A Lotta Work, This Blogging Thing!

Wow! I like the look and feel of the re-design, but holy moly, what a lot of rigamorole to get it just right! Type, save, edit, save, insert, undo, move, crop, save, edit...........a person could spend WAY too much time on this if you don't get a handle on it right quick like!

But then again, the result is pleasing. I think I like it! LOL! GOODNIGHT!

THE STORY OF THE SEVEN SACRED STONES LOGO

By Serena Aubrey (Copyright, 2011 -- All Rights Reserved)

In the process of being developed, the Way-Finder Weekly (TM) came into being due to my return to school and the subsequent topics I chose to pursue as subject matter for my assignments. The topic for my first essay was Positive Thinking and the Law of Attraction, which led me on a two-year journey of discovery and enlightenment. Like Rhonda Byrne, author of The Secret (2006), I found a wealth of uplifting material that drove me ever on to find more. There's no going back now; my purpose for this life I live has finally been revealed and I revel in the dream of sharing the knowledge I uncover with others.

Way-finding is a term I pinched from my cousin's graphic design website. One of the major contracts his firm landed was to create a coordinated system of signage and way-finding for a local district's parks system. Way-finding -- the term immediately caught my eye and became instantly and permanently anchored to my project; because that is what awakening and enlightenment is all about -- finding your way, discovering your purpose, deciding on a new path.

So the name of the planned publication had been divined, but now a logo was required. One that would appropriately represent the spirit and vision of the publication. I came upon a stone in, of all places, the laundry room in my apartment building. White and smooth, it attracted me enough that I picked it up. As I held it in my hand it became very evident to me that this was some one's thinking stone ; a personal talisman that had been worn smooth over a long, long length of time, rubbed between their fingers, probably as they contemplated inner questions. I felt as if I was being intrusive, that I had found a lost treasure that needed to be returned. I took it to the rental office and asked my friend Natalie if she would mind taking a digital picture of it so I could post it in the laundry room. She looked at me like, "Hmmmm, this tenant has lost her mind."

I explained to her that it was a thinking stone and whoever had lost it would miss it; that their spirit was likely now part of that stone. She understood THAT! Looking horrified she dropped it immediately like a hot rock (pardon the pun). She told me that if anyone came asking she would direct him/her to me. There was no way she was going to take a picture of that stone and risk contaminating herself with some one else's spirit.

At any rate, no one came a-calling for that stone, so it sat on my desk as I studied and wrote and planned and expanded my vision. I would pick it up and rub it when I was stymied by some aspect of my product development, and slowly that stone began to become my stone. An idea started to bubble in my mind about using it in the logo and soon I began to collect other small stones. I was thinking of an Inukshuk concept, but on a spiritual level. Inukshuk are a traditional Inuit means of establishing a trail on a barren, inhospitable Arctic landscape; the way-finding concept again!

The power of chakras also intrigues me. Belief in chakras, the seven energy vortexes of our physical and spiritual beings, dates back to early Hindu and Buddhist concepts -- that is some enduring belief -- almost 5,000 years old! And also a concept that resonates within me.

So, an inukshuk that incorporates the concept of the chakras. For the background I thought to use a piece of cloth that I have incorporated into a quilt I am constructing for my son. Black with silver flecks, it reminds me of a star-filled night -- the cosmos. The imagery seemed consistent with my intention.

Sylvia Browne, in her book titled Phenomenon (2005), wrote that talismans hold no real power. The power is completely centered in one's belief. However, having an outward sign of your inner belief helps one to keep grounded in that belief. It is an affirmation of what we have decided our inner truth is. And it is an indication of our intention to live a wholesome, healthy, enlightened life, mindful of the rights of all our fellow human beings to decide their own inner truth. It is an affirmation of tolerance.

And although I know these stones, are just stones, they are now my stones. And that makes them sacred to me. I would be bereft if I were to lose them now. I used that cosmos cloth (with a deep violet, velvet lining) to fashion a pouch I keep them in. I anoint them with oil, now and again, because the shine pleases me. I spritz them with my perfume now and again, because that too pleases me, that they reflect my scent. Do they now hold an energetic impulse of mine? I believe they do. If I feel energetically misaligned I place them in the chakra order I assigned them and I concentrate on releasing all tension from each of those energy vortexes and it brings me back to an even keel.

The Seven Sacred Stones are arranged thusly:

Crown Chakra

Brow Chakra (Third Eye)

Throat Chakra

Heart Chakra

Solar Plexus Chakra

Spleen Chakra

Root Chakra


CLICK HERE to read the second part of the Seven Sacred Stones story:
An Outward Expression of the Practice of the Presence of God
Honouring the Elements