The Super Bowl of Love!

"The Super Bowl of Love!"

In the USA and beyond, the Super Bowl is a very special event -- and a time that people eat more guacamole than the trees can provide! I hope your team wins, even in they're not included.

In the meantime, let's talk about the Super Bowl of Love. We don't need guacamole for the discussion, but if you want to, please go right ahead. I had some on a recent afternoon at the beach here in Chacala (Nayarít, Mexico) and it was superb.

We are in a time of changing and expanding consciousness now, and many people are searching for ways to participate and become more aware, conscious, loving, and/or enlightened. It is as though there is a championship at stake, people are competing for honors, going to workshops, reading books, finding teachers, traveling to foreign lands-- all in search of a very illusive commodity.

In fact, the commodity of "more conscious, more loving, more enlightened" really doesn't exist. If you are pursuing those goals in order to be "more," you are doomed. It means you are listening to that judge voice within who says you must be more something in order to be good enough for...? For what!? Aren't we good enough now? Must we be more to be enough? It's crazy! Like a dog throwing his own bone. Stop believing that voice, it's clearly insane!

For more on the voice of the inner judge, listen to the archive of my Conscious Relationship radio show, #27, "Here Come da' Judge," here, or read my newsletter on the subject here.

In the Super Bowl of Love there are no scores, no winning and no losing. There is no succeeding and no failing. There is only the perfect and beautiful What IS. And we are What IS. The inner or outer judge that says you should be more than you are is lying-- how is it possible? This is a trick that most people fall for, and spend their lives denying who and what they are while they pretend to be what they should be while they're trying to figure out how to actually become what they think they should be.

You can't. You cannot be other than you are.

In the Super Bowl of Love we stop trying to gain yardage, we stop counting penalties, and we play from the truth of our hearts, from the truth of who we are. We play without fear, because we know we are perfect just the way we are, and just the way we are not. We relax, and let the game play around us. We are at peace in the game, with ourselves, and with the world around us.

There is nothing to get right. We are already right. We are already winners. Every one of us, winners. You win the Super Bowl of Love the minute you quit trying to be what you are not, and accept yourself as you are. Every one of us is a unique expression of the love and divine energy of the creator of this universe, this planet, and as this wonderful human you already are.

Relax, eat some guacamole, and taste a little gratitude for being a unique expression of the love of the divine-- perfect as you are, right here, right now.

Touchdown!!

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You can also find freedom from the inner judge as a member of our online community "TACO."

I am available by phone, Skype, and e-mail if you would like support for your life journey. I look forward to hearing from you.  allanh@sonic.net

Details about consultations and apprenticeships in The Four Agreements and Toltec tradition are here.

Your Very Own Personal Companion

"Your Very Own Personal Companion"

The Toltecs say that humans are sick because there is a parasite in their minds that eats their negative emotions. It not only eats the negative emotions, but it also does everything it can to get the human to dream in fear, so it will have lots to eat.

In most people, the parasite is in charge of perception. It tells lies in the mind, and the person believes them: "You have to look good for other people. There is a limited amount of love and attention available, and you need them to survive. You have to be good and get it right for other people, to deserve your share of the love." The parasite learned all its lies during childhood, and continues to repeat them in the adult mind. The lies create more fear for the parasite to eat.

The parasite is a living dream, dreamed in different ways and degrees by all humans. When you were born into the parasite dream of your family, they began to take little pieces of their parasite and put them in your mind. These were like seeds -- little beliefs and lies based in fear -- and they grew in your mind. In time, those seeds grew into your unique personal parasite, which has been with you ever since.

Dictionaries define parasite as a living being that lives on or in another organism, sucking its energy, and offering no advantage to the host. Often parasites weaken their hosts a little at a time. The parasite in the human mind creates and eats negative thoughts and emotions, drains the human's personal power, and robs his body of its vitality. The Toltecs know that the parasite is the cause of many diseases of both the mind and body.

The parasite's job is to keep you in line, following the rules that the judge knows society wants you to follow, so you will be loved and accepted. The parasite controls your behavior with fear. The minute you try to create new beliefs for yourself, especially based in love, the parasite is terrified. It knows that in the past, going against the outside dream meant rejection, punishment, or worse. The parasite will do everything it can to sabotage your efforts to change your personal dream. It fears for your safety, and ultimately your life. Who could blame it? The parasite learned well, in a very tough school.

If your personal parasite can't control you, there is always the big parasite, the living being that is the dream of the planet. It taught your parasite everything it knows, and colludes with your parasite to keep you asleep. Everyone knows the rules and how to remind you of what will happen if you break them.

- An excerpt from The Everything Toltec Wisdom Book, by Allan Hardman

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Learn to break the spell of the parasite -- order The Everything Toltec Wisdom Book here.

Sign up for my newsletter.

Check out TACO -- my Online Toltec Community of men and women supporting each other and themselves on the road to personal freedom: http://tolteconline.com

I am available for counseling: allanh@sonic.net or call (707) 528-1271

The Coolest Hat

"The Coolest Hat"

[EDITOR'S NOTE: This hat story is taken from an e-mail conversation between members of Allan Hardman's online community "TACO" who participated in his October journey to the pyramids at Teotihuacán, Mexico, and the extension to Tepoztlán. The group jokes that nobody is allowed to have a cooler hat than Allan.]

"Can someone tell us the complete story of the coolest hat?"

Allan: "Hello all....

I guess if no one else will tell the story, it must be up to me. We were hiking down from the pyramid of Tepozteco in Tepoztlán, and at one of the rest stops I left my hat behind. I didn't miss it until we stopped at a little stall near the bottom of the trail where they were making the quesadillas we had fallen in love with at the market place the day before. Four of us sat down and ordered and enjoyed our treats immensely (corn fungus, grasshoppers, farmer's cheese, and squash blossoms, cactus leaf, and more -- yummmm.) Perhaps someone has photos to share of the adventure. Ah yes, here they are!

Allan wearing "The Coolest Hat"

The bottom of the trail to the Pyramid of Tepozteco

Our Favorite Quesadillas

Corn Fungus, Grasshoppers, Farmer's Cheese, Squash Blossoms, Cactus Leaf & more!

I surrendered my hat to the Angel of Death (scroll down to watch a video about the Angel of Death if you are unfamiliar with the Angel in Toltec mythology) shortly after I realized it was missing, because I've heard that part of the lecture many times (from myself, of course), and have come to believe it. The Angel had taken back the hat she loaned me many years ago -- the Coolest Hat in Teotihuacán and Peru. It was okay.

However, while we were sitting eating, I was casually watching to see if anyone coming down the trail past us was wearing it, just in case the Angel was just testing or kidding me, or wanted to return it for some reason. I was more concerned with the eagle feather on the hat that a shaman in Peru had given me. There was a minor attachment there, partly, as I write this I realize, because I believed it was a sacred duty to use and protect that feather.

About the time we were finishing up our quesadillas I glanced over at a family that had been stopped by a vendor on the other side of the trail and were looking at her wares. As I looked again, I saw my eagle feather dangling below the arm of one of the women. 

I went over and bowed in gratitude to her, and told her it was "my" hat and thanked her for finding it (Creative Assumption). She said her son had actually found it -- so I offered it to him. He smiled and declined, and so once again the Coolest Hat was mine, along with the eagle feather and Peruvian hat band. 

We finished our meal and returned to the hotel.

And that's my story of The Coolest Hat and The Angel of Death."

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To learn more about the Toltec concept of The Angel of Death, watch this video of Allan teaching about the Angel of Death in Teotihuacán, Mexico:

http://youtu.be/8ZEUDnpfcDI

The Angel of Death/ The Angel of Life

"The Angel of Death/

The Angel of Life"

Three times a week, I meet in a chat room with members of my Toltec Apprentice Community Online ("TACO") to teach, share, play, grow, and ponder. Recently a member asked a question that led to a discussion of "The Angel of Death," a powerful guide on the Toltec path to personal freedom.

Here is a brief excerpt edited from that chat (names changed, etc.):

TACOMember1: Allan I have a question. I am not sure, but I would like to live like my death is near. I would like to keep that view, or vision in me. What to do?

TACOAllan: It's a powerful idea. Surrender your attachments to being alive. Surrender your attachments to all of your material possessions--they belong to the Angel of Death, not you. She will take them when she wants them back, including your body and life.

TACOAllan: When you surrender your attachments you release your fear. When you release your fear, your mind isn't zooming off into the past or future, and can be in the present. The only place Life really exists is in the present. When you surrender to the Angel of Death and enter each present moment with gratitude, she becomes the Angel of Life, the best guide to a life well-lived on the Toltec Path and beyond.

TACOMember2: How do you release the fear?

TACOAllan: The fear comes from attachments, which come from the illusion you can control the outcome. The need to control gives rise to the fear you will fail. So you have to try harder, and get more attached to the outcome -- which creates more fear you will fail.

TACOMember3: In other words we are releasing control that we never had in the first place...

TACOAllan: You've got it, TACOMember3.

TACOMember4: How do you let go of attachments?

TACOAllan: You let go of attachments by realizing that you cannot control much of anything in your life. Look back at your life, study it, and you will find that when you got into relationships and then they ended, when you bought a car and it broke down and you replaced it, when your lovely young skin gets wrinkled -- you weren't really orchestrating any of it. The Angel of Death owns all those things. She is in charge, she takes them back when she wants to.

TACOAllan: So surrender to reality, let go of the illusion of control, embrace the Angel of Death with deep gratitude for everything she loans you. When you do, you will wake up in the present moment -- in the arms of the Angel of Life! She is your guide to the joy, celebration, and wonder of each evolving moment of Life. And you are Free.

If you would like to be part of this online Toltec Community and participate in these chats ($1 for the first month) go here to learn more. 

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Each year at Teotihuacán, participants face the Angel of Death, and are invited to surrender the illusion of control in their lives. I invite you to join us this year, September 29-October 4, and make this powerful guide your guide to LIFE. Watch the ceremony in this video:

Allan Hardman teaches about "The Angel of Death" in Teotihuacán, Mexico

Life is happening right now.

Make the Angel of Death/ Angel of Life your guide to this present moment!

I enjoy your feedback.

              Allan

allanh@sonic.net -- Or (707) 528-1271

The Storyteller as a Terrorist in Our Minds

"The Storyteller as a Terrorist in Our Minds" 

(Written after 9/11/2001)

Every human's mind has a Storyteller... a small being who sits in the mind and tells stories to the human. That Storyteller is not there when the human is born. As soon as the new human is able to understand stories-- in tones of voice, facial expressions, and later with words -- the Storytellers living around that new human put the seeds of their stories into the mind of the new human. And they grow there, and become strong, and bear much fruit.

You were once a new human. When you popped into this world, the Storytellers knew it was their job to teach you their stories. Many of those stories were based on fear... fear that you will be rejected if you are not good enough, not smart enough, not rich enough, not beautiful enough, not handsome enough, not thin enough, just Not Enough. The Storytellers taught you that you had to be perfect in order to be accepted. The Storytellers taught you that nobody is perfect. Only God is perfect. They taught you that you could never be God, and yet you had to be perfect. 

The Storyteller's stories were often confusing, contradictory -- yet as a new human, you had no choice but to accept them as true. A fish living in water has no way of knowing air. A new human, living in that ocean of stories, has no way to know anything beyond those stories.

The nature of stories is that they are only true for the Storyteller who owns them. They are not true for anyone else. There cannot be a True story, or a Right story, or everyone would agree on everything. Even if everyone, everywhere, did agree, it would still be a story. It would be a description of beliefs and agreements that were once learned and held in the mind. Only that, nothing more.

The recent events of terrorism in our country present us with a story from other Storytellers that is, in the context of our story, incomprehensible. The terrorists' Storytellers say that their goal is to create terror in us, to create terror in our lives, to teach us that we will never be safe again. Even the news media says America will never be the same -- they also teach us the terrorists' new story: "We will now live in fear and not be safe."

The images of planes hitting buildings are now implanted in our minds, and the Storyteller tells stories about them over and over and over. The media compounds our fear, telling us stories of Anthrax and poisoning water supplies.

Every time the Storyteller tells a story about fear, every time your storyteller reads or listens to or watches a story about fear, it creates fear in the human mind. It creates terror in the human mind. Every time your Storyteller tells you a story that creates fear and terror in your mind, your Storyteller has become a terrorist. Every time you are the terrorist, every time you allow your Storyteller to tell you a story that creates fear, the foreign terrorists have succeeded.

Of course there are terrorists in the world, because there is a terrorist in your mind: your Storyteller. Now your Storyteller has learned new stories with which to terrorize you even more than it used to. It used to terrorize you by telling you stories that said that you would not be loved unless you made more money or were slimmer or younger or had fewer wrinkles. But now your Storyteller is learning new stories about violent acts that you cannot predict or control, and you are probably feeling more fear.

It seems to me that the way to end terrorism is to end terrorism in our minds, to quit believing the stories we tell ourselves that create fear and terror in our own minds. The fear that we feel is real, but the stories that we tell ourselves the create the fear are simply stories. You have a choice about what stories you allow your Storyteller to tell you. You have a choice about what stories to believe.

What stories are you choosing to believe? Are they stories that create fear and terror in your mind and body? Or are they stories that create love, peace and harmony inside of you? You can choose. Maybe we can't eliminate terrorism in the world, maybe we can't find all the right people to kill so we can feel safe again. But perhaps we can, and do, have a choice not to be our own terrorists.

Perhaps, when we are no longer terrorizing ourselves-- whether in fear about how much we weigh or in fear from imagining a story of an agonizing death caused by some foreign agent -- we can live in peace within ourselves. If we all live in peace with ourselves, surely we will live in peace with each other.

It's worth a try!

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I'm so grateful to be able to share with you here. My life and work and Joydancer and TACO (my online spiritual and networking community) are all dedicated to helping us learn and remember the truth of our oneness as the Divine essence that creates and animates this universe... and each part of it in each moment. Including you and me!

I am available by phone, Skype, and e-mail if you would like support for your life journey. I look forward to hearing from you.

Details about consultations and apprenticeship are here.

Sign up for my newsletter here.

What is a Despacho?

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Thanks for your questions and comments! Please keep them coming. Many people who read my newsletter about our Celebration of Life Garden Party on August 20 wrote and asked, "What is a despacho?" I thought it would be fun to answer that here.

Creating a despacho is one of the most potent experiences I and other people get to have. Every August at our Summer Celebration of Life weekend here in northern California, Francis Rico and I, and the group, create the despacho as the grand finale of the weekend. This year, for the Garden Party, it will be on Saturday afternoon (August 20).

Francis and I learned to create despachos from the shamans in Peru, separately and independently, and love to bring that energy to our groups. In Peru and the Andes, participants use their breath to put intentions into three coca leaves, which are then placed in the despacho. In our ceremonies each participant uses three petals from a red rose.

When the building of the despacho is complete, it and the intentions are "dispatched" into Spirit, often by burning the bundle.

Rather than try to describe with words the look and experience of the despacho, here is a photo from Peru, and a wonderful video of one of our Summer Celebration despachos. James Nihan, a singer/song writer and Toltec colleague from Tennessee wrote the song in the video, "Three Petals," about this ceremony. I hope you'll enjoy it.

Shamans in Peru creating a despacho

The Joydancer Summer Celebration of Life, and Despacho ceremony

Join us at the Joydancer Summer Celebration of Life

Garden Party, Santa Rosa, CA

Saturday, August 20, 2011

You can read more and RSVP here.

Potluck • BBQ • Sunshine • Friends and Family • Despacho ceremony of celebration and gratitude (4 pm) with Francis Rico • Homemade music (you) • Sharing love and wisdom in the Joydancer Toltec tradition on the garden lawn.

There is no charge for this event. We are accepting donations to cover some expenses.

RSVP

lynn@joydancer.com

707•528•1271

Everyone is invited -- except dogs and cats. Space will be limited, so make sure to RSVP for directions by Friday, August 19.

Honoring the Deepest Truth of You

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In the old dream, feelings and emotions are problems to be solved, or embarrassing intrusions into daily life. In children, feelings are repressed, punished, or shamed, and in adults the habit of denial continues. How many men have experienced emotions in a movie theater, and when questioned by a surprised or pleased woman, blamed their tears on the bad air or their (occasional) allergy to popcorn?

The spiritual warrior, alive in the new dream, recognizes and honors feelings as the truth of the moment. The warrior is no longer ashamed of what he feels. He honors his feelings the same way he loves a small child who comes running to him hurt, angry, afraid, or overflowing with joy. He honors and respects the feelings of everyone he relates to, whether a child, a mate, a friend, or a stranger.

~ An excerpt from The Everything Toltec Wisdom Book, by Allan Hardman

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It is my passion in life to help you accept every part of yourself so that you can live a truly happy life. We will do this work of accepting and falling into love with ourselves in Teotihuacán, Mexico - September 29 - October 4, 2001. Details here: http://joydancer.com/events/teotihuacanAndtep.html#teo

If you like what you read, you can:

1. Sign up for my newsletter, the Joydancer Weekly Word and News:

http://joydancer.com/Newsletter

2. Get your copy of The Everything Toltec Wisdom Book in the Joydancer Store: 

http://store.joydancer.com/products/the-everything-toltec-wisdom-book

3. Join my Toltec Community Online and be supported by a loving community of people learning how to become free of childhood domestication and claim their power as happy and free adults. 

http://tolteconline.com

4. Get in touch with me! I offer counseling via phone, Skype, or in person. Call or write for a free 30-minute phone consultation. (707) 528-1271. allanh@sonic.net

IN Love,

Allan

A Judge for Every Occasion

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Every family has its own dream, and all parents have unique standards they expect their children to meet. Often, even parents in a family disagree about the rules, and each enforces different judgments and punishments. They believe (from their domestication) that they need to make their children wrong and punish them for breaking the family rules--and thus make them good citizens of the world. Punishment is the basic standard for child rearing in the dream of the planet. This is not a conscious, deliberate or mean act by parents--they are fish in the water, knowing only the water, doing what they think is best.

The family also enforces the rules and expectations of all the groups, institutions, religions, occupations, social hierarchies, and political beliefs with which they identify themselves. It is vitally important to parents that everyone around them accept their children. It is even more important to many parents that they themselves are accepted as good parents by the judges around them.

When a child hears enough of those judgments, she learns to agree she is not good enough, smart enough, or careful enough the way she is. She knows she must get it right, or she will not be tolerated as a member of her family unit. To protect herself from being banished, she learns all the expectations of her family, and all the judgments that enforce them. She internalizes the voices into a recording that can play in her mind twenty-four hours a day, even when she is alone.

As one Toltec apprentice told his teacher, "I always make myself wrong for everything I do! I thought since my mother taught me that way, I should do it that way, too. I have a judge for every occasion!"

Many of the judgments were not spoken directly, nor were they necessarily abusive or overtly hurtful. If no one came when you called them to change your diaper or see a dead worm on the patio, you thought it was your fault. If your parent didn't put the newspaper down when you wanted to show them some school art, or any of the other small ways that even loving parents did not respond to your childhood needs, you were hurt. And the message you told yourself was, "I am not important enough (good enough, interesting enough, and so on) for them to want to pay attention to me and love me. I have to be better." That belief was quietly added to the litany of your inner judge.

Remember that everything the judge says is a lie. Listen with detachment and curiosity to these voices. They are not you, and they are not your fault. The voices and their beliefs were programmed into your mind by others. The Toltec Warrior does not take them personally, because he knows they are not personal.

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-An excerpt from The Everything Toltec Wisdom Book, by Allan Hardman

It is my passion in life to help us break free from the tyranny of the inner judge so that we can be happy. If you like what you read here, you can:

1. Sign up for my newsletter, the Joydancer Weekly Word and News: http://joydancer.com/Newsletter

2. Get your copy of The Everything Toltec Wisdom Book in the Joydancer Store: http://store.joydancer.com/products/the-everything-toltec-wisdom-book

3. Join my Toltec Community Online and be supported by a loving community of people learning how to become free of childhood domestication and claim their power as happy and free adults. http://tolteconline.com

4. Get in touch with me! I offer counseling via phone, Skype, or in person. Call or write for a free 30-minute phone consultation. (707) 528-1271. allanh@sonic.net

IN Love,

Allan

Conscious Relationship: A Conversation with Allan Hardman

All life is based on relationships, and the most important relationship is the one we have with ourselves. Most people have learned to believe lies denying their value and worth in the world. I am passionate about helping us all change how we "dream" ourselves - and learn to love and accept ourselves just as we are (and just as we are not!).

When we heal our relationship with ourselves the entire world we live in changes. Want to change your world? Let's do it!

Join me for a radio interview with Sarah McCroskey on HumanSpirit Radio, Friday, June 17 at 2:00 PM (Pacific Time). To register to listen and participate with questions, click here.

For more information about HumanSpirit Radio, click here.

To work with me personally to change your world, call (707) 528-1271. I offer personal coaching and counseling. To find out more about me and what I do, visit http://www.joydancer.com

Non-Judgment Day (The Un-Rapture)

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Are you disappointed or relieved that the rapture didn't happen on May 21? Well, it is actually postponed, but here are some more thoughts on how to go to Heaven on Earth (the rapture for the rest of us)... and more.

(If you would like to read any of my previous newsletters, they are archived here.)

Now that May 21 has passed, and the Rapture has been postponed until October 21, life is good. And if you don't know what I'm talking about, I assure you, it really doesn't matter! However, I've been fascinated by the Rapture predictions, and learned so much reading about how people's faith is invested through emotions and not logic. When a major biblical prediction doesn't happen, people don't re-think their logic, they wait for some emotional experience to actually strengthen their faith. Very interesting.

I wonder how many of us have our faith invested in our ability to control the outcome of life, death, love, relationships, religions, parenting, and other things we believe we can control and manage...? If someone (like me) comes along and suggests that we have never controlled the outcome of one single thing in our lives... well, would you open your logic to listen, or let the emotional reaction to the idea close you to it?

Most humans live with a Judging voice in their minds that is always questioning them, criticizing them, second guessing them, and reminding them they aren't good enough the way they are. Being eternally judged sounds like Hell to me! And it is. Hell On Earth. Most humans are living in Hell On Earth, and billions of them are dreaming of going to some heaven, somewhere, some day.

All the gods created in the image of humans constantly judge us. Their rules are always about us being better than we are, doing more, behaving better, meeting some lofty standards, before we can be lifted up to a place of love and acceptance-- IF we meet the standards. It's a lot like bargaining for love in childhood, and a lot like Santa Claus: "Be good, get reward; be bad, get punished."

An apprentice in the chat room of our Online Toltec Community ($1) asked, "What's keeping me out of Heaven?" He was referring to Heaven on Earth offered by teachers throughout the ages. Here is what I answered:

What's keeping you out of heaven is you asking, "What's keeping me out of heaven?" Asking the question affirms your belief you should be different than you are, that you haven't achieved the goal yet. You scoff at the "heaven" of religions, and then invest your faith in some idea of spiritual perfection that will be rewarded when you reach it. So your attention is hooked on the question, which shows your faith is invested in controlling the outcome, and the doors to heaven are closed.


You will only be free when you have de-invested your faith in the illusion you can control the outcomes, and invest it in your trust of life itself. More on the subject in a future newsletter, and in my newsletter archives here.

Want to go to Heaven on Earth? Do your own rapture:

Definition of "RAPTURE:"

1 -- an expression or manifestation of ecstasy or passion
2 -- a state or experience of being carried away by overwhelming emotion
3 -- a mystical experience in which the spirit is exalted to a knowledge of divine things

Let the "overwhelming emotion" be a love of the divine AS YOU. Enter into a blissful romance with YOU. Be carried away by that love. Feel the ecstasy and passion of that romance. Enter a mystical experience with the knowledge of your beautiful perfection as a unique manifestation of the divine, right here and right now, perfect in every way. The divine/consciousness/god/love/life is not asking you to change or improve-- know you are perfect right here, right now. And you will, indeed, be transported to Heaven on Earth-- every moment you remember this truth of who you are!

Make today and every day,

Non-Judgment Day!!

Many blessings on us all this Memorial Day and always. No matter what your beliefs, may you have a wonderful day each and every day, happy in Heaven because you are choosing love over judgment, and celebrating the joy of the divine Life that animates you.

Be a JOYdancer, dancing in Joy with Life!

And so it is.

        Allan 

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Step into the Dream of Heaven on Earth right here in our Online Toltec Community. This is a place to study, learn, let go of the Hell in your Mind, and meet others on the same journey! I look forward to supporting you as you claim your freedom, and answering your questions in the chat room!

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The above article was one of Allan's "Joydancer Weekly Word and News" newsletters. If you would like to receive inspirational newsletters like this, sign up here! 

Taking Easter Within

This was written for Easter Sunday, April 24, 2011.

Our story so far: On Palm Sunday we celebrated the arrival in our awareness of that Christ Consciousness that knows the truth of the perfection of each and every part of this universe-- including ourselves.

Good Friday, the day of the crucifixion and our movement to a higher state of consciousness, invited us to find that place of true forgiveness-- the one that says, "I know there is nothing to forgive, because we are all doing our best in a universe that is unfolding perfectly."

And now, three days after Jesus is crucified and laid in a tomb, he returns to his body and moves about his earthly world for forty days. This event is very important in the Christian tradition, and established the belief in Jesus as the true and powerful son of God. Without the resurrection, Jesus might have simply remained a respected teacher or prophet.

The tradition of resurrection and rebirth has been a human experience for many thousands of years-- and reflects the need to have faith in a story of death and rebirth. The name "Easter" even comes from the name of an early goddess of fertility, Eastre, who was celebrated at the spring equinox. Because of the spring orientation of these celebrations there has always been an emphasis on eggs, new chicks, rabbits, and other symbols of fertility.

(None of this seems fair to those living in the southern hemisphere where the seasons are reversed, but I will have to leave them to deal with that).

Perhaps we can use this time and this story to inform our own personal spiritual journey. The crucifixion is symbolic to us dying to an old way of being. In the tomb of our winter of sleep we begin our transformation, and when we have reached our new understanding we arise and are born into the spring of a new life. If our transformation is complete, we will claim our identity as the Christ Conscious, the Divinity that creates and animates our human experience. We will be re-born. We will have power over the dream of life and death.

The good news is we don't have to die, or even suffer, to be resurrected. Every moment we deny a lie or limitation in our minds, every time we choose love over fear, every step we take toward claiming the ultimate truth of who and what we are-- represents a rolling away of the stone of our imprisonment. We have the potential to awaken and return to the world knowing the Truth, and sharing it with those who can see.

            "...the Father is in me, and I am in the Father."

At this Easter time, and always, may we each use the power of Life and the Christ Consciousness within to deny the limiting beliefs and fears that roll the stone of darkness against our tomb.

May the light shine with us into those dark moments and help resurrect us into the constant truth of who and what we are:

We are all the sons and daughters of Life, belonging here, gifts to the universe from the Life that brought us.

Let us rejoice and Dance in Joy and Gratitude with Life.

We are, after all, Joydancers! (.com)

Happy Easter

I hope you find lots of eggs.

IN love.

A New Year's Blessing Prayer

I am loving my winter in Chacala, Nayarit, Mexico. If you are in a cold place somewhere, I am going to send you some soft warm tropical air....hold on....close your eyes....hold out your heart....aah...there it is.

Take a moment and let it in...let it warm your heart and soul....and prepare you for the new year ahead. I encourage us all to open our hearts to ourselves (especially) and to each other as we make this transition into 2011. I've heard some folks here say: "New Year's Eve is no big deal, and I'll just go to bed early."

Well, fine, however, we can use any excuse to set new intentions and clean up our minds so we can live happier, more creative, and loving lives each day and each year.

I have a simple secret for setting intentions and changing beliefs: Take out the "can't, shouldn't, don't, never" and other black magic words that limit your creation. Example: "I can't find a job." Change your Word to "I find a job." Or, "I'll never find the perfect relationship." Try this, instead: "I'll find the perfect relationship." Or, a bit more creative: "I am the perfect relationship." Or, riffing, "I am in the perfect relationship with myself, one based on unconditional love and acceptance of my divine perfection." THAT oughta' do it.

Happy New LIFE!

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I'm really looking forward to my annual Valentine's Week Workshop on Love, Romance, and Relationship, February 10~14, 2011 (for couples and singles) here at my "House of the Eagles" in Chacala. Chacala is a wonderful and romantic setting for this five-day exploration into conscious relationship, and I hope you'll make plans to be here. You deserve an uplifting and life transforming vacation, don't you think? Click here for more details.

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"A New Year's Blessing Prayer ~ I Fling My Heart Open to Thee"

Divine Presence, I fling my heart open to thee.

Show me the way to your perfect Grace.

I dance with thee in this New Year.

My heart is open wide, and your love pours through me,

And I see your love in all that is.

I see your love in my Beloveds,

In the rain and sun and wind and heat and cold.

I see your love in all success and adversity,

I see your love in every aspect of your Creation.

I say YES to all that is, knowing it is all You.

In this New Year, may I let nothing obscure my vision of you,

And your Grace.

My eyes are open wide, and my heart is ripped open

In my desire to be possessed by you.

Take Me, Take Me, Take Me.

I have nothing to surrender, because all that I AM is You.

Divine Presence, I fling my heart open to thee.

Show me the way to your perfect Grace.

I dance with you in this New Year.

And so it is.

~Allan

Why Go on Spiritual Journeys?

If you are on a path of personal transformation or spiritual growth, I encourage you to use spiritual journeys to sacred sites to enhance and empower your journey. Consider these benefits of spiritual travel.

• Spiritual journeys will take you to places that you might have never considered exploring alone, or will offer you insight into sacred sites that you would never experience on your own. I followed my teacher to the pyramids and temples of Egypt, the Mayan jungle cities of the Yucatan, Guatemala, and Honduras, to Machu Picchu and the magical Inca sites of Peru, Oaxaca, and many times to my favorite, the Toltec pyramid complex of Teotihuacán, Mexico.

• Being in a sacred site away from home releases you from the confines and expectations of people and work, and frees your mind and soul to embrace exciting new possibilities about Life and Love. I guarantee that gazing out from the top of a pyramid after a powerful ceremony, or taking in the sweep of an ancient city like Peru’s Machu Picchu from a high terrace, will offer you a new and perhaps challenging view of your life at home.

• Many sacred sites in the world were built in the ancient mystery school traditions to be “Universities” of silent knowledge and transformation, and that power endures in the dream of each place. When you enter a site like Teotihuacán or Machu Picchu, you are overcome with the spiritual power of the site, and the living intent of those who built it many centuries ago. You are invited to allow their dream to become your reality-- the dream of the absolute Divine Perfection of all of the Universe, including YOU.

• Trips guided by an experienced spiritual teacher offer you opportunities to learn new tools to strengthen the freedom and transformation you have mastered, and to take them home with you to integrate into your daily life.

• In addition, there is the pleasure of bonding and playing with a group of like-minded new friends, and to engage in exotic Power Shopping for yourself and your loved ones that are stuck back home.

The pyramid complex at Teotihuacan in central Mexico is a good example of a powerful spiritual journey site, and my favorite. Perhaps you have read about “Teo” in Beyond Fear, by Miguel Ruiz.

Teo was built two millennia ago, by a little known people often called the Toltecs. The pyramids are easy to get to near Mexico City, blessed with wonderful hotel accommodations, and yet exist in a different world. Teotihuacán means “The Place Where Humans Awake and Remember They are Divine.” What place could be more perfect for a journey of exploration into the spiritual truth of who you are?

The ancient Toltecs gave us three masteries: The Masteries of Awareness, Transformation, and Intent. Teotihuacan is designed as the ideal place to explore each of these masteries. As you move through the complex, you first become aware of the “Mitote” in your mind-- that sound of 1000 people talking at the market place and nobody listening. That confusing and sometimes abusive noise has been programmed into your mind during childhood, and for most people it is the operating system of adult life. It generally does not serve you.

The Mastery of Transformation offers you many tools for re-programming your mind as you choose. When you truly do have choice, my assumption is you will choose to be free from suffering, blame, jealousy, or any of the other reactions that go against your happiness.

After you have transformed how you dream your life, and you are always in a love communion with Creation, you enter the Mastery of Intent, or the Mastery of Love-- Divine Love and acceptance for all of Life. This is the key to true spiritual and human happiness.

Teotihuacán has been built for this journey, and the magic of the place and the energy of the many who have found spiritual awakening there supports the healing and transformation of all who open themselves to receive it.

No matter where your path of personal empowerment takes you, I encourage you to experience spiritual journeys. Leave your books, family, home and clocks behind-- go to sacred places of magic and power, with a teacher or guide that will support your opening to the awe of pure awareness and love. Go away, to come home to yourself.

Join me in Mexico this October! Watch my invitation here: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtmQBhV3VCc

Your Sword in the Stone

by Allan Hardman

After the death of Uther Pendragon, king of the Britons, there was great strife throughout the land, because there was no clear successor to the throne. So Merlin sent word that all of the barons and knights of the land must gather in one place to hold a tournament and there decide who might take the crown and rule the kingdom.

But when the noblemen gathered for the tournament, they found that Merlin had not come. Instead, they saw a huge stone with a naked sword of the brightest steel plunged deep into it. And in the blade of the sword were inscribed in letters of gold, “Whoever pulls this sword from the stone is the rightful king of Britain.”

Many believed they had rightful claim to the throne and attempted to pull the sword from the stone. One by one, they failed. Among those who came to the tournaments was Sir Ector, with his young son, Sir Kay, who had just been granted knighthood and was preparing to compete in the jousts.

When Sir Kay discovered that he had forgotten to bring his sword from their lodgings, he asked his younger brother, Arthur, to go back for it. Unable to find the sword, the young Arthur returned in despair. As he returned to the tournament grounds he saw a strange thing: a sword thrust into a stone. Knowing nothing of Merlin and the challenge, he effortlessly pulled the sword from the stone and took it to his brother.

On seeing Arthur with the sword, Sir Ector, who had been a loyal leigeman to King Pendragon, fell upon his knee and swore his loyalty to the new king of the Britons.

Sir Ector then told Arthur that he was not his real father. Arthur was in truth the son a a high-born noble. As a baby his life had been endangered, and so Merlin the Magician had delivered him to Ector to be raised as his son. Now, the oracle of the Sword in the Stone had spoken, and the boy named Arthur was the chosen one: the true King of the Britons.

You, like Arthur, are of noble birth, and your life was in danger. Your true identity was hidden while you were raised by others. In your domestication, you fell asleep to the truth of your noble birth and personal power.

The sword is your Word, your power of creation. Perhaps believing you were looking for the sword for someone else, you have come here to this place of the Spiritual Warrior, to discover your own power of creation. And now your challenge: The stone is the “Mitote,” the Dream of the Planet. It is a dream based in fear and judgement and lack — it is the dream in which your Word is held. Are you ready to claim your right to be the true king of your inner kingdom? Are you ready to use your word to create gratitude, love, loyalty, and justice, both within and without?

The sword is your Word, the stone is your Mitote. Perhaps this is your moment. Seize it!

On Becoming a Toltec Dream Master

We awaken to the truth that "reality" is all a dream and we are the dreamers.

By Allan Hardman

In your nightmare, you are running and running... there is no way to escape... you feel the fear pounding through your body. Suddenly, you awaken, maybe drenched in sweat, and realize that it was only a bad dream. You were dreaming it, and it was not real. You are safe.

Imagine with me that your life now is only a dream. Imagine that you are asleep in a different way, dreaming your life, projecting it out through your belief systems and agreements into a world that simply dreams it with you. Perhaps your dream scares you. Or perhaps it seems out of your control, and you are running, running, and there is nowhere to feel safe.

Now imagine what it would feel like to awaken and realize that you have been dreaming this dream of your life, and it is not real... no more real than your nightmare. Imagine that you could awaken and discover that everything you believe and know to be "true" about life and the world is only a dream. You awaken to discover that a long time ago, you were "domesticated." You were taught the dream of your life by the people that were there ahead of you, dreaming their dream of life together.

You awaken, and in your new awareness, you decide to dream your dream for yourself. You decide to become a master of your own awareness, to direct your own attention and discover what you believe to be true. You awaken from their dream, and begin to dream your own dream. And you feel safe, maybe for the first time.

With the Toltec Masteries of Awareness, Transformation, and Intent, we awaken to the truth that "reality" is all a dream and we are the dreamers. In our awakening, we rebel against our domestication, and create our new dream of life. You awaken, you become a Dream Master, and your life becomes a masterpiece of art.

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Allan Hardman is an author and expert on personal and spiritual transformation, relationships, emotional healing-- and a Toltec Master in the lineage of don Miguel Ruiz, author of The Four Agreements.™ Allan teaches in Sonoma County, CA, guides “Journeys of the Spirit” to sacred sites in Mexico, and hosts wellness vacations to tropical paradises. He is the author of The Everything Toltec Wisdom Book, and co-author of The Heart of Healing and Healing the Heart of the World, with Deepak Chopra, Caroline Myss, Dr. Andrew Weil, Prince Charles, and others. Visit Allan’s extensive website and TACO, his online spiritual networking community, at www.joydancer.com.