Spirituality
Spirituality was the first thing I came across in my search for a new belief system when I first started healing. It is the foundation from which I discovered and explored the other constructs I write about. It is also the reason why I am an avid tarot reader to this day.
What I saw with spirituality was that it had been infused with a lot of ego. People were accepting the societal constructs as they were and then trying to make spirituality fit into those constructs. That meant the spiritual principles were warped and infused with a lot of ego. The truth in those principles was being lost to make way for ego and accepted social norms.
Constructs like non-judgment were being replaced with "discernment" so that people could continue to pick and choose what they liked or didn't like, continue to be hurt by those things, and then defend themselves from those things. They were unable to take non-judgment for what it was - the ability to just leave things as they are without any need to change anything or defend oneself. Non-judgment meant fully accepting everything, whether it was perceived as right or wrong, good or bad, and that was a hard pill to swallow so discernment became "judgment lite". It wasn't quite as harsh and reactive as judgment, but it was still judgment with a bit more of a conscious spin.
The Hermetic principles of "As above, so below." and "As within, so without." become misconstrued because of how we view God and experience. God is the God of all that is - good or bad, right or wrong. God created all of it to create balance. The limit of human perception means that without something bad we wouldn't understand what good was. Without something right, we wouldn't understand what wrong was. Humans require those reference points to make sense of their experience. All experience, regardless of how we perceive it, is meant to show us something within ourselves.
I use this idea when we talk about self-mastery. The experience is meant to show you some belief, pain, or previous experience that you hold within yourself that isn't true. You're meant to use the experience to find the thing that isn't true and shift it or heal it. "As within" is what you hold within yourself. "So without" is the reflection of what's within you that's showing up in your experience. Learning how to use our experience to heal ourselves is a valuable skill that makes healing much easier. It's not a shot in the dark. It's not a completely blind journey. The experience is showing you something. If you take the time to sit down and figure out what that is and then heal it, the experience will show you something else. If you do that consistently for a while, you'll find that the experience changes and healing doesn't have to be quite as difficult as we make it out to be.
"As above, so below" is all about how we think about God. God is the Universe. God is all that is - not just the things we perceive to be good or right. The balance of the Universe or God is reflected in the world around us. We happen to pay a lot of attention to problems and things we don't like. Humans have this idea that they have to focus on problems until the problems go away. Unfortunately, there will always be a problem to solve and so if we focus only on problems, we never see the good that is available to us, right in front of our faces.
Concepts such as manifestation also get misconstrued when we start to believe that the Universe is more like Santa Claus. Sometimes, the Universe or God will give you the things you want and then take them away from you somewhere in the future. Why? So that you can use the experience to heal. People can and do manipulate their energy to get the things they want all the time. Usually they find themselves unhappy, unsatisfied, or they lose those things because simply manipulating the energy to get what they want doesn't address the underlying reason why they want the thing in the first place. When we're using manifestation as a means of dealing with our wounds, we run into trouble. It is only when we're willing to heal that we can truly have what we want, keep it, and be happy with it.
Forgiveness is another concept that I find gets thrown around and is often misunderstood. Forgiveness is something that happens as a result of healing. We can actively stop blaming other people for how we feel, react, or think about our experience. What that does is it lets everybody off the hook, but it's not forgiveness. It is acceptance of self-responsibility. Nobody else is responsible for my thoughts, feelings, and actions except me. Letting everybody else off the hook means I don't have to worry about the experience. I don't have to change it or fix it and I'm not dependent on other people apologizing for their behavior to feel better. I can heal even if the experience doesn't change or resolve itself.
Once we let everybody off the hook and heal ourselves, forgiveness comes naturally. We no longer need the other person to change or do anything differently. We find acceptance and from acceptance we can find forgiveness. You haven't forgiven somebody you're still defending yourself from. You haven't forgiven somebody if you're still arguing with. You haven't forgiven somebody if you haven't made peace with the experience yet. Dropping the blame and forgiveness are two separate things. Forgiveness runs far more deeply than simply dropping the blame does. Recognizing the difference will allow you to do the additional work required to find true forgiveness.
Below you'll find many articles on these and other spiritual principles. Please feel free to check out any of the articles that are relevent for you right now. As always, take what works for you and leave the rest. Some of these concepts have taken me years to get to and find. Trying to make massive shifts or leaps in order to achieve some goal will usually result in a lot of pain. Be where you are and do the best you can from that point. There is no need to defend yourself from any of this. If it doesn't work for you simply drop it. I'm offering you ideas, not rules. Do what works for you.
Love to all.
Della
Social Media Links
