UNCONVENTIONAL FORMS OF SPIRITUAL PRACTICE

 SPIRIT GUIDES

SPIRIT GUIDES 

Spirit guides are not subject to time or space as are we. 
They are always around but not always to be known,
always within call but not always to be heard,
always present but not always to be sensed,
always holding us but not always to be felt.

 

The Ancestors cannot save but only alert, advise and warn and only according to your openness and willingness. They cannot change or deter you from your own insistency no matter to what it’s due. Only you can change!

 

In my sangoma practice readings the "bones" often say to folks who come for guidance that their spiritual practice is lacking. Many of them have profound ways of going inwards; meditation, Tai Chi, prayer, journaling etc. However, when it comes to connecting with their ancestors or guides they are found wanting. 

Why wouldn't this also be a way of downloading information from the spirit world? 

I remember my sangoma mentor telling me; "The trouble with Westerners is that they have forgotten that they have guides to help them. When they pay them no attention they turn away and then they become like papers blowing in the wind, unsupported in life."

The terms ancestors and spirit guides can be used interchangeably.

Many of our guides were our ancestors in past lives. Others may be appointed to help us with our spiritual trajectory both in and outside of dreams.

 

We are not just influences but also recipients of influences from distant places and distant times.

 

Artists, musicians and others have their muses. Some call this “narrator” their alter ego when in actual fact “s/he” might be a guide. Guides, ancestors and "muses" can connect to us from the other side of the veil between worlds. They can help us by scripting our dreams and even downloading information in awake time. Free will allows us to choose whether to see or not and to listen or not. Our guides can help us with our choices.

The choices are yours and there are consequences to your choices. 
Consequences are neither reward nor punishment; they simply are consequences, often not immediate but always inescapable…

Southern African tradition believes there are also non-human spirits - both good and bad. These include; Terrestrial, Cosmic and Water Spirits that can also be of assistance to us Talking Beings. The Water Spirit is key in sangoma initiation. Terrestrial spirits may include the Still, Growing and Wild Beings all of which are animated by the breath of the Supreme Being and have their own individual vibration and consciousness. They are all there to assist us. For instance sacred stones or metals and crystals in talismans, plants to help us heal and power animals to strengthen us. 

Most of the guides we will encounter are in the Astral realms where they are reconciling with their karma. We all have guides - many who may have loved us in past lives, and would like to help us now. According to sangoma wisdom we also have “foreign” guides – not from our past lives that can also be assigned to help us. The African guide who helps me in my divination practice was a sangoma in her past life. She is a “foreign” guide unknown to me in previous lifetimes.

The Astral is where we go to reconcile with our karma. Once in the Astral, spirits loose their free will and now can only operate through the free will of another living being on the earth plane. In this way they can complete work they never completed in their lifetime and do service to improve their karmic profile for the next incarnation. By allowing them to help us, we lift them up. 

Perfected souls exist in the Causal realms. They retain free will, can operate independently and do not have to reincarnate unless they choose to for a special mission. Some of us have guides in these realms as well. A few also may have angelic visitations.

When we fail to engage with them at all they move away and we become spiritually unprotected. They may, however, occasionaly  show up in life threatening, emergency situations. An ongoing connection is required for any relationship to be sound just like it is in real time. They cannot be taken for granted.

 

“In every person there is something precious which is in no-one else. And so, we should honor each for what is hidden within them for what only they have.” Talmud

 

Once in the Astral, spirits undergo a reconciliation process with a spiritual tribunal. Following this they become well aware of what their own core strengths were and whether they realized them or not. Of course when they reincarnate again this direct knowledge is incompletely retained.

 Our guides may have gone down the wrong road and do not want us to make the karmic mistakes that they may have made. They are  there to help guide us to our God given destiny within the bounds of spiritual laws especially free will. Our guides have access to our Book of Life and also know what our talents are, and what our life's purpose should be. However, they cannot tell us who we are - we have to find that out for ourselves. 

 

Spiritual laws are operative whether or not we understand them or can explain them or whether or not we even know about them or believe in them.

 

Because of the cosmic law of free will we must ask to receive and we must ask very specifically. Our guides live in the present moment and for them free will is also in that present moment. They are dwelling in a non-time-space reality bound by the law off free will. They live in the present moment and for them free will is also in the present moment. Hence they require us to maintain, sustain and repeat our requests. They want to know know how committed or fickle we are. Will we changed our minds? Hence it is best to keep affirming the requests we make to them. 

Our guides are there to help us with our karma but require us to be in integrity or they will move away. The way this is more powerfully done is through a Container for our prayers and solicitations. Essentially a container is a ritual which has more traction than a simple request since it requires more intention and attention to detail. The "Field" responds with vigor to our intentions depending also on our will, passion and courage. 

 

“The sages who have died are present in this world to a greater extent than when they were alive.” The Zohar

 

We are watching from endless space
We are waiting in timeless order
Chant your way across the Veil 
Spiral into existence those spirits that are needed.

 

Nurturing a Connection with One’s Spirit Guides with the Help of an Altar. 

An altar is a powerful “container” and can also be a sacred space to connect us with our guides. Here, we can also ask to receive – as well as give thanks when we do receive. Lay down a white cloth that is new, or special and attractive on any surface. Embellish the altar with their photos or mementos which hold their energy such as a walking stick, their favorite book, a ring, a cup etc. If you do not have a photo write down the name. If you have a guide but no name, allocate an object such as a crystal on his/her behalf. If you have an image from a dream, sketch, draw or paint it. 

Dedicate a dream journal or a recording device for their messages and take it to bed with you. Your smart phone can be used as well. Make offerings, light a candle or incense, bring gifts from time to time – a feather, an attractive pebble picked up on a hike. Always have them in mind.

Gratitude and love are how we help them.

It is best not putting any “skeletons from the family closet” on your altar unless resolution with them has been perfectly made and even then, you may not want that energy around you. 

 

The Ancestors cannot help you with anything you have not freely, willingly and deliberately given up.

 

To connect with our spirit guides for help in a particular line of  work one can create a sacred space in which to ask to receive. Open it formally by drumming, rattling, or lighting a candle or incense. Requests will be more easily received and acted upon if made for the greater good rather than for ourselves. If it is for ourselves, it should also be in order to help the greater good. 

You should wish for yourself not what you want but that what you want is for your good and that of others too.

For those doing healing or spiritual work, if feasible, it is best to have a dedicated sacred space to invoke one’s guides. Open the space to invite them in and formally close it giving thanks when the work is complete. 

 

The ancients would ask of you to perform good deeds, speak good words and think good thoughts in their memory.
They would want you to be a repository of their instructions, or other wisdom teachers, and their righteous and loving ways.

 

Celebrate their birthdays and honor the days of their death by lighting a candle or even making a meal and placing a token plate of food and drink out for them while you eat. Your imagination should know no bounds and even though you may not get feedback you can be sure they are around. We empower them when we allow them to do service on our behalf through our free will, now that they have none of their own in the Astral. 

If all this is new to you, have a party for your guides, “prepare a table for them.” Welcome them into your life and to their altar. Introduce them to your dream container.

 

If you have many guides and are greatly beloved you will have many dissuaders and be greatly envied.

 

We may also be visited or opposed by dysfunctional spirits – tricksters – from lesser vibrations. They are envious of those who have a high vibration and their “light” is a reproach to them. We need to be aware that they can not only interfere with us but also masquerade as guides

 

Lesser vibrations which emanate, from narrow mind are often viewed as needing to sort out and work through their own calling. Beware of those on either side of the veil who would make you their resolution, much less their absolution.

 

In order to connect with our guides, it helps to raise our vibration. This requires a dedicated spiritual practice which can help open the higher chakras especially the sixth or Third Eye - the gateway to downloads from the Field in dreams or in awake time. Love is the catalyst that allows our guides to cross the veil between the worlds and opening our hearts will enable them to come through the veil more easily.

 

UNCONVENTIONAL FORMS OF SPIRITUAL PRACTICE AND FINDING EQUANIMITY

  SOUND # 2

Cymatics

 

Ernst Chladni was the first to show how tiny particles arrange themselves in patterns when exposed to music on a receptive flat metal plate. In this way he made sound visible and produced so called Chladni figures on their surfaces. This became the basis for Cymatics, the physics of sound.

Hans Jenny in the 60’s - some 200 years later - using sand, spores, iron filings on vibrating metal plates, on membranes and also in water and viscous substances found that vowels, words and sound generated shapes. Patterns were seen including; octahedrons, tetrahedrons, hexagons, and the geometrical patterns seen in plants and animals – some forming Sacred Geometry.

Other researchers found that certain patterns changed according to the frequency of the sound giving different patterns. The higher the frequency, the more complex they became. 

Wasaru Emoto discovered that discordant music, epitomized by Heavy Metal, had negative effects on water, causing ugly crystal formations  when viewed under a microscopy after freezing. Concordant music such as that of the great composers created exquisite crystals.

 Emoto, German scientists and more recently Veda Austin have shown that water has consciousness, resonance and memory.  

Veda Austin (see link below) has take this to another level. The link is well worth the 20 minutes of viewing.

Magical cures, (spontaneous remissions of deadly diseases that defied the best of what Western medicines has to offer) have occurred in such place as Lourdes in France and other holy sites where there is sacred water. The cures at Lourdes were ratified by the Vatican's medical commission. 

When we bathe we can, without much effort, make a ritual bath sacred, with music, incense and also by adding sacred plants.

Click and play Austin's research

29:08

Music can do many things to our inner beings. It can create equanimity which is the basis, in its broadest sense, of any meditation. We have to be careful of what we select for our listening. As Austin confirms  sound travels through water even faster than through air. 

 Concordant music creates harmony, balance and serenity. Discordant music the opposite.

"If one should desire to know whether a kingdom is well governed, if its morals are good or bad, 

the quality of its music will furnish the answer.” Confucius

The Nazis used music to torture Jews, the military to march soldiers to their deaths in war, others to court and woo prospective mates ... and all shades of light and dark in-between ... 

 

Re Lucifer who became Satan:

"The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes was prepared for you on the day that you were created." Ezekiel

Lucifer was the chief musician in heaven before he was removed by God, along with the other fallen angels.

 The church believes that there is a certain tone that could be associated with the dark side. It was called the devil's interval — in Latin, diabolus en musica, the flatted fifth or the "tritone" because it is made of three whole steps. Many famous heavy metal and other rock musicians flirted with Satan implicity or explicitly. 

David Bowie, like the church called it, the Devil's music. 

“Sex, drugs and rock and roll” were often associated with addiction, soul loss and even dark spirit possession. Jimmy Hendriks and Robert Johnson admitted to having sold their souls to the devil in return for their musical brilliance. They also both died young as did some others. 

Beethoven, Wagner and Tartini were a few composers who used tritones, but only where appropriate, while dissonant chords became the main focus in heavy metal music as well as some other genres. The tritone was felt to be ambiguous, unsettling, unstable, unresolved, leaving a feeling it had nowhere to go. Some said it was very sexual and was the sound used to call up the “Beast.” 

 Words alone can also change the vibration in water - possibly harmfully in the body - especially when used together with dissonant music. Our cells contain 80% water.

Be careful of what you taste and where you immerse!

Words have great power. They acknowledge, affirm and inspire. They strengthen, heal and give comfort…When using words, choose them well. Never use them as a weapon to harm or as an alienating defense …”

 

The popular music of Rap grew out of Hip Hop and unfortunately, like most things became vulnerable to corruption and big money. Hip Hop arose out of the Bronx in the 70’s and was a cultural statement against; poverty, violence, gangs, drugs and racism. It was meant to be socially healing. It was built on social justice, peace, respect, self-worth, community and fun. Likewise, originally Rap was never meant to endorse, violence, profanity, drugs, misogyny and advising a life style of crime or coming up against the police and the law. Being lucrative it has been subject to corruption.

Words change the meaning and vibration of the intention; light or dark, sacred or profane. Toxic vocabulary pollutes the rhythms and discordant music can have profoundly negative, vibrational effects on its participants. 

Christian rock is an attempt to come up against the profane. Rabbi Nachman Berman sings in Rap but expounds scripture. Matisyahu who dressed in Chassidic garb uses Reggae, Hip Hop and Afro-beat to do the same thing. The words change everything.

Music can do many things to our inner beings and we have to be careful how we select it, and the words that it contains. 

The sounds of nature are concordant. The mantra of the bush can be like a complex symphony.

Sound crumbles, impedes and shatters resistance and barriers including those to the mind and the heart. It also can clear dark forces, within and without. One of the best ways to cleanse and clear oneself is with sound. Sound speaks to one’s vibration.

Sacred music or sound can create equanimity of body, mind and soul.

 

The soul's essence should lodge comfortably in the body.

The soul’s fulfillment is through the experience of the senses. The soul’s conversation is not of the mind but of the senses.

 

From the sound of my sighing (equanimity) has my essence (soul), cleaved onto my flesh (body)." Psalms 

 

When we are spiritually in balance and have serenity the soul and the body are at one. When the opposite occurs, and we behave in a karmically unsound manner, the soul may gradually separate from the body, leading to soul sickness or even soul loss. Music, chants and sound can be a way of reuniting body and soul. The wrong kind of music can do the opposite, forcing the soul to divorce from an impure body. The soul is pure.

Concordant music can drive our imaginations and help us heal. 

Active imagination can be enhanced by sound. We have a choice, to leap with the mind activated by the sensory input of sound into infinity, light and spaciousness or descend into narrowness and darkness.

 

There are certain things that have universal attributes, like music. Something of greater magnitudes is conveyed by them. They connect us with the universal storehouse of life and knowledge." 

Swami Paramananda

Clink on the link and play.

Matisyahu - One Day (YouTube Version)

 

 

 UNCONVENTIONAL FORMS OF SPIRITUAL PRACTICE

  SOUND # 1

In the beginning was the sound?

"And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep: and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” Genesis.

"Quiet— Eternal Quiet. Not even the sound of the restless, stirring, dark waters could be heard. Then, a great spiraling strain of Melody moved across the endless waters. Subdued at first, then quickly gathering momentum until it reached a great crescendo. And, then, there was Life! But the Melody did not stop. It continued its song, filling all of Creation with its Divine harmony. And so it continues today, for all those who listen." Frank Mills

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”John

However, some ancient wisdom schools believe that it was intention with the imagination of the Creator as well as the complexities of sound vibrations that created the multiverse rather than only the word.

  

All energy and matter are vibratory and their atomic make up helps us understand how the Creator may have sung the world into existence. Sound, music and song are a crucial part of the creative "mathematics" of the Divine.

“Pythagoras alone of mortals is said to have heard this harmony … If our hearts were as chaste and as snowy as Pythagoras, our ears would resound and be filled with that supremely lovely music of the wheeling stars.” John Milton.

  

The stars are singing to us but we cannot hear them because of a lack of receptivity and the prevalence of ambient noise.

 

“…when the stars of the morning sang together.” Job

 “There’s not the smallest orb which thou behold’st but in his motion like an angel sings.”Shakespeare

 

“We should thank the stars for their song. Their light emanates from their singing and when they sing they glow. That is how they reveal themselves. 
The Zohar teaches when we pray in the morning it is a continuation of the singing of the stars.”

Ever since the Greeks until fairly recently music has been considered sacred and an attempt to mimic the voice of the Divine. The ancient Greeks also believed that music could return humanity to a paradise lost and was a form of communion with Divine truth. The Greeks and others felt that sound should follow a certain "objective moral order" as did the church. The great classical composers followed this idea. Pre-modernistic music kept these principles up until the last century. Relatively recently this has changed and musical discordance has become prevalent.

Sacred Sound

 

Sacred sound from classical music, Tibetan gongs, crystal bowls, a didgeridoo or anything else (drums, strings etc.) can help induce meditative states and equanimity.

 

Special songs and chants have the power to awaken the dormant and reveal the hidden and stir the energies that heal and glorify.

 

Active Meditation: Chanting, singing, whistling and the use of wind instruments can be a part of breath meditation. Bhajans and Kirtans, devotional songs that help to connect with the Divine are also a form of an embodied "breath" practice. They help us connect with our Creator whose breath is sustaining us moment to moment.

"What is God? The breath within the breath."  Kabir

All four Beings of nature are animated by the breath of the Divine. 

Sound has spiritual power and features prominently in the Bible. 

Singing and playing musical instruments in the tabernacle and later the temple was the duty of Levite priests and priestesses. Levite harpists were routinely called upon by the prophets to enable prophecy. 

King David's psalms were in song and included instruments such as psalteries, harps, timbrels, stringed instruments, organs and cymbals. The harp was known to be an instrument of healing and was also used for cleansing spiritual afflictions. 

Music and sound are a vital part of our spirituality, balance and healing.

“God protects the Psalmist by surrounding him with "songs of deliverance."

 

“So it came about whenever the evil spirit from God came to Saul, David would take his harp and play it with his hand and Saul would be refreshed and be well and the evil spirit would depart from him.” Samuel

"Divine sound is the cause of all manifestation. The knower of the mystery of sound knows the mystery of the whole universe."  
Hazrat Inayat Khan   

 

If we perform random acts of kindness or create or listen to beautiful, concordant music we release pockets of love energy or mini-angels. Non-concordant music does the opposite.The right sound can be divinely inspired and sacred music can allow us to find equanimity and balance. Concordant music enhances our parasympathetic nervous system creating a relaxation response with positive effects on our nervous system and body. 

The wrong kind of music such as Heavy Metal - does the opposite. It has been described by many, even David Bowie, as the Devil's music. 

Military style music also advantages our sympathetic flight or fight response and helps in battle. 

Everything in the multiverse is vibration and the electromagnetic energy in sound and music is fundamental to our reality and whether we are in balance or not.

 

The Heart Math institute has done research on the coherence of heart rhythms in relationship to Heart Rate Variability (H.R.V.) Heart rate Coherence occurs when the parasympathetic nervous system is invoked with meditative techniques. Heart coherence has the potential to create emotional balance in the brain and can occur with any meditative technique and also with selected music. The right kind of music has the potential to create heart, mental and spiritual coherence. This can override stress and the negative emotions that arise from a sympathetic flight of fight response. 

Certain genres music can be healthful, enhance immune function and create positive emotional states. The wrong kind - the opposite. Music can help drive our imaginative capacities. Guided imagery with music helps us to heal.

We have to be sensitively aware of what discordant music can do to our being as well. Emoto showed that concordant music (like Mozart), when exposed to water that was frozen, produced exquisite crystals when looked at under a microscope. Discordant music (like Heavy Metal) did the opposite. He and German scientists have shown that water has memory, resonance and consciousness. Our cell are 80% water. Think of what music can do to our bodies?

“I am conscious of having removed all traces of a past aesthetic. I am cured of the delusion that the artist’s aim is to create beauty.” 

Schoenberg (and his ideas on discord and atonality in the 1920’s.)

 

 He and others were influential in changing musical concord into discord and away from the great composers and the church. This same discord creates discord in the living systems.  Boulez who preceded him and Cage agreed and also drifted away from the concept of the sacredness of music.

“Once the past has been got out of the way, one need think only of oneself.” Boulez

(Musical narcissism?)

“Purposeful purposelessness,” to have absolutely no organization. Cage

 

 John Adams was greatly influenced by New England's musical culture. He, and others came up against those in favor of dissonance and atonality. He said; 

“At the same time God disappears, so does the intelligible order in creation. If there is no God, Nature no longer serves as a reflection of its Creator. If you lose the Logos you also lose the ratio (logos) of Pythagoras. Nature is stripped of its normative power.”

The Church has tried to counter discordance with Christian rock as have other artists such as Matisyahu with his combination of reggae, hip hop and rock beats. Words are key to the vibration. Cursing and four letter words add to the power of the negative effects even if the sound is relatively concordant, as has now happened in Rap.

Click on the link and play

Matisyahu - One Day (YouTube Version)

 

UNCONVENTIONAL FORMS OF SPIRITUAL PRACTICE

The soul's fulfillment is through the experience of the senses.

NATURE #3

“In the realm of nature there is nothing purposeless, trivial or unnecessary.” Maimonides

Meditate on these wisdoms …  to better connect with the "Garden of Eden" Archetype 

Have you seen God in His splendor, heard the text that nature renders? (You’ll never hear it in the family pew.) The simple things the true things, the silent wo/men that do things, then listen to the wild it's calling you. They have cradled you in custom, they have pinned you with their preaching, they have soaked you in convention through and through. They have put you in a showcase, you’re a credit to their teaching but can’t you hear the wild its calling you…” Robert Service

“The spirit of human is nomad, his/her blood Bedouin and love is the aboriginal tracker on the faded desert spoor of his lost self...” L. Van der Post

After being interned in a Japanese prisoner of war camp Louren van der Post returned to South Africa and went into the bush to heal. This was his description of "Wilderness Rapture" or a Oneness Experience with an encounter that he had with a magnificent Kudu bull. 

“And then it was as if all the chains of a type of slavery dropped from me with such a rush that they tinkled and rattled in my imagination… a great rush of emotion swept over me that was impossible to describe, except that all its urges and manifestations met in a wordless cry; “I have come home!” 

L. Van der Post

The Wilderness or Nature's Effect can have many faces depending on each individual.

“We cannot today recreate the original wilderness human in shape form or habitat. But we can recover him because he exists in us. S/He is the foundation in spirit or psyche on which we build ... ”  L. Van der Post

We cannot and should not try and hold onto magical, joyful experiences because they are impermanent – just to savor them in that moment and incorporate them into new beginnings for ourselves.We begin with receptivity and intent and if we allow awe to seep into us we become humbled and subordinate ourselves and our egos to the magnificence. When we belittle the small self with humility in nature, the Higher Self emerges as does a certain oneness with the wildness.  

“S/he who loses himself will find him/her Self.”  Matthew

The more we steep ourselves in the immediacy of the moment, the deeper we travel into the heart’s chambers.

The lighter we tread with the mind, the higher the soul will soar.

The longer we are out in nature with the right inner intention, the deeper the effect. Animals, plants and even rocks may take on or give our receptive consciousness different messages and meanings. Sometimes our guides send power animals our way. Their archetypes or the metaphors they represent in that moment are the messages our guides want to convey.  Dreams, including scripted ones by our guides, become more prominent.

 

Wanting to be of service can be a byproduct of this immersion. The hero/ine's journey is about giving the grail away and being of service to others and the planet.

 

“When you find your place, where you are, practice begins.”  Dogen

The more we immerse ourselves into the mystery, the more intuitive we become and the more aware of how the natural and the supernatural are interwoven.

Our task is not to try to decode the mystery but rather to access it.

Behold all creation with awe - seeing into it its sacredness.
Sacred mystery is to be experienced in joy and with awe - not to be deciphered. To be entered - not to be decoded.

Harrison Owen’s rules of non-attachment fit well for any of these journeys which can become challenging to one’s equanimity especially in third world countries where the unexpected, unpredictable and unpleasant can confront us. Everything is a test of our spiritual maturity and ability to maintain equanimity. 

“Whoever are present are the right people. 

Whenever it begins is the right time. 

Whatever happens is the only thing that could have happened. When it’s over – it’s over.”

In the sanctity of surrender ...

In surrendering are we then received, in emptying are we then filled, in opening are we then embraced - In loving do we then know love and are transformed.

 Surrender empowers the vision of spacious mind to see the sacred in all creation.
We see it in a pebble, a leaf  a feather the uniqueness of all within the whole - endless diversity in endless oneness.
Surrender allows spacious mind to silence speech so that we may hear the spirit voices of trees and listen to the song in the winds.
God’s voice is heard with the heart in response to its yearnings.

The barren and the weeds have their beauty and their mystery too.

The mystery is not to solve problems or overcome temptations. 
The mystery is to behold wonder and embrace joy. 
The way is not to God but with God.