Calling Our Spirits Home: Gateways to Full Consciousness
Chapter Six
Bootcamp for the Soul
Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I’ll meet you there.
⏤Rumi
We had a destination, but we did not know where it was. It was early in the morning and the desert air was still a little crisp. There were about twenty-five of us milling around outside our quarters. Some of us were making scattered small talk. Some of us were silent. Whatever action or non-action we chose to take, we were waiting. Mystery being part of the process, we were expectant for what would come.
At last, a stocky round-faced man with brown skin and shiny, straight black hair walked into our midst. He was known as a kahuna.° As we looked askance at him, he said, “Find a partner.” People’s heads started turning to see who was standing next to them or seeking out their friends. Actually, we were all friends or at least fellow Pilgrims in this group, having been through some tremendously bonding experiences together in the last number of days. But old habits die hard and some of us were looking for those people most familiar to us. I looked over my shoulder to see a tall shy kid, a child in a man’s body, of whom I had grown fond. I think we both probably looked grateful that the other one was there, finding partners not being our favorite thing to do. With mutually nodded assent, Peter and I stood side by side ready to face our unknown journey.
Our kahuna guide informed us that we would be walking some distance. He suggested the terrain may be unfamiliar. “Just allow that to be,” he said. Our task was to be aware of what emerged in our experience. With that framework, he told us that we would assist each other on this journey. One partner would close their eyes while the other would lead. We were to maintain silence. Then when our guide indicated, the roles would be reversed.
Peter and I looked at each other and shrugged our shoulders. As Peter gestured that he would close his eyes first, I wondered how effectively I would assume his sight for him⏤enough in order to send the signals to his brain that would direct his anatomy to the route I wanted him to go. I had never done this before.
We took our position about midway in a long snaking line with the kahuna at the head. A staff in hand, he motioned us to follow. Peter closed his eyes. I put my arm to the inside of Peter’s bent arm, slid my hand into his and drew his arm in so that it rested next to my body. What I had not counted on was our difference in height. There came the question of stride. Should I try to match his long legs or constrict him to my shorter ones? How would I signal any deviations in course? The immediate terrain was level, but ahead it got uneven with hills and sand that would shift underfoot. There were many obstacles in our path⏤holes in the earth, rocks of varied sizes, Joshua trees and other cacti. Who knew what else we would encounter? How would we circumnavigate them without one of us falling? My mind whirred in its chatter of possible dangers ahead. Then our line of Pilgrims began to move.
My mind prattle fell away as I settled into being in the experience. Urging Peter forward with a slight pressure of my arm on his, we first walked with a halting tentativeness while we got used to being hooked together in this way. But quickly we were able to fall into a somewhat smooth synchronous movement, altering the width of our individual strides to something comfortable for us both. I found that Peter became dear to me. I was entrusted with a very precious being. Guiding him by the subtle and not-so-subtle gear shifting of his arm, I endeavored to make this trip pleasantly safe and uneventful for him.
The terrain was changing. It had been simple to meander around the cacti and even slowly down a slight incline, but ahead there was a large rise. Even though I was sighted it would be a challenge, more so with a sightless sidekick. I signaled a stop to give me time to survey the immediate landscape and how others were coping. Our line scattered as one after the other of the pairings tackled the rise in their own ways. Some were definitely more successful than others. The sighted half of one pair elected to leave the non-sighted one behind in order to climb the incline first. He then proceeded to pull his partner up by her hand disregarding the frantic slipping of her feet and thrashing of her free arm. I put myself in her place and imagined the confusion and maybe slight terror she felt in response to what was happening. Here and there were muffled shrieks and occasional laughter. Some people just gave up and pairs clambered up, both with open eyes. My gaze settled on one particular pair, I had to stop myself from laughing out loud. One participant had decided the best way to get her partner up was to push from behind. She had gotten her partner to the start of the rise, put herself in a lowered stance, placed both hands on her partner’s buttocks and was pushing for all she was worth. It reminded me of an image from some cartoon or slapstick movie where someone attempted to get a stubborn mule to move.
Seeing that we were close to being left behind, I studied the rise and found what could pass for steps, or at least footholds that were mostly wide enough for both of us. Hearing all the noise around him, Peter must have wondered what was going on, but he had waited patiently until I was ready. I wanted to tell him that this was going to be tricky going, but kept to the “silence” rules of the game. Motioning him forward and up with his trusty gearshift of an arm, we climbed in fits and starts. Finally reaching the top, I felt somewhat exhilarated with the achievement and saw the others silently watching and nonverbally celebrating everyone’s climb with smiles.
It was time to change roles. As I shut my eyes, I felt relieved of responsibility, but in crept a sense of vulnerability. I had looked ahead and seen the topography getting rougher. Would Peter hold me as precious in his care as I had held him in mine? Could I trust him to keep me safe? Or would he be cavalier in his handling of me? We started moving forward in the same mode as before. Only this time, he had drawn my arm next to his body. We were rarely moving in a straight line now and he was coaxing me up and down gradients. Even though Peter was doing his job well, I was getting nervous and could not overcome my desire to peek through my lashes periodically. We came to a point where he signaled me to stop. We had been standing there for a while when he started sending me signals that were new. I didn’t understand. He kept signaling over and over. Finally I decided he was telling me we were at our destination and to be seated. So, I did. I quickly realized that I was now seated with my feet dangling over the edge of something, and my eyes sprung open. He was standing over me giving me a perplexed expression as if to say, “Why did you go and do that?” We were at the edge of a wash. He helped me up, and feeling safer for my clear look at the environment, led me up the other side where others were gathered waiting for the stragglers. We rested a minute or so and then formed a line behind our guide once more. He swung his staff forward. I closed my eyes, and we began to move. We had been walking for a short while when I noticed the going seemed much bumpier, different than before. I stumbled a couple of times. Suddenly, a loud internal voice warned me of disaster. My eyes popped open just in time for us to avoid running smack into a knee-high cactus with menacing needles. I winced at the look of it. Turning to Peter, I realized we had somehow gotten confused. He had had his eyes closed, too. We were the blind leading the blind. I poked him, and we laughed.
Levels of Learning
With the last few chapters we have been dwelling on the Hermit’s path of the Tarot.[1] You have been offered stories and discourse that delve into dark places. Darkness is not meant as a sojourn into fear, but to bring in the light. Indeed, the Hermit is typically portrayed as a wise old man clothed in monk’s robes raising a lantern in one hand while carrying a staff in the other. A serpent is wound around his staff. He is on the right side heading toward the left.[2] The right being the everyday world and what is considered normal, while in most cultures the left is considered sinister and untrustworthy. The left side is only ominous when it has not been made familiar. The Hermit is a seer of the interior realms⏤the wisdom of the unconscious and higher consciousness. The left side is where he goes to activate his powers. His role is duly reflected as the ninth card of the Major Arcana, the number nine in numerology being expressive of inspiration.[i] It is through the vision quest we become divinely inspired as great Masters have shown us.
In the landscape of the soul there is a desert, a wilderness, an emptiness, and all great singers must cross this desert to reach the beginning of their road. Jesus. Buddha. Moses. Mohammed. All wandered through the wasteland, speaking to demons, speaking to empty air, listening to the wind, before finding their dove, their bo tree, their stone tablets, before finding their true voice. I have hope for you exactly because you have entered this desert, following in the footsteps of those few who have been true teachers.[ii]
⏤Ray Faraday Nelson
Having gone into the wilderness of the Self to find our true nature, we emerge. Hovering at the edge of the forest, we stand poised to move toward a precipice, much like the Fool of the Major Arcana. We can consider the Fool in the Gnostic image of the newly born or reborn. The Innocent is pictured moving from the left side back to the right toward a deeper travail and initiation of which he is yet unaware.[iii] The Fool’s number is zero in the Tarot deck and has a very important message for the Hermit. In numerology, zero is a challenge to the Hermit’s nine. It says the initiation we are facing now is about our responsibility to our individual Selves and reflecting our Selves back into the world.[iv]
The Trust Fall
Trust is a funny thing. We have it completely when we come into this life. How it remains open, becomes shadowed or blocked is the basis of our own personal journeys. For most of us, trust is often a variable. What and who we trust, and how quickly, may change depending on which direction we face at any given moment. This institutes a layering or strata effect.
The first question we face is: how much of myself am I willing to see? There are strata of behaviors that either reinforce our core Being or disguise it. In order to go into the interior worlds, we must give credence to our own wholeness. Otherwise, we could avoid going there due to addictions, distractions, or barriers held in place by the ego.
In answering the challenge, the Hermit calls in his numerological partner eleven, symbolized in the Tarot deck as Strength, the Eternal Feminine and the Goddess Earth.[v][3] She leads a lion and places her hand in its mouth. She is reinforced by the master number eleven whose elements are mysticism and service.[vi] After the involution, the newborn Fool emerges ready to move into the world. But then he has faint memories of days long gone when he was Innocence personified and stoned for it.
Brad had been on a journey into his own darkness. He took this journey surrounded by fellow travelers he loved and who loved him, creating a sense of safety. On his move back in time and into himself, he encountered his demons. When he looked them squarely in the eye and saw all their aspects, he realized they did not belong to him, but to the Past. Indeed, he discovered many of those demons were not really his at all, but he had embodied as his own. Perhaps he had taken something on for a loved one or just inadvertently picked them up from his environment. The more he removed what no longer or had never belonged to him, the freer he felt.
Brad stepped blithely out of the darkness into the light of the world, and he continued to shine⏤for four days. Then, small unsettling thoughts started sifting in, until finally they came fast and furiously. Memories of the Past warned he was unprotected, and therefore in danger. He would be slaughtered. Anyway, who did he think he was to be Love when he wasn’t loving or worthy at all? He suddenly ‘saw’ himself for what had gone before. He began to act out accordingly⏤exponentially. The memories were like a spewing volcano covering all in their path with molten lava, including Brad, until finally those around him said, “That’s enough. Stop!” They encouraged him to don the Hermit’s robes once again. He took Strength by her hand and entered the cave, going even deeper this time. When he re-emerged he not only had merged once again with Purity, but was also made strong by higher knowledge. He was a ray of light. He could never be divided from higher consciousness. There could be no separation. He is finding that even in nakedness, he is well clothed. He is getting used to his new vestments, which are actually age-old.
In stepping out into the world, we may feel vulnerable. We only show ourselves on some superficial level. When someone asks us who we are, we identify ourselves as an architect, schoolteacher or steel worker when that is just the surface structure. Those are roles, what we do. In the deep structure of our make-up, there is much more that speaks of who we are. Yet, many of us are afraid to own our Selves.
Living in the Echo
People have their own tolerance levels for being alone or with others. If we are continually with others, then it may be that we are afraid to be solo. If we are always alone, we may be leery of the reflection that others bring. Either way, there is soul work to be done. Going into our interior worlds allows much clarity and is necessary to build a well-formed foundation for our Selves. An age-old tenet sometimes attributed to Socrates says, “Know thyself.” But over-dalliance in the interior world is a coward’s role. We can stay within ourselves, but it strikes a hollow sound, becomes a self-indulgence, and our gifts are not received by the world. Joseph Campbell told us that life is in the echo. Nothing could be more true. It is in the richness of relationship to others that we discover our greatest endowments, strengths, frailties and real humanity. There’s the koan,[4] what is the sound of one hand clapping? Or, if a tree falls and there is no one to hear it, is there sound?
Campbell likened the road of awakening as the Hero’s Journey. The Hero hears the signal and accepts the Call, moving beyond his boundaries to receive initiation. But the Hero cannot rest on his laurels. To do so refutes the journey. There are levels of initiation. The question to every Initiate is: how deep are you willing to go? What are the barriers you bump up against? Is it the interior wall or the exterior wall? Whatever the membrane, it is the messy tearing business of birth that delivers us into a new life.[vii] The Hermit has been on the quest toward authenticity. Now it is the Fool’s journey to bring authenticity home to the places we travel in the world.
Those people we attract into our lives come for a reason. It is mutual. They are there to enhance the gifts that each of us bring. Others are there to call upon our willingness or strength to move through what binds us, even when that does not seem to be the case. We are all catalysts for each other in one way or another. Once while flying cross country, staring through the plane’s window mesmerized by space and timelessness, these words found their way into my mind.
If You are Divinity manifested, then You were sent to complement Me and guide Me to awareness of those places within Myself that I need to fully own or heal in order to be more of who I am in My Divinity manifested.
It is in the challenge and learning to understand the roles we play for each other that we become wiser. Katrina was having lunch in a quiet place with a new friend. The two women had been talking of their interests and life’s work when the friend said to Katrina, “Your energy is so clean.” Katrina looked at her intently. She felt right with the world.
Later that day, she looked back on the lunch with pleasure recalling the conversation and the resulting feelings. But then the thought came of another relationship⏤the one with Barbara. Katrina became confused. When she studied that relationship, immediate heaviness descended. She could sense twisting in her solar plexus and sacral chakra regions. Static energy surrounded her thoughts. She didn’t feel clean at all. As a matter of fact, she felt gooped up and contracted. “How is this possible? How can I be both energetically pristine and free…yet, constricted and ugly? Something is wrong with this picture!”
Noting the obvious incongruence, she thought about her involvement with Barbara. When they met a couple of years ago, they hit it off almost immediately. They came together frequently with much enthusiasm for their friendship and plans for creative projects. Katrina asked herself, “When did our relationship begin to shift?” She realized it occurred when Barbara began to talk about, what she considered, a great opportunity. She wanted Katrina to get involved with a company with whom she was aligned. This firm did very similar work to Katrina’s. The work had to do with facilitating efficiency in corporate environments. But Katrina was not interested. Over some months, the “opportunity” found its way again and again into conversations between them, with Barbara’s passionate promises of great things in the future. Katrina listened but had a nagging feeling of discomfort. Then due to a change in her circumstances, she cautiously explored involvement. Finally, after many assurances from Barbara of concrete things in the wind and just over the rise, Katrina agreed. She retained the nagging feeling, but made the commitment consisting of risky investments of time, money and dissolving her own company.
Shortly after her commitment, the two of them were sitting in Barbara’s kitchen indulging in idle chat. Out of nowhere a voice sounded in Katrina’s head, “Beware that this is not one thing presented as another!” At the time, she thought it had to do with the person they were discussing. But later she wondered if it had not been a warning meant for her about this new commitment and Barbara herself. Sure enough, things immediately started to fall apart. The promises over the rise failed to materialize. Katrina felt tricked. Chaos, little communication, miscommunication and incomplete guidance flourished within a company professing to teach others how to become peak performers in the corporate world.
Katrina kept her focus on the work itself and her ideals, but found in fact and felt in truth, she was getting nowhere. This was an entirely new experience for her. In fact, she had been called a magician many times, being asked by others how she was able to manifest what she wanted in life. She laid her frustrations and suggestions about the workings of the company before Barbara, who had stepped into a leadership role. Barbara turned a deaf ear when their conversations had anything to do with the company that was less than optimal, which was mostly the case. Barbara completely believed in her mission. She wrapped herself up so entirely with the company that there was no separation. To say anything other than positive was not welcomed by her. Strangely, Katrina found that some of her suggestions were later acted on, even though her input was largely ignored or shut down when she gave it. Katrina admitted to herself that she was often angry when she gave her input. She did not like the role of the critic, it being unfamiliar one to her. The dreamers of the world little appreciate it. She understood this because she was usually in the role of the dreamer, but had a touch of the realist in her, too.
There were no more idle chat times between Katrina and Barbara. The relationship was strained and uncomfortable for both. During one final conversation, Barbara told Katrina that the owners of the company professed, “If you are not doing well in attracting clients, then it’s because you haven’t embodied the teachings!” Katrina bit her tongue, but said to herself, “Wait a minute, these teachings are no different from what I’ve believed and lived all along…how I have done quite well in my own business until now.” She knew the owners were projecting, merely a reflection back to themselves about the trouble they were experiencing. She also knew she held some responsibility in what was happening. She just puzzled about what it could possibly be.
Katrina asked higher consciousness for the awareness to come. Suddenly, she realized that Barbara was in her life to serve as a teacher to her, casting back to her what she most needed to embody. It seemed to Katrina they came together to serve each other. They had involved each other, apart from the company work, in a creative project that both needed to do but probably would not previously have done alone. Katrina now knew what was behind her discomfort these many months. From this new perspective, she could also see that Barbara was teaching Katrina how to pay attention to her own intuition. When she allowed herself to get caught up in Barbara’s aspirations, negating her own sense of the situation, she had stepped out of her own rhythm. So Barbara had been correct in her assessment. Katrina had not fully embodied and trusted a very important teaching, that of her own intuition. Much of the acrimony she had been experiencing was toward herself. Understanding, she felt tremendous relief. She could thank Barbara and let go of any further animosity between them. Since most things are rarely one-sided, Katrina also knew she likely acted as a mirror for Barbara in some way. While she could guess, it no longer mattered to her. She felt clean once again.
When conflict arises in a relationship, it is often one of the most difficult things to handle. It may be challenging enough in an intimate long-term relationship. It can be even more trying in a casual friendship or professional association. We may not have history or love as the springboard through our tribulations.
In the movie Out of Africa, Baroness Karen Blixen is shuttling a load of supplies across the grasslands of Africa to Lord Delamere’s men who are camped out waiting for the Germans. One night as she is in her tent getting ready to turn in for the night, she hears a lion attacking one of her oxen. She runs out into the night grabbing only a whip, races across the camp to the place where the lion is tearing at the throat of the ox and begins viciously cracking her whip at the lion with no regard for her own safety. The lion roars his anger, but that does not faze her even as she is assaulted by intervening thorn bushes. Finally, her fury more than he could stand, the lion turns and retreats as the ox rolls its eyes and dies.
Later, her manservant Farah is picking out thorns from her body and administering first aid. He says with simple wisdom that she, the lion, nor the wagon now have the ox, and how it is essentially God playing a joke on all concerned.
If all parties hold to their positions, the ox is sacrificed for no reason. When we get caught up in the game of conflict, we may say it is about principle or the other one is at fault. But often egos just get in the way. In Chinese, the word conflict is made of two written characters, ‘crisis’ and ‘opportunity.’ It’s amazing what can happen when we muster the courage to lead each other through these thorny passages toward resolution.
The Travail of the Fool
There are those who are readily able to express their feelings. But then chastise themselves for being emotionally naked, or hold them inside and put on a front. Thus come fears of inappropriateness or retribution from others.
Peace of mind has been one of my highest criteria for as long as I can remember. I came to realize that for many years what I had taken as peace was really a state of flatness. There was little emotion. I found neither much pain nor pleasure. But my mind was quick. I could synthesize brilliantly, although when I was rewarded for such things it meant little to me. Somehow, I finally realized there must be more in life that I had not yet experienced.
Shortly after that realization, I went to Peru. I knew it would be a spiritual pilgrimage for me. I set my intent to experience a full range of emotions. A warning: be careful what you ask for because you will surely get it. Or as Joseph Campbell much more eloquently put it: You have only to take one step toward the gods and they will take ten steps toward you.[viii]
The experiences newly available to me in Peru ranged from mystical exaltation…to tearful joy at the beauty of a flower…to real anger directed toward a fellow traveler. I am happy to say that all of these human experiences have been at my disposal since that time. Not only is my life much fuller, but as a result I am much more in touch with what is going on within my own body/mind/spirit system. It is in relationship to others that our emotions are most often exercised⏤others being anyone or thing outside ourselves. Sufi mystic Hazrat Inayat Khan relayed how all parts of us need be seen and experienced.
It is ‘thinking’ which is developed today, but what is needed now is the battery which stands behind thought, and that is feeling. It is a great fault today that the sentimental side is kept apart, which is the most important side. It is like wanting a person to come, not with his life but as a corpse; as if in order to educate a person the life should be taken out of him, and he should be turned from a living person into a dead one . . . And after feeling comes seeing, that seeing which is referred to in the word ‘seer’.[ix]
We may stifle our feelings and think we are keeping them under wraps. When we are afraid to bare our naked emotions or thoughts and slap on some kind of armoring, they still come leaking through in the form of voice tonality, gesture or energy. They reach out to others and tell of distrust or uneasiness with either ourselves or them. How would it be to voice a fear if it exists?
Once I was sitting in the airport waiting for a flight, indulging in one of my great pleasures⏤people watching. I noticed an elderly couple, whom I presumed were married, sitting across from me. They both had earphones on, connecting them to their separate portable radios. Suddenly, the husband exploded in a foreign tongue, making expansive gestures, addressing his wife. She looked at him, pointed to her headset and with a grunt indicated that she couldn’t hear him. More and more loudly, they carried on a conversation, their earphones still intact on their ears. While I found their activity amusing, it also serves as a prevalent metaphor for how we use smoke screens, diversions and choose not to openly share ourselves with each other.
Being clearly and respectfully heard is a basic human need. It is in offering our undivided attention to the other that love and consideration can be plainly broadcast. When we cut each other off and ‘overlap’ in conversation, as linguists like to term it, we invalidate the other person. In India, dancers use colored powders and leave patterns where their feet have gone. A similarity exists for the communications we have. They leave evidence. We can think of dialogue as a sacred tool. Every time we speak congruently or incongruently, sit in respectful silence or not, we broadcast to the world the progress of our individual journeys and any needed learnings.
Temperance in All Things
The Fool may also endure another test, that of Temperance.[5] With the Hermit’s time in the interior realms, miracles may have occurred. The Fool, re-entering ordinary reality, can hardly contain himself. He has the overwhelming desire to tell everyone he meets so that they, too, can experience wisdom or enlightenment. The intention may be positive. But, if he gives into this need, it could be considered proselytizing, an intrusion to many. Rather than sharing joy, he would find people shying away from his zealous behavior.
Talk not to all about things sublime and essential. Seek the level of him with whom you speak so as not to humble or distress him. Be frivolous, too, when you are with the frivolous. But, once in a while, as if unsought, drop into their cup, on the foam of frivolity, a very small petal from one of the flowers of your soul. If it is not noticed, recover it, cautiously and, always smiling, go your way. If, however, someone picks up the frail small petal, examines it, and inhales its fragrance, give him, forthwith, and carefully, a sign of discreet understanding. Then let him behold one, or a few, of the marvelous flowers in your garden. Tell him of the invisible divinity that surrounds us all and give him the magic word, the open door to true freedom.
⏤Amado Nervo
In this way, we can be sure of our welcome into the core of another’s Being. Readers, just as you were drawn to this book through some means, those who are meant to hear the message will find their way to hear it. When this happens, we can feel privileged to be invited into their sanctuary. It may have been quietude that first attracted them to us. In those cases, words pale and we have only to sit together⏤in silence.
The Heart of All Perspectives
At a retreat, the participants were standing in a double circle, the inner one facing the outer one. Each participant looked directly into the eyes of the other who stood before them and touched hands, left palm up and right one down. They said to each other, “I pledge to you right speech, purity of heart and compassionate action.” Eyes were misting and tears were rolling down cheeks here and there around the circle. They would hold each other with their eyes, release each other, then the inner circle moving to the right the vows would continue until the circle was complete. The pledge was sacred.
Right speech, meaning to speak pure intent, comes naturally from the heart and mind when we do not shield ourselves with fear. In forming our words, we can touch another human being with empathy. Sometimes we get so wrapped up in ourselves and what we want, we forget the needs or perspective of the other person.
One time my partner and I were experiencing intense conflict. Each of us was squared off in our corners, and it seemed hopeless to me. As things sometimes happen with couples, it erupted right before he had to leave for work. In these cases, I sometimes think the Divine intervenes so that we can all come to our senses and laugh about it. But I wasn’t laughing then. I was extremely upset and felt helpless to do anything about it. I began observing the situation. As an assist, I went into meditation, which wasn’t the easiest thing to do in that moment. As though someone was just waiting for the opportunity to get a word in edgewise, I instantly received a message.
Let go of the ego and come through the heart.
Immediately, I felt my crown chakra open and a rush of energy barreled through my upper chakras and burst out through my heart. Most importantly, that heart energy shone in such a way that both our parts became clear to me, and the conflict no longer mattered. What mattered was the alignment of two human beings, and I dashed off to see him.
The eighth Yoga Sutra says: Misconception occurs when knowledge of something is not based upon its true form.[xi] There is never just one truth. If we persist in one perspective⏤our own⏤we become righteous. We can fail to see the whole truth.
In the twilight you see a coiled rope and mistake it for a snake. You get frightened. There is no snake there in reality; there is a false understanding. But still it created a terror in your mind. It is not only valid knowledge that creates thought waves, but erroneous impressions also.[xii]
The true form is All exists together. We know our own truths, but do we know all other truths? Purity of heart and right speech are enhanced through stepping into another person’s shoes. By taking this position we can take on an Other’s mantle to look out of their eyes and be in their experience, not just our own. We can sense their core Being. We can then hear and see ourselves in an expanded way through them.
Taking another position, we can be an observer⏤abiding in neither ourselves nor the other person. Even more awareness comes in from the observer position. Having the wider perspective, it is possible to see dynamics and solutions that were impossible to see at close range. And if we were able to fly out into space and look down, we could experience the wider network of all our connections⏤how one person touches another and that person touches another, until all are connected in the joys and struggles of human existence. We would realize that we are really no different in our basic needs. There are just degrees of sameness. We can allow ourselves compassionate action knowing that as we act so toward someone, we act toward ourselves. Life is truly a circle.
There are dimensions of an integrated Self. The final integration is that of Self with Other. When the Self conflicts with an Other, we can embrace the drama by moving through it and rising above it. We can think of the crisis as another opportunity to learn and grow. When our heartbeat matches that of an Other, we quicken. Everyday we are offered on-going levels of ever-deepening initiation. Through these means we can delve profoundly to answer the question: Who am I?
° A kahuna is a spiritual healer and mystic in the Hawaiian tradition.
[1] The Tarot is an ancient system of divination. The card deck is divided into the 22 cards of the Major Arcana symbolizing the spiritual realm and 56 cards of the Minor Arcana, or material world.
[2] In Andean mysticism, the term right side refers to ordinary reality while left side means non-ordinary reality.
[3] Note: Until the late 1800s, after the forming of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, Strength was reflected in the eleventh card of the Tarot deck while Justice was the eighth card. The Golden Dawn switched placement of the two, making the Strength card an eight in later decks to reflect the cabalistic ordering of the Hebrew alphabet.
[4] Koans, which number in the thousands, are a form of Zen practice to focus consciousness and attain higher perceptions.
[5] Temperance is the fourteenth card of the Tarot’s Major Arcana represented as an angel pouring love in the form of water from one pitcher into another one.
[i] Barbara G. Walker. The Secrets of the Tarot: Origins, History and Symbolism. San Francisco: Harper & Row Publishers, 1984. 91.
[ii] Rick Fields, Peggy Taylor, Rex Weyler and Rick Ingrasci, Editors. Chop Wood, Carry Water: A Guide to Finding Spiritual Fulfillment in Everyday Life. Los Angeles: Jeremy P. Tarcher, Inc., 1984. 8.
[iii] Walker, 60.
[iv] Ellin Dodge. Numerology Has Your Number. New York: Simon & Shuster, 1988. 298.
[v] Walker, 91and 98.
[vi] Dodge, 332.
[vii] Osbon, editor, 10.
[viii] Ibid.
[ix] Hazrat Inayat Khan. Spiritual Dimensions of Psychology. New Lebanon, New York: Omega Publications, 1981. 7.
[x] Walker, 109.
[xi] Translation by Sri Swami Satchidananda. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. Yogaville, Virginia: Integral Yoga Publications, 1978. 16.
[xii] Ibid. 16.
All events described in this book are true. Some of the names have been changed to protect the privacy of the people involved.
Bio
Carla Woody is a spiritual mentor, writer and visual artist. She is the founder of Kenosis, an organization based in Prescott, Arizona, supporting human potential since 1999 through life enhancement coaching, retreats and spiritual travel programs working with Indigenous leaders and healers in the US, Mexico, Central and South America. In 2007 she founded Kenosis Spirit Keepers, a volunteer-run 501(c)3 nonprofit organization to help preserve Indigenous traditions threatened with decimation.
Table of Contents
Part I. THE NATURE OF THE JOURNEY
Chapter Two: Awakening to Consciousness
Part II. INVOLUTION
Chapter Three: Cultivating Mindfulness
Chapter Four: The Masks We Wear
Chapter Five: Things Buried Deep and Tended Well
Chapter Six: Bootcamp for the Soul
Part III. EVOLUTION
Chapter Seven: The Seasons of Our Times
Chapter Eight: Staying in the Field
Chapter Nine: The Un-Namable Sacred
Chapter Ten: The Pilgrimage Home
Permissions: The author has given great effort to locate copyright holders of any material other than her own that have been quoted in this book, and regrets if any have been inadvertently overlooked.
Calling Our Spirits Home: Gateways to Full Consciousness
Copyright 1999 by Carla Woody. All rights reserved. No portion of this book, except for brief review, may be reproduced in any form without written permission of the publisher. Inquiries may be directed to: Kenosis Press, P.O. Box 10441, Prescott, AZ 86304, info@kenosis.net.
Also by Carla Woody:
Standing Stark: The Willingness to Engage. Read in Illumination Book Chapters.
Portals to the Vision Serpent. Coming soon to Illumination Book Chapters.
