Over the years I have written on how to ride the waves of extreme change as we are experiencing on the planet. I have voiced the challenges we face on all levels. And I have also written about the ancient spiritual teachings that have been used since the beginning of time to tap into the world of spirit to do the work to heal, transform, and change the current dream.
As we face an increase in violence, environmental disasters, climatic changes, economic challenges, as well as personal health challenges I can imagine the rollercoaster ride that many you feel you are on.
I am sure there are those of you who find days when you just feel like things have gone too far on the planet and in your own life and a sense of hopelessness blocks you from doing your spiritual work. And then there are days when you wake up, and you state strongly to the universe and the powers that be that you will not give up, and you feel a fire burning within you to continue with the practices that create an invisible foundation that does create change on the physical realm.
It is all part of the rollercoaster of life. I know in my own life I am facing some fierce transitions. There are days when I just want to give up. Giving up is really not an option for any of us. But giving up what our ego thinks should be happening is important. For we must surrender to spirit and also to Nature. Our own inner spirit carries us through all the transitional times where we feel there is no hope and do not see outer change occurring from the spiritual practices we engage in. And we are part of Nature and Nature has its own flow and intelligence in the death and rebirth process.
I find in my own life it is important to acknowledge how I am feeling on a human level whether I am facing my own personal challenges or watching destruction going on around me that tears at my heart. At the same time, I wake up each day and stay present, surrender to the intelligence of Nature, and to my inner divine light.
And yet I also know I am being called into the Under World to the place of a new level of shamanic initiation. I am being called to the home of the Dark Mother. It is a time for me to do my inner work while surrendering, having trust, and being patient while an alchemical process of turning lead into gold occurs.
Why are we not seeing change happening from so much spiritual work we are performing personally and part of the collective? Well, there is a lot of good happening. We hear stories in our communities everyday of some miraculous change or healing that is taking place for an individual, a family, or a group at large. I continue to collect miraculous healing stories that come from people keeping up the practice of transfiguration. But the change might not be happening for you or on a larger scale where you feel inspired to keep up your work.
Many start to wonder why the miracles are not happening to us personally or to the land, city, or country where we live. There is no answer to this. In the world of spirit there is only oneness and light and we can rest in the divine. In the world of form there is the dark and the light. And the dark requires us to dive into the depths of the Under World into the initiations involving pain, fear, and loss to let go of parts of ourselves that keep us from letting spirit shine through us. As I described in Walking in Light: The Everyday Empowerment of Shamanic Life the process entails disintegration, illumination, remembering, reconstruction, re-emergence.
The journey of the initiate being called into the dark realms of the Under World are the core of the remarkable and transformative myths, legends, and stories that have been told throughout the ages where one walks the path of disintegration and dismemberment reemerging to the light of life.
We really lack a model in our culture where the initiate’s rite of passage is understood and is welcomed back home from the hero or heroine’s journey. And it is a model that we really need right now to help people integrate all the changes that occur during deep times of crisis and illness.
You might start to wonder if this is all a dream why is the dream not changing as we do our work to weave a new reality from the visible into the invisible? And I do believe that the death process has not been completed to allow the rebirth to occur yet. But I know in all my cells and in my heart that we are building a strong foundation and fabric of reality that will bring beauty and health back into our lives and in the planet.
A tremendous amount of surrender, faith, and persistence is required right now.
If you are one of the people who find yourself losing hope acknowledge what you are feeling on a personality/ego level. Let yourself grieve for what you have lost. But still continue to wake up every day and give thanks for your life, earth, air, water, fire (as the sun) that support life, for all the beautiful nature beings that we share this earth with, and to the helping spirits who are working on unseen levels.
I have shared so many practices on columns of the Transmutation News and in all my books. The practices I share are simple practices. Even if you can pick one simple practice to do each day that helps you to transform your words, thoughts, and daydreams from a feeling of defeat to one of inspiration this is a lot. Just one practice each day will help you rise up and join with so many thousands of people who continue to persist to change the dream.
And if you are being personally impacted by the phases of life that present pain and suffering as a way to grow and transform take some time to be with yourself to explore your inner space and just be with it. Do not try and force change. But you will feel empowered by simply traveling within and being with your own true nature which is divine light and perfection. For you are more than the outer events impacting you. You are a being of divine light who is also on a human adventure and experiencing situations that lead to growth.
In August I did present on the Subtle Activism Summit sponsored by the Shift Network. I wanted to share with you what I said in the opening hoping this brings some inspiration into your life and work.
Somewhere about 20 years ago there was a prediction that there was going to be a major earthquake in Southern California. I was living in Santa Fe at the time. I heard about people not being able to get airline flights out of Los Angeles for so many people were trying to flee the area.
Then in the local Santa Fe paper there was a very short article about a group of Tibetan monks who flew into Los Angeles and picked a site to sit in to pray. When questioned about why they were coming into LA while others were leaving, they said that in times of challenge you do not flee a troubled area. You gather there in community to pray and add strength to the land to try and shift the outcome.
This has always impacted me. For we have so many challenges happening right now. And it is so important to gather our energy to create change and transformation. And at the same time, we must do our egoic work to surrender to the outcome. Yet we must continue to take ordinary actions that prevent such future issues from happening again.
This is how we blend and integrate the spiritual, emotional/mental, and physical together.
People always lived in community. And this created a sense of responsibility for community members to take actions, behave, and live a way of life that supported the health of the community, the Earth and the land where they lived, and to live in a healthy way.
Due to how society has evolved people are very isolated. People yearn for community and you can see this by how many people look for workshops and conferences to attend that give them a sense of belonging to a community – something bigger than the isolated world they live in.
And at the same time when we join together in community, we do have to reach deep inside of ourselves to honor the community at large and behave in an appropriate manner to support the strength and health of the community.
And to add to this we already know from thousands of years of shamanic practice that when a community of people gather their thoughts, daydreams, and spiritual prayers together there is an exponential healing change.
The full moon is October 27. Let us gather our spiritual energies together and fill up with feelings of unconditional love for the Earth and all of life. Feel and experience your own spiritual light filling you up, and let it radiate as it weaves together with the divine light of our community within and throughout the Earth.
Let us ride the waves of change knowing that we have so much personal spiritual strength to carry us through as well as the support and love of the compassionate spirits in the invisible realms.
Copyright 2015 Sandra Ingerman. All rights reserved.