Grace & Glory
Glory belongs to the passing era of competition and conquest, when our spiritual lives didn’t seem to matter as much as they do now. In Grace, we are pointed in a whole new direction where the Self comes to surface and takes us onto a new path toward spiritual wholeness..
As we are guided toward this mission of mercy, we realize that others’ needs are equal to our own. We are advised that anything is possible, but not as determined by fate as we once thought. We have choice in all matters, conscious choice.
Where we take this Grace is up to us at this juncture. We can overdo it as we did with Glory in our past. Or we can take a new tack and discover something miraculous about ourselves. We are truly capable of helping one another, through our respective challenges and we can deliver this assistance with compassion. We can open to a whole new way of being, not measured by what Glory used as standards for success.
In these new ventures inward, we will find our Self; this lively pulse within which calls to us. It announces the advent of a new era, one that is governed by the quality of the heart and no longer by the statistics of accumulation and conquest.
Yes, we have defenses. But do we need them now? It’s time to let go of outworn postures and make room for a new way of relating to ourselves. Is Glory worth pursuing, or should we abandon it like so many exhausted adventures?
It’s time to open up now and heal that wounded dove that is our Self. To set it free upon the winds of time and see what Graces are there to be won?
Then, let it be so! Let it begin.
Chapter 8: The Force
Make no mistake about it, conscious evolution is fact whether you are aware of it or not. Everywhere there are signs that many people are on that path. Talk shows present us with such individuals every day and they the aisles of New Age book stores are filled with them as well. It would seem that the God of Heaven wishes to be known at this time and brought down to Earth for all to see. This God knows no bounds and will stop at nothing to be known, wanting you and me, all of us, to be aware of the one truth that really matters. We are not forsaken; we are not lost, only misguided, closed off from our true Selves and sidelined for the moment.
We are making our way back, bit by bit, step by step. We are finding our way to center again. In the last chapter we addressed the issue of conscious evolution through the woman who was a victim of sexual abuse. She exemplifies what so many of us are called to do, open to our self and find our way Home through pain and hardship, as is necessary when we are guarded with defences.
Many of us have chosen this path of recovery through our pain, not consciously, at least not initially. But if we set the stage for these events that drove us to recovery, then we did indeed make a conscious choice at some point. But that is another matter.
When we choose to heal is the first step in the current affair, the matter of conscious evolution on this plane of existence. Healing does not occur in a vacuum. It always takes place in concert with others. We seek each other out in supportive environments. We go to the therapist’s office or join AA; we take a weekend retreat or head for the bookstore; we look to each other for guidance and support; we comfort each other with well chose words. We hide in silence occasionally to retreat from the past. Then, we return to the fray again and again, until it is done, until this healing process is complete.
Why do we do this? Is it the promise of a better life? Is it a further deadening of the pain? Is it a conscious choice to pursue retribution or vengeance? The motives aren’t the same throughout the process. These change at different stages. Suffice it to say, we are driven, and what drives us is that Force, that inalienable Force that brought us here in the first place. That “Force” is dynamic, it wants to live, and wants to move forward. That “Force” is not satisfied with mere existence. It wants much more than healing from this earthly life.
How is it that we keep that “Force” in check for such a long time before we finally surrender to its deepest motives? It is inalienable. It seduces us. It draws us inward to our secret selves where the damage first manifested, where we covered up and ran, where we tried our best to escape. This is how powerful such a Force can be. No mere pretence, denial or defense system will ever keep it submerged indefinitely. This is not possible. There is too powerful a motive to ever be held back indefinitely.
We can hold this Force down for some time, but not forever. Forever extends beyond this lifetime into the next and the one after that. This Force does not give up, never dies and never goes away. It urges us to keep coming at a problem until we master it. This Force both drives and supports us all. “To where?” we might ask, “and for what purpose?”
We are breathless at the thought. But the mind of God is no trickster. It knows exactly what it wants; a man, a woman, a child in luxury and blooming year round. We were created that way, to bloom again and again. Only our defenses and respective fears get in the way. And fear is the sine qua non of aversion to growth. Growth demands a confrontation with fear.
Again we are returned to the Myth of the Hero. What is it that the hero conquers, or overcomes, but fear? That is the quest after all, eternally, repeating itself in scenario after scenario, century after century, all the way forward to the present from further back than we can remember. From cave drawings to textbooks, we are reminded that this has always been part of the human quest, to retrieve that lost Golden Self and have fear overturned in the process.
Some of the worst fears to be confronted are those from childhood, those that came too quickly before we were prepared to deal with life. For some of us, these early traumas occurred in the crib and left their telltale mark from the very beginning of this incarnation. Why we would choose such a horrible beginning, only the hero or heroine of that particular drama can ever know. Those answers are written within each person’s heart.
Such challenges are set in motion before we incarnate. We laid out this path of experience knowing full well we would succumb to the Big Sleep that was currently part of human experience. Each of us who stepped into this realm at that particular time took that step consciously, then arrived here to forget the process altogether. Yet where would we be if some force or energy didn’t move us along. This is the life force that nudges us, pushes us, and prods us into seeking the help and circumstances we need to begin our healing journeys. Many of us have found our way due mainly to this Force. It would appear we are never completely asleep after all.
Each time a truth arises from within, we recognize it immediately. This is the “Ah Hah” experience. Some internal reference point says that’s true, for me at least. That’s what our woman said earlier when she recognized sexual abuse. She had one of these experiences, an internal reverberation that said this information was true for her. As she looks into her void she will find many more “Ah Hahs” and they will signal she’s on the right path as they nudge her to where she needs to go. Her therapist is her guide. She is on the journey!
This is what happens to many embarking on this trail. Looking through the scattered rubble of our dysfunctional beginnings, we find bits and pieces that reverberate with this inner knowing, a note that says “this is true for me”. We all learn. Without that note where would we be?
Our great debate is not about what’s true, but rather what “feels” true. Your truth is not essentially the same as mine, although we do share truth. There are, after all, common denominators in truth. We will strike similar chords with each other now and then, that is inevitable.
We gather in groups to share those common truths, to learn from each other, to support one another. That is how truth leaps from one Soul to the next. By recognition! By transference! By striking a familiar vibration! We hear these echoes from each other as they circulate the globe, leaping from heart to heart, soul to soul. We see God in action as we come closer to recognizing our similarities which, in turn, will minimize our differences. We are not so dissimilar after all, even when we come from entirely different origins, philosophically or otherwise.
This is how it goes, this process of upheaval and change. Round and round it goes, until we take charge of our lives. We learn from each other. This is absolutely so. How else is it to be since we are cut from the same Divine cloth?
Where does it go from here, after the healing journey? That’s the new territory some might call utopia. But utopia is an ideal without change or challenge. An entity that wants to grow will want to be challenged. Where do we proceed after the healing journey? Many of us are still riveted to the healing side of this process and can’t see what lies ahead. For now, trusting the Force and listening to our Heart is all that is required.
“What if God were one of us?” a contemporary song asks. God is a part of us as we are of God, and as such wants each of us to move along on our respective journey. And this is tricky. A man or woman in the midst of a struggle to heal themselves has a purpose and a goal. They stay fixed on it until they get to the end. But then what? The person who pursued healing was wounded and the healing and the woundedness is what defined them for the length of that process. But who are they now that the healing has taken place?
These healed individuals are someone else now. If they are no longer defined by their wounds, then who are they? Where will they want to go now that the healing is finished? Many of us are arriving at this point in our lives. What will be on the next horizon, at the next door? We don’t know for certain. In the meantime, we speculate. God will inform us through our desires and attractions when the time is right. We will be shown where we might like to go next.
In the next chapter we will look beyond, “Beyond Healing” I call it. This is the next stage in our conscious evolution. Where might this take us?
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