Astrology cycles through

Hello dear readers,

The past couple weeks have been full of my peering at astrology charts! It is always interesting how I rarely ever get just one astrology client at a time. I wonder if these clumps of horoscopes together has to do with an attraction coming from within me or if it is an outer cycle working on me.

So far, I have not seen a pattern in my own chart. But I’m not looking that closely – maybe it is a progressed Moon aspect with Uranus (ruler of all things astro: outside the box and off-planet-as-it-were), or it could be an inner yearning of mine. I love doing astrology – part time – so this is perfect!

In the past, I think I tried to do too much for every client. Like trying to be ready for any question they might ask… I am getting better about that now. I prep for a bit and then I simply ask what my client’s intentions are. What do you want to look at or focus upon?

This is good though. In the past couple weeks, I have done three charts for clients, I have two more for trades coming soon and I am doing a chart as a gift for a friend (this is rare – she must be a good friend) 🙂

Sometimes however I go for weeks or months without having a chart to dissect. Waves and cycles passing through I guess. I am grateful no matter what is going on – for my dedicated hobby which pays some money from time to time! 😀

Thanks for reading and visiting!

~km

Process Buddhism

This material is copyrighted by M. Kirby Moore. Please respect my creative property. And thank you for visiting!

In my last post, I discussed how I am beginning to offer some powerful combinations of healing facilitation modalities. Blending Polyvagal Therapy (autonomic nervous system resourcing and resiliency building), Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy, and Pre- and Perinatal Psychology (birth process work), some clients are experiencing some amazing shifts and insights. (Keeping in mind we go SLOW, we want to gradually adopt healthy resources and compassionately care for developmental parts of ourselves.)

I was thinking about what to call this new fusion, when I realized that the name had already been given to me!

If you go back and search the term “Process Buddhism,” you will discover that Khenchen Konchog Gyaltsen, a revered teacher, monk and scholar in the Drikung Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism (and one of my heart teachers), gave the name “Process Buddhism” to my main process-oriented bodywork teacher years ago. She was also asking what to call this powerful fusion of modalities.

So there we go! I’m not sure how I feel just yet putting Process Buddhism down on a business card, but I think I will chew on it for a few weeks and perhaps it will show up on my website soon.

Thank you for reading!

Powerful healing work needs a name

This material is copyrighted by M. Kirby Moore. Reproduction without permission is prohibited. Thank you for respecting my creative property! And I’m very grateful to have you visiting this blog! You can visit Kirby’s site here: Wisdom Healing Arts website

I’m not attempting to brag or boast here, but when you put the causes and conditions into place, the results typically follow. And this can be true for conducting powerful healing work as well – when we work on ourselves, learn multiple techniques and modalities which lead to actual, lasting transformation, then it would follow that we could produce powerful healing sessions when we work with others.

And this is starting to happen with me. I won’t say too much, as it is my intention to walk the fine line between being modest and looking to promote my work.

I have been practicing Craniosacral Therapy since 2005, Polyvagal Therapy since 2012, Birth Process work since 2013 and other modalities as well – including Acupressure, Shiatsu, and a potent and effective Hot Stone massage treatment. Oh and I am starting to learn Sports Massage along with a number of other massage techniques.

But it might be time to specialize. And I know upon what I want to focus!

This might be a good time to take a few mindful, rejuvenating deep breaths… as I’m about to plunge into heavier waters.

This is what it all boils down to (hear me out: subtext read to the bottom of the post): when we have unmet needs, early conflicts (double binds) and unresolved psychological wounds, then we have shadow material. This makes sense – nearly everyone has some unresolved stuff – meaning everyone has shadow material. This can show up as blind spots, uncomfortable subjects, or meeting people who really hook and irritate us just by being themselves, certain emotions being very difficult to express, etc.

With this shadow material comes a lot of psychic energy required to keep it contained. Most of us want to appear normal, we want to assure our friends and family that everything is fine. So we become extremely skilled at containing, deflecting or suppressing our shadow material. And this requires large amounts of psychic energy! Huge resources are going into the darker nether regions of our psyche to keep our fears, terrors and even misunderstandings at bay. (Some of those fears though may just be illusions or confusions – they might be easier to remedy than you think!) Hence is it is easier to contain and deal with our subconscious underworld when we are younger – we have more psychic energy in our 20’s than we do in our 40’s!

As we get older however, these reservoirs of psychic energy start to decline. And then the compensation for our shadow material becomes harder and harder. Some of it starts to bleed over into our daily conscious lives – maybe we become more irritable without meaning to, maybe our anxiety is now impossible to hide, maybe we start having nightmare problems, perhaps we stick our foot in our mouths with more regularity – we become more raw, etc. And this is why many diseases start to show up around age 40 – especially those funny idiopathic diseases that the medical community cannot pinpoint the cause of. Can you image a Western doctor saying, “Oh your royal chi is declining which is allowing your skeletons out of the closet. That’s why you are sick…” That’d go over well! I can say more about this at another time – or better yet, sign up for one of my classes or webinars.

Kathy Kain – one of my teachers of Polyvagal therapy – says about the above topic: “moving toward equilibrium, it becomes easier to sustain healthy self-regulation… energy is no longer spent maintaining disequilibrium which allows us to focus on [healthy] other functions.” ~in her paper entitled Touching Trauma.

The healing facilitation work that I offer looks to gradually get to the root of the problem. And therefore this is slow patience-requiring work. But by going slower, we get to our destination faster (truly transforming suffering and getting to the root cause of illness). Do not expect instant results – you wouldn’t want that anyway (can you imagine a nervous system that took 40 years to get to where it is now, to shift radically in two weeks? No? I can’t either…) 🙂 But after 5, 7 or 10 treatments, you will definitely notice lasting results, greater insights and liberated shadow material. See the last few paragraphs!

We work with psychological double binds from the early pre-verbal stage of life, where we are literally building a body around whatever we encounter (if we are born in a tension field, then it would make sense that we take that tension into our bodies and get fooled into thinking that that is the only choice we have!! Ouch!). This is extremely powerful work. It is not for everyone. But someone who wants to do their healing work, who wants to transform for the better, who is willing to be uncomfortable for a few days while their body starts to transform (we can literally re-orient our brains and nervous systems by doing this work).

We walk the fine line between healthy self-regulation and activation as we repattern it – Ray Castellino, a pioneer in the Pre- and Perinatal Psychology and Trauma resolution fields and founder of BEBA – building and enhancing bonding and attachment, calls this fine line, the Leading Edge – where we stretch ourselves as we build resiliency and restore healthy responses to stress.

You have to have good support. That is pre-requisite. Asking for help is one of the traits of a grown up. As a healing facilitator I want to be part of your health team – I want to be one of several people supporting you (I don’t want to do it alone). I will ask you about the support in your life – friends, family but more importantly counselors, health care providers, people you can really go to with your issues and be heard.

The benefits of liberating this shadow material are immense. When you were conceived, there was an initial blueprint of who you are / were meant to be. But then various imprints (misunderstandings, unmet needs, unresolved wounds) covered that up – obscured your highest potential. This work seeks to reconnect you to your original blueprint, gradually. By liberating your shadow material, you also simultaneously liberate the psychic energy that was required to keep it tamped down, suppressed, contained. And guess what? When you have all this psychic energy freed up, you become more spontaneous, more creative, more joyful, more resilient, clearer and having a sharper mind. Who doesn’t want that?

Oh and it might also have health ramifications – in Chinese medicine and other complimentary medicine theories, emotions play a major role in disease (especially unconscious, repressed, tangled emotions). The A.C.E. study has shown enormous levels of correlation when it comes to early trauma leading to adult (inflammatory) disease. What happens when we resolve and repair these early unmet needs and repair and resolve the trauma? It would make sense to assume then the idiopathic (unknown causes of) inflammation would also go down! And this is another reason why this work takes time – true, lasting, joyous transformation takes time but it is well worth it!

The brief uncomfortable journey is well worth it in the end! The key is getting beyond that typical Western saying of, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!” I would change it to, “If I can transform it for the better, what am I waiting for?!”

Thank you for reading!

Kirby offers sessions in person in Central Virginia (Charlottesville). He also offers webinars on various alternative bodywork modalities, working with the autonomic nervous system, and Spiritual Astrology classes. In addition he offers distance sessions by phone or Zoom / Skype. You can reach him at kirby [at] mkirbymoore {dot} com

Comprehensive Natal Chart Interpretation

Kirby will spend 90 minutes interpreting your Natal Birth chart. You can chat about any area that you like. This includes printed charts and it also includes about 30 minutes of preparation time! These are typically done on the phone, via Skype or in person if you happen to be in Virginia, USA.

$150.00

Gradually getting in the Flow

As some of you know (avid readers of this blog that is), I graduated from a sublime massage school in Colorado about 3 months ago.

A little fire was lit within me at that time. The potential for sharing healing gifts and tools was taking root in my soul (so to speak). Now it seems this fire has become sharper, clearer and is burning more brilliantly.

In the past three days, I have conducted some awesome bodywork treatments. The people come in talking about needing massage because they’ve had a “bad” back for years or they always have problems on the right side of their back or they have had lumbar problems for ages, etc! And I say, “Oh have you tried Craniosacral Therapy?” (because this is the closest concise description I can use to categorize my healing tools in the spa). The answer is nearly always “No, what is that?” or “No, I have heard a little about that…” Etc.

And then the Deep Tissue massage or the Myofacial release treatment turns into an integrated session – combining several of the healing modalities I work with. It has been beautiful!

I am ready. Send me clients who are wanting and willing to do their healing work!

There is no more hesitation. I am in the flow when I am doing treatments and so far it has worked out quite well. It seems I am converting people who used to think Deep Tissue massage was all that worked for them. I barely palpate anything and they say things like, “That’s incredible! I’ve never felt that type of spaciousness.” Or “Wow! Just doing that little thing changed my breathing.” Yep! Healing does not have to hurt. We can take it in small bite size chunks, easily digestible, little tiny adjustments at a time!

I am so very grateful! Now to practice regular self care so I can be available for those clients who are in need of healing facilitation.

May all beings harmonize their Chi and discover the ease of alignment (with what is)!

Thanks for reading!

~km

Double binds in the media today

I posted last week about the incredible movie – “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” A documentary about the beautiful, rich, nuanced life of Fred Rogers – Mr. Rogers. I highly recommend watching this movie if you get the chance. The man was a Bodhisattva, a Saint, a truly Christ-like individual! (And I don’t say those things lightly.)

One part from the movie bugged me. And not because of what Fred Rogers did or said, but rather what the FoxNews pundits (or their ignorant, fear-mongering writers / producers told them to say). And yes, I mention the controversial “News” company. But what I am about to talk about crosses many lines throughout society – FoxNews just happened to show this mindset in its stark, raw form.

If you search “Double Bind” in my blog menu bar on the right, you should discover older posts where I discuss what a double bind is. Go back and look at that if you aren’t sure what I’m talking about.

What bugged me in particular is that they said that Mr. Rogers had been telling people that they are perfect just the way they are, and by doing so, it led an entire generation of people to feel entitled and to be lazy. Here is why this is a problem and it is just plain wrong:

Sometimes, by words said explicitly or by implied meaning, parents will say to their little kids, “You are only worth what you can produce.” This is harsh, but when parents haven’t resolved their own unmet needs, then guess what? They turn around and are not able to meet those same needs in their own children. What need am I referring to?

Babies and children of all ages (adults too for that matter), need to feel unconditionally loved for who they are. We need unconditional loving-kindness from caretakers and parents. We need protection. We need safety. We need to feel loved and lovable.

So those news “pundits” saying that Mr. Rogers message of tolerance and acceptance and loving our neighbor leading to an entire generation feeling entitled and therefore lazy… just Wow! Those same writers, news anchors, producers are all suffering from a lack of having this need me. They feel that they are only worth what they can produce. They are only worth the amount of zeroes in their annual salary.

The remedy to this particular double bind is to say to our little parts – the little fetuses, the new borns, and the small babies / children parts of ourselves: “I love you for who you are, not for what you do.” That is the truth. It penetrates to the core of the difficulty and dissolves it – if you want, if you allow it, and especially if you work with someone skillful and trained in working with pre- and perinatal psychology or developmental needs meeting.

If we needed to here this good mother message but we heard the opposite instead, then resistance will come up when we say this to ourselves. It won’t feel real, it won’t feel true, it will be hard to believe it. This is why we must work with someone else. In order to resolve and repair these early double binds, we have to get support from a skillful, ethical, professional individual or group. Process workshops are good – but we should do some personal growth work (counseling, Somatic Experiencing, process-oriented bodywork, etc) before diving into these deep pools of resource.

There are many examples of double binds in our society today, the media displays them for all to see. And until we resolve and repair and heal these wounded parts of ourselves, we might even believe those double binds to be reality. It is all we know. 😦

But there is a way to work through these unmet needs, to come back to our hearts and to rest down in ease and grace.

Thank you for reading!

~km

contemplating leading a Webinar on working with the Polyvagal System

Hello Dear Readers!

I am pondering teaching a webinar on Working with the Polyvagal System. This is a topic I have been studying and practicing since 2010, and I have assisted Janet Evergreen in her teaching of these classes multiple times. Below you will find a poll to see who, if anyone, might be interested in signing up for an on-line teaching!

  • In this webinar, we will start to differentiate normal functions from stress responses (and why this is important).
  • We will cover a bit about the Autonomic Nervous system (ANS) including discussing the newer Social branch of the ANS, its role and how it fits in with the older Para- and Sympathetic branches.
  • We will cover the Functional Range and how to notice if clients are within it or if they are having stress responses and being activated or depressed.
  • Then we will go into actually Working with the Polyvagal System: starting with the Skin, gradually moving deeper into the Fascia, touching into the Gut and all the Vagus nerve connections within it and finally wrapping up with working with the kidneys.

What is the Autonomic Nervous System? This is the branch of the nervous system (to keep it simple for now) which controls involuntary functions in the body – heart rate, breathing, peristalsis of the digestive tract to name a few of its functions.

What is the Polyvagal System? The Vagus Nerve (the 10th Cranial Nerve) innervates many organs and systems in the body – including respiratory, cardiovascular, digestive and more. Previously, the Vagus nerve was said to control the Parasympathetic branch of the ANS – the “rest and rebuild” side of the ANS. Newer research is showing that the Vagus nerve also plays a role in some aspects of the Sympathetic and Social branches of the ANS as well. In the workshop, we will touch on techniques to up-regulate (or down-regulate as the client requires) the Vagus nerve to keep the client within their healthy Functional Range.

What is the Functional Range? As simply as possible, the Functional Range is the amount of adaptability the nervous system has to stressors. If we are very resilient, we can be confronted with changes and surprises and still be in our body and deal with the new situations with a clear head. If we have a history of trauma or unmet developmental needs, then the Functional Range can be quite narrow and we might become activated or overwhelmed with just a couple of new stressors. The way we react to overwhelm is also important and we will cover this in the webinar.

Why would anyone work with the Polyvagal system? There are at least two significant benefits to working with the Polyvagal System: we become more embodied (one) and two, we become more resilient. We can begin to increase our Functional Range and eventually we can benefit our clients in working with staying in their healthy range.

This is the second time I would be teaching something like this on my own, so the cost would not be too high. I am thinking something in the range of $120-$150 for 15 hours of material. I would need to teach it again to start the certification process with NCBTMB – which would eventually allow me to give Continuing Education credits (not this time around however). I would be happy to send Certificates to participants who complete the Webinar.

Thank you for participating and have a great week!

~km

Won’t You Be My Neighbor

Wow wow wow!

I just watched the documentary on Fred Rogers. I had very little clue he was such a radically present, nuanced, saintly progressive advocate for children!

And of course I cried miserably through two thirds of the movie. And I rarely ever cry – I’m lucky to cry once a year. I was weeping at this powerful, simple, divinely present being who spoke his truth to power whenever he got the chance. I am so glad to have been hit with this overwhelmingly beautiful wave of loving-kindness.

His simple presence and caring was felt by many many adults as well as children.

I suspect it will take a few days to fully start to digest it. One thing is certain now: I do not want to waste any time. It is time to benefit my community if I am able to.

Marvelous, wonderful, there aren’t enough superlatives! Go see it!

~km

a little Craniosacral resource

For those of you who practice Craniosacral Therapy, you have most likely encountered this meditation (from Franklin Sills’ book).

This is a journey through the ventricles of the Cranium that I recorded last year for Janet Evergreen. If you need to fall asleep, lie down while you are listening to this. And better yet – pop open an anatomy book or look at this site to familiarize yourself with a few of the terms that are used:

Anatomical Structures coinciding with Cerebrospinal Fluid

You start out by visualizing yourself as a tiny minnow, maybe you have a light body, and we start the journey behind the brainstem – in your head 🙂

Take a listen!

This meditation helps with the Holistic Shift – shifting your awareness to deepen your inner tides, deepening the rhythm of the cerebrospinal fluid. Moving into a healing and integrating mental space.

Enjoy!

~km

Donation to Kirby’s blogging efforts

Hi dear Readers, Help me buy tea so I can continue blogging. So if you enjoy what you are reading, please make a little donation. Thank you very much!

$10.00

Very grateful for a Mandala of Health so close by

I am writing this post to say thank you to one of my main bodywork (and spiritual teachers), Janet Evergreen.

I live nearby, so I can assist you in your classes with ease,

Tolerance, learning, growth, transformation, provocative loving-kindness,

Confronting old patterns, deepening into healing tides, discovering stability within,

You lead your students on a magical and evidence-based journey,

through healing our own stuff! Gently cutting through delusion, having true patience:

Fearlessness in speaking truth to power, in naming shadow material, owning our stuff;

I am very very fortunate to have met you in this lifetime!

 

By the way, Janet teaches classes and leads retreats in Charlottesville, Virginia, around the state and in Quito Ecuador. You can visit her site to learn more here:

Janet Evergreen’s website

 

As usual, thank you for visiting!

~km

discovering a spiritual muse

This is going to be an interesting post to be sure… where do I begin?

So I have this friend..

She is radiant, ebullient, great-with-kids, beautiful, dynamic and you can imagine – inspiring. Oh and she is a strong, self-assured woman. Pretty much qualities I want in a potential partner. We have been doing things together for the past couple months, as friends, which has been very pleasant. Getting to know each other gradually without any kind of expectations or agenda has been awesome.

And wouldn’t you know it.. we come to find out that we like each other. We have been quite transparent with each other as well, which is always good. We know exactly where we stand. Like it or not…

Now this is where the spiritual muse comes in to play… she is also not looking for anything serious right now. Casual dating anyone?

My heart, considering my history, is a jumbled mix of emotions at times these days. The deeper down the rabbit hole I go with my Pre- and Perinatal Therapy (PPN) learning, the more I realize I have gargantuan double binds hanging out in my system from unmet needs when I was born (and those first 2-3 years of life which are so crucial for determining whether we see the world as supportive and loving and meeting our needs OR hostile / ambiguous-at-best and  therefore constantly needing to be hyper-vigilant as a result). Guess which side of that coin I fell on. For a baby, there is no gray area – it is all black or white – it is basically life or death. Hence my realizing I still have tons of work to do on myself! Eee gads!

But I am finally at a place where I can feel this cathartic, turbulent, tangled mass of emotions arising (from time to time if I am triggered in the “right” way) and not react in a malevolent way toward myself. Anger (especially suppressed / repressed) can manifest in mysterious ways. The manner in which we beat ourselves up can be pretty darned epic at times, right?!

So instead of resorting to playing computer games or eating sugary foods or doing other depleting / moderately-self-harming-activities, I can now say, “You know little one [talking to my baby parts], that is right, you had a shitty, rough start to this lifetime. Those ignorant doctors who took you away from Mom did not realize that mysterious rash on your body was actually your skin’s way of saying, ‘Holy shit, I am overwhelmed, this family needs some very mindful, very skillful, very compassionate support!!!’ It was not a contagious rash. That was way way way too much for a little one to take in! And to be taken away from your mother, I have so much empathy for you.”

And as a healthy adult who has done a ton of work to differentiate the healthy adult parts from the wounded baby parts… my heart (healthy adult heart) truly yearns to comfort the little baby part of me that basically turned off. A part of me died (psychologically) when I was born and it has been on life-support ever since. So doing this early development PPN work is so (literally) vital, vitalizing, liberating, rejuvenating, refreshing. It is almost as if I am doing a conscious, wakeful soul retrieval of parts of myself, acknowledging, observing, offering empathy and transforming these distorted and twisted beliefs that some little parts of me has.

So what does this have to do with the relationship that I may or may not have started with this friend from above? She wants to keep it light and casual – hence the “Are we or aren’t we an item?” thoughts.

The answer is: “Everything.” My little baby parts want acknowledgement care and tenderness, but they want more than that – they want for any potential partner to meet unmet needs from 39 years ago… which is completely ridiculous and unrealistic! But seeing that is so important to having the possibility of a healthy relationship! Owning it is so important! This is my shit and I have to do something about!

Hence this crazy “hair ball” of enmeshed emotions and unmet needs occasionally rises in my chest when I think about being a part of a casual relationship. “Do I want that?”, “Do I want more commitment?”, “Do I want to articulate all that is on my heart?” No I don’t – that would overwhelm pretty much anyone! Ideally I would see a therapist for this type of thing and I kind of am – I get great support from bodyworkers and somatic therapists which is so beneficial and helpful toward my goal of grounded-embodiment-at-all-times.

Instead, I am sitting on my cushion more. I am finally getting down to work and working to complete my Ngondro – I only have four more sections left to go (and the first section just took 10 years but whose counting?). I want to make these shadows more visible, more transparent. And most importantly, I want to be shaped, molded and transformed by this relationship – whatever it looks like. (When you meet someone like this, you don’t set massive parameters on the relationship, rather you need to become more fluid and flexible, moving and being shaped as appropriate! Remember Sagittarius’ war cry when it comes to relationships – “DON’T FENCE ME IN!”) So space, space and more space – for myself, for my healing work, for my practice, for my little one…

So now that I have passed my MBLEx test (see previous post), I have a couple weeks of less-to-do. Recuperation time from three weeks spent studying dramatically. Now it is time to make these inner, unconscious waves conscious. To meet the needs of my wounded baby self and to firmly and unequivocally establish Earned Secure Attachment within being.

I am not good at casual dating. But I have been good (about ten years ago…) at doing prostrations and sitting on my meditation cushion. Therefore that is what I will be doing. It is my intention to become a better human being. To put these bodhisattva vows into practice. To become the change I want to see in the world (these are really lofty goals, but hey we might as well aim for the heavens right?).

If you want to schedule a bodywork treatment or an Astrology interpretation, let me know. I’m around. Otherwise, I’ll be doing cleansing, purifying, clearing and clarifying practices. 🙂

At least to the best of my mediocre abilities.

“What does right relationship look like?” That is the question I am working on. 🙂

Thank you for reading!

~km

Trauma-Informed Astrology Special

One Hour Astrology Interpretation. Get your Astrological birth chart interpreted from a Spiritual / Karmic / Evolutionary perspective. You name the topic (area of the chart) and we can dive in - these are some possible areas to look at: Timing Astrology, Relationship Astrology, Medical Astrology, Natal Astrology, Psychological Astrology. Thank you!

$150.00