spirituality
The Ancient Art Of Smudging
There are many effective ways to purify ourselves of old baggage or toxins in our lives. A great place to start is a very ancient art popular among indigenous peoples known as “smudging.” This refers to the burning of sacred or blessed herbs, or grasses to cleanse yourself and your space.
If you are just beginning try burning sage, one of the most popular and fragrant herbs. As you become more adept, you may want to customize your herbal blend. Bundles may be purchased at an esoteric store, or a Native American or natural market, and burned in a vessel of your choice.
Before you start, make sure there are no fire hazards and open a window or two for ventilation. When you light your sage stick, make sure you are only using the leaves and not the other parts. Continue reading
Prairie Dog Wisdom
In Native American tradition the “prairie dog” brings with it a special message of retreat when it crosses our path. In times of stress and over-exertion it reminds us to take some time out, withdraw from our busy modern lives and recharge our batteries.
This is what the prairie dog does when it gets into trouble. It withdraws into the safe depths of the earth, with several escape routes waiting in case of emergency. The prairie dog teaches us to pick our battles carefully. Prairie dog medicine is also symbolic of the opposite. In times when we have become too withdrawn and disconnected from family, friends and the world around us, this magical animal encourages us to reach out to others and join in social activities. Continue reading
The Divine Disconnect
The separation between man and his Divine origins is the genesis of all religions, cults and belief systems in our world, and it is also the primary driving force behind all science, art and philosophy.
Searching for metaphysical meaning and life purpose is a natural attribute of the human condition. Exploring the existence of God or Divine Consciousness beyond our current reality is an innate yearning we all have. No amount of scientific or technological advancement will ever extinguish this urge from human awareness. Whether we admit it to ourselves, or not, we all feel the need within to bridge our disconnection from the Divine.
We begin to separate from the Divine Self the moment we are born. At birth we have no sense of ‘self’, and we have no awareness of being separate from Spirit or Source, but in time we quickly begin to identify with our new physical environment and with the human Ego or Material Self that we choose to adopt, based on the feedback we receive from others. We gradually also adopt the social role assigned to us by our family, our peers and our community. Continue reading
The Rise Of A New Spirituality
In Beyond the Postmodern Mind, Huston Smith writes that “Rationalism and Newtonian science has lured us into dark woods, but a new metaphysics can rescue us”. Mankind will never give up its quest to find spiritual meaning and purpose in this world. This quest is what has been driving both science and religion for centuries.
The Buddha said, “The teacher appears when the student is ready.” The same principle applies to the human species as a collective. We have been exposed to new esoteric and scientific insights as we evolved – always when the time was right and the world was ready. Prominent religions all over the world were all founded on esoteric guidance and metaphysical wisdom delivered at various times throughout history by great teachers and prophetic messengers. But as time passed and these religions expanded, they were often contaminated by human bureaucracy, superstition, doctrine and dogma, which distorted the original teachings. Continue reading
Finding Your Soul Purpose
Creating a Divine Life is not a selfish act. Until we are able to find some degree of personal joy, inner peace and lasting contentment, we are actually of little use to our fellow man. If we are to be effective as our proverbial “brother’s keeper”, which is essentially the foundation of our Life Calling, we need to first achieve a happier and more meaningful life for ourselves.
To create a Divine Life, it is important to differentiate between your Soul Purpose and Life Calling (also known as your Life Purpose). I prefer to use the term Life Calling, because Life Purpose is often confused with the concept of Soul Purpose. A prevalent misconception is that Soul Purpose and Life Purpose describe the same thing, and therefore the two terms are often interchanged. There is however a very clear difference between the two concepts. Continue reading
The Power of Love Must Prevail
From a very young age I remember questioning why we are here. I would lie in my bed thinking of the concept of ‘forever’ with great concentration and intensity, trying to wrap my young mind around the concept until I would fall asleep.
Forever is a long time. I understand that our energy never dies and in turn we never die, but what is the purpose of life? What are we supposed to do here on planet Earth? Is there a reason why we are here?
Have you heard the analogy of the bicycle wheel? According to this we are all connected like the spokes of the wheel and that all religions that teach love go the center core, namely God or the Divine. We are all part of this magnificent Flame, this Light that is everywhere. It is Spirit that keeps us feeling connected.
I asked my guides early on what my purpose was and to help me rise above my mundane daily thinking, to reach the consciousness within, so that the doors will open and I may see my true life purpose. And my eyes were indeed opened. Continue reading
From Scared to Sacred
We all have our journeys in life to travel, we all have our paths to walk and we all have our very own (we would like to think) demons to slay on our path to ‘enlightenment.’
From scared to sacred is but a tiny maneuver, the tiniest shift in your consciousness, which can allow the true and awesome power of the Sacred and the Divine to cut through the fear of the scared. It is as miniscule a shift as it is to change the spelling of the words themselves.
You may think it is impossible and you may think it is too hard to do, but in reality the easiest thing in this world to let go of is fear. It is all too easy to walk around coming from fear and feeling scared. Most people live their lives that way, as if it were the norm to do so. Well, it is not the norm. Continue reading