my house of negative energy. I can feel the energy shift in my house after my husband or I experience a couple stressful days, or even if we have a friend over who was talking about going through a rough time… That sort of energy can hang around and cause long-term depression and even physical illness. I am personally sensitive to depression and anxiety so I am really careful about keeping the “vibes” good in my home.

In worst case scenarios, when negative energy is allowed to stick around in a space, continually causing you to feel bad… it will keep feeding off of those bad feelings, creating more negative energy, which makes you feel even worse, so it can feed even more, and so on… into a cycle. Then that negative energy grows stronger and stronger, and can actually take on its own form. This is sometimes called a “negative thought form” and can actually be mistaken for a poltergeist or a demon.

Side note: I actually believe that demons do exist, but that all of them are actually manifested thought forms created by humans, made out of our very worst emotions. As far as I can figure, that does not mean that “demons” do not take on their own form and think for themselves. We give them that power be feeding them with our darker sides.

So, how do you cleanse a space? The most effective way that I have found is by burning dried sage. This is a method that

Sage, Lavender, and Spearmint from my garden

Native Americans have used forever. There is something sharp, but gentile, about sage smoke – it really does feel like it cuts through the air and cleans the space in which you are using it.

The most common method of burning sage is to use a smudge stick (the act of burning sage is actually called smudging) which is a bundle of sage leaves (and sometimes other herbs) that you can light like a torch, and then blow out and let smolder like incense.  I make my own smudge sticks with sage that I grow in my garden. Sometimes I add lavender, mint, or pine needles. Then, I always Reiki bless my smudge sticks, whether I made or purchased them (benefit of being a Reiki Master ). Whether you are Reiki attuned or not, holding positive intention while you are making your smudge stick, and performing your own personal blessing on it is always beneficial.

Tip: If you want to make your own smudge sticks don’t use herbs that have been sprayed with pesticides. Only use 100% cotton string for binding so that the smoke is pure when burned.

When I burn the sage I carry it through every room in the house and move the sage through every nook and cranny,

Making Smudge Sticks - wine is an important part of the process for me

like under the bed, in the shower, and other places where emotions have probably been dropped. Another good place to cleanse is inside coat and shoe closets, because the fabric that we wear actually holds on to elements of our auras (good and bad).

In my experience, if you let your sage stick sit and smolder, you will have a house full of smoke before you know it. Sage smoke is pretty strong, so as soon as I am done smudging I make sure I put it out all the way by rubbing it out in a dish. I use a glazed clay bowl that I made in high school. Many people use shells, which I think is traditional.

There are other methods of cleansing energy in your home that work great, too. I love to ring brass bells to clear out a space. Bells are awesome for cleansing a space where you can’t use smoke or any fragrant oils, like in an office or hospital room.

Karen's Smudge Spray

Oils, like I mentioned, are also awesome for cleansing. Sage oil in particular (not Clary Sage, which is cheaper but smells bad in my opinion) works really well. I also love rosemary oil for cleansing. Sometimes I just drip a drop in each corner of a room to clean things up. Or, you can use cleansing sprays which are blends of sacred oils. Sometimes they are advertised as smudge sprays because the work similarly to burning sage in the way they clean out an area. I highly recommend the spray that my friend Karen makes. It is minty and herbal and smells awesome. Plus, it is Reiki blessed by her so the vibration is really good.

You can also cleanse the energy connected to your body, your family members, and your pets with each of these methods. Burn sage smoke around your body, ring a bell over each of your chakras, or mist yourself with herbal spray – all of these things help clean out negativity in your aura and chakras.

My Personal Spirit Guide, Paul

My spirit guide looks kinda like this guy.

My spirit guide, Paul, is hilarious …and handsome (like most spirit guides). He has dark, almost black hair that hangs over his eyebrows, with bright blue eyes.

I was trying to find a picture of someone who looks kind of like him, and I found this guy, Tom Welling, who looks quite a bit like him. Apparently Tom Welling plays Superman on that CW show, Smallville. (irrelevant)

I have met Paul many times in meditation and he always finds a way to crack me up by showing up wearing weird outfits. I have actually had trouble choking back laughter in the middle of meditation classes because of him.

I like it, though, because his sense of humor helps me relate to him on a more personal level. He reminds me a lot to take life less seriously and to use my sense of humor to enjoy things more. Plus, laughter raises your vibration, making it easier for your guides to communicate with you. I have talked to other people who’s guides do that same kind of thing with them for that reason, too.

…not quite as flamboyantly as Paul, however.

The first time I met Paul in meditation, I sat next to him on a bench. He was wearing all white linen pants and tunic. Sort of a basic “guide” look in my opinion.

White Linen

The second time I met him he was wearing a white leisure suit, and was sporting long wavy black hair, and a long beard. He had a dorky kind of smile going, like he dressed like that just to surprise me and make me laugh. He looked like a Bee Gee.

Leisure Suit

Another time, he walked into my meditative state wearing a Cosby sweater and pleated khakis.

Cosby Sweater. Photo courtesy of http://badsweaterguy.typepad.com/

The one that got me the most was his jungle safari outfit with super short shorts. It looked like it would have made a super fabulous Halloween costume in Boys Town. An elephant and a tiger walked in behind him, so the outfit *sort of* made more sense after that.

that + that = awesome

He kills me.

It’s great validation when your guides do something that really surprises you in meditation – because you know that it didn’t come from your own mind.

My First Experience With Energy Healing

Dad and Me in 2005

When I was a kid, my dad and I spent a lot of time together. My mom worked during the day, and my dad worked nights as a radio announcer.

We were always out-and-about; shopping, going to movies, or museums. Every time I held my dad’s hand to cross the street I felt this tingling, like electricity, that would shoot down my palm, into my wrist, and down my forearm – even if we had gloves on. I never really knew how to explain it, but one day when I was probably about 8, I tried.

I said to my dad, “When I told your hand, I feel tingling and prickles in my hand.”

He surprised me by responding, “Maybe you can feel other people’s energy when you touch them.”

I said, “Huh?”

He said, “Some people can feel other people’s energy with their hands when they touch them. Some massage therapists say that they can feel the energy of the person they are touching, and they can tell where they have pain in their body.”

I think I said something, like, “That sounds crazy to me. I think they’re lying.”

And my dad said something like, “You never know.”

From that point forward I would always pay special attention to whether or not my hand was tingling when I held his, and then after I assessed whether I felt the tingling, I would ask him if his back was hurting him that day. More often than not, my hand-tingling coincided with his back pain. It ended up being a little game / experiment for us until I was old enough that I didn’t need to hold his hand anymore.

I hadn’t thought about it until I started to get into Reiki as an adult. That same familiar tingling came back to me when I would receive Reiki treatments, and when got my first Reiki attunement.

Then, when I did a Reiki treatment on my dad he asked me if I felt that same tingling I talked about when I was a kid. I told him that I did, and that I feel it with everybody now, not just with him. He wondered why I only felt it with him when I was a kid, and I told him I wasn’t sure why.

When I was done giving him his treatment he told me that for about 20 minutes after he was feeling the tingling and buzzing in his own hands. I told him that’s probably because he is a natural born energy healer, too. That’s usually the case when people feel tingling in their own hands after receiving Reiki. And then I got to thinking – that is probably why I felt that tingling in my hand with him as a kid and not with anybody else! A couple of energy healers holding hands can be pretty powerful!