Connect this month.... On March 12th from 7:00 - 8:00pm/est join
me for a discussion of  "A Season of Renewal....Faith, Hope and the Journey Ahead". Just call (712)775-7000 and enter the access code 421902#, and after joining the call, please press....*6.....on your keypad. There's no cost to participate....so please share this with your friends, and be there! You can e-mail your questions or thoughts for discussion in advance to me  This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it  .

Meet me in Chicago....or Grand Rapids.....we'll be at the Body, Mind, Spirit Expo the 15-16^th, at the Midwest Conference Center, with a booth and lecturing both days. On the 20^th in Grand Rapids we'll present an evening workshop "Integrating the Light - An Evening of Soul Alignment" for $25pp, get more info by contacting Nancy Buikema at Spiral Dance, (616)361-3653.

In February we promised we'd share with you some information about why and how essential oils work, which you'll find a little further down. When you visit our Online Store in March, we've got our Ceramic Essential Oil Burners, and the Essential Oil Pocket Reference book on sale! The Young Living Oil we're highlighting this month is Valor...an oil that increases feelings of strength, courage, and self-esteem in the face of adversity....and is knownfor its strength-ening qualities. Valor enhances an individual's internal resources. It has also been found to help energy alignment in the body. You will find a .pdf about essential oils on the Resources page at our website The12Keys.com .

March is a perfect time to let go of the past, let go of who you have been if it no longer serves your greatest good. With the Rebirth we witness all around us this month, it is an ideal season to bring forth a ‘new you'....complete with new thoughts, new goals and a new way of being in the world.....connected, compassionate, and confidently aware of your creative power.

There are examples of sacred sites all over the globe where ancient cultures constructed pyramids, ceremonial buildings, cairns and monoliths aligned with major planetary orbits and the celebration of equinox and solstices. Perhaps they knew something much deeper and more intrinsic to their culture than we do, that they were part of a larger cycle, not just of seasons and years  - but of planets and galaxies and thousands of years.

Jose Arguelles wrote in The Mayan Factor, "The Maya computed the length of the Earth's revolution around the sun to within a thousandth of a decimal point of the calculations of modern science. This, we are endlessly told, they did without our precision instruments. Not only that, but they kept calendars of the lunation and eclipse cycles; and even more, they maintained calendars recording synodical revolutions and synchronizations of the cycles of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. And, on certain of their monuments, we find the recording of dates and/or events occurring as much as 400,000,000 years in the past." Why they did this we could debate for years! Suffice it to say, it was important to their way of being in the world.

I've been fortunate to visit over 14 different Mayan sites throughout the Yucatan of Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and Belize since 1993. Their buildings and ruins are enigmatic and unforgettable, so much so that my next book will delve into their wisdom and teaching. Archeologists excavating areas along the Caribbean coast have found lithic tools, animal bones and teeth that date man's presence in the area to 8,000bc or even earlier.

At the well known site of Chichen Itza, each year at the spring and fall equinox, pilgrims are given the sight of the Feathered Serpent Quetzalcoatl descending the great pyramid of Kukulkán in the central square. The Mayans, who created the most accurate calendar of any society, literally built their calendar into this great ‘wonder of the world'. Four sides of 91 steps each lead skyward, toward a central platform, to equal 365. There are nine corners on each of the sides of the pyramid face formed by the platforms, and 9 was one of the key fractals in their harmonic calendrical numbering. The 52 concave panels represented a calendar round of 52 solar years.

The Mayans used many ways to express the passing and recording of time. The ‘Tzolkin', the 260 day ritualistic calendar, and the ‘Haab' containing 18 months of 20 days followed by a five day period called the ‘Wayeb', and the ‘Long Count' which kept a count of their elapsed days from their Creation Day. The Mayans sophisticated calendar code measures more than just the passage of time, it is a harmonic module that describes galactic streams of energy that identify earthly, solar and planetary cycles.

According to the site, "clusters of Megalithic Cairns are dotted around the Slieve na Caillaigh hills at Loughcrew, the main concentrations are on Carnbane East where Cairn T is the centrepiece and Carnbane West where Cairn L is located. The illumination of the passage and chamber at the Winter solstice sunrise in Newgrange is world famous. Less well known is the Equinox illumination at sunrise in Cairn T at Loughcrew. The backstone of the chamber is illuminated by a beam of light at sunrise on the Spring and Autumnal Equinoxes. The sun light is shaped by the stones of the entrance and passage and descends the backstone while moving from left to the right illuminating the solar symbols. The Loughcrew cairns are located 52 miles north west of Dublin, close to the town of Oldcastle."

Why this focus on the Equinox? To recognize what the ancients knew...that we are all part of a larger cycle, our dance with the movement of the heavens so grand that we can't help but be touched by it....for we are the fabric of its illumination, the Sun's reason for being. 

"It was thought for years that the interstitial tissues of the brain served as a barrier to keep damaging substances from reaching the neurons of the brain and the cerebrospinal fluid. Instead of a barrier, it would be more accurate to consider it as a sieve or filter through which only molecules of a certain size or smaller can pass. Most of the molecules of the substances used in chemotherapy are too large to pass through the blood-brain filter, which is why doctors say that chemotherapy doesn't work on brain cancer. Some of the smaller molecules get through, but not the whole suite of drugs intended. Doctors don't know for sure, but it seems that in order to cross the blood-brain barrier, only molecules less than 800-1000 atomic mass units (amu) in molecular weight can get through. Lipid solubility seems to be another factor which facilitates passing through the blood-brain barrier. Water soluble molecules don't usually penetrate into brain tissue, even when very small. The molecules of essential oils are all not only small, but lipid soluble as well.

"In fact, when it comes to essential oils, small molecules (less than 500 amu) are what they are made of. That is why they are aromatic. The only way for something to be aromatic is for the molecules to be so small that they readily leap into the air so they can enter our noses and be detected as odor and smell. That is why oils for cooking or massage, such as corn, peanut, sesame seed, safflower, walnut, almond, canola, olive and other oils pressed from seeds are not aromatic. Sure, they have a smell, but you can't smell them across the room in minutes as one can when you opens a bottle of peppermint, hyssop, or cinnamon oil.

"Essential oils of every species cross the blood-brain barrier. This makes them uniquely able to address disease, not only from a physical level, but from a more basic and fundamental level-that of the emotions which are often the root cause of physical illness

"Because of the tiny molecular structure of the components of an essential oil, they are extremely concentrated. One drop contains approximately 40 million-trillion molecules. Numerically that is a 4 with 19 zeros after it: 40,000,000,000,000,000,000. We have 100 trillion cells in our bodies, and that's a lot. But one drop of essential oil contains enough molecules to cover every cell in our bodies with 40,000 molecules. Considering that it only takes one molecule of the right kind to open a receptor site and communicate with the DNA to alter cellular function, you can see why even inhaling a small amount of oil vapor can have profound effects on the body, brain, and emotions. Sometimes too many oil molecules overload the receptor sites, and they freeze up without responding at all, when a smaller amount would have been just right. This is why we say that when using oils, "sometimes less is better." Sometimes more is better, too. Knowing the difference is the art of aromatherapy.

"Essential oils are mixtures of dozens, even hundreds, of constituents, all of which are composed of carbon and hydrogen and sometimes oxygen. All essential oils are principally composed of a class of organic compounds built of "isoprene units. An isoprene unit is a set of five connected carbon atoms with eight hydrogens attached. Their molecular weight is only 68 amu, which is very small, indeed. Molecules built of isoprene units are all classified as "terpenes." Terpenes are what make essential oils unique in the world of natural substances.

"Phenylpropanoids are compounds of carbon-ring molecules incorporating one isoprene unit. They are also called hemiterpenes. There are dozens of varieties of phenylpropanoids. They are found in Clove (90%), Cassia (80%), Basil (75%), Cinnamon (73%), Oregano (60%), Anise (50%), Peppermint (25%). While they can create conditions where unfriendly viruses and bacteria cannot live, the most important function performed by phenylpropanoids is that they clean the receptor sites on the cells. Without clean receptor sites, cells cannot communicate, and the body malfunctions, resulting in sickness.

"The American Medical Association (AMA) has said that if they could find an agent that would pass the blood-brain barrier, they would be able to find cures for ailments such as Lou Gehrig's disease, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease, and Parkinson's disease. Such agents already exist and have been available since Biblical times. The agents, of course, are essential oils-particularly those containing the brain oxygenating molecules of sesquiterpenes.

"First, you clean the receptor sites allowing the proper transfer of hormones, peptides, neurotransmitters, steroids, and other intracellular messengers. (The Phenylpropanoids do that.) Second, you deprogram or erase the wrong information from cellular memory stored in the DNA. (The Sesquiterpenes take care of that.) Third, you reprogram the cells with the correct information so they can function properly. (The Monoterpenes do this.) These three classes of chemical components are why essential oils can sometimes affect a healing that is nearly instant and also permanent. What they simply do is to restore the body back to its natural state of balance and health. While a specific oil may have one or two of these three classes of compounds as its predominant chemistry, all the Biblical oils contain some of all of them. This is one secret to their amazing healing abilities. So there you have it in a nutshell: The way the blood-brain barrier works and the biochemistry of one of the ways essential oils can help achieve a healing."*

As we enter March, the Aquarian aspects we saw in February continue to impact our lives, but more about that in a minute. You'll all be happy to know that Eastern Daylight Saving Time begins March 9^th....woo-hoo!

Happy Birthday Pisces! Your Keyword is, "I Believe" and your sign is most known for your compassion. A dualistic water sign, Pisceans can be intuitive, emotional, and prone to a changeable nature, reflected in the symbol of two fish tied together but swimming in opposite directions. The sun entered Pisces on February 19^th, and moves into Aries on March 20^th on the Equinox.

Mercury, finally direct, remains in Aquarius until the 14^th when it moves in Pisces, and Venus, also in Aquarius heads there first on the 12^th. You may recall my writing in the January newsletter, "Neptune, which represents the power of imagination, spends the year in Aquarius. A planet of spirituality and mystery, its inspirational nature feeds your dream life and mystical qualities. Neptune will stay in the sign of Aquarius until 2012, bringing visionary ideals into reality." So we see the themes of Aquarian energy, that of intellectual independence and breaking the mold, hope for the future and humanitarian efforts, new paradigms and shifts of power unfolding throughout 2008.

Pluto and Jupiter continue their dance together in Capricorn this year, a powerful combination that has people feeling optimistic and expansive. Uranus, considered the planet of the New Age because it drives our will, power and purpose, spends the year transiting Pisces. As the last or twelfth sign of the zodiac, it gives us a feeling of the energy of spiritual rebirth. Mars began the year retrograde in Gemini, and moves into Cancer on the 4^th. Mars' tendency to bring out struggles within our-selves or with others can be amplified in the emotional nature of Cancer.

The Spring or Vernal Equinox occurs on March 20^th at 1:48 am just as the Sun enters the sign of Aries. It is followed by a full moon in Libra on the 21^st, also Good Friday. The Equinox, as reported in Eric Weisstein's World of Physics, is described as "The date (near March 21 in the northern hemisphere) when night and day are nearly the same length and Sun crosses the celestial equator (i.e., declination 0) moving northward. In the southern hemisphere, the vernal equinox corresponds to the center of the Sun crossing the celestial equator moving southward and occurs on the date of the northern autumnal equinox. The vernal equinox marks the first day of the season of spring. The right ascension at the vernal equinox originally was in the constellation Aries and the point of crossing was known as the first point in Aries (now actually in Pisces because of precession).

In pagan cultures, the Equinox and beginning of spring was often celebrated through the personification of the Goddess Ostara, shown with her basket of eggs and accompanied by a rabbit, the color green indicative of the new growth sprouting forth.

The Council of Nicea in 325ad decreed that Jesus' resurrection, what we observe as Easter, would be celebrated yearly the Sunday following the first full moon after the Spring Equinox. It was originally called Pascha, which is the Greek word for Passover, since his death and rising occurred near the Jewish festival. Interestingly, the word ‘Easter' cannot be found in the Bible.