In the past 24 hours, I have had at least 4 people reach out to me to ask about things like Higher Consciousness, connecting with The Divine, Fear, and Spiritual Practice. There must be something in the air. More importantly, to me as a Shaman, is the pattern of it. Whenever I have 2 or more people presenting me with a similar theme, it’s a sign from the Universe that *I* need to be paying attention. A nudge from above, if you will.
So let’s play with all of this.
I always start from the point of view that either God is everything or God is nothing (sometimes both, but that’s an entirely different conversation). Your coffee cup is part of God, this cat is part of God, that pencil is part of God, and you are part of God. All qualities, all realities, all beings. All cells in the Body Divine.
That’s big. Probably too big for me to fully grasp as a concept, let alone have a conscious, personal experience of it. If God is everything, though, then I can probably connect with specific facets or aspects of it. I at least have a better chance with that than with the giant All That Is. Trying to connect with The Divine at its highest level is like trying to get a fish to be conscious of water.
As counterintuitive as it sounds, the easiest way to become aware of The Divine is through its (perceived) lack. One way to explain the root of societal ills is that people have bought into the illusion that they are somehow separate from The All That Is (which is the best description of Fear I can think of). It creates what, in some circles, is described as a “God-shaped hole”, and people try all manner of things to fill up what can feel like anything from a gaping wound to an emptiness in their chest. My point being, though, that they become aware of The Divine because they notice it’s missing.
It’s not, of course, because it is The All That Is. By buying into the illusion of separation, though, they separate themselves from the experience of The Divine and are suddenly very, very alone. A fish out of water.
As we start to consciously put ourselves back into connection with The All That Is, as we fill that hole in our chests up with the only puzzle piece that will ever truly fit, our consciousness expands. It is like we have awakened from a dream.
The challenge, at that point, is that we don’t stay there. Partly because there is no such thing as stasis – everything has an ebb and a flow or a push and a pull; if it didn’t, that thing would cease to exist. And partly because, if we stay in that space, it becomes our baseline, and we stop trying to grow spiritually. This kicks off another round of feeling separated from The Divine, because we’re back to just being a fish in water. If you’re not having a visceral, conscious connection with The All That Is, it must not be there.
The trick is to always be willing to seek. When we do that, we makes space for the flow of energy required for us to float with the inbreath and the outbreath of energy, rather than fighting it. The moments of illusion are more bearable, because we know that this experience, like every other experience, will pass, whether we want it to or not.
When we try to force the energy into moving faster or stopping, it sets us up for rage or depression. The idea of the Dark Night of the Soul is a spiritual depression that comes from our experience of The Divine becoming our baseline, and instead of continuing to be willing to seek, we fall into the illusion that we have been abandoned. Water does not abandon the fish, the fish just ceases to be aware of it. For some people, there is also the comedown of no longer feeling the rush of new spiritual connection.
Just keep being willing to seek.