enlightenment
My First Lesson In Karma
When we are young and inundated with life, wrapped up in the goings on of early adulthood, we sometimes miss important moments. But fortunately we can sometimes go back and touch on those things with our mind that we didn’t take the time for during those early years.
For example, I was thinking recently about a friend I used to go visit a lot when I was younger. She was from another country and her parents were much older than most who had a 15-year-old child.
We used to have sleepovers. One memory that stands out is waking up at her house one particular morning and looking out her bedroom window. It was late fall and I remember seeing her father sitting on a chair in their backyard, near the edge of the woods. He was playing a musical instrument which was some sort of Native American flute. Continue reading
Awareness – The Path To Enlightenment
We are in a time and community where many speak of enlightenment. This leads to seeking enlightenment or guidance from ‘enlightened masters.’ Yet what does this truly mean?
Enlightened means ‘being in the light.’ It is the space where empaths, lightworkers, intuitives and healers practice and serve, but to become enlightened is something that all can enjoy.
Enlightenment represents attributes of behavior and lifestyle that embodies a high spiritual evolution. Traits of an enlightened person include humility, acceptance, compassion, lack of judgment and selfless service to others. There are so many positive traits in the enlightened individual that we should look up to. Continue reading
A Symbol To Know The Unknowable
This morning, I ran into one of my friends in our little Spanish town, and we decided to grab a coffee and catch up. I was delighted at how she took an interest in my Om/Aum pendant. She commented on how I seemed to treat my pendant as something rather sacred, and with respect – an interesting observation! She loved the flow of the shapes, and asked if the pendant had any specific meaning.
I had to remove the pendant and study it closely to try and remember what I was taught years ago, in order to give her a brief description to the best of my ability. One by one I tried to connect with each swirl in the design and was surprised that I had remembered quite a lot of what my mentor had taught me. It was a long time ago, when we used the Om/Aum chant in our meditation sessions.
With my pendant on the table I began to explain the meaning of the dot at the top of the symbol, and recalled that this related to the silence after chanting Om/Aum. It represents the Enlightened Self, and is known as the transcendental state of Turiya. Continue reading
Spiritual Guidance On Organized Religion
Sitting at a local café, drinking my smoothie, I couldn’t help but overhear a conversation behind me. They were talking loudly and were not really going out of their way to be discreet by any means. The one girl was talking about how her mother had passed. She spoke of chemotherapy and did not want the same ordeal for her friend, who is obviously going through something similar.
She then shared a story of how her aunt called her a few weeks ago and told her about a dream she had. In this dream the aunt was visited by the girl’s departed mother, who told her that if she could do it all over again, she would do two things differently when she was alive. She would not have taken the chemotherapy and she would not have spent so much time in church. Continue reading
Tarot For Divination
The topic of divination covers a broad range of tools and techniques to access the Divine for spiritual guidance and information. Walk into any metaphysical shop or new age bookstore, and you are inundated with a plethora of ways to learn and perform the art of divination.
Tarot decks are one of the most popular divinatory tools today, and come in a variety of decks, ranging from traditional artwork, to angels, cats, Halloween decks, and more. Just about any subject you can think of, there’s sure to be a Tarot deck designed with that theme!
The Tarot tends to rise in popularity during times of great transition here on Earth. If we look back in history, during the Medieval and Renaissance periods, people were drawing upon the wisdom of the Tarot for help and guidance during times of confusion, fear, and uncertainty. The earliest decks found in Milan Italy and France date back to the 15th Century and are in now kept safely in museums in Italy. Continue reading
Clutter Bust Your Life
Choosing what you allow and keep in your life gives you a sense of having control of your happiness and your future. If you are hoarder, or living a cluttered existence with too many material possessions, know that it is limiting your spiritual growth and personal fulfillment. The path to enlightenment is not paved with stuff… and more stuff. Maybe it’s time to rid yourself of those things that no longer serve a purpose in your life?
Releasing clutter is a mental thing. Millions of people worldwide suffer from what professional organizers and psychologists call ‘hoarding.’ Most people that have this problem don’t recognize this pattern in themselves, until their lifestyle is really out of control. Clean out all your closets in your home and in your mind. Continue reading
The Spiritual Symbolism Of Labyrinths And Mazes
As a child I always enjoyed visiting the English Tudor homes open to the public, particularly Hampton Court, which had a maze to run into, hide in the hedgerow, get to the centre and then find my way back out. Hearing the cackle and playful squealing of other children, even bumping into others as I turned a corner, and encountering many dead ends en-route to the centre, made for a thrilling experience.
I also remember at the circus being in a maze of the hall of mirrors and trying to find my way through so many weird reflections of myself. Frustration would rise up inside of me as joy turned to brief concern or panic. Later I moved to solving mazes in the puzzle books.
There is a distinct difference between a maze and a labyrinth. Mazes are often thought to have, in earnest been established circa 13th century, with one of the most famous being Hampton Court in England. Yet, in fact, maze-like structures were found under buildings from the Roman Empire days, and even used around castles in Medieval Europe to confuse the enemy. So, mazes demonstrated or represented a challenge, it creates the potential for confusion through its many changes in direction and dead ends, forcing one to retrace ones steps. Continue reading