Transformational Community Archives - Cara Lumen, Passionately on Purpose

The Path of Supportive Service

Posted on April 20, 2018 Written by Cara Lumen

The Path of Supportive Service

We help others by simply walking beside them in supportive service.

We don’t push. We don’t pull. We don’t tell them what to do. We simply walk beside them in service. Supportive service. Loving service. Loyal service.

We do it for others. Others do it for us.

We move gently into their life and match their steps.

We may shine a light here and there to highlight possibilities, but mostly we walk in loving support beside them as they move through their own journey.

It’s an interesting feeling for me to know that I don’t walk beside you as a teacher or a leader. I’m simply here to support. And shine a little light along our shared pathway.

I see myself on a path. It’s not a particularly steep path, but it’s heading steadily upward.

At this point in human time, I have two people with whom I’m actively interacting as we walk along together. We’re going in the same direction, but we are taking separate journeys.

That’s as it should be.

I’m also walking beside others through my writing, even if I’m not always in direct interaction with them.

I know that just as I find support and inspiration and motivation from other people whose work I read, we never know how the waves we send out impact others.

Support by listening

For me, the greater service my two walking-beside-me-in-service partners give is to provide a space for me to share my excitement over what I discover and what I learn. They’re strong sounding boards and reflective mirrors. In that sense, we teach each other because we’re going more or less in the same direction, but we each have chosen a distinctive pathway.

We listen well. We exchange ideas with enthusiasm. We give informed feedback and encouragement. Sometimes the gift is an idea we pick up from the other person that they’ve chosen to put in place themselves. Listening is learning. As we share our experiences and our response and interpretation of our own journey, we each expand our awareness – of self and of possibilities.

Because my path is so focused on deepening my own spiritual understanding, for me the most important aspect of walking beside someone in service is that we’re at similar levels of interest and accomplishment along our path. We can understand each other at the deepest levels of our journeys.

It has occurred to me, in writing this, that you are the third person I’m walking beside in service. You, who read what I write and sometimes offer comments. Thank you for your thoughtful steps beside me. Thank you for sharing in my journey.

We follow our heart when we select who to walk beside in service. It’s always an exchange. We both give and receive as we move along our journey.

Support by mirroring

One of my walk-beside partners is very detailed. I’m at the other end of the spectrum. I grab an idea and run with it. She holds it and studies and absorbs it. Both are perfectly appropriate ways of learning but it was important for both of us to see and honor each other’s learning styles. She helps me be willing to be a little more detailed – I help her be a little more experimental.

Support by reflecting

One of my partners is a fellow shamanic practitioner. We’re both exploring how we want to fit that incredible work into our lives, for ourselves and for assisting others. She wants an active in-person shamanic practice. I want to primarily use the journey work to explore and write about what I discover and show others how to apply journeying for their own self-awareness. Two different objectives. One shared path.

We practice on each other. We reflect back to each other. We learn from each other. We talk on Skype every week.

Learn from their path

The other major person I’m walking beside in service is also a healer, but her path is different from mine. She’s exploring things I never even thought about and some of my experiences in my shamanic explorations expand her knowledge. We have broad-ranging conversations as we walk alongside each other.

As you walk beside someone in illumined service, there’s an exchange. You learn from each other as you also support each other’s journey.

Learn from helping

I’ve just begun to walk beside someone else in service. She wants to learn shamanism. As I prepare an outline for the guidance I want to offer, my own knowledge deepens and expands. Her questions and needs and interests will guide our journey together.

Helping her helps me clarify how I want to be in service on a broader scale. The words I want to write. The insights I want to offer. You learn from the person you’re walking beside even as you’re the one doing the supportive walking.

There are people you serve you don’t know

Here’s the unmeasurable one. Our presence has a ripple effect. Our work has a ripple effect. My work with the people I’m actively walking beside supports them and helps them expand their reach. I can see the movement that comes from our exchanges. But through these people, I’m also in service to others I do not know in places I cannot see, as they expand their own reach into their world.

I also am aware that I’m walking on a planetary-wide path with people I do not know. But I know our purpose. I know our direction. We are Illumined Explorers expressing our spirit-directed living and we are moving through the world to tap on the shoulders of receptive people. As we shine our light, others see it and recognize the light in themselves, and they join in to help raise the collective consciousness. It’s very inclusive, impactful work for the wellbeing of our planet.

It’s trickier for me to gauge the impact of my own written offerings. I occasionally get emails that indicate that a particular post has touched a life. And I know there’s a consistent number of “opens” on my weekly posts. But I have no idea what my work prompts each reader to turn around and give their world. And I never will. I have to trust and keep shining my light their way. So that’s what I keep doing.

You walk beside someone in service with every exchange

I live in a senior community in the conservative Mid-West and with my metaphysical interests, there’s no one here I can talk to about them. But my mere presence is part of my service. My persona, my participation, my appreciation for the opportunity to interact, those are all ways I walk beside them in service. Your mere presence is a light that shines upon the path. We must be conscious of everything we offer the world, even by simply being present.

Point out the possibilities

If you picture yourself walking along a path beside someone, you may periodically shine your light on other possible paths to explore. They may take one detour. You may explore another. When you continue on the main path together, you each have new insights to share from your separate side journeys.

Help them over the high places

When we walk beside someone in service we help each other over the high places – and the low places. That’s simply the nature of walking along the same path. We’re supportive of our respective journeys.

Appreciate their light upon your path

Not everyone is going to think of their personal journey as shining their light upon the path of another. Perhaps as you walk beside someone, you tell them how much their light means to you. Perhaps you even find ways you both might shine your lights in other directions. Stay aware. Keep on the lookout and respond to the opportunities that appear.

What does it feel like to walk beside someone in service?

Look at your life. Who are you walking beside? Who is walking beside you? Some may be walking more closely to you, some may be nearby but at different points on the journey. Some may be willing to take that interesting detour with you. Others may not.

Simply shine your light brighter. Expand your beam. Draw in more people. And keep walking.

FOR DEEPER EXPLORATION:

Live in the Center of your being

What Is The Foundation Upon Which You Build Your Life?

Discover Your Spiritual Heart

How Effective Is Your Spiritual Practice?

One Powerful Way to Change Our Future

If You Are A Rock – Who Supports You?

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One Powerful Way to Change Our Future

Posted on April 12, 2018 Written by Cara Lumen

One Powerful Way to Change Our Future

It’s natural for people to be tribal. For early man, it was about survival – some people could hunt, some could heal. In other words, it took a tribe to make a village. So it makes sense that we tend to collect around people we find supportive and like-minded, to be part of a tribe.

The problem is, within our own tribe we seldom question, we seldom explore. We seldom examine alternatives. We settle into the security of the familiar, the routine and safety of our own tribe. And when we come across another tribe, we are suspicious of them and protective of our own way of life.

We don’t even consider that this other tribe might have insights to offer and gifts to share. We move into our own protective mode and sometimes even go to war to keep things the same
– familiar and unchanging.

We need to be willing to explore and accept the gifts of other tribes

The world is changing so rapidly we’re spinning. There’s no way we can hang on to the way it was because the way it was is no longer the way it is. We must be willing to see what the other tribes have come up with, how they have solved similar problems, what new challenges they face, what values they’ve chosen to guide them.

And then we get to question our own life – everything. Our own thoughts, our own values, our own way of doing things and look to see what new options have appeared and what new paths we might follow.

Life is changing very rapidly and we have to change with it.

But at the present moment, we are rooted in a tribal mindset of self-protectionism.

What if we can see the world as one big tribe?!

As a country, if we were attacked, all our individual, separate tribes would join together as one. As a world, if aliens attacked us, we’d suddenly all be on the same team.

The solution to a more peaceful coexistence is to see ourselves as ONE BIG TRIBE!!! One Planetary Tribe. ONE WORLD TRIBE.

If I see myself as a member of the World Tribe, my focus shifts from “me” to “we”. It makes the job of living more complex because there are many, many variations of living in this world, but it’s not an adversarial approach, it’s a unifying feeling, a world family feeling. Finding ways to take care of each member of our family, our World Tribe. That idea broadens my viewpoint. And my choices

That’s a big leap. How do we do that?

See us all as the One Light Being we are

The truth is, we’re all one energy, one light, one wholeness. And what we each do, think and say affects this wholeness. I can shift to see myself as a contributor to the wellbeing of this wholeness. That means my conscious acts of kindness, gratitude, blessings and positive interaction affect the whole. My actions ripple out.

A shift in our consciousness can change our behavior, our voices and our actions, both individually and worldwide.

The entire planet is your home

Expand your thinking to see past your home, your neighborhood, your city, and take a giant leap to see the entire planet as your home. That means we have to care about pollution, and air quality and climate change. We have to do everything we can to protect the well-being of our planetary home.

See and feel the connection we have with everything

As a One World Tribe, we all live in the same place – Earth. Earth sustains us. It offers us what we need to survive. Unless, of course, we don’t take care of it. I need to take care of the section of earth that I impact, and you have to take care of the section of earth you impact.

We must each monitor and control our personal impact on our planet. Be conscious, learn what is damaging to our planet, and stop participating in the destruction.

We can co-exist in world-wide peace

How peaceful it would be to co-exist with mutual support and respect. We would all exist to support each other, to take care of the natural flow of our existence for the well-being of everyone.

See yourself as a member of the World Tribe

It’s challenging to consider the entire planet as your tribe. Some of the choices being made seem far away and totally out of our control. But we have our thoughts. We have the powerful energy of our intention. And we can sit in our personal space and radiate the pure light energy that we are so that it reaches and touches and changes everything in the world, in the galaxy and beyond, to the Emptiness that Holds Everything.

By each choice, each thought, each belief, we heal and whole our planetary home and every member of our World Tribe.

Thinking as a member of a tribe is a natural inclination. All you need to do is expand what you see as your tribe. The entire planet becomes a part of what you are responsible for, what you care for, and since we’re all one tribe, there’s nothing to defend. There’s only peaceful and supportive coexistence to master.

The shift is within you. It can happen today. It can happen in this instant. Be the agent of change that you already are. Shift your consciousness. Make the entire world your tribe.

This World Tribe idea is more than about our planet home; it’s about how we see each other. We would each take our role in the global community, and everything we think and do would be for the greater good of our World Tribe.

Will you see yourself as a member of the World Tribe?

If you begin today to feel you are a member of the World Tribe, the entire world will begin to change. Just by your one shift in how you see your participation in the world, you will begin to make different choices. As a member of the World Tribe, I have to be conscious of the overall effect of each choice I make. My small choice here sends waves of impact into my World Tribe!

With that kind of thought, you may choose differently.

Begin to experience our oneness in your inner plane

I don’t know what a World Tribe is going to look like on the physical plane, but I do know how it looks and feels like on the inner plane because I actively participate in it every day. I’m a global light-bearer.

As are you.

All over the planet people are meditating on the well-being of our planet. They’re gathering in person and in online events to focus on the broader welfare of our planet. They may focus on one area like Earth Day or World Peace Day, or on taking part in other like-minded Light Worker Groups.

We’re all focused on raising the group consciousness by elevating our own consciousness. We’re expanding our collective hearts. We’re sending our light energy to every corner of the planet. By doing so, we invite others to see and feel the light within themselves and honor it, develop it and expand it. We, as transformational thinkers, are focusing on our contribution to our World Tribe and encouraging more emphasis on our collective well-being. And that’s the stuff a World Tribe is made of.

You’re already a member of the World Tribe. Know that and let that awareness shift your thinking and your actions.

Let us join together in this powerful way to change our future.

For Deeper Exploration:

How Modern Mysticism Will Save the World

What are the Foundation Stones Upon Which You Build Your Life?

Discover Your Spiritual Heart

Join the Circle of Light Beings

How to Access the Divine Feminine

Join the Circle of Light Beings

Posted on March 22, 2018 Written by Cara Lumen

OUR LUMINOUS LEGACY

I stood facing a forest in my shamanic journey. A bit to my left was an open door with light pouring from it. A shadowed woman beckoned to me to enter. I did. It was a Chamber of Radiant Beings. I was invited into the center and light radiated toward me from everyone in the circle. I stood there and welcomed and accepted the healing and wholing.

The Chamber of Radiant Beings is in my inner world, my Sacred Garden within. It’s a place I continue to go to heal and balance and join with other light beings for the well-being of the world. You, too, are invited. Or you can manifest your own Circle of Light Beings.

When I first joined an internally visual community like this, it was in an online course on shamanism. The leader took us on an inner journey by simply describing what we saw and who we met.

In her version, there was a doorway and a large room and an altar with prayer bowls and incense and we, as an international community connected energetically by her words, whenever we listened to them, were all invited to take part. We could offer our talents as gifts. We could leave prayer requests. We could offer our prayers for others. There was a crystal image of the world in the center and we were invited to send energy to it. Anytime. From any place.

There was a defining feeling of being joined energetically with people all over the world who wanted to heal the planet and help the world. I was no longer alone in my small corner of the world. I was connected to many, many, many people focused on the same thing. Wholeness for us all.

Begin by creating a reflective place in your own inner Sacred Garden. You can make your inner contemplation area any way you wish. I prefer to think of a focused area for blessings as a mesa, which is the shamanic term. When I created my own mesa in my imagination, it was in the sunny meadow of my Sacred Garden, which is my starting place for all my shamanic journeys.

The focus for my reflection consists of one large flat rock sitting on three low pillar-shaped rocks. There is not one incense holder or prayer bowl in sight. Just the rock in the meadow ready for however I choose to use it. But that’s my version. Make your sacred inner space exactly what you want or need it to be.

I go to my Chamber of Radiant Beings for nurturing, for healing, for guidance. But most of all we join together to radiate our light, the one light, into the world to bring about healing and balance and peace and safety.

Each element of your Sacred Garden is a part of you. As you change it changes. It is filled with metaphors only you can interpret.

I visited my Chamber of Radiant Beings on quite a few journeys before these Beings metaphorically came out of the Chamber to be with me in the open meadow of my Sacred Garden.

It’s your chamber. Create it the way you need and want it to be, place in it whoever needs to be there and in whatever form they seem to want to be for you. Then use your Chamber of Light as you will.

Whether I’m working in the Chamber or in the meadow, sometimes I’m in the center receiving the light energy. Sometimes I’m in the circle surrounding someone to offer healing and support, and other times we are simply joining together to heal the world.

I do not see anyone I know from the physical plane. Nor do I see mythical gods and goddesses. I see radiant light beings in service. The leader, the female figure who beckoned me in, eventually gave me her identity, but for several journeys, all I knew was this – she was the spiritual leader. As my journeys progressed, sometimes I was the leader. Sometimes I was the receiver of the focused light and sometimes a participant shining my own light.

Go with what you find. Explore what’s offered. Interact with whoever shows up. Remember, everything in the Sacred Garden, in this Chamber of Light is a reflection of you. It changes as you change.

When you leave the chamber, the circle, create some kind of blessing. It may be a bow. It may be a hand over your heart. It may be blowing a blessing through your fingers. Create a sign of closure. And gratitude. Bless all you see. Thank them for being present. And depart. Back to your Sacred Garden. And then back to consciousness.

Your Chamber of Radiant Beings is a refuge. A place to heal and restore. A place to do your sacred work. Make it look and feel and be like anything you want.

Because there are millions of people all over the planet doing inner healing work in a similar fashion, you can meet with others on the inner plane.

Your Chamber of Radiant Beings is a workplace. It’s a gathering of other radiant beings to heal and preserve our planet earth. To heal and support each other. Create your own ceremonies. Use this room as a healing space. If you wish a healing for someone, in your imagination create a way to do that – a name placed in a blessing bowl, the light of the person in the center with light radiating toward it. Whatever your imagination invites you to do.

It all involves light. Light is all we are. Light is the power. Light is our collective oneness.

Be light.

Process for finding your own Circle of Radiant Beings

In a quiet place, set an intention to join with the group of light beings that best serve your soul’s purpose. A name may come to you. Call it that.
Go to your Sacred Garden, the place in your imagination where you begin your journeys, and simply be. Look around your garden. State your intent to be joined with your own circle of light for the purpose of healing and wholing. See what shows up. Is it inside or outside? Who is there? What are they doing? These images are metaphors that have meaning for you. Invite them to reveal themselves to you. Explore and experience. If it doesn’t happen today, journey again tomorrow. Trust what shows up.
You may find light beings in many different forms – people, animals, plants, waterfalls, volcanoes, oceans, mythical gods and goddesses. Whatever is present, the message is for you. Look, observe, feel and participate. Ask for greater clarity if you need it.
Offer thanks when you leave.
When you return to full consciousness, journal to capture your experience and interpret what you were shown. The inner world speaks in metaphors for each of us to interpret for ourselves. If the message is not clear, ask your helping spirits to clarify.

Work with this inner place of light often. Call it whatever you want. See it however you see it. Let your experience expand. Place yourself in the center. Place someone else in the center. Place the world in the center.

Join with Other Light Beings to Heal the World

As I continued to journey, I sought to expand my participation in helping the world – the environment, the people, its future. One day, after setting that intention for my journey, the members of my Chamber of Radiant Beings took me to join in the Circle of Light Beings which is how I see all the transformation visionaries in the world and we joined with others to lift the consciousness of our world. Again, name it what calls to you.

Here is my journey to the planetary encompassing Circle of Light Beings as I experienced it and journaled it:

I’m standing with the Radiant Beings I’ve been working with and we’ve now joined a large Circle of Light Beings. Since there’s no time in the inner world, you may join us. We stand in a circle. As fellow Light Beings join us, they simply put their hands on our shoulders. And when the circle seems full, another layer is added, with more hands on the shoulders of the Light Being in front of them.

In the center, we can place anything we wish and it’ll receive this full power of the ever-expanding Circle of Light Beings. For now, let’s begin by placing the planet in the center. Embrace her in unconditional love, the deepest respect, and honoring her great spirit. We send her unconditional love. Can you imagine what it will feel like to Earth to receive the unconditional love of all of us, all the Light Beings in this radiant, radiating circle?

As we stand in this ever-growing circle of light, we personally receive this wholing light energy. It balances and cleanses and heals without being told what to do, for it is wholeness and wholeness is perfect.

Feel yourself as a Light Being standing in a circle with your hands on the shoulders of the Light Being in front of you, radiating light out into the world. You feel a hand on your shoulder as another Light Being joins in the Circle of radiating and expanding light. Feel the power magnify. Feel the wholeness. Absorb it and add your ever-increasing light energy to it.

Anytime you want to refocus the group energy you can. If you want to picture a particular situation in the middle of our Circle of Light, do so. It can be a person, a situation, a place. Our collective light energy will cover it all. Your choice, your direction, like shining a spotlight on whatever you choose.

Notice your breath. It is slow and deep and replenishing as you stand with other Light Beings and offer your light to the world.

You can join in the Circle of Light Beings any time and put into the center anything you wish, knowing fully that this group energy is now focused on it.

We do not and will not focus on anything negative. We support only the higher vibrations so we cannot be manipulated or fooled. We see only light and we recognize only light and we send only light. All of us. Individually and collectively.

When you feel complete, leave a part of your light body there, letting it continue to send focused light energy and return to your bodysuit. Know that you can return in an instant to increase your energy in this powerful Circle of Light and place whatever you wish in the center so it will receive the combined energy of this ever-expanding Circle of Light.

You are a Light Being. As are we all. Knowing that and acting upon it is exceedingly powerful.

And effective.

A Mudra for the Physical Plane

As a physical plane reminder of the Circle of Light when I’m in the ordinary world, I use a simple mudra of holding my bent thumb in the first two fingers of my left hand and mindfully send energy to the Circle of Light. You can use any physical plane reminder you choose.

Wherever you are when you’re called to send wholing light to a situation or a person, simply set the intention, enclose your thumb with your fingers and let that represent the Circle of Light Beings surrounding your intention. You can sit anywhere at any time and send energy anywhere and everywhere. And you can send energy without the mudra.

Use this mudra when you come up against some anger. Use this when you are feeling tired and need to be replenished and restored. Use it when you see a situation where you’d like to see a shift toward inclusiveness. Use either thumb. It’s the intention that counts.

You can also breathe down on the enclosed thumb and let that healing breath move down into the Center of the Circle of Light in the inner plane. This is your reminder, your intention. Form it any way you choose.

Notice how the energy changes. And how rapidly.

If you’re in a position to close your eyes, do so and feel the light radiating out from you, merging and blending and enhancing the light of the fellow Light Beings around you. Feel the light increase and encompass. And spread.

When you go to sleep, place yourself in the center of the Circle of Light for the entire night!

Welcome to the Circle of Light Beings!!!

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What Are The Foundation Stones Upon Which You Build Your Life?

Posted on February 7, 2018 Written by Cara Lumen

Our Luminous Legacy

“If it’s time to restructure our life, it’s always the foundation that must change first. Knowing this, we must ask ourselves, ‘What is the nature of our foundation? Do we have foundation stones? What are they? How many are there, and are there any missing?’”

I set out to figure out what foundation stones are and if I had any, and what were they. The book is Bowl of Light by Hank Wesselman, a shamanist with whom I’ve studied. The words were spoken by Hale Makua, the Hawaiian kahuna mystic.

What are foundation stones?

A foundation is an infrastructure that supports and dictates the shape that is formed. That can be the foundation of a building. It can be the foundation for a body of work. It can be the foundation for your life path.

How is your life unfolding?

Life is constantly evolving, so it makes sense that we should check our infrastructure often. We do that by noticing how things are going.

There’s a very tall, very expensive, fairly new apartment building in San Francisco that is slowly sinking and tilting. The builders now say it should have been built from steel rather than concrete, which is very heavy, and that the foundation should have reached down to bedrock, not fill.

Good hindsight. Bad original decisions. Hard to correct.

So, perhaps we get to look at what is shifting, or leaning or unsteady in our lives and work on our infrastructure. Our foundation stones.

What is your purpose?

Before you begin to restructure or rebuild or rearrange, you need to look to see how your purpose has shifted. It’s pretty obvious that there’s change when you graduate, or change jobs, or get married, or have a child, or…. Those are major changes that suggest we need to restructure our life.

It’s the subtle changes that can sneak up on you – the aging process being one example. Physical change occurs in very small increments over time and you make small adjustments to accommodate them. Then suddenly you realize standing or walking or lifting is a lot harder to do than it once was. That’s when you notice your foundation has a few new cracks in it. And you need to make some adjustments in your foundation stones.

Define the purpose of your restructure

Create a mission statement for the change you want to make. “At the end of this (book, post, experience), people will leave with an understanding of….”

That’s a very powerful question to ask. What is your purpose? What is the purpose of this action? How does it help others?

The answers to these questions focus your choices and dictate the design of the foundation you build. Do you know your life purpose? Do you know your soul’s purpose?

Define your core purpose before you begin to restructure and shift your foundation stones.

What is the nature of our foundation stones?

It may be that our foundation stones shift and rearrange themselves in importance as we move through life. “Figuring out life” is something we work on all our lives, but that process will take many shapes and forms.

If I’m an athlete, my physical well-being stone will be quite large. As I age and my interests shift, that foundation stone may change shapes and become less prevalent.

The Foundation Stone for the Indigenous People is respect

A foundation stone for the indigenous mind is reverence, an active sense of respect.

That means respect for our earth and all who live here – plants, animals, people, land, rivers, oceans. When indigenous people kill an animal for food, they leave an offering for its spirit. They honor each part they use, the skin, the bone, the flesh. They treat each part with respect and gratitude for the sacrifice of life.

We could do that. We could add a blessing to our meals to thank the source of the food, to the land that nourished it and the people who brought the food to us.

Indigenous people are conscious of the soul of the earth and take great care to listen to her needs and care for her.

They do not feel they own the land, they have great respect for what is offered and provided by the land. It’s not about worship, it’s about reverence and respect and honoring the energy, the spirit of the land.

I want to become more reverent of the soul of nature. I will spend time looking out my window at the snow falling and mindfully observe the changes it makes in the landscape. I will watch the sun go down each day and offer gratitude for the events and lessons I’ve received that day. I will become more conscious of my consumption – of everything – and choose to live more simply and walk more softly and leave a lighter footprint on my planet.

The desire to be more reverent of the earth requires me to shift my awareness, to become more mindful, to be aware of the spirit of the land upon which I walk, the spirit of the birds that cross the sky, the spirit of the mountains in the distance. Look for the spirit in all things and honor it.

Spirituality is a verb. Spirituality is action

Every moment of our life is spiritual.

Our spirituality expands with every experience we consciously explore, every choice we make, and with every thought we think – both positive and negative.

Take a long look at your spiritual foundation stone. Is it strong yet flexible? Is it responsive to my life? Can you trust your spiritual foundation to support your service to our world?

Spirituality is a verb. Make certain your spiritual foundation stone keeps you fluid and responsive.

Your spirituality stone

We all have a spirituality foundation stone. It may be large or small. It may have shifted position over the years. But we all have one.

What does your spirituality foundation stone look like?

I know that spirituality is, for me, my center foundation stone. But it has had many shapes and colors and tonality over my 85 years – Presbyterian, Episcopalian, Transcendental Meditation, Metaphysician, Reiki, crystals, New Thought Clergy, QiGong, Tai Chi, Taoism, Shamanism. I’ve built upon each layer, keeping some of what I learn, discarding other concepts that do not resonate. Bits and pieces of spiritual exploration layered throughout life, carried forward and adapted. A mosaic. A foundational stone with many layers and many colors.

What matters now is what I’m currently doing in my spiritual life – how it’s expanding my awareness and nourishing my life. Shamanism is taking me on unbelievably informative meditative journeys. The form of my illumined service keeps expanding as I build up layers of spiritual insight.

My spiritual foundation stone includes continuous spiritual exploration, a powerful need to learn, an enthusiastic response to many things spiritual and a powerful need to follow my own calling.

What does your spiritual foundation stone look like and feel like? Is it strong enough to support you right now?

Your purpose stone

We each come into this world with a soul’s purpose. It’s an agreement we make before we enter this body suit.

It may be a purpose that focuses on personal growth. It may be a purpose that expands our world service.

One of our major tasks is to identify our soul’s purpose and make certain we accomplish it. It’s the lesson we have come into this lifetime to learn, the gift we have come to give.

My awareness of my soul’s purpose has recently shifted as I listen more closely to my inner guidance. I have seen myself as a messenger and an interpreter of the inner worlds, which I still am. But my purpose has recently expanded into helping light beings recognize their own light and consciously join with light of other light beings to heal our world. I’m just now coming into that place of service.

Look at your purpose stone and see how clearly marked it is. And what’s changing within it.

Your gift stone

To accomplish your soul’s purpose, you come into this world with certain gifts. You may or may not develop them, but they are powerful tools if you put them to use.
Some people recognize their calling at a very young age. I began to write for my high school newspaper and was made Managing Editor in my senior year. The faculty saw my gifts for writing and organizing before I did.

Sometimes your gifts take a while to uncover. My foundation gift stone contains the ability to see the overview and to share that with others through my words. My gift stone also includes my willingness to listen to and be guided by this very loud inner voice that leads me on all manner of adventures. It’s taken me a while to figure that out. I have the freedom to continue to explore. I’m fearless when it comes to taking a new path.

Take time today to journal to find what’s in your gift stone.

Your Illumined Service Stone

Finding your place of illumined service may take some exploration. Some people know they have to be involved with music, or a particular sport, or a certain form of business. They know it early in life and their path is quite focused.

Others of us wander around experimenting.

But there are always signs. Look at your gifts. Look at what others ask of you. Look at what you love to do. Those are clues to your illumined service.

What other foundation stones might we have?

Based on the idea of having a foundation stone of respect, I personally need to add an unconditional love stone. The passage that I read didn’t list what the foundation stones are. That’s for us to figure out. Spirituality, Gift and Service are just three that showed up for me. You may have an entirely different set of foundation stones.

A Learning Stone

A Learning Stone is part of my personal foundation. I have to be constantly exploring and examining and adapting and applying. It’s a big stone in my foundation.

Interaction with another’s foundation stone

Sometimes we’re drawn to people with similar foundation stones. Sometimes we’re drawn to someone simply because their foundation stone is something we want to learn, to absorb, to adapt. What foundation stones of others are you drawn to? Do you need/want to add your version of that stone to your foundation?

A Like-Minded Explorer’s Stone

As my spiritual path evolved, I have moved from friend to friend, learning from some, exploring with some. The more specialized my own philosophical interest, the fewer people who are walking on that exact path.

Find the people that grow you and spend focused, exploration time with them. (The two people that expand my work are in different parts of the country and we regularly connect on Skype.)

A Love Foundation Stone

The Love Foundation stone may be about giving love. It may be about being able to receive love. It may be about how you give love to the world through your thoughts and actions. Look at its qualities and shape the stone the way you want it to be.

How many foundation stones are there?å

There are as many foundation stones as you need. Take time to figure out what your foundation stones are and how they need to be modified or strengthened.

Tangible Service in the world may be a foundation stone. Help the world may be a foundation stone for you. Select and build on the foundation stone your need for this part of your life.

How to reshape a foundation stone

The first step in reshaping your foundation stones is to identify the foundation upon which you currently stand. Are your foundation stones steady or do they rock a bit? Are they big enough and strong enough to hold you where you’re headed?

What small foundation stones are outdated, or no longer useful? Clear those out. What about that belief pebble that is stuck under a foundation rock that makes it wobble? Get rid of those hidden, no-longer-useful beliefs.

Your life is the way it is because of the foundation stones you’ve built upon

If your life is not unfolding as you would like, you’ll want to examine your foundation stones. Particularly look for pebbles and large rocks that say, “I don’t deserve that” and “I don’t think that is possible.” Clear out the old, out-dated, no-longer-useful rocks from your foundation. It will make you stand taller and be stronger.

Then look closely at where you want to go next. And begin to build up the foundation stones that’ll take you there.

Your foundations stones will be different from mine. They’ll have different meanings. They’ll be of different shapes and have different priorities.

It’s for you to decide.

What are your foundation rocks and are they the ones you need for this next portion of your life?

To Deepen Your Luminous Legacy Consider:

Unleash The Power of Your Inner Garden

How to be Nothing

How Modern Mysticism Will Save the World

Live in the Center of Your Being