Photo: Liliana Fuchs on Flickr
Warm greetings for the new year and the epiphany season. Here in Spain, gifts are opened and sweet breads shared today, remembering the magi’s celebration of Jesus’ appearance in the world.
Can you feel the change in energy?
I’m already noticing the subtle changes as the balance between daylight and darkness shifts.
As rainstorms continue to beat against the window, there’s a momentum building for what promises to be an eventful year.
Waters are rising in the river of life – and I’m preparing to float out!
I have gifts to share. Will you come along for the ride?
“Finding authenticity and our way to a more loving world“.
These words – the tagline for Navigating the Mysteries came easily.
Every time I reread them a “yes” arises from my heart. They sound so simple and yet the ongoing search for authenticity – for my soul-self perhaps, and how to create a more loving world is taking me deeply into my version of the universal journey of spiritual transformation.
May I share a little of my journey, followed by an invitation to join me?
I’d love to share the gifts I have received from the depths; insights and practices that may support you as you press on, on your inner journey.
Although I’d been walking a spiritual path for decades, a few years ago, I began sensing deeper vibrations, calling me towards a necessary change. In 2019, I intentionally entered a rite of passage, taking up the journey with zeal, enthusiasm and a good measure of naiveite!
What extraordinary places I’ve visited since then, both externally and internally!
With my budding witness-self, a kind of loyal Samwise Gamgee figure, supporting me to observe my life with new eyes, I’ve let go or been stripped of every aspect of my past identity. I was strongly attached to many of them, they have not gone without a fight!
In the process, I’ve come face to face with previously hidden parts of myself. Glimpses of radiant beauty and profound ugliness, ecstatic joy, and an unrecognised capacity for fiery destruction, ignited as unconsciously repeating trauma patterns reared their heads in the face of my deepest fears.
It has been a tempering, humbling journey.
Like Peter, hearing the cockerel crow 3 times, some moments of self-realisation have brought me, weeping, to my knees.
Before Peter’s perfidy, in his complete and compassionate knowing, Jesus, voice of the divine, foretells a time when all will be sifted like wheat.
It seems we all need to lose those once protective, now restrictive layers that hold the maturing essential self. And the process to release the wheat kernel within, be it by sieve or threshing, is necessarily not gentle!
My recent journey has given me opportunities to face my deepest fears. And fear has proven to be an effective, rigorous teacher for me!
I know I’m not alone in feeling and attempting to avoid my fears. Libraries of books have been written about the subject and events playing out in our world offer us vivid daily reminders of the way fear drives us in destructive ways.
Without considering that I have conquered my fears (which would not be my style at all – I’ve spent a lifetime trying to perceive, understand and dismantle the power-over dynamic that expresses itself in conquering) or mastered transmuting these fears into love, I am now at least cordially conversing with some of them!
My fears – of destitution, scarcity, inadequacy, being vulnerable, powerless, and of being abandoned and I are getting to know each other. There is a softening in our relationship, an opening to what they are teaching me. With their support, I’m working on the behaviours I wish to change and gradually being released into the expansiveness that lies behind each one.
Back to the story . . .
In his conversation with Peter, and without dwelling on the matter, Jesus continues.
“ . . .once you have turned back, strengthen your brothers”
Knowing the path that Peter needed to take, Jesus had confidence that he would turn back, that all would be well.
Jesus’ words (slightly adapted!) have been rolling around my mind for several weeks now.
Once you have turned back . . .
Strengthen your people.
What is being asked of me?
In the language of the universal journey of spiritual transformation – the journey’s stages are described as preparation, severance, threshold, and return.
Traditionally the threshold, the large, flat, stone demarcation between the inside and outside of a house, was where chaff and wheat were separated. The threshold was both a doorway and a threshing floor.
And it is the stage between severance and return.
Once you have turned back . . .
The work of the return?
To bring all that has been learned back for the benefit of the community.
Strengthen your people.
And so, it is with this in mind that I would like to share with you some of my learning, in the hope that it might strengthen you, on your journey.
We are all offered a choice when it comes to making necessary change.
Sometimes we choose to fight it tooth and nail, sometimes we deny it so voraciously that we are pushed into it by outer circumstances that leave us no option and sometimes we simply say yes to grace and enter the journey with some measure of ease.
Having done my fair share of fighting and denying, I can recommend the grace option as preferable, less painful and/or destructive!
So, join me if you will.
You’re invited to dip into the series of online gatherings, running from January through March 2024 to meet your fears in a safe, contained way and take steps towards transmuting them into love.
The series will start on January 11th, with a stand alone, New Moon Gathering – space to share a practice of equanimity, release what no longer serves us and set our intentions for the year.
From 16th January to 20th March, I will convene a series of weekly gatherings, in the format of a sacred circle. The Befriending Your Dragons: Transmuting Fear into Love series offers safe space in which to meet your fears and begin the process of befriending them.
New Moon Gathering on Thursday 11th January.
This first New Moon Gathering of 2024, offers us the opportunity to
- reset our hearts,
- open to greater equanimity within and between ourselves
- release what no longer serves us
- set our intentions, asking – how do I wish to grow spiritually in 2024?
Visit the New Moon Gatherings page to learn more and reserve your place
New for 2024
Free pick-n-mix series of up to 10 gatherings
Befriending Our Dragons; Transmuting fear into love.
Join me for two introductory gatherings in your time zone then select the gatherings that feel most appropriate to you.
Western & European time zones
Tuesdays 16th January – 19th March
6pm CET / 12 noon EST
Eastern and European time zones.
Wednesday 17th January – 20th March
10am CET / 8pm AEST
Visit the Workshops page to Learn More and Reserve Your Place
Are you tired of feeling limited, constricted or blocked in some way in your life, constantly defending yourself against danger?
Do you long to release yourself from living in fear and reclaim all of who you are?
If the answer to either of these questions is Yes, read on!
Hidden beneath our greatest fears our authentic self longs to be released to find expression in the world. And with a gentle approach, our fears can reveal to us areas in our lives that long for healing.
In the Befriending your Dragons: Transmuting fear into love series we will imagine our fears as the dragons who ferociously guard our greatest treasure – our authentic selves.
Take an honest, non-judgemental look at the following list of common behaviours.
Using alcohol to relieve stress, erratic behaviour, reckless driving, unwillingness to try, underestimating my abilities, depression, hiding mistakes, bragging, wanting special treatment, always being late, interrupting, living in disorganisation, whining, resentment, self-pity, argumentativeness, sullenness, showing resistance, passive aggressiveness, rigidity?
Do you recognise any in yourself?
Yes?
How Wonderful!
You have already taken the first step to befriending your dragons, and to transmuting them from fear to love!
To take the next step, why not join me for the series?
Click here to learn more and reserve your place.
Within the safe space offered by a sacred circle, through ceremony, teaching and reflection we will consider;
- the relationship between fear and love.
- the way our dragons (fears), play out in our lives,
- how to befriend our dragons so we can live with greater freedom and authenticity.
Whilst these gatherings are being offered free of charge, in the spirit of reciprocity, please consider making a financial contribution if you are able, to support of my ongoing work in the world.
Thank you.