I am given back to night,
cradled by soft curves in the Milky Way.
The new moon reins in darkness,
and I am free to dream the hidden Beauty,
free to bask in the shadows of spirits.

Companions of Soul unite!
We are like a constellation of stars;
mythic configurations connected at a distance.
Breathe out, like a bellows heating the sun.
Breathe in, the resuscitation of the mysterious.

Jim Price retired to Wisconsin almost three years ago, after a 30-year career in human services that included both counseling and administration. He has been published in Verse Wisconsin, Echoes, Bumbershoot, and Clutching at Straws. Jim has been a shamanic practitioner since 1985, and has practiced meditation since 1973.

Oneness / Home

Evolutionary enlightenist Andrew Cohen writes, “And that’s what the world so desperately needs: mature, enlightened human beings who are willing to wholeheartedly take responsibility for the entire process, forever – to participate in the creation of the conscious universe, with and as the very force that created it. That impulse is . . . your very own Authentic Self.”[i] Authentic Self is that Spark of Divine Fire, that initial God-individuation that is the Greatest/Highest Self; Authentic Self is Oneness with identity.

Built into each of us, sitting in our deepest heart, is a longing for connectedness. Sitting alongside the yearning is a belief and fear that we are ultimately alone.  The longing for connection is about Home, the Great Source of Being that many of us call God. The “good news” is to be found in the truth of the reality of Oneness – meaning that whether or not we know or experience it, we are literally One with All That Is.  Every tree and tank, every hellion and healer, every bully and baby, are One and cannot be separated from the Whole.

That we exist here on this duality planet as unique individuals by necessity means that there exist many distinctly differing paths to bring us Home.  What works for one will not necessarily work for another, and to me, this is part of the beauty and grace of Consciousness Itself, of Creator, of Home.  Eventually, we will come Home to the undifferentiated Oneness.  Yet we can also choose to come Home here and now as our Authentic Selves in form, which means that we must live and “behave as if the God in All Life matters”[ii].

The Keyword of the Times is “Change”

Huge changes are upon us.  Time seems to be speeding up, and the consequences of the conscious or unconscious choices we make show up almost immediately.  This instantaneous response lets us see that there’s no longer any room for doubting our authorship of the experiences we have.  It’s time to wake up to the fact that we, like the God Who made us in its image and likeness, are Holy Creators who must now take authority over both what we will make and what we have made.

We are all in the movement of Life together.  In fact, we ARE the movement, we ARE Life.  Whether we are completely unconscious of this truth, or at the edge flirting with the idea of conscious evolution, or already immersed in the soup and fully engaged in creating a life of deep, profound spiritual responsibility and integrity, the times are calling loudly to each of us to take our place at the table and consciously create a new world.

For the Sake Of

Why the urgency?  Because this Universe and our beloved Earth – a living, conscious Being – will no longer support our hiding behind the mask of separateness, another word for victim consciousness; we simply no longer have that luxury if humanity is to survive and thrive.  You and I must really “get it” that there is literally no separation between us – you are another me and I am another you – and that every choice, every action, and every belief affects the Whole.

For the good of All, for the sake of the Whole, and in service to the One, we must look at what it takes to embody Authentic Self so that we will choose to live and behave as if the God in All Life matters.  We must examine the ways and means of “healing the holdings of the heart” and look at how it is we create both the joy and suffering that we – and others – experience.  When we take such a level of self-responsibility to heal ourselves, we help heal the world by becoming a healing presence wherever we are.  From this embodied authenticity, we love each other back into our forgotten Wholeness by living as Authentic Self, that over-arching Aspect which has never left Home, and which holds the door wide open, waiting for us to remember who we are.

[ii] Phrase taken from the title of Machelle Small Wright’s book, Behaving As If the God in All Life Mattered, published by Perelandra Ltd.

Amy Pierce is an ordained Minister in Integrative Healing with a Master’s degree in Applied Healing Arts. She is well known in North Carolina’s Triangle region for her holistic, ecumenical approach to spirit mind body healing through her teaching and writing, as well as her counseling ministries. Visit  www.authenticself.us or read Amy’s blog: In Spiritual Wonder

Connecting to Divine Energy

Sit in a relaxed pose with your feet on the floor and your hands in your lap, palms up. Imagine there is a cord of any
color or thickness going from the base of your spine to the center of the earth. Once you create your cord, it will always
be available to ground you. All you have to do is think about it. Your cord can go through solid objects, even if you are
on the top floor of a tall building or flying in an airplane.

Next, visualize a large ball of sparkling, golden light about a foot above you. Bring this light gently down into the top of
your head. See it moving throughout your body: your throat, heart, solar plexus, and abdomen. Send it down your arms
and legs, and back up. Finally, flush the light down through your grounding cord, taking with it any “dis-ease” or
negativity.

Connecting to Earth Energy

Begin as above, but instead create a cord attached to the bottom of each foot. Visualize earth energy moving gently up
towards you through these cords. Feel it enter your feet and begin to rise up into your body until it has filled you
completely. This energy will feel thick and relaxing. Try this meditation when you feel over-stimulated, stressed, or
have trouble sleeping.

This article is excerpted from Psychic Surgery and Faith Healing: An Exploration of Multi-Dimensional Realities,
Indigenous Healing, and Medical Miracles in the Philippine Lowlands by Jessica Bryan (Red Wheel/Weiser/Conari, 2008).
Jessica is a spiritual medium, energy healer, and freelance book editor. Contact Jessica in Southern Oregon at 541-535-6044 or editor@mind.net. Read her blog at: www.psychicsurgery.wordpress.com.

What do I ache for?

Do I dare to dream of meeting my heart’s longing?

And so on…

The Invitation

by Oriah Mountain Dreamer

It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living.
I want to know what you ache for
and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.

It doesn’t interest me how old you are.
I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool
for love
for your dream
for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon…
I want to know if you have touched the centre of your own sorrow
if you have been opened by life’s betrayals
or have become shrivelled and closed
from fear of further pain.

I want to know if you can sit with pain
mine or your own
without moving to hide it
or fade it
or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy
mine or your own
if you can dance with wildness
and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes
without cautioning us
to be careful
to be realistic
to remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn’t interest me if the story you are telling me
is true.
I want to know if you can
disappoint another
to be true to yourself.
If you can bear the accusation of betrayal
and not betray your own soul.
If you can be faithless
and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see Beauty
even when it is not pretty
every day.
And if you can source your own life
from its presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure
yours and mine
and still stand at the edge of the lake
and shout to the silver of the full moon,
“Yes.”

It doesn’t interest me
to know where you live or how much money you have.
I want to know if you can get up
after the night of grief and despair
weary and bruised to the bone
and do what needs to be done
to feed the children.

It doesn’t interest me who you know
or how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand
in the centre of the fire
with me
and not shrink back.

It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom
you have studied.
I want to know what sustains you
from the inside
when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone
with yourself
and if you truly like the company you keep
in the empty moments.

Life is a spiritual path.  You may have heard people describing how they began their spiritual path, or found a spiritual path, but in reality, they’ve been on that path all along.

You cannot be on any other path except that of spirit, for, as Pierre Teilhard de Chardin noted, “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.”

Who is more spiritual?  A devoted monk or a successful businesswoman?  A member of the clergy or a wilderness teacher?  ”Spiritual” is not something you do, it is something you are.  And we are all spiritual beings, regardless of the occupation in which we work or the belief system we’ve chosen.  We are always on a spiritual path.