By Rahima Warren

New Cover Art for EBooks

Perhaps you have noticed that I haven’t posted anything here for a while. I’ve been busy writing posts for a blog tour, which started May 13 and runs through June 21. It’s been fun – and a lot of work!

What’s a blog tour? Well, I’m writing guests posts for  other blogs (seventeen, so far) on various topics, ranging from Flowers As Healers, to how I ended up writing a fantasy trilogy. See Calendar below.

For the duration of the Tour, there’s a special low price for the e-Book versions of Dark Innocence – only $2.99 for Kindle, iTunes and Kobo. Plus, there are Prizes and Giveaways! Visit the Blog Tour Page for details. There are three ways to win. If you read one of the guest posts and leave a comment, you are entered to win a free eBook of Dark Innocence. On the Blog Tour Page, if you scroll down, there is a widget to enter for the Grand Prizes. Also, there is a place on the right to enter a GoodReads Giveaway of print copies. I hope you’ll join in!

I’ll be pretty busy until this tour ends, and then I’ll be on vacation for a week, so I may not post anything new here until July. In the meantime, you can read my guest posts if you like. Here’s the calendar, with the titles I’ve written so far. I have several more to write, as you can see!

>>Please visit the Blog Tour Page for links to the posts and updates. Note: Only the ones with past or current dates are posted. Others will be up on their dates as listed below.

Θ May 13 One Writer’s Journey: Author Q&A
Θ May 15 SS Book Fanatics: Why & How I Write Fantasy
Θ May 16 Author, A.F. Stewart – Tips For Evoking A Fantasy World
Θ May 17 Tracie Nichols – Flowers as Healers
Θ May 17 Musings From An Addicted Reader – Swept Away by My Protagonist!
Θ May 20 Talk 2 The Animals – Connecting with Animal Spirits Through Writing & Art
Θ May 22 Writer’s Fun Zone – Writing for An Anti-Hero
Θ May 24 All Fantasy Worlds
Θ May 28 Sassy Book Lovers – Becoming a “Strange and Special Creature”
Θ May 31 Richard Stephenson
Θ June 10 United By Books
Θ June 17 All The Fun Starts After Dark
Θ June 17 Fresh Fiction
Θ June 18 2 Read or Not 2 Read
Θ June 20 The Pen Muse
Θ June 21 Minding Spot

Her son, my father, took us camping every summer, as his family did when he was young. He studied the very essence of earth – her blanket of soil that nurtures all life. (He was a soils scientist and professor at a major university.)  He participated as a lecturer in one of the first classes on ecology.

Later in life, I was drawn to Native American spirituality for its deep honoring of and connection with Nature, and learned much from their teachings, prayers and ceremonies.

Today, I want to share  art and poetry that express love of our one and only home, the source of all known life, Mother Earth.

EARTH CHILD’S PSALM

By Rahima Warren

Mine eyes are fitted to the curves of Thy hills and valleys.
They are made to love Thy green leaves and blue skies.

Mine ears are shaped to delight in
the sounds of Thy waters flowing,
Thy creatures singing.

My cheeks are made to blush at Thy winter’s kiss.

Of Thy stone, my bones.
Of Thy waters, my blood.
Of Thy feast, my flesh.
Of Thy winds, my breath.
Of Thy fire, my mind.
Of Thy love, my soul.

O Mother Earth,
Most Sacred Mystery,
I am wholly Thy child.
I give Thee thanks for my life.

Healing the Earth by Rahima Warren

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Mountains

by Grace Arkley

I want the grand old mountains,
With snowy heads upreared;
I want a cozy mountain glen
With tiny camp space cleared.
I want the chirp of mountain birds,
The call of mountain quail,
The silver splash of leaping trout,
The wild rose by the trail.
I want the sunlight on the brook,
The shadow on the hill,
To watch white cloud in blue, blue sky
From canyon deep and still.

Oh, the mountains, the mountains,
I love you from my heart.
Oh God, when I go to heaven,
Let the mountains be my part.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Contemplation Questions

What do you love about our planet?

Did anyone teach you about our Earth when you were young?

Where does your heart long to be:
in the mountains? by the sea? among red rock canyons?

By Rahima Warren

Hidden Treasure by Rahima Warren

Recently, someone asked me to articulate my Mission in Life, and I found myself quickly writing that my mission is: “facing inner darkness, retrieving my true Essence, and inspiring others to do the same.” Wow, I thought, that’s it! I never saw that before so clearly.

Then I remembered that, years ago, an astrologer read my natal chart. After looking it over, she said that my mission in life is to go into the darkness, find the beauty hidden there, and bring it into the light. When I look back I see that this actually has been my life’s work, which I have carried out in three ways (so far).

First, of course, I had to face my own darkness – my inner dark, scary, hurting places – and slowly retrieve my wholeness. One piece of this work was facing up to how hurt I was by my father’s immediate rejection of me when I was born – for being a girl. “Well, it’s a girl…but have a cigar anyway,” he said to his buddies. This utter rejection that I saw in his eyes made me feel worthless and was one of the roots of my fearfulness and desire to hide out in books. As a teenager, I was even afraid to make a phone call to a business for fear of being sneered at! But I have done a lot of inner work over the last 50 years. And now, here I am, working on letting the whole world know about the powerful, healing book I’ve written! (More about that below.)

Having found great help in therapy, I went back to school and became a psychotherapist. The second way I carried out my mission was in my work with my clients. We would go into the darkness to face the evil of child abuse, or other traumas, and, step-by-step, retrieve the beautiful essence of the client’s soul (as much as the person could take in.)

One client had been brow-beaten into seeing herself as a shrunken, twisted, pale shadow of her real self by extremely verbally abusive and neglectful parents. To protect her Essence, she had (metaphorically) hidden her soul in a box and put the box on a high shelf in a back storeroom of her psyche. It took a long time, but we found that hidden treasure and carefully, reverently opened that box so she could begin to absorb her true Essence.

The important point here is that we had to face the darkness, and explore all its twists and turns, before we could find that hidden treasure. If we had somehow found that box and opened it right away, my client would have been overwhelmed, probably even terrified, by her own light and beauty. I have no doubt that she would have left and never come back. To undo great harm takes time and patience, allowing the person to gain each small insight as she is ready, at her own pace.

I’ve now retired from my psychotherapy practice, and yet, again without planning to, I am still carrying out my mission in a third way. After ten years of writing, revising and editing, my fantasy novel, Dark Innocence: Book One of the Star-Seer’s Prophecy was published last year. It is a deep, rich story about the hero Kyr’s transformational journey to face the darkness and retrieve the light of his soul, and has inspired readers to deepen their own quests to retrieve their true Essence.

It is interesting to look back and realize that I was carrying out the mission that was revealed in my natal astrological chart in all these ways, without quite realizing what my mission was or what I was up to, until now. Clearly, this mission or focus was inherent in my original nature and has shaped my whole life.

Contemplation Questions

Do you know what your mission in life is? If so, how did you learn what it is? How has it shaped your life?

Have you had to face the darkness in order to retrieve your true Essence? If not, how were you able to keep or retrieve your soul’s wholeness, light and beauty?

“I could safely start to heal old wounds …And it all happened through the story…”

In this interview, Tetja Ann Barbee shares how reading my fantasy novel, Dark Innocence: Book One of the Star-Seer’s Prophecy, inspired her to forgive, and to deepen her own recovery process.

1. What was it like for you while reading Dark Innocence?

“In the beginning the author Rahima Warren, a licensed, experienced psychotherapist (now retired), makes it clear that there is more to Dark Innocence than just a fantasy fiction tale, and that her purpose is to provide a deep, meaningful, healing and spiritual fantasy story. “Wow, fascinating concept,” I thought, “a therapeutic story written in Tolkien style—MUST READ!”

At first I had little personal connection to the horror of the initial setting of this complex adventure, but I became so drawn to the spectacular story, that my feelings of separation turned to a longing to delve into my own psyche.  And the hero Kyr’s tumultuous journey became my own!  Through the very descriptive writing–colors, vibrations, sights, sounds—I developed a sense of deeper meaning.  I began to feel, hear, see, smell, and taste the experiences of each character vicariously, which in turn, became personally relevant.”

2. What parts of the story resonated most with you?

“The visceral presentation of sex used as a means to control, dictate, and manipulate for the purpose of subjugation is a concept I took personal note of, having survived horrible sexual acts against myself in life. However, later in the book, the sacred sexual healing scenes with Kyr and Jolanya balanced out the earlier abusive ones.

In addition, as a Feminist, I have a deep personal connection with the metaphysical concepts of God, The Goddess, Yin & Yang,….  Dark Innocence gave me a world filled with the presence and practice of Goddess knowledge, the beauty of nature and life; a way to assess my own thoughts of human interactions; and hope for the future.

Another thing that your book has really done is helped tie in many years of good therapy with my personal faiths and connections to the Universal forces of masculine and feminine (yin and yang) via a fantastic and compelling fantasy story that I could both enjoy, and use as guidance through suffering.”

3. How did reading the story affect you?

“I put the book down twice with an initial reaction to the nightmarish evil the characters were facing, but it beckoned me because the story is written so well, and I decided to continue on the notion it was going to be an enjoyable reading experience rather than a personally relevant one meant to heal.  I trudged on through the darkness seeking light in the story along with the characters, and amazing things began to happen in my mind.  A mood began to set, deeply and passionately.  When that happened, I could not put the book back down until I finished it!”

4. Did reading this story help you heal in any way? If so, how?

“By living vicariously through the characters in a safe, fun, and captivating manner, I began to relate to my own dark and deep feelings.  I found I could safely start to heal old wounds, and question things about my own beliefs.  And it all happened through the story’s presentation of terrible suffering, acceptance, and growth, as opposed to having to analyze myself.  I cried and laughed a lot, and consciously decided that if these characters can face such horrendous pain and evil, and come out to a place of lightness and beauty and love, so can I.

As a result, I have been able to forgive someone with whom I was very angry for a long time, for injuring me in a car accident. I have committed myself to deepen my recovery process. And I’m enjoying the effects of personal realizations about my own path in life and where I want to go.”

Thank you for sharing your experience so openly, Tetja.

“Rahima, I want to thank you for having such a keen sense of a person’s suffering and the hurdles one can face while dealing with it… and for helping me jump the first hurdle!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rahima Warren, Author of Dark Innocence: Book One of the Star-Seer’s Prophecy

Rahima Warren is the author of Dark Innocence: Book One of the Star-Seer’s Prophecy, a deep, rich novel of the healing journey. With Master’s degrees in Clinical and Transpersonal Psychology, she was in private practice as a licensed psychotherapist for over 20 years. In 2006, Rahima retired to focus on her expressive painting, creative writing, and spiritual studies.

In her work with clients recovering from abuse, she was awed by the human capacity to heal, and to reach new levels of forgiveness, wholeness and happiness. She also learned to trust the psyche’s own process. This enabled her to allow this dark and mysterious story of the healing journey to flood forth unhindered.

Rahima is a third-generation native of California and resides with her husband in Northern California, where she periodically chases squirrels off the wild bird feeders, and deer away from her roses. Her life-long love of fantasy is her parents’ fault: they left sci-fi & fantasy magazines with fascinating cover art lying around the house, which she picked up as soon as she could read!

Hope this turn of the seasons brings you many blessings of balance, harmony and beauty!

On a personal note, I’ve been feeling stressed lately, not sure why. Nothing new. Maybe just an accumulation over these past years of two challenging ‘jobs’ – eldercare for my elderly mother; and book publicity (not a natural thing for an introvert). So I sat and chanted and sang to my heart this morning on the Equinox, hoping to get back in balance.

Here’s the little poem that my heart gave me:

“Spring forward!” they say,
“Hurry up and bloom!”

But my heart says,
“Whoa, slow down.

Can’t rush the river along,
Can’t push the daisys to bloom

No.

Slow breathing,
Relaxing,
Allowing.

Welcoming rain and sunshine,

Slow unfurling,
Opening,
Widening

This is the way to bloom.”

By Rahima Warren

HOPE AND FEAR: OUR WORST ENEMIES?

Most of us would agree that fear is one of worst inner enemies, keeping us from taking chances, moving forward—but hope? Doesn’t hope keep us moving, working to make things better? Yes, that’s the problem. Hope keeps us focused on the future, on striving to get the hoped-for reward. Fear keeps us always looking behind or around for the threat or danger. Unless there is a bear or a tiger actually roaring at us RIGHT NOW, fear comes from past experiences of harm, threat or insult. Neither hope nor fear allows us to settle into the present moment, which is the only place where peace, joy and love can be found.

  Pema Chödrön explains:

“Hope and fear is a feeling with two sides. As long as there’s one, there’s always the other. This is the root of our pain. In the world of hope and fear, we always have to change the channel, change the temperature, change the music, because something is getting uneasy, something is getting restless, something is beginning to hurt, and we keep looking for alternatives.”

As I read this quote, I have several reactions. First, I get grumpy and grumbly. “Well, of course we want to be comfortable!” Then I get irritated. “Oh, stop! We’re only human. Of course, we have hopes and fears. How could we not in this crazy world?”

But then a sense of recognition sinks in. I know Pema speaks truth here. I remember seeing this myself. Somewhere in one of my journals, I drew a picture of me as a mouse in an exercise wheel, running and running, with Fear behind me snarling, and Hope before me smiling seductively, getting me absolutely nowhere. When I visualized jumping off the wheel, it was scary at first, then exhilarating. And then I landed in myself, in the present moment, in peace.

But how do we let go of hope and fear? Good question. Pema Chödrön is saying to look behind the fear or hope to the discomfort or uneasiness or pain underneath. To me, that means being present and aware of what is arising in us, and just noticing it with curiosity. Where did this discomfort come from? When did it start?

I’ve been feeling grumpy and out of sorts this morning. So let me sit with it and see where it goes. Okay, the first thing that comes up is that I got grumpy when I started dealing with my aging mother’s taxes, instead of writing. Next, a feeling of being overloaded with doing stuff other than what I truly want to be doing, out of a sense of duty and obligation. No wonder I get grumpy!

Phew! The grumpiness is subsiding, but now there’s some sadness. What’s this all about? Is it about my mother getting near the end of her life? Hmmm, that’s only part of it. What else? Is it because I’ve been abandoning part of myself? Ah, yes. Which part? Oh, the playful little girl and the wild woman who both love to be outdoors, dancing with the wind, walking quietly by a gurgling creek in the woods, spying a tiny orange flower or a lizard with an electric blue tail, smelling the bay laurel’s scent, watching a redtail hawk soar. Wow, now I’ve got it, and I feel better, clearer and more settled in.

As Ram Dass wrote, it’s all grist for the mill. Whatever arises needs attention and curiosity, rather than avoidance or soothing. Nothing necessarily has to change, except our inner responses. And these can shift toward peacefulness just from being recognized and accepted.

Contemplation Questions

How do you deal with Fear? With Hope?

Do they run you around in circles, or can you step off that “exercise wheel”?

How is it for you to sit with arising discomfort without judging, avoiding or soothing?

Does noticing what’s going on in you help shift you back to your peaceful center?

By Rahima Warren

February 28, 2013

Are We Butterfly Soup?

  The Butterfly has recently been appearing to me in visions and life. A black butterfly woman appeared in one of my paintings; a stained glass butterfly in another. At a retreat, I pulled a symbol from a bag and received Butterfly.  So I have been pondering the meaning and message of Butterfly.

Primarily, Butterfly is associated with Transformation, because the caterpillar literally transforms into a butterfly. But, as Maya Angelou says,

“We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.” 

The caterpillar spins its cocoon, disappearing from our sight, and later, a beautiful butterfly emerges. We don’t think about what goes on in that cocoon. In fact, what happens is that the caterpillar dissolves into a soup, and the butterfly forms itself out of that soup.

In other words, letting go of all it has been and dissolving into nothing is what is required of the caterpillar to become a butterfly.  And it seems to be what is required of us too.  Eckhart Tolle writes:

“Realize your essential identity as formless, as an all-pervasive Presence, of Being prior to all forms, all identifications.”

I think I may be entering the “soup” stage. I’ve recently been finding that when I let go of all  my images, assumptions and beliefs about who I am or should be, all the ways I identify myself, then there is this formless Presence that is universal yet still me somehow. It’s a very interesting state of being. There is no agenda or intention, but there is a readiness to serve, a potential to become. I begin to understand why my spiritual teacher says that once we surrender to our true nature, we become shape-shifters: pliable and able to fluidly adapt to each circumstance that arises.

Perhaps Butterfly has been showing me the path to my true nature. Let’s hear what she has to say:

Rahima: Dear Butterfly, thank you for showing up in so many ways. I welcome you and want to know what you have to tell me.

Butterfly: Dissolution. Letting go. Yes. You are becoming something new. Something you have never imagined. It takes great trust. Let go of knowing where you are going. Rest in the sea of darkness and chaos. Let go.

R: That’s hard to do when I have so much to do in the world, so many tasks and projects.

B: Trust. It is happening. You do not have to do anything. It is a time of change on this Earth. Much must dissolve for the new to emerge. You cannot direct the outcome but only surrender to the Flow, and allow yourself to be transformed into a new and unimaginable creature.

About Rahima Warren

For over 40 years, author Rahima Warren has been delving into the deep mysteries within, through dreamwork, expressive process art, many forms of inner work and spiritual practice, including vision quests, ceremony, meditation, and her work guiding others on their healing journeys. She has retrieved many gems of wisdom and healing, and, through an unexpected alchemy, those inner gems have been distilled into an enthralling and sensuous adventure of the soul, Dark Innocence: Book One of the Star-Seer’s Prophecy, a story of the journey from evil and suffering to redemption and love, set in an ancient world of blood sorcery and ritual magic. Now available through Amazon.com and other on-line bookstores, in print and all e-book formats.

I’m a bit shyly proud to let you know that I am sharing my tips for writing over on Clarion blog, a well-respected blog for writers of speculative fiction. I call my approach Free-Fall Writing and it is like the expressive art I do.

Hope you will take a look! Click this link: ow.ly/hP0fO

Let me know if it is helpful or inspiring. THANKS!

The Beatles

http://www.tracienichols.com/blog/