Author: Alethea Kehas

Author of A Girl Named Truth and The Labyrinth, and owner of Inner Truth Healing & Yoga.

What really is magic and what does it mean to live a magical life? #magic #spirituality

On By Alethea KehasIn Reflections, the labyrinth, Warriors of Light22 Comments

The other day, I found myself chatting with a friend about our writing aspirations. While I was talking about my visions for the Warriors of Light book series, the conversation veered into the subject of magic. I mentioned how most books that use magical elements are placed into the category of fantasy because they are beyond the realms of the realistic. They entertain and enthrall us by encouraging our minds to play with the fantastic in the form of the impossible or unreachable. They stir our imaginations in a way that leaves us wishing for something we will never obtain. Fantasy, though, can also remind the imagination that there is more to life than we often allow ourselves to notice…

This photo was taken at Acadia National Park in Maine. To me the land looks like a sleeping giant. In the area of the heart, you can see an eye. The image embodies magic waiting to be seen. In book 2 of the Warriors of Light series, a giant much like this one appears.

How frustrating it can be to feel as though a magical life is illusive and always beyond the realm of possibility. When I mentioned that a few readers of The Labyrinth had compared my book to one of the most popular fantasy series written, our conversation began to explore the definition of magic and how much it differs in my series vs. the one it had been compared to. The young “warriors of light” protagonists are not wizards or witches, nor do they use wands or attend a school that teaches spells and potions. Instead, their teacher is the labyrinth, a magical maze they journey through individually and together to bring back the light where it has been broken by darkness. Sure there are somewhat fantastical elements. The six young protagonists learn how to shapeshift into their spirit animals. Some of them see ghosts and all of them converse with beings in other realms, but is there really so fantastic?

Magic Can Be Extraordinary

In The Labyrinth, the hexagram star is both an individual and a cooperative journey back to the center/heart of union.

Those how have traveled the shamanic journey will probably tell you that shapeshifting, or communing with spirit totems is not so fantastical. And, I’d wager most of us have had communications with spirits or beings from other realms, whether we realize it or not.

The hidden realms of life reveal their wonder as we open ourselves to the inherent magic that resides in all life. Like young children who have not yet lost their connection to inherent magic, our inner sight and senses re-expand beyond the ho-hum of the everyday routines. A mere walk in nature can stir the cells into a state of blissful union. Glimpses, or perhaps more, of the extraordinary become common, but no less magical. The more connected we feel, the more interconnected we feel as joy arises from our sense of being a part of an infinite web of light.

The Magical Inner Journey

When I journey into the ancient landscapes that still hold the imprint of magic, my cells hum with joy and time seems to collapse and open.

While adding truly fantastical elements to a book of fiction can be fun, the magic of a hero’s journey arises out of self-discovery. It is an inner journey as well as outer journey. This is magic that is not only sustainable, but grows with awareness. The state of joy becomes accessible, achievable, and sustainable unlike a material treasure that is not easily found and can be lost, or stolen away. The gift of inherent magic can only be robbed by the self as it resides within the self.

Magic is an opening to and not a manipulation of energy

True magic arises out of the very essence of life. It does not manipulate the forces of the elements, but opens to the inherent magic that already exists. Herein lies true wonder. The state of joy is accessible through the opening. When we allow ourselves to open to life’s mysteries we find connection, truth, and re-union. Although most of us are not trained in shamanism, or have the ability to shapeshift into our spirit animals like the protagonists in the Warriors of Light series, we do have the ability to connect with and glean wisdom, inspiration, and a sense of union with the animal and plant communities around us. Many of us experience an aspect of this connection with the animal companions that live in our homes, but we can also open ourselves to connecting with the wildlife outside of our homes. Sitting in the presence of a tree and bearing witness to its enduring strength and flexibility, or watching the transformation of an earth-bound caterpillar into a near-weightless butterfly can bring profound insight, peac,e and awe to the observer.

Magic is Living in Wonder

Often the closer we look at life the more wondrous it becomes

This is magic. It is opening to life and all of its wonders that exists and unfold in each moment all around us. It is the knowing that not everything can, or will be known, in one’s lifetime, because life is filled with such complex and intricately balanced beauty that no mind can truly understand creation.

Full Moon Poem #fullmoon #moonpoetry

On By Alethea KehasIn Poems4 Comments
Image by Bessi from Pixabay

To expound upon beauty

Uniquely yours to release

Dive out of the covers

And breathe fresh

Life yours to define

Mold ripe potential

Defining the turn of lines

Washing the edges with color

Until you forget work

In favor of creation

There is no need to rise

Above or below

But inward

The extraordinary is spiral

You, reaching to discover

The ecstatic dance of joy

In your own rhythm

The steps lighten

Opening the beauty of you

Again

Autumn in New England #foliage #newengland

On By Alethea KehasIn Reflections21 Comments

It’s the time of year when cars snake the highways for miles while their occupants peep through windows with cameras at the ready. For a few precious weeks, if we’re lucky, the New England autumn paints us the colors of wonder.

View from Rattlesnake Mountain, Rumney, NH

When summer turns the corner into autumn in New England, the body and mind begin to succumb to the pull of winter. There is a natural turning inward to find the cocoon before rebirthing into spring. Yet, in this in-between time, we are graced with a glory that is hard to overlook.

Town Pond, Bow, NH

Summer lingers in the warmer days, pulling the body outdoors to bask in the golden light of an autumn sun. “Look at me!” Earth calls out. How can we resist?

Another view from Rattlesnake Mt., Rumney, NH

And I am reminded, once again, how lucky I am to call this place home.

The Bow Town Pond from the trailside that runs nearby my home.

Lest You Doubt Who You Are…#poetry #yogapoetry #esotericpoetry

On By Alethea KehasIn Poems32 Comments

I have been missing Sue, I’m sure I always will. Some days the pull to feel her presence is stronger than others. The other day, a friend of mine asked if I had reached out to her across the veil. Deliberately parting the veil is not something I do often these days. I have grown weary of the numinous and perhaps a bit distrustful. So many conspiracies and lunacies are now attached to the spiritual communities, yet there are aspects of home that cannot be denied when one steps into the space of silence. I’d like to think I heard her voice, again, in these words who are not just for me, but for anyone who doubts who they are. I share them here with visuals from the wonderful photographers on Pexels, open to individual interpretation…

You are evergreen boughs seeking water

Photo by eberhard grossgasteiger from Pexels

You are a child gliding on a silver kite into the wind, breathless in wonder

Photo by Ammar Ahmed from Pexels

You are hope letting go of despair

Photo by Lukas from Pexels

The wild window of wonder beckoning us back to life

Photo by Mohan Reddy from Pexels

You are beautiful in the essence of self

Photo by Mohan Reddy from Pexels

You are one thousand moments waiting to occur

Photo by Mikhail Nilov from Pexels

The slipstream in the current pulling into infinite possibilities

Photo by Emiliano Arano from Pexels

You are life. Precious and uniquely yours to define.

Photo by Brett Sayles from Pexels

Subbing the Middle Grades & Why I Kinda Like it #substituteteaching #middleschool #empathy

On By Alethea KehasIn Reflections14 Comments
Photo by Dids from Pexels

“You’re doing a good job.”

“I hope you sub for us again.”

“Have a great day!”

These were some of the words expressed by my preteen bosses yesterday, and they matter to me. A lot. This is one of the reasons I show up when I get the call to substitute for a teacher who is absent for the day. The pay is lousy, but the bosses can be pretty great.

By great I don’t mean easy. They test me nearly endlessly, as 10-13 yr-olds tend to do. They can be brutally honest, a royal pain in the neck, and incredibly kind. They are our youth in the process of becoming their adult selves. In the classroom, among them, I am reminded of my own struggles, the struggles of my own teenagers, and of how darn hard it can be to be human in the process of becoming.

Each day offers a clean slate. I generally have no idea if I will get the call, and if I do, where I will end up. No matter what, though, I learn something. And usually that learning comes from my young bosses. Yesterday, while taking a mask break outside with my charges bosses, I was reminded of the power of empathy and how beautiful the face of compassion is.

“Throw the ball! Throw the ball!” the words pressured the release of the girl’s hand, which threw without aim, landing the tennis ball on the side of a young boy’s head. It was an accident that resulted in tears but also an unfolding of frustration into the pure, opened heart of empathy.

In a matter of seconds the girl was by the boy’s side, her face awash with compassion and regret. Before he could find his own words, she had made her way to the nurse’s office and back outside with a soft ice pack in her hand.

Never in those moments was there anger or blame. The tears took awhile to disappear back into joy, but they did. By the end of our brief recess, you would not have known there had been an interruption if you were just passing by.

Last week, it was my turn to express compassion and empathy. And with all that baggage of years between us, I’ll admit it took me more seconds than it did for that 10-yr-old-girl.

“Hey, Sam [not his real name],” I called over to the 8th grader who had tested my limits last year like no other kids had. I was ready for resistance. Prepared for a rough day.

Instead, the voice behind the reply sounded impressed, even flattered. “How do you know my name?”

“I remember you from last year.”

“You do?”

“Yeah.”

That was all it took. If I had told him why, the outcome would have probably been vastly different. Instead, I made the choice to be honest without expounding upon why. I had remembered Sam and that was enough for him. It was, in fact, more than enough. It made him happy. It transformed him a little, and in turn it transformed me.

I don’t know what Sam’s day-to-day life is like, but I know enough about being a middle-schooler to know that it is not always easy. Each action, or non-action in the case of children who fold into themselves, is often a call for acceptance. A call for love. I can only assume that Sam’s tendency towards disruption is a result of his own struggles. Although it can be tiresome and frustrating, it doesn’t mean he is not worthy of love.

I can’t wrap my arms around these young bosses of mine, but I can choose to show them I care in other ways. Sometimes a simple act can yield a profound reaction. I’ve only subbed three days so far this school year and each day has left me transformed.

That, to me, is a day well spent.

A Brief Stay in the Body of a Dragon on the Coast of Spain #dragonlines #dragonstones #spain #travel #costabrava #begur

On By Alethea KehasIn Travel Adventures8 Comments

“You manage to find home wherever you go.”

It was a statement made by a friend on Facebook in response to my recent trip to Spain.

Somehow, in a rather mystical way, home finds me when I travel. Magic opens the window when we are willing to look outside the confines of limiting beliefs. A magic that is not about manipulating the elements to our will, but allowing the wonders that already exist to reveal themselves to the opened mind.

The view of the building that housed our rental is tucked into the sea-facing side of a hill that resembles a pyramid.

My family and I chose our beach stay because it was in our price range in Costa Brava, and because we liked the few photos we had seen of the timeshare-style resort. The photos, we discovered when we stepped out of our car, did not come close to doing justice to the wonders of the landscape.

The beautiful view of Costa Brava from our balcony. A stone dragon leads the eye to the sea.

If you begin to look for them, you will find the forms of dragons are not so uncommon along coastlines. Their rocky heads jut out over the water, seemingly pulling the energy of Earth’s oceans into the dry body of land. Their lines of fire, in turn, churning the waters around them. It is alchemy at its best. Somewhat hidden and mysterious, but unmistakably felt. The wind is often more wild in these places, the elements palpably alive and alert. How lucky we were to discover not one dragon wrapping around the coast where we stayed, but two…

A coastal walk connects the two dragons and the pyramid hills from which their bodies descend into the water. This one appears almost to be sleeping, yet the hill above it is palpably alive with fire energy.

We walked this pyramidal hill one evening after a lovely dinner in one of the restaurants in the cove below it. The climb was not long, and it was manageable even for those of us in dresses and sandals.

The wide path narrows and becomes more rugged the closer you get to the top.

Although I could find no history of this site, either on the hill itself or online, layered remains of times past still exist upon it.

An unlabeled artifact on the trail. Three crouched figures with their heads removed seemed eerily appropriate…

There is something to be said about walking an ancient land at dusk. The veil thins and the energies stir a forgotten magic. It leaves no one untouched, and I could see the feeling of elation mirrored in the faces of my family as we climbed the hill.

I was in heaven.

It’s a little frustrating not to know the history of a place aside from the feeling it offers you.

The towered remains of Rome? And what was there before it?

We encountered more mystery and intrigue the evening we climbed the well-known castle in the center of Begur, which dates back to the 11th century.

Castle view

While looking at the breathtaking views atop Begur Castle, my eyes caught upon the mounds below, where are separated from the mountains behind them. Their shapes appear more defined than by the hand of Nature.

A sunset view from Begur Castle looking towards some interesting mounds.

But that would have to remain a mystery as well. We did not travel to climb them as we had only allowed for three nights on the coast of Spain. Which, as you can see from this sunset vista taken atop Begur Castle, is stunning.

My daughter, on top Begur castle looking out to the sea, finds joy wherever we travel.

The time passes as all time does, and we were soon on our way to spend the night with giants on a much larger mountain than the hills of Begur…

This spectacular coastal trail leads to beaches, cliff-jumping spots, and restaurants along Costa Brava

What’s Happened to Kindness and Empathy #empathy #compassion #pandemic

On By Alethea KehasIn Reflections20 Comments
Image by Vicki Nunn from Pixabay

I live in a typical upper middle-class American town. People are kind when it’s convenient, and unkind, I suspect more often than most realize. At least these days. It is a place where behind closed doors comparisons are made and unkind remarks are uttered, but it is also a town where, more and more, unkind words are uttered in public. Especially on platforms like social media.

We have a town FB page that was created with the intention to build community. Whenever I go on it, I find posts where people are mocked and attacked. This is not community. This is not kindness. This is not empathy. This is not, I am sure, the only town like this is America. Or in the world right now. We are living in an era of extreme polarization fed by fear and hatred. More often than not, we are globally tapping into the shadowlands of ourselves to react to life, instead of finding the self in the other.

We can blame the previous POTUS for being an instigator and propagator of this dehumanizing type of behavior, but that is also a convenient excuse. Each one of us is endowed with the choice of our actions, thoughts, and words. In any moment we can behave with self-serving rhetoric, or we can step into the space of empathy, kindness, and love.

Some days, like today, I struggle with the pull to react and defend. To try to balance the scales back to humanity. Mocking a global pandemic, which has caused millions of people to die or become seriously ill, is not an act of empathy, love, or kindness. It is an action that is, simply, unjustifiable.

Undermining someone’s concern for their child’s welfare, and the welfare of their child’s classmates and teachers, by a laughing emoji reflects not only a lack of empathy, but a lack of humanity.

We an use the argument of “lies” v. “truth,” which is ever-so-popular right now in our fear-driven, conspiracy-fed world, but where does that truely led us? To more separation from our core essence. To more separation from ourselves and each other. The need to be special, unique, right, and different, drives us away from the realization that we are all worthy of this life we are living.

On My Birthday #poetry #birthdays

On By Alethea KehasIn Memoir, Poems, Reflections19 Comments

The 12th card I drew

I’m going to imagine something different:

The beauty of the goddess unfolding

Light softening the edges of life

Years, a mold of becoming

The inner child emerging

and merging into the dance

of a perfection that is truth

This messy cohesion of unity

Something radiant called a Life

So many journeys to get to this place

Defining and refining

Breaking down to build

Whole

Like a chalice spilling over

to fill again, and again

Tireless infinity splitting open

the moment not like a wound

but like a lover seeking joy

This seed waiting to germinate

finding the sun was always there

in the full splendor of wonder

watching the budding of a radiance

thriving under the moon, night

as much a friend as day

the taste of sorrow becoming happiness

refined

I wrote this poem before drawing 12 tarot cards as a reflection upon this day. Forty-eight years ago I was born into this life. A life that seems, at times, difficult to define and accept. Birthdays have never been easy days for me, in large part because they have been days, like all the others, not wholly mine to embrace and be embraced by. I knew I would find the chalice in the cards, but I thought it would be The Queen of Cups, as this is how the “I” has reflected itself over the years, but 12 cards unfolding this journey brought The Ace. I had, after all, asked for something new...

The Mystical, Magical Montserrat #travel #montserrat #spain

On By Alethea KehasIn Travel Adventures16 Comments

There were elephants, apes, cats (both wild and tame), and there were giants. Lots of them. We were not a zoo or a carnival. Nor were we at the circus. We were on the top of a mountain in Spain. If you’ve been there, you will know Montserrat is nothing short of wondrous.

The elephants and their friends

“Look,” my daughter pointed her finger to a grouping of stone figures peering down upon our arrival, “They’re elephants. Except that one. That’s a monkey.”

Wonder is even better when it is shared.

The giant looming left in the image stood sentinel over our rooms.

“That,” I added to her assessment, “Is most definitely a giant and it looks like he’s lost one of his four arms.” The figure stood directly over our rooms, as if in constant guard. A sentinel watching pilgrims come and go over thousands of years. To be in the presence of these giants in stone is nothing short of amazing. It is both humbling and mind-boggling. How did they get here? One wonders. How did we get here?

The view of Montserrat’s train station from the hike down its summit.

Life’s existential questions hover with you above the clouds and you are certain you must have ascended into another world. A world of stone gods.

One of the many shrines on Montserrat

They are not unkind. The atmosphere on Montserrat is both welcoming and peaceful. To all. Even though Christian hands have stamped their marks throughout its 4,000 plus feet of peaks and valleys.

A cross marks a peak on Montserrat

Legends tell of a group of shepherds in the year 888 who encountered the presence of the divine while wandering near the top of Montserrat. Beams of holy light shone down upon them and the song of angels and bells filled the air. Each time they returned, they were met with the same holy welcome, which led them to a cave holding an icon of the black Madonna and child, “La Moreneta.”

The sun’s angle brought an ethereal light to this holy place.

Montserrat is not only revered by Christians, but by all types of seekers. It is said that the templars sought the Holy Grail here. Numerous UFO sightings have been reported, and there are legends of abductions and strange encounters with other dimensions. Caves channel through the mountain’s body and one gets the sense that its secrets will never been fully revealed.

In this image I see two lovers in an eternal embrace.

If I could have stayed here longer, I would have. Maybe for a month, maybe years…

As it was, though, we had less than 24-hrs to explore a small part of the mountain’s mysteries.

We arrived by car to the parking area below the Benedictine monastery, and the small village that includes a hotel, hostal, apartments, shops, and transport stations.

The lower part of the village of Montserrat. You can see the steep, gray line of the summit funicular in the crevice of the rocks.

If truth be told, we almost didn’t make it. Montserrat, we soon realized, welcomes you, but also tests your limits. For my husband, it was trusting the mountain would not careen us over its edge as he carefully drove us towards its top. His fear put us all on edge, testing us individually and as a family. I grew impatient as I calculated how much time we had already lost. Acceptance comes when one takes the gift as it can be welcomed only by you. For us, it was our brief, yet magical stay on the mountain.

My daughter near the summit

We were greeted with a perfect day. The sun shining almost within reach through a nearly windless and cloudless expanse of endless sky. You really do feel as though you are on top of the world when you reach the summit of the mountain.

We were greeted with our own beams of light as we conquered the mountain’s heights

We took the funicular from the village to the summit, then walked back down to the village area. By the time we checked into our hotel and wandered a bit around the abbey (abandoning the chance to see La Moreneta due to the long, inching line), it was nearing the end of the day. We got one of the last runs up the mountain and had just enough time before the sunset to meander our way down, veering just slightly off-course now and then to explore and test limits.

My son decides to conquer his own fears by climbing off-course to ascend even higher.

Despite a few tugs of temptation, we stayed the course and followed the well-marked, mostly-paved path. The views are stunning no matter where you are on the mountain, the trail of serrated rock formations instill awe at each turn. We even found a dragon, in stone, meandering down one side. Perfect.

Dragon ridge

I felt like I had found heaven. Not a perfect heaven, but just the kind-of heaven I prefer. One that awes, but also tests in order to learn.

A heavenly view of the mountain and the abbey.

Even dinner was pretty close to being divine, and we very nearly didn’t get one. Well, perhaps that’s a slight exaggeration, but when my husband called for reservations the night before, he was told they were all booked. Most likely a miscommunication, the information lost and muddled in translation, we found this was in fact not the case. Upon our check-in I had no trouble reserving us a table for 7:45pm.

The dining room at Hotel Abat Cisneros Montserrat is a wonder in itself

Our three-course, very reasonably priced meals, came with a large soup or salad (I got the pumpkin soup, which was, yes, divine), a generous and tasty entree, and dessert. If you go, make sure to choose the local cheese and Montserrat honey as one of our dessert options.

Sleeping at Montserrat is deliberately short of luxurious. Even the hotel rooms are furnished in a spartan style that favors celibacy. We had two adjoining twins adorned in plaid earth tones. A bible was the centerpiece of each of our night tables.

The courtyard of the monastery at night.

The close of day releases all but the committed travels down the mountain, and the village of Montserrat turns into a place of solitude and peace. Except for the bells, which we discovered as we attempted to slumber, ring out the time every quarter-hour. As we struggled with sleep in our rooms without air-condition, windows ajar, letting in the mountain air and the holy bells, I no longer wondered why there were so few of us spending the night.

Yet, I was glad we did.

The big dipper visible over the stone giants (these ones had a sphinx-like feel to them).

Night atop Montserrat opens another portal to the heavens. Stars break through the canvas of day to shine in all their rapture. The big dipper was clearly visible as it dove its ladle into the bodies of the giants. It is magical. Other-worldly. An experience one will never forget.

A monk makes his way to the monastery at dawn.

Dawn, in turn, brings with it a quiet splendor as the sun ascends above the clouds and the monks make their way to the abbey.

Dawn’s clouds atop Montserrat separates the world above from the world below

Breakfast, although more casual in-style, is also impressive at the hotel. It is included with your stay and arrives in buffet style in the informal dining room. Aside from various pastries and fruit, a selection of meats, cheeses, yogurts, cereals, and beverages are offered. We did not leave hungry.

But we also did not linger too long. We needed to return our car by 10:30am, which became another adventure in itself…

It was with more than a twinge of reluctance that I said goodbye to Montserrat as we made out way down from its spectacular heights. Someday, perhaps, I will get a chance to return.

An unforgettable place.

Summer of Rain and Fire #climatechange #ahimsa #kindness #pandemic

On By Alethea KehasIn A New Earth, Reflections12 Comments
Image by PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay

I no longer wonder how long it will last, but how long we will endure.

We are living in extremes. One side of the world weeps, while the other side burns in fever. One element, without the other, leads to imbalance. Just like in the human body. Too much yin swallows life force. Too much yang, burns it up. Yet, somehow, for now, we endure. Endure to hold onto extremes…

We reflect what we create.

Denial can be a powerful force of destruction. Eyes resist focusing on what brings discomfort.

Turmoil stirs the Earth, but it also stirs the self.

How often do we forget that what we sow within, we reap outside of us?

I find myself growing tired of excuses. The unchecked ego filled with self-affirming prophecies refusing to go inward to see outside the self with clear eyes.

I find myself growing tired of the selfish mind refusing to remember that we are here to take care of not only the self, but the whole.

I am tired of those who insist on being right at the expense of life. Denying a crisis serves no purpose other than for the ego to feel justified.

We are taught by our spiritual leaders that all life is sacred. That we are just one part of a whole. We are taught interconnectedness and to do no harm, yet the ego’s search for separation has led to a world that burns and weeps extremes. A world where more than 4 million people have died from a virus that is mutating out of control because there are so many hosts that refuse to believe it is real.

Refuse to see that inaction can cause harm.

Our Earth was created with free energy and that energy has never left us. Yet we burn her lungs for profit, and drill into the body that feeds us for industrial gain. Temporary gains leaving trails of disease and death.

We are, undeniably, a selfish lot, but we don’t have to be.

Small gestures can go a long way…

Getting a vaccine can not only save your life, but countless others.

Wearing a mask if you are at risk of harming your own life and others, is not a violation of your personal rights, it is an act of ahimsa. It is an act of grace and kindness.

Tending to the planet is not an act of weakness, it is an act of strength. It is an act of ahimsa. It is an act of grace and kindness.