The World is (Becoming) My Oyster

Choosing my power word for 2025 and how I had a run-in with an Archangel

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Happy New Beginnings! While it’s not the new year as celebrated by ancient cultures (Spring Equinox on March 21), it is still psychologically and culturally a new beginning for us collectively. Hence, it’s my favorite modern holiday.

It’s been several weeks since I last posted, but it’s not like I’ve been sitting around watching banana trees grow. It’s been a very active time here, progressing on our new little jungle home. Here’s a shoutout to lifesavers Mandy and Steve Cleveland, a father-daughter duo I met through Facebook (primarily through the religious deconstruction journey) who took two weeks during the busy holiday season to fly over from the States to volunteer their expert carpentry and roofing skills! What a huge GIFT! They completed many crucial steps, getting us into our home in record time. I must also mention what incredible awake people they both are and how synchronous this meeting felt from the Universe. We all had so much in common in every way, it felt like being with our spirit tribe-family!

Team L to R: Shucks, Steve & Mandy, and Tyler Lentz (not pictured: Gavin McCue)

We moved into the new place over the Christmas week with bare essentials: a roof over our heads, a small propane stove, and running water. We even have our first house guest, a junior-sized Greater Antilles Pink Toe tarantula I fondly named “Ganesha,” after the Hindu Elephant God. I believe that tarantulas bring good luck, and anyhow I think they are very intriguing, slow-moving, beautiful creatures. Ganesha is living in a tightly formed mesh of a web in a little corner of the rafter in our bathroom.

In case you’re not up on the Hindu gods, “Ganesha…is one of the most revered gods in Hinduism and Buddhism. He is known as the remover of obstacles, the god of beginnings.” Nothing could be more fitting for this milestone in our lives.

Today’s post, dedicated to my precious soul-tribe friend Kathleen Brennan, references oysters. That’s because Kathleen has been talking to me about oyster metaphor synchronicities since mid December. And then her synchronicities became my synchronicities.

Remember the saying, “The world is your oyster?” Where did that saying come from, and why? What does an oyster have to do with possibility or promise or even hope? Let me relay how oyster energy also came to me at the start of 2025, and what I think it all means.

I don’t know about you, but many days in this strange world, I have trouble feeling comfortable or at home in my skin. Trying to get through this seemingly contrived “reality” often feels surreal, dense, and lonely. Did I land in the wrong Story, on the wrong planet, or in the wrong galaxy? For most of my life, I’ve been trying to attain a stable experience of harmony, wholeness, belonging, and peace. Yet this world often feels unpredictable, unstable, disharmonious, and unsafe. Yes, there are high points, good days, good years even. There are people I love with fierce devotion, and people who love me with the same. There is much beauty in this world that frequently inspires me and cracks my heart wide open—books, music, and art that bring heaven to earth, sweet smiles of my grandchildren, experiencing new cultures and people, and observing people embodying their divine spark of selfless love and creative passion in all forms.

But equally there is so much ugliness, longing, toil, and suffering. It's as if the collective soul is a reflective mirror, and I can’t truly find my own inner stability, peace, or fulfillment while seeing so many unfulfilled dreams and despair in others. In the aftermath of religious deconstruction, awakening to the realization that there are no throw-aways, I now see myself when I look at other. We are all one in the Great Family.

Recently, I do feel as if I am being helped or guided to a new perspective in my lifelong game of healing. Perhaps I have found a “pearl of great price” to help me find my way through. It is my hope that you will also find hope and comfort through my experience.

As is often my practice at the start of a new year, I thought about what word I would pick for 2025 as a concept that I most need to integrate or internalize. You’d think after so many decades of working on my spiritual development, I would have mastered most of my life lessons, catapulting me into the category of Wise Sage, (or at least “knowing elder”) right? On the contrary! I still feel like a neophyte in cracking the code of this game of life.

A common occurrence, as I dis-cover new levels of and perspectives on reality, is feeling like I know less than I have ever known. Kind of like a Benjamin Button regression of the mind. Spiritually, I feel like this baby pine tree that is smaller than a pinecone, aspiring to be one of the great, strong grandmothers behind it who knows the secrets of time and eternity.

Photo taken at our sacred circle of pines (“Pine Henge”) yesterday.

On January 1^st, I easily pinpointed my word of focus for 2025: power. After all, my writings frequently focus on how to dismantle the many disempowerment mind programs, slave system dynamics, and word magic curses proliferated in this realm. We now understand that these dark magic tactics are present in religion and many other sectors in the human experience, as we’ve explored in previous blog entries.

For me, the ongoing struggle for personal power still lingers. I sometimes grapple with the ache of giving too much of my power away, or forgetting my power, especially in areas of remnant religious programming. I also struggle to maintain my power in intimate partner relationship dynamics that that rub against areas of childhood parental wounding. I have mentioned specifics in multiple previous posts (and here).

Looking back over my life, it seemed to me that many circumstances of my life were orchestrated to dismantle or undercut my power without my consent, leading me to believe I was a victim. However, through reeducation, namely through the New Thought teachers , I came to realize that I’ve been the one to orchestrate (or attract) most of my own undoing. Whenever I have succumbed to victimized, fearful, or inferior thinking, even out of ignorance or unawareness, I sabotaged my own divine co-creative freedom and empowerment—with the purpose of growth. Thoughts do appear to become things. What we think about—or fear, or hate, or resist—we bring about by attracting it. I didn’t want to admit or see this in myself for a very long time.

Real power, it occurred to me recently, is not an “out there” quality. It’s not found in money, possessions, relationships, education, knowledge, career success, hierarchies, or status, which can all be lost with one misfortune, unexpected event, or out-of-control circumstance. Real power can’t be threatened or usurped. It’s also not ego-based, or a pissing contest. Real power has no need to threaten or diminish the power of others, nor does it take delight in such things. But what is it? Where can I find it?

I am finally beginning to grasp and internalize that real empowerment (or disempowerment) solely originates in the mind, in my thoughts. Power is a perspective, a lens on the world that maintains an unshakable belief in myself. It’s grasping an innerstanding and belief of the invincibility of my eternal spirit. It cannot be lost, destroyed, abandoned, controlled, subdued, or disconnected (alone).

It’s a simple thing to say, and a very hard thing to integrate or assimilate. In fact, it can take a whole lifetime—or many lifetimes—to apprehend these hard-won truths. To truly find one’s power is not an intellectual exercise; it’s an experiential epiphany that results in a very strong mental game.

This experiential epiphany of one’s invincible, innate power as a spark of the Divine is the an eventual result of the initiation into Christ-consciousness. After typing the word epiphany, I looked it up for fun and was inspired to see that it means manifestation of the Christ (not just in Jesus). You and I are divine, supernatural beings who are embodying the Christ (the anointing of the God-spirit).

Perhaps this is old news to you, the part about controlling one’s mind. I have always been told that I should control my thoughts, which will no doubt shape my destiny. However, most of my life, I have been oblivious to or disbelieving of this kind of power. My unbelief has led to me having a weak mental game in certain aspects of my life, resulting in a lot of needless mental suffering, playing “what if” games with myself. What if my greatest fears or insecurities come true? What if I fail? What if I look like a fool? What if I get lost? What if I am unable to truly love another? What if I am alone? What if I don’t matter in the Universe?

There have been layers upon layers of fear and insecurity to dismantle over the decades. Fear of God. Fear of hell. Fear of my father. Fear of death and the unknown hereafter. Fear of punishment. Fear of abandonment. Fear of loss of those I love or of not being loved. Fear of not being able to love. Fear of public speaking, aggressive dogs, and the dark. Fear of getting fat. Fear of being judged. Fear of bullies. Fear of accidentally killing or harming someone in my career path as a nurse. Fear of not having significance or not being seen in the seeming vast, cold, unfeeling Universe. Fear of the reptilian species takeover of the world where Klaus Schwab tells us we will “own nothing and yet be happy.”🐊😨 Okay that last one is new since 2020.😄

I mean, seriously. Can there be this many things to fear? Up to this very day, I struggle to maintain my sense of personal power over a few remaining fears. I still often find myself playing out the worst-case scenarios or obsessing over irrational fears, torturing myself with life-like visions of things I don’t want to happen, which makes me fear the great likelihood of attracting or creating those very things. I have been known to push those closest to me away with my fears of abandonment, trying to abandon myself before anyone else can.

Despite the fact that I have a truly wonderful external life in every way imaginable, it can be so much self-inflicted suffering to live in my head. Then I go through guilt cycles for being so ungrateful and weak-willed to allow such rogue thoughts. Sigh.

In what way do you find yourself latching onto negative stories or fearful outcomes? We all do it to some degree, don’t we? Is this the human condition?

Why are people’s minds are often latched onto such negativity and self-sabotage—especially when there is no current outward threat? I believe it could be the neural grooves of doom etched in us as children by parents, religion, and society. We grow up in a fear-based environment where our mental patterns are set for life unless we recognize and disrupt them.

As many of us experienced, religious fears were pounded and programmed into our young minds, creating unconscious attachments to insecurities and fear. I remember the misused, abused, and mistranslated verses casting dark magic spells over my vulnerable mind as a child. In those days egoic, mentally ill religious clergy with illusions of grandeur, believed it was their self-appointed duty to keep their congregations out of eternal danger.

\One of the most fear-inducing, abusive religious spells that was cast on my young mind was this:

· This world is not your home—it is full of evil, danger, and darkness (and people of the same); you are not safe.

Unfortunately, my outer world corroborated this lie so convincingly—starting with an abusive father—that I have been mentally and emotionally homeless ever since. Imagine feeling emotionally homeless for one’s whole life where it’s impossible to feel safe, primarily because of being programmed to do so. Other lies from Christian teachings handicapped my vulnerable child mind (and maybe yours too):

· You were born into sin, separated from God, and destined for eternal punishment. You are not worthy.

· Despite many terrifying abuses and oppressions you face (in my case from my father and also bullies), no one is coming to your rescue. You are insignificant.

· If you don’t keep short accounts with God, you’re in danger of being left behind. You are expendable.

· Your heart is deceptive and will lead you astray. You can’t trust yourself.

· Satan is a roaring lion seeking to devour you. You are weak and defenseless.

· As a female you are particularly susceptible to deception and should always submit to men and clergy in matters of spiritual growth, Bible interpretation, family order, and any roles that pertain to leadership. You are inferior.

As you can imagine, these foundational beliefs bled into all other areas of life and self-perception. If you feel like you are unworthy, insignificant, and expendable to your own Creator, and you can’t even trust yourself, then to whom could you possibly turn to for help, or who could you matter to in any kind of meaningful or lasting way? If your own Creator would abandon you, then why wouldn’t everyone else? If you’re not “at home” in this world, then where can you ever feel safe?

Though I deconstructed my previous religious worldview more than a decade ago, tendrils of these old stories remained subconsciously, sabotaging my power. Hence my word for 2025. My plan this year was to really start dealing with my thoughts in order to walk in my power. But then suddenly, the Universe had other plans.

On the morning of January 1^st, I went on a hike to “Pine Henge,” a perfect circle of giant old pine trees on the top of our mountain ridge. Through an unexpected event that morning (woo woo alert), my word for the year was altered.

I had just listened to an astrology report for the new moon happening over New Year’s Eve by one of my favorite intuitive astrologers. At the end of reading for each sign, she pulls an oracle card for encouragement and guidance. Her cards are usually so synchronous to her readings that I’m always eager to see what I’ll get—like opening a Cracker Jack box. My card for the new moon featured Archangel Raphael, who assists with healing and protection for body, mind, and spirit.

Normally I’m not into archangels, but just a couple hours prior that morning, I had received an email from a previous astrology class friend named Raphaelle. Then, later in the day, we received an Airbnb booking from “Rafael.” I’ve rarely encountered anyone with that name, yet here were three in one day. I took it as a sign from the universe that I was to personally call on Archangel Raphael at this time for my deep need for healing.

As an aside, I had recently heard a podcast by an ex-military special intelligence officer, Dr. Robert Gilbert, who specializes in ancient esoteric knowledge. He claimed that the planets are not dead matter, but are conscious entities with whom we can interact. This corroborates the information I encountered in my professional astrology class. Planets are reportedly not “particles,” they are “waves,” energetic bodies that have specific, repeatable psychological effects on humanity, which is how astrology works.

I remember asking the Sun and Mercury for help with my disempowered problems in late December, at least a couple weeks before Raphael reached out to me. So yesterday I looked up to see what planet Raphael was associated with, if any. Can you guess? He is associated with the Sun and Mercury! Did “they” dispatch him at my request?

Regardless, this series of events feels attentive and personal—just what my disempowered, disconnected heart needed. Ever since I broke up with the false Jesus of Christianity over a decade ago, I’ve been asking the universe for knowledge about my guides, preferably names. I’ve always experienced helpers, but if not “Jesus,” who are they? Not having names or awareness of specific beings has reinforced feelings of loneliness and isolation. After all, there is power in the name.

Intent on working with the Universe and they newly introduced Raphael, I decided to try a practice that I’ve been dabbling with since last summer. I set up two pinecones about a meter apart (any objects will do) and began “walking the eight,” a practice of aligning oneself to the flow of the universe, introduced to me by Sarita Sol. This practice is also called “infinity walking” or Siddha walking.” As I walked, I called upon Raphael for healing and protection in my body, mind, and spirit. Then I had the idea to also ask Saturn, the planet of life lessons, if “he” agreed that my word for 2025 should indeed be “power.” I asked Saturn because I am coming up on my second Saturn return this year, an event that happens to each of us every 28-30 years. A second Saturn return is an important time to find closure or resolve with one’s specific life lesson. After asking Saturn, instantly a new word came into my mind: “Home.”

Immediately, my thoughts went to “Om,” the meditative chant. According to AI: “In some spiritual traditions, ‘Om’ is often described as the ‘home in the universe,’ signifying the primordial sound from which all creation originated, representing a state of ultimate reality, consciousness, and connection to everything around you, essentially making it a symbolic ‘home’ within the vastness of the universe.”

It is very interesting to note that, in my newly acquired astrology education and learning how to interpret natal charts, my major life lessons and focus of energy occurs in the 4^th house—the house of home. The 4th house pertains to early childhood, the literal or figurative sense of home, security, motherhood, and relationship with the mother. As is the case for most of us, our mother is our first sense of home, and that is where my life lesson emerged. I have written about extensively about my newly discovered mother wound in the past fifteen years—since the death of my mother—revolving around emotional abandonment in my childhood and a lifetime of significance and security issues since.

How fitting for Saturn to show up and let me know that my powerlessness issues revolve around a deeper layer where I have where I have never learned how to find home within myself. How could I? I was ingrained to believe from young childhood that there is nothing safe or trustworthy about myself! Hence, I have been searching for home outside of myself most of my life.

So the theme of 2025 is to be about creating or cultivating a home within myself. Isn’t it ironic, the timing of finding home within myself at the exact same time I am settling in a new home on the physical plane? I have not had a physical home in which to be settled and secure for many years now, as I have been primarily living out of cars, suitcases, or boxes for almost ten years (long story).

Indulge me in another massive synchronicity. Just today (January 13, the day of the full moon in Cancer) I was listening to the previously referenced astrologer’s full moon reading (check out minute 42!). This full moon at its apex today is in my Aries sun and moon signs in the 4th house of home, and pertains to finding a home within myself!

Home brings about a certain kind of personal power sourced from inner safety, security, autonomy, freedom of expression, and ability to be vulnerable without fear. It's not ego-based power that harms or disempowers anyone else. It's the kind that makes you feel like you are at rest in your own skin, where you know that nothing could ultimately harm the deeper you.

Oyster Energy
And now, this is where Oyster comes in. What exactly does it mean when we say, “the world is my oyster”? My previously mentioned elder soul sister Kathleen started telling me about how she had been synchronously getting abundant “oyster energy” messages since about mid-December.

The oyster, she relayed to me, takes in a toxin from the environment and alchemizes it into a non-toxic, benign substance by encapsulating it and ejecting it to the ocean floor never to be seen again. A single oyster can filter and purify 50 gallons of water in a day! Imagine how important is an oyster bed to a body of water.

Alternatively, we know that if a piece of sand or debris enters that is too large to go through the usual channels of expulsion, the oyster assimilates it into its home environment and transforms it by layers into a silky piece of house furniture called a pearl. The irritant or potentially injurious particle is repeatedly bathed in beautiful compounds until it becomes a softer, radiantly beautiful version of something that used to be painful or unwanted.

Oysters, despite congregating in beds, remain contained inside their own secreted, secluded shells for their entire lives. Apparently, they can communicate with others via sound and vibration, but for the most part, they live in their own tightly contained home. An oyster is also able to clamp down its shell in the presence of low frequency vibration or noise in its environment, not permitting it to enter.

Oysters, being water dwellers, represent our emotions and deeper consciousness. This is the area in life where most of us meander through without cultivating a hard protective shell. Think of the parallels for us in the form of the toxic negativity in our daily environment, or our own mental fears, false beliefs, or irrational thoughts.

I doubt an oyster ever feels “lonely,” because they are intended to live in isolation. But the message comes through. The way to keep one’s inner power and sense of safety, is to create an invincible barrier, a sense of home around and within oneself. A home where communication with the outside world is possible, but where invaders such as disempowering or toxic thoughts, or negativity absorbed from the environment or the collective consciousness are neatly contained and sent back out the door to the bottom of the sea. And if an invader is particularly persistent, caused by a formative experience around a parental wound or persisting as a major fear, it must be wrapped in layers of truth, until the truths have coated it enough that it can be alchemized into a cohabitant of beauty. Then it is a reminder to us of the power of transformation.

I don’t know if Kathleen intended to give me a nudge toward my New Year’s “re-soul-ution.” But I have been pondering the metaphors of oysters ever since, and the multiple parallels to my quest for home.

The saying, the world is my oyster, to me, is not about opportunity or promise, (although you could apply it that way too). It’s the idea that in order to come into that Christ-consciousness I AM power, we have to perceive and conduct ourselves like oysters. We have to develop a strong boundary around our emotions and thoughts, and quickly dispose of any that are not conducive to our safety and security.

I AM Home. With our new understanding of I AM statements, this becomes a powerful mantra for 2025. I believe I am going to experience profound healing in the areas of internal harmony and security this year. It’s my life lesson, my destiny. Finding home within is what I came here to do. And I couldn’t be more encouraged because heaven and earth (archangel and oyster) are here to help me finish the work.