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illumined service

The Path of Supportive Service

April 20, 2018 By Cara Lumen

The Path of Supportive Service

We help others by simply walking beside them in supportive service.  

We don’t push.  We don’t pull. We don’t tell them what to do.  We simply walk beside them in service. Supportive service.  Loving service. Loyal service.  

We do it for others.  Others do it for us. 

We move gently into their life and match their steps.  

We may shine a light here and there to highlight possibilities, but mostly we walk in loving support beside them as they move through their own journey.

It’s an interesting feeling for me to know that I don’t walk beside you as a teacher or a leader.  I’m simply here to support.  And shine a little light along our shared pathway. 

I see myself on a path.  It’s not a particularly steep path, but it’s heading steadily upward.  

At this point in human time, I have two people with whom I’m actively interacting as we walk along together. We’re going in the same direction, but we are taking separate journeys. 

That’s as it should be.

I’m also walking beside others through my writing, even if I’m not always in direct interaction with them. 

I know that just as I find support and inspiration and motivation from other people whose work I read, we never know how the waves we send out impact others. 

Support by listening

For me, the greater service my two walking-beside-me-in-service partners give is to provide a space for me to share my excitement over what I discover and what I learn. They’re strong sounding boards and reflective mirrors. In that sense, we teach each other because we’re going more or less in the same direction, but we each have chosen a distinctive pathway. 

We listen well.  We exchange ideas with enthusiasm.  We give informed feedback and encouragement. Sometimes the gift is an idea we pick up from the other person that they’ve chosen to put in place themselves.  Listening is learning.   As we share our experiences and our response and interpretation of our own journey, we each expand our awareness – of self and of possibilities. 

Because my path is so focused on deepening my own spiritual understanding, for me the most important aspect of walking beside someone in service is that we’re at similar levels of interest and accomplishment along our path.  We can understand each other at the deepest levels of our journeys.

It has occurred to me, in writing this, that you are the third person I’m walking beside in service. You, who read what I write and sometimes offer comments.  Thank you for your thoughtful steps beside me. Thank you for sharing in my journey.

We follow our heart when we select who to walk beside in service. It’s always an exchange.  We both give and receive as we move along our journey. 

Support by mirroring

One of my walk-beside partners is very detailed.  I’m at the other end of the spectrum.  I grab an idea and run with it.  She holds it and studies and absorbs it.  Both are perfectly appropriate ways of learning but it was important for both of us to see and honor each other’s learning styles.  She helps me be willing to be a little more detailed – I help her be a little more experimental. 

Support by reflecting

One of my partners is a fellow shamanic practitioner.  We’re both exploring how we want to fit that incredible work into our lives, for ourselves and for assisting others.  She wants an active in-person shamanic practice. I want to primarily use the journey work to explore and write about what I discover and show others how to apply journeying for their own self-awareness. Two different objectives.  One shared path.

We practice on each other.  We reflect back to each other.  We learn from each other. We talk on Skype every week. 

Learn from their path

The other major person I’m walking beside in service is also a healer, but her path is different from mine.  She’s exploring things I never even thought about and some of my experiences in my shamanic explorations expand her knowledge. We have broad-ranging conversations as we walk alongside each other.

As you walk beside someone in illumined service, there’s an exchange.  You learn from each other as you also support each other’s journey.

Learn from helping

I’ve just begun to walk beside someone else in service.  She wants to learn shamanism.  As I prepare an outline for the guidance I want to offer, my own knowledge deepens and expands. Her questions and needs and interests will guide our journey together. 

Helping her helps me clarify how I want to be in service on a broader scale.  The words I want to write. The insights I want to offer.   You learn from the person you’re walking beside even as you’re the one doing the supportive walking.

There are people you serve you don’t know

Here’s the unmeasurable one. Our presence has a ripple effect. Our work has a ripple effect.  My work with the people I’m actively walking beside supports them and helps them expand their reach. I can see the movement that comes from our exchanges.  But through these people, I’m also in service to others I do not know in places I cannot see, as they expand their own reach into their world.

I also am aware that I’m walking on a planetary-wide path with people I do not know.  But I know our purpose.  I know our direction.  We are Illumined Explorers expressing our spirit-directed living and we are moving through the world to tap on the shoulders of receptive people.  As we shine our light, others see it and recognize the light in themselves, and they join in to help raise the collective consciousness. It’s very inclusive, impactful work for the wellbeing of our planet.

It’s trickier for me to gauge the impact of my own written offerings.  I occasionally get emails that indicate that a particular post has touched a life.  And I know there’s a consistent number of “opens” on my weekly posts.  But I have no idea what my work prompts each reader to turn around and give their world. And I never will. I have to trust and keep shining my light their way.  So that’s what I keep doing. 

You walk beside someone in service with every exchange

I live in a senior community in the conservative Mid-West and with my metaphysical interests, there’s no one here I can talk to about them.  But my mere presence is part of my service.  My persona, my participation, my appreciation for the opportunity to interact, those are all ways I walk beside them in service.  Your mere presence is a light that shines upon the path. We must be conscious of everything we offer the world, even by simply being present.

Point out the possibilities

If you picture yourself walking along a path beside someone, you may periodically shine your light on other possible paths to explore.  They may take one detour. You may explore another.  When you continue on the main path together, you each have new insights to share from your separate side journeys.

Help them over the high places

When we walk beside someone in service we help each other over the high places – and the low places. That’s simply the nature of walking along the same path. We’re supportive of our respective journeys.

Appreciate their light upon your path

Not everyone is going to think of their personal journey as shining their light upon the path of another.  Perhaps as you walk beside someone, you tell them how much their light means to you.  Perhaps you even find ways you both might shine your lights in other directions.  Stay aware.  Keep on the lookout and respond to the opportunities that appear. 

What does it feel like to walk beside someone in service?

Look at your life.  Who are you walking beside?  Who is walking beside you?  Some may be walking more closely to you, some may be nearby but at different points on the journey. Some may be willing to take that interesting detour with you. Others may not. 

Simply shine your light brighter.  Expand your beam. Draw in more people. And keep walking.

FOR DEEPER EXPLORATION:

Live in the Center of your being

What Is The Foundation Upon Which You Build Your Life?

Discover Your Spiritual Heart

How Effective Is Your Spiritual Practice? 

One Powerful Way to Change Our Future 

If You Are A Rock – Who Supports You?

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Filed Under: Our Luminous Legacy, Spiritual Expansion, Spiritual Heart, Transformational Community Tagged With: illumined service, Spiritual Expansion, transformational thinking

How to Effortlessly Radiate Light

August 17, 2017 By Cara Lumen

invisible self

There’s only one thing I know that everyone can do to help balance the planet – radiate light.  And the more effortlessly we learn to do that, the stronger our light becomes.

Shine your light along the path

When we are in illumined service we walk along the path beside others and simply shine our light – to help them see their way, to shed light on some new options. But always, they are on their path and we are on ours.

Increase your inside radiance

What about your inside radiance?  How is it doing?  If you’re angry, that dulls your radiance.  If you’re judgmental or ignore the needs of others, your radiance dims even more.

There are things we can each do to effortlessly radiate more light – beginning with our thoughts.

Begin your day with mindful intention

Create some kind of mindful daily ceremony in which you agree to be your best self, do your best work. Consciously release all that doesn’t serve you in shining your light.

Once you feel you’re clear of what holds you back, make conscious choices about how you will illuminate your day.  It may be in performing a task.  It may be in reaching out to a friend.  It may be in monitoring your words and withholding judgment.

When you stay conscious, when you are mindful of the power of your words and actions, you’ll become more selective and your light will become more radiant.

Our light, the light we show the world, is a reflection of our inner consciousness

How are you perceived?  How do you perceive others?  What are your judgmental thoughts?  (Drop those!).  How do you find new places to serve (Keep looking for those!).

Your inner consciousness is who you are.  You effortlessly radiate your light. But the question is, is your light as bright as you think it is – or want it to be?

Awareness + Choice = Change

The first step in increasing the radiance of your own light is to become aware of how you feel inside.  Serene? Content? Flowing? Peaceful?  Those qualities will effortlessly radiate as your personal glow, your light, your “being–ness”.

You constantly have a choice about what you think and feel.  Notice it and change it according to how you want to radiate in the world.

Awareness of how you’re radiating and choice about what you can do to increase that radiance makes for shiny, effortless personal light.

How will you polish up your inner light today?

To Sing a Deeper Song Consider:

Are You In Illumined Service?

Magic is Simply  a Change in Consciousness

The Guardianship We Hold

Building a Transformational Community to Heal Our World

Filed Under: Self Awareness, Self Transformation, Spiritual Expansion Tagged With: illumined service, Spiritual Expansion, transformational thinking

The Language of the Subtle Realms

August 15, 2017 By Cara Lumen

rainbow clods

Intuition, hunches, simply knowing, an image, a voice in your head, a dream – these are all forms of communication from our Inner Realm, our Invisible Self.  We must learn to not only listen carefully in order to hear them, but we must use all levels of our senses to interpret them.

When an idea shoots to the front, it’s a message

I was reading an article lately and one concept called so loudly to me that I immediately went to my computer to explore what it meant to me.  The sentence was, “My first language is intuition.”  I began to write this article.

As I begin to do more and more shamanic inner journeying work, the intuition, the inner nudges, the “oh wow’s” that appear during that work continues to amaze me.  My job it to 1) learn to interpret those symbols and subtle messages and 2) decide if and how I want to apply them.

What to do when an image appears in your imagination

I did a shamanic journey to find my teacher in human form in the Upper World.  In my imagination, I moved out beyond the planet, into the cosmos and found myself in the molecules of a rainbow.  A human form appeared. In my mind, I thought, “this is my teacher, a Rainbow Warrior.”

When I completed my inner journey I looked up “Rainbow Warrior” online.  I discovered there was an ancient prophecy that said, “The Warriors of the Rainbow will reteach the values and the knowledge that has been lost in time, demonstrating how to have wisdom and extra-perception, and how unity, harmony, and love is the only way forward.”  Wow.  I didn’t know that.

I found the idea of a Rainbow Warrior in my inner wandering in the great web of life.

There are messages to uncover

Ninety-five per cent of our experience is in the unconscious mind.  We need to learn to hear what’s there and to interpret it and perhaps add it to our life experience.  We can do that in meditation, dreams, journeying, even while writing poems, playing music or creating art – anything that takes us out of the confines of our world of words and thoughts and into the often wispy world of the imagination.

Teach yourself to listen

Begin by talking to your body.  What does it feel like eating? What does it feel like doing? Ask it and it will tell you.  Ask your inner voice to guide you in making a decision  “How is the focus of my work to shift?”  Then either sit in silence and listen or be open to hearing the answer at some point in your day from some unexpected source – inner or outer.

Write down the answers you get because once you write them down and they feel “captured”, another layer of ideas is free to emerge.  I journal after every journeying experience in order to explore what I experienced and clarify what I was shown.

Listen to nature

Begin by talking with your pet(s) or a tree or a butterfly or anything from nature that calls to you.  Use the language of intuition and imagination.  Have a silent conversation and interpret what you get back from them in the silence.

I think of ideas as wisps that are brought to me to consider and I am to capture them – or not. Ask the elements of fire, earth, water, and air to speak to you, to guide you.  Go within the invisible world and ask for helping spirits to guide you and give you answers to specific questions.

Practice listening

This expansive silent world of the subtle realms requires close listening and imaginative interpretation.  When you learn to move into the Invisible Realm, the inner world, and ask for guidance, you’ll get it.  Then all you need to do is to interpret what you hear and your life will deepen and broaden and expand in ways you never before experienced.

To Sing a Deeper Song Consider:

How to Explore Your Invisible Self

Magic is Simply  a Change in Consciousness

Abracadabra! I Will Create As I Speak

Wakan Tanka, the Originating Mystery

The Cosmic Soup

Filed Under: Self Transformation, Spiritual Expansion, Transformational Community Tagged With: illumined service, Spiritual Expansion, transformational thinking

Are You In Illumined Service?

August 14, 2017 By Cara Lumen

reflecdtions 3 lotus

I was meditating and suddenly was given the words “illumined service.”  Wow.  I want to do that.  What does it look like?  How do I do that? Where do I begin? I went exploring.

Illuminate is to enlighten

“To illuminate” is to shed light upon, to show the way, to come from love, inclusion, empathy and wholeness in our own life, our own work. Then that illumined energy naturally and organically shines out into our life and our interactions. What kind of adjustments do you need to make in order to come from a constant place of light?

Our passion is the beacon that shines

We each have a calling, a passion, a pull that has guided us along our path.  That’s our place of service, the focus of our work.

Illumined service means to give fully of your passion and your gifts.  To take your spiritual inquiry as far and deep as you can.  To grow yourself in all dimensions and share what you discover.

This may mean you need to adjust what you’re doing so that your work is filled with the illumination of your passion.  That your work is filled with love and happiness and the pure joy of living in light and loving every minute of it!

The first step to illumined service is to make certain your own light is as bright as you can make it.

Illuminate is to shed light upon

How do you “illuminate” you work?  Begin by honing and polishing the gifts you’ve been given.  Whatever talent you have, whatever skills you have developed, those are the tools you have to begin your illumined service.

Where do you choose to shed your light?  How do you want to use your gifts?

You have a core calling. Mine is spiritual exploration and sharing my subsequent insights. My path has been to move from student of spiritual and metaphysical philosophy to teacher and now to my role as an explorer who simply draws maps and leaves guidebooks for others.

My main purpose is to use my gifts to explore and share what I discover.

Look over your life so far and see where you’ve made the most difference, what you’re doing when faces light up around you when you are present and sharing your gifts. That’s an insight into your place of illumined service.

Get out of the build-your-business mindset and into the esoteric illumination of your business  

I was taught to “market” my business, to adjust my content so it had appeal to a specific group. We should make sure that certain people can find us and understand what we offer, but what if we simply followed our heart and shared our passion?  The power of our enthusiastic energy alone creates impact.

I’m one of those people who have to keep moving on to new discoveries.  I admire the patient teachers who nurture and help others find clarity.  However, I’m driven to move into a place of ever-deepening inner work that challenges and nourishes me.  And when I share what I discover, I open up choices and ideas to others.  In my work, I shed light so others see clearly. I shed light on where I have explored and leave maps and guidebooks so others can find their way.

You can illuminate the path of others by leaving maps and guidebooks that point out lessons you’ve learned along the way. Include an invitation for those who follow to stop and explore and absorb and adapt what resonates with them.

Shed light on the path you have walked

You shed light on the paths of others when you simply show up and share your own discoveries and enthusiasm.  Their path will not be your path but some of your detours may be theirs to take, your mistakes theirs to learn from, your discoveries theirs to build on.

Look at your own path and bring forth its lessons to shed light on the path of others.

Help others focus their light

You can help others honor their own gifts by teaching them to be selective and focused and clear about how they offer their light to others.

Whether your work is internal, like mine, or more direct as in coaching, or takes the form of a product or service, the purpose behind illumined service is to help others brighten their own light. To help them to reach further afield and to add their passion and gifts to the web of light.

Develop a consciousness of light

Being in illumined service is as simple as being conscious that you are in illumined service.  That all you do and say is impactful in the life experience of others.  Begin by monitoring your own path, the quality of your own light, the way you shine your light to help others see more clearly. This is not about influencing, it’s about making room for each person to increase their own illumination.

You illuminate your service by expanding your gifts and sharing them generously in the full awareness that you are an illuminated light in all you do.

To Sing a Deeper Song Consider:

What Seeds Are You Planting For the Future?

Your Desire to Heal the World 

The Guardianship We Hold

Building a Transformational Community to Heal Our World

Wakan Tanka, the Originating Mystery

Abracadabra! I Will Create As I Speak

Filed Under: Self Transformation, Spiritual Expansion, Transformational Community Tagged With: illumined service, Spiritual Expansion, transformational thinking

The Star of Conscious Change

June 17, 2017 By Cara Lumen

insights-logo

As we set out to explore the 95% of the Great Mystery that is in our unconscious mind, we need to to do some consous prep work before we go journeying off into the unknown.

Cara Lumen, spiritual philosopher, explorer, map-maker and founder of the Deeper Song Transformational Community helps us sing a deeper song.  In this episode she shows us how to consciously prepare oursel  to explore our Invisible Self by performing the Star of Conscious Change.

In this episode we consider: 

1 – How to deepen your inner work by surrounding ourself with the Star of Conscious Change.

2- Learn the powerful and centering “I Am” Chant

3 – Learn the Star for Conscious Change process.

For Deeper Insights Consider:

Deepening Our Connection

How to Find Your Spirit Guides  

Power Journaling 

Your Body Suit and Invisible Self

The Secret Garden

Important Links & Mentions From This Episode

Art of Wholing digital book k (Amazon and Ibooks)

Members of the Deeper Song Transformational Community are Light Holders, Hope Shiners and Gatherers to our heart.
Will you join  us? 

Filed Under: Self Transformation, Spiritual Expansion, vLog Tagged With: illumined service, shamanic journeying, Spiritual Expansion, transformational thinking

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