CHAPTER 1
Introduction
A Greater Vision—Communing with the Soul
I wrote this book to share a fragment of my understanding and belief in establishing practices that greatly enhance the feminine aspect of our being; its place in joy and well-being, and living a peaceful, harmonious life.
Through regular practice and communion we become more self-aware and fulfilled; creating natural states of peace and harmony. We open up new pathways of loving potential and achieve serenity in our approach to life.
Throughout this book are many useful and simple methods to explore which direct the attention inwards, cultivating the intrinsic connection to the feminine inner: the pathway home. In creating healthy habits in relationship to the inner self, we begin to sense a new landscape within of creative potential. We become more open to inspiration.
I have also included ideas on how to deal with troubling emotions and difficulties that can affect our well-being if not dealt with over a period of time.
I counseled many women and a small percentage of men over a period of about twenty years. For the most part, I found my clients to be extraordinary, insightful, wise, and talented people, all on a quest for love and truth.
My wish is for humanity to have a greater peace within; to be more committed to family, friends, and communities; and to move forward with more awareness of life on a daily basis. I pray that the earth and all its creatures be treated with utmost respect. I pray for a return to feminine softness and practices and rites that observe our true nature and are part of that return.
We have to go beyond the human dilemma to help our fellow man, the planet, and all of existence to step into a truth and love vibration that is really outside the understanding of most—a love that supersedes where we were yesterday.
It takes generosity of spirit and kindness to cross the human landscape to the soul's domain of love and acceptance, to accept our feminine energy.
It is up to each of us to explore healing and our creative potential and to reach deep within to find our role in becoming greater caretakers of humanity and the planet.
My work brought me in contact with many people, from the homeless person to the millionaire. My question, in all cases, was, "How do I support this person? How do I inspire her or help her to gain insight and perhaps help her to take the next step?"
I would work with affirmations and imaginative themes to create inspiration and hope. Sometimes I used metaphor, as it came fairly naturally in this process. People can easily put themselves into an offered position or quirky alternative, to create good and hopeful outcomes. I also sprinkled each session with humor. What a relief that was too!
Armed with finely honed intuition and insight, I was able to find the necessary, simple steps for each person to take to reach the next part of his or her journey, regardless of background.
There are simple, common themes throughout humanity. We each need to feel and express love; we need our friendships, our emotional and physical security and support. Above all, we need to feel our place in the world.
My work was never about changing people; it was about creatively working with them to take the next step. I worked to support, inspire, and open up blocked channels of communication and understanding.
In the end, most people who left my company felt very optimistic, thank goodness.
I noticed throughout my life that my own personal and spiritual journey seemed to be tied up with the journeys of others. At our highest potential, we are all able to reflect love and truth to each other. Sometimes, of course, our "buttons" are pressed, sending us a little off track and down dead-end streets. We find ourselves head-butting brick walls through repetition of habits and beliefs and responses that just don't work anymore.
Often, there is no reasoning as to how you help your client. The universe seems to step up and help, sometimes in unusual and unexpected ways.
Our evolution is very much connected to the planet and her evolution. Mother Earth is in a period of great change and progress. That evolution is about love and moving toward higher frequencies of love and light.
Reflection, Natural Cycles, and the Mysteries
For most of us, time out is spent in some kind of reflection on life, events, and mysteries. We go through different phases in life, becoming accustomed to new conditions as we let go of the old.
The different stages and cycles of growth sometimes flow naturally and other times, not so naturally.
So too, with the moon and its feminine associations of mystery and enchantment, we ebb and flow, wax and wane. When the moon is full, we are often at our greatest emotional potential, but how many of us become a victim of our emotions at this time? In turning to look at the natural cycles, we can pay homage to the nature of the feminine that lies within us and become more aware of what lies ahead.
Having insight into our truth and the simple processes of daily life can make the stages and cycles easier. Life's experiences are not always peaceful; however, life provides us with the understanding to use for future reference and different, improved outcomes.
Our spiritual evolution is very much tied into our alertness and ability to be self-observant, our daily rituals and how they are undertaken, and the changes we make within as a result of self-observation. To be at our best in the face of adversity is not always easy.
We often find ourselves delving into the great mystery of who we are, how we are, and why we are here.
Having spent time in nature, walking in the forests and meditating, I realize how important and necessary it is for us to take time out and to create the space for self-acknowledgment and understanding.
Meditation and daily rituals help us get back in touch with that true nature at the core of our being. This is where the truth of the self and our connection to all existence begins. When we get in touch with that and persist, we can truly find our value and love ourselves.
Affirmation of the Feminine Way
During my time working with women, I came across women with beautiful feminine energy who had nothing nice to say about themselves. Nor could they confirm a positive life direction, because of low self-esteem and poor feedback in their world. On the flip side, I worked with women who were playing and manipulating energy, becoming tougher and harder, in order to survive in business, relationships, and life. Their feminine energy was suffocating and dying because of a difficult mind-set that had no connection to feminine softness and nurturing.
Progress, creativity, business, and love are not meant to be about opportunism and agenda. Success should not be about sacrificing the beauty of the feminine, the vulnerability, the wonder, innocence, sensitivity, or creativity, to prove some kind of elusive strength.
To accept your feminine energy absolutely and to know your softness, beauty, and uniqueness, to pursue your gifts and dreams without cynicism puts you into a place of gentle power. Enjoy it!
Remember to be kind, supporting, accepting, and allowing with yourself and others.
The feminine way is about softness, feeling, seeing, and knowing the truth in all things, walking the path with humility, and appreciating light and energy in all their earthly and heavenly forms. It is about being receptive, allowing and accepting in a grounded sense of self.
The feminine presence in full flower is magnetizing, loving, and profound.
Trust and believe in your goals and dreams. You came up with them from somewhere inside of you. Your inner light is trying to show you something. Be courageous and quietly persist to reach your goals.
Love is the way.
We have a great capacity to love, and with that love, you can turn your life and the lives of others around.
Once you open and heal your heart and access the feminine magic deep within, you send out a signal to the world around you, to other dimensions of time and space, to the angelic realms and devic kingdoms. You walk the path of love and light. You are a quiet healer and observe the cosmic law of love. Your life changes because of this.
CHAPTER 2
Cycles and Initiation The Path of Wisdom
Initiation
You go through many initiations, both physically and spiritually, traveling through childhood, teenage years, and adulthood, with many traditional and cultural events marking the phases.
Some of life's initiations can be quite difficult and testing, both physically and spiritually. However, when you cross the threshold of the transition, you find yourself in a new place with a new or renewed identity.
Some initiations are strong; the soul demands change and places before us a set of confronting circumstances for the ego personality to show its mettle and rise up to a greater force of love.
If we are smart enough to see the learning and make the break and change, we are assured of renewal.
The angle at the gates of initiation beckons us on
Other initiations bring about questioning as to who we are, why we are here, and the nature of our mission. This leads us to delve into that great mystery. The search can be quite profound if you are a spiritual soul already.
Throughout our life journey there are soul destiny points where we go through levels of soul integration into the physical. Often this brings about a deeper meaning, a shedding of the old, and a new sense or understanding of identity. We are somehow different.
During heart-center initiations, often energetically there is an outpouring of love through all the cells of the body. You begin to understand the nature of oneness and your place in the world. You find yourself letting go of false structures of thinking and being, and you remove unnecessary clutter from your life.
This infusion of love comes with a period of profound witnessing, often through meditation and reflection. There is a deep cleansing of emotions and pain as you journey through.
There are times when we face the self in complete truth without disbelief, and we know what and how to create in the world.
We become more intelligently aware of the potential and skills at our disposal. We consciously start to grow and evolve in a strong, creative union with our true nature—love.
Looking Back at the Cycles
It is worth looking back at major points in your life and asking yourself how the transitions really went. Were they easy, emotional, complex or difficult? How did you handle those transitions? Did you fear the outcome, or did you move on with a good sense of self, knowing that there would be breakthrough to higher ground of renewed emotional experience?
Remember your last difficult transition period. How did you manage, what were your tools and skills; were they useful and can you use them again if necessary?
Practice:
Remember a transition period in your past.
1. What was the event?
2. What emotion were you feeling at the time?
3. What skills or tools did you use to assist you through? (e.g. analysis, thoughtfulness, listening, creative ideas)
4. How did you overcome any difficulty? (Discuss; acceptance; move on; let go; allow.)
5. Really think your experience through.
6. What were your strengths? (Quiet reticence; diligence; inner truth; forgiveness; graciousness; compromise; love; resilience.)
List the skills; really think about it.
Write out your tools and skills, and stick them on the wall. Give yourself a pat on the back.
Building the Rainbow Bridge to the Soul
With focus and practice, we begin to access strands of feminine energy that lie deep within us, awaiting cultivation and connection.
As you continue any form of practice, such as ritual or meditation, you will begin to form your own true foundation. You connect into the layers and levels of your soul and stream of consciousness as you observe a true and right attention to your intuition; fine-tuning a sensitivity to the inner and outer worlds.
Through ritual and meditation, you begin to acknowledge your present state, your personal space, aspirations, and dreams. This helps by creating pathways where those dreams seem to be illuminated. You become more aligned with that feminine softness within and your place in the world. You establish a new sense of self-esteem.
Soul Initiation
There is often a stirring in your heart for knowledge about who you are and why you are here, as the soul stimulates the physical to grow and evolve. You often feel a need to know more or develop a spiritual practice and focus. Spiritual growth and personal growth often go hand in hand.
Soul evolution takes you into cosmic states beyond the tiny ego mind, to greater states of awareness and love, beyond where you are. You become aware of a greater identity beyond the ego.
Some initiations and stages of transition can create a giddy or chaotic feeling.
Practice:
Take time out for the following:
• Appreciate your personal space.
• Meditate.
• Focus on the stillness within.
• Feel that stillness.
• Have moments of quietness when you sit and listen.
• Allow yourself to center and strengthen.
• Notice and sense your energy.
Eventually you create a certainty in your wisdom, living life in more of a quiet, spontaneous, and peaceful way.
In physical terms, you become more in touch with what is real and what you want to create that resonates in a state of harmony with your personal vibration.
Dealing with the Illusion
One of the major initiations is based around the use of words and actions and their impact on others. You must learn the impact of your words, being ever watchful to use loving and, at times, thought-provoking words, to help others on their way or just quietly support them. There is no ego involved, no energy of power or greatness. A book worth reading is Alice Bailey's Initiation, Human and Solar—a great read.
Right Use of Words
The use of glamour, in speech, attitude, affect, and great posturing seems to be the lot for some aspirants on the path of enlightenment. It usually stems from a need to be special, with the poor, old ego ranting and raving in some way to get attention. Perhaps this type of behavior is due to unresolved emotions or a complete lack of self-observance. Another Alice Bailey book, Glamour, a World Problem, is a worthwhile read.
There is often a cruel element in the world that becomes antagonistic and jealous—people who are blocked in their feminine creative energy, with no prospects of truly relating to the self. People use glamour to manipulate their position. The soul can and often does bring about crisis at different times to illuminate the path for these people.
Practice:
How do your words impact people? Could you use different words and say what you mean lovingly and gently?
1. Notice how your words impact on others.
2. Use gentler terms if necessary.
3. Always state your ideas and thoughts in loving terms.
4. Notice the difference.
5. Match your words to the other person's energy.
Time Out
Sometimes we are meant to pause and do nothing and then sow new seeds of creative endeavor. It is at this time we learn patience and insight through reflection. We often integrate all we know or have learned previously during time out and reflection.
During this time, if you push the "pause" button to go forward, you may get a stop reaction, and things just won't work. You can ponder what is next, perhaps working on goals or intuitively moving toward your dreams and aspirations. After wintering, you start to tend, grow, and move toward your vision. This is all part of transition.
The idea is not to become emotionally wired up but to learn to step between the spaces of the linear world, to tap the magic that sits within you.
Practice:
1. Intuitively ask your body, What day shall I have time out?
2. Upon waking in the morning of that day, use the Greet the Day Ritual in the Ritual section of this book.
3. Have a cup of tea, and let your thoughts free roam.
4. When something comes up that brings lightness and softness into your being, tag it for your activity that day.
Co-Creating with the Self
As you become more aligned with the feminine, you not only create wisely and purposefully but more naturally. You are not emotional or tied up in knots.
As you rest more and more in the receptive, allowing feminine energy, you begin to create in a state of true volition and movement, a natural flow from the heart. You will see your world differently and have glimpses of true peace and bliss. Extraordinary, successful creations often follow.
When working in harmony with your natural creativity, you begin to understand ebb and flow with the creative process—from the vision of a goal to the process, the stages, and the finished product. There are natural times for retreat, when you may need time out, reflection, and a holiday or a good clear-out. Just do it. Don't question your true self; trust your intuition.
