by Ginger | Sep 25, 2016 | Blog
Have you noticed how much things have been changing in our outer world, shifting quickly and often unexpectedly? We can see it in our elections; one candidate is ahead in this poll and the next week something is said or revealed and the other candidate is ahead in another poll. There are unexpected twists and turns all around us in financial markets, global politics, etc. How do we, as spiritual beings, navigate all of this transition?
Many spiritual teachers have used the example of the ocean to describe our consciousness. At the surface, there can potentially be a lot of turmoil with waves crashing and water spray flinging out in every direction. But the deeper you go, the calmer the water until resting at the ocean floor it is quiet and still. We are learning, each in our own way, to hold that consciousness of the calm ocean floor even as the waves do their powerful dance in the outer, visible world.
As events around the world seem to heat up and become more contentious, keep your eye on the prize of what you know to be true within. Make a commitment to yourself to continue to see the ocean calm even as you are looking out at a stormy sea. Some days, you may need to remind yourself of this truth every few moments. Some days, it will be easy and smooth sailing. But it will take your focus and determination until the experience is as natural as breathing.
Many New Age books talk about spiritual warriors. The word “warrior” has many third dimensional connotations, but a warrior in the spiritual sense is simply someone who is fully in touch with his inner power. The warrior has the perseverance to hold the vision of Divine Truth regardless of the chaos playing out in the physical world. She will follow through and act on that Divine Truth no matter what.
The spiritual warrior is an inner warrior. There are no flashy action sequences of battle. The training regimen of the spiritual warrior is the quiet, consistent practice of holding the consciousness of our divine reality even as the illusion that we see appears to tell us differently. It is time to answer the call, to come together in our hearts and be the spiritual warriors we came to be.
by Ginger | Aug 31, 2016 | Blog
“I’m sure that’s what I saw!” “I remember exactly what happened.” “I’m 100% positive that’s what it looked like.”
Have those words, or something like them, ever passed your lips? The brain is an amazing organ capable of storing awe-inspiring amounts of raw data. But the mind, the part of ourselves which shapes and puts together that data into our understanding of the world, is just as amazing and is influenced by many factors including our past experiences, our emotions, our beliefs and our expectations. Memories that we are sure are crystal clear facts in our minds are often shaped and molded by our changing perceptions. So, how do we know what is true?
On a recent visit with family, we were all working on an image puzzle made of two very complex photos which were almost identical, but not quite. The object was to identify the tiny differences between the two. After we each wrote down our findings, we compared notes and I discovered I had missed one of the more obvious changes that were made. Looking at it, I was unbelieving that I had missed it. I clearly remembered thinking that it was an easy place to make a change so I had carefully scanned all the objects in that area. But there was indeed one item missing in that section of one photo. How could I have missed it when I had already suspected something and was on the lookout?
There is a basic human truth that we don’t see what we’re not ready to see. It’s not a matter of intelligence or eyesight, but simply of perception. It’s said that you can interview 10 eyewitnesses to an event and receive 10 different versions. It’s not that everyone literally saw different actions played out, but that each interpreted those actions differently. And even when we are looking directly at something, we sometimes don’t see it or see it differently because the mind is expecting or desiring something else and subtly fills in the blanks. The mind helps us reinforce our own version of reality.
So, how do we know what is true? From our own God-selves, our Souls. Divine Truth is a much higher frequency than anything we can perceive through our physical senses. Divine Truth is not about third-dimensional facts, but about the inner wisdom in our hearts. Divine Truth is always about the highest good of all, rather than just what we personally want to be true.
As our world changes more rapidly every day, it can feel over-whelming and challenging to pick out the truth from all of the information streamed to us. When we go to our own Souls for Divine Truth, we can trust that it is not based on our limited human perceptions but from the greater perspective of the God/Goddess. Divine Truth is universal truth.
by Lori | Aug 19, 2016 | Blog
A few years ago, I went on my first “silent retreat” over a three day weekend. The goal was to not speak, read, listen to radio or music nor watch TV. We were in retreat at Benet Hill Monastery near Colorado Springs, Colorado. Everything we needed was within walking distance and we were on a meal plan provided by the Sisters. This helped to keep the outside stimuli and the need to “think” to a minimum. The goal was to just BE.
Before I went, I was telling one of my long-time friends about it on a phone call. Before he could say anything, I said, “Are you laughing?” He said, “from deep in my belly!” Then, a person who I just met said, “but you are so outgoing and gregarious.” This just made me laugh. I know that I have neither the inclination nor is it my path to take a vow of silence at this particular time in this particular life. But, I would like to share with you what I experienced in my 60 hours of silence.
We used a guided meditation to set the tone for the 60 hours. This meditation, channeled and narrated by Marsha Hankins, helped us connect to the larger parts of ourselves, to mother earth and the cosmos. By leaving this meditation in silence and not breaking it with any other outside stimuli was quite powerful. I could focus on experiencing the feeling of being connected and being one with everything around me in the physical world. I could also experience being connected and being one with everything in the metaphysical world. Experiencing the metaphysical world through the sensations and the sense of knowingness that is lost in the overload of the 5 human senses. This was staggeringly profound, and I was only 1 hour into the silence.
I am not sure I ever mastered the “monkey mind” which is part of the goal of being in silence. The idea is to be in the silence long enough that you don’t feel the need to entertain yourself even in your own thoughts. Instead, you simply allow yourself to experience the “now”. I found myself still discussing scenarios with myself. Discussing conversations that I had in the past and why they were appropriate or how I could have handled them better. Or discussing different ways I could say things that I knew I was going to need to say when I was “back in the real world”. These discussions are all “judgment based.” I realized I was judging myself for things I did in the past or judging “what if I don’t get it correct” in the future. A whole lot of judging going on!
Finally, what I found the most surprising was the simple yet acute joy that I found when I was walking around the monastery grounds. It was a rainy weekend and it was cool at the altitude of 6000 feet. Never being cold but enjoying the coolness was a slice of heaven. Walking the Labyrinth at least twice a day and reminding myself of the innocence and breathtaking aspects of our shared reality that can include peace and relaxation if we allow it. I found myself trying to determine how I would be able to add in some of the aspects of the silence into my everyday life even as the 24-hour news cycle and access to the internet tempt me to fill every moment of every day with someone else’s thoughts and someone else’s experiences. I am setting my intention to claim a little bit of every day for the silence in nature, the silence in the cosmos and the silence within me. This will surely be how and when I find the God/Goddess Within.
by Ginger | Aug 4, 2016 | Blog
In the building where I work, there are many individual small businesses renting office space along with a social club. Recently, for various reasons, the building tenants were offered free membership to the club. My first reaction was that I couldn’t possibly take full advantage of the membership because I wouldn’t be a “real” member. The moment I had that thought, my Soul came in loud and clear to remind me that it didn’t matter how I had become a member but that I had the opportunity to enjoy the perks of this gift or not and it would be entirely my own choice if I rejected it. In other words, “It doesn’t matter how you got here, you’re invited!”
I know how this works: when your Soul has something to say, it is wise to listen. I sat down for some further meditation on this lesson, and I saw that this membership was a metaphor. What had seemed like an elite club actually had open doors. This club that I was cutting myself off from is the Divine club; my connection with the Christ, the Spiritual Hierarchy and with my Soul. I had been allowing myself to peak through the windows, but not to be welcomed in full membership. In this divine club, everyone is already a member because we are all Divine, but we must know it for ourselves. No one else is barring the door except us. So, come on in and pick up your goody bag. We have Love, Joy, Abundance, Companionship, Peace, Creativity, Community and so much more opportunity for spiritual riches than your wildest dreams. This is your birthright.
In the end, our journey in this grand illusion is just a story we told ourselves for a very long time. It doesn’t matter how we get to the end of our story. We’re all very creative, and we each chose different twists and turns in our plotlines. But eventually we all get to that same point in the story that says “The End.” And eventually we are all coming Home to the God/Goddess once we’re done telling our story. Everyone is welcomed here. There is no secret password, no special handshake and no membership card. We have always been members at Club Divine, and it’s time to enjoy the privileges.
by Lori | Aug 1, 2016 | Blog
Growing up Catholic in the middle section of the United States, I believed that God was male. I was raised to believe in equality of female and male humans, but God was referred to as a male. Being Catholic, we did venerate Mother Mary and other female saints, but their goodness and power came from their personal conviction, service to God, and willing obedience to God’s will. These beliefs served me well until they didn’t.
It wasn’t until I was exploring options outside of the Western traditional religions that I realized that God / Source / The All That Is is both male and female. God – indeed the Universe / Source – is made up of both divine masculine and divine feminine energies and I needed to find the truth in this both intellectually and experientially.
Eminent Reiki™ helped me integrate that Source is both masculine and feminine. Eminent Reiki™ is a healing modality that allows us to tap into the energy of the universe and then channel it for the good of ourselves, others, and all of Mother Earth and her kingdoms. We are taught from the very first class that this universal energy is both masculine and feminine and is balanced and in harmony within itself. One of the goals of Eminent Reiki™ is to balance the masculine and feminine energy within ourselves.
To understand the balance of masculine and feminine energies, take the example of a pendulum swinging from side to side. The balance point in the middle is when masculine and feminine energy is perfectly balanced and in harmony. If the pendulum is on the right side, there is too much masculine energy. If the pendulum is stuck on the left, there is too much feminine energy. The goal is the perfect balance between the two. This balance allows us to feel in harmony with the intuition and wisdom we tap into (feminine energy) as we take the action steps (masculine energy) we are guided to take. Taking action steps that are not well guided or without the wisdom behind them, might mean that we are looking productive but we are not actually accomplishing the goal, because they are the wrong action steps or are harder than they need to be. On the other hand, sitting back and waiting for the absolute perfect information before taking the action step might mean we miss learning what we need to learn in order to move forward. Potentially, too much masculine energy could be viewed like that old saying: we are lost but we are making good time. Too much feminine energy might be viewed as being too scared to make a wrong move that we don’t move forward at all. Both of these scenarios are out of balance.
In Eminent Reiki™, we specifically try to balance all of our physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual systems to be in harmony between the divine masculine energy and the divine feminine energy. We ask to balance the feminine energy in our light channel and the masculine energy in our light channel. We seek to have these energies in balance to the point that they are blended and there is the power, strength, and wellbeing in that combined energy. There is evolution in the combined energy.
Some people may not think it necessary to distinguish or intentionally bringing in feminine as well as masculine energies. They might ask if we are bringing in and feeling the energy of Source, why is it necessary to specifically ask to bring in divine feminine and divine masculine energy. These people may have a point if they are holding the highest intention that Source is truly made up of many aspects and they are integrating all those different aspects as they refer to and experience the overall energy of Source. However, most people are not experiencing the oneness of these divine aspects that way, yet. Most of us have false beliefs that keep us in either too much masculine energy or too much feminine energy. Our pendulum swings out of balance to one side or the other where we experience life too passively or too actively and in reaction to the belief systems that may no longer serve us well.
If most of us were balanced between our masculine and feminine energies, we would have less strife in our personal lives and in the world as a whole. The energy of Oneness and Source, when balanced with all the different aspects of Source rolling up into it, would manifest in the physical, emotional and mental world much differently than most are currently experiencing life on Earth. Asking to fill with and balance divine masculine and divine feminine energies is the next step to then feeling the oneness of the combined energy.
For me, recognizing that there was more than just a masculine God, then moving to want to feel the energy of the divine feminine with the divine masculine, and then feeling them as One / Source / All That Is is the progression of evolution that is working for me. I encourage you to start to feel this, too. The ultimate goal is to feel this energy as the Oneness that it truly is, but most of us need to take this realization step by step just as we do in most other areas of our lives. We walk before we run. We babble before we speak. Thus, ask to fill with and allow yourself to feel divine feminine and divine masculine energy balanced within.
If you would like more information on Eminent Reiki™ please follow this link www.eminentreiki.com or leave a message below. Namaste.
by Guest Blogger | Jul 11, 2016 | Blog
Marsha Hankins, Guest Blogger, writes:
Hi Everyone!
I don’t know whether to call this a sneak preview or a spoiler alert. Maybe it is simply a head start.
I just finished my August article for Sibyl magazine, and Spirit and I felt this topic is too important to let you wait another month. How well do you receive gratitude? Do you just give, or are you also willing to receive?
This is actually a very big question. Sometimes, in an effort to remain humble, we neglect to recognize that we do deserve a round of gratitude.
This does not make us arrogant or self-centered. It makes us masterful.
We need a balance of giving and receiving in every area of divinity to be fully in our light.
Gratitude for self is also an important aspect of self-love. Feelings of unworthiness or undeservingness not only block our ability to receive gratitude, they block our ability to love ourselves.
This is obviously important in our 3-D world because the people around us are mirrors of ourselves. Our ability to graciously accept a compliment or a thank-you is an indication of our levels of self-love and self-esteem.
But, receiving gratitude is absolutely critical in our relationship with the God/Goddess.
The issue of receiving gratitude from the God/Goddess first came up for me several years ago. I have been consciously paying attention to my willingness to receive, but we all know that lessons are repeated until learned. We also know that the higher in frequency we go, the more subtle the lessons.
A few weeks ago I finished a “spiritual” project that I was guided to do and sent out my thank you letters to everyone who had helped. My attention kept coming back to the thank you letters. It took a few minutes for me to realize that I was not allowing the experience of receiving gratitude. The God/Goddess were trying to give me a big thank you and I was ignoring Them. Shame on me.
You each have a spiritual practice that you follow. In your next meditation, in your own way, ask to receive gratitude from the God/Goddess (or Spirit or Source) for who you are and all you have done. Truly allow yourself to surrender to receiving the love and joy of Their praise. Be masterful. Be the pure love and pure joy of receiving Divine Gratitude. Be the God/Goddess that you are.
You will get a refresher on receiving gratitude when the article comes out next month. Until then, practice!
With Love and Gratitude,
I AM
Marsha
Find more wisdom from Marsha at http://theendofduality.com/end-of-duality-blog/
