Spirit Secrets

Updated on November 20, 2011: Added Chapter 3 - Establishing Our Inner Circle

Introduction

I have come full circle - Inspired in adolescence, disillusioned in youth - I have been an aspirant and a warrior... I've heard  secrets whispered in board rooms and meditation halls. I've engaged in battle with demons of spirit and flesh. I've been betrayed by those closest to me - Spirit injured but not broken, I persevered.

Eventually one comes to understand that secrets kept are not worth knowing, Truth - neither found or sought. The Journey simply IS... 


Side tracked by the sideshows on the Journey, I have returned from whence I came, to my inspired adolescence. With no time for anger or vengeance, I stand with a journey before me and the mystery that engulfs it.


What follows is what has been reveled on this unfolding and ongoing Journey.  

Chapter One: The Journey IS

The human spirit comprises of many unique and complementary elements;  masculine, feminine, fire, water, air, earth - all integrated to exist and manifest within the Universe in which we exist. 

The human soul, however, exists as a singularity. It exists in a single instance in time/space. It is animated by a unique and many faceted Spirit which draws from and resonates with external elements within our surrounding environment and universe. 

In a healthy and balanced existence, our inner Spirit elements resonate in harmony with external environment and gain sustenance and power from them.

When aspects of spirit become silenced or distracted, the spirit becomes unbalanced and fragmented.  The soul feels unprotected and out of balance. It goes into a slumber and seeks out external spirit elements to stabilize, control or even replace the fragmented Spirit in order to regain its awakened state.  


The intrusion of foreign spirit elements create further turmoil within the Soul as it does not satisfy or sufficiently replace the missing Spirit fragment. This fragmentation of Spirit is the source of addictions, mental imbalance, compulsions and pretty much all that ails humanity. It creates lost souls - souls entrapped in a futile effort to gain balance through taking on external and disassociated spirit elements. These souls suffer from a thirst that can never be quenched.

Humanity, since ancient times, naturally adopted rituals and spiritual practices that unite the spirit and fulfill the soul, fostering an inner state that is in harmony with Creation. Ancient communities performed rituals and practices that unified the collective spirit. Many of these traditions exist today, but are diluted by humanity's innate  sense of inadequacy and overpowering external forces that reinforce this inadequacy. 

Retrieving ones Spirit Fragments and regaining harmony within the Soul is easily achieved. It requires, however, that one discard all thoughts of spiritual inadequacy. It requires that one embrace an un-ending and Infinite Journey and expect nothing.  It is a state in which one feels the infinite and unconditional love that seems to exist everywhere. Its achieved simply by embracing ones humanity. It requires one to make every moment, every breath a sacred gift.

While Saints and Sages claim achieving their elusive nirvana requires lifetimes of suffering and sacrifice, they in fact distract Humanity from its Journey. This is because there is nothing to achieve, there is only the Journey that unfolds before us.

Chapter Two: Good Fences - Good Neighbors

We are created whole at birth. Our soul exists as a singular instance in time and space. It mirrors the singularity in which Creator manifested our universe. It is Zero divided by the un-manifest potential, Infinity - which is the infinite source that sustains Creation. As such, the soul connects to the infinite. 

Our spirit, which animates us, exists with all the essentials to establish and maintain our soul/singularity in this existence. Spirit establishes the boundaries of our soul. Without this boundary, we would cease to exist.

As life pulsates through our very being, so does it pulsate around us. Humanity imposes itself upon us. From the moment of birth the process of defining our boundaries begins. Life is a process where we choose either to seek external forces that resonate with our spirit within, or allow external spirit elements into our inner circle to influence, tamper with, or even replace the Spirit that our soul chose to align with at the moment of our birth. 

While all life is connected to the same Creator/Source, our Soul is a singularity, an individuality. Before it experiences its own individual Journey. This Journey is both unique to our Soul, yet infinite and therefore part of the collective experience or Journey.

Key to this life’s Journey is to establish and define the boundaries of our existence as a position of strength. We learn to interact with God’s Creation and in doing so, gain knowledge, strength and experiences that ultimately become part of the universal experience. When the boundaries of our Soul/Spirit are weak or compromised, we become something other than unique selves.

The universe around us is teaming with life. It is natural for our boundaries to be challenged. All disease, be it Physical, psychological or spiritual is a result of some foreign element violating our boundaries. 

The Journey that lays before us, requires that we establish a firm boundary that protects our being. This enables us to experience the Journey and gain strength from our interactions with the Universe. When boundaries are violated, dysfunction and disease are manifested. 

Robert Frost’s poem, “Mending Wall”,  ends with the phrase “Good fences make good neighbors”. This poem plainly and innocently describes the “Dance Of Life”. In this dance, our boundaries and the boundaries of others are defined, maintained and challenged as we interact with our "neighbors". Our Journey is interrupted when the boundaries of our Spirit/Soul are not in tact, and when we interfere with the boundaries of others, we interrupt their Journey.

To embark on this Infinite Journey we must not only establish the “fences” that encompass our Soul, but must also respect the “fences” of others if we are to interact on the path that lays ahead of us. 

Chapter 3: Establishing Our Inner Circle

My oldest child was born to a mother who lived in a disturbed psychological and spiritual state. Her own personal boundaries were severely compromised at an early age resulting in the development of a disorder clinically referred to as a Borderline Personality Disorder. The “borderline” that the clinical psychologists refer to is the fine line between normalcy and schizophrenia, however, the name is fitting as the source of this disorder comes from the tampering of our physical, mental and spiritual boundaries in our early childhood. The moment our first child was born, in true “borderline” character, his mother refused to hold him. The nurse, confused by this behavior, handed my 3 minute old son to me and left us alone to go ponder the disturbing event that had just happened. 

What should have been a traumatic and uncomfortable moment for me and my son was instantly transformed into a timeless state of magic. My son, now minutes old, opened his eyes and looked into mine. Still connected to the primal singularity of creation out of which he came, I stared into an infinite expanse. I took him to the window and we looked out on the world together. I experienced, for a moment, his experience of the world. I experienced a world from the point of a soul, that was very clear about the boundaries of his existence - where his existence ended, and where the outside world began. It was a wondrous moment that transcended time. In that moment I had the privilege of experiencing the world from a newborn's perspective.  Much to his mother's dismay,  even as a newborn infant, he would cry in her arms and cease to cry when handed to me. His instincts would prove prophetic as her abusive behavior towards him and his little brother escalated, culminating  in a series of events that nearly took their young lives from them at the hand of their own mother.

This experience taught me the power that we are born into this world with. I learned that, at the moment of birth,  we are more inherently aware of our physical, mental, and spiritual boundaries then at any other time of our existence. Our soul, which exists as a singularity or singular point in Time/Space, is powerfully aware, uncluttered by self consciousness or any sense of limitation. The world we experience is wide open to opportunities. We are born intuitively aware of our existence or “Is-Ness”. Every moment we experience and learn from stimulus on all levels of the Creation that we exist in and that exists in us!

In this state we are able to rapidly advance on all levels . We learn and grow from external stimulus. We learn to trust and embrace familiar protective forces, mother, father, family, home, and in that trusted environment we are able to embark on our life’s journey through direct experience. 

Injuries and mistakes incurred along the way become important lessons that enable us to expand our experiences safely the next time we are confronted with similar circumstances. 

Creator and creation provide us with this “Inner Circle” the moment we are born. Humanity has survived due to this powerful force that naturally engulfs us. In an ideal world, a child’s inner circle begins with it’s physicality, psychological and spiritual boundaries of experience. It extends to its maternal and paternal influences. As a child grows, it learns how to trust and extend its circle to include its tribe/community - every step expanding awareness into the infinite expanse of the universal experience. 

All this, however is based on the very foundation that we learn at birth. At birth we are the most cognizant of our singularity - our singular existence in space and time.  We inherently know our boundaries, where we begin and where the outside world exists in reference to us. We are inherently “wired” to learn external forces that resonate with our spirit and strengthen us, and those forces that harm or weaken us. 

This is all well and good, but for the constant assault put upon us at birth to tear down our personal “inner circle” boundaries, and question our inner voice. The day we are born, the world that we are born in attacks the integrity of our Inner Circle. We are told that we were born in Sin - that we are vulnerable, damaged and in need of purification ceremonies and guidance. Our natural and inherent ability to learn from an protected but expanding Inner Circle, is replaced with an imposed structure of indoctrination intended to make us subservient to a social structure that insists that we are worthless fodder who must succumb to Kings, Gurus and Gods to be purified. We are taught to pursue access elusive goal, nirvana, heaven through subservience to a higher master. In other words,  are indoctrinated from the day we are born to born with a slave mentality. In this process our inner circle, which is powerful at the moment of birth,  is torn down and replaced by a higher authority - government, church, guru, etc..

By the time we become adults, our inherent sense of “Is-Ness” has been so compromised - our personal inner circle boundaries are so shattered, that we exist completely exposed to physical, mental and spiritual assaults from the world around us. We respond to this exposure in many ways. We can shut down into a shell that prevents us from experiencing the wonderment of the world and live an uninspired and paranoid life. Alternatively some of us seek solace and security by completely surrendering our selves to enslavement to a causes bigger than ourselves be it political, religious, intellectual or spiritual. This is not to say that being protective of ones self or participating in bigger causes in the world are bad, but taking these behaviors to extreme levels, more often than not are a result of a reaction to feeing disconnected to our soul/singularity. 

The process of recovering from this disconnect involves re-establishing our existence in Time and Space. Connecting oneself in Time is simple if only one can embrace the thought that linear time exists only due to our minds inability to fathom the quantum aspect of reality - e.g. that all time and every possible outcome exists concurrently.  

With this thought, one has access to all the wisdom at this very moment that one would have in every possible quantum outcome in the future. Beyond that, one is inter-connected to all the wisdom of their ancestors and decedents in this very instant.  As a newborn, we are connected to this timeless reality. In our adult life, we are subsequently taught to immediately forget this. The only step required to regain what was lost, however, is to re-institute that thought. With this thought, there is no Master to serve. Mastery exists for us to embrace with every instant. We must only embrace our humanity for what it is Now!

With that said, the next important step to re-establishing one’s Inner Circle is to connect with one’s physical location in Space. We are children of the Heavens and Earth. Embracing our consciousness as it exists in relation to Heaven and Earth is the same as embracing the singularity form which all Creation pours from. We are a mirror of that miraculous singularity.

Our Shaman ancestors created ceremonies that establish an Inner Circle or Medicine Wheel.  The symbol for such as Circle is formed around a cross, which symbolizes our presence in the fabric of Ether or Space/Time. At the intersection of this cross, at it's center is our singularity, our singular existence at the intersection of Time and Space. 

Medicine Wheel: Intersection of 
Time and Space

It can be said that this Medicine Wheel exists within our physical body. It exists at the intersection of the yogic Chakra system, which extends along the base of the spine, and the horizontal chakra system that extends from finger tip to finger tip. 

The intersection of these are at what is traditionally referred to in the yogic tradition as the Heart Chakra. In practically every spiritual and religious system, the center, heart chakra is deemed as the seat of the soul. It symbolically if not physically represents our singularity, our central point of existence where we manifest our Creation and exist in Creation as a small mirror of Creation itself.

The Inner Medicine Wheel:
Intersecting at the Heart Chakra

The Journey which we embarked up on at birth, to experience this Creation and Co-Create within it, resumes the instant we embrace our Heart Center, our Soul/Singularity. With that embrace, we can again, re-establish the boundaries of our existence. We can proceed to experience the world as a coherent being, in sync with Creation and Creator. 

This is not a process that requires years of practice to master. It is a thought that occurs in an instant. The moment we embrace it, we establish our inner Medicine Wheel, our Inner Circle and resume the Journey that we were lured away from as we handed our power over to external influences. With this thought, we learn to be compassionate to ourselves. We embrace every moment and experience, every success and mistake, as experiences and adventures on an Infinite Journey.

The most challenging aspect of this instantaneous transformation that we have available to us, is embracing our imperfections and humanity. We’ve been taught to doubt ourselves. We’ve learned to re-live our past mistakes in our heads to reinforce our inner sense of inadequacy.  This is the most challenging force that we confront at every moment on our Infinite Journey.  It assaults our Inner Circle every moment. Embracing our IS-Ness is the only means to addressing this assault upon our Inner Circle.  This requires our embracing our Humanity with all our imperfections. This requires that we become observers and not be re-traumatized by our past errors. 

As we establish our IS-Ness, our Inner Circle as an ongoing process, we can begin to heal form the hurt and trauma inflicted upon us by our torn boundaries. This healing process is ongoing. Many hucksters would have us believe that if we serve them our pain will subside and we will achieve perfection. The fact is, just as when one exercises, muscles are torn down and regenerate to be stronger, our experience in the world causes injury. The resulting healing or re-generation restores us to be stronger than before.

When we re-establish our Inner Circle, Embrace our Is-Ness or Humanity and the Infinite Journey that we have embarked upon, we resume our ability to re-generate from our wounds and exist in an ever expanding awareness of the Creation we live in. There is no beginning, and no end. There is no goal or mastery. All there “IS”, is our existence at this very instant on our Infinite Journey, along with all the possibilities that have been and will be!

TO BE CONTINUED...

Chapter 4: Our Inner Spirit Elements

Chapter 5: Seeking Protection and Guidance

Chapter 6: Embracing Humanity

Chapter 7: The Infinite Journey

IS-Ness: An Alternative Spiritual View

The human mind naturally organizes random and infinite aspects of reality into patterns and structures that it can grasp and manipulate. Collectively, we have created a linear timeline to chronicle our existence relative to each other and the universe we exist in. Infinity and nothingness are difficult things for the mind to fathom. Many Spiritual traditions preach the ideals of Infinity, yet still cling to linear and hierarchical concepts that entrap the masses in a web of spiritual inadequacy. Spiritual goals and achievements are fabricated so that some sense of progress on a spiritual/religious path can be established.

Given that I have forsaken the concept of a goal based path and have embraced the Infinite Journey, I have been forced to adopt a different view of things based on nearly 3 decades of experience in the Yogic, Sufi, Mystical Christian and Shamanic traditions. Like any intellectual pursuit in the realm of spirituality, my personal view is limited by my own human mind’s inability describe the Infinite Experience - so suffice it to say it is an evolving and limited description that I have formulated on my personal and inexplicable Infinite Journey. While it is yet another attempt create an organized spiritual view of something that is inherently inconceivable, I have found it extremely helpful and have chosen to share it here for others to benefit from.

Trapped In Linear Time and Spiritual Hierarchies
Western religions established the concept of Heaven and Hell as consequences or rewards for our actions. Heaven is achieved when one lives their linear existence within the pre-defined rules of engagement. Hell is where we are sent to suffer for our sins. This very black and white reward/punishment view describes a conscious God that judges and extracts revenge for disobedience. It becomes a tool to subjugate the masses and control their behavior through a collective sense of human inadequacy.

Eastern religions more often than not refer to a spiritual hierarchy as well. In the Yogic Tradition, chakras are described as a linear progression extending from the base to the crown. In this linear approach to the spiritual journey, the disciple must master each chakra in succession in order to obtain the wisdom and rewards of the next. Nirvana or self realization is the end goal and occurs when one opens the last and final crown chakra or some similar thing.

Master/Disciple traditions insist that spiritual humility can only be achieved when one submits to a more evolved human master. The aspirant's ego is subdued into a sense of inadequacy, reinforcing the concept that they are separate from the Creator and cannot experience the Divine directly.

Fostering human inadequacy in a disciple creates dependence on another, allegedly more evolved being in order to climb some illusory spiritual ladder to achieve some mythical spiritual goal. If we accept that by our very existence, our life itself, we have embarked on an Infinite Journey, such hierarchies, goals, spiritual levels, are merely more creations of our own mind that only serve to distract us on the Journey.


Singularities, The Soul And The Medicine Wheel
Physicists and Spiritualists alike have occasionally agreed on a common view that our universe was created from a singularity. From this primordial singularity all creation was stirred and spiraled outwards to create the universe. New singularities with their own creation story are formed, like echoes or reflections from the primordial singularity. It could be said that our very existence is also a mirror of creation. At our center is the singularity, our soul which exists as a singular point in time and space. Our spirit is the manifestation that forms around this center or singularity. Spiraling energy from our center/singularity manifests consciousness and action.

The fabric of creation, often referred to by scientists and spiritualists as Ether, is established by the existence of Space and Time which extend from the center/singularity like the cross in a shamanic Medicine Wheel.

Directions of Up/Down (SPACE) and future/past (TIME), are often referred to as directions in traditional Shamanism. An alternate view would be that these are in fact aspects of Ether where the Time and Space create the fabric for creation. These four “etheric directions” establish the cross in the medicine wheel.

Figure 1: medicine wheel

Superimposed upon this Wheel in the four corners, are the four directions which directly relate to the traditional Shamanic directions in the Medicine Wheel.

The Heart Based Medicine Wheel
The heart chakra or center in yogic tradition can be viewed as the center of a Medicine Wheel that exists within our very being. This chakra can be viewed in the shamanic sense as the center or singularity of our existence. It mirrors the singularity out of which all creation was formed. It links the infinite with our instance in time and space, it is the seat of the Soul or “Is-ness” - our essence of being. Soul is the passenger on the infinite journey. Soul is connected to and transcends the wisdom past and future. It transcends space. Soul is the point from which our co-creation emanates. It can be associated with our unconscious mind.

Some Sufi's have made reference to 9 heart based sub-chakras. Each is said to exhibit unique characteristics of the human persona. These in fact form a Medicine Wheel like structure in the heart, beginning with the center, the four points in the Time/Space cross, and four directions/elements. Figure 2. below illustrates these heart sub chakras as a Medicine Wheel.

Figure 2.

The center/heart point is intersected by a line that connects it with two points, above and below it, located on the chest. They correspond with the thymus gland and solar plexus. Two more points are in line with the heart on the horizontal axis located on either side of the heart point. The vertical points can be associated with Space, the upper associated with the traditional medicine wheel direction of up or Sky. The lower point associates with the direction of down or Planet Earth.

We are children of both the stars and of Earth and these two points are nodes where the flow of energy from Earth and Sky intersect and reflect the heart point just above and below the heart chakra.


The horizontal flow can be associated with Time. The Right node or point can be associated with the traditional medicine wheel aspect of ancestors. It represents our connection to the wisdom of our past ancestry and genetic heritage. The left point can be associated with the future or our relationship with the wisdom of the future. This time “energy” so to speak, flows from both directions and intersects in the Heart/Singularity. The two points are nodes or reflections of the Heart Chakra as a result of this flow of time. 

While references of these two points exist in some Sufi literature, their exact location seem to be guarded as a secret. Perhaps this is because they empower the individual with wisdom beyond time. When one can connect directly with wisdom beyond time, dependence on a spiritual hierarchy to experience the Journey for us is no longer necessary. 

References to this wisdom beyond time exist in the Christian tradition, referred to as the "Holy Spirit". It was this very empowerment of all humanity taught by Jesus to the unwashed masses that caused such a threat to political and religious hierarchies of the day and resulted in his torture and execution.

The “cross” established in the heart with the intersection of the Space and Time establishes the fabric of ether where spirit, mind and body manifest. This can be thought of as the Medicine Wheel of the heart.  Again the Christian tradition makes reference to the existence of a "Cross In the Heart". I do not find this to be a coincidence at all. Its even more interesting that when Catholics cross themselves, they utter the words "Holy Spirit" when making the horizontal portion of the cross over the heart.


The four corners of this heart centered Medicine Wheel represent the four directions, and associated four elements. This is where aspects of our Spirit manifests. Sub-Chakra’s associated with each element/direction each have their own characteristics that make up our conscious self and result in our on manifestations.

We as products of creation are mirrors of the repeating pattern of Singularity/Ether/Manifestation. The Heart Chakra, can be though of as the Center or Singularity. It is the seat of the Soul or unconscious self. It is the intersection of  the fabric Time and Space with our singular existence or "Is-ness".

Meditation On The Heart Medicine Wheel
Lets discard the traditional order of the Medicine Wheel as well as the linear progression of Chakras. Instead, lets embrace the center or heart chakra as a place of balance or inactivity- like the calm center of the hurricane with the manifestation of Spirit swirling around it.

Begin by embracing the presence of the Sky Spirit, as it flows from the heavens and resonates at the upper heart point located at the location of the thymus gland. Acknowledge the flow connecting the stars and galaxies of space from above into the this upper heart point. This flow is cancelled at the heart chakra, and re-establishes itself as it flows downward into Planet Earth. We are children of the stars, formed by dust and gasses from galaxies, and forged by the fire of suns. We embrace and honor this reality as it manifests within our Core.

We then embrace the presence of our planetary energy as it flows from below and resonates in the lower heart sub-chakra located at the solar plexus. We honor this flow of planetary energy as it moves upwards, negating at the heart chakra, then re-establishing itself as it flows upwards to the heavens. The flows of Sky and Planet intermingle as we embrace our connection to Space. By honoring the intermingling of Planetary and Cosmic energies, we acknowledge that we are children of Earth just as we are children of the cosmos. Our very DNA is forged from the elements of our planet. It is part of us and we are part of it.

We become mindful of the center or Heart Chakra as the singularity. It is a place where perfect balance exists, no thought, emotion or activity - complete calmness, only Being or Is-Ness exists there.

Next we welcome the presence of the spirits of our ancestors. In doing so, we acknowledge the flow of energy from our right, entering under the right arm, just parallel to the heart, and resonating at the sub-chakra just to the right of the heart. The wisdom of our past, our ancestry, saints flow in us and through us. It exists in our very DNA. We are part of it and it is part of us.

We then welcome the presence of the spirits of the future. Our own future wisdom, the wisdom of Angels, our progeny, all flows through us and in us. Time is not linear, and we can access this wisdom at this very instance in time just as we access the wisdom of the past. We envision this energy flowing from the left entering under the left under arm parallel to the Heart Chakra, and resonating at the sub-chakra just to the left of the heart. The flows of the past and future timelines intermingle, canceling each other out at the center/Heart Chakra and resuming on the other side.

Again we are mindful of the Heart Chakra, being the place of calm balance. A conundrum exists here. We are both created from this flow of the fabric of Ether - Time and Space, yet we are creators of it. We are Creator. Creator is us!

From the center there flows a spiral that connects the lower and upper Yogic Chakras. This spiral links throat chakra with it’s corollary navel chakra, the third eye with the sex chakra, the crown with the base chakra. This system of chakras are not linear, but in fact reflections of the each other on either side of our Singularity. They are neither higher or lower, but simply the manifestation of our existence on the physical and cosmic planes.

Figure 3.

Likewise, similar chakras exist extending horizontally on the Time plane of Ether. Like the Yogic Chakras, there are three chakras on either side of the Center. From the heart we visualize two sets of three concentric circles connecting the correlating points on each side, connecting the heart to chakras in the elbows, wrists and finger tips.

Figure 4.

With this meditation we establish the inner Medicine Wheel, linking our Center to all chakras and sub-chakras. We establish our selves in Creation and the Creator in ourselves. By this meditation we empower our very existence as divine manifestation.


Meditations On The Four Directions and Elements
Soul recovery is something often referred to in the Shamanic tradition as a method of healing and restoring balance. The soul, however is never actually lost. It always remains our singular instance in time and space. It cannot be lost our found, but simply “IS”.

It is our many faceted spirit, that becomes fragmented as its various aspects become distracted by stimulus, distractions, attractions and what not. If we are to acknowledge any inadequacy, it might be that our manifestation of Spirit has become distracted and fragmented and needs to be re-aligned and brought into harmony. This can be done simply and consistently. It is not a spiritual practice that is mastered, but instead is an affirmation that brings our Spirt into harmony.

With the prior meditation we acknowledged our existence or our “IS-ness” by honoring our Heart Centered Medicine Wheel. With this established, we can begin to bring the various manifestations of our spirit into harmony, restore balance, and provide a coherent environment for the soul to thrive and proceed on its Infinite Journey. We do this, in the traditional Shamanic sense by welcoming the four directions and their associated elemental, animistic and human aspects. In this case however, the Medicine Wheel is not something external that we stand in. We are the Medicine Wheel!

Direction of East/Element of Air
We begin by honoring the direction of the East and its associated element of Air. It resonates at the sub chakra in the upper right from the heart. Here the spirit of light and abundance reside. We can associate an animal spirit such as the eagle to this direction. We welcome the wisdom, guidance and protection of these spirit guides and by honoring their various characteristics we are in harmony with them.

Figure 5.

Direction of South/Element of Fire
Next we honor the direction of the South and its associated element of Fire. It resonates at the sub chakra in the upper left from the heart. Here the spirit of the divine female exists. We can associate an animal spirit such as the coyote with this direction. We welcome the wisdom, guidance and protection of these spirit guides and by honoring their various characteristics we are in harmony with them.

Figure 6.

Direction of West/Element of Water
Next we honor the direction of the West and its associated element of Water. It resonates at the sub chakra in the lower right from the heart. Here the spirit of the the shadow or unseen world exists. We can associate an animal spirit such as the tortoise with this direction. We welcome the wisdom, guidance and protection of these spirit guides and by honoring their various characteristics we are in harmony with them.

Figure 7.

Direction of North/Element of Earth
Next we honor the direction of the North and its associated element of Earth. It resonates at the sub chakra in the lower left from the heart. Here the spirit of the the divine male energy exists. We can associate an animal spirit such as the buffalo with this direction. We welcome the wisdom, guidance and protection of these spirit guides and by honoring their various characteristics we are in harmony with them.

Figure 8.

Each sub point associated with the four directions and elements also mirrors their own smaller Etheric Medicine Wheel with spiraling energy from the center. With this meditation and visualization we acknowledge without doubt that our spirit is now in harmony. We envision each direction/element within us as a vibrant spinning entity of its own, guiding us on our Infinite Journey.

Figure 9.

Conclusion
There are both collective and individual combinations of directions with elements, and associated spirit guides. Each individual must find the combination that resonates with their own Spirit. There is no right or wrong answer here. Directions and elements, their locations and characteristics can change or vary from person to person. What is important is to open oneself to the guidance and wisdom that Creation provides and establish harmony with it.

There is no achievement or mastery in these meditations. These meditations are merely affirmations used on our Infinite Journey. Embarking on the Journey is what is important. “Being” or better yet, “Is-Ness” is the constant companion on this Journey. One need not seek out guidance out of a sense of inadequacy, but instead open the heart to the guidance and wisdom that already exists within Creation that resonates within oneself. In this way, true humility is maintained without fostering spiritual inadequacy. There is no goal or hierarchy to feel separate from. We embrace and honor our Infinite Journey and the wisdom gained from it. We are not inferior to the the spirit guides that assist us along Journey. They are part of our own creation, and are Creation itself as are we.

Jesus in the Garden

Traveling in Denmark in my late teens, I met an Indian guru there. I wondered how I could have possibly ended up in Denmark to start my spiritual journey, but this was how it began. I found a postcard of the statue of Hans Christian Anderson and mailed it to my friends with the quote: “What is the sound of one Hans Klapping?”. Now, nearly 3 decades later, I am out of silly questions. The crazier the experiences, the more it all makes sense.

This group of people from around the world that I met in Denmark were not unlike myself - loosely affiliated around a simple spiritual path apparently unfettered by any particular religion. Over the next decade I would witness the group fall gradually into cult like behavior as it started to adopt religious or faith based characteristics and shun the experiential aspects of a spiritual path. For me it was like watching hundreds of years of the early Christian church slowly loose its purity and innocence, only this was over a period of two or three years.

When I left this budding cult, I was able to begin to re-familiarize myself with Christianity, far better prepared to see through the centuries of myth creation, selective scripture transposing, land and power grabbing, and dilution of the basic message, as I had seen it all in this organization I had just left.

My 13 year old son recently pointed out the most basic distillation of Christianity in the popular book “Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”, it went something like this:

“two thousand years after one man had been nailed to a tree for saying how great it would be to be nice to people for a change”

There’s plenty of deception in all formal, organized religions. Some need the community and support, some choose to be secular humanists, some choose to forsake all religion and take the elitist, pure spirituality approach.

As I explore Christianity in my own experience, I am also genetically inclined to explore my Native American heritage as well. To mix things up further, I discovered leaving the cult, that the spiritual practice I did for over 10 years was far closer to Sufism, than traditional Raja Yoga - which caused a 3 year stint exploring the Sufi connection to my cult past to learn if there was anything there for me to latch onto.

Despite what the Catholic Church would have us believe, Jesus was a mystic, visited at birth by a group of Magi mystics who followed the stars to find him. His ministry began with a water purification ritual performed by a man whose description fits that of a Shaman, living in the desert on honey and locusts, performing purification rituals with water and proclaiming the coming of a prophet who would purify humanity with the holy spirit and fire. After Jesus’ purification ritual, he was thrust into the wilderness on nothing less than a spirit quest where he was tempted by evil spirits and ministered to by angelic spirit guides. When he returned he had transformed into a healer and prophet and spent 3 years traveling the land teaching, healing and performing amazing feats. In the 2002-03 Harvard Divinity Bulletin, John Aston describes Jesus’ 40 days in the wilderness as nothing less than a Spirit quest and the biblical description of his healing strikingly similar to the healing traditions of the shamans of North America and Eastern Europe.

This all culminated in a blood sacrifice to purify all of humanity. The subsequent act of resurrection was described as proof of eternal life. The ascension was described to indicate a world beyond this one...

So why does the Church water down these few mystical facts, in a manner that disconnects them from any mystical traditions? Yet, at the same time, Christianity grew mainly because it adopted other traditions to gain popularity with the cultures being recruited.

I personally believe that, while the missionaries may have believed that they were using a manipulative recruiting technique to grow their numbers, the truth is that Christianity does have its roots in the ancient Pagan and Shaman traditions, whose rituals Christianity adopted in during its aggressive recruiting campaigns in Europe and Latin America.

My cult experience taught me why a religious organizations seek exclusivity by distancing themselves from their history and origins. What I find astonishing about Christianity, is that over the centuries, it adopted traditions, apparently in a haphazard manner, from the very mystical roots it had attempted to erase in its early years.

I suspect this occurred because the message was so simple, it became a sponge, attracting the very aspects that resonated with it in the cultures it was introduced to. This in spite of the more or less malicious intentions of many of the missionaries involved in cramming the message down the troats of the natives.

As I explored the Magi history, I find a mystical community that seems to be embraced by or adopt literally every religion throughout history. Sufism, while associated with Islam, resulted from a group of mystics, living in the days of Mohammed, that were embraced by that religion. There are Sufis in India who are Hindu, and a growing community of Sufis who claim to be affiliated with Christianity. In fact, Sufism can be linked to the same mystical tradition as the Magi, that links Judaism, Christianity, and likely has links to ancient Vedic traditions. According to Shelagh McKenna, the Magi likely were involved in the early formation of the Christian Church. McKenna also indicates that the Druidic Priests who converted to Christianity also had their roots in the Magi tradition. The old testament book of Daniel, describes the life of a Chaldean Magi who translated the dreams of kings yet maintained his purity in spite of temptations of wealth and privilege. He survided banishment to the den of lions. Somehow, the Magi are rarely mentioned again until baby Jesus is visited by three of them, then conveniently forgotten again in the scriptures.

There is one clear message in this whole mixed up journey, Religion is simply a shell. It is a structure where a community can exist, and interact with the world. The real journey occurs in spite of any organized religion. Jesus, being who he was, transitioned humanity from a spiritual journey reserved only to the priest class, carefully bred from bloodlines of biblical kings, to a path available for all humanity, regardless of bloodlines.

Shamanism, to me appears to be a tradition that attempts to reclaim what was lost in Eden, when humanity was banished from the garden. It seeks to reconnect humanity with the wisdom of earth that was lost when humanity chose not to live in harmony with the garden. The Mystical traditions of the Yogis, Magi, Sufis, etc., is the same journey only internalized, as one seeks to connect with God on a personal internal level, by connecting with the “internal garden”. That both traditions seem to be present in the history of Christianity is likely not a coincidence.

Decades after my silly question in Denmark when I began this journey, and a twisted path leading me here, this patchwork of traditions and beliefs that I have absorbed appear less random that I had ever would have expected.