Our Luminous Legacy

We Are Responsible

March 6, 2018 By Cara Lumen

OUR LUMINOUS LEGACY

“As we pass through life, each of us creates the reality in which we live. And each of us is responsible for creating the self that lives in that reality.” Hank Wesselman, Medicinemaker

If I am responsible, I must participate.

We create our reality

What you look for, you find. What you believe will happen, happens. What you expect, you get. What you say and think has powerful energy – for positive or negative. Everything that shows up in your life contains a lesson, an opportunity for growth, an opportunity to change and adjust and recreate.

Living life is a big responsibility.

We create our“self”

What we focus on, we see. If I am looking for the negative in a situation or person, that’s exactly what I will find. If I look past what feels negative and focus on the positive, the spiritual heart connection, I see the person or situation from an entirely different perspective.

My actions help form my “self.” Am I kind and thoughtful or am I self-centered? Do I feel separate or do I readily connect with others? Do I work to the best of my gifts and abilities? Am I helpful?

There are certainly some changes I can make but that doesn’t make me a bad person. It simply makes me who I am and offers some ideas I might consider for making changes.

I must say that being old has its rewards in the form of the freedom I have. My work is selected by what I need to learn and how I want to share it. And since there is no income to provide, I can very much follow my heart.

We should be following our heart throughout our lives. I have to a large extent, but there were compromises I needed to make in order to provide for myself. I learned from those too.

We create our own lives by every thought we think and every action we take.

We are responsible

We do it to ourselves. We do it for ourselves. No-one makes choices for us, only we do that. No one makes decisions for us, only we do that. We are responsible for the emergence of every facet of our lives.

If your physical body needs help, only you can provide it. Do your inner work.

If your spiritual life needs expanding, only you can expand it. Do your inner work.

If your relationships need enriching, only you can make that happen. Do your inner work and bring what you discover into your life expression.

Whatever is going on in your life is because you chose it, you attracted it through your thoughts and actions, and maybe you asked for it subconsciously so you could get a much-needed lesson.

Whatever is going on in your life, both positive and negative, you are responsible for it.

We must actively participate in our lives

We are the only ones who can make the changes in our life, in our relationships, in our work. It’s all up to us – each of us – to do the work.

You participate by monitoring your thoughts. By examining and replacing the listing beliefs you hold.

You take time to become more aware of the effect you have on others through your words, your actions. You make adjustments.

You make active choices that create change. Do whatever your body needs to do in order to stay strong and flexible. Stay in or leave a job that no longer nurtures you. Make new choices on how you spend your time.

Deepen your spiritual practice, whatever that looks like to you. My spirit practice includes metaphysics, Taoism, meditation, Shamanism, Qui Gong, crystals, sound healing, visualization, yoga. There are so many bits and pieces from spiritual practices all over the world you can adapt for your own.

Add small moments in your day to be mindfully appreciative of the abundance and opportunities that surround you. If you don’t have a daily spiritual practice, begin one. If you do have a daily spiritual practice, expand it.

Explore the invisible realms

Most of our existence is invisible (94 percent). We have work to do there. My choice is shamanic journeying, which is a form of meditation. But I have also done transcendental meditation, and affirmative prayer. All of these help us cross the bridge from our physical plane life into the all-inclusive experience of the invisible realm, the Emptiness That Holds Everything. Allow yourself to be curious. Go exploring. Trust your intuition and your imagination. That’s the language of the inner realms.

How is your life going?

What exists in your life right now is a direct response and result of your thoughts, your words, your beliefs and your actions. Only you can change that.

As a metaphysician, I get to strengthen my belief that aging does not mean gradually falling apart. Living in a senior community surrounded by evidence that disputes that, I have to work hard on my beliefs about what’s possible in the aging process.

As a spiritual seeker, I study and explore and absorb and apply the spiritual insights that resonate with me.

As a concerned citizen of the world, I’ve moved into a strengthened spiritual practice of radiating light with the intention of helping raise the vibratory consciousness of our planet.

As a woman, I long ago bucked the system and followed my own calling.

Perhaps today I serve as an example and encourager simply by being an energetic, enthusiastic, and productive 85 year old.

Yes, there are changes I need to make. But not all changes are to right a “wrong”. Changes can be made to deepen your self-awareness, expand your impact, contribute more deeply to the world.

Let the changes call to you and let them evolve.

You are responsible for the path you take, the direction you go, the service your render.

What does your life look like? You are responsible. Make the changes that call to you.

What kind of self are you creating?

Previous Issues of Our Luminous Legacy

Unleash The Power of Your Inner Garden

How to be Nothing

How Modern Mysticism Will Save the World

Live in the Center of Your Being

What Is The Foundation Upon Which You Build Your Life?

What Are The Foundation Stones Upon Which You Build Your Life?

February 7, 2018 By Cara Lumen

Our Luminous Legacy

“If it’s time to restructure our life, it’s always the foundation that must change first. Knowing this, we must ask ourselves, ‘What is the nature of our foundation? Do we have foundation stones? What are they? How many are there, and are there any missing?’”

I set out to figure out what foundation stones are and if I had any, and what were they. The book is Bowl of Light by Hank Wesselman, a shamanist with whom I’ve studied. The words were spoken by Hale Makua, the Hawaiian kahuna mystic.

What are foundation stones?

A foundation is an infrastructure that supports and dictates the shape that is formed. That can be the foundation of a building. It can be the foundation for a body of work. It can be the foundation for your life path.

How is your life unfolding?

Life is constantly evolving, so it makes sense that we should check our infrastructure often. We do that by noticing how things are going.

There’s a very tall, very expensive, fairly new apartment building in San Francisco that is slowly sinking and tilting. The builders now say it should have been built from steel rather than concrete, which is very heavy, and that the foundation should have reached down to bedrock, not fill.

Good hindsight. Bad original decisions. Hard to correct.

So, perhaps we get to look at what is shifting, or leaning or unsteady in our lives and work on our infrastructure. Our foundation stones.

What is your purpose?

Before you begin to restructure or rebuild or rearrange, you need to look to see how your purpose has shifted. It’s pretty obvious that there’s change when you graduate, or change jobs, or get married, or have a child, or…. Those are major changes that suggest we need to restructure our life.

It’s the subtle changes that can sneak up on you – the aging process being one example. Physical change occurs in very small increments over time and you make small adjustments to accommodate them. Then suddenly you realize standing or walking or lifting is a lot harder to do than it once was. That’s when you notice your foundation has a few new cracks in it. And you need to make some adjustments in your foundation stones.

Define the purpose of your restructure

Create a mission statement for the change you want to make. “At the end of this (book, post, experience), people will leave with an understanding of….”

That’s a very powerful question to ask. What is your purpose? What is the purpose of this action? How does it help others?

The answers to these questions focus your choices and dictate the design of the foundation you build. Do you know your life purpose? Do you know your soul’s purpose?

Define your core purpose before you begin to restructure and shift your foundation stones.

What is the nature of our foundation stones?

It may be that our foundation stones shift and rearrange themselves in importance as we move through life. “Figuring out life” is something we work on all our lives, but that process will take many shapes and forms.

If I’m an athlete, my physical well-being stone will be quite large. As I age and my interests shift, that foundation stone may change shapes and become less prevalent.

The Foundation Stone for the Indigenous People is respect

A foundation stone for the indigenous mind is reverence, an active sense of respect.

That means respect for our earth and all who live here – plants, animals, people, land, rivers, oceans. When indigenous people kill an animal for food, they leave an offering for its spirit. They honor each part they use, the skin, the bone, the flesh. They treat each part with respect and gratitude for the sacrifice of life.

We could do that. We could add a blessing to our meals to thank the source of the food, to the land that nourished it and the people who brought the food to us.

Indigenous people are conscious of the soul of the earth and take great care to listen to her needs and care for her.

They do not feel they own the land, they have great respect for what is offered and provided by the land. It’s not about worship, it’s about reverence and respect and honoring the energy, the spirit of the land.

I want to become more reverent of the soul of nature. I will spend time looking out my window at the snow falling and mindfully observe the changes it makes in the landscape. I will watch the sun go down each day and offer gratitude for the events and lessons I’ve received that day. I will become more conscious of my consumption – of everything – and choose to live more simply and walk more softly and leave a lighter footprint on my planet.

The desire to be more reverent of the earth requires me to shift my awareness, to become more mindful, to be aware of the spirit of the land upon which I walk, the spirit of the birds that cross the sky, the spirit of the mountains in the distance. Look for the spirit in all things and honor it.

Spirituality is a verb. Spirituality is action

Every moment of our life is spiritual.

Our spirituality expands with every experience we consciously explore, every choice we make, and with every thought we think – both positive and negative.

Take a long look at your spiritual foundation stone. Is it strong yet flexible? Is it responsive to my life? Can you trust your spiritual foundation to support your service to our world?

Spirituality is a verb. Make certain your spiritual foundation stone keeps you fluid and responsive.

Your spirituality stone

We all have a spirituality foundation stone. It may be large or small. It may have shifted position over the years. But we all have one.

What does your spirituality foundation stone look like?

I know that spirituality is, for me, my center foundation stone. But it has had many shapes and colors and tonality over my 85 years – Presbyterian, Episcopalian, Transcendental Meditation, Metaphysician, Reiki, crystals, New Thought Clergy, QiGong, Tai Chi, Taoism, Shamanism. I’ve built upon each layer, keeping some of what I learn, discarding other concepts that do not resonate. Bits and pieces of spiritual exploration layered throughout life, carried forward and adapted. A mosaic. A foundational stone with many layers and many colors.

What matters now is what I’m currently doing in my spiritual life – how it’s expanding my awareness and nourishing my life. Shamanism is taking me on unbelievably informative meditative journeys. The form of my illumined service keeps expanding as I build up layers of spiritual insight.

My spiritual foundation stone includes continuous spiritual exploration, a powerful need to learn, an enthusiastic response to many things spiritual and a powerful need to follow my own calling.

What does your spiritual foundation stone look like and feel like? Is it strong enough to support you right now?

Your purpose stone

We each come into this world with a soul’s purpose. It’s an agreement we make before we enter this body suit.

It may be a purpose that focuses on personal growth. It may be a purpose that expands our world service.

One of our major tasks is to identify our soul’s purpose and make certain we accomplish it. It’s the lesson we have come into this lifetime to learn, the gift we have come to give.

My awareness of my soul’s purpose has recently shifted as I listen more closely to my inner guidance. I have seen myself as a messenger and an interpreter of the inner worlds, which I still am. But my purpose has recently expanded into helping light beings recognize their own light and consciously join with light of other light beings to heal our world. I’m just now coming into that place of service.

Look at your purpose stone and see how clearly marked it is. And what’s changing within it.

Your gift stone

To accomplish your soul’s purpose, you come into this world with certain gifts. You may or may not develop them, but they are powerful tools if you put them to use.
Some people recognize their calling at a very young age. I began to write for my high school newspaper and was made Managing Editor in my senior year. The faculty saw my gifts for writing and organizing before I did.

Sometimes your gifts take a while to uncover. My foundation gift stone contains the ability to see the overview and to share that with others through my words. My gift stone also includes my willingness to listen to and be guided by this very loud inner voice that leads me on all manner of adventures. It’s taken me a while to figure that out. I have the freedom to continue to explore. I’m fearless when it comes to taking a new path.

Take time today to journal to find what’s in your gift stone.

Your Illumined Service Stone

Finding your place of illumined service may take some exploration. Some people know they have to be involved with music, or a particular sport, or a certain form of business. They know it early in life and their path is quite focused.

Others of us wander around experimenting.

But there are always signs. Look at your gifts. Look at what others ask of you. Look at what you love to do. Those are clues to your illumined service.

What other foundation stones might we have?

Based on the idea of having a foundation stone of respect, I personally need to add an unconditional love stone. The passage that I read didn’t list what the foundation stones are. That’s for us to figure out. Spirituality, Gift and Service are just three that showed up for me. You may have an entirely different set of foundation stones.

A Learning Stone

A Learning Stone is part of my personal foundation. I have to be constantly exploring and examining and adapting and applying. It’s a big stone in my foundation.

Interaction with another’s foundation stone

Sometimes we’re drawn to people with similar foundation stones. Sometimes we’re drawn to someone simply because their foundation stone is something we want to learn, to absorb, to adapt. What foundation stones of others are you drawn to? Do you need/want to add your version of that stone to your foundation?

A Like-Minded Explorer’s Stone

As my spiritual path evolved, I have moved from friend to friend, learning from some, exploring with some. The more specialized my own philosophical interest, the fewer people who are walking on that exact path.

Find the people that grow you and spend focused, exploration time with them. (The two people that expand my work are in different parts of the country and we regularly connect on Skype.)

A Love Foundation Stone

The Love Foundation stone may be about giving love. It may be about being able to receive love. It may be about how you give love to the world through your thoughts and actions. Look at its qualities and shape the stone the way you want it to be.

How many foundation stones are there?å

There are as many foundation stones as you need. Take time to figure out what your foundation stones are and how they need to be modified or strengthened.

Tangible Service in the world may be a foundation stone. Help the world may be a foundation stone for you. Select and build on the foundation stone your need for this part of your life.

How to reshape a foundation stone

The first step in reshaping your foundation stones is to identify the foundation upon which you currently stand. Are your foundation stones steady or do they rock a bit? Are they big enough and strong enough to hold you where you’re headed?

What small foundation stones are outdated, or no longer useful? Clear those out. What about that belief pebble that is stuck under a foundation rock that makes it wobble? Get rid of those hidden, no-longer-useful beliefs.

Your life is the way it is because of the foundation stones you’ve built upon

If your life is not unfolding as you would like, you’ll want to examine your foundation stones. Particularly look for pebbles and large rocks that say, “I don’t deserve that” and “I don’t think that is possible.” Clear out the old, out-dated, no-longer-useful rocks from your foundation. It will make you stand taller and be stronger.

Then look closely at where you want to go next. And begin to build up the foundation stones that’ll take you there.

Your foundations stones will be different from mine. They’ll have different meanings. They’ll be of different shapes and have different priorities.

It’s for you to decide.

What are your foundation rocks and are they the ones you need for this next portion of your life?

To Deepen Your Luminous Legacy Consider:

Unleash The Power of Your Inner Garden

How to be Nothing

How Modern Mysticism Will Save the World

Live in the Center of Your Being

January 24, 2018 By Cara Lumen

Our Luminous Legacy

“The Master lives in the center of the universe, which turns out to be the center of herself. When things seem to be in discord return to the center.”
Stephen Mitchell, Second Book of Tao, 24

What does it mean to live in the center of the Universe? How do you do that? I went exploring.

Where is the Center of the Universe?

There are several metaphors for the concept of universe. It begins with words like Great Mystery and All-That-Is. One metaphor is a web of life in which we are each – what? A strand? A knot? The web of life sees us all as connected strands in a web that encompasses everything.

That includes humans, animals, plants, oceans, mountains, all one energy – not just on this planet but in the galaxy, stars, black holes – whatever is out there. All one web of life. All one whatever-we-are.

Even though I feel my connection with others, the metaphor of a web makes me feel like a separate strand or worse, as a separate knot. I understand that my actions affect others. I also understand that the actions of others affect me. Because we’re all one energy.

But I still feel separate. I don’t want to feel like a knot, or a strand, I want to feel like ONE!

Then there’s the metaphor of Cosmic Soup

I feel a bit more connected with the metaphor of Cosmic Soup because I’m not a separate strand. I also know that if I put too much of a particular seasoning into it, that will affect the whole. And what happens to the cosmic soup if I’m not drawn to the flavor the other person adds? It makes me feel helpless. I guess I’d like to feel the universal energy has a higher calling and can absorb and transmute negative energy.

It can, of course; but again, I feel connected, yet separate.

Find an image that makes you feel one

Through my shamanic meditative journeying, I’ve connected with the heartbeat of nature. I can feel my heartbeat connect with the heartbeat of the earth. I can feel my heartbeat meld with all of nature. I can feel it blending, harmonizing into an all-encompassing heartbeat. One rhythm. For everything. It makes me feel very connected to the heights and widths and depth of our planet. It’s an inclusive, connective experience. I can feel my heartbeat as one with the heartbeat of nature, and I feel connected and an integral part of nature – that we are all one heartbeat.

Then I began to think of the universe, of a Cosmic Heart. One, pulsating, in-rhythm, all-inclusive heart. I feel the rhythm. I feel the connection. The oneness of the heartbeat resonates with me.

Light is another metaphor that helps me feel part of the whole. When I feel myself as light. See others as light. Join our light together, become one light. One’s individuality disappears in light. That is what we’re looking for, to lose our separateness and experience our one-ness.

Cosmic consciousness is another metaphor. I like to join my consciousness with the like-minded consciousness of fellow transformational thinkers.

But feeling separate is common for me in my body suit. I have to elevate my awareness to – what? Nothing with a human form, nothing with human limitations and yet I am human, so…

Find a metaphor that helps you lose your individual humans in the experience of Oneness.

How to experience your soul

A soul is etheric. It is vast; it is core. What if I felt myself as soul? And that soul simply blends into and is part of an oversoul of All That Is? Blending, melding, becoming one with an over-arching soul. That would help me feel oneness.

Sometimes in deep meditation, I disappear from my body and feel I’m simply an awareness in the void.

How do you access a feeling of being one with and in the center of the universe?

“The Master lives in the center of the universe, which turns out to be the center of herself.”

“When things seem to be in discord return to the center.”

How do you return to the center?

How do you move back into the center or the universe? To the center of you – your oneness with All That Is?

Meditation will quickly move you from the chaotic physical plane into the stillness of your inner world. When I go deep enough in meditation, my body disappears, and I am flowing in nothingness.

I can move to an awareness of oneness by consciously feeling and expanding the light within me.

A light meditation

Find a quiet environment. Move into an inner place of stillness and begin to let your body disappear from your awareness. In the center of your being, feel a radiant light. Notice its color, its consistency, its movement. Notice as that light within begins to radiate. Let it fill every part of your body until you become simply light, not a human in a body suit with thoughts and beliefs, but a radiant pulsating light.

Feel that light expand beyond your body and out into the vastness where you become aware of other lights. You know you belong with them. You are all part of the One Light.

Merge your light with the others and watch the light expand and become one all-encompassing, pulsating, energy. A heartbeat of the universe that includes and encompasses and absorbs you into its welcoming presence.

Feel the power of that collective light.

Feel that ever-deepening connection.

Absorb that.

Is that how it feels to be within and absorbed into the All That Is? Is that the center of your being? Is that the center of the universe?

Explore that feeling for a moment.

“The Master lives in the center of the universe, which turns out to be the center of herself. When things seem to be in discord return to the center.”
Stephen Mitchell, 2nd Book of Tao, 24

Live at the center of your being. Now.

Our Luminous Legacy Series:

Unleash the Power of Your Inner Garden

How to be Nothing

How Modern Mysticism Will Save the World

You might also like:

17 – Exploring the Village of Nothingness (Podcast)

Return to the Simplicity of the Uncarved Block

We Are Part of a Larger Spiritual Orde

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join the Deeper Song Community

How Modern Mysticism Will Save the World

January 10, 2018 By Cara Lumen

OUR LUMINOUS LEGACY

You and I are modern mystics, whether we claim the title or not. And modern mysticism can save the world.

Anthropologist and shamanist Hank Wesselman wrote the book MedicineMaker: Mystic Encounters on the Shaman’s Path in 1998 – twenty years ago. He saw hope then, and we know we’re in more dire straits today. I need to see and understand and embrace the hope he holds out.

What were you doing twenty years ago? How aware were you? I was in year three of a five-year program to become a licensed spiritual practitioner in the Center for Spiritual Living, in Santa Rosa, California. I had recently come off of 15 years of wholistic exploration and training in New York City. I was already a “modern mystic.” But as I read this one chapter in Hank’s book I began to find the vocabulary to explain to us how we, as modern mystics, can and will alter this collision course the world seems to be on.

Here’s how Hank defines a modern mystic:

“You are a modern mystic if you:

1- Have a strong sense of social justice.

2 – Understand the importance of physical, mental, and spiritual balance and harmony.

3 – Are environmentally savvy. You see a pattern of connection of all. You understand that everything and everyone is part of a pattern and thus interconnected.

4 – Are committed to achieving the direct, personal transformative experience of the sacred.

5 – Most believe in the existence of more than one level of reality. The modern mystic understands that there are also the non-ordinary realities, the subjective dream worlds or spirit worlds, where the laws of physics and cause and effect may not work in the same way.

Take it a step further into these next ideas which I have explored and experienced as I delve more deeply into shamanism. See how much of this is true for you:

6 – The modern mystic believes that some individuals have the ability to enter or journey into these alternate realities to accomplish certain things and gain help, direction, and knowledge from the inner sources of wisdom and/or spiritual entities that reside there.

7 – They believe in the existence of spirit helpers and spirit teachers, who, in turn, are thought to provide the seeker with power and knowledge, protection and support, that one cannot access on one’s own.

8 – Modern mystics believe in the existence of spiritual or mystical power, perceived by virtually all as an invisible essence or force that pervades everything in the universe and that can be highly concentrated in certain places, objects, and living beings.

9 – It is understood that everyone can learn how to access, accumulate, and focus this power, and that one’s health, well-being, and success in life are all dependent on being able to increase and maintain one’s personal supply of it.

10 – There is also a belief in a personal energy body—the aspect of the self that carries this power as life force and which provides the etheric pattern around which the physical body is formed.

11- Most modern mystics also feel a genuine distance from and disaffection for Western allopathic medicine. They seek alternative solutions.”

What I nearly missed

I was feeling discouraged as I saw so many people with absolute opposing views on basic values and priorities. Whatever their reasons, they seemed caught up in the present and had no concern for our future – the impact our choices today have on the rest of our lives and on our children. Many people are simply focused on survival.

I felt outnumbered and alone. Where were all these mystics, these people working to raise the collective conscious?

I found them online. I found them in the groups that I participated in, in online courses I take. I joined with them in group meditations and continued to expand my own awareness.

This idea that there are so many active mystics in the world today is comforting because I know those of us who are aware that we are lightworkers are all doing our individual work.

Expanding my own spiritual practice makes me feel more valuable as an active participant in a larger movement, and brings me a comforting awareness that my spiritual focus can join with others all over the planet who are thinking and feeling and working in the same vibrational manner, to change our world.

There’s tremendous power in the energy of groups and even though, as an 85-year-old metaphysician in the conservative mid-west, I sometimes feel alone, I am not alone. I am part of the powerful steadily expanding vibrational thinking that’s gaining power on our planet. There are a lot of us on this mystical journey. And we are changing our world.

Here’s the turning point:

According to Hank’s book, in 1996 some 24% of Americans fell into this category of mystic. That was over twenty years ago. The internet has helped us find each other, and I am on group meditations and shamanic courses with people from all over the world. Yes, we mystics have the planet covered. We’re everywhere!

Now we need to increase our collective light. We do that through our ever-deepening spiritual practice and by joining with like-minded mystics to radiate light.

Mystics are in all cultures; they have migrated from all religions. They are everywhere. It’s incredibly powerful to join in a group meditation with like-minded people from all over the world. There’s an amazing sense of connection and an even greater certainty in our collective power to change the world.

What has to happen

Anthropologists call it a “cultural revitalization” movement. That means there’s a large group of us who see that the current way is not working and we are willing to explore a whole new set of ways to see ourselves, our problems and the solutions.

A whole new way. That means questioning all our choices, releasing a great deal of stuff and starting from scratch to develop and devise a pattern of living that’ll keep our planet livable and our lives sustainable in a state of profound peace and harmony.

That means a lot of change

That means a lot of letting go, of re-assessing, of being willing to change what we believe and how we think our lives should be.

It calls for visionary thinking

What does visionary thinking mean? It means finding ways to address overpopulation, land conservation, how technology is affecting the mental development of our children and our own social abilities, our livelihoods. What we will do when there’s no more land upon which to grow food, what we will do when the oceans rise and the ports all close and all trading ceases. Everything is so interconnected that when one strand is damaged, other strands have to change and compensate.

Fortunately, there are modern mystics working in all of these areas. We, as fellow mystics, must listen to them and support them. And if called to do so, join in the work.

We modern mystics must raise our vibration

You can begin to heal the world by examining your own thinking.

What you expect your life to look like is probably not going to be how it turns out. Technology and innovation are rapidly changing everything. How do young people train for jobs that don’t even exist yet – but will when they are ready to enter the workforce?

Be aware in every stage of your life that your options change, that new opportunities continually unfold, and find ever-expanding ways to offer your own gifts and talents and life purpose so that the choices you make are in alignment with your mission in life.

Question everything

Notice the repercussions of everything you do. Whether it is what you recycle or how far you drive or the activism work you do, allow your values to be fluid and adjust them to the ever-changing flow of nature and the expansion of your own spiritual awareness.

Question your physical body-suit life.

Expand your spiritual life and go deeper and broader and higher as you explore the invisible realms.

Be aware of the repercussions of your choices on others.

The waste, the pollution, the consumption, the warfare, the suppression are numbing. We are all part of the same planet. We are all connected. What we do affects the whole. All of us. Each of us.

Respond to new information

Scientists continue to uncover new knowledge about our universe, our planet, our potential. Keep abreast of those discoveries, particularly in areas that call to you. Then put that new knowledge to work in your own life and show others how to follow suit.

Know the repercussions of your action

I’m a vegan. I know about the food chain process. My personal choice is to save one animal at a time through my own actions. One person’s action can add to a collective result.

So much of the damage to our planet comes when people are not aware. Not aware of where their plastic discard will end up, not aware of the impact of their anger, not aware… We, as modern mystics, must monitor all we do and continue to raise our vibration in the world.

You are a member of the Transformational Community

If you resonate to any of these ideas, you are a modern mystic and a member of the Transformational Community. We may not call ourselves that, but it’s time that we recognize there are many others worldwide who are working to raise the collective consciousness of our world. We do that through our private, spiritual practice, and we find other like-minded change-makers and join with them, as activists, in group meditations. We are finding each other and that is empowering. Our collective light is expanding.

How do you choose to take your modern mysticism to the next level?

This is how I do it. I continue to deepen my personal shamanist work and explore the invisible realms daily. I actively focus on deepening my connection and awareness of nature. I mindfully radiate light to our world each day. I write articles like this to serve as a guide and encouragement for other spiritual explorers.

We are old souls, we mystics. We are the elders. We must do the consciousness work that helps others understand that we are one energy, one light, one essence. And as such, we are responsible for the well-being of each other. Our whole. Our world.

Mindfully raise your own vibration to your innate wholeness, and it will broadly affect the world around you.

There is hope. With each deepened awareness and each conscious choice.

Welcome, modern mystic, to the save-our-planet project. We can save our world.

Our Luminous Legacy Series:

Unleash the Power of Your Inner Garden

How to be Nothing

To receive the weekly Inner-World Discoveries,
join the Deeper Song Community

How To Be Nothing

December 13, 2017 By Cara Lumen

OUR LUMINOUS LEGACY

How To Be Nothing

Ninety-five percent of our existence is invisible. Our human part is full of ego and separation. The rest of us, the majority of who we are, is in The Great Nothingness, the All That Is. We are all one energy, one vibration. There is no separation. We are all just part of the Great Nothing.

How does it feel to be Nothing?

If you’ve ever meditated and “disappeared” in the process, you understand how to be nothing. Have you ever had a moment when you’re totally one with what you’re doing: that perfect physical act that’s effortless and seems almost miraculous?

That phrase or idea that comes floating in from nowhere that sends you catapulting in the right direction? The feeling of everything falling perfectly into place – effortlessly? That is the Great Nothingness in you, coming through your bodysuit, pushing through your human ego. Pulling you into Oneness with All.

What is “out there?”

The Sufi poet Rumi says, “Live in the nowhere that you came from even though you have an address here.” Nowhere. And everywhere. All That Is, The Great Mystery.

Put aside the limiting human approach of seeing yourself as separate and feel yourself absorbed into an unseen unity of all there is. Move into the inner realms, the unseen world, the Great Nothingness. Know that you’re one with all.

It’s challenging to lose our feelings of separation

Even trying to imagine ourselves as being part of a great universal nothingness, we want to feel separate. We want to feel we are a unique individual. That’s our limitation as humans and what we must learn to move beyond in order to feel and be nothing – and at the same time everything.

From our limited humanness, we cannot understand the concepts of a great nothingness, a nowhere that we came from. We have to look within our inner world to begin to understand and accept and experience. We are all that is. Each of us – are one.

The invisible realms are noticeable

I explore the invisible realms every day as I take regular shamanic journeys. To create Our Luminous Legacy series, I go to my inner realms for guidance. I went within to the invisible realms to channel the first draft of this newsletter. I closed my eyes, asked my helping spirits for guidance and wrote what showed up. It flowed as fast as I could type. Of course, there were small edits, but the words appeared out of nothingness and flowed into my human world with ease. We are always connected to our inner realms.

There are no forms in the invisible realms, although, in order to communicate with us in our limited body suits, the helping spirits appear in many shapes – power animals, teachers in human form, wee folk, talking trees and animated elements.

The invisible world speaks to us in metaphors, symbols, shapes and unexpected images that only have meaning to us as individuals in our body suit form. So in our imagination, we get shapes and subtle messages that only we can interpret for use in our body suit life.

If you have meditated deeply, you’ll know nothingness

Years ago, I was led in a guided meditation in which we steadily moved through each part of our body, focused on becoming the space between the molecules. For each part, we gradually moved past skin and bones and tissue and blood into the space between the molecules.

Our arms disappeared from our experience. Our legs disappeared. Our body disappeared. We went through one part of our body at a time, moving into the space between the molecules. I absolutely remember the moment the last part of my awareness of my physical body disappeared into the space between the molecules. I was like a pinpoint of consciousness floating in space, in nothingness. No body. Just one point in my head where my third eye had been.

That’s the feeling we all want to recapture. We want the experience that there’s nothing but this one link from our consciousness to this all-encompassing radiant light, this embracing vibration of positive energy, this floating experience. The Great Nothingess. The Nowhere That We Came From.

Learn to lose your ego

We spend most of our lives paying attention to what we do, who we are, what we want. Our human lives focus primarily on our needs and wants. We are, after all, the only one who can live our lives. We begin to cherish our uniqueness, our individuality, our gifts, our achievements. And it makes us stay separate.

This is not about merging with another person. No, that’s ego and ego. I’m supporting us both in this idea of losing our ego selves to become pure light. No body, no ego, no separateness. Just one all-encompassing experience of simply being. Nothing.

I sometimes picture the Great Nothingness as Cosmic Soup and how we are each a flavor that affects the whole soup. What flavor we add (negative, positive) affects the overall flavor. Our individual seasoning of “self” blended into the whole.

I used to think in terms of the Web of Life, but being a strand of that made me still feel separate.

There are only limiting words to describe this disappearance, this dissolving of our body suits until we are free floating in a healing, wholing state of pure light, being vibration, just being.

When we go within, when we disappear into the nothingness, we heal, we release the human stuff that’s blocking us, and we step into light, healing, wholing, oneness. We feel embraced and included and supported. When we open our own hearts, we feel love – spiritual love from our collective spiritual hearts. The world drops away and we are in Nothingness. There are no problems, no pain, no worries. There is just a sensation of being. Our body disappears. We are Nothing. And Everything.

What do you learn in the Great Nothingness?

Nothing. You learn nothing. You do nothing. You simply are. When you move back into consciousness, you can bring back to your human form that feeling of calm, that feeling of connection, that feeling of well-being and you can walk around with that glowing from inside you all day. That will affect how you experience your day and how others experience you.

You can purposefully move into the Great Nothingness before you begin to work, or sleep, or before anything you’re doing in your body suit. Bring this feeling of oneness with you in all you do.

What if you feel separated?

Coming back to the human existence can be jarring. Ease back into consciousness. See what feelings and awareness you can bring with you. Continue to experience yourself as immersed in a greater whole. Maintain those feelings of calm and stillness and flow easily and effortlessly through your life. Just float. Just be. Be present. Be. Float in meditation.

Flow in your work, let your intuition and imagination have full rein. Back away from the confines of your body suit and flow through your day, flow through your life, maintaining your experience of being within and of the Great Nothingness.

Can you “be” light throughout your day?

Find a way to slip into the stillness within, even with your eyes open. Take regular moments throughout your day to take a deep breath, let go of your body suit and float in the Invisible Realm. It’s replenishing and restorative. And it’ll change how you experience your life.

Go within each day

Every day, go to a quiet place and simply be. Let go of feeling separate in your human world. When you are worried, go within. When you are scared, go within. Remember these are all body suit experiences, not experiences of the Invisible Realm.

There is no separateness within

It’s challenging to imagine a world where all are in agreement. The Invisible Realm is not like what we see and experience living in the human world. In the Invisible Realm, there are no separate opinions and thus no disagreement. We are part of a whole. Everything is one. One Energy. One Light. One. How different our worldly experience would be if we could bring back those feelings of oneness to the physical plane.

Go within for comfort and lessons and guidance. Go talk to the great Nothingness and bring back the knowledge of the Oneness. Know that there is no one else, nothing else. All simply is. One. One radiant light of wholeness.

Bring the wholeness of Nothingness to your physical plane experience

Allow wholing energy to come to you on the physical plane. Sit. Go within and feel your oneness with everything, all that is. Step into the light that is everywhere and feel its wholeness embracing you, encompassing you, filling you. Feel it hug you and love you and support you, even though those are human feelings. Feel your individual light merge more deeply with the light of all that is. Feel the support from this ongoing, massive field of energy. Let it lift you and heal you. Soak it up. This is healing light. Healing energy. It makes things whole. Because it is wholeness. It is All There is.

You learn to be by being. Let your body suit go and float off in your Invisible Self and merge with the Light That Is.

Simply be.

Will you practice simply being? Will you immerse yourself in the Field of Wholeness? Will you radiate the light that you are?

OUR LUMINOUS LEGACY PRACTICE

Two or three times a day, take time to go within and simply be. Be present. Follow your breath, slowly and mindfully, in and out.
Feel the light energy from within vibrating around you, encircling you in light. Blending and merging with your body suit.
Notice how you let go of everything and how your body suit responds.
Lose all awareness of your self until you no longer exist but are simply present in the glow, the light, the wholeness.
Feel and experience yourself in the Invisible Realm. If something shows up in your imagination, explore it, talk to it, ask its purpose.
Journal after this to solidify your experience.

A Message from My Spiritual Heart

Our Luminous Legacy emerges from my spiritual heart. I know myself to be a spiritual explorer who serves as a messenger and a bridge to the Invisible Realm. The Luminous Legacy series is part of the maps I leave to guide you on your own inner journey.

Namaste,

Cara

Our Luminous Legacy Series

1- Unleash the Power of Your Inner Garden

2-How to Be Nothing (this one)