LifeServing Spirituality, ecumenical, tolerant, inclusive, spirit-led explorations.

I want you to know my spiritual life informed everything I do. I want to share with you how I see the cosmos to help you understand more clearly what I teach.

The quotes below have inspired me, and I trust you will find some value in them as well.

I spend a lot of time thinking about what we are, and how we fit in the universe. Here you will find my path and thoughts about my ongoing spiritual growth.

My first spiritual training was Roman Catholic, I was into it. At mass sometimes I would see myself in the field of this shared ritual across space and time. I enjoyed ringing the bells and replying to the Latin prayers. After High School I tried out becoming a Jesuit priest. But I could never live without the company of women.

The Vietnam war brought about a collapse of my thinking about spirituality. I resisted the war, went back to the land and gave up on God. Divine was not part of the hippie culture in the Pacific Northwest at the time.  Later, I opened to an Earth-based, feminine spirituality.

My next encounter was initiated by Helen Farias, founding editor of The Beltain Papers, a woman’s New-pagan magazine. My partner came home one day and in no uncertain terms told me she was going to become a witch! Later I became a ritual actor in annual pagan events in Northwest Washington state. But after a few years alter work lost it’s charm.

Next I went to a Center for Spiritual Learning, a Science of Mind church started by Ernest Holmes, one of the three New Age Religions inspired by Emma Curtis Hopkins. Holmes looked for the convergence of all the world religions and science without attachment to any dogma or any single spiritual leader. They emphasizes looking at what your want to create in your life. Give up asking for what you don’t want. I loved it, however, there were no such churches in Vermont.

My studies include the esoteric arts, the Gnostic Gospels, the Tao te Ching, The Rig Veda, A Course in Miracles, The Mayan Cosmos, to name a few.

Here are some of sayings the have been thought provoking for me.

I love this poem, and once again it is speaking about our time. It is attributed to the Speaker of the Wolf, Fox and Coyote Clan, Elder of the Hopi Nation:

There is a River flowing now very fast,
So great and so swift.
There are those who will be afraid,
Who will try to hold onto the shore.
They  feel they are being pulled apart,
And fear suffering.

Understand this River knows its destination,
The elders tell us to let go of the shore.
Push off into the middle of the River,
Keep our eyes open and our heads above water.

And I say; see who is on the raft with you,
Hold fast to them and celebrate!

At this time in history,
We are to take nothing personally.
Least of all, ourselves!
For the moment we do,
Our isolated spiritual growth journey comes to an end.
The time of the Lone Wolf is over!

Gather yourselves!
Banish the word ‘struggle’ from your attitude and vocabulary.
All we do now, must be done,
In a sacred manner and in celebration.

We are all about to go on a journey,

We are the ones we have been waiting for.

Notice how these two statements made centuries apart describe the same phenomenon.

The Gospel of Thomas Logion 22

“Make the two become one, the inside like the outside, the outside like the inside, the higher like the lower, such that a man is no longer only “male,” and a woman is no longer only ” female.’  Male and female become integrated, a two-fold whole.
When you are able to fashion an eye to replace and eye, and form a hand in place of a hand, or a foot for a foot, making one image supersede another—then you will enter in.”

Tao Te Ching # 42

The Tao gives birth to the one.
One gives birth to two.
Two gives birth to three.
Three gives birth to all things.

All things have their backs to the female and stand facing the male.
When male and female combine, all things achieve harmony.

Ordinary men hate solitude.
But the master makes use of it,
embracing his aloneness, realizing
he is one with the whole universe

From the Course of Miracles T – 1.III.2

“Heaven and earth shall pass away” means they will not continue to exist as separate states. My word, which is the resurrection and the life, shall not pass away because life is eternal. You are the work of God, and his work is wholly lovable and wholly loving. This is how humans must think of themselves in their hearts as this is what they are. [modifications made for gender].

Pan Vera

Compassionate Communication changes our consciousness so the habits of the past can be replaced by attention to the authentic passions and needs of the present.

From the Course of Miracles VI. T-1.V.3

The Illusion of Needs

If you want peace,  find it in complete forgiveness.
No learning is acquired by anyone unless he wants to learn it and believes in some way  he needs it.
While lack does not exist in the creation of God, it’s very apparent in what you have made. This is, in fact, the essential difference between them. Lack implies you would be better off in a state somehow different from the one you’re in. Until this “separation” which is the meaning of the “fall” nothing was lacking. There were no needs at all. Needs arise only one you deprive yourself. You act accordingly to the particular order of needs you establish. This, in turn, depends on your perception of what you are.

P – 1. VI. 2. A sense of separation from God is the only lack you really need to correct.
A sense of separation would never arise if you had not distorted your perception of truth; and thus, perceived yourself as lacking.
The idea of order of needs arose because, having made this fundamental error, you’ve already fragmented yourself into levels with different needs.
As you integrate to become one, and your needs become one accordingly. Unified needs lead to a unified action, because this produces a lack of conflict.

T- 1. VI. 4. The real purpose of this world is to use it to correct your unbelief.
You can never control the effects of fear yourself, because you made fear, and you believe in what you make up. In this each of us resembles our Creator, Who has perfect faith in His Creations.  Why?  Because He created them. Belief produces the acceptance of existence. This is why you can believe something no one else thinks is true. It is true for you because it was made by you.

T-1.VI.5. All aspects of fear are untrue because they do not exist at the creative level, and therefore they do not exist at all. To whatever extent you are willing to submit your beliefs to this test, to this extent are your perceptions corrected. In sorting out the false from the true, the miracle proceeds along these lines:

Perfect love casts out fear.
If fear exists,
Then there is not yet perfect love.
At a higher level, only perfect love exists,
Where there is fear, it produces an illusory state.

Believe this and you will be free, only God can establish the solution and this faith is His Gift.

Tao Te Ching #71

Not-knowing is the true knowledge.
Presuming to know is a disease.
First realize in what ways  you are sick;
Then choose a path towards health.

The master is her own physician.
She has healed herself of all knowing.
Thus she is truly whole

Tao Te Ching # 46

When a country is in harmony with the Tao, the factories make trucks and tractors.
When a country goes counter to Tao, warheads are stockpiled outside the cities.

There is no greater illusion than fear,
no greater wrong done preparing to defend yourself,
no greater misfortune than having an enemy.

Whoever can see through all fear will always be safe.