Editor's Note: Conversations with Lorian is a collection of different voices and perspectives responding to inquiries pertaining to Incarnational Spirituality. Often we receive questions that don't have a single, uniform answer, due to the ways that individuality and sovereignty shapes our practice. At times like this we like to gather a number of responses from teachers, priests and other colleagues in order to honor our diverse yet complimentary approaches to Lorian's work in the world.
If you have a question you'd like the Conversation team to respond to, please email info@lorian.org.
Question : “Could someone define Incarnational Spirituality for me, please?”
“Incarnational Spirituality is the study and practice of tapping into our innate spiritual resources in order to be a source of blessing for the world and for oneself.”
- David Spangler
“Imagine a soul walking on earth. Now imagine that soul trying to interact with the earth. It can't feel the ground, it can't smell the scents, it can't talk to the people, it can't grow a garden, it can't create beauty... It can give love and blessing to wherever it walks. But without a self, without a body, that soul can be a presence but can't actually interact with or have an impact on the earth. Incarnational Spirituality is a practice of recognizing and honoring the fact that we are souls walking on the ground - that our bodies, our personalities, our thoughts and emotions, our histories and our souls are an entwined whole enabling a deeper partnership with the soul and body of the earth and all of the lives upon it. As we can stand in that wholeness, as a stable, loving, giving presence with our feet on the ground, we are able to serve as a light within the world and to partner with the seen and unseen aspects of Gaia in creative and conscious ways to bring more peace, more love, more grace and beauty to the world. This is what Incarnational Spirituality is - the practice of enhancing our capacity to be a blessing to our worlds by developing and standing in the strong core of our whole Self.”
- Julie Spangler
"For me, Incarnational Spirituality simply affirms that we are each a sacred, causal and radiant being who is in an intimate and blessingful relationship with a sacred, evolving and multidimensional universe filled with sentient life. This includes our incarnation here on earth and all other incarnations pre and post mortem."
- Jeremy Berg
“Incarnational Spirituality is the belief that being born and living a human life is inherently an act of love. When many of us hear the word Incarnation, we are reminded of Christian views on the divine birth - incarnation - of Jesus Christ. With IS, every single human being in the universe is divinely born with purpose and intention. This does not diminish the divinity of Christ, but rather calls us to a more egalitarian and universal view of incarnation. Not to say that we are all Christs, but we are all called to be uniquely ourselves. Sometimes that calling includes great public roles, and sometimes our great purpose is more ordinary and mundane (and there’s great beauty in that too!) For all of us, being called to live is the most amazing gift to the world there is. It’s not always easy. We are not perfect, of course not, and we struggle a lot; sometimes we are overcome by the weight of life. But we also come into life with an inner light to remind us that we have “spiritual tenure.” Which means that we don’t have to prove ourselves by taking a lot of spiritual classes or by being beautiful or by having lots of wealth -- or by filling in the blank of whatever external societal expectation currently equates with a good, meaningful life. Rather, just being ourselves, being here - is enough. Our experiences teach and expand us, but they aren’t mandates for success or growth. In fact, the Earth is not a penal colony for undeveloped souls, as it is often reported to be. Actually, the creativity, spaciousness and courage that it takes to hold a human life together requires serious inner strength. Even when we don’t feel like we’re up to the challenge, we are born to it! That’s Incarnational Spirituality, in a nutshell.”
- Drena Griffith
“IS is a co-creative project from the subtle worlds. Initially it was to teach people how to enhance the soul and personality to work together as partners and not see the personality as something to be subdued or destroyed. There are two of what you might call pressure waves that effect us. One draws us towards the physical and matter and the other toward spirit and the transpersonal worlds. IS teaches us to balance these two so we can achieve what one might call an alchemical buoyancy space. We can freely embrace incarnation and still have our connection to the sacred. We embrace the world in joy, love and will and can then foster the dynamic presence of wholeness in the world around us.”
- Tim Hass
“As a worldview, Incarnational Spirituality articulates ways in which each of us in our particular lives and relationships can help to enhance the unfolding spark of Spirit at the heart of all life. It approaches spirituality using a frame of individual sovereignty linked through partnering relationships. Each expression of life is a contributing member in a vast sacred ecology; a tree, a microbe, a galaxy, and a human being are all unique and vital expressions of life’s sacred founding impulse.”
- Freya Secrest
“To me Incarnational Spirituality is both a metaphysical and deeply practical approach to how we can live a multidimensional life with simplicity. It is a wonderfully life-affirming and heart-wise navigational approach to our challenges and opportunities, full of depth and always wholeness-oriented and in continual renewal.”
- Soren Hauge
“Seems to me there’s a need now to understand what we mean when we use the word “spirituality”. One neighbor wonders aloud why God can’t clean up the mess we’re in. Another asks if the Divine is permitting the mess so we’ll come to our senses. All I know is what’s right in front of me: I’m here, I’m incarnated, things are difficult, even here at home, and when I slow down, go inwards and listen with my heart, responses to these difficulties come. In a way, these responses can seem to come from invisible, silent places: musical notes heard within, a beautiful blue light seen without, an unexpected hope rising up, a friend I thought of emailing to ask how I am, the inner picture of a tangible outer solution to a problem. You might say they come from spiritual places. My observation is that these responses, these answers, come when I’m open, attentive, grateful. Likewise, they don’t come when I’m closed, angry, fearful. But they are there—close by, close as our breath. More and more I’m thinking “Life” rather than “Spirit” or “Spirituality” is the word for this magic that weaves its way into and through the incarnation of each one of us. So this is my round-about definition of Incarnational Spirituality. This is my definition today. The beauty of it is the definition might be different tomorrow because Life is… well, truly Immense!”
- Claire Blatchford