Retrospection: A Hero’s Journey and Spiritual Growth
Monica McIntire continues a discussion of the book Finding and Following an Authentic Life by Gregg Levoy. This Sunday Topic was recorded live December 8, 2019 from the Center of Light.
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Life Calls Us Closer – How Deeply Can We Meet?
I want to start this morning with a short piece by Jeff Foster entitled, How Deeply Can We Meet?:
Life gently calls us to come closer, closer, and closer still.
Each breath, each thought, each vibrantly alive sensation, each sound, each intense feeling surging through space is a little messenger of grace, whispering “do not be afraid, know that I am also life, know that I am only yourself.”
The final teaching is not to be found in books or on websites or spoken through the mouths of so-called figures of authority. Our too-clever mind-formulations such as ‘there is no me’ or ‘free will is an illusion”, our certainties and mental abstractions and word games pale in comparison to the continual awe of being witness to this eternal and mysterious dance of being and becoming echoing through eternity.
The final teacher will not be found in classrooms or at satsangs or preaching in pulpits or at conferences. The final teacher is life itself, and this living teaching only begins when we truly meet what is here with open arms. How deeply can we meet?
Stand naked in front of me now, without the protection of your favourite philosophy, without your dusty old books, without quoting what you have read or been told, without even the familiar thought ‘who meets who?’ or ‘it’s all just a story’ to comfort you or separate us.
If you think you have found the answers, if you’re excited because you think you’ve ‘arrived’, even if you believe yourself to be ‘the enlightened one’, that’s okay, it’s nothing to be ashamed of, we’ve all been through it. And if you think you haven’t found the answers yet, if you feel lost and lonely and far from home, that’s okay too. Just stay close.
Bring to me your frustration, your confusion, your joy and your pains, your certainties and your doubts, and let us sit together awhile.
I now want to share with you a chapter (7, pp73-78) from the book, Love and Power, by Lynn V. Andrews about duality:
Duality is what makes us feels alone.
We as humans separate ourselves, and that is our tragedy.
She begins by comparing “the ferocious pace of our lives to the energy of a cyclone. We try to hold our ground in the middle of it, searching for a way to stay in balance while the storms swirls around us. The winds of change blow constantly, alternately bring us tremendous danger and extraordinary beauty. The dual nature of all things – love and hate, health and disease, balance and chaos – expresses itself in this metaphor of standing firm in the center of the cyclone. When you can maintain your balance in the ever-shifting duality of life, you are choosing to live in a masterful way.
Being blindly trapped by duality keeps us from mastery. Duality is what makes us feels alone. It keeps us apart from all other living things. It keeps us from being in true harmony with the earth because we so often do not feel part of nature. We as humans separate ourselves, and that is our tragedy. But duality is a reality of physical existence. In working with how we react to and feel about the sense of separation or duality we have created, our task is not to integrate two seemingly disparate aspects. We cannot merge a man with a woman, for example, and expect to find some sort of androgynous being who is whole and complete. Rather, the task is to divine a new vantage point or perspective in which we can allow two opposite forces to live in harmony. This is mastering the idea of duality, which allows us to take the next step along our path to enlightenment.”
She goes on:
“THE PARADOX OF POWER
A wise old woman taught me the first and last lesson of power. The first lesson is that we are all alone. The last is that we are all one.
Although these ideas appear to be diametrically opposed, in truth they are not. As this woman and I sat at the edge of a precipice, our feet dangling high above a seemingly endless abyss, she pointed to the other side of the great canyon that stretched out before us. “Symbolically,” she said, “we stand on opposite sides of this chasm. I stand on one side in peace and freedom, because I know that we are all one. You sit on the other side trapped by a millstone around your neck. That millstone is created by your self-imposed fears. You think you are alone.
“As you see, we sit together, both all one and all alone. Such is the illusion of life. You must create a bridge from one side of the chasm to the other through your faith and trust, believing that your dreams can be realized. When you drop your fears into the abyss, only then can you merge the seeming duality od life. Then you will become a master.”
There is a great opportunity for experience and growth between the two concepts that old wise woman shared with me. The first lesson of power – that we are all alone – is important to understand fully. Stand within your aloneness and your emptiness so that you absolutely and totally own the idea and the experience.”
She then goes on to give an example of a young woman starting at a new company.
Returning to duality, she goes on:
“in this physical existence called life experience, we see the result of duality every day; when we see war, when we see disease, when we see gang riots and killings, we are seeing the effects of duality.
War comes from the idea and the belief that I am here and you are there, and we are separate. There is a great weakness in this concept. In blindly accepting the concept of duality, you will always lose, because you become lost in a deadly game of social power. The game of social power is very different from the game of personal power. In personal power, you honor a worthy opponent [which she explains a little later]. In the game of social power, you are trying to win over someone else. That immediately puts you in a one-down position, which is an aggressive, confrontational position of separation. If you are trying to live in true power, this one-down position will defeat you at every turn. You are caught before a vast chasm of duality where you are forever distanced from others whom you wish to dominate.
The first step towards bridging the chasm of duality is accepting life as it is. When you understand that complete acceptance of yourself will open your heart, increase your power, and thereby offer you the opportunity to be whole, you will no longer view yourself as separate. In the light of your acceptance, duality disappears, and you become fully committed to love, which really means that you fully love who you are and what you stand for in life. Remember that love is power.
As you choose a different point of view, a point of view centered in personal power yet beyond duality, you will then experience a sense of oneness with everything around you.”
She then describes a teaching from a Nepalese hill woman, named Ani, who uses the mountain, Anapurna, as a teaching example.
“When you experience oneness, you make a place within yourself for the essence of power, the force of power, to live. You become an invincible warrior in the world, because ethere is no vulnerable spot for anything to enter to take your power. Energy-draining thoughts, comments, and individuals can only circle you, looking for a hole, looking for a place of sensitivity and weakness, but never finding one.
A sense of oneness with all living things brings with it a sense of personal power. If you come upon a challenge, you honor it as a worthy opponent if you have personal power. Agnes Whistling Elk explained this to me in a wonderful way. We were sitting on her cabin porch in northern Manitoba, Canada, watching the play of the aurora borealis across the sky in crimson and green pulsating sheets of radiant light.
“In the old way,” Agnes said, “when a warrior from another nation came into camp, we always gave him the best lodge to sleep in, the choicest food to eat, and the fastest pony to ride. When a warrior was challenged by another, and they both had personal power, they each wanted the other to be the best he could be.”
“But why?” I asked.
“Because the stronger your opponent is, the better you have to be. You become more than you ever dreamed you could be. That’s how you grow. You don’t hate someone who is better than you. You learn from them and eventually overtake them with honor. It’s a different way of looking. It is not competition. That’s the way it has always been,” she said.
“If you have a point of view that takes in the entirety of the living universe, then you live in the center of the world circle of power, as do all others who see the world in this way. This is the essence of personal power – the last lesson of power is that we are all one.” Agnes smiled at me and pinched my arm.”
November Energy Forecast – The Return of the Divine Feminine
Today we are going to look at the energy forecast for November from Emmanuel Dagher It is called:
A Foreshadowing of the Return of the Divine Feminine
In October, we began to see the next level of awakening taking place in the hearts and minds of humanity.
This awakening is directly linked to the influx of the Divine Feminine energies being activated within the consciousness of each person on the planet, preparing us for the new shifts coming in 2018 and beyond.
The foundations for us to receive the next wave of awakening into the Divine Feminine will continue to build and strengthen throughout November.
Strengthening Our Intuition
One of the many gifts the Divine Feminine offers us is the gift of intuition.
Our intuition works closely with the right hemisphere of the brain, offering us insights that bypass the confines of logic and reason.
It’s a natural inner knowing that transcends mental intellect, and connects us to the wisdom of the heart. Intuition is the voice of our Spirit.
Our intuition speaks to us constantly, whether the mind chooses to listen to it or even be aware of it or not. It is always guiding us in the direction of our highest path, and nudging us toward greater expansion, so that we can live the greatest version of our life in this third dimensional reality.
In November, we will be given the opportunity to connect more deeply with our intuition. This can come in many different ways.
The only thing asked of us, is that we pay attention to and live in the present moment as much as we can. This will ensure that our connection to our intuition is strengthened significantly, so that we will be ready for the next phase of our personal and collective awakening.
By connecting with our intuition, we empower our lives to flow with greater ease. The more aligned we are with that higher flow, the more aligned we are to creating a life of fulfillment, joy, love, peace, prosperity, freedom, and well-being.
The Illusion Is Dissolving
For eons, collective society has predominantly operated on survival-driven patriarchal principles. These have come to us through institutions that have promoted fear and separation, delivered in the forms of religion, war, education, government, entertainment, and medicine.
During this time, the more nurturing, intuitive, and creative principles of the Divine Feminine, such as valuing the individual, honoring the Earth, and seeking natural healing and personal growth, were shoved to the side as being too passive, heart-based, and nonproductive.
Humanity lived with this imbalance for thousands of years. Yet it was all part of a Soul contract we all made to use that imbalance to learn lessons, heal, evolve, and come back to the truth of who we are at our core.
It’s important to thank and honor all of the patriarchal institutions that promoted fear and separation, as challenging as that may be, because they played a pivotal part in our awakening process.
They signed up to play the role of the challenger on our journey, so that we could see the contrast between what we wanted to create more of in our lives, and what we did not want more of.
The moment we are able to thank and honor all of the challenges in our lives, no matter how hard they seem at the time, is the moment we free ourselves from the power they have held over us.
This is what is happening now. People are waking up and freeing themselves from the illusion of fear and separation.
We are taking their power back!
This movement is dissolving the old survival-based patriarchal system, as the more matriarchal values of heart-based, soul-directed living come to the front of our consciousness.
We can clearly see the dissolving of the old system happening all around the world. Systems and ideologies operating by way of fear tactics, control, greed, and secrecy, without integrity, will not be able to continue on much longer.
The chaos and seeming amplification of fear we have been seeing lately is actually a clear confirmation that humanity as a whole has had enough, and that we are ready for something very different.
If things are looking a little scarier to you in the world, it’s because there is a desperation being felt right now by those trying to cause the fear. The way I view it is that it’s the “ego” part of humanity—just the mind trying to protect itself and keep things the same.
With this awareness, we can have compassion, without having to buy or feed into the fear tactics.
The awakening process was called forth by our Spirit long before we even entered this paradigm. So we can take comfort in knowing that there’s no right or wrong when it comes to how we move through our awakening.
Our intuition will always find a way to guide us back to our true selves, whether we choose to take the longer scenic route or a more direct one.
The Next Phase of Awakening
This new phase of our awakening, which began in October, is supporting us in moving past the role of the Victim.
We now have the opportunity to retire the Victim archetype that we and our ancestors have identified with over many lifetimes.
Before we retire the Victim archetype, it’s important to honor it for serving to keep us safe and protected in a world that used to operate purely on survival.It’s also important that we give our experiences of identifying with victim consciousness their full dignity and right to be seen, heard, and acknowledged.
This is actually the first step toward freeing ourselves from continuing to remain in the role of the victim.
We never want to sugarcoat, get rid of, blame, or deny anything that we experienced during those times that we identified with being a victim. The second step in releasing victim consciousness is to accept every person, experience, and thing as it has shown up in our lives, without trying to change it.
By accepting these things, we are not saying that we resonate, approve of, or agree with them. We are simply giving ourselves permission to not allow them to define us. The third step in releasing victim consciousness is to let go of blame—in other words, forgiveness.
Blame comes from a need to make something or someone else right/wrong or good/bad, and somehow responsible for what we have experienced.
At our core, we are the Creator of all of our experiences. When we consciously operate from our Creator Self, we transcend duality. We move from judgment into discernment. As we step into the beauty and power of our Creator Self, we navigate our way forward by choosing only what feels to be in alignment for us, and releasing what doesn’t. We understand that just because something does or does not resonate with us doesn’t mean it is good or bad, or someone else’s decision for us, or vice versa.
Can you feel how much lighter it is to operate from that space? There is only resonance or no resonance. Meaning, “I choose more of this, or I choose less or none of this.” There is no need for “good” or “bad” labels anymore.
This is freedom!
The fourth step in moving past victim consciousness is to reclaim our power.
Reclaiming our power means we are committed to connecting with who we are at our core. We do this through self-love, care, kindness, nourishment, spiritual development, and creative expression.
The most powerful people on the planet are not the ones who control or belittle others.
The most powerful people on the planet are the ones who know who they truly are.
They know that they are far greater than the sum of all of their experiences and stories.
They know how to express themselves fully and to speak up from a place of love, without having to prove anything to anyone.
They forgive quickly, and move past challenging experiences with greater ease.
They are kind and loving to the world around them, and care for the well-being of all living things.
They make a difference on the planet, without worrying how small or large the effect of that may be.
They see past race, gender, religion, and sexual orientation.
They root for and celebrate others’ ability to thrive.
They see themselves as part of a whole, rather than as being separate from all other forms of life.
They know how to love, and how to be open and vulnerable.
They are positive and optimistic.
They stand up for what they believe in.
And so much more.
Just a Small Glimpse of the Divine Feminine
The insights shared in this Forecast are just a small glimpse of what’s coming with the next wave of awakening through the Divine Feminine.
It’s going to be so powerful!
In December, the Divine Feminine will be here in Her full glory, to usher us into 2018, the Year of the Divine Feminine.
I’m excited to share so much more of what this means for us in the coming months!
For now, we can let ourselves receive and digest this current phase of awakening, so that we are ready for all the magic soon coming our way.
Until next time,
Miraculously Yours,
Emmanuel
Emotional Forecast – Solar Eclipse
Last week we heard what Pam Youghans, the astrologer, had to say about the eclipse and the planetary influences active at the moment. I want to start with Pam’s latest forecast as I think it reflects what is going on right now for many, and then we will hear Matt Kahn’s perspective.
POWERFUL REVERBERATIONS from last week’s Total Solar Eclipse continue into our new week and throughout much of September, as the Moon waxes and wanes and this dynamic lunar cycle progresses. This week, we mark the first choice point when the First Quarter Moon occurs at 1:12am PDT on Tuesday (8:12am GMT). Astrologer Dane Rudhyar writes that at the time of the First Quarter Moon, “we turn ourselves towards fulfillment or failure, as an incoming tide of possibilities slams against the momentum of what we’ve already known.” THE FIRST QUARTER MOON is a time to watch for signposts. We will see indicators of how the influence of the eclipse is manifesting, and get a sense of what course corrections are needed. As the Moon in Sagittarius and the Sun in Virgo face off, we are challenged to find the inner faith and courage that will enable us to overcome the obstacles that arise. This is a time when many will make decisions about which direction to turn, having a clearer idea of which path will more likely lead to the desired end result. To succeed in our endeavor, we must keep our gaze on the bright light that draws us forward, and not be drawn into the darkness of the past.
HARSH WORDS and misdirected communications are likely as we begin the week, with retrograde Mercury and Pluto in hard aspect on Monday. This can be a very judgmental influence, when it’s easier to find blame than it is to take responsibility. A certain level of underlying irritation seems standard issue for the first half of the week; the Sun-Jupiter aspect on Tuesday can exaggerate bluster and ego, and Thursday finds us questioning those in authority, especially when we perceive a lack of concern for the welfare of the people and the planet. BUT, WE MIGHT START to see some movement on Thursday, in those areas where we’ve been feeling stuck. Although Mercury is still retrograde, it returns to Leo on Thursday to retrieve vital pieces of information that originally came forward a month ago, around the time of the New Moon on July 25.
For various reasons, we either skipped over something at that time, or just neglected to really pay attention to the messages or intelligence that was being offered.
Mercury’s return to Leo sets into motion a process that will take us through at least the first two weeks of September. The Messenger Planet begins the proceedings by activating the degree of the eclipse on Saturday and conjoining Mars on Sunday. These alignments bring our attention to the critical issues that we will be working with.
Mars is likewise triggering change and the eclipse potentials in the last days of this week. When the Red Planet trines Uranus on Saturday, an energy wave is created that moves everything forward. Mars then activates the energy of the eclipse on Sunday, pushing us to make that evolutionary leap of consciousness that will enable us to turn the “incoming tide of possibilities” into a wave we can ride.
So now let’s look at what Matt Kahn had to say in his Emotional Forecast blog which was written on Monday, the day of the eclipse.
Entering Unity Consciousness
Today’s eclipse represents the emotional and energetic harvest for all the hard work so many lightworkers and earth angels have been doing over the past many weeks. For many years, energetically-sensitive souls have laid the crucial foundation for the energies that today’s eclipse celebrates as the further unveiling of unity consciousness. So much of the old carbon-based DNA has been transmuted, while new strands of crystalline DNA have been activated over the past many years to allow today’s energies to begin a process of synthesizing our energy fields into greater harmonious alignment with our physical bodies.
As a result, many of us may be feeling the surreal serenity, peacefulness, awe and wonder of these new energies, as the 5D realities many have been experiencing on the inside begin expanding outwardly to take shape and form as a 5D world. For some this shift will be instantaneous, and for others, quite gradual and subtle. And for the remainder of the population that may require greater adversities, losses, changes, chaos, and turbulence, in order to turn inward and align with these frequencies, those rooted in 5D will hold space as heart-centered anchors and transcendent observers of an evolving new paradigm.
As the eclipse welcomes energies of both completion and renewal, it is a time to set intentions that fulfill your highest spiritual purpose, as well as your deepest personal desires, since the field is easier for many to access during these phases of amplification. It is a time of existential rebirth, where you have the opportunity to clean the slate and begin a brand new relationship within yourself. While there may be pains from the past or characters that represent healing still in progress, today can be a day of greater forgiveness by letting yourself off the hook.
May you allow the incoming waves of amplified energies to align your energy field with your physical body through the soft and gentle joy of an open heart. May you meet yourself as the angel you’ve been waiting to receive contact from. May you become the inner voice of encouragement who urges you to live as if you have nothing to lose. May today be a chance to reach inward and touch the depths of your own innocent nature more profoundly than ever before.
As the energies of 5D consciousness expand from within and radiate throughout, today’s eclipse is an incredible opportunity to:
- Embrace the theme of completion by celebrating how far you’ve come in your journey.
- Allow today to be a new beginning in how you view and speak to yourself.
- Set intentions for yourself and the planet so outrageously that you almost laugh at their implausibility.
- Allow time to be sit and be still as a way of getting to know the vibration of unity consciousness.
- Take your time with each task and activity as way of savoring the grace of each moment.
- Suspend the need to know where life is headed or how things will play out, so you can just be completely at peace and one with all — exactly as you are.
- Dare to open your heart to the ones you love at an even deeper level and express your feelings more passionately than ever before.
- Let the world around you be as it is, no matter how unsettled things may seem or feel.
As many of us welcome today’s eclipse as another quantum leap further into 5D consciousness, not just as an internal state of being, but as a reality taking shape and form within a world still healing, awakening, and transforming at an incredible rates of speed, we embrace this moment as a brand new beginning. It serves to close all previous chapters where seemingly endless rounds of clearing and integrating inundated the experiences of so many energetically-sensitive souls, so we may rejoice in connecting with the fertile ground of eternal being, where our new spiritual reality can come to life.
Whether these words match your current experience, foreshadow shifts that may occur in the coming days, or bring your attention to the subtle world of high frequency energy woven throughout the fabric of your existence, it is unquestionably a time where being heart-centered can now be a joy instead of a curse; throughout a world that can offer the greatest amount of safety to those who refuse to hold back.
The Solar Eclipse 2017
First of all this morning, does anyone have anything they’d like to share about Atma Nambi’s visit?
So, on to the energetic upheaval we all experienced on Monday with the solar eclipse. How many of you were able to get a good view of it?
I thought we’d begin with some information from the astrologer, Pam Younghans, for the week August 21st through the 27th. She begins with the Sabian symbol associated with the solar eclipse (The Sabian symbols were produced in 1925 by clairvoyant Elsie Wheeler, and they are the most popularly used set of degree symbols today. They are symbolic of the meaning of each degree of the zodiac):
“A MERMAID emerges from the ocean waves ready for rebirth in human form: The stage at which an intense feeling-intuition rising from the unconscious is about to take form as a conscious thought.”
She says:
“This image reveals the divine purpose at the essence of this powerful eclipse, which is designed to move us forward on our evolutionary path through an expansion in consciousness. It is notable that the mermaid is emerging from the “ocean waves” — not calm waters, but waves that represent the turbulence and emotional upheaval that we have all been feeling in these past days, weeks, and months. Astrologer Dane Rudhyar’s interpretation of this symbol speaks of a “great evolutionary urge” and asks, “Will the intuitive feeling fade away, reabsorbed into the unconscious, or will the inexpressible realization acquire concreteness and expressible form …?” In other words, will humanity take the opportunity provided by this eclipse to move into its higher expression? That is both our test and our directive. THE TEST appears in the form of a cardinal grand cross in effect at the time of the eclipse. This formation involves Uranus and Eris in Aries; Ceres, Venus, and the North Node in Leo; Jupiter in Libra; and Pluto in Capricorn. As these planets interact in stressful aspect with each other, a deep anger is emerging, and long-held resentments are coming to the surface.
We are being compelled to deal with uncomfortable issues that have been affecting members of our planetary family, and can no longer be ignored or dismissed. This configuration represents a challenge to be our highest self -– to be assertive but not aggressive, to be powerful but not manipulative, to be cooperative but not codependent, and to have empathy without losing our boundaries. THE DIRECTIVE manifests in the form of a fire grand trine involving the Sun and Moon in Leo, Uranus and Eris in Aries, and Saturn in Sagittarius. This configuration inspires great creativity and infuses us with confidence and strength — very positive qualities if we channel it consciously. It can inspire leaders to come forward who express the higher qualities of Leo — generosity, kindness, and openheartedness. At the same time, a grand trine doesn’t have any brakes, only a gas pedal! This means we need to make sure the fire doesn’t get out of control in the form of recklessness, over-confidence, and destructiveness.”
She then goes on to say that there’s a lot more to say about the eclipse and she has made a 30 minute video on Youtube about it. If you want the link, let me know. In the video she discusses how Mercury being retrograde at the time of the eclipse is likely to affect us, and why we need to watch carefully how events unfold over the next two weeks, and especially during the first 10 days of September.
She continues:
“ALSO SIGNIFICANT this week is Saturn’s station on Friday. After being retrograde since early April, the Ringed Planet is now ready to begin moving forward. If your career endeavors or other ambitions have met with delays over the past four months, such setbacks are Saturn’s way of teaching the value of patience and proper timing. The obstacles we’ve been working to overcome ultimately will contribute to our ability to be a greater success as we proceed from here. Saturn’s retrograde phase has also allowed us to uncover weaknesses in ourselves or in existing systems that would have hindered our progress, had they not been resolved. THE JUPITER-SATURN SEXTILE that perfects next Sunday is a subtle but very positive influence, representing an opportunity for hope and belief to work together. This aspect can motivate us to do the work necessary to manifest an ideal and to bring greater harmony and balance to our lives. We might not yet have all the details worked out, but we do have the sense of potentials unfolding — even if we have to wait until after Mercury goes direct on September 5 to see clear results in physical reality.”
Ascension and the Coming Energy Cycles
Sunday, August 6th, 2017
This week, I thought we might look at what is going on energetically at the moment. How many of you have been feeling somewhat strange recently? Maybe you have been feeling unwell, or unusually anxious, or even scattered? And what does that have to do with spirituality?
Well, we have talked before about the movement from the third dimension to the fifth dimension which is believed to be a rise in consciousness closer to Christ consciousness. In Waking Times, an online newspaper, Pao Chang writes: “For millennia, many religions and spiritual teachers have been telling us that during 2012 and soon after, humanity will experience a special spiritual event called ascension. Is this event true or is it just a fantasy dreamed up by certain crazy people? My understanding of ascension is that it isn’t a fantasy, but a natural cycle of the Universe and we are in the middle of ascending to higher levels of consciousness.”
There are more than 4 million articles about ascension if you Google it and they range from the traditional Christian idea of only Christ ascending, to a plethora of articles about Extra Terrestrial interventions. However, a large number of these articles and blogs share a consensus of opinion that current astrological upheavals are supporting the ascension energies in the coming months. So what’s happening?
Well, this month in particular there will be two eclipses: a lunar eclipse on Monday, August 7th, followed two weeks later by a total solar eclipse on Monday, August 21st. And, by the way, you can even buy special glasses at Walmart for the latter event.
In the NorthPoint Journal which is an astrological forecast, Pam Younghans says, “We might be feeling that our reality is “on tilt” these days, given how quickly situations are changing. That sense of just barely keeping up with events continues into our new week and our new month, as several planetary influences converge.”
After mentioning the eclipses, she goes on, “The planet Uranus comes to a standstill on Wednesday and begins its retrograde (backward motion) phase. Whenever a planet “stations,” its effects become more noticeable in our experience. A strong Uranus time often coincides with sudden and unexpected changes, increased restlessness and impulsiveness, and a need to push (rebel) against perceived limitations. While Uranus is retrograde (until January 2, 2018), breakthroughs and breakdowns will occur as needed for our greater benefit. According to astrologer Bil Tierney, “we are now being conditioned to attune ourselves with universal will.” He explains that: ”Uranus retrograde can help put us in touch with needs for personal freedom and self-expression that may have been previously unrealized. We are now given another opportunity to contact that highly unique part of ourselves that seeks more liberating forms of activity or fresh, new approaches for optimal development. ”With Uranus turning its intuitive impulses inwardly during this time, we may be better able to stumble upon new avenues of expression that could result in greater self-illumination. We may reach a level of self-truth that can jolt us from ego inertia or mundane stagnation.””
So, continuing with this energetic theme, this morning I thought we would look at the August energy forecast from Emmanual Dagher as he addresses several of these issues:
The Heat Is On – August 2017 Forecast
Emmanuel Dagher
Wednesday, 2 August, 2017
It’s a blessing for me to be able to connect with you this way my friend. We have so much energy talk to catch up on, so let’s get right to it!
We are currently moving through a highly active energy cycle that began at the end of July, and will continue until early September.
During highly active energy cycles, there’s often a great deal of electricity in the air, which is felt most powerfully by those who are sensitive to energy.
When this much electricity is in the air, it offers us an excellent opportunity to take action towards creating the reality of our choice.
This is not the time to sit on the sidelines, watching as life passes us by!
Just like the seasons, energy goes through different cycles. Sometimes the energy is in a dormant cycle, and at other times, the energy is in a highly active cycle.
Right now, we are in a highly active cycle.
Turning Up the Heat
When the energetic heat is turned up as it is right now, it often manifests itself in the following ways in our personal lives:
• Beginning a new project, job, or creative venture
• Cleaning up and resolving past debts (personal, financial, etc.)
• Deciding to move to a new home or location
• Changes in appetite and eating habits
• Being more social and making new friends
• Giving ourselves a healthy outlet to express our creativity
• Starting a new relationship or rekindling a past or current one
• Feelings of being motivated and action-oriented
• Taking a trip
• Exercising and being more physically active
• Taking a new class or course
• Cleaning our house or living space
If any of these examples sound good to you, now is the time to explore them!
Two Kinds of Action
There are two kinds of action: inspired action and forced action.
When we try to take forced action, we usually come up against a great deal of resistance.
Making or forcing something to happen often requires that we spend lots of time and energy on something that may not be natural to us. It often feels hard, and requires a great deal of outer control.
Many of us grew up being taught that making or forcing something to happen is what brings it to us. We were taught that if we were assertive about making our dreams a reality, we would be rewarded with positive results.
We were taught that the harder we worked, the more things we could acquire to make us happy. Even though this method may work temporarily, most of the time it comes with a hefty price, like the disruption of our wellbeing.
When we operate from a space of always trying to make or force something to happen, that usually puts a great deal of pressure and stress on our emotional and mental bodies.
Over time, this shows up as an imbalance in our emotional, mental, or physical body.
But there is a kind of action that doesn’t require us to push so hard, and that is inspired action.
When we take inspired action, we do so from a place of awareness, ease, and grace.
We become so present to the opportunities and blessings the Universe is offering us, that we easily step into them from a place of gratitude. There’s no force, control, or pressure needed.
With inspired action comes a trust that the Universe/Our Spirit is taking care of us fully.
With that trust, we no longer need to oversee or control every specific detail in our lives. We move out of any survival or victim patterns.
Taking inspired action is not to be confused with sitting around and waiting for life to make things happen for us.
It does, however, mean that we are intentionally choosing to be present and open to the opportunities that come our way.
The Universe/Our Spirit is constantly gifting us with new opportunities and blessings that will help us create the kind of life we truly desire.
However, when we are focused on the future or dwelling in the past, which most people have been taught to do, we tend to miss what’s being presented to us in the present moment.
It’s in this present moment that we are the most effective deliberate creator of our lives.
Special note: Because of the highly active energies right now, it has become very challenging and almost uncomfortable for us to procrastinate—to resist being active.
Even if it’s as simple as going for a walk outside or moving our body through dance or any kind of aerobic exercise, these inspired actions will serve us greatly during this time.
Physical Shifts
When we are in a highly active energy cycle, our bonabdy can experience any of the following:
Our vision sharpens. [other sources – vision disturbances]
Our sense of hearing, taste, touch, and smell become more refined.
We might feel a bit dizzy at times, or spaced out.
Our skin may feel a bit more itchy than usual—a confirmation that we are energetically “shedding our old skin,” and letting healthy new skin to emerge.
Our weight fluctuates.
Our sleeping patterns change.
We tend to lose track of time.
However these energy shifts show up for you, just know that it’s normal, and part of the process.
The Power of the August 21 Total Solar Eclipse
The pinnacle of these highly active energies will be reached on August 21 at 2:30 pm Eastern Time, when we will experience a total solar eclipse.
Eclipses are some of the most powerful astrological occurrences because they often usher in major changes.
During an eclipse, humanity is upgraded energetically, so the energies will feel very high as they move through us.
It might be a good idea to write down whatever inspirations, ideas, and insights we receive at this time, so we have them available for easy access later on, to integrate into our lives.
An eclipse is also a great time for healing because it brings to the surface deeply buried patterns that are no longer aligned with our highest potential.
If you find yourself and others feeling a bit more emotional or sensitive than usual during this time … be gentle with yourself and them, as this will allow the healing to be a much smoother experience.
As we use this time for healing, it’s also a great opportunity to let go of the illusions of separation and to remember that we have always been One with all of Life, including each other.
This particular total solar eclipse is asking us to be fully transparent, open, and honest when it comes to how we live our lives.
Anything or anyone operating covertly or without integrity during a time of this total solar eclipse, and for several months afterwards, will struggle Big Time.
Keep an eye out for how this shows up, both in our immediate reality and also on the global stage.
One of the greatest ways to work with this solar eclipse is to be clear about what our intentions are, and to be willing to follow through on them when the opportunity to do so presents itself.
During a total solar eclipse, meditating on the Sun energy strengthens our internal Sun (located in the solar plexus/stomach region), which is another way of saying our Divine power.
This helps us to express ourselves and our gifts more openly and freely, without holding back. It also helps us build confidence in ourselves, including our gifts, talents, and overall presence in this world.
This total solar eclipse is going to shake up a lot of things, which will open the door for many new blessings to enter our reality.
As always, it has been such an honor to connect with you in this way.
Have a wonderful August, and I will look forward to catching up with you again soon!
Till next time, Miraculously yours,
Emmanuel
Laughter and Spirituality
On Friday evening, I went to Unity Center of Tulsa for the closing ceremony of the visit by the Tibetan monks. They were interesting and delightful and the thing that struck me was their joy in what they are doing. All week I have been thinking about spirituality and humor and remembering how pious but disrespectful we were at Holy Cross Academy in Scotland. I was wondering if it was a Catholic thing, or a Scottish thing – Scots do have a wicked sense of humor – but when I started digging, I found that humor is an essential part of every religion. In an article in Psychology Today entitled Laughter and Spirituality, Does Your Faith Have A Sense of Humor.
Renee Garfinkel, PhD, writes, “Religion’s public image is grim; it’s all fire and brimstone, and Dante’s Inferno. Severe, and reproving, religion’s reputation is largely one of humorless inhibition and pleasure-fearing. Even New Age religions, the self-described more spiritual “religion-lite” of the genre, even they seem to emphasize a life of what’s “good for you”, with a whiff of tofu and kale.
Religion’s grim attributes would present enough of a PR challenge without the added baggage of the folks who truly give religion a bad name: the holy warriors whose trade is terror, the cartoon-inflamed violent mobs. Pedophiles in the pews, corruption in back rooms, misogyny out front, and hypocrisy on a scale matched only by politicians – for the broad, news-reading public, this is face of religion. It isn’t a pretty face…
And it isn’t a complete face, either. Most religions agree that humor and laughter are central to a spiritual life.
Viktor Frankel, the founder of Logotherapy, who knew more than most about the depths to which humanity can sink, said, ““Humor, more than anything else in the human make-up, can afford an aloofness and an ability to rise above any situation, if only for a few seconds.”
Those “few seconds” are the doors that let spirituality in. This is a truth understood by great religious leaders and practitioners.
The Dali Lama’s photos often show him with a ready smile, giggling in interviews and laughing on stage. The popular televangelist Joel Osteen famously begins his sermons with. “I like to start with something funny…” in the tradition of good preachers and teachers everywhere who realize that laughter makes people more receptive to the message, and to the sense of connection with one another. There are yoga paths that emphasize laughter, and even a worldwide laughter yoga movement.”
But, I thought, this can’t be true of Catholicism. And then I found the transcript of an interview on PBS with a Jesuit priest, REV. James Martin, S.J., who wrote a book about spirituality and humor called, Between Heaven and Mirth in which he gives lots of examples of the use of humor in serious situations. He cites the third century St. Lawrence who when he was being burned to death on a gridiron over hot coals called out to his executioners, “Turn me over and take a bite, I’m done on this side.” Or St. Augustine who famously prayed, “Lord give me chastity…but not yet.” Fr. Martin said, “Have you ever been to Mass [or any other similar service] where the priest says (in boring voice) “And so we join with choirs of angels and their unending hymn of praise, holy, holy, holy Lord?” And you think, if that’s the way the choirs of angels are singing their praise we are in big trouble.”
So, this then spurred me on to find out more and I came across an interesting article entitled, The spirituality of humor, by Rich Heffern. As an interesting aside, he is a contributor to the National Catholic Reporter and you can find this blog:
The spirituality of humor
Rich Heffern | Apr. 27, 2010 NCR Today
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In New Mexico a few years ago I attended a conference on Native American spirituality held at the Santa Fe Indian School. Native peoples from all around the Southwest came for this yearly weekend gathering. After everyone had registered, inked in their name tags and found their seats, Joe Savilla, the convener of the conference, walked to the podium, surveyed the assembly with a grave face, then said, “Before we begin … does anyone have any good jokes to share?” Maybe four or five attendees shared, starting the conference off on just the right note. Then Joe followed with a prayer. I still remember some of the jokes. Here’s one:
A New Mexico farmer was visiting his Texas cousin’s ranch one day. The Texan, anxious to impress his relative, took him out on the front porch, spread his arms wide and said, “Why, I get in my truck in the morning and it takes me all day to get to the other side of this place!” The New Mexican shrugged and answered, “Yup, I had a truck like that once.””
He then goes on to give an interesting insight into the root of three seemingly unrelated words:
“Did you know the words human, humor and humility all have the same Indo-European root — ghom, best translated by the English word humus.
Humus is key to any ecological system, whether it be forest, grassland or glade, and it is vital to any garden. The best garden humus, of course, is a combination of rotting vegetable matter: kitchen scraps, autumn leaves, grass clippings. Mixed together and left to rot, the humus pile becomes a rich, fertile soil in which to grow vegetables. I garden every year and tend my humus, or compost, pile carefully. Daily I add to it, and every other week turn it and wet it, so that the microorganisms can do their work effectively, breaking the organic matter down into a rich, loamy, aromatic substance that, when added to the garden, works miracles.
One can readily see the connection between humility and humus. What could be more humble than a pile of rotting organic matter, destined to push up carrots, radishes and corn? Yet nothing is more helpful to growth. Humus is fecund. It’s willing to serve. It’s a kind of earthy parable for life. When living matter ends its service, it dies into the compost pile … and gives birth to new life. Earth swallows us up but at the same time it is a womb, a place where birth, renaissance and resurrection all occur. Our human adventure is similar to the sacred saga of humus.
Humor is also a kind of compost in which the organic elements of life mix, ferment and stew, either giving birth to new ways of seeing and understanding, or just reconnecting us with the humble humus of our earthly origins.”
He then goes on to tell a Sufi joke about the Sufi satirist, Nasruddin:
“One day a friend came to Nasruddin’s house (in ancient Persia) to borrow a donkey. “I’m sorry,” said Nasruddin, “but I’ve already lent it to somebody.” Just then the donkey made a loud braying noise from the back of the house. “Nasruddin,” the man said, “I just heard your donkey! It’s out back.” Angrily, Nasruddin asked his friend to leave the house. “What kind of friend are you?” he yelled after him. “You believe my donkey, but you don’t believe me.”
One of the important roles humor plays is as a reminder that we are human, that humans share qualities that range from nobility and altruism at one extreme, to avarice, selfishness and cowardice on the other. Humor is more often than not a kind of realignment with the force of life that laughs at our meager attempts to impose our own order on things. Humor reminds us all that, as humans, we share at our core the same frailties, vulnerabilities. Humor often thumps us on the head with the message that we are not in control.
Humor constantly reminds us of our humanity, and of the creative and spiritual potential within. “There is, in fact,” writes Jungian analyst Helen Luke, “no real spirituality without the laughter which a sense of humor brings.” Humor helps us literally to revel in our humanness. It offers new points of view on every situation. It takes the facts of our existence and plays with them in creative and insightful ways.
When a cat is dropped, it always lands on its feet, and when toast is dropped, it always lands buttered and jellied side down. It was proposed to strap giant slabs of buttered toast to the back of a hundred tethered cats; the two opposing forces will cause the cats to hover, spinning inches above the ground. Using the toast/cat array, a high speed monorail could easily link New York and Chicago.
In the cafeteria at that New Mexico conference, my wife and I sat near two children. There was hush in the conversations; the voices of the two kids could be heard clearly in the room.
Q. “Why did the chicken cross the basketball court? A. He heard the referee calling fowls. What sits on the bottom of the ocean and shivers? A nervous wreck.” The girls giggled — and the world, for the moment, seemed whole and complete. We humans grow from the energy of our laughter more than we grow from our gravity. The child, discovering the magic of humor, finds a new plateau from which to view life differently.
Heard any good jokes lately?”
Isn’t that wonderful? So I am reassured that, in my youth, our disrespectful, childish humor was just an exercise in humility and humus, contributing to our spiritual development, and I am going to finish today by reminding you that the next time you feel your day is sh. . . excrement, realize that this is just the compost to help give birth to a whole lot of new and wonderful possibilities in your life.
Personal Responsibility
Last week we looked at the difference between religion and spirituality and this week I want to address what I think is one of the most significant differences: personal responsibility. When you see God as a separate entity that spells out the rules and you believe that you always have a fallback of the devil (the devil made me do it), or confession to justify when you don’t follow the rules, you abdicate your personal responsibility. However, when you choose to step away from organized religion and pursue path that acknowledges a different paradigm, one of unity rather than separation, you take back personal responsibility and integrity becomes you guiding principle.
I came across an article by a spiritual teacher, Jim Tolles
entitled, “Spirituality and Responsibility” so I thought I might be on the right path.
He says:
I’m a broken record about a number of topics such as the importance of journaling, the necessity of spiritual community to support you, and the fact that awakening is a whole body experience–not just something you can think your way to. Along with those topics, I’m equally passionate and forceful about the importance of responsibility on your spiritual path. Spiritual Power: A History of Abuse I probably don’t need to list out all the abuses that have gone on through history in the name of “spirituality” or religion. It should be obvious. It should be obvious that every imam, priest, pope, pastor, rabbi, monk, or other spiritual clergyman or woman who has tried to control people through fear or to enhance themselves in some way has abused their power. Whether it’s the Crusades to “free” the Holy Land (keep in mind that the Arab world was the rich elite during those times–the Europeans were poor and backwards) or a Jihad that sends suicide bombers to blow up buildings, those are horrible abuses.
That’s made a lot of people pretty skittish about the topic of spirituality. Just bringing it up has a way of immediately eliciting a reaction whether it’s a forceful statement of belief or it’s shutting down from the conversation. I won’t say that spiritual power has always been abused though. I think there have been and there are plenty of genuine teachers. Jesus and the Buddha are two prime examples from the past that most people know. There are plenty of others, and spirituality shouldn’t be something that everyone is afraid of. Nor should religion (you can HYPERLINK “http://www.spiritualawakeningprocess.com/2010/08/spirituality-and-religion.html” read how I differentiate the two on this link). Religion is just a tool–it’s a structure to give space for spirit to manifest, and as a new wave of teachers wake up, that’s part of the responsibility we have to everyone in the world.
Responsibility to Yourself on the Spiritual Path . The biggest responsibility you have to own on your spiritual path is your responsibility to yourself. I like Marianne Williamson’s quote: ”Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.” And why does that frighten our ego-selves? It’s because of responsibility. It’s because once we admit just how beautiful and amazing we are, we now have to live that truth. We are responsible and beholden to it. We can no longer hide behind justifications that we’re not good enough or that we don’t know what our truth is. We do know. We are beautiful, luminous beings, and we have to be responsible to that. I’m sure that you can immediately see how that would change your life.
Many of you are not in good jobs. You hide your truth because it’s unacceptable to speak out in many power structures. Awakening to your responsibility to yourself will make waves in the world around you. You will rock the boat. It will make waves in your relationships, especially if you’ve surrounded yourself with toxic people (toxic doesn’t mean bad, but if people are always putting you down, that’s a poisonous relationship to you). Being responsible to yourself is the quickest way to change the world, and that’s part of why it’s so scary. Abdicating Spiritual Power Is Irresponsible. Many of you are also spiritually or psychically gifted. You can do things that no one else can do. Those gifts are part of your responsibility to the world. It’s why you’re here. You’re not here to hide those gifts; in many centuries past, there wasn’t any space to share them.
If many people did share their spiritual gifts, they’d be persecuted or killed. Certainly, the world has not been kind to lightworkers, but that is changing. There’s so much need for healing that enough people are willing to give “it a try” because they don’t want to hurt anymore. That’s where you come in. I know you’ve seen the history of spiritual abuses (or perhaps I should say spirituality used as a means for the ego to glorify itself), and you’ve seen the persecution of people offering their gifts to the world. I won’t say that this path doesn’t involve courage. Actually, it requires quite a lot, but it is irresponsible to deny your gifts and what you’re here to do. If you are denying your awareness and gifts, you’ll find that much of your life continues to blow up in your face or that you’re constantly feeling unfulfilled by your life.
Denying your gifts for healing, foresight, speaking with spirits, leading, teaching, or whatever it is that you can do is like cutting off a limb. It’s painful, and it’s time to stop taking up this Spiritual Cup . In taking up the responsibility of the gifts that you have and the spiritual path, you’ll find that this is just step one. You’ll also have to own the responsibility of what you offer to others. You’ll have to own the way that you do things and ensure that you’re doing things in a clean and honest manner. Integrity is crucial because you may work in some dark and confused places with some dark and confused people. They just want to be healed, but they’re like drowning people, trying to latch onto anything. That will be intense, and you’ll need to keep yourself clean and clear of desires (like the desire to help) so that you know what to do and what not to do. It gets muddy out there fast, and when you take on someone to be healed in someway, you are taking responsibility of that person. This doesn’t diminish the person’s responsibility to themselves, but if you’re the swim coach taking someone out into deep waters, you have to be able to get them back onto dry land again. This is no small thing. You know it. You feel it in your bones and the marrow of your soul. But it is what you’re here to do. You’re not alone. I’ve also been a broken record about this: You’re not alone.
A lot of us are awakened or are awakening. It’s amazing to see it happening. So, in taking up the responsibility to yourself and to others, there is a growing network of people who are doing the same. Reaching out and seeking the spiritual network is crucial. If you’re a healing practitioner, it’s especially crucial that you get support from like-minded individuals. It is a long road at times. Even though time doesn’t really exist, we live in corporeal bodies, and we interact in a world that predominantly believes in separation and limitations. So you’ll need some more people who don’t believe in limits if you’re going to go beyond those that you’ve created in your ego-mind. Responsibility, after a while, isn’t scary.
You’ll find that your fears of responsibility are just another ego-program to keep you small. It’s another program that thinks it’s protecting you, but it’s actually diminishing you. In all the ways that I like to use computer software metaphors, here’s another program ready for deletion so that you can take up the responsibility of your spiritual path. In so doing, you can become an agent of light and of the deeper, truer good that exists in life past the subjective ideas of good and bad. It is a beautiful path, and if you’re reading this, it’s most likely the path that you’ve chosen to do in this life.
Spirituality Versus Religion
This morning I thought it might be a good idea since we have several new people to look at the difference between religion and spirituality. You’ve often heard me quote the Sioux theologian, Vine Deloria, Jr. who said, “Religion is for people who are afraid of going to hell. Spirituality is for those who have already been there,” which is true for most of here but I wanted to explore the difference further so we are going to discuss an article from the Huffington Post by Peter Baksa. In his blog, “Are You ‘Spiritual’ but Not Religious? He wrote: By Peter Baksa
Spiritual Versus Religious
Defining religion might be the best way to start this part. Religion “is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols which relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values.”
There are 19 major religious groupings in the world, and from them a total of 10,000 distinct religions, although only about 270 of those have half a million or more followers. In the United States alone, over 2,500 different religious faith entities can be observed. That’s a lot of different ways of formulating cultural and belief systems. And yet, most of them have common sources. The religions of Abraham (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) all believe in one universal God, experienced as personal, who is the creator of the universe and the primary source of values, while [what I] the main Eastern religion(s) (Hinduism, Buddhism, and Shintoism) grew out of local traditions and focus on insight.
A spiritual person is one who seeks to elevate himself, to connect with a higher power, or simply his higher self. He believes there is more to the world than what is easily seen, than what is merely physical. He will have certain guidelines of behavior and diet that he will go by, but all in the name of properly attuning with the infinite and entering some higher state of consciousness. Tibetan monks are the best example of the spiritual.
What’s The Difference?
So what is the difference between being spiritual and being religious? One includes the other, right? Well, yes and no. The core of most all religions are built on a spiritual foundation, but remember that Man invented religions and so it is subject to his flaws. If a religion says that it’s alright to beat up a woman for a trivial reason or that you must wear a silly clown hat every other Tuesday, does that make it spiritual? Or even moral? No, of course not. So where, then, does being religious part company with being spiritual?
Religions attempt to gain access to a higher power in the hope of improving your life’s condition. This usually means sending out your prayers to the deity of your choice, hope that you’re heard, then have the firm belief that something will happen. Spirituality involves the attempt to focus your mind to gain access to the higher power within yourself in the hope of improving your life’s condition. This usually means meditating to send your thoughts to the Universe in general, hope that it hears you, then have the firm belief that something will happen.
Sounds like a bit of an overlap there. Remove all the ceremonial trappings that were put there by ancient people not then ready for the full sciency version of the explanation, and you have the same core of spirituality. In fact, it all sounds suspiciously like what I said in Point of Power: Intend, Declare, and Detach.
Want to get even deeper into things? (It’s too late to turn back now, so you might as well keep on reading). That deity that everyone’s always trying to pray to in order to make their lives better? It is, and always has been within yourself. It’s just that most people do not have the confidence in themselves to believe that they can access such a power, that they can channel their own solutions (and most do not understand enough of quantum mechanics to realize it is possible). So, they put a face on things and start praying, not realizing that the confidence they have that this higher power can hear and fulfill their wishes is indirectly a sort of confidence in themselves. They don’t dare to believe in themselves directly because someone told them that is bad in some way, so they believe in another.
The spiritualists, on the other hand, believe in something. They know that there is something out there that, if they can just attune their minds correctly, they can gain access to and thereby make their dreams literally come true. They don’t, however, realize there is a science behind it, and so find themselves a little bit handicapped as they go rummaging around in the dark trying to connect up with this other something.But there is a science behind it, backed by quantum mechanics, which as we have seen is a lot stranger than anything either religion or spirituality has yet dreamed up. But all that strangeness can still be summed up with Intend, Declare, Detach.
Religions revolve around loving God (by whichever name you give him), knowing that He loves you in return. But why not simply love yourself directly? Because most people cannot; they see only their faults and cannot love themselves, and as such they do not believe that they deserve any improvement at all in their lives. They believe that they must deserve whatever punishment their lives seem to be. Unless they turn to a higher power that can forgive them. This self-hatred, or inability to love yourself, is what gets in the way of manifesting what you need, because deep within you what you’re really intending to manifest is this belief that you deserve all the bad stuff you’ve been getting. So religion ends up being a way out of this conundrum.”
I felt that this was a simplistic way of looking religion that I feel requires more exploration.
Spirituality is all about knowing and loving yourself directly, believing that you do deserve forgiveness and better things in Life. It takes out the middleman of believing in another that in turn believes in you, and just goes straight for the believe in yourself part. Look upon it like this: religion is the power of belief at retail prices, while spirituality is more like wholesale. Even better? Get to the point of Intend, Declare, and Detach, get to that Point of Power, and you can have it at cost.But just like the old saying goes, “God helps those who helps themselves,” you still must take the right actions. Religions say it, spiritualists say it, and Point of Power [Law of Attraction manual by Peter Baksa first published in 2011] says it. Send out that prayer or wish, then start taking the actions to achieve it. The difference? Now when you take those actions or actively seek out those opportunities, you will do it with the confidence of knowing you will get what you need to make it through. Religion gives you this confidence by knowing that some higher power supports you, spirituality gives you this confidence by knowing that you are a conduit for the power that you need.
Try doing something with zero confidence that you will succeed; it’ll be a self-fulfilling prophecy. You won’t get anywhere and will only attract failure.On the other hand, going in with absolute confidence means that you will not limit yourself by what you think is impossible and you will start to attract what you need. From a religious viewpoint, this would be God assisting you; from a spiritualist point of view, this is the energy of the universe opening up possibilities. But from another point of view, it is simply yourself helping you, using a power you dared not suspect that you possessed. Be it prayers or meditation, religion or self awareness, it is all different faces of the same beast. But it’s time for us to take off the masks and look directly at the face of the Infinite. We just might see our own reflection.
So you see, there is quite a bit of common ground between the religious and the spiritual. A spiritual person is merely a religious person who dispensed with some of the trappings and seeks to find the change and power within himself, where it has been all along.
peterbaksa.com — copyright 2014
I want to finish with a quote from Bangambiki Habyarimana, Mozambique author of Pearls Of Eternity who wrote:
“Why doesn’t the pope convert to Calvinism? Why doesn’t the Dalai Lama, convert to Christianity, why doesn’t Billy Graham convert to Islam, Why doesn’t the Ayatollahs convert to Buddhism, Why isn’t Buddhism swept away? Religious leaders know that all religions are equal; they know that no one of them has the monopoly to the knowledge of God. They know that each religion is trying to find the hidden God and that no one religion can claim to have found him beyond doubt. That’s why they remain where they are and respect each other.”
You’re Not Going to Get It Right
Today we are going to hear the musings of another young spiritual teacher, Teal Swan. Teal is only 33 and joins the ranks of younger, highly developed spiritual teachers such as Jeff Foster, and Matt Kahn. This is a blog entitled, “You’re Not Going to Get It Right.”
You’re not going to get it right. Spirituality is about recognizing what is beyond the physical dimension. To recognize what is beyond the physical dimension, you must be conscious instead of unconscious of it. For this reason consciousness is the cornerstone of spirituality. As a fractal of source consciousness, you are a mirror of the greater universe. This means consciousness is not about “going out” it’s about “going in”. It is inevitable that you will become conscious of yourself. But consciousness is not comfortable. It doesn’t feel good to see things about ourselves that we don’t want to see. It doesn’t feel good to recognize truths that we don’t want to be true.
One of the most painful things about this path is to recognize things about yourself that aren’t “as they should be”. And the reason you think things should be a certain way is because you’ve been taught that they should. Every spiritual tradition, just like greater society, comes complete with all kinds of values, expectations and beliefs. These all add up to one thing: A SHOULD STANDARD. This is how you should be. This is how you should feel. This is what you should think. This is the reality you should perceive. And the reality is, you will always fall short of that should standard.“ One of the best things you can do for yourself is to own up to how you feel and to say, I am where I am ”I keep making the mistake of being honest about my own struggles with people who are still operating according to a ‘should standard’ for spiritual teachers. In my position now, I have access to so many of the world’s prominent spiritual minds. And to be honest, it has been both a blessing and a curse. There are some people who are leaders and teachers in this field who are capable of holding space for the complexity of a person’s struggles and a person’s successes. And there are some people who are leaders and teachers who are completely incapable of holding space for this complexity.
I have been experiencing the ‘spiritual shaming’ that exists in this field a lot lately. It’s that moment that I open up about my own struggles with someone, assuming they will relate to me and instead it instantly causes me to fall from grace in their eyes. They start to ‘teach me’ instead of connect to me. They feel good because in that moment where I become a real person to them, they get to feel superior to me. They fail to remember the strong side of me when they see the vulnerability. This week, when I was honest about my struggles, I had a colleague send me a message that he is convinced that I am possessed and that the entity that has possessed me makes men fall in love with me and feel the need to rescue me (including him until he battled the energy to be free of it). He went on to say that this entity isn’t me and that I have to realize that to break free of the weakness I have that is allowing it to take over.” To be honest, I felt like I was in the witch trials all over again. But it got me to thinking.
This attitude we have that the only thing that is really us is the light part, is in and of itself an illusion. The ‘reality’ is that everything in existence is you. You are not just joy. You are not just connection. You are not just truth. You are also illusion. You are also war. You are also isolation. If everything is source, if there is nothing that is not source, then illusion is part of the ‘reality’ of source too. In my most painful awakening in this life, I spent 16 hours being forced to accommodate all the things I didn’t want and hated as part of myself. I had to accept them as myself. This is the forced practice of radical love. This is the difference between selective identification and integration. We will not be able to transcend anything by pushing it away from ourselves. We need to bring it closer. Treat it as part of ourselves and meet its real needs.
What bothered me the most about this message I received, was not the contents of it or the fact that the way it was delivered was like opening up a bandage to show someone a wound and having them rub gravel into it. It was that while I watched it, I actually felt a deep hit of shame and the accompanying desperation to figure out how to fix myself. Why? Because I tell myself that it’s ok for everyone else to have negative emotion and to struggle. But deep down, I honestly believe that I should not struggle with these things. Knowing what I know and being who I am, relationships should be easy for me. I should be able to control feeling good. I should be able to know exactly what to do in every situation. I should never lose touch with the feeling of oneness. And the list goes on and on. And the thing is that I fail to live up to those standards. I fail to live up to them even though I think I SHOULD live up to them. And at times like this, my relationship with spirituality in general is: shame.
I cannot tell you the standards I am held to as a public spiritual figure. I cannot tell you the standards I hold myself to. But looking around, I can see clearly that I am not alone in this behavior. Most of us that call ourselves spiritual have a clear idea of the goal that we are headed towards. We want to be enlightened. We want to be absent of ego. Why do we want this? For most of us, we want it because we’re so sick of hurting. And we have come to believe that spirituality is the way to break free of suffering. We have a picture in our heads of what we think that enlightenment looks like, our perfect image of the spiritually enlightened person. This becomes our “should”. But what most people don’t know is that this image we are holding on to, is a lie that we keep telling ourselves. Spiritual practice is not like that. And enlightenment is no kind of retirement from life itself. It is no kind of retirement from the ups and downs. We create the illusion of enlightened retirement from the ups and downs when we feel resistant to the ups and downs. We invent the idea that enlightenment means perfect bliss twenty-four hours a day only when we are suffering and we want an end to that suffering.Physical life is a learning hologram. No one who is alive is exempt from expansion and so, no one is exempt from contrast. And as long as there is polarity, there is the recognition of what is unwanted as well as the recognition of what is wanted present within you. If we were to reach a state where we were magically transformed into a permanent state of bliss, it would mean ended-ness. There could be no further expansion from that place and that would not serve the universe at large. What serves the universe at large is eternal expansion. So even once you have attained enlightenment, you still have to integrate what it has taught you. You still have to integrate the spiritual awareness you have achieved into your day-to-day life. Even though the samsara waves never stop coming, the more enlightened you become, the more your thoughts change. Your perspective changes to match the vibration of source perspective. And so the meaning of your experiences change.
All religious traditions and belief systems have their own inherent pitfalls. And one of the biggest pitfalls in the spiritual community is the pitfall that we call “bypassing”. What I mean by bypassing is that we often bypass ourselves. We bypass our true feelings. We ignore or deny our true thoughts and feelings based on the spiritual beliefs and truths that we are trying to live up to. Most of us, who are aware that we are creating our own reality by virtue of what we are paying attention to, fear that if we focus on the way we feel, it will get worse. We have been taught to ignore what doesn’t feel good to think about or to look at. But what we miss is that we are already focusing on what doesn’t feel good to think about. And when we try to ignore it or deny it and rush in the other direction, we are actually resisting the way we feel; and anything we resist persists. So we are holding ourselves in those bad feeling places by trying to avoid and ignore them. The best way to deal with these kinds of negative states is to flip around to face them and embrace them completely. They exist for a reason. Negative emotion is always the red flag alerting you to the fact that there is something there to learn. It is always alerting you that you have come to the crossroads of personal expansion. But if you avoid the negative feeling, you also avoid the lesson and the expansion.
If you were driving along a road and your tire went flat, you would not keep driving and ignore the flat tire. You would stop, acknowledge the flat tire and then improve the state of the tire. But continuing to drive on a flat tire is symbolically what we are expecting ourselves to do when we try to avoid the way we really feel and what we are really thinking in favor of how we think we should feel and the way we think we should be thinking.In the spiritual community, it has become a kind of unwritten cultural expectation that we need to act like what we think a spiritually enlightened person would act like; even if it is not true to how we really feel. In other words, it has become a cultural expectation that we should ignore where we are in pursuit of where we think we should be. The result is that most of us feel as if the only acceptable emotion to feel is happy. And if we feel less than happy, we feel as if we have somehow failed. As if the pain of the struggle we are facing in and of itself is not enough, we frost the cake of that struggle with shame and embarrassment that we are suffering in the first place.
Because of this shame relative to struggling, we do not want to own up to the depth of our suffering in the current moment. So, the words that come out of our mouth are not true to us, they are rehearsed principals we are beating ourselves up with. For example, the truth of where you are right now may be that what you’re experiencing hurts. Sometimes it hurts so bad, you can’t believe you’re still breathing. You’re in pain emotionally or physically and you don’t know what to do about it. If this is the case, it is self-abusive to gloss over the reality of that experience you’re having by saying something like “Oh, so many other things are going well and I know something great is going to come out of all of this”. Because at this moment, right here and now, you don’t know that! What you’re doing is regurgitating that spiritual principal because that is the way you’ve been taught that spiritually ascended people see struggles.
Our emotional selves are children. This never changes regardless of whether or not you have reached enlightenment. Our emotional selves never grow up. We just learn how to parent our emotional selves better. If you deny the way you actually feel, you are invalidating the small crying child within you, which is desperately trying to express the way he or she feels. If you deny the way you actually feel, you cannot ever get to a better feeling space. You have to know where you are as well as where you want to go if you want to know which direction to start walking. Could you imagine trying to use a map to find out what direction to walk if you were unwilling to admit to where you were? Could you imagine a doctor trying to help you to feel better but being unwilling to assess your current state to discover what is causing you to feel bad?
One of the best things you can do for yourself is to own up to how you feel and to say, “I am where I am”. Saying this does not mean that you have failed. It does not mean that you’ve given up and that you’ve surrendered to feeling crappy. It means that you are brave enough to embrace where you are so that you are no longer resisting where you are. And because of this, ironically you will no longer be stuck where you are. No matter what your “should standard” would have you believe, the truth is that there is no shame in struggling.
Having problems is not a character flaw. You have not failed if you have a bad day or a bad decade. Buddha had bad days. Jesus had bad days. Muhammad had bad days. You will not meet a single physically manifested being (whether they are an ascended master or not) that is exempt from contrast and so you will not meet a single physically manifested being who is in alignment twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. To expect this from anyone is cruelty. To feel embarrassment or shame if you are out of alignment is cruelty. To expect yourself to be in alignment twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week is cruelty. And it’s time that we stop perpetuating cruelty in ourselves as well as within this spiritual community that we ourselves are responsible for creating. The reality is, with standards like this, you’re not going to get it right. You’re not going to get it right because no one can.