Mandy Peterson is a talented empath, healer and channel for spirit, and lately she has become a voice for Mother Earth. The channelings Mandy receives are primarily from Archangel Ariel and a Being who connects himself with Galatians (a book from the Bible). Their messages all seem to be of the same plea, to help heal Mother Earth. In their plea to facilitate Her healing they wish to assist others in their awakening to a collective consciousness.  Mandy states, “We are all responsible for what we manifest at a greater level than ourselves because we all contribute to a greater consciousness that is manifesting within the world. These Higher Beings help me with getting this message out to the world.” At first Mandy was apprehensive about sharing her channelings wondering if people were ready to hear these messages. But when she began to see others were also receiving similar guidance regarding Mother Earth she then knew these messages needed to be heard universally. In March of 2011 prior to the tornado activity that hit the Eastern United States, Mandy was told by an Angel in a dream that human yang energy would play a part in manifesting incidents of turmoil and upheaval. The Angel cautioned, “The world has become too yang, too focused on conquest and producing.” It was after this tornado event that Mandy created her New World Healing Deck. This deck is designed to awaken one to bring their consciousness to a collective level of awareness rather than simply a focus on their individual lives.  Mandy explained; “To heal the planet we have to begin uniting as one consciousness, rather than focusing on our own individual dreams and goals.” Her hope for this deck is that it will guide people to more simplistic and conscious lifestyles and the creation of intentional communities of like mind that support and protect Mother Earth. Mandy put together a plan to turn her focus to world healing by setting a specific day and time in which she would focus on her goal. Mandy stated, “There is a growing group of us who set their intent toward withdrawing their energies from a focus on materialism in order to focus on Love and Unity every day at 8:00pm EST. Prayer can either be dance, song, ho’oponopono or anything that focuses on praise and appreciation for life, living things, spirit, and how we are all enough and blessed.  Anyone who wishes to join us, please do!” Mandy is one of our Bellesprit columnists and she states, “As I began writing my articles each month an idea for a book arose. It is presently completed and now undergoing editing to make ready for print.” I asked her to share a little bit about her book titled, ‘I Am The Lotus, Not The Muddy Pond’, and Mandy enthusiastically explained, “I had planned to write about the topic of simplicity and of finding a middle way. However, the book seemed to take off in a different direction; one in which I found myself writing primarily about a form of ‘splitting.’ I asked Mandy how she came up with such an interesting title for her book and she replied, “Looking up the symbolism of the lotus flower, what I read seemed to fit what I was writing about perfectly.  According to the Lalitavistara – a sacred text of the life of Buddha: “The spirit of the best of men is spotless, like the new lotus in the muddy water which does not adhere to it.” Mandy continued, “The latter part of this symbol of the lotus would become primarily what this book is about: discerning our true nature apart from a collective mind-set which many of us may ‘adhere’ to, but which many of us may not be mindful of what our adherence is truly creating. However, adherence is not the only choice we have. We can learn to know ourselves in a way that frees us from feeling we have no other choice but to conform. We do not have to live split. So, I titled this book “I Am The Lotus, Not The Muddy Pond”; the ‘lotus’ representing our divine nature and spiritual Truth, and the ‘muddy pond’ representing the dominant streams of collective consciousness within the world. The “I” in the title represents the greater I am presence of the ‘We’, ‘All that Is,’ or ‘One’.”  Mandy Peterson hosts her own radio show on CBS Sky Radio called Voice of Empowerment every Wednesday at 2:00 PM EST in which I have the opportunity to co-host with her. Her show topic covers these same areas of Earth Healing including personal and collective empowerment. She often talks about ways in which we can make small changes that can have a larger effect on earth healing and our own way of being.  You can find her show on CBS at http://sky.radio.com/shows/voice-of-empowerment.  I have learned so much just being a part of Mandy’s show and I’m sure you will, too. Mandy’s theme song is a song she has been hearing as given to her by Mother Earth. The song is called Get Together made popular in 1967 by the Youngbloods. Part of the lyrics read, “C’mon people now, Smile on your brother, Ev’rybody get together, Try and love one another right now.” Mandy’s dream is to become a part of an intentional community that focuses on eco-responsibility, a system of bartering, and shared responsibilities (i.e. gardening) with other like-minded individuals living naturally, spiritually and in touch with and honoring Mother Nature. These types of communities have been sprouting all over the world which demonstrates that many others have been receiving the same call to simplify and unite in one consciousness. You can learn more about Mandy Peterson by visiting her web site at www.mysticmandy.com  or her Youtube channel at www.youtube.com/mysticmandyy or follow her on Twitter @mandythemystic. Her book “I Am the Lotus, Not the Muddy Pond” is in the process of being edited but the unedited version may be read free online here>>.