Where the serpents come out to play

I had a realization today as I was psychologically preparing to go to Costco on a Sunday afternoon. If you’ve ever been to Costco on a Sunday afternoon, you’ll know exactly why I needed to prepare. If not, substitute Sam’s Club. Or if not Sam’s Club, imagine Kmart or Walmart on steroids. At any rate, what I realized is that such places tend to bring the reptilian aspect out in their patrons, and all the Love and Light affirmations in the world don’t seem to be able to keep the serpent out of your face—not just the serpent selves of others, but the serpent inside you. Okay—not you, me. I can only speak for myself.

While Costco shopping has never been a picnic for me on any day of the week, there’s a pack mentality in operation on the weekends that isn’t quite so pronounced on weekdays, when the bulk of the shoppers are flying solo, or are moms with babies in tow. But on Sundays especially, it seems that whole extended families are there shopping together, wandering the rows, blocking the path, paying no attention to the need for flow in the aisles, and stopping dead in front of your cart, requiring you to be alert enough to stop on a dime so as not to run them down, something that is a challenge for me, as Costco tends to cause me to glaze over a bit. Being in an altered state while driving a big shopping cart is not wise, but it happens. Adding to the already-challenging dynamics is that having the wife, kids, nieces, nephews and grandpa with them seems to bring out the territorial hunter in the men—and it seems to bring out the territorial aspect of the women, too! There seems to be lots of testosterone at play in both genders in such a situation, and if you’re not prepared, you can leave there feeling pretty battered—if not from being bashed by someone’s cart, by the harsh vibes that seem to be bouncing off the towering stacks of boxes. I really don’t quite understand the allure of gang shopping—going to Costco with a group would not even make my top 1000 fun things to do on a Sunday. Truthfully, going to Costco alone doesn’t either, but I needed to stock up for making pesto as I needed to pinch my basil today, as did my neighbor, who shared his harvest with me.

Lest I digress into a completely low-frequency b*tch session and simply magnify the coarse energy situation at Costco, let me stop with my descriptions and tell you what I started writing this to tell you. As I made the circuit of the store, picking up my Parmigiano Reggiano, pine nuts, olive oil, etc., I was continually monitoring the conversation in my head, and it was stunning how easily I was pulled into ego in that situation. Even though I had entered the store with the commitment to staying at a higher frequency, remembering my oneness with all, and radiating Love unconditionally, every time someone cut in front of me with their cart or otherwise threatened my safety—or, to be honest, just did something I thought was not too bright, old Ego would jump in and go to town. It would silently (thank goodness) make derogatory comments, and when I’d call Ego on the reactive behavior, it would settle down a bit, but as soon as someone did something I thought was lame, it would be set off again. While I was successful at radiating Love unconditionally (my goal) for about 2% of the time, I could hardly say I succeeded in raising the frequency at Costco or even in maintaining my own!

And then I realized WHY I never have an especially harmonious time at Costco. I realized why it was so hard to keep the serpent within from being activated. MY reptilian brain was responding to the composite energy of all those other reptilian brains in operation! It was in its element and wanted to tangle with the other reptilians! While this perhaps does not seem like a news flash, it was a significant realization for me. I realized that, in much the same way as you'd keep an alcoholic out of a bar if you had the opportunity, we need to minimize the times that we opt to immerse ourselves in situations where our reptilian brains are likely to feel at home, among their own kind. Again—this may hardly seem a major revelation here, but it might be important to consider. Along with training our egos not to react, we need to do what we can not to be in those kinds of situations where the reptilian brain holds such sway. If we’re doing our best to raise our frequency, spending much time in a place like that is probably not going to help. Opting out of the duality matrix is probably not going to be facilitated by shopping at a big box store on a Sunday! Of course, doing so certainly reminds you of why you'd like to rise up above the realm of competition, greed, and ego stuff. I will set as my goal being able to go anywhere and have my inner serpent behave itself. I know it’s possible. At least I’m pretty sure it is, a bit further along in the process.

Remind me to tell you my story about the monks at WalMart sometime…