Meet Ingrid Naiman, the hostess of this site

Though this site was born in the immediate aftermath of the attack on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, the name Soaring Spirit with Tears came many years earlier and the dot com version of the name was registered several years ago and was, in fact, the name under which all my sites were hosted until this Spring.

The story of Soaring Spirit with Tears is told on this site. It is my medicine name and was first disclosed to a few students when I was trying to help them discover their medicine names by making up a story that would show how to reconcile the subconscious and superconscious aspects of our being with our ego identities. My idea then, as now, is that by definition, we are not aware of what is in our unconscious, and yet, contrary to many theories of individualism, our fate originates in the vast unknown of these same parts of our being.

I'm a medical astrologer with a few fingers in other pies as well. I channel and I do music therapy; and I'm a longtime student of Ayurveda and herbalism and author of a book on botanical treatments of cancer. The astrologer wanted to help people understand what is lunar, what is solar, and what comes through the Ascendant (rising sign) of the horoscope. To make the exercise easier for students, I explained that when one goes on a date, it is the more conscious parts that engage in activities and conversation, but when one starts living with another person, it is surprising how many assumptions we make about living that do not originate in the conscious mind. These opinions exist deep down in our lunar memories and are based on experiences we have had in the past and how we have interpreted these experiences. To feel without the overlay of these opinions would mean we could rise to a point in which we see things as they are rather than as they seem to us to be. Many meditation practices facilitate this kind of direct knowing, but it is surprising how even the best-intentioned devotee can become an ordinary human being when the biases of the unconscious begin to operate . . . as they generally do when we attempt to make decisions based on our need for material security, education, entertainment, relationship, and so forth. The more homogeneous our surroundings, the more likely it is that our views are reinforced by the outer world, but the minute we venture beyond our own worlds, we have to start processing impressions that differ from our own.

At a time such as this, I am extremely grateful for my Sagittarius Moon in the ninth house and also somewhat alarmed by its opposition to Uranus for I am certainly acting out old iconoclastic roles, but always in the sincerest hope for a better and more Divine world.

I spent much of my life traveling. From 1952, when I was sent away from home to boarding school, to 1972 when I came back to Hawaii after years of adventures, I can honestly say that my suitcase was almost never out of my sight.

Interestingly, many of the places I traveled are now prominently in the news. I majored in Asian Studies and once upon a time spoke fluent Indonesian and Japanese. I went to Japan for the first time in 1962 and Indonesia at a time of rioting, runaway inflation, and volcanic eruptions (1963). My mother sent me a telegram reading, "Meet me in Singapore on Monday or Bangkok on Wednesday. Love, Mommie." It's a miracle I got the telegram and perhaps less of a miracle that PanAm was willing to disclose her flight number and arrival time. We got to Saigon in time to see monks immolating themselves, and my evident attraction to danger and hot spots seemed never to abate.

I argued against the war in Vietnam from minutes after the incident in the Gulf of Tonkin and ended up working for the State Department in Saigon and being there during the Tet Offensive. Needless-to-say, when I was in India, my timing was also perfect as I witnessed drought and floods and the endless stream of refugees from Tibet, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. In other words, I am no foreigner to calamity nor, I am sorry to say, to the thinking that becomes policy. At a time such as this, I cannot be silent as the whole world watches to see whether those who lead have the courage to seek peace and to make the concessions that are needed to bring the world into balance and harmony.

There is much more to this. Just as I spent many years exploring the people and places of this beautiful Planet, I spent twenty years delving into the unconscious, exploring the karmic patterns that breed the problems we face at critical moments of our incarnational experience. Also, in my dedication to the relief of suffering, I have tried to assist those who are committed to forging conscious relationships to their unconscious selves, to recognizing the inspiration and idealism that shines from the soul and the justifiable hesitation and equivocation that arises from ancient memories. Unlike many, I am not an advocate for rising above the self and acting with the reckless abandon of the soul. I support creative alliances between the various parts of our psyche that enable people to function with wholeness and holiness.

When starting a lecture before a group of esoteric psychologists, I began by saying, "The way it works now is that when you die, your soul goes to Heaven and your subconscious goes to hell; your body and ego are dead forever. . . but immortality depends on the capacity to maintain relationship between the soul and its instrument of incarnation, which includes emotions. All diseases and probably all causes of death are related to the disruption in the relationship of the two key parts of the unconscious, the feminine with its memories and the masculine with its forward momentum. It is the ego's task to bring these two into harmony with each other."

I do not think that we will achieve immortality in our present physical bodies, but we can aspire to a more conscious working relationship with the various parts of our own being. In saying this, I would not for a minute suggest that the task is easy, but I would say that the hundredth monkey effect virtually guarantees that every time one person succeeds, it will be easier for the next. Likewise, as we resolve our internal issues, it will be easier to resolve our issues with what appears to be the outer world. We create the circumstances around us by some sort of consensual contract with others as well as our own need to learn. The better we demonstrate our capacity to deal compassionately and wisely with our own conflicts and dilemmas, the more likely it is that others will discover the path to their resolution.

I have Pisces rising and I am deeply troubled by the present state of affairs. I am a passionate environmentalist, a dedicated healer, and a proponent of peace. We need to learn to live shoulder to shoulder with each other on this crowded Planet. We need to learn to take care of our inner and outer Space and to see ourselves as guests who will one day leave this place, hopefully for a better world, but hopefully too leaving behind something better than we find today.

God bless.

Academic Background

B.A. in Asian Studies from the East-West Center at the University of Hawaii, 1962

M.A. in Development Economics from Yale University, 1964

M.D. from Medicina Alternativa in Copenhagen (should be considered honorary), 1987

D.Sc. (honorary) from the Open International University in Sri Lanka, 1995

Poulsbo, Washington
Copyright by Ingrid Naiman 2002