chakras

Warriors and Peacemakers

/ Church of the Harvest

From a Sermon given at the Spring Equinox Worship Service on March 24, 2024.

Approximately seven years ago, this community explored the theme of our world’s energy shifting directions in some surprising ways, including downward. We did not know at the time much about these shifting patterns, why the energy that previously had been circulating in the upper atmosphere was increasingly flowing towards the Earth’s surface, or what the ramifications were. We just noticed that the change was profound, involving energy in every part of the globe. At the time I could only discern that this change had something to do with building new kinds of relationships–new relationships between humans; between human and nonhuman animals; and between humans and the planet itself.

If you want, you can read more about this “Part A.” It is still posted here on our website, under Winter Solstice 2017. To bring us all up to speed and take us all into “Part B,” I will reiterate a bit about the ongoing shift, starting from what we know from anthropology regarding human civilizations.

In talking about relationships, I remind you that when humans first embodied on Earth, we tended to come together in hunter/gatherer societies to help each other survive. These early human civilizations were almost always egalitarian in structure. Everyone in these groups had a voice in some form or fashion, and everyone had a role. When decisions about the group had to be made and leadership roles created, they were usually distributed among a mix of experienced elders, carried out by the most skilled and/or strongest clan members, with guidance from the spirit/natural world through shaman, priests, and other religious figures.

About 8,000 to 10,000 years ago when the world’s population grew too large for hunting and gathering, human society evolved into agricultural/industrial societies who organized their members hierarchically. Counsels of elders and clan leaders eventually gave way to leadership by warlords, family dynasties, and theocratic/civil governments who had the authority to intervene in human life, often in every aspect of individual life. Sometimes these new structures worked for the betterment of the group, and often they did not. The experience of any group usually is dependent on the strongest energetic force(s) in that group, the person who “sets the energy.” If this person does not have the intention and/or the skills to work on behalf of the common good, all kinds of evil can show up.

Hierarchies can be efficient, as any military or first responder can tell you. When decisions need to be made quickly, when large numbers of people have to be moved or otherwise helped without delay or hesitation, consolidating the decision-making to a select few becomes vital, even life-saving. But hierarchies also pose obvious real and important dangers. When the people at the top of the pyramid with the decision-making authority have not worked through their own personal issues, have lost themselves to their individual ego(s), succumbed to the temptations of the material world, and forgotten for whom they work, everyone is at risk. Whomever holds these political reins can and will likely advance their social and economic interests to the detriment of others not in power. Additionally, they can do so without having to see, feel or hear from the people affected by their decisions, minimizing the personal consequences for those interventions.

Hierarchies became the standard form of government even as the human population grew. They have gotten taller and the distance between those at the bottom and those at the top has become greater. The pedestals are now so high that the people at the top and the people at the bottom can no longer see or hear each other. Governments and agencies in pretty much every country and geographic location are increasingly making monumental, gut-wrenching, sweeping life-and-death policy changes that impact the lives of their citizens dramatically.

Hierarchy. When the distance is too great between those making the decisions and those affected by them, it wreaks havoc on human relationships. Image used in conjunction with Fair Use Principals.

The vast numbers of folks living on the bottom of the pile who feel cut off from the rest of humanity are getting more desperate as their sense of value decreases, and their fears grow as to what this may mean for their survival. Many respond by picking a surrogate in the upper tiers with whom they identify, giving that individual or group their loyalty, aka energy. Some respond by making up their own version of “reality,” one strewn with forces with which they feel more aligned. Giving away one’s power to a despot or dictator; and/or making up a fantasy world within which to live, are somewhat logical steps when one is no longer even able to accurately see what is truly going on with those at the top.

 

“The younger generation” has always been a catalyst in ushering in the next evolutionary period in human society. Psychology recognizes that optimal mental health results when a young person learns to separate what they have been taught in their family of origin from their own individual wisdom, needs and desires. In the current time frame there is a similar separation process going on in our collective human groups as we struggle to “grow up” as a species. The generation(s) who have been born into the digital age have been busy observing, building new networks consisting of those with whom they “vibe,” rather than just family of origin, and waiting for their chance to build a world that is no longer “top-down.”

Another life-threatening danger exists with hierarchies because they are intrinsically dependent on social programming, rather than on the moral compass of individuals within the group. Hierarchies requires rules; and enforcement processes for those rules. Most Western societies inherited a system from the Roman Empire, which was updated a bit and codified into laws that are often referred to as “law and order.” As hierarchies grow steeper, the law-and-order foundation that previously keep many conflicts in check has been breaking down. Accordingly, war and strife have increased in magnitude and intensity on every continent.

This breakdown of hierarchies as the way human beings relate to each other is happening everywhere, in the United States and internationally as well. The United States has been on the top of the global hierarchy, economically, culturally, militarily and in all other ways, but much to the chagrin of many, this is in flux. Chief among the groups who are expected to stem the tide of violence is the United States of America. We are currently witnessing the US’s role as “international peacemaker” of the world deteriorating rather dramatically. Certain segments of US forces, including military, governmental and civilian, continue valiantly to try to stem the escalating wars, but our own internal battles have increasingly made these efforts on behalf of peace around the globe less effective, or in some cases not even possible. Much of our federal government has been severely weakened or even destroyed.

Internally, the legislative branch of the US government has been gridlocked by rising conflict and breakdown of law and order, paralyzing international relief efforts and creating a congress who are largely worthless in regards to solving even the problems within our own borders. Even local areas have erupted into interpersonal warfare, such as is happening in our state governments, cities and towns, local schools. etc. The groups who used to play the role of peacekeepers are no longer able to keep up.

Bottom line, folks: Hierarchies as the sole basic structural form of of organization for human society is no longer working. It is going away. This is a key aspect of the real ramification of the energy moving downward. Our relationship within ourselves, between each other, between groups of us, and between humans and all life on the planet are in a major, chaotic, confusing reshuffle. Some hierarchies will and must still exist to address the big picture, assuming human animals remain on Earth. . .but they are going to look very different. Many nonessential hierarchies will die a painful death. And many often more localized, nonhierarchical ways of organizing ourselves are already in the works, and will proliferate, again assuming human animals remain on Earth.

So, I’d like us all to step back now, and take a look at the spiritual picture here. Let’s do Part B of figuring out what it means that the universe has decided on our behalf, to bring the energy closer to ground level; and what it says about the violence that is accompanying these changes. Today we are needing to explore the ramifications of our lived experience within physical bodies which are increasingly feeling what is going on around and through our lower three chakras, particularly our second chakra.

The second chakra, sometimes known as the “portal of life,” gives an individual crucial information about how the physical body is experiencing the world. However, since the body, unlike spirit, exists in time and space, it cannot automatically distinguish between emotions and sensations originating from others and its own, nor pinpoint the timeframe associated with its reaction. The “job” of spirit is to step back and look at those messages, only then deciding a follow-up course of action if needed. Image of the Sacral Chakra by Brenda Erickson used in accordance with Fair Use Principals.

The irony here is most of this particular community deal with emotions extensively. Many of you are highly competent social or mental health professionals, first responders, or others whose work with the public requires a high level of expertise in affect regulation. You have skills up the ying yang about things like recognizing emotions, even the so-called “negative” ones that people like to ignore or deny, and processing them in a constructive fashion. You have a big head start on many in our world who are still learning what we professionals label “basic emotional regulation skills.” Maybe though, you could stand to learn more about the interplay between our individual and collective emotional life and our spiritual journey here on Planet Earth.

As you know, emotions are a vital source of information about out interaction with the world around us and the world within us. An emotional reaction is our body’s primary means of communication, a way of telling us to pay attention to something important. Our body can tell us that there is something going on that is uncomfortable, and it can also signal through a sense of enlivenment, when things are going “right.”

“No tree, it is said, can grow to Heaven unless its roots can reach down to Hell,” said Swiss depth psychologist Carl Jung. Unfortunately, many religions have taught that the “down” position of the planet contains hell. . .and as such a lot of people trash the planet as if it is an aspect of hell. In actuality, the Earth was designed by the Creator to nurture all life upon it. “Hell” is a state of human consciousness which human minds can create and inflict upon others. In the present time frame as a species we have to reclaim hell, in order to find heaven.
Quotation and image by Lily Diamond used in conjunction with Fair Use principals.

Emotions are neither good nor bad. They are simply an opportunity to pay attention.

Emotions get sent to every other part of our amazing physical system, largely through the central nervous system. If we have not done a very good job of listening to what our body has to say, the message does not go away. It just gets stored somewhere and usually screws up the smooth functioning of our internal organs, tissues and all in that particular body, and indeed, in many or most subsequent physical incarnations. There is a big cultural conversation going on right now about trauma, and the best way to clear old messages stored various places. Folks are beginning to recognize that they have gotten stuck in “fight or flight” mode because they have ignored previous internal messages, which are now screaming at them through the “megaphone” of the adrenaline system. 

Unheard and unprocessed emotions can also make us very vulnerable to manipulation. If we are not paying sufficient attention to our body’s own emotions and sensations, we are more easily distracted by those belonging to other humans, as well as unbodied spiritual forces. The frequency of affect is in the magnetic range, so we bring the emotions of other people into our own system rather easily. To make matters worse, the more we focus on and prioritize the affective messages from outside of our body, the less we can hear what is originating from within us. All great “cult leaders,” those on top of any political, economic, religious, social or other hierarchical pyramid rely on this emotional dynamic to control their “followers.”   

We have all felt like this at times. No need for self recrimination or denial if the emotion is confined to simply giving you some information, and not acted out. Just drink your tea, laugh at yourself. . and figure out where you are triggered and what needs to be cleared for you to find your peace. Image used in conjunction with Fair Use Principals.

Because vast numbers of people have not done the work of listening and processing individual embodied emotions, we have also not done well at listening to and coexisting with our “collective body,” such as our human societies and Mother Earth. That’s the part that has to change. For everyone’s sake. Individuals are still welcome to be “lost,” if that is what they need for their journey. Groups, not so much.

The most forward-thinking of us, the artists, poets, musicians, prophets and others, have been trying to help us reimagine our global societies differently for some time. Many have been ridiculed or persecuted for their beliefs, which are often seen as inconsistent with social norms. Now is the time.

What is the big picture here when it comes to this downward energetic shift and its accompanying increasing emotional chaos? What does said directional shift potentially do to the quality of our lives? What is the purpose in the grand scheme of things for this cascade of emotions everywhere, which too often is accompanied by war and other forms of violence? God always has a plan.

To answer that question, I want to return us to the invocation with which we started this service, and say a bit from the many words from Jesus of Nazareth spoke about war and peace. After all, Jesus was all about war and peace. For good reason, he is often referred to as the “Prince of Peace.” He was born into a world obsessed with warfare, struggling all his life with the unyielding expectations and ardent desires of those around him that he “free” them from their sense of internal strife by taking on the occupying Roman forces. As his light grew and it became increasingly more apparent that he could “win” any such war over the “occupiers” should he choose to fight with them but that he was not going to be taking this route, the resistance and opposition to his essential message grew. Faced with the realization that Jesus would agree to embody nothing other than love, the unresolved violent energy of those in his community was turned towards him.

The invocation is from Matthew, Chapter 10, Verses 34.

Do not think that I came to send peace on Earth. I came not to send peace, but the sword.

In Aramaic, the language that Jesus spoke, the word “sword” is an idiom. It does not refer to a sharp instrument with which to stab and kill. It means division. Jesus was talking about his mission of teaching people to separate their energy from others, something that needs to happen for each individual to find the divine within them. In other passages from the same time period Jesus specifically discusses the preeminent social hierarchies on which his followers relied, that of familial and religious groups. He tells them that he has come to separate sons from fathers, daughters from mothers, and so on. He also warns that in order to follow his example and adhere to his teaching of individuality as the cornerstone of a relationship to God, they must be willing to take up their own individual “cross.”

Some other time as a meditation community we might want to take up the image of the crucifixion; and depack the tremendously triggering religious symbolism of the cross. But let me just say for the purpose of today’s healing, your cross will be wherever your unresolved emotions take you. Wherever you have expressed or repressed the messages of hatred between you and others, there will be your cross. Your personal cross is created by and will be illuminated through your body, with any and all ill will coming towards you or from you. 

Projection is probably our strongest “denial system, to use a Freudian concept. Because as a species humans are so fundamentally creative and imaginative, if that creativity and imagination is not “grounded” in the physical body via the lower three charkas etc. it is easy for us to approach the world in a destructive fashion, one that does not make room for the experience of other people, life forms, or even Earth itself. Our brains would have us routinely believe that the rest of the world is as we see it. Not so. Therefore, to make sense of the world we routinely project that which we are not willing to face in ourselves onto others. Image by Puerto Rican artist Marcos Alvarado used in conjunction with Fair Use Principals.

Wherever in your fear or confusion or grief or discomfort, whatever is unresolved in your body and your energy system you project onto others, therein is your cross. Whatever gets projected onto you to which you are vulnerable, because of your pain, stored fear, anxiety, uncertainty, distorted sense of responsibility, whatever, therein is your cross. Emotions and other sensations are not the only clues as to what divides you from yourself and therefore from others. Unresolved shared emotions are not the only vibrations that are resulting in world-wide conflict in the present time frame. But they are a MAJOR component.

Peace is only found by those who can claw themselves back from what is in their way of greater unity with the God(dess) within, freeing themselves from past programming, emotions, and other energetic blockage. That process can be very unpeaceful. Image used in conjunction with Fair Use Principals

As to warriors and peacemakers, please know that this is a dichotomy that requires us to find that place of balance in the middle. It is always when one locates and lives in the middle of a dichotomy that one can find true peace. That is another way of talking about taking up your own cross.

Be the warrior that fiercely uncovers (with the help of messages from your body) and subdues your own inner demons, building greater peace within you as you go. The real warrior is not the person who rushes into battle or tries to save everyone based on unexamined emotional stirrings; but the person who stands back, observes, asks for wisdom and patience until it becomes clear with which battles they need to engage and in what fashion. Then, often reluctantly, with quiet determination and utmost commitment to be of service, acts irrespective of personal cost.

The real peacemaker is not the one who avoids conflict at all costs, but the person who will do anything required that they can imagine doing and that is within their power to bring about healing, moving as many as possible towards the will of the Creator-of-Us-All who is on everyone’s side, including engaging in any necessary battle. This path of peacemaking often requires immense creativity, discipline, unexpected twists and turns, great love and neutrality, and a willingness to surrender to divine guidance.

        

When you HAVE to go to war, if you are working with the universe and basing that decision on something other than your own internal warfare, something magical can happen. Image used in conjunction with Fair Use Principals.

At this time the downward energetic shift is important for the very survival of humans on Planet Earth. Unless we pay more attention to the surface of our shared planetary environment, we cannot remain. The planet is in a life-or-death struggle right now. We must work with the very ground beneath our feet, and the soil, the water that runs through it, and all life that stands upon it. We must recognize, nurture, and encourage these energies to flow freely through our bodies until we have a more profound level of harmony with the entire Created Order. Those who can “go with the flow,” even when it is uncomfortable or uncertain, will weather the changes that continue to present themselves to all.

I pray that each of us does the work. . . and enough of us learn to carry our crosses with grace so we can come together in new, innovative group structures to sustain our presence here on this glorious miraculous space we call Planet Earth.

Copyright by the Rev. Dr. Resa Eileen Raven, 2024.

Transcending the Blame Game:  Responsibility in a Dying World

/ Church of the Harvest

From a Sermon given at the Summer Solstice Worship Service on June 25, 2023

Today we are going to be talking about responsibility, a concept that is and always has been confusing for human beings and human civilizations. The very word itself has so much energy attached to it that there is very little consensus on what it actually means. If I tell someone that they are or should be responsible for a particular situation, depending on the person and the situation, some will puff up their chest with pride, some will roll up their shelves and go to work, some will freeze in abject terror, and others will flee in the opposite direction as quickly as they can.

               I often play with the definition of responsibility by breaking it down. In other words, one way of looking at the concept of responsibility is that it means that someone has the ability to respond. It can be useful to think in this fashion. If you cannot do anything about a bad situation, then it is not really your responsibility to fix it. If you can, then go for it. If you can solve a problem and do not, then you are not acting responsibly. Etc. But the trouble with this perspective is that it says nothing about spiritual reality.

             From a spiritual perspective, responsibility comes within the context of the Creator-of-Us-All granting us the ability to choose everything about our Earthly experience, with one exception. As you all have heard me say time and time again, there really is only one rule on Planet Earth, one aspect that is universally and absolutely a given:  Free Will. When as a spirit we sign up to be embodied in a physical form on Mother Earth, we agree to following the rule of Free Will to the best of our ability. Everything else is up for grabs. 

Practically speaking what that means is that we are responsible only for our individual self. We each have our own individual space, a space that consists of our physical body and the energetic space immediately around it. We can create whatever we want to experience within this space. The rest is not up to us, not our responsibility, at least not exclusively.

Then it gets a little tricky. Because beyond our individual reality, we share and cocreate a collective space in which certain usually small aspects are up to us, and almost all other aspects are not.

I know that those of you who have been hanging around me for a while are pretty confused about this shared space thing. Along with the rest of humanity many of you are fairly clueless but highly motivated to figure out how to address a world that needs immediate and tremendous change to even continue to be livable. You may think I don’t notice your attempts to change the world outside of yourself by applying the energy skills you’ve been learning for application in your own space to others. . .but I do.

I understand the desire. I’ve been there, done that, continue to do that at my most muddled times. And occasionally, my attempts to heal a damaged world are appropriate as well as successful. However, the problem is that when one takes responsibility for the outer world, no matter how beautiful it is and deserving of help, without first clearing the vast majority of your filters, you risk violating free will, even when that is not your intention. Because invading free will is not your intention, you will likely ultimately be forgiven. However, by trying to heal the collective space before you are in fact, ready to do so, you are only postponing the inevitable. Others will still have to deal with their problems at another time; and you will have more problems to work through in the future because of the karma you just created for yourself. 

I thought long and hard about the best way to help folks hearing my message get to the next level of genuine spiritually-driven responsibility. I decided one way might be to provide a concrete and nuanced real-life example. So, this morning I am going to present you with a case study as it were, a true story from the early days of my lived experience as a mental health professional. 

In the late 1980s I was hired on as a forensic therapist for the Mentally Ill Offenders Program at the primary hospital in Washington State for the treatment of the criminally insane. The universe sent me unexpectantly into that environment to shake up my reality and the complacency of those already there.

Most all societies create a place to house those who cannot successfully live in the predominant social world. Sometimes these are a place of refuge. Usually they are not. Image used in accordance with Fair Use Principals.

Pretty much from day one I was in trouble. Some of the inevitable conflict was for obvious reasons. Initially I did not actually realize that I was the first female professional staff who had been hired. It took a “joke” about affirmative action candidates, what we these days would call a “microaggression,” on my first elevator ride to my new work space for me to start to notice that my new colleagues were white guys, mostly crusty older ones at that.

A much more profound source of conflict was not obvious on the surface, but reared its ugly head rather quickly. At the time of my hiring, I had already been working on myself in a variety of ways for many years. I knew a thing or two about the real nature of healing. The other forensic therapists largely consisted either of staff who had transferred over from the state correctional system and were focused on management, not healing; or individuals whose work training and experience was built upon the sterile foundation of academia such as the psychiatrists, nursing staff, recreational and occupational therapists. None of these groups had been required to do any of the deep intrapsychic work we needed our patients to do. Or at least, I needed our patients to do.

Too often the programs developed to care for those that are seen as mentally ill come from a place not only of ignorance but of abuse. Autistic children strapped to a radiator in a mental hospital in Lebanon,1982. Image used in accordance with Fair Use Principals.

In actuality, the hospital who was charged with the treatment of some of the most dangerous individuals in the state was rightly described as one big “revolving door.” Patients were committed for an undetermined amount of time. They were given three meals a day, lots of opportunities to interact with others under safe conditions and a general reprieve from the stress of living in the community. Their behavior was stabilized with the chemical restraints of psychotropic medications; and they were expected to perform simply tasks like making their beds, working with staff to clean up after themselves, and otherwise follow basic social norms without loss of behavioral control. If they could do this for a period of time, they were considered ready to reengage with the outside world again.  

Psychotropic medications are one of the great success stories of modern science. They make possible a rich, rewarding life experience for those whose brain is wired towards a spiritual reality that others do not share. That said, these medications are not a cure and not a panacea. They can be a first step, allowing the patient the breathing room to meet the challenges of physical embodiment. Image used in accordance with Fair Use Principals.

I stuck out like a sore thumb. Within a few months I had told my bosses that while I was happy to support the hospital in any other way I could, I would not be participating in a limited view of what constituted real change before the courts. I was not capable of being sworn in under oath as a representative of the hospital to say that a patient was now unlikely to reoffend and therefore should be released back into the community, just because they had learned good social manners under relatively safe conditions.

Luckily by then, the patients under my care were beginning to show such unusual psychological changes that were intriguing the higher-ups that I was not fired. Instead, we were able to work out a compromise. Patient loads were shuffled and essentially, I was assigned the treatment of folks who had committed crimes like murder and arson so egregious and/or politically problematic that my superiors were OK if conditional release was a far distant or even an absent goal.  

For many years I worked very hard to help my patients move from their tortured internal world into a shared reality that was less dangerous for them and others. Many of them were used to and complacent about the mental illness with which they struggled, but a few were eager to explore new territory. In every group of humans there are lots who could care less about healing themselves, but there are also usually a few who crave the lived experience of accessing the incredible healing abilities that are the natural birthright of human animals.

“Mental illness” is perhaps more accurately viewed as a spiritual disease. It involves the individual for a myriad of possible reasons accessing parts of their energy system not usually validated by society. This can be a excruciatingly painful and sometimes dangerous process for the individual as well as the people around them if the individual does not have the skills necessary to negotiate that alternative viewpoint safely. Image used in accordance with Fair Use Principals.

One such individual with whom I had the privilege of working was a young man named Troy. Troy was smart, quiet, well-mannered and could be kind to others. Like many who suffer from a major mental illness, he had learned to do so in secrecy, preferring isolation to the humiliation of judgement by others. One day that was not all that different from any other day for him, he went out and bought a 357 Magnum. A week later he shot and killed his older brother. 

After I got to know Troy a bit, I began to sense that underneath it all, he was one of the ones that genuinely craved a new perspective on life. It was not like he expressed any remorse or anything. It was more fundamental than that. It was more like he exuded a hunger for healing. I told him that he did not have to discuss the painful memories about his family with me unless he wanted to. However, I also made clear to him that if he ever expected me to testify in a court of law that he was ready to rejoin humanity, he was going to have to talk to me about SOME real things going on inside of him, not just mouth the usual pleasing-others bullshit. He would have to give voice to genuine thoughts and feelings. He was going to have to share his internal world, whatever it might be, however crazy it might seem, with another human being.

In some important regards working with the mentally ill is essentially no different than working with any human being that needs help. It is all about communication. . .and it is at its most healing when the helper learns to appreciate the alternative language being employed by the person being assisted. Image used in accordance with Fair Use Principals.

Fast forward close to six years later. In search of ways to help my patients, I had gone back to school weekends and evenings, completing a master’s degree in counseling. It was interesting but not all that useful. I had also begun to learn about working with energy, eventually enrolling in a seminary program—again on evenings and weekends. This was a lot more rigorous and helpful than a counseling program but it was hard to figure out how to apply it to a hospital setting.

Eventually I realized that I had learned all I could learn from my hospital experience, that I had given all that I had to give, and it was time to move on with my healing journey. I let the hospital staff know I would be quitting as soon as two or three of my patients had successfully gone through the conditional release process. By the time I left, Troy was living comfortably on the unlocked transition ward, working parttime at a pizza joint, taking a few classes at a local community college. . .and much to my delight, had even had a couple of dates for the first time in his life with a woman he met in one of his classes.

Several months later, maybe a couple of years, one dark wintery evening there was a knock on my door at home. When I opened it, I found myself staring at a County Sheriff’s Deputy who was there to do a welfare check on me. He told me that Troy had ceased taking his psychotropic medications, had absconded supervision, and the fear was that Troy was coming after me. I had two immediate reactions. First of all, I felt grateful and humbled that the Deputy had taken time from his many important duties to make sure I was OK. Second of all, I was distressed and more than a little irritated that the hospital staff had initiated said check. What that said to me in no uncertain terms is that they were never able to build a solid relationship with Troy, because if they had, they would have known that there was NO WAY he would come to harm me.   

Several more months passed. Troy’s body was found in a remote, heavily-wooded area of a national park in Idaho. He had died of exposure, trying to hide from a world with which he was no longer comfortable. I was invited to his memorial which I attended to support his family. As you might imagine, they were in great anguish, entirely devastated. As I listened to his mother talk at great length about her anger towards the shop owner who had sold Troy the gun he had used to murder his brother, I was struck by how her narrative had not changed one word from what she had expressed to me so many times so many years ago. I found myself saddened as I wondered how many hundreds of times Troy had been the recipient of other one-sided conversations without any room whatsoever for him to join in the dialogue. I, of course did not tell her that Troy had spoken to me several times since his death; that he has happy he had moved on and was going to get another chance at embodied life, a fresh, clean new start. He seemed particularly ecstatic that he had figured out how to move on from his physical body without accruing any more karma by hurting anyone else in the process of leaving. 

Like mental illness, death itself is a spiritual phenomenon that defies understanding by most. It is best to approach it with humility and grace. “The Story of Death” by Brian Anderson used in accordance with Fair Use Principals.

So here we are at the end of my story, and the beginning of my question to you.

WHO WAS RESPONSIBILE for this young man’s “untimely” death?  Who should be blamed that for this man with such promise, his life was full of suffering and pain, unbearable isolation and lost connections?

Was it indeed the shop keeper who supplied the weapon that destroyed his family? Was it that his family did not seem to have a place for him in their midst, and did not even notice his absence, much less events like his brother’s bullying? Is it society’s fault that these “lone wolfs”—as they are increasingly labeled by the media and law enforcement such the FBI–don’t show up on our collective radar until it is too late? Or is it our collective fault that civilizations have been around for thousands of years and still we don’t have even the basics figured out about illnesses like schizophrenia? Was it my fault as Troy’s treating therapist? Could I have prepared him a different way, or prepared the situation? I was fairly doubtful that the community supervision staff had the interest or skills that I possessed in building a bridge to this troubled young soul, but I didn’t see that I could do anything about that. Or was it simply all Troy’s fault? After all, he did and does possess free will to create whatever he as spirit wants to experience.  

My answer?  All of the above.

And. . . None of the above.

Yes, primarily, Troy’s life was and is his responsibility. He created the family into which he was born. He chose the time frame, this period where we are still collectively so lost as to the true nature of mental illness. He and I created the contract to come together to do healing work with each other, long before either of us were actually in a body this time around. He contracted with his Creator for the timing and nature of his demise. Etc. I like to think he did enough healing work with himself to “change his destiny” in the sense of leaving his body without harming others. It is possible to change details of the contract after spirit enters into the physical world. Rare, hard, but possible. I could be wrong.

Beyond Troy’s mockups though, there is the collective space in which all of us participate. We either make choices there consciously; or more commonly give up our individual energy to let them be made for us by other energies. So yes, we all have a bit of responsibility for Troy’s story, somewhere between a very tiny almost microscopic part. . .to a much more prominent role like I or the other hospital staff played. So yes—each one of us has some response-ability to shape a different reality than the one that ensued.

And the none-of-the-above part? Why do I say that? Well, because it really doesn’t matter who is found to be responsible in any situation, if the seeking of that answer comes from a place of judgment.

If you are approaching the question of responsibility in order to figure out who to blame, you are already lost. The blame-game is very big on the Planet right now, and only likely to get bigger. As the natural world rapidly deteriorates, revealing its vulnerability and damage to all, people in the social world are constantly talking about investigations, who should be held accountable, who is responsible. They think they are talking about responsibility but they aren’t even close to understanding that concept. What they are really doing is looking for scapegoats. That is not going to work. It solves no problems. It just creates others.

The blame-game is just another way of avoiding a resolution. Until you get beyond this stuck perspective, you cannot solve the problem at hand. Image used in accordance with Fair Use Principals.

So, my friends, kept working to clear those wounded healer pictures from your fourth chakra. Step back every now and then to examine what is really motivating you as you attempt to heal others. Keep looking inside yourself for your answers to life’s troubling challenges. Above all, find that center-of-your-head space where you can observe without judgement.

And know that you are not alone. You are never alone.  

Consider this a call from your Creator. 😉

Copyright by the Rev. Dr. Resa Eileen Raven, 2023

Passion for One’s Purpose:  The Great Unfolding

/ Church of the Harvest

From a Sermon given Spring Equinox Worship Service on March 20, 2022.

Last time this community came together for a worship service during the Winter Solstice, we worked together on increasing our awareness that opening up to our own power in our individual energy system is vital in that it leads to greater possibilities in our unfolding life. At the same time, this opening up of your third chakra is only the initial step. Thereafter we have to decide what to do with that power, how to take your embodied energy into the world to make your most important dreams come true.

During today’s service I want to talk about the figuring-out-what-to-do-with-your power thing.  Some people call this finding the meaning in life, discovering your life purpose or walking your path. As spiritual concepts go, this one is a doozy. Philosophers often talk about the meaning of life as if it is the same for everyone. Religious institutions are generally more than happy to tell you what your life purpose should be. New age adherents will spout lots of pithy sayings and typically offer one-size-fits-all bits of advice on how to discover and travel the pathway they think you need to traverse. And everyone is happy to sell you the books or other paraphernalia, have you listen to their podcasts or sign up for the programs they promote in placing you on a particular walkway. You can buy oracle cards or do a TED talk, hire a life coach, or I even ran into a YouTube video that offered to tell you how to know your life purpose in two minutes. (It was actually was an eleven-minute video, but clearly they were catering to the instant-gratification crowd).

Many of these folks are well-intentioned. What they often correctly understand is that for each of us, finding our path is an absolutely crucial journey. It is for this that we were born. It is why we are alive, and until we embrace our life purpose, until we are walking the path laid before us by our Creator, we are not fully alive. It is SUCH an important truth, this revealing of who you are to the depth of your soul, that only you and the God within you can locate that path.

Life purpose is sometimes addressed as an individual pursuit; and sometimes as the collective question for all humanity. This is the cartesian dualism that feeds our brain but not our soul. When one begins to acknowledge oneself as the lived experience of the Creator-of-All-That-Is you can then set out to discover your individuality within universality. Image used in accordance with Fair Use Principals.

However, notice my language here, if you will. Your life purpose is a journey. It is not a destination. In fact, when you fully arrive at said destination, some of you may discover that you no longer need to be here on Planet Earth. (That is a different story). For now, shed those perfect pictures about where or how far along you should be, or how long it should take you. Rather buckle up for the ride. Like all journeying in the physical world, you and only you get to decide ultimately if the path you take back to God is a fun adventure, the stuff of nightmares or any combination therein.

What is your life purpose? Its not a vocation, although certain tasks in the outer world may reflect it to a greater or lesser degree. Its not a relationship to a beloved or a child or an enemy that you are learning to vanquish, although any of these encounters can help you draw closer to your purpose. Its not even service to your fellow humans or other forms of life on the planet, even if surely some version of service will be a needed corollary of your purpose.

It may not even be something you can even put in words. You be not be able to find your life work using a rational thought process exactly. If your purpose is a true enough reflection of you on a soul level, it is possible that the spoken word cannot even contain it. But I am going to guess that most of you will know it when you feel it. Because the outpouring of joy from every cell in your body will be hard to miss. 

If there is truth to be had in the conversations one hears in popular culture on the subject of one’s purpose, it’s the descriptions that one can find it by doing what you love. I have often appreciated the mythologist and writer Joseph Campbell’s version of this when he advises people to “follow their bliss.” I like that phrasing, although it has a down side to it in that it can confuse people who are already too confused by sexual programming. If you want to make a habit of pursuing your bliss, just try to stay aware that bliss needs to be about real love, not bodily pleasure.

This is an image used in accordance with Fair Use Principals which encapsulates how many see life purpose. Food for thought but take it with a grain of salt. Individual pathways to purpose vary enormously.

Please do not infer that I am dissing experiences that bring pleasure on a physical level. I am just saying that those are not necessarily related to love, or directly to your path. What is the difference you might ask? Love is the quiet stuff, the embodiment of spirit. Pleasure can be that to which the body often gravitates when it is feeling unloved by spirit.

This sermon is a result of a request that I speak about passion. . .so let me throw in a few more words along those lines.  When a person has cleared a lot of limiting energy—programming, energy belonging to others, obsolete pictures etc.—from their third chakra and elsewhere, it typically frees one up to heal more deeply elsewhere.

Subsequently, it is common to move on to deep-rooted blockages in the other key areas closer to the Earth.  That is why we started this worship service with an invocation that comes from Ephesians in which St. Paul talked about Jesus of Nazareth making possible a return of Heaven on Earth by both ascending to the Heavens and descending into the very Earth itself. Every soul who would follow the path shown to us by The Christ, that eternal being that called himself at different times the Son of Man as well as the Son of God, has to choose through our individual embodiment both our spiritual perspective and our physical body which was and is miraculously designed to manifest it.

Many religious belief systems are built on a foundation of sand in that somewhere along the way in their manifestation, they have erroneously adopted the dogma that says to find God, one has to at the very least ignore, if not subjugate and punish the body. These limiting belief systems have put Mother Earth in jeopardy, something not acceptable to the Creator-of-Us-All. Mother Earth is a sacred aspect of the Created Order. Those who are not willing or at this time capable of realizing that divinity, be they individuals or individuals acting in concert with others through political or religious groups, have outstayed their welcome.

To you who are listening to my message I would say–no doubt you have already successfully navigated through oceans of emotion and other bodily sensations arising from your second chakra to even be present at this service. No doubt you have many more trickles, streams, rivers, tidal waves of emotion and sensation yet to come, in order to find yourself more solidly on your path more of the time. The second chakra is potentially where much the dialogue about how our choices affecting the body in the physical world get played out. Some other energy structures are also involved but this key center is a primary conduit. The messages can be lost in translation for many people, but for those of you who are committed to bringing together Heaven and Earth at this point they will likely be loud and clear.

The second chakra, sometimes called the Sacral chakra, is a spinning source of information about how your body experiences the world around it. Image by Brenda Erickson used in accordance with Fair Use Principals. When operating in harmony with you and the rest of your body it can generate life-affirming vibrant energy. When clogged up it can lead to all kinds of disheartening states such as pervasive self-judgment.

Here is the thing, folks. One aspect of finding your life purpose that does not get enough attention is that it is ultimately an act of cocreation. In order to find your unique pathway through the physical world known as Earth, you must find your own unique space; as well as come to terms with the fact that you are also part of a bigger reality; and it is a part of you.  In other words, you are universal spirit embodied in a physical form that belongs to you and you alone.

Co creating with the All-Mighty is a topic beyond the comprehension of many, all too often leading to erroneous and sometimes demeaning conclusions. Cartoon by Jim Benton used in accordance with Fair Use Principals.

The Creator-of-Us-All provides the framework. By agreeing to birth in the human form you also agreed to a contract to provide the Creator with lived experience of consciousness that requires individuation. Whatever gets you the highest and best use of your consciousness in the service of the Creator at any one point in time gets you the next step closer to your life purpose.

Another way to think about cocreation is to think of God as the Sun who bathes Mother Earth allowing human animals to cultivate crops and other plants and animals making it possible for life to go on and even evolve. Without the sun and earth there would be nothing, but humans are still largely deciding what grows within the framework of God’s world. Image of “Grandfather Sun Medicine by Leah Marie Dorian used in accordance with Fair Use Principals.

How do you know what is passion for your life purpose and what is old emotion to be released? You won’t, at least all the time. But if your intention is for healing and for finding yourself, and you stay sufficiently focused enough in order to do the day-by-day work, the real passion will grow as the left-over emotion from other adventures dissipates.

As far as emotions-to-be-acknowledged-processed-and-cleared goes, I do agree with Jungian psychoanalyst James Hollis who has offered useful words here about the key emotion we call fear.  “Ultimately, to step into the larger, we have to go through our fears. I have to emphasize go through. There is no magic, no set of five steps to dissolve the obstacles, no pill, no narcotic to make it all possible. There is only the going through.”

You have to deal with the full range of your emotions. You have to face your fears. Descend with yourself into your body, your earthly realm. Let yourself know that any old wounding for your body with which you have not yet come to terms, is going to kick up dust at the process as you descend, and try to tell you it feels at risk. Listen. Don’t act, at least initially. The fear can be a really good sign. Listen from the center of your head, assess to what extent the fear is an accurate read on what is before you. Take further steps to protect your body on whatever needs to be cleared, confronted, or otherwise changed. Keep asking the God of your Heart for guidance in finding your highest service. And then carry yourself onward, in the direction you know to be truest. 

Fear is such an important emotion requiring careful dissection. It can be the difference between life and death. If the fear is “justified” by a present time threat, ignoring or suppressing it can be deadly. However if you reside in fear associated with the past or future it can keep you from life. The trick is to learn to discern the difference. Cartoon by Dave Blazek used in accordance with Fair Use Principals.

Validate the fear as you descend into unknown territory. Do not let it stop you unnecessarily.

Earth becomes Heaven to the degree in which we can let God fulfill itself in our individual corporal experience. As It says in First Corinthians Chapter 6, Verse 20: Therefore glorify God in your body.

Watch as the fire from the belly of Mother Earth grows deep within you, a few embers at a time. 

   

Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada, USA. Image used in accordance with Fair Use Principals.

Copyright by Rev. Dr. Resa Eileen Raven, 2022

Power: Pure and Simple

/ Church of the Harvest

From a Sermon given Winter Solstice Worship Service on December 26, 2021.

I’ve talked a lot about power over the years but not very directly.  With folks that are sincerely trying to understand this concept, until recently I have primarily provided some hints. This is because the very word itself is so triggering for many listeners that the conversation does not typically unfold well or easily. Particularly in bringing up the subject of power with those in a female body, the nonverbal anxiety, confusion, shame, and defensiveness can be overwhelming for a speaker like myself who is sensitive to energy. The psychic cringing when I have used the word in the past has been almost palpable.

That said, it appears that the cultural times are shifting. As a society we are more in a position to look at power directly and still maintain a spiritual perspective. Some of the human-generated power imbalances that have been in place for hundreds or thousands of years, are becoming illuminated under the merciless light of the apocalypse, our time of great revelations. The apocalypse has been bringing environmental, social and economic injustice to the surface, much to the chagrin of many.  So let us have that conversation today to whatever degree we can, shall we?

Image used in accordance with Fair Use Principles.

Power is just another word for energy. All power comes from the Creator-Us-All and is intended to be used in service to the Created Order. Its essential nature is both pure and simple. Every gift of life from our Creator is pure. Everything in touch with its essential nature as spirit is by nature simple. Irrespective of what experiences you personally have undergone in your time here on Mother Earth, try to keep in mind that power in itself is never wrong or for that matter right. It just is. The wrong or right stuff comes into play only as a result of the choices humans make in how we use power.  

“Wonder” by visionary artist Alex Grey, used in accordance with Fair Use Principles.

Because human animals have free will we are given the choice to create whatever the Hell we want within our own body and energy system. We can and do routinely subvert power and quite literally create Hell-on-Earth for ourselves and others. We have all done this, and continue to do this. If you have been around the block more than a few times, no doubt you have started to understand that this is not a particularly useful, fun, or interesting way to conduct life. But if you are still here in a body, it means that you have more learning to do about power. Give up your perfect pictures and get on with the lessons, so you can grow that much closer to Heaven-on-Earth, that place in which power is used efficiently, effortlessly, joyfully, generating great wonder.

On an individual level, power has a lot to do with the goings on of your third chakra. That magical energy center is often called the “power center” for good reason.  It contains the bulk of the information you need to operate in and through your physical body. In recent years I have been amused about all the fascination people have developed with the “gut microbiome.” Scientists have begun to validate how vital our stomach area and digestive system is to overall physical health; how much communication happens between our gut and our brain and other areas of the body. 

Society has yet to make the discovery that these tissues and organs are reflecting a deeper spiritual truth. To frame this in scientific terminology, a good gut microbiome and good physical health are correlational, not causational. The underlying piece that determines both is a functional third chakra that is balanced and free of foreign energy.

When you have a third chakra that works in concert with the other parts of your energy system, body and spirit can have a lot of communication with each other and a respectful partnership in regards to movement.  You know where to move energy around in your body and the space around it to maximum benefit; and your body knows how to move through physical space and time to accomplish that of which it is capable.

When students are first becoming aware of their energy system and learning how to regulate it, I tease people whenever and however I can to get them to kick out the energy that does not belong there and open up their third chakra.  You have all heard me make lots of jokes about the burping that often starts to happen as people start releasing the energy from others. This clearing is an important beginning. 

However, in order to address what you need to work through this lifetime, healing your third chakra enough to power your body as it moves around the physical environment is just the foundation. That is the initial step. Like a child that has to first learn to roll over, then to sit up, then to stand, we eventually are at a place to learn how to walk. Once we know how to walk, only then can we start taking concrete steps in the direction we want to go. Moreover we get to decide whether we want to saunter or hike, foxtrot, waltz or freestyle. . .or maybe simply stand still, smell the roses and admire the view.

Like everything else in your reality, how you move in the world is all up to you. Image used in accordance with Fair Use Principles.

For the folks in this community who have kicked out much of the foreign energy from your third chakra, and deenergized many of your most important pictures about working through a body, the next step looks a bit different.  As long-term meditators, if you are in a female body you are probably less terrified of the very prospect of power in your own space than you used to be. If you are in a male body, you are likely more aware than you were previously that you don’t need to fight everyone else’s battles for them.

For you, the challenge about power now is more about taking the whole concept to the higher level. Unless you are a professional athlete or dancer or some such, all the power you need to operate your body is probably already accessible to you. 

By now you probably have had enough experience with working with energy consciously to have a sense that certain choices regarding power can be counterproductive, can definitely set you back on your journey, or at least make it an uncomfortable ride.  You will have made enough decisions using your power that have arisen from a foundation of fear rather than self-love and learned that power over the outside world does not result in a sense of security. No doubt you have indulged in the need to accumulate material goods, only to discover they did not bring lasting comfort or peace. What now?

At this stage of spiritual development the question becomes: how much power do you need to harness in what ways in order to fulfill your purpose?  What do you need to power up your dreams, and which dreams reflect your truest spiritual goals? This is a qualitatively different question that extends way beyond your third chakra into the very ground beneath your feet and very heavens above your head. It is a question the successful answer of which requires a unity of purpose involving every one of your chakras, including the ones outside of your physical body. It is a question that necessitates taking into consideration your individual space as well as the collective space around you, weighing what is within you as well as outside of you. It moves the subject from what you need to survive, into the territory of what you need to thrive.

And it is a question that can be a quite tricky because the universe is infinitely abundant. Therefore the amount and kind of power that you can potential wield is similarly endless. With great power comes great response-ability. The challenges in terms of “getting it right” as well as “getting it wrong”–(not that either, in Truth, is even a possibility)–are much more profound.

You know I can’t tell you the answer(s) to these questions for you. That would be an abuse of my power. But I would like to offer this community some gentle reminders to keep in mind as you explore the question of how much power you as an individual need to wield in what manner.     

First of all, remember that what you put out in the universe, comes back to you . . .often greatly magnified. This is the essence of the “Golden Rule,” a version of which underlies every major religious tradition. “Doing onto others as you would have them do unto you” is not about judgment and retribution. It is very practical advice that validates energetic reality.

If you use your power unwisely, it will come back and bite you in the ass. Maybe not right away. Maybe not in the exact same manner.  Remember that for spirit there is no time and space.  But ultimately there is no escaping the Supreme Justice of the universe. 

Every day I watch folks get lost in their programming about this principle. In the current time frame when society is trying to root out the social injustices in which we have all participated, many well-intentioned people are massively confused about how justice really works. They frequently look at our cumbersome, flawed justice system, see the less-than-ideal sometimes horrible outcomes, and condemn everyone and everything associated with these cases. Often I feel tremendous sadness for these critics. I can validate their heartfelt desire to find justice but I also know almost exactly for what they are signing up with their judgment.  The I-want-the-things-that-I-want-instantly and the I-deserve-it programming to which many in the United States have been highly indoctrinated is not helpful on a soul level.   

One trouble with instant gratification from a spiritual perspective is that it is usually a form of magical thinking. That does not mean it is impossible to achieve or necessarily undesirable. It does mean that as a form of creativity goes, it minimally involves the body as a vehicle for that creativity. One might say that it can be ultimately unsustainable. Cartoon by Steve Moore used in accordance with Fair Use Principles.

Get real, folks. Only God is perfect. The rest of us flawed individuals are just trying to figure out how to live in the highest vibration of Truth, embodying the greatest quantity of Justice that we can muster at any one point. It takes time to correct power imbalances in our individual reality, and it requires us to give each other lots of space in our collective lives. Choose just words and actions in your own life. Speak up with fiery but neutral and loving language when you encounter injustices in the world-at-large. Take whatever respectful actions you can. And then step back. Leave it at that for now. You can’t force others or even yourself onto the “right” path.

Second of all, remember that you create everything that is going on in your life.  This is the other concept about which even the smartest, most insightful folks are often incredibly confused, even those who prioritize spiritual development.

There are no villains, only people who are making bad choices who are giving you the opportunity to heal and grow. In the situations that the Supreme Justice of the Universe aka God presents to you that seem hurtful, unjust or just plain horrible, you still get to choose your reaction, including whether or not you want to energetically clear the pictures and end the cycles in order to move on in this lifetime or another.

It you want to take this concept into the time-space framework, keep in mind that you cannot change the past and sometimes certain aspects of the present; but you can change other aspects of the present, and thereby your future.  In the New Testament of the Christian Bible, this theme appears many places but these words are from First Peter, Chapter 3, Verses 8-9.

Do not repay evil with evil, or insult with insult, but rather, repay them with a blessing, because to this you were called, so that you too may inherit a blessing. 

Another World is indeed possible but you will have to give up your need to “fix” others to find it. Picture by social activist and artist RIcardo Levins Morales based upon the 19th Flammarion engraving, used in accordance with Fair Use Principles.

Third of all, you can safely access and use all the energy you need to fulfill your spiritual mission, your purpose for being. You can work with a TREMENDOUS amount of power, a quantity and quality beyond your wildest dreams and not get in any trouble with the universe under one condition. You must work with that energy from within your own space. Have you noticed how obsessed the world is with images of superpowers and superheroes recently? That is us, trying to remind ourselves that we each individually have what it takes to work with a huge amount of power. The solutions are endless.

Remember that power is not good or bad. It just is. The universe has an infinite quantity of it set aside for your personal benefit. As long as you are trying your best to abide by the one law the Creator gave us, the law of free will, ultimately you do not have to be concerned about anything coming back to “haunt” you. 

Quick reminder: What is free will? Again, this is a concept most people have trouble identifying accurately through all their programming. Technically speaking though, it is actually simple. You have to create from within your own energy system. If you do not like what is happening outside of yourself, you need to change something within yourself. That is the trajectory. That is the only one the really works. The tricky part for most people is that to follow that trajectory, you have to have gotten enough in touch with yourself to sense where you end and where others begin. So back to the kicking-out-foreign-energy thing.

If you try to create your life in someone else’s space, this misuse of power at the very least will set you back, as well as the other person; and keep you spinning on the carousal of karma.    

Fourth, respecting free will means you operate from the viewpoint that you are totally and 100% responsible for you; and 100% not responsible or at least not solely responsible for anyone else. (It gets a little tricky with children). Everything that happens in the collective space between individuals requires the agreement of all involved for it to be a pure unadulterated form of power, rather than the misuse of it. You can help friends and family all you want. . .as long as they agree they want your help. However, you need to give up the habit of trying to require others to change. Sometimes even if someone else wants your help that does not mean that you should provide it, if doing so is not a good choice for you. 

People are at various stages of awareness about various aspects of the world, according to the timing of their own spiritual journey. One cannot force another to see what is true. But you can open your own eyes and thereby shine more light onto others. Image used in accordance with Fair Use Principles.

Respecting the energy space of others means YOU and all those in your sphere of influence, that is to say all embodied as well as unbodied spirit you are channeling through or through whom you are channeling, need to honor agreements. And yes, you are doing some form of channeling if you are human. This includes whatever saints, spirit guides or other heavenly buddies with whom you are working, whether or not you work with them consciously or unconsciously. The universe will eventually call you out if you are pretending to yourself that your hands are clean while an unconscious part of you is asking others to do the dirty work of forcing others to your will. You are 100% responsible for you, even in those dark places where you have given away your power. 

Many or most people are so unaware of what is going on within themselves that they are under the illusion that everything internal is themselves. In truth, we all channel the energy belonging to others, particularly family members and people with whom we otherwise share a closeness. Your body was made just for you! Reclaim it, step and step. The initial lessons for people often involve learning to be amused by how much we give away our power. Image used in accordance with Fair Use Principles.

Again, a quick reminder: You can freely ask for help for others from the divine as well as some select beings such as the ones we often label angels who are doing the bidding of the divine. These forces do not invade free will. Be prepared, however, if the Creator-of-Us-All or its helpers declines to provide the type of assistance you deem necessary.     

Finally and Fifth of all, Keep in mind that each individual soul has a different mission for their life.  Consequently, the amount of power each of us must learn to safely operate can vary hugely. . .and this has nothing whatso ever to do with worthiness. We are all equal in the eyes of God, even as we all have a unique and vital role to play, however it might appear on the surface. Some roles do not require a lot of power.

Clear your competition pictures if you find yourself envying the power of another, whether it comes in the form of wealth, social status, opportunities, amount of information, skills or talents, whatever. These pictures are not only setting you up for ongoing suffering, they are also a sure indication that you are on a detour whereby you are essentially procrastinating about finding your own path, your own joy, your own peace. 

Peace of mind and heart comes to those who learn to live within their own God-given space; and let go of any need to force others to a path created by their wishes or desires. Image used in accordance with Fair Use Principles.

As the Christ has told us in John, Chapter 14, Verse 27:

Peace I leave to you, My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

Copyright 2021 by Rev. Dr. Resa Eileen Raven

This song is perhaps a little “darker” than necessary for many–full of Old Testament vibes. But perhaps consider it’s essential truth. Used in accordance with Fair Use Principles.

Harmony in Times of Chaos

/ Church of the Harvest

From a Sermon given Summer Solstice Worship Service  on June 20, 2021

Today we celebrate the beginning of summer, strawberry season, the time when Mother Earth begins to bring forth the fruits of her bounty; and we human animals who are her caretakers see what we have created in the spiritual realm the previous winter; what we have dreamed of, agreed to, and begun to manifest into the physical world in regards to some of the first major waves of new blessings. Fruits and vegetables are ripening, but in a deeper sense so too are our fears about the Great Balancing, as I like to refer to the current time in history.  

In the last three or four years I have been struck by how many people were using the word “chaos” to describe their worldview.  More recently many people have now decided that we are settling back down, we are no longer living in a pandemic, and that we can now return to “normal.” That clearly is not the case and is not going to happen. 

There is still a tremendous amount of chaos in our collective lives but I think some of us have gotten a little more acculturated to it. It’s gone underground a bit, become less apparent for some. A few of us have worked through enough resistance to the changes within us and around us to have a temporary respite.  As you know, resistance always makes changing more difficult. Global changes however, are ongoing and profound, with many more to come.

The drive to return to normal is an indication that many people still suffer from resistance to change. Get real, folks. Life on Planet Earth has irrevocably altered, thanks be to God. Image from Green Peace New Zealand used in accordance with Fair Use Principles.

This morning I want to remind you that chaos has its place in the universe, some might even say a beloved place of honor. I want to impart some hints about how to not only “weather” it–(pun intended)–but maybe even begin to learn to enjoy it. Chaos is what happens when you need to make huge shifts, when you need to destroy things but have little or no permission to destroy.

Seattle-based mythologist Michael Meade embraces the deep spiritual truth that threads through the stories of all cultures. Image used in accordance with Fair Use Principles.

Chaos is a precursor to great creativity. Out of chaos arise enormous possibilities. The birth process can be smooth, joyful and full of wonder; or it can be painful and disheartening; or anything in between.  Humans still have lots of decisions to make, but the threshold upon which we are currently teetering is nothing less than miraculous. 

At one point billions of years ago our planet was poised on another foundational threshold.  Our universe was a swirling mass of gases and Mother Earth was simply water. Then the Creator brought to this chaos its abundant endless creativity, and thereby fashioned a framework that spurred a paradise of life forms.

In our ignorance and ego-driven desire, humans have largely decimated that paradise, causing a kind of retreat to a state of primordial chaos, at least emotionally-speaking.

So here we are. We get to begin anew, each one of us individually with our own free will, and decide whether we are willing to learn to co create with the divine as his/her children, to begin to access our corner of that abundant endless creativity, or continue to fight a losing battle against the inevitability of needed changes for the good of the whole.

 

I want to talk a little bit now about individual creativity. What does it mean to be a chip off the cosmic block? For those of us who are working with our own individual energy systems and trying our best to do so in junction with rather than opposition to God’s will, how do we actually go about harnessing our creativity in the service of the divine?

And what do we need to create?

Here’s a thought. How about a whole new relationship with ourselves, each other, and Mother Earth?

Let me start by reminding you that everything outside of you is a reflection of what is inside of you. It’s not the other way around. If you look at the political and economic structures around us you will see a tidal wave of people that want to convince themselves and each other that other people are the problem. The blame-game is HUGE at this time. 

Unfortunately this perspective is not only incorrect, it is dangerous. A lot of the souls that are choosing to leave their physical body right now, are doing so because they cannot see a pathway to healing themselves which will allow them to remain on the Planet.

Great spiritual leaders around the world have attempted to teach us that our true life resides within, and therefore changing anything disharmonious has to addressed from within. We engage in group creativity by interacting with others and the entire world around us but it is up to us ultimately how we experience that interaction. Image used in accordance with Fair Use Principles.

We’ve all been so tremendously programmed to believe our answers are outside of ourselves, and therefore our problems have to be solved by others.  Then there is a whole cadre of folks that understand theoretically that creating a full and rewarding life for themselves is possible and up to them. . . but they don’t know how to make the changes they seek happen. 

In this community I would say that most of us have a lot of the basics down about our individual creativity, but are maybe missing a few important pieces of the puzzle to take things into the collective world.

Image used in accordance with Fair Use Principles.

So let me talk about putting those puzzle pieces together by talking about your individual chakra system.

You all know that there are seven major chakras in the human body, kind of like little powerful spinning hard drives that contain a humongous amount of information, all the information you need and then some. 

Many people sort of have their favorites, areas upon which they tend to focus because that is where they feel the need to do the most healing.  Other people are under the impression that certain chakras are intrinsically more important than other chakras.  For example, it’s common for people to assume that the upper chakras, the fifth, sixth and seventh, are more important than the lower chakras, the first, second and third.  That is often because they have gotten lost to the dichotomy that “up” is more important than “down.” Lots of folks have been programmed to believe the “higher” chakras are associated with “Heaven” and therefore of greater value than the “lower” chakras associated with the Earthly realm.

Actually, what is ultimately important is that your chakras work in harmony. They are a system, one designed where every cog of the machine is important for the smooth functioning of the entire machine.  When you have even one chakra that is really screwed up, really dysfunctional in terms of what you need to use in your life, the information that is supposed to be in that center will go elsewhere. It can be absorbed by other people, gumming up their energy system. It can bleed into other of your own chakras and screw those up. It can end up enervating and throwing off balance any of your body’s organs, muscles, nerves and other physical structures and systems. Like a river in a flood, information–a form of energy–simply overflows onto other pathways when dammed up at its natural flow site.

In a society where we are not taught how to work with our own energy system, and accordingly have done a rather substantial amount of damage to ourselves for many centuries, our energy system is typically hugely fragmented to the point that it is essentially at war with itself.  For example, one part of us wants things to go a certain way while other parts want to take us in a completely alternative direction. We sense or feel we should stay away from a person or a substance like alcohol or the situation that we know to be toxic; we may have second or even third thoughts as to where we are going but we still find ourselves drifting into a maladaptive universe anyway. Part of us wants to rest more, eat healthy or exercise regularly but somehow “something” gets in the way of our following our intention. Much of the time we are even unconscious or unaware of what is driving our life choices.  

This is the internalized chaos to which we are all prone. We all do this until we have cleared enough from our energy space for the different pieces of our information to be compatible rather than contradictory with each other, for our chakras to work together in the service of our higher good.

Then of course, this chaos gets projected outwards. Don’t get me started on the wars, violence, social injustice,  environmental disasters and so on that are made possible as our individual internal warfare combines with other individuals at war with themselves, increasing the conflict exponentially in the collective space.

Collective chaos can lead to places of great suffering. Art used in accordance with Fair Use Principles.

So you all are on the journey towards wholeness. You have committed yourselves to cleaning up the mess inside you from years in this body and centuries of neglect in others.  You have been kicking out the energies that don’t belong to you or no longer serve your purpose to live in wholeness.  Congratulations! Mazel tov! Keep up the good work!

But how do we get the individual pieces of our life into a even more complete (although by definition, changing) picture? You all know what my answer to that is:  one step at a time. Meditate daily. Run your energy frequently. Cultivate humility and patience. Ask for help from the divine and its helpers whenever you need it or just want it. Commit yourself to God’s service including devoting yourself whenever you can to the wellbeing of others, not at your own expense but rather because all cogs of the machine are ultimately important for our world to work. . .and because what blessings you impart will return to you in kind.

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Fair Use Principles.

And here’s a little tip. . .or preview of what is to come for the members of this community, including those who participate energetically but not with their physical presence.  Every chakra is important. But if your goal is living in harmony, pay attention to your fourth. There is a reason why medieval paintings were so obsessed with portraying the burning heart of Jesus.

The Christ understood that the heart chakra was the bridge between the lower chakras that regulate more of the energy system’s responses to the Earth; and the upper chakras that regulate more of the energy system’s responses to the Heavens.  He modeled for us someone who crafted complete unity in his own space irrespective of the enormous personal cost to him, and by doing so, embodied unconditional love with all of God’s created order.

If you want to experience Heaven-on-Earth. even if for brief periods of time . .if you want to be a soul that helps bring paradise back to Mother Earth, pay attention to this important piece of your individual puzzle board.            

The fourth chakra is all about setting one’s identity in relationship to everything there is, everyone and every aspect. It is about the peace that occurs when the free will of the individual soul chooses to dwell in unity with everything inside its body and energy system and thereby extends that unity outside. 

A well-defined fourth chakra in harmony with all within and outside of an individual soul is a thing of great beauty. Image by Alpha Channel used in accordance with Fair Use Principles.

In other words, learn to love all the parts inside of you, even as you change those that are no longer useful. Don’t go down the rabbit hole of thinking that your yucky parts are the responsibility of others. Others can help you but they cannot do your work for you. Don’t compound your problems by giving away your power to change. Whatever part others played in the creation of these bits of discordant energy is no longer relevant.

Also avoid the major detour of thinking you can achieve wholeness by adopting the false illusion of perfection. Stare your faults, your dark places, your sins, your shadow, your wounds/thorns, whatever you want to call it/them straight in the face. And wink back as you say goodbye.

Copyright 2021 by Rev. Dr. Resa Eileen Raven

Justice, Mercy, Kindness and Karma, Part I

/ Church of the Harvest

From a Sermon given Summer Solstice Worship Service  on June 22, 2020

Hello.  I’m glad to see you all at the 2020 Summer Solstice Service of the Church of the Harvest.  My job as Presiding Minister of this spiritual community is to tune into the energy of the group, and do whatever I can to bring it to the next higher level.  I offer my personal perspective as a way of doing that, hoping to awaken the truth that is contained within your heart and your mind.  Today my topic is broad-ranging.  Please know that each of you absolutely has my blessing to use any of these words that resonate with you, and discard the rest.  Above all in this Church we believe in free will.  By that I don’t mean freedom to act however you want to act towards others around you.  What I specifically mean is freedom to feel whatever you want to feel, believe whatever you want to believe; and act in accordance with other people in a manner that also honors their essential freedom. 

It is always a challenge for me to write and deliver these sermons.  Spiritual reality is never fully explored through the medium of words, but under the best of circumstances we can dance with words in a way that allows dancers to sense the melodies within their eardrums and feel the rhythms in their bones.  So please forgive me if I dance around our topic. . . because it is too big and too rich to be fully captured by words.  You are invited in as I try to encapsulate what I believe is true about the spiritual journey upon which we are engaged in the present moment.

Image used in accordance with Fair Use Principles.

Let me start by talking about why I am framing this sermon as occurring in the “days of reckoning.”  Most of you present today know that I have speaking for many months, several years even, about the end times, and as well as the apocalyptic times.  If you heard me, you will also likely remember that I do not believe the end times necessarily mean the end of the physical world, only that the world as human beings have known it is ending.  The word apocalypse comes from the Greek. It translates simply as the unfolding of things not previously known.

For most people, there is a lot of scary energy on the phrase “the end times” as well as on the word “apocalypse.”  Likewise, there is a great deal of fear for many people when they hear the phrase “the days of reckoning.”  That is because for most people these three concepts are all firmly associated with religious dogma, mostly in regards to the abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.  As such, these phrases are fraught with the assumption that we are sinful, about to be judged and most of us found horribly wanting, soon to be condemned to deep, endless amounts of suffering.  

In my meditations I have spent considerable time stripping away religious programming from my energy system.   For me, these ideas are no longer a source of anxiety. I am happy that the Creator-of-Us-All is dissolving our illusions through the apocalypse.  I was never very good at living the lies with which most people seem to be content. The end times for me personally seem to be bringing an end to my suffering, the completion of a journey of many lifetimes of brokenness in which my sense of living in the hell-of-my-own-choosing far outpaced those few moments of heaven-on-earth that I could manage to create for myself. 

In the world of energy there is no time. We are all going to the same place but our individual journey towards that place depends on the choices we make along the way, including our sequencing and timetable. Image used in accordance with Fair Use Principles

As to the days of reckoning, let me just say that it is very clear to me that our God is a loving God that does need to judge.  We humans do a more than adequate job of that all on our own.   

What happens when you put all these ideas together?  What are the days of reckoning. . .if they are not the time after death as Muslims and Christians are told in which one has to account for one’s actions before God in order to determine whether you go to heaven or hell?  Stripped of religious programming, a reckoning is simply a time when people are forced to deal with unpleasant situations which they have avoided until that day.  A reckoning is a settling of accounts.

 

 

 

 

When are the days of reckoning? Typically they occur when an entire people are forced to deal with that which previously they as a group have avoided confronting.  You know. . .like what is currently happening with a lot of white people who were previously not really required to notice that they had certain resources and opportunities largely unavailable to people of color. Or what is happening for the more economically privileged around the globe who previously could pretend that destruction and exploitation of the environment was a problem for other people until the entire climate of the planet began to crash and effect them as well.  This is the apocalypse at work, the dying of illusions.  These are the true end times, the end of centuries-long chapters of human evolution.

I want to jump now to another concept, one that is currently consuming the national conversation and saturating the energetic airwaves.  Let’s talk about justice.  If you watch any news broadcast, participate in any social media, interact with the public in almost any context, you are going to be having conversations about justice.  Suddenly everything seems to be about social justice.       

One of the things that interests me about these conversations that people are having on the streets and in the media is how closely the concept of justice is being paired with the idea of people speaking up.  Over and over you will hear people say how vital it is, how important for people to speak up.  Many times folks don’t really even know what they want to say. . .as they busily extoll each other to speak their minds. We are searching for our collective voice, even when we don’t know what we want to do with it. 

The emphasis here is on the collective part. Previously some individuals have been vocal.  Whether or not they were truly heard is another matter but they had the opportunity and/or the desire to express themselves.  But as a collective body human beings have usually only come together as a group to express themselves in opposition to another tribe. The human brain has always overwhelmingly done an us-versus-them kind of thing when expressing group norms.

This is what we are changing. What is new here and now is our coming together to express unity rather than division.  We may not know what true unity really looks like as of yet, and we’re not very good at it so far, but we’re doing our damndest to try to figure it out. The implications for this shift are enormous. The result of this task will be to create a new world order. 

Justice, aka a place in society for all. is always inclusionary. One can see from the heated debate going on in the United States right now that what is or is not every person’s right is a topic upon which we still significantly lack agreement. Our collective political, religious and other systems need to “catch up” with the “golden rule” aspect that is fundamental in all world religions. Image by Mary Engelbreit used in accordance with Fair Use Principles.

Those present today will understand some of the ramifications of what I mean when I say that human beings all around the globe as a group, are attempting to bring into their physical bodies the highest vibration of energy which is founded on all of us being connected.  Last year the consensus reality, that is to say all of us on a spiritual level, made the decision to rewire the world into one based on love. Right now we are taking the first real step in bringing that commitment into the physical world, right down through our emboded individual energy systems as we talk to ourselves and each other about what that real unity will take, what that will look like.     

In recent history we had the first major wave of this new commitment to collective expression when gay men and lesbians were given the political green light to come out of the closet, the oppressive cloak of invisibility they had endured for centuries. More recently the #MeTooMovement encouraged women to explore their truth and men were told to take a back seat, listen and learn.  Those conversations involved communication. . . but they weren’t yet contextualized in the intention of unity. The latest cultural shift, this spotlighting the stories of black people and other people of color is a double whammy.  It is shifting both the message and the medium.  

Huge assemblies of people are marching together through our urban centers, often without clarity about why they are marching.  They walk under the banner of “Black Lives Matter” and articulate that they want justice in the form of an end to racism, but it is clear that there is so much more to their message. 

There is accompanying conversation about the police which is framed using a variety of filters such as police tactics, accountability, reform, brutality, etc. The police are the boots-on-the-ground highly visible reminder of the justice system.  Law enforcement serve as the tangible symbol of law and order, an order that is seen by most as overdue for an update. The interactions between police and protestors vary widely as a result not only of the personal experience of the individuals and communities involved but also the meaning those individuals and communities read into the symbol. 

Which brings us to the other aspect that fascinates me about the vibrant national dialogue we are having in the United States these days centering around justice. Journalists and other witnesses have commented upon, but I have not seen them really able to interpret the significance of the fact that the public protests are largely leaderless.  These events typically have initial organizers of sorts and periodic visible key players pop up and often disappear again but the groups are essentially coming together and going about their business with a degree of spontaneity and fluidity between huge, divergent elements not usually seen in protest movements. 

Mass movement without direction from a handful of individuals is consistent with the top-down shift of energy I’ve been talking about for awhile.  I’ve been watching the energy move downward, closer to Earth, not only in the protestors but now in the police. Even a year ago it would have been unthinkable for police officers to publicly disagree with each other. The code of silence subscribed to by those in that line of work was rock solid as a result of the perception that such group solidarity was necessary for the welfare of all, to protect members of the profession from a challenging and dangerous job.  Suddenly all over the country, individual and small local groups of police are “breaking ranks” to take differing and sometimes contradictory positions in the discussion about justice.  

The energetic shift from power being welded from the top levels to the lower levels, specifically from national and international forces to state and local forces, is the tidal wave of the future. It is consistent with and necessary for the huge shift of consciousness going on currently for human animals.  The universe is moving us from being dominated by tribal thinking to each of us finding our own individual truth as individuals within collective society. 

Many people are emotionally and cognitively devastated by this change. The anxiety and outright paranoia is enormous as people discover they can no longer rely on the religious, political and social figures and organizations they have always used to tell them what’s up. We have to break down our reliance on others to tell us what to think and feel and do. . .so we can develop the skills and abilities to manifest our own individual creativity. . .and join it with the creativity of others for common goals required to meet our present world-wide challenges.   It has been and will continue to be a really rough ride for those individuals to make sense of the changing world who do not have the experience and lack basic skills on finding their own truth.

But if you think confronting and ending systemic racism is an overwhelming task, wait until you see in the days ahead what we have to do in order to end systemic economic injustice; and what is going to be required to keep the planet from continuing to slide into a terminal tailspin.  

In human society justice is truly a concept whose time has come due. People around the world are calling for it in increasingly passionate voice. This image of Justice used in accordance with Fair Use Principles is from Palestinian artist Malak Mattar who is currently a refugee. She first started painting at age 13, during the 51-day Israeli military assault on on her homeland in Gaza in 2014.

The protests around the country are often described as “passionate” and I hear a lot of participants talking in rather vague but deeply-held language about desiring change. As a people we are trying out new abilities to speak in one voice from different life experiences.  The universe is speaking within us and through us even as few understand as of yet what is being channeled.  What is uniting those on the streets and those participating by their witnessing right now is not message or even motive as much as something much more profound and fundamental.  

To focus on what I believe is the energetic core to these demonstrations; I’d like to return to invocation used at the start of this service. Let me repeat it. This is the statement from the Christ speaking about the end times in which we are living. This is from Verse 10 of the Gospel of Thomas:

            “I have cast fire upon the world, and look, I’m guarding it until it blazes.”

Elsewhere in both Luke and Matthew of the Christian Bible, Jesus talks about a time of turbulence that would bring division to households, between father and son, mother and daughter, etc.  Jesus was all about applying the love of his father to everyone, no exceptions. He understood that this would take a burning away of social norms. He was always the social revolutionary when it came to modeling for others and urging them to follow him as he challenged tribal thinking that held tightly to the domination of the many by the few.  As he blazed a trail for us, he made clear that it would be a fiery one.  So here we are, folks. Welcome to the reckoning.     

I like the Thomas citation because to me, it also speaks to the emotional passion of the protests. Our world is on fire right now, both literally with periodic wildfires breaking out all around the natural world. . .and metaphorically.  Individuals and our society as a whole are experiencing the bonfire of the vanities, a holy fire, if you will. 

Image by Elise Huther used in accordance with Fair Use Principles.

We are burning away the essential impurities that must be released it we are to survive.  The passion of these crowds that are protesting around the globe in the name of justice is a kind of collective rage built upon a foundation masking deep, deep sorrow. We have a lot of thoughts and feelings to process, an ocean of rage against the world we have created as a species.  This is the same righteous anger that had the Christ overturning the tables of the moneylenders in the temple.  We tend to think it’s about others but at its core, this anger is the natural consequence of having defiled the sacred with our profane need to exploit each other.  

For some of the protestors and many of the politicians and others commenting on them, this fire quickly loses its essential heat and illumination, and devolves into the petty squabbles of the blame-game.  Lots of folks are getting stuck on an old testament vib of guilt and shame and punishment.  At its spiritual essence though, this righteous anger is paving the way for everyone to have a seat at the table, not just the powerful, the elite, the privileged. 

Benjamin Franklin, that iconoclastic rascal of an American founding father talked about the importance of passion igniting true change  Let the outrage play out its part.

Welcome these fires of transformation, and let them burn through your life.

The world is in a 5th chakra growth period. It does not matter that most do not really understand the nitty-gritty of what they are protesting.

Spirit communicates through images. Learning to add words to the mix is an acquired taste that takes skill development. This is true both for individuals and groups of individuals. Image used in accordance with Fair Use Principles

The first stages to owning the upper three chakras in our collective energy system has to be with opening them, and letting whatever they contain spill out. It doesn’t matter that we don’t yet know what we want to change into. We can figure that out as we go. It’s enough for now that we are open-hearted as the universe moves us, like crucial chess pieces, into the right positions to be available for its mercy.  

 

 

 

I want to remind the people here today as well as those tuning in at a later time, that we each have a part to play here.  There are no coincidences. The protests are showing up in your life because you also have fifth chakra movement to make.  Take inventory of your communication ability and find out where you need to grow.  If you are one who has spent time in the language of emotion, help others learn to regulate theirs.  Model for others as you identify your own emotions, separate what is yours from what belongs to others, express your genuine emotions without using them to attack, and maybe even help people learn that the emotional system is simply a means of communication between the individual soul and its physical body.  On an spiritual level it is not really about other people.

Speaking One’s Truth by Myron Dyal, used in accordance with Fair Use Principles.

If you are one who is cautious with your words, typically expressing your true thoughts and feelings only to a few or only to those who will agree with you, take a few calculated risks and expand your repertoire of experience. 

 

 

 

 

One of the most powerful means for healing yourself and others requires no words. The witness is an underappreciated, often incredibly profound agent of change. Image used in accordance with Fair Use Principles.

If you have no trouble speaking up, maybe you need to learn to listen more or more effectively with people from a different cultural experiences than your own. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And pretty much all of us need to learn to be more gentle, more kind. . .even as we hold feet to the fire for ourselves and any of our brethren who are resisting a more just society.        

Used in accordance with Fair Use Principles

In 1968 Martin Luther King spoke to an elite section of Detroit about nearby riots going on in the city.  He was nearly drowned out by the heckling when he dared to put into words the fact that the economic and social plight of African Americans had worsened in the previous years and promises of justice from a white culture were not being met. He told the crowd that “a riot is the language of the unheard.” He was assassinated three weeks later.  We are listening now, Martin.

As spirit we move through the natural world that includes time and space.  Our bodies, which are a physical manifestation of the natural world require time and space.  The universe has grown weary of our tendency to kill each other when we disagree with one another even if the battle being fought needs to happen.  We are being called right now to both address injustices and to do so in a way that honors life. 

For many thousands of years, human animals have equated survival with domination over other groups of humans. It is time to update our thinking. Cartoon by Man Martin used in accordance with Fair Use Principles.

That is the essence of leaving behind tribal thinking in which one group tries to overpower another group. Getting to a higher plane is going to take many new experiences starting with new levels of interactive communication.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not at all saying that we stop at the communications level.  Just speaking up about racism and other forms of social injustice is a good start but is entirely insufficient by itself.  It is no more appropriate to just mouth apologies and epiphanies about systemic racism then it is to offer thoughts as prayers as a solution to gun violence. Having the necessary discussions is just the first part. Translating thoughts and feelings into action is the end game and it can’t come soon enough.

The world is in a great deal of turmoil in part because human animals keep trying to use our limited brain capacity to negotiate an increasingly complicated path. To survive we area going to need to learn new ways of processing issues, develop new epistemological strategies and cultivate humility. Image used in accordance with Fair Use Principles.

We need to fix the obvious and immediate problems as quickly as we can; but not rush to judgment about complex actions and policies that require careful dissection and extensive public discussion.  Knee-jerk reactions are not helpful.

Now is the time for a new kind of diversity, not just one of basic role equality and opportunity but diversity of thoughts and feelings.  But be careful . . .because true change does not arise from a place of judgment. The medium has to match the message.  Otherwise you are just swapping one illusion for another. If you are demanding justice, it is likely not justice you are seeking. It is revenge.    

In this assembly we will talk at a later date about developing our other collective upper chakras including folding in mercy and kindness and stepping off the carousel of karma.  But for now, let us join people all around the world in the direction gracefully captured by these words from the great poet Maya Angelou: 

If you’re not angry, you’re either a stone or you’re too sick to be angry. You should be angry. You must not be bitter. Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host.  So use that anger. You write it. You paint it. You dance it. You march it. You vote it. You do everything about it. You talk it. Never stop talking it.”      

Copyright 2020 by Rev. Dr. Resa Eileen Raven

 

 

 

Following Your Heart; Choosing Integrity in an Increasingly Fractured World

/ Church of the Harvest

From a Sermon given Autumn Equinox Worship Service  September 23, 2018

Today I want to talk to you about following your heart.  It is actually much more complicated of a topic than it would seem on the surface.   We extol each other constantly to follow our hearts.   This is the go-to advice for the vast majority of human problems.  Whenever somebody is having difficulty making a decision between different life choices, they are inevitably told that the solution to their dilemma is to “follow their heart.”

We’re very good at generating perfect pictures aren’t we?  We’re not so good about actually defining what we mean when we tell ourselves to follow our heart.  In other words, when it comes to the concept of following your heart, we often don’t get the conversation translated from the spiritual realm into everyday life on Planet Earth.  My goal this morning is to provide a certain level of what I think of as “technical information.”  In doing so, I seek to bring Heaven closer to Earth.

When you think about it, it is not so surprising that we usually don’t REALLY know to what we are referring when we tell each other to follow our heart.  After all, in our country and in our world, we pay very little attention to what is going on within each individual.  We are too busy trying to handle the trillions of bits of data coming at us from all around us at every second.  What we process and understand of our world comes primarily from our physical senses.  It’s what we see and hear that gets prioritized by our minds, as well as what we smell and taste.  Even when it comes to what we often label as “feelings,” it’s those galvanic responses, those sensations that are generated by our nervous system associated with our outer skin, states like cold or hot, the comfort of a lover’s caress, the prickliness of an allergic response, the anxiety, surprise and pain if we step on a nail, that gets the most attention.

For every human being there are a whole slew of other possible internal states of being, states of consciousness if you will.  And this is where the internal landscape sometimes can get very foreign for folks.  Often people will refer to any sensation, anything going on within them as a “feeling.”  If asked to describe the sensation further, maybe they can say more about what the feeling is and maybe they have no words for it.  Maybe they can tell where it seems to be located, and maybe not.  We are simply not taught to attend to what the Christ would call the “Kingdom of God.”

At best we may have learned from a particularly mature adult role model or in a school or counseling setting how to label and appropriately express basic emotions.  We are rarely taught the finer viewpoints such as how to distinguish between emotions that are our own and those we have absorbed from others, much less what to do about the latter problem.

When we are not using our emotions for what they were designed–a communication system between the individual soul and it’s physical body, all kinds of distortions and conflicts become possible.

And emotional states themselves are really only the beginning. They are a statement of what our body is going through.  They can have little or nothing to do with who we really are, that is to say, who we are as spirit.

Some lucky few are taught to listen beyond a “feelings” level to their own internal voice.  Usually, however, they do so by revealing what is inside for the benefit of others.  A great poet or painter or musician might express their true nature as a spiritual being through their art.  But rarely do we validate the poet or painter who is dedicating unwritten poems to the universe within.  I know I am not the only one who as a child constantly sang songs to myself with no real need or desire to share them with any other person. Eventually the chaos of the external world drowned out my musical encounters that were a reflection of lived experience of the divine within.

How many of us are taught to converse with the indwelling divine, something available to any and every soul on Earth?  Anyone?

So in a world made blind to the internal, let’s define some terms, shall we?  What do we mean by following your heart?  The heart here is clearly a symbol.

Photograph of the heart muscle and the veins that support it. Posted in accordance with fair use principles

When we tell each other to follow our hearts, we are trying to tell ourselves to follow the lead of our fourth chakra.  This key energy center, also known as the “heart chakra” is in the middle of your chest occupying the same space as your aorta, the main artery of your physical heart. I don’t imagine any of you really believe that you should be following the lead of your physical muscle, the organ that pumps blood.   Certainly that part of your anatomy is an important player in allowing you to be alive, but so are many other components of the miraculous machine we know as the human body.

Just like there is an area in our head which we call the center of our head, that contains both the physical structure of certain parts of our brain as well as the energetic structure of our sixth chakra, we each also have an area in our chest that contains both the physical structure of a large part of your heart organ as well as the energetic structure of our fourth chakra.

The fourth chakra is usually one of the last to fully open because as the chakra that regulates attraction, it can become a major center for stored pain. Many of us are attracted to pain. We seek it out. It is what we have always known and we tend to recreate over and over different versions of the same pain. It takes a lot of experience in the world and spiritual majority to understand we can use the energy of our fourth chakra for an entirely different purpose.

Just as the center of your head was designed to be the main resting area, the seat if you will, of your consciousness, the area in the center of your chest was designed to be the main resting area or the seat of your connection with the All-That-Is, that aspect of the divine that is everywhere and is everything, that is all of life.  Other names for this area include the “God(dess) of your Heart,” and the “indwelling-God or Goddess.”  You can experience the Creator in a thousand different ways but it is in this sacred place of connection within your own space that should you choose this with “all of your heart” the felt presence of your Creator can be at its most pure.

So let me tell you a little about the fourth chakra, this “heart” that our instincts are telling us to follow.   In classes I don’t speak about it very much because quite frankly, it is one of the last parts of an energy system about which most of us are capable of learning.

For those of you who are meditating on a regular basis, there is a natural progression that happens in your growing mastery of internal processes and your development on a spiritual basis.  Development is unique to each soul but it follows certain common pathways.  Just like the infant needs to learn to sit before it can walk, and walk before it can run, spiritual development often comes in stages. One sort-of-gross generalization that can be made is that individuals typically learn to clear out, balance and more effectively use their lower three chakras, the ones that contain information primarily related to manifesting on Earth through matter; as well as the upper three chakras, the ones that contain information primarily related to manifesting spiritually using the resources of the Heavens. . .before they put it all together.

The fourth chakra has many important roles to play in our spiritual life including helping us transcend our fear of mortality. It connects our physical body to other energetic bodies including our own. This piece is “Let Your Heart Shine Even in Death” by Myron Dyal, used by permission of the artist.

It is in these latter stages that one typically begins to concentrate on the clearing and developing of the fourth chakra.  The fourth is the energy center that requires the most balancing of both physical and spiritual, the most about creating Heaven on Earth.  You might work on an important fourth chakra picture here and there that is keeping you from otherwise progressing in other areas; but you are not likely to be very focused on your fourth chakra until you are fairly far along with your spiritual development.  It is one of the last pieces of the puzzle.

I think it is fair to say that most of the people in this room (including myself, I hasten to add) are currently facing the challenge of learning to own their fourth chakra and employ it for that which it was designed.  In fact I would venture to say that it is really the challenge facing most of humanity in present time.   Think of it as we human animals trying to overcome a lack of integrity.  Used here, I’m not talking about lack of “integrity” as some kind of character flaw.  I’m simply talking about “integrity” as all parts working harmoniously together.

We are each of us an intricate work of art learning to create as spirit in the physical world. Sculpture is by Susan Beatrice of All Natural Arts and is posted in accordance with fair use principles.

To make something work well first one has to assemble all the parts, throw out the ones that do not function any more, sometimes manufacture new ones, get all the pieces that are going to be rubbing up against other cleaned up, greased or oiled, and assembly it all into working order.

Right now we have a civilization based on a bunch of parts, most of which are obsolete or rusted,  crucial pieces missing altogether and everything slapped together with a bunch of duct tape, pretending to ourselves that it will now run.  More to the point we have a bunch of individuals often with great intentions who are at war with the out-of-present-time parts of themselves who actually think that the war they are fighting originates from other people.   It does not.

The fully activated fourth chakra understands that all is connected. Our physical bodies are not separate from the body of the Earth.

Since everything outside of you is in one-to-one correspondence with what is inside of you, all the conflict in your world can be resolved by working from your own energy system.  (It’s not that the strife in the physical world no longer exists when you are fully integrated.  It just does not exist in YOUR reality.  You can be content, even as the world goes to Hell in the proverbial hand basket).  From this vantage point there is only peace.  The conflict of the outer world will wash over you but not be experienced by those with a different purpose in their heart.

 

Jesus of Nazareth knew all about the kind of profound peace that comes from within, the peace that comes only from true connection with God; and he knew it was not the kind of peace that many would even recognize.

The peace of the Christ arises from freely surrendering all of one’s being to Love, aka the All-That-Is. In that space there is no need for or even possibility of power games, only the realization that all of life arises from, reflects, and results in the Created Order.

In his words from John Chapter 14, Verses 27:

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled, neither and do not be afraid.”

If you want to be at peace even as the world around us continues to deteriorate into chaos and disharmony, keep up the good work of grounding and meditating and working to clear what presents itself as obstacles to your greater growth.  Release those aspects of your past that are in your way of adapting integrity as your chosen state of being. Jesus is one of our greatest teachers here.  Follow his lead and make your heart chakra a sanctuary place for your connection with the divine.

Resting on the Heart of Jesus

There is a reason why medieval pictures of The Christ frequently show him displaying a flaming heart.  His integrity was complete, and so this Son of Man as he initially liked to refer to himself, became the Son of God, and showed us how each of us could achieve knowledge of the Kingdom of God within thorough the lived experience of the All-That-Is.

In my opinion you do not need to subscribe to what I like to call “the directional deficits” of traditional Christianity to follow the Christ. You don’t need to invite Jesus into your heart.  The Christ is already there.  You just need to turn within, pay attention and desire with all of your being the communication with and conjunction with the God of your own heart who awaits your presence.

Copyright 2018 by Rev. Dr. Resa Eileen Raven