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November 20, 2025 56 mins
Air Date - 19 November 2025

How may the traditional “Wheel of the Year” be embraced by people of all faiths? Returning to Destination Unlimited this week, my dear friend Rev Dr. Tracey Ulshafer has created this in her new book that unfolds a sacred map, weaving the Wheel of the Year’s seasonal rhythms, the energy of chakras, the dance of celestial phases, and the power of mystical ceremonies to awaken your Eternal True Self. Rev. Dr. Tracey is the founder of One Yoga & Wellness, who has spent more than two decades helping others understand how to heal their lives through various holistic practices that also healed her own. Dedicated to holistic wellness, Rev. Dr. Tracey trains and supports individuals on their healing journey.

Her website is https://www.oneyogacenter.net, and she joins me this week to share her new book, The Modern Mystic’s Wheel of the Year: A Multifaith Path to Living In Harmony.

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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
My name is Victor Furman. Some call me the Voice.
I've always been fascinated with human nature, spirituality, science, and
the crossroads at which they meet. Join me now and
we will explore these topics and so much more with
fascinating guests, authors and experts who will guide us to

(00:28):
destination unlimited. How may the traditional wheel of the year
be embraced by people of all faiths returning to destination
unlimited this week? My dear friend, Reverend Doctor Tracy Ullshaffer

(00:48):
has crafted this in her new book That unfolds a
sacred map, weaving the wheel of the year's seasonal rhythms,
the energy of chakras, the dance of celestial phases, and
the power of mystical ceremonies to awaken your eternal true self.
Reverend Doctor Tracy is the founder of One Yoga and

(01:09):
Wellness who has spent more than two decades helping others
understand how to heal their lives through various holistic practices
that also healed her own. Dedicated to holistic wellness, Reverend
Doctor Tracy trains and supports individuals on their healing journey.
Her website is one Yoga Center dot net and she

(01:31):
joins me this week to share her new book, The
Modern Mystics Wheel of the Year, a multi faith path
to living in harmony. Please welcome back to Destination Unlimited,
Doctor Tracy Alshaeffer. Welcome back, Tracy.

Speaker 2 (01:47):
Thank you, Victor.

Speaker 1 (01:49):
This is your third time being interviewed by me.

Speaker 2 (01:53):
That's amazing. Thank you for having me back a third time.

Speaker 1 (01:57):
Well, what you share with the world is so special
and so beautiful you have to come back every time,
so I'm grateful to you. So for those meeting you
for the first time, please share your path and how yoga,
massage and healing came into and changed your life.

Speaker 2 (02:15):
Well, I started out pretty unexpectedly on this journey through
into holistic modalities because I had a car accident as
a teenager and working in an office, pretty sedentary type
of life. It compounded and I had a lot of

(02:36):
issues with my back and a friend suggested we try yoga.
So I sort of went, not willingly, just because we're
going out to dinner after. But after a few sessions
I started to feel better, and after a little time,

(02:56):
I wasn't taking advil all the time, and I just
saw of kind I just sort of fell into this Wow,
there's something magical happening here with this linking of the body, mind,
and spirit into oneness. And it took me on a
journey to become a yoga teacher five hundred hour yoga teacher,
to become a massage therapist in the state of New Jersey,

(03:18):
and a reiki healer, and I just kept going. I
kept embodying more practices as they as they worked for me,
sharing them with my then community. I opened up a
yoga studio in central New Jersey I had for twenty
two years as a brick and mortar until I closed
it in twenty twenty two. And I still serve that community,

(03:43):
but I'm now taking chaplaincy classes. I've been a Doctor
of Ministry since twenty twenty and I'm looking to shift
a little bit from what I've been offering, or combining
what I've been offering, but shifting how I do it

(04:03):
to more of a ministerial presence. So that's me in
a nutshell. I think, as I've.

Speaker 1 (04:09):
Shared with you before, you and I must be spiritual family.
You must be my sister in spirit. Because a back injury,
not from a car accident, but a back injury led
me to yoga in the late nineteen eighties, and yoga
led to retreats and the facilitating meditation and then hearing
the word reiki mentioned that one of those retreats and
reiki changed my life completely. So we have that in common,

(04:32):
and I'm glad that we've had that sharing and the
familial sense that you and I have together. So we
had the blessing of meeting while pursuing the Doctor of
Ministry degree with the New Seminary back in twenty twenty.
What called you to interfaith ministry and what did you
take away from that experience?

Speaker 2 (04:50):
You know, someone asked me this the other day, Victor is,
I don't know what. I don't know what called me.
I've always had a a calling to understand spiritual presence
and and whether it came from my parents telling me
at a very young age, we're not going to take

(05:12):
you to any specific church synagogue. You're going to figure
out what your belief system is on your own, and
then me going, wait, what's that? What's a belief system?
What what does that mean? I think it. I think
that might have spun me on that trajectory, but deep
into my my yoga and wellness center, my community. Uh

(05:33):
I felt. I felt that I needed to do something
different or deep dive deeper, uh into into certain things.
I studied a lot of Hinduism and Buddhism just by
the nature of yoga, and you know where that took
me to provide things for my class. My class has

(05:55):
always had a very spiritual bend, always theme baited, strong,
feme theme based presence in them. So something around twenty
nineteen really was pushing me to go deeper into understanding that.
And I had a very deep spiritual life, but for

(06:19):
some reason, I felt like this need and I was
looking at the new seminary and a couple other places.
I was trying to nail down where I wanted to go.
I knew it was going to be interfaith, of course.
And I was moving a bookshelf. A friend was helping
me move a bookshelf, and the Bible fell off the

(06:40):
bookshelf as I was telling her I was thinking of
going to seminary, and that landed right in my hands.
I grabbed it, and that said, okay. There was a
force telling me, yes, you need to pursue this. It
was like a validation.

Speaker 1 (06:57):
You got the confirmation. Yeah, I did, absolutely congratulations on
your new book, The Modern Mystics Wheel of the Year,
a multi pay path to living in Harmony. You are
a prolific author, and before we discuss this new book,
please share with us about your best selling series, The

(07:17):
Accidental Yoghini. What inspired these wonderful books and what do
you share with readers.

Speaker 2 (07:24):
I originally wrote a book The Accidents Accidental Yoghini. Oh gosh,
the dates they all fall together these days. But somewhere
around twenty fifteen, I had published this book, the story
of a woman who has, you know, similar to my background,

(07:45):
but different. She has her own physical issues, and she
works in an office, and she's unhappy and her life
is a mess. And somebody suggests yoga, and Jen willingly goes,
and so the story goes that through this yoga pract
of course, she starts feeling better in her body, and
then she starts feeling better in her mind, and then

(08:06):
in better in her spirit, and she turns her whole
life around. And flash forward to a couple of years ago,
after I closed my yoga studio, I said, you know what,
I think this could be a series because of why
it's not just one heroin in one story. This is

(08:26):
a lot of women that I've known, and a lot
of different stories can be told. So I went back
and I wrote another book called So. What I did
was I rebranded it as a series and made the
original one the Accidental Yoghini Kristen and her Story. And
then a couple of years ago I published The Accidental

(08:47):
Yoghini Padma, and that's about a a young Indian American
woman who's a new mom and struggling with all of
the things that new moms struggle with and found again
found yoga even though it was a presence in her family,
she hadn't done it before, and so she gets into

(09:08):
it and it does help her. And I'm actually working
on a third I put it aside, Actually, Victor, I was.
I wrote the first, let's say, third of the third book,
which is going to be The Accidental Yoghini Ruth, about
a woman who finds a yoga while in a treatment
center for sobriety. And I got halfway through when I

(09:34):
had the calling to finish this book my doctoral thesis
the modernistic s feel of the year. So it's it's
I guess the next thing that I'll go back and
work with.

Speaker 1 (09:45):
Wonderful both Kristen and Padma reflect discovery and healing journeys
for women. This message is so important, especially after the
challenges the current political climate has created for women. What
message would you offer concerning this.

Speaker 2 (10:06):
Oh, boy, Victor, we live in interesting times, don't we.
You know. I believe that we all have a journey,
we all have a path. I think that there is
a very big calling right now for women all over

(10:27):
the world to step up, to step in their truth.
I have no problem personally with the patriarchy, but I
think that there needs to be more of a inclusiveness
in everything. I think that we need to find a balance.
So women and the nature of the divine feminine is

(10:52):
rising all over the world, and and I think that
there's a great part of that in my in my
books and what I especially with the Accidental Yogini series
and especially with Padma, there was a big presence of
the goddess. I think that whether you're a man or
a woman, integrating that aspect is desperately needed at this

(11:14):
time so that we can move into oneness, we can
move into unity and balance. And so I feel like
that calling is there for all of us. We can
step into it. We can lean into it as deeply
as we want, but I think it's necessary at this time.

Speaker 1 (11:32):
The Accidental Yoghini series looks at second chapters, significant life
changes that both women and men experience as they reach
their late thirties and early forties. How would you suggest
they approach and embrace those changes?

Speaker 2 (11:50):
Oh, always being open. Change is inevitable. The only constant
in energy in the world is that things are constantly changing,
So we have to be open. I think part of
it is embracing the changes and not being afraid of them,
not thinking, oh, time is passing me by, but stepping

(12:10):
into the next stage with the wisdom that you've gained,
the confidence that from what you've learned and how that
can then serve or help others is key to gracefully
moving through change.

Speaker 1 (12:26):
In my personal life, I experience these changes as a
series of synchronicities, of these non causally linked coincidences. Did
you have that same experience?

Speaker 2 (12:41):
I think that that happens often and part of what
I talk about in my new book. If you're not
looking for it, you may miss it. You may not
be even aware that there are these synchronicities. Is things
happening as you're walking through life. But yeah, I agree.

Speaker 1 (13:01):
And I found personally that when I'm presented with one
of these synchronicities, I have three choices. I could say no,
that's not for me. I could say yes, but not
right now. Or I could say yes with a capital Y.
And every time I say yes with the capital why,
the next one comes and the next one comes, and
I feel very best in that.

Speaker 2 (13:21):
Way, very true. Yeah, that's the way it works.

Speaker 1 (13:24):
Absolutely. The Accidental Yogini series was followed by s h
exclamation point t Yogi's shouldn't say I teased you that
I did not know the S word was from Sanskrit.
What inspired that book and what do you share with readers.

Speaker 2 (13:43):
It's like a little master class in yoga for whether
you're whether you know yoga or not. It dives into
many different facets of the practice with let's say, a
little bit of a of a East Coast New Jersey

(14:04):
satirical and sarcastic bend. I I feel like I closed
my yoga studio with a little bit of feelings about
things and the nature of how some of the yoga
world had changed over the years. And it was a

(14:25):
way too with humor. With humor and humility to put
certain questions out there so that it wasn't like another
textbook about yoga. It was a uniquely driven narrative and
it will resonate with some people, and it will it

(14:47):
won't resonate with some people. But it felt it felt
like it was very cathartic for me to write that
at that time.

Speaker 1 (14:56):
Yes, and you had mentioned that your school the one
yoga that or you closed it in twenty twenty two.
How do you continue your teachings and offerings.

Speaker 2 (15:07):
Well, I wasn't teaching yoga for a bit. I had
an injury I needed to address. It was a major
rotator cluff injury. It precluded me from doing a lot
of yoga posturing. So I had said to my students,
you know, my yoga practice is different these days. It's
not about the body so much. Or it is about

(15:27):
the body, but it's not about the postures so much.
So I went into more of exclusiveness for a bit,
I wasn't teaching much. I have a couple of things.
I teach to Special Olympics New Jersey. I do a
healtha program for them, so occasionally I go and teach them.
And I have a private college that I teach a before,

(15:51):
but other than that, I was not teaching and I
took some time off. I feel like I really needed
that to reset a lot of things within me. And
then recently I started offering a new class called Yoga
for Precarious Times. I felt like something was needed. And

(16:11):
in my area, Central New Jersey, we really don't have
a lot of the style of yoga that I do.
Hota yoga we have. You can find hot yoga or
hot vinyasa yoga. It's a very physically demanding I I
hate to say the word gym like yoga, but that's

(16:32):
sort of what it feels like. It's very more, you know,
pushing and competitive. And so I felt like my community
needed something during this time that we find ourselves in.
So now I teach on Zoom a weekly class called
Yoga for Precarious Times, and people can Yeah, we we
welcome more new people all the time. It's it's it's

(16:56):
spiritually driven, authentic breathing, breath focused, gentle to mild or
medium hat the practice. It's it's nothing really deeply physically challenging.
So so I find that that's sort of what we

(17:17):
need these days. I think the world in its chaotic energy,
and and everybody in their headspace all the time. We
need to just sit and breathe, be present with ourselves,
the full part of us, the higher self, and and
and just be in that, in that kind of space.
So that's that's what I'm offering these days to the

(17:41):
growing community.

Speaker 1 (17:42):
Will say wonderful congratulations on your new amazing book, The
Modern Mystics Wheel of the Year, a multi faith Path
to Living in Harmony. This book, as you mentioned, was
inspired by your new seminary doctoral thesis. Please share your
path on this from thesis to book with a workbook

(18:02):
and oracle deck.

Speaker 2 (18:04):
Wow. Do we have enough time, Victor, Because.

Speaker 1 (18:06):
Yes we do. This is your show. You have as
much time as you need the biggest story.

Speaker 2 (18:11):
So in twenty twenty you may recall Victor, because you
were in my class. We were what is affectionately called
the COVID class. We were online and I had said
to Reverend Doctor J who runs the New Seminary. I
had said to him, I have this really cool thesis

(18:35):
idea I think for interfaith ministry. I've put this whole
thing together. It's all there, except I can't publish right
now because my community needs me, and I need to
be full time with them, and so he said, well,
I'll put a panel together and you know, conditionally approve
you can publish when you want. And that's what happened

(18:56):
at the time, and it went into the backseat because
my comunity needed me. From twenty twenty to twenty twenty two,
I was full time for everybody through the pandemic and
everything that was coming. I think that that was a
catalyst for great change in our world. And people were

(19:16):
just stirred up and mixed up and stressed out, and
so I focused on them, put that away, and then
when I closed I we've already talked about. I had
finished writing Padma, and then I wrote the other book,
and then my mother took ill and I started taking
care of her. And while she was resting, one day,

(19:42):
I had this this pool and again, where do these
things come from? I don't know, but for me, it's
often just some awareness that drops in and I go, Okay,
that's interesting. And so it was pull that out, pull
that thesis out, because it's time to do something with that.

(20:03):
And so I pulled it out and I read it
and I said, man, there's some really good bones here.
But I feel like there's more to it. It was
broken down into the twelve months of the year, a
faith tradition for each month, and and a symbol and
a chakra the energy center, and a theme for each

(20:28):
one of the months. And I liked it a lot,
but it felt like it needed something else, something more,
something different, because I thought, if I publish this, are
people going to understand all the pieces to it? There's
so many pieces to it. What if somebody doesn't get,
you know, what a chakra is? Or what would you know?

(20:52):
What if they don't get some of these parts, because
there's a lot of moving parts. So I started rewriting
the book and it came out in a part one
and a part two. Part one being these twelve Keys,
and then part two being the twelve months of the
year broken down using all these keys. And in the

(21:14):
process of writing that, one of my former students started
a publishing house and I sent it to her to see,
you know, just get feedback her thoughts whatever. She said,
Oh my gosh, so much information here. I love it
so much. Have you thought about doing a workbook that
people when they're going through the twelve months have something

(21:36):
to kind of chart their practice and their process. And
I said, well, I guess that's a really good idea.
So I sat down and created a work book. And
then I said, oh boy, I actually have two books.
Now I have two books because this now needs an
ISBN and this now needs to be published alongside with
the other book. And I was diligently working on all

(22:00):
the fine tuning of these two books, these two massive books,
when she said to me, have you thought about making
an oracle deck? And I said, oh, my gosh, well,
now I have to make an oracle deck. So I
took a whole left turn. I started working on an
oracle deck, which is a whole a story for a

(22:20):
whole other story. But so so the massive project launched
on eleven eleven, which is a meaningful number for me.
It is a book, a workbook which you can purchase,
you know, and then an oracle deck, which has to
be purchased through me. And I'm doing this tryaud of

(22:42):
transformation is what I'm calling it, and I am offering
it as workshops and things now, so it's a yeah,
it's a It was a big project, but I wanted
it to get done before the end of the year.
With the holidays pending. I thought this this is a
good time a as a gift idea for anybody into spirituality,
methodophysical practices, multi faith religion. And also because the Wheel

(23:10):
of the Year will in my book starts with January,
and so here we go. There's a new year upon
us soon, and let's start this program.

Speaker 1 (23:20):
My guest, my dear friend, doctor Tracy Olsheffer, her book,
The Modern Mystics Wheel of the Year. Tracy, please share
with our listeners where they can get your book, your workbook,
the Oracle Deck, and every other thing that you've created
in this wonderful work that you do.

Speaker 2 (23:36):
Well. My website you can purchase all of these things,
and that is one Yoga Center dot net all spelled
out one Yoga Center dot net. But the book and
the workbook are also available on Amazon. You can find
them easily there. And the Oracle Deck has to be
purchased through me. I could not sell that on Amazon,

(23:59):
So there's those two places would be where to find them.

Speaker 1 (24:03):
And also the Accidental Yoghini series.

Speaker 2 (24:06):
Yeah, all of actually all my books are available either
through me or online on Amazon.

Speaker 1 (24:11):
Wonderful and we'll be back with more of Tracy after
these words on the own Times Radio network.

Speaker 3 (24:18):
The cutting edge of conscious radio. Home Times Radio IOMFM.
Ome Times Magazine is one of the leading online content
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their net proceeds are finaled to support worldwide charity initiatives
via Humanity Healing International. Through their commitment to creating community

(24:40):
and providing conscious content, they aspire to uplift humanity on
a global scale. Home Times co creating a more conscious lifestyle.

Speaker 1 (24:50):
Back on Destination Unlimited. My guest this week my dear friend,
doctor Tracy Alshaffer her brand new book, The Modern Mystics
Wheel of the Year. Tracy, you open the book discussing
the mystics path. How do you define both mystical and mystic?

Speaker 2 (25:09):
Well, you know what I tried to do in the book, Victor,
was not define it myself, but to sort of who's
already defined this? Why recreate the wheel? But one of
the quotes that I love in the book is from
Andrew Vittich and his book Love is a Secret, where
he explains unlike Western psychologies, which are more or less

(25:34):
understandable to the average person, mystic psychology describes levels of
transcendent experience that are virtually impossible to compare with commonly
understood modes of behavior. It is often difficult to clearly
define and articulate in ordinary language the experience of the mystic.

(25:55):
And that says it all, does it not. It's we
can talk about these things, but it's very experiential mystic mysticism.
To be a mystic, the synchronicities that you spoke of,
this is this is all experiential, and we all have
a very unique pathway to that and connection with that.

(26:18):
I believe everybody uh is already and has already these connections. Again,
as I had said earlier, not everybody is aware of them,
connected with them, or or has an interest in exploring
them further. But but I think that there are these

(26:40):
these certain things that a lot of what what I
refer to as a modern mystic has these sort of
same sort of things that we're interested in, you know,
whether it's sacred sites on the world, ancient temples things
like that, whether it's meditation, chakra energy work, reiki, things

(27:03):
like that. It's it's anything that is that has this
experience that brings us further outside of our physical body
that connects us in a greater way to the totality
of who we are through the through that transcendent piece,

(27:24):
I think we can say we're on that mystical path
or we are a mystic. Also there is this this
key of being activated, being in alignment with the divine
through that practice. Right, it's it's a it's a golden
thread or cord that comes through it. So there, it's

(27:48):
hard to define, but I but I think, you know,
we can sort of get there if we understand certain
things or or in alignment with them. Is that makes sense?

Speaker 1 (28:01):
Yeah? And if someone you'll use the expression mystic curious,
how should they start?

Speaker 2 (28:10):
Well, you know, I always say start with the known, right,
start with something you're familiar with. You know, if you
grew up Christian, then you might want to look into
who were the mystics in the Christian faith, Padre Pio,
Saint Francis, Mary Magdalene, There's many. If you are Muslim,

(28:35):
you could look at roumy Right, there's there's a there's
mystics in every path and I and I do discuss
them in the book. And I think, so start with Okay,
maybe this is what I was introduced to when I
was younger, or this is the faith tradition I grew
up on. Who are the mystics there? What did they experience,

(28:58):
how did they experience God or universal consciousness? And in
what ways? And how did they explore it? How did
they express it? And I would start there, and then
you know, that's what my book is. My book is Okay,
hear all these other faith traditions and these mystical practices

(29:19):
in them. Let's see if you resonate with any of these.
Let's give it a try. Let's let's be a little
bit open.

Speaker 1 (29:27):
Absolutely, many of our listeners may be familiar with the
wheel of the year from the cycle of festivals, from
each of the seasons. How does your book introduce this
concept and bring new insights and practices to it.

Speaker 2 (29:45):
I for thirty years practice earth based spiritual spiritual practices
with the Wheel of the year. So it was it's
been very It's been very big part of my life.
So I know, I know these sabbaths very well. And
again it felt very natural too. If I'm going to

(30:07):
talk about a multi faith thing, if I'm going to
work this through the twelve months of the year, let's
let's spin this wheel with it too. So it's one
of the keys. I call it the solar calendar, and
we work the wheel with the with the Pagan Sabbots,
and I think that it brings this authenticity to ancient

(30:32):
spiritual traditions that predate the Abrahamic traditions, because you know,
who were the people that were there before these other
religions came about, and what did they practice, whether it
was shamanism or you know, the Celts, the Druids, the
you know, there's Native Americans. There's so many other traditions

(30:54):
that that predate some of the religious practices that we
consider being the major faith traditions. And I wanted to
incorporate that throughout, and I wanted to show that throughout,
and so this link to the wheel of the Year
was a way to I think, bridge that and bring
that in. So it's one of the keys in the
first part, and then it also carries through the second

(31:17):
part through the months and informs the themes and the practices.

Speaker 1 (31:24):
One of the keys you introduce is numerology. How does
numerology interface with the practice.

Speaker 2 (31:31):
Everything is energy, everything has vibration and frequency, and numbers
are very basic part of that. And so I go
over the history of numerology, where did it come from?
Who first started it? And then you know, there's lots
of different practices that also incorporate numerology. So in my book,

(31:56):
I will go through and list what they are, from
the astrological houses, the twelve houses of the astrology and
what they mean, Chinese numerology and characters, Vedic which is
from Hinduism, Kabalistic, from the Jewish tradition, even Egypt and Babylonian,

(32:18):
and even more recently like the taro and the numerology.
So I basically I you know, again, twelve, twelve months,
twelve keys, this is a number. What's the significance of that? Numerology?
You basically add the numbers together to get a basic
vibrational frequency. So if you take twelve, it's one plus two.

(32:41):
That means it's a three vibration. What is a three vibration?
What does it mean? What's the meaning behind it? And
then okay, March is the third month of the year.
How does that energy align with March? And how do
I work with that throughout that month? So I bring it.

(33:04):
You know, first let's understand what it is, and then
let's apply it in the keys.

Speaker 1 (33:10):
You talk about the practice of sun kalpa. What is that?

Speaker 2 (33:15):
The sun kalpa comes from the Hindu tradition. It is
a heartfelt, sacred vowel. It's sort of it's one of
the twelve keys, but it's it is a big part
of the whole book because and actually it's a big
part of the workbook as you're working through the wheel

(33:36):
of the year. As you're working through the year, you know,
a lot of people set these new year's intentions or goals,
and people set goals all the time, and there's not
always a heartfelt resonance when it's created. So a sun

(33:56):
kalpa is something that's seeded in the heart. It is
it's something true to where you are at this current time,
whenever this time is so whereas you've probably heard the
word dharma, a lot of people know dharma is the
life purpose and that's something that sort of stays with you.
It's your basic it's a constant. But as sun kalpa

(34:19):
changes all the time because energy is changing all the
time and we're changing all the time. So right now,
what is my heartfelt val What promise am I making
not just to myself but to the world. Because if
it speaks to me, then it should be something that
also speaks to being of service to the world. So

(34:42):
it's it is a deeply seated, true intention, seated in
the heart, and it allows you to create a goal
that you set up energetically to be successful versus something
that you know, out of ego, you just want to
you know, have a better body or something like that.

Speaker 1 (35:05):
It's a calling.

Speaker 2 (35:06):
Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (35:08):
Another key is astrology, which leads to the question about
what is the relationship between astrology and the wheel.

Speaker 2 (35:18):
The astrology again informs the energy of each month. So traditionally,
you know the calendar, we can I don't want to
get too much into all of that. The calendar has
been changed a few times over the years, and our
calendar right now doesn't really sync up with the astrological

(35:39):
calendar anymore. So we have to look at those influences though.
So the time and time that you were born, the
day that you were born, you fall under a specific
sign Libra, Leo, Sagittarius, Gemini, whatever your sign is, and

(36:01):
those have properties, they have qualities, and they have these
really rich stories too. So I've included those backstories and
those energy into each month. So if you're reading February.
What are the two signs astrological signs that fall in

(36:24):
the month of February. What are they about? What are
those energy about? And how do they equate to the month.
It's all informing. All these keys are constantly informing the
energy of the month so that I can come so
I can break it down to one theme. And it's
not that that's the only theme it could ever be,

(36:45):
but it's sort of a concise theme that bridges all
of these different energies together. So that's why that's a
necessary part of it as well.

Speaker 1 (36:56):
And another key are the primary elements of air, fire, earth,
and water and others. How do these relate to the
practice and also to eyre Veda.

Speaker 2 (37:07):
Well, uh a cup many ways actually, I mean the
elements are ever present all the time everywhere. So so
another key art is yoga and the chakras and the
chakras each have an elemental influence in the rituals and

(37:29):
practices that different tradition use. The elements are present, you know,
the burning of incense is the element air. Fire, rituals
like a like a fire ceremony is the element obviously fire.
There's there's cleansing, purification, rituals using the element water. So

(37:52):
all of the elements are used in ritual practices as well,
and they they inform all of the world. All of
what we see, feel, taste, touch, understand, it comes from
the elements. They're they're the They're a basic component of everything.
So when we talk about everything being energy and everything

(38:14):
being inclusive, how do we not go to those very
basic components and then also allow them to inform the
energy of each month, the practices of each month. That's
how they fall in. They inform the yoga practices and
how the yoga practices are done. They inform the ritual
practices and how they are they are worked. So yeah, there,

(38:37):
there's there's I could say more about that too. I
feel like that's a whole college course.

Speaker 1 (38:42):
In And the connection to Ayreveda, I.

Speaker 2 (38:47):
Mean, ire Veda is the UH sister component to yoga, right,
It's the Indian method of health, and it is UH
something that talks about primary qualities involving the seasons and
qualities within us, the natures within us. So the elements
are part of that, you know, like saying that the

(39:09):
winter is you know, cold and dry, then it has
a certain elemental component to it, et cetera. It's really
these are these are these probably require more deep deep answers,
but we don't have the time to dive into them
as deeply as probably we could.

Speaker 1 (39:32):
Absolutely one of the elements that people use in any
of the mystical and spiritual practices is a sacred altar.
What type of sacred alters may readers learn about in
your book?

Speaker 2 (39:45):
Well, I suggest for each month that you create a
sacred space to go to, whether it's for your meditation,
your rituals, your contemplation, your yoga practice, and have this
this altar which would ideally house the four elements, the

(40:10):
five elements, earth, air, fire, water, and ether and in
the ether element the spiritual part. So depending on what
practice we're working on that particular month, then there's you know,
certain things that go with that. So in the part
two of my book, each month I give up a

(40:33):
suggested altar, and it includes the color that the altar
cloth might be for the month. The color of the
candle might be, the color or the type of flower
which goes with the month of the year, the flower
of the month, the type of crystal or stone which

(40:54):
could be either the burststone or another type of crystal
for the month, and why that ties all in I
expel so every month the ideas refresh that space, create
a new one, put new energy into it, because each
time we change into a new month, it's new energy.

(41:16):
So I guide people in how to do that as well.

Speaker 1 (41:21):
My guest is doctor Tracy Olschaeffer, her brand new book,
The Modern Mystics Wheel of the Year. We'll be back
with more of Tracy after these words on the Own
Times Radio network.

Speaker 4 (41:33):
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Speaker 1 (42:04):
Imagine yourself being transported to India, to the banks of
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(42:28):
eleven a m. Eastern on Old Times Radio back on
Destination Unlimited. My guest this week my dear friend, Reverend
doctor Tracy Alshaeffer. Her book is entitled The Modern Mystics
Wheel of the Year. Tracy. As we're both ordained interfaith ministers,

(42:49):
are their aspects of this practice that all faiths may embrace.

Speaker 2 (42:55):
So each month there are there's a different faith tradition, right,
whether it's Judaism, whether it's Christianity, whether it's is whatever
the you know, whatever it is each month. I think
anybody that's open to understanding that we have more commonalities

(43:17):
than differences, and anyone who is empathetic to working and
striving to create that type of unity. It doesn't mean
that at the end of the day, your your practice
won't be steeped in a certain, certain spiritual tradition, but
allow yourself the ability to embrace parts of other traditions

(43:43):
that maybe you weren't brought up in, don't maybe you
don't know anything about, and then exploring them and seeing, wow,
this isn't so much different. From something that I practice here,
So I think I think that anybody that's open and
anybody that goes into it with an open heart, regardless
of what their spiritual tradition is, would be able to

(44:09):
appreciate the practices. And I do keep them on that
mystical aspect, the mysticism aspect of the practices, so that
they are more open and regarded in a way that
anybody has access to them.

Speaker 1 (44:27):
One of the great lessons that I personally took away
from my time with the New Seminary was that in
virtually every religion and every faith, there is an iteration
of the basic rules the golden rule. Do unto others
as you'd have them, do unto you, Love thy neighbor
as thyself. If everybody embraced those two principles, what a

(44:48):
wonderful world this would be, wouldn't it.

Speaker 2 (44:51):
That would be a really good start. That would be
a really good start.

Speaker 3 (44:56):
Absolutely sure.

Speaker 1 (44:58):
And the other thing that I learned was that there
was a story coming from the ancient Vedas that Brahma,
the chief Hindu god, was having a meeting with the
other gods, and the other gods were complaining that in
those days humans had divine powers. And they said to Brahma,
why don't you take the divine powers away from humanity

(45:20):
and put it on the highest mountain. And Brahma shook
his head and so no, eventually they would find them there.
And then someone suggested, why not take those powers and
put them at the bottom of the deepest ocean, and
Brama again shook his head and said, no, eventually they'll
find them there. But then what he said was, I
know what I'll do. I'll put them inside of humans,

(45:42):
because they'd never think of looking there. Really, this is
what it's about, is it?

Speaker 2 (45:45):
It is everything is already inside of us, and we
seek and we seek and we seek external validation, external knowledge,
and deeply that wisdom is already residing within us. And
if we turn that gaze inward and we allow ourselves

(46:07):
to be still long enough to touch upon it, we'll
find it absolutely.

Speaker 1 (46:12):
What are some of the energies reflected in each month
of the wheel?

Speaker 2 (46:17):
Well, there's there's a lot of energy is reflected in
each month of the wheel. So uh yeah, I don't
know how to compartmentalize that into into an easy answer.
I can tell you some of the themes. Would you
like to hear those absolutely, So when I got to

(46:40):
break down all of the energies of the different months,
what did they what were they speaking, what were they saying?
And so uh uh, February is the is harmony January.
First of all, January is new beginning, That's that's an
obvious one. But February is harmony. And why did I

(47:07):
choose harmony? Well, I'd like you to read the book
to find that out. Rebirth is March, love and devotion
is April, fertility is May. So these are these are
basic themes, but they they hold together all the vibrational

(47:27):
energy from all of those different keys that we're applying
to the month, and and then they are informing what Okay,
then what practices align with this that we can do
for that month that will assist us in then, uh,
gaining some connection to the natural energy that's already surrounding us.

(47:54):
It's really a way for us too to bring everything together,
work it internally, and synchronize our internal world with the
outside world.

Speaker 1 (48:08):
As we're currently in November and approaching December, how about
some examples of the connections between them and various faiths.

Speaker 2 (48:18):
Well, November, it's an interesting month because it kind of
tags off of the end of October. The end of October,
we have these this sabbot in the Pagan tradition, in
the Pagan wheel of the year called Sowen. A lot
of people call it Samhane, but that is not it's pronounced.

(48:40):
It's actually a Gaelic pronunciation Sowen, and that is the
actually the Pagan new year, but it is very closely aligned.
October thirty first became known as Halloween or All Hollows Eve,
and then Halloween and then followed by All Saints Day.

(49:05):
So basically that was a wait for Christianity to sort
of say, oh, we're in alignment with this energy, but
we want you to think about it this way. Let's
steer us towards the Saints. But however you look about it,
it's pulling us into November with the energy of remembrance.

(49:29):
And there are all of these festivals on November first,
the Day of the Dead, particularly, but in Bolivia there's
another day. It's either the first or second of November,
maybe the third. But there are all these festivals in
and around Meso what we call Meso America, so the

(49:52):
whole Mexico Central America, all those countries have these traditions
based around remembering the dead, honoring the dead, celebrating the dead,
different from how we tend to think of the dead.
We're more fearful about death here where we're from. But

(50:15):
these countries celebrate the dead. I mean they decorate skulls
and and and create these offerendas, which are these beautiful flowers,
like very ornate gifts that they that they do give
the dead to celebrate what they gave to them, what

(50:40):
their legacy is, what the bloodline has received from what
they created in life. So they're really beautiful practices. So
for me, it made sense. Let's look at meso America.
It's not as defined as say, you know, Christianity or Judaism,

(51:04):
but let's look at messo America because there are common
analogies and common threads in Mayan and as Tech and
toll tech religions, our faith traditions, and we can pull
them together with this thread of remembrance honoring the dead.
And then let's do these ceremonies. Let's create an aferenda,

(51:28):
Let's maybe do a silent supper or a dumb supper.
And so that's how we can kind of weave this
time of the year together, and then of course as
we move towards the end of November and into December,
we have a totally different energy that's more about just different.

(51:49):
It's still in that celebration mode, but it goes to
a different level, a different energy. So then I created
a different pathway for that moving into December.

Speaker 1 (52:00):
Please tell us about the workbook and oracle cards that
are available for the practice and how they're used.

Speaker 2 (52:06):
The workbook is supposed to be a companion. So you
get to the part two of the book and you decide, Okay,
I'm going to do these practices every month. I'm going
to start in January. I'm going to create a fresh altar,
I have a yoga practice for January. I have a
faith tradition I'm going to read about I'm going to
I have like a little ceremony or a ritual that

(52:29):
I'm going to do. And so the workbook allows you
to chart this progress, allows you to write certain things down.
It does have a twelve chakra chakra assessment, so every
month you're assessing each energy center. So for the month
of January, it's the first chakra at your root and

(52:53):
you will go through an assessment process of that where
is my first chakra? Am I depleted? Am I excessive?
My balance? To where do I need to create more
harmony and balance? I even have a recipe, Victor, so
there's food recipes for the chakra for the month. So
every month you can also okay, these are the foods

(53:15):
equated to that chakra, and here's a recipe, so you
can create food that's of the same energy vibration of
that chakra that you're working for the month. And then
the book, the workbook also has the you know, the
yoga practice. In the book, I give every month a

(53:35):
single yoga practice, a single pose, a full practice, and
a short practice. And you can in the workbook, I say,
you know, maybe just sit in this single pose for
five minutes and then journal about it, write about it,
what came up, what do you feel. There's a part
for the rituals as well as other notes, and the

(53:56):
oracle deck can be used multiple ways. There are cards
created for every month of the year that you can
pull out. There are also cards for each faith tradition
that you can pull out and you could just place
them on your altar. With the various different components for
the month, or you can use it as an oracle

(54:19):
deck where you pull a card or daily could be
a daily reflective card. It could be a weekly reading
or a monthly reading, whatever however you want to use it.
But they were uniquely created to be used with the
book based on the book, so all of the different

(54:40):
cards are different key components of the book.

Speaker 1 (54:44):
My guest, my dear friend, Reverend doctor Tracy Alshaffer her
brand new book, The Modern Mystics Wheel of the Year. Tracy,
one more time, please share with our listeners whether and
get your book, your workbook, your oracle deck and find
out more about you.

Speaker 2 (54:58):
My website's the best site for learning all of the
things I do and the experiences, workshops, retreats, anything I
have coming up, as well as shopping for any of
my books, oracle deck cards. So that's one Yoga Center,
dot Net and et at the end. But all of
my books are available on Amazon, and you will find

(55:21):
my author's page. If you type in doctor Tracy Lshaeffer,
you'll find my author page and you can see all
my books listed, or you can put the titles of
the books in separately.

Speaker 1 (55:32):
And the oracle cards you have to get through Youth.

Speaker 2 (55:34):
Correct, you do have to buy them through me, yes,
and they are on my website, so that's another option.
And another thing, just lastly, is to say that the
book originally intended to be done only in hardback full color,
and when I did that, I realized how expensive it
was going to be to do a hardback full color.

(55:58):
So it is expensive on Amazon. I have it a
little less expensive on my website if somebody really wants
a full color, but the paperback version is available on Amazon,
and the hardback as well.

Speaker 1 (56:12):
Tracy, thank you so much for joining us and sharing
all of this wonderful work.

Speaker 2 (56:17):
Thank you, Victor, always a pleasure.

Speaker 1 (56:19):
And thank you for joining us on Destination Unlimited. I'm
Victor the Voice Furman. Have a wonderful week
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