The Hero's Journey...

... also known as Self Actualisation...

I have three or four other posts half finished but for no reason that springs readily to mind, it seemed more important to get this one written and published today...

So - what is the purpose of your life on earth, in this dimension, in this version of one of an infinite number of realities?

It's quite simple really; you were born to grow into, unveil, discover, manifest ALL you can possibly be... which, because you are LIFE itself, SOURCE, GOD, is something that's pretty amazing...

And how do you do that?

Well - you go on a hero's journey, just like all of those gods and demigods we find in story-telling/myths in all cultures around the world, the heroes and heroines of the fairy tales ... 

Your life is one epic, macro hero's journey, and at the same time, it's composed of thousands of micro journeys taking place at every moment/point of choice you encounter...

It goes something like this:

• we're born into a family - a cast of characters in a play... our parents are the king and queen of the castle and we are the prince or princess;

• something happens to "wound" us... if we had no "wound" to heal there would be no point to this journey/experience in this reality - we need to heal the "wound" to get back to remembering that we are Divine Source... it's part of the paradox -  having to forget to remember!

• we are banished from the castle/kingdom for some reason... maybe there's a family feud, jealousy, sibling rivalry, we're challenging authority or we just are driven to leave by an immense internal pressure that will not be denied;

• we wander lost and alone through dark, unknown, scary places, without the usual supports that we used to help keep up the illusion of being comfortable and secure;

• we encounter demons and dragons - life challenges, our own inner pain, circumstantial hardships -  that we have to slay (overcome) if we want to keep journeying/reach our destination;

   

• and we discover the weapons (qualities) we have within us that we can/must use to vanquish the monsters... love, courage, faith, constancy, strength, kindness, humility, fortitude...

• we conquer the demons and find our own unique treasures - our true selves (though it might not at all look like what we expected 'treasure' to look like!)...

•  and we return in triumph to the kingdom, welcomed back (like the prodigal son) to take our rightful place as heirs to the throne or to wear our crown as the new king/queen...

and that's what it's all about - both in our own lives and in the journey of humanity!!!

Simple, really!!!

It's just a bummer that all of those gods and goddesses in the Greek legends didn't have to earn their livings, pay mortgages, wash their clothes and take time out to eat or to pee, poop and sleep!!!

An Act Of God...

Saturday morning...

Surrounded by stuff, some in boxes, more waiting to be packed up and moved...

Thank god it doesn't all have to be done in one day, though it would make the utmost practical sense to get it over and done with...

Stuff...

Hate it...

It needs caring for, cleaning...

 - though cleaning could be considered an act of genocide, with each swipe of the cloth killing billions of microbes!

It takes up energy, time, attention, space...

It cramps my style - I can't just get up and go whenever an amazing opportunity for new adventure comes along...

It's a ball and chain around my ankle...

I want to do what I challenged others to do on a Facebook thread about the global energy/food crisis and our own personal responsibility in that - reduce all my possessions down to 20% of what I have now, and live in a space that is 20% of  what we now occupy...

Better yet - give it all away and walk the earth with nothing but a begging bowl, doing what I can where I can...

 Stuff...

Love it...

It gives me a 3D sense of continuity, of travelling my life path, of connections I've made, places I've been, people I love and who love me...

I've got a gift for 'arranging' it, decorating houses, creating warm, inviting, calm spaces that people tell me are like a "sanctuary" and they say they wish they could do what I do...

It brightens my world with beauty and light, with imagination and memory, with colour, texture and sound... 

- though I'm surrounded by that in every dimension, in all of the eternal now, if I have eyes to see and the awareness to be awake to it...

In some weird way, it makes me real, solid, in 3D... 

Or I think it does...

As though my stuff is me?

Who am I without my stuff?

Would I cease to exist?

Would I have existed at all, if I don't leave any stuff behind as evidence?

- and does any of my stuff mean anything to anyone else, or will it just be nuisance clutter, to be given away, dumped, discarded, after I cease to be physical?

 

When I took my first family of kids to live in Australia in 1996, we were without our 'stuff' for more than three months.

Through some mistake, our own 'stuff' sat in a container on a wharf for that time, instead of being shipped to Brisbane.

So I had to rent and buy basic household necessities while we waited for our 'stuff'...

Three months without art, music, books, knick-knacks, personal items filling the space we were inhabiting...

We didn't miss it at all...

And then the boxes etc were delivered and there was the fun of unpacking and remembering and choosing where things would sit/fit best energetically...

And in a week or two, it was all being taken for granted again, a backdrop to the routine of living... 

In many ways a limited and limiting definition of who we were, as individuals and as a family...

A self-created prison... a mask, a facade, a half truth and a half lie of who we are that we present to ourselves and project out to the world...

My higher Self wants to let it all go...

My small self wants to hold on...

I would not grieve if an Act of God destroyed all our earthly possessions...

Do I have the will and strength to be that Act of God?

Do I have the right to make this choice for my son?

I Can See Clearly Now!

Woke up this morning to find my last remaining pair of prescription specs had broken under my pillow overnight...

Had had a premonition about it a couple of days ago, but was hoping it wouldn't happen for a couple of months... (the more "aligned" one is, the more one finds that precognition becomes reality almost instantaneously - which is the place where we are GOD, and completely creators of our own worlds)...

Anyway, my first response was "Damn" because everything in print less than three feet away is nothing but a blur...

and I'm working on the computer and putting legal documents necessary for our move together and I'm on a roll and don't want to lose my impetus and motivation!

So, I went to the local whole food market and bought a cheap pair of readers that will get my by until the snazzy new set of BIFOCALS!!! (getting old) arrive from the optometrist... called by her office on the off-chance she could take a walk in, and she could...

And I hadn't had an eye exam or new specs for more than two years, so medical insurance covered all but $23 of the cost - a good deal indeed!

So, my vision problem was solved within 4 hours - not bad, not bad...

 

And if you haven't already realised, while this happened for me in 3D today, it's also an analogy for what happens when one adjusts one's position and view slightly and then has clear vision, intent, commitment and focus - about oneself, one's relationships, one's own life journey ...

It's a big deal and/also it's no big deal!

   

Finding & Living Your Own Spiritual Truth

I'm a shaman...

At some point on my journey, I felt I was being asked to choose whether I wanted to be apprenticed to a particular lineage of teachings or whether I was going to walk this path as a solo practitioner...

I chose to walk my own path.

I've studied religions/spiritual traditions from many cultures; at heart, they each say the same thing - the only real difference is the terminology...

I've taken from those teachings what feels 'true' to what I've personally experienced on a mystic level,  I've synthesised what I've learned and now have my own world view that works for me...

That's all that's important really - whatever works to connect me with the Divine and whatever works for you;  all the rest is about power and control and inserting an artificial (and unnecessary) intermediary between humans, the rest of life and the Sacred...

Spirituality and Enlightenment

Some religious traditions suggest that God created man in His own image.   Now, that idea has never sat well with me; I always thought that if that was true, God must be a very ordinary and flawed being and that didn't match the claims made about his infinite power.   Rather, I came to think, unimaginative humans created God in their own image, as an anthropomorphic projection of ourselves.

The ideas about the Divine and Sacred that work for me are based on the holographic principle - the sum of the whole is contained in each of the parts.   

Therefore, if one believes in a Creative Life Force, which is all-knowing, all-powerful, then by extension, we as Its creations are also It - with all that knowledge and all that creative power.   We are each God (I don't usually use that term - its too loaded), but it will do for general understanding.

Once one takes that view on board, it's no longer possible to create excuses, no longer possible to refuse to take responsibility, to be held accountable, to live up to one's full potential - or at least attempt that; and sad to say, there's no going back - once you cross this threshold, you cant pretend you don't know and understand your part in this wondrous co-creation.

And I've had experience in meditation, very early on in my 'awake and aware' journey, of having the boundaries of my physical, mental, emotional and spiritual self expand into infinity and being all of creation - through boundless space, time, the dimensions - being and knowing and understanding all things that were, are and shall be, feeling this most amazing, huge, overwhelming LOVE and the power of that love... and yet at the same time, feeling all of that contained within my smaller human self.

And from my perspective, we are each of us a manifestation of the Life Force, (kinda like a segment of an orange), which desires to explore, express, experience and understand itself in all of its infinite potential.   And in our living, we bring back to the whole that experience and understanding and add to new and greater levels of being.

All of this happens both in linear time and simultaneously - and we each are individuals but we also are each other and everything else in creation at the same time....

I don't think there are values such as good/bad, right/wrong etc.   I think those terms are human-created in an effort to set a baseline for understanding and to appease our need to define, so that we stay in comfort and delude ourselves that we have control.... 

I don't think the Life Force exerts judgment in that way - things just 'are'.   I think/feel/know It just revels in the joy of infinite expansion, experience and understanding.