The idea that all life is connected and that all life is sacred makes a lot of sense to me. Perhaps this is an innate holdover from indigenous ancestry (which we all have if you go back far enough).
I have fallen into the trap of some spiritual philosophies that espouse “transcending” the physical challenges and emotional response to said physical challenges. I have explored the intellectual approach to spirituality and now I am done doing that. My interest is in living it.
In 2006, when I realized I was discounting the holiness of my emotions and my body, I was guided to choose to “embody my spirit”. In other words, to fully inhabit my body with my etheric nature, my spiritual, larger self. In my prior spiritual training I had learned that we were supposed to be going up, ascending, lifting up, away from physical density. The guidance to come back down into my body seemed to be going in the opposite direction!
I began doing it, choosing to “invite my spirit” down into my body, to actually envision my infinite spark traveling across the eons of space and time from our Prime Source into this finite reality of the physical realm, landing gently and alighting in this physical form of Licia. OMG, it rocked my world. And I can report after 7 years of practicing this form of Embodied Spirituality that bringing spirit HERE and actually LIVING IT THROUGH my body into my life and relationships has transformed everything. It has made life sacred and beautiful again, like it was when I was a child. It was from this that I created “The Down Breath”, found in my 2008 book, LOVE LETTER, and is the basis of my Embodied Spirituality classes in the PEMS series.
Altay Shaman
Now, I understand that “descension” is where it’s at for me. What I mean by that is bringing my spirit here into my body, into my daily, waking life, not leaving my physical body to experience my spirit. It is a way of praising the friction, embracing the challenges of physical life as my growth edge, and knowing and experiencing EVERYTHING as spirit. I feel that this integrated point of view was expressed in how indigenous people originally lived. And I feel that this awareness has been primarily lost in our world.
Salvationist philosophies tell us that our reward is later, after we suffer through this hell hole of earthly life. But what if earthly life is what all of Creation seeks to experience? My understanding from my guidance is that the physical realm is the frontier of existence, and the growth edge of consciousness. “Heaven on Earth” is what we all keep talking about, but how can we create it if we keep wanting to leave? Physical manifestation is where all spirit wants to be!
My brilliant Beloved, Peter, said to me a long time ago that he believes that the idea that we were ever separate from God/Spirit/Creator is actually THE original sin.
Physical life is fraught with challenges and suffering, so I understand the original temptation to develop a thought system that emphasizes spirit being “up there” and making it the goal of a “spiritual” life to transcend all of the messiness and pain that comes with being physical. I have compassion for those who began this philosophy and for those who continue to follow it. I’ve been there and really get it.
However, this dis-embodied “spirituality” has led us to negate the earth’s holiness, the sacredness of our bodies, and the important data that is transmitted by our emotional energy. In the mistaken idea that we can “leave earth”, or that our lives here on earth are somehow temporary, less important or less worthy, we have trashed our planet and left a big problem for our descendants. The indigenous people understood this was a really big problem. Would we take precious care of something if we felt it was just a temporary pit stop or would we be more inclined to dismiss it, to cast it away? Do we also feel this way about our bodies (YES…take a look at how may of us are addicted, or check out in front of the tube or through video games or texting….we are IN the zombie apocalypse!)
AND, interestingly but not surprisingly, Embodied Spirituality is also the Feminine way of being…not the intellectual, air and fire way of the patriarchal approach, but an earth and water, physical and feeling approach of Yin energy. SO, to bring the Divine Feminine back into the world, something I have advocated and been an active part of since my arrival here in 1965, we must choose to embody our lives and bring our spirit back into our earth consciousness, the marriage of heaven and earth, the feminine and masculine partnership, the promise of the Aquarian era.
My advocacy is that we fiercely claim our physical lives as an important part of our spiritual experience, and listen with our whole hearts to the voice of our emotion. To passionately embrace this mortal coil with all its joys and travails, pleasures and sorrows.
Embodied spirituality is a “descension” process, not ascension. Leaving earth w/our consciousness is not getting us anywhere; let’s bring spirit HERE. If we believe that we are spirits having a human experience, then doesn’t it make sense that we actually have the experience? 🙂
xoxoxoxoxo
Licia
Learn how to Embody your Spirit! Bring your body home! Take my PEMS (Personal Energy Mechanics Series) courses and you’ll reclaim your true power as an embodied spirit in this beautiful world. xo
