For years now there has been a gathering of energies within the spiritual realms to stimulate humanity’s evolution towards greater planetary awareness and wholeness. The purpose of this energy is not to make change happen but to enable humanity to find within itself the power to partner with spirit and with Gaia to respond positively and effectively to the changes that are already unfolding. Anyone who chooses to embody this power of partnership and bring Light into the world will find allies in the subtle and spiritual worlds.
Even on our own (and we are never wholly on our own, for we are always embedded in a larger reality of Light), there are clear things we can do.
For one, we can be aware that we are in the midst of a process of redefining the reality in which we live—is it one of wonder, of joy, of compassion, of love, of Light, of hope? Or is it one of fear, of hatred, of contempt, of separation, of isolation?
For another, we can avoid characterizing this process as a battle between light and dark; to do so is to trivialize and distort it, it is more complex than that. It is not a battle but a metamorphosis, a growing up and leaving behind childish ways. It is an organic process involving humanity, Gaia, the spiritual and subtle realms, and the Sacred in a wondrous alchemy of transformation and emergence.
The third important thing to do is to bring to both our personal and global situations our love, compassion, and forgiveness on the one hand, and on the other, the courage to stand in our sovereignty and refuse to be shaped and defined by fear, anger, or hatred. We need to stand our ground and not let those who are shaped in the moment by fear and anger define the nature of reality. We embrace them as lovingly as we can, but we do not give ground. We don’t need to. When we stand in our Light, we do not stand alone. The universe of Spirit stands with us.
Think of it this way: a battle implies adversaries, winners and losers, conquerors and victims. Those are the categories humanity has lived with for millennia, and they are more than outworn now. They are dangerous. Instead, we need to think the way a caterpillar thinks as it transforms into a butterfly. The cells that formed the old structure of its body are not enemies to be defeated and cast out by the new shape; they contain the very life force and substance from which the new will be built once they surrender to the alchemical miracle of metamorphosis. In this time through which we are living, we may and do have opponents, but we do not have enemies. Everyone potentially has something vital to contribute to the new body that seeks emergence.
This process is a soul-size challenge worthy of everything we can bring to it. We are not without tools in doing this. We not only have the rich traditions of compassion, forgiveness, loving, and communion found in all the world’s spiritual traditions, but we have new insights and tools such as non-violent communication, conflict resolution techniques, new insights into self and sovereignty, and the tools of subtle activism or intentional work upon the energies of the adjacent subtle realms. What we need are the knowledge and willingness to use these tools and to reach for them first before grabbing the more familiar responses of anger and fear. When we do this, even if only in the context of our personal lives, we nourish a calming field of collaboration with spiritual forces that can spread out into the subtle worlds, becoming part of humanity’s overall response. The simple fact is that we do not act alone; in the power of our individual sovereignty, we are in resonance and connection with the whole of humanity.
When we refuse to entertain fear, hatred or anger towards those different from ourselves and refuse to participate in the spreading of such hurtful thoughts and emotions, we create an energetic habit that makes a similar response easier for everyone else. We support each other energetically, pulling each other towards the Light. We can provide a powerful intentionality to move in more loving directions, towards peace and compassion, listening and respect. We can intentionally promote the Light, and when we do, we find we have powerful allies, for that intentionality puts us, as they say, on the side of the angels who are pulling in that direction with us.
This moment in our history calls to us to stand in our power, the power of our love, our hope, our joy, and our Light. It’s up to each of us to determine how we do so in order to bring energies of peace, compassion, and courage to meet the needs of the world. As I say, there are many tools available to us to bring love to our world. We simply need to use them.
Here is an example of a simple subtle activism exercise:
The key to all subtle activism is to find and stand in an inner presence of calm, peace, sovereignty, spaciousness, and love. The power underlying subtle activism lies in our ability to feel connected through this presence to the Sacred, to the well-being of humanity, to spiritual allies, and to Gaia—the spirit and life force of the earth. From this presence and this connectedness comes a power of blessing, what I think of as a “Grail Field.” Just as the mythic Holy Grail held sacredness in a way that was healing and transformative, so our personal Grail Field holds our sacredness on behalf of humanity and the world.
So the first step is to enter your own Grail Field. How you do this is up to you, but here is a simple suggestion:
– Find a place in your heart and mind in which you feel stable, calm, peaceful, and loving. Use whatever spiritual, psychological, energetic, and physical tools or techniques to help you accomplish this.
– Imagine (contemplate or reflect on) as clearly and lovingly as you can, your connections to the rest of humanity, to the world of nature and the land, and to whatever spiritual forces and images of sacredness are meaningful to you. Feel those connections enhance your presence by enabling you to be part of a larger wholeness, one graced with compassion, love and an intelligent, wise awareness.
– Hold your sense of yourself within that enhanced presence and feel its energy go out to your immediate environment, connecting in loving ways with the specific world around you. Once you have a sense of your own Grail Field, then focus on a quality of constructive and peaceful collaboration. Imagine people who otherwise are split apart by differences of race, politics, ethnicity, religion, geography, and who may experience those differences in fearful ways leading to anger and violence, now held in the spirit of this collaboration.
– Feel and see them held in the grace of a loving, peaceful spirit in which non-violent communication is possible. Your task is not to impose anything but to hold a condition in which this clear, constructive non-violent communication is possible. See the people in your vision able to overcome the emotions of fear, anger, hatred, suspicion and the like and able to listen to and hear one another. Your task is not to get them to agree but to enable them to listen without fear and with mutual respect. Use this visualization with any situation of conflict that you’ve seen, heard or read about in the media.
– Finally, imagine that you are a lighthouse. You radiate all around you a light of stability, peace, calm, forgiveness, love, and compassion. Imagine the subtle fields surrounding you calming and becoming clear and stable, able to receive and hold an outpouring of Light from spiritual levels.
Visualize this clarity and stability spreading far and wide, linking up with the light of other similar lighthouses, other people who are reaching to express peace, compassion and love. As these beams connect, a web of light is woven over the land that empowers all of us everywhere and makes the fear less fearful, the anger and hatred less persuasive.
– Do this as long as it feels comfortable. Then give thanks for any and all help you may feel you received in doing this bit of inner work; carrying this presence of Light in your heart and mind, go about your day. As you go through your day, when you encounter either the presence of fear and its offshoots of anger and hate or you see it reflected in the media, reaffirm that you are a beacon of courage, strength, calm, love, the creator of a space in which clear communication may take place.
Like Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings when confronting the Balrog, stand in your sovereignty and say to the spirit and energy of fear, “You shall not pass!” And let it be so!