Vibration Magazine Blog

2009 by Donna Cunningham, MSW  (Part One of Two)

For the past 11 years, during the richly fertile earth sign Taurus, we at Vibration have paused to reflect on what our ezine has achieved over the past year, how far we have come since the last anniversary of our birth, and what new seeds we wish to plant in the years to come.

From the earliest issues, in 1998, your editors, who doubled as web designers and frequent contributors, explored the seemingly endless potentials of a web-based magazine.  Freed of the costs of color printing, paper, and postage, we worked for a visually-enhanced and pleasing format.

As the work unfolded and continued to develop, however, we slowly understood that, far from being a magazine devoted only to tracking the healing potentials of the essences, we were also beginning to tap into a vast, unsuspected resource–the healing power of the internet itself.

This realization crystallized in preparing for May, 2004–our 6^th anniversary issue–which was dedicated to Children and the Inner Child. in the midst of a really, really, but really gray February day, I was “fishing” the internet for new art, and was delighted to discover the work of Lesa Motz, our first featured artist. Her colors were so brilliant, I got lost in them for most of that day, finding a delightful boost out of my annual case of SAFB (Seasonal Affective February Blahs).

We decided it might be fun to showcase a single artist for one whole issue, so each article was surrounded by a brilliantly-colored geometric design in a different primary color. After all, such vibrant visuals seemed perfect for an issue devoted to children and the Inner Child.

After another day or two of visiting Lesa’s site and building webpages based on her color palate, we realized what was up — a trip through the color wheel.  ”Coincidentally,” Deborah and I were struggling to verbalize what exactly we’d been developing over the past couple of years with individual pages of Vibration. We concluded it was a form of healing, a new one for a new millennium. That issue introduced the healing potential of the world-wide web.

Over the years, Vibration Magazine continued to feature art that captured our message-seeking the picture that was worth 10,000 words. The peak of perfection, for us, was the June, 2007 issue, the first of a two-part special theme of Plant Attunement and Nature-Based Wisdom. We were allowed to illustrate it with the powerful masks and other art of Lillian Pitt, an acclaimed Native American artist whose work is inspired by her people’s traditions.

Back at the two year mark, Deborah and I struggled to verbalize what exactly we’d been developing with individual pages of Vibration. We concluded it was a form of healing, a new one for a new millennium.  As Vibration’s years unfolded, art wasn’t the only way we capitalized on the healing potential of the web. Here are some others.

ATTUNEMENT TO ESSENCE PLANTS: Even in the first issues of Vibration in 1998, we were unwittingly tapping into a form of healing each time we used pictures of the flowers whose essences were being discussed. We reveled in the freedom to illustrate the articles with lovely graphics, because in a hard copy magazine, those images would cost the earth to print.

Only gradually did it become clear that the pictures were helping us and our readers to open up to those flowers and their healing effects more fully. The images were a strong tool for attunement to the flower spirits (called devas).  One of the many highlights of that exploration was Deborah’s article Introducing the Flower Mandala Gallery. Her mandala of a white lotus is shown below.

Anyone who looks attentively at the photo of a plant can derive some of the benefits to such attunements. For an even better effect, consider putting a photo of the flower of the essence you are taking up on the desktop of your computer, or using a screen saver with flower photos. To find a good photo, go to Google’s Image Search engine, type in the name of the flower, and you’ll be presented with thousands of thumbnail images. (To see pictures of most of the Bach Remedy flowers, click here.)

The high point of our work on exploring our spiritual and healing connection to the plant work came in “Plant Attunement and Nature-Based Wisdom”-our issues for June, 2007 and August, 2007. In this two-part exploration of the borderland between botany and native cultures–a new branch of science called ethnobotany–we were privileged to reprint articles by seminal explorers of that territory.

COLOR HEALING: Instinctually, people recognize that color has meaning and impact. We choose colors to wear and to decorate our homes that express who we are or that give us an uplift. Street gangs identify themselves by wearing colors that express their solidarity. Jails use calming colors like blue to keep peace among their inmates. Hospitals often paint rooms a healing green. Ad agencies consciously boost sales by using lively colors like red, yellow, and orange. In many areas of the world, color healing has been a legitimate and recognized discipline for several decades–for instance in the technique of Color Breathing.

Color was one potent tool Vibration explored for evoking healing through the internet. I’d studied light work maybe 25 years before — not using colored electric lights, but visualizing and mentally directing color to certain areas within the energy body and chakras. Auric color of various shades remained a much-used tool for client work and my own daily life.

I became entranced with the power of color on the computer monitor — the brilliance of color lit through on the screen seemed far more potent than any color on paper or in textiles.  The colors I selected for Vibration’s graphic treatments were not random, but consciously chosen to evoke the healing power of colors that go along with the article’s themes. Based on principles taught in the light work school, for instance, I tended to use gold for strength and to lift people’s spirits and blue to replace fear with clarity. As discussed in our panel on color meanings, however, no single theory can explain a color’s effects. We all respond differently to different colors at different times, and we all have our own special colors that help and uplift us.

These explorations culminated in our August, 2006 special issue on Essences and Light-light as a vibrational healing tool in and of itself, applied in a systematic and focused way to bring about healing. It is said that we, like everything in the Universe, are made of light, and that light is the building block of creation. The aura — which many psychically-attuned people see in vivid color — is only the outer boundary of the light that exists throughout every cell of our body.

Visualizing light in our bodies, minds, and energy fields can catalyze the release of stagnant and toxic blockages to health and well-being. In addition, there are articles about special essences made with the use of natural light — the aurora borealis, the full Moon, even a solar eclipse — as well as those specially created with colored gels and other technologies. We hope you’ll visit that special issue and become intrigued enough to experiment with the potent combination of light and essences!

Next week, we’ll continue to explore the ways that the World Wide Web expands our exploration of the properties of essences and the ways the potentials of the web itself act as a 21st Century healing tool.  

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Vibration co-editor, Donna Cunningham is an internationally-respected author of books, articles, and columns about astrology, flower essences and other metaphysical topics. Her insights reflect her dual background in astrology and psychotherapy. She has a Master’s degree in Social Work from Columbia University and over 40 years of experience. Her ebooks can be found at Moon Maven Publications (http://www.moonmavenpublications.com). Visit her blog at http://skywriter.wordpress.com. For the past 11 years, she has co-created Vibration Magazine and  now its Blog with Dr. Deborah Bier.