The Itinerary
It is human nature to seek answers, especially to The Big Questions: why we are here?, where did we come from? where are we going? In trying to make sense of a seemingly senseless existence, we create stories that attempt to answer these important existential wonderings. MappingMeaning is a collaborative community intended to share and discuss our heart-felt narratives.
Set your compass
Without reflection, humanity tends to look outward for comfort and joy rather than inward for meaning and purpose. Generally, we reach a point in life when we know that external stimulation no longer satisfies a deep longing. There is a realization that turning inward may lead to abiding peace and joy.
Have you had a moment of turning your face upward to the sky, arms reaching up, asking: what is this all about? Are there occasions when you are down on your knees, pounding on the floor, crying out: why am I here? It is during these times we find the motivation to contemplate the Great Mystery.
The intention of this experience is to create a container for you to contemplate and formulate a story that brings you serenity and promise. This is an opportunity for those of you emerging into contemplation, to receive from others who are engaged in the process. And, this is a chance for those of you who have put this reflection on hold, for important reasons, to rejoin the conversation. Lastly, if you are like me, this occasion will continue to nourish your quest to clarify your beliefs, perspectives and fascination with the infinite possibilities of Who We Are.
Whatever reason has brought you to this work, I invite you to rest back into a larger story of Life, to feel into your own truth, on your own terms, and possibly, to reunite with Something Greater.
Playtime (aka practice): Your personal creation myth
Have you formulated a story that offers you peace and meaning? Perhaps pull out your journey and, over several days, jot down some of your foundational beliefs/hopes/faith about what this is all about!
Would you like to share your Creation Story with the MappingMeaning Community? Contact me!
Here is your atlas. Click the arrow on the left of the titles to expand each story.
Remembering Our Wholeness by Judi Blum
~Please note that I use the ancient spelling of Godde as a reminder that Divine is both masculine, feminine, and beyond gender. . ~
We are cells (souls) in the body of a Loving Source (Godde). In an timeless realm (field of consciousness), this Body is whole, all-knowing, pure love & peace. As a part of Godde, we are a natural extension of Their Divine Love. In eternity, which is absolute (non-dual), everything is in perfection. As an extension of Source Energy, we appreciate the impeccability of that realm, yet are impregnated with desire for emergence. This continuity of creation manifested into form which exhibits duality or contrast. This the natural occasion for the Divine to live more facets of Their Self, those which are not accessible in the formless realm. Ralph Waldo Emerson stated: “Do not be too timid or squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make, the better.” In that sense, our humanly, earthly experience is like a playground, & it is not necessary to be attached to outcomes. It is like a holodeck (Star Trek) where we are privileged to act out a variety of scenarios, but cannot disappear because we are eternal. There is a call to remember who we, along with our brothers & sisters, truly are, in all our uniqueness. Surprisingly, when we forget Wholeness, it is in the remembering again, that we get to participate in the act of Creation by awakening to the continual birthing of our Beingness. The realization of the emergence of the Divine in & around us is an incredible love affair.
This awareness mitigates the sense of danger & threat from our environment, allows us to move from fear to love, from competition to cooperation. Our brain & heart move into coherence & harmony. Consequently, a change in our personal electro-magnetic field occurs & influences the field around the Earth. Coherent consciousness among people creates an upgraded order in the world. This subtle interaction links us with each other and the living Earth for a shift on a more cosmic realm (HeartMath’s Global Coherence Project and Princeton University). We live in a Holofractographic Universe (“an expression of the essential interrelatedness of the holographic & fractal nature of the cosmos: an innately unified whole that is fractally divided into discrete, localized entities that are always connected to each other & the entirety of the whole” ~Nassim Haramein). In other words, all the information in all of creation is present in each of us, down to each proton. This information is replicated on the micro & macro levels throughout the cosmos. “As above, so below, as within, so without, as the universe, so the soul…” ~ Hermes Trismegistus.
Zooming down to a smaller order on the fractal scale, we see the natural cycle of biological evolution. Our cells represent a maturation of bacteria that moved from an immature, individual, competitive and surviving state to a mature, united, cooperative, and thriving state. There is a directionality in evolution toward increasing complexity and consciousness: matter >> bacterium > nucleated cell >> tissues >> organs >> systems >>organisms >>families >> communities etc. Our universe has progressed from the geosphere (matter) to the biosphere (life). We choose to incarnate into the biosphere. Through the evolution of the interaction of the human psyche (psyche means soul in ancient Greek) moving into greater harmony via our electromagnetic field, a new level manifests: the noosphere (thought) emerges & encircles the earth. The more organized human hearts & minds are, the more the noosphere evolves towards unification of its elements & becomes a self-reflective universe. Love is the principal driver towards transformation realized through remembering our wholeness. This climax is the Omega Point (everything in the universe is fated to spiral towards a final point of unification) which could be considered as the ultimate return to Godde (Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and Lloyd Morgan).
In our holofractographic universe, where each new collective incarnation leads to another Omega Point, we inevitably create novel dimensions of existence. As we collectively remember that we a perfect extension of Godde, the noosphere itself becomes a new cell in the ever-expanding Body.
Like Russian nesting dolls, each time we reach the culmination, we transcend and include (Ken Wilbur) all the facets of Divine we have realized. We reunite into the larger emerging Body, and consequently, have new opportunities in new realms to experience new aspects of Who We Are: unique emerging creations of Consciousness.
To know Eternity: that is wisdom (Lao Tzu) by Veronica Pelicaric
We have always been. There was no beginning and there will be no end. We keep coming back, over and over again.
The reincarnation process is not the continual reinvention of different versions of oneself. There prevails an uninterrupted existence. A trilogy exists consisting of Spark-Spirit, Soul, and the psychic being. These are three different forms of the same Reality but not interchangeable. The psychic being is formed by the soul in its evolution. It supports the outer being (the mind and the vital body) and grows by their experiences, carrying its nature from life to life.
It is beneficial to be aware that we are made both of a psychic being and an outer being. Our continuity is maintained in the psychic being. The outer being is rarely preserved. The outer body is not only the physical body; it is our emotions, our thoughts, how we define ourselves and how we function in the world. It is what we can see and touch in gross awareness; what we call the “I” or the “me”. Again, it is the psychic consciousness which persists. When the psychic being is fully developed, when it no longer needs to return to earth for its development, when it is absolutely free, it has several choices. It may choose to no longer return to Earth (if it finds that its work lies in other dimensions where there are human beings of a different level of consciousness), or it may remain in the pure psychic consciousness, without reincarnating. Finally, perfectly conscious, it may choose to come and go when it wants, as it wants, where it wants. According to The Mother, Sri Aurobindo’s companion: “Consciousness is the faculty of becoming aware of anything whatsoever through identification with it. The divine consciousness is not only aware but knows and effects. Mere awareness is not knowledge”. Consciousness is awareness watching awareness. There are different states of consciousness: body consciousness, individual and global consciousness.
The goal of existence is to discover the way back to God (The Divine, Source, Awakening, Unity Consciousness, the Father, No Separation – these words are all different cultural expressions of the inexpressible). It can take many shapes and forms, sometimes religious, sometimes not. What counts is sincerity and not losing sight of the goal.
When we live in the awareness of the many, we should not forget the great oneness of things that surrounds, envelopes and nurtures that multiplicity. Human beings live in a tiny corner, a very small piece of what we really are. We forget that we and the Father are one. We “forget” that we are Divine and get caught in our different roles. We identify with being this or that: a mother, a businessman, a carpenter, a chiropractor. We forget that this is all part of what in Hinduism is called “Lila”, the game of life, the big illusion. It is fun to get caught up in ‘the many’ but there is a great joy in being ‘the One’. Awareness of this idea is essential. When we do what we need to do in the world, while remembering who we fundamentally are, a spark of the Divine, we are wedded to another dimension of reality. We are constantly invited to the eternal festival of life, but we often forget where we really belong, where we have come from and where we are going: back to Source. A ‘wedding’ is necessary between our Eternal Child and our Souls, so that we remember. The Eternal child is that part of us that is not conditioned, that is trusting and free, that receives and gives spontaneously. We can be like children who are not encapsulated in “me” and “mine”. Our fundamental purpose is to make it to this wedding between our child and our cosmic consciousness.
This is the eternal fairy tale of the Two-in-One. Indeed, we humans are not only children of Mother Earth, we are children of a Greater Power than Earth. Our ‘base metal’ is the part of us that is identified with body, mind and emotions. This part of us is not free, not worked on, not aware, not conscious. This part of us believes we are just a piece of flesh that experiences emotions and thoughts. When we transform our base metal into gold, then the Universe which surrounds us melts into us and we become conscious participants in the dance (“Lila”: the play of forces we call life and living). We are everything. Jesus said: “Wherever the two are one I am with them”. The Gold is the result of the process of transformation. We are now free to express the love that we are with no constraints. We then know we are eternal and this is expressed in all we do for the benefit of all sentient beings. It is that part of us that is wise and loving.
Presently, we have arrived at a fork in the road: a portal to the Mysteries has opened. In the old days, ideas and tools that are now available for everyone to see and study, have been called Mysteries. This information was for the few, for the initiates. Eventually these teachings became obscured by our focusing on the material world and on outward achievements. A new beginning wants to happen, is already happening. We can see that more and more people wish to wake up, to love, to give. We no longer desire to be consuming machines, but care about the situation of the environment, of refugees, of racism, of the impact of the 1% who have, on the 99% who have not. The revelation of Mysteries is available for all of us who strive to transform. Everyone will transform eventually. The issue is that until we do, we mostly suffer. Unless we transform our pain, we will transmit it. Transformed people become transformers. We shall take the quantum leap or perish. I intuit that unless we stop our destruction course of the environment, war-mongering, and inflicting suffering on other human beings, we will be annihilated. Carl Jung had a vision where two-thirds of the planet (humans) would be annihilated and one-third would remain.
The Earth is groaning and praying and inviting us to awaken. Now is the time.
Now is the time to join together as brothers and sisters to create the beautiful Earth-Life we all long for in our hearts.
Martin Luther King called this The Beloved Community.
To do this we must intend to awaken, to take the steps that lead to awakening, and to take care of the future by healing and loving.
Between the Breath by ajbishop
All good stories start with once upon a time In the beginning there is everything and nothing Then I wake and I am here{ }A mystery I hear Here and see there Smell and taste and feel Breath in { } and breath out { } {Mystery } Talklisten The sun shines I put my eyes to it The sun shines Rising moon Rising tide Rising mystery We shimmer and dance Circle chant We make babies and love And we make peace and it is grace { And mystery } This {} And this {} Spin this mystery Spin this – your weave Yours. I laugh }}} Deep Diving with words My weave. Yours. Ours. Pushing hard at these words Urging them to break open Demand their attention tell me tell me {Yes listening} My silence aches It is here everywhere Pressing in `I lean, lean into it Shift. Mystery. {{{ I will shift. I will shift and I will Be gone to this, these words }}}I will light in fall in < > There?< > I hear, see, feel, taste, hear Oh, and it is It is so close This whispering Words Silence. Silence. Creation is about to Tell me its story. { And I am }{ Breath in. }{I am not } Breath out. [[[[[[]]]]]] There Between that <love> And that <love> Mystery Creation {{ And my breath }}
CIRCLING THE DRAGON PORTAL by Akara
A Creation Story (1)
THE IMAGE
All creation stories begin at the beginning, before everything, when there is only mystery from which all life flows. They occur before time, in space not known, or not yet delineated, in a paradigm we cannot think or bind by any words. Nevertheless, creation spins and spirals, and engages, and turns. Somehow. Always. Every era, every decade, every millisecond. Creation is creating.
IMAGINE
Imagine a place – or a not-a -place (both are true) – into which everything is gathered. The All is collapsed into itself in an unimaginable density and the Void fills into a nothing that has resulted, and the being of everything is of a very minuscule intensity, and the non-being of everything is occupied everywhere as nowhere and, as these are at their most extreme they don’t know one another at all but are held one against the other as two extremes separated and isolated.
In these extremes, the consciousness (2) of each believes itself to be the absolute. Absolute All and absolute Void. Yet when each discovers the border of its self, it recognizes an urge to expand and this becomes a malaise that is elusive and ill defined at first, but one which creates an intense pressure that pushes against the limits of each, the one as dense and the other as non-dense. In so doing, sets itself up against its own borders.
The polarities of each become more obvious to each as this longing grows to self awareness. And in this self awareness, both as a limit and as an opportunity for expanding beyond the limit, each looks beyond their limits. Suddenly the limits are known, and the source of the malaise becomes a longing to grow to a clarity that seeks Other. That loves Other.
It is like a person who, alone, senses that there is more to life than this one self-ness. And when it finds Other, remarkable mate, it knows something whole that was not before. It was whole before Other as a singularity, but it is whole again with Other as a duality. These are both true.
There’s a sound that happens at creation. Immediately after the longing is recognized, a movement occurs and it sets up a vibration that sings. I listen intently and it is of angels, a choir, a high sweet sound like rain on a parched ground if we could hear the trees singing and sighing, like moon falling on a frozen pond igniting flames in the suspended crystals, a resonance of glory that speaks of light turned to sound. There are no words for these things. We speak of form. It is not informed, so words cannot serve, will not serve.
CREATION IS A VIBRATION, AND IT MAKES SOUND. The spark that ignites a sudden burst of energy from being to non-being is mystery. The One rises into the Other and the Other rises into the One. This is paradox. The One (which is one or the other) rises to other and in this duality there is a third. Two rising into Other is an expression of the potential of One. Some of us call it love as a way of identifying the magical things that allow for creation. Longing is part of that. Portal. Devotion. Ability to seek outside one’s limits. Expansion.
Once the being and the non-being have fully expanded into one another, the lines between each are blurred. They merge and the difference between being and non-being is completely lost as both are neither one nor the other absolutely, but are both. In this expansion and embrace, their boundaries are erased. But at that same instant, at the apex of this mergence, a contraction occurs as each seek to re-establish their identity. They begin to redefine, to escape the liminal blurring of their beings.
This is the breath of creation. It happens at all levels of reality. It occurs in the astronomically magnificent in which light years does not begin to measure the inhalation and the exhalation of All and Void, in which a single explosion creates a universe. Meanwhile, here in this room, my cells are enacting a similar dance, as they enter and exit the world of form, the world of being and non-being. It happens in world history, it happens across galaxies, it happens for artists, it happens for a table. We blink into reality like strobes.
One into Other, and back again, singing out of my intention to be an identity, and then falling into non-being. My form sings itself into creation, over and again, so that I make the world with my intention and my longing.
Shift in and out of any paradigm, and there you will find this breath, the expansion and the contraction, all of it fuelled by longing for Other, in love and in intention of conscious experiencing.
Just before the beginning there is mystery, a great unknown. Just before the beginning, nothing is known and may never be known. The matter of the All has merged into a density of being that is whole and unified, in a pressure and longing of itself as a brilliant light against a void of darkness. The power of longing, to be other, the longing to merge in Other, to be brilliant light in the darkness, to be the darkness in the light, is like a bridge through which matter passes, back and forth, singing itself of its love for Other in this dance, rhythmic and seductive. Light calls in the dark. Dark calls in the light. The passage from one to the other is barely noticeable, but in a blink we go from one to the other and back again. The breathing of this movement is everywhere happening. It is creation not as a single event, but as a birthing in astronomical persistence and grandeur. A birthing that never ceases to rise and never ceases to contract, breathing. In the Universe and galaxies, in the lungs, in the cells. Energy blinks in and out of creation, forming and re-forming itself.
FOOTNOTES (1) This is a creation story that was generated in a workshop with Claude Poncelet. His book is an excellent introduction to Shamanic Practice. See bibliography for more. (2) Perhaps consciousness is a word that is misleading. Is a magnet conscious of its polar opposite, its attraction from a negative to a positive pole? But let us assume a consciousness in all energy, in all states of being, and that any movement – no matter how abstract it may seem – has a consciousness, an urge, a reaction to something that is both a part of it and outside it.
Acceptance, patience, peace and Love by Rick
In the beginning*, and long, long before, there was turmoil; there was noise; there was anxiety and lack of a sensation of feet on ground. There was fear** and even a little bit of desperation. There was no sense of connectedness, as if life was simply happening and there was no peace. And then, just before the beginning happened, there came to be moments of quiet within all of the turmoil and noise, anxiety, fear and lack of groundedness. Just moments here and there. As if the overcast sky opened up and allowed a single ray of sunlight shine through; piercing the sky and landing nearby. Just one ray. And then, closer to the beginning still, more quiet, more rays of light shining through the veil. Quiet….quiet….quiet…..
And then practice at quiet happened. Intentional time to explore outside of the turmoil and the noise. And then, acceptance. All that was going on in the world, all around, there was acceptance of what is, acceptance of all that is. Acceptance was born into the world. Acceptance. And then, through this acceptance, patience was born. Patience with everything, including any desire that what was happening might change for the “better”. Simply patience with all that is. Patience. Resting with acceptance and patience, resting there, peace was born. Peace with all that is, including desire that it be somehow different. Peace. And then, being in acceptance and patience and peace, Love was born. Seeing that all of it, all of the turmoil and noise, the anxiety and the seeming lack of ground below, even the fear and the desperation, were all worthy of Love. Love. Love. Love.
*Who or what began the beginning cannot be known with the mind and ego. However, the heart can be used to be It, to embrace It, to Love It. What is known doesn’t really matter. Whether or not there is a Creator who has a purpose for this Creation, for any individual life, isn’t relevant. Indeed, there is an Energy, a Force, a Something that guides all of this. In the end, it is important to realize that all creatures are part of the whole. Therefore, an individual life and what is done with it is less important. It is essential to remember that we are part of the Creator. One ought not to think to finitely about it, too selfishly about it. It isn’t personal. Only in being can ‘All That Is’ be known and be experienced. In attempting to know the unknowable, we perpetuate frustration, fear, ego.
If I try to know, I am lost. If I just am It, I find It.
The ‘mission’ of this body, in this life, is to do the work that opens the heart so that one can be part of the All-ness, the Creator. What is called for is to be in this moment, and this moment, and this moment….. When all beings are accepted just as they are, when one can be patient with the ego and the desire to change things, and finally to be at peace and in Love with all of it, then we know It. ** Human upbringing and socialization in this world has created very strong ego development and a fear of something. Fear of what? Fear of our power perhaps, as Marianne Williamson told us. There exists a fear to be all the Love that we are. To remember, rather than perceiving the world through the ego-mind, it needs to be sent through the heart. Doing so, we can be Love for all beings, all people and animals and even mosquitoes! Babies and young children receive the world without an ego filter. They do not build armour around themselves, nor forget what we truly are: Love.
Final Note: About that unknowing and inability to express the journey or the spirit…..to paraphrase William James: we judge the mystical experience not by its veracity, which is unknowable, but by “its fruits”: does it turn someone’s life in a positive direction?
Once Upon a Time... by Lisa Schermerhorn
The Creator is the great I AM, The One who gave us life and free will to create and discover our selves and each other. We are all extensions of the Creator: the good, the bad, the ugly and the beautiful. We are all one. Because we are all connected, all souls advance together.
Earth is waiting for all of Her souls to ascend from the third dimension of materialism and lack into the fifth dimension which is the higher vibration of unconditional love and abundance. When all souls ascend, other souls on other planets and in other galaxies will be able to ascend too. The Galactic Federation, (an alliance of space traveling civilizations within the Milky Way) are working hard to help us, but it is from afar because we must not have our free will tampered with.
We must AWAKEN to Who We Are in order to ascend. Fortunately, there are light-workers here to help awaken the planet to the truth. We are asleep because we have been lied to for thousands of years about who we are and why we are here. We have been deceived and are in a battle right now with dark and evil beings in the third dimension. These beings are deeply entrenched in a place of materialism and greed, and who live off of our fear. Their goal is to keep us in perpetual terror and financial slavery to feed their needs. As we raise our frequency, the lower vibrational beings can no longer hold us hostage. We are moving into states of unconditional love and eventually will be able to instantly manifest the fulfillment of all our needs. It is a remarkable and magical time to be alive. This is the time to release all that no longer serves us, shift negative patterns and behaviours, heal remnants of past lives that are holding us back. It is a time for greatness and infinite potential. Our evolutionary path of moving into the fifth dimension looks like this for an individual soul:
Once upon a time there was a Soul who was informed that she had lessons to learn because she was on a journey to become whole, to awaken to Who She Really Is. She asked her counsel and guides, who were wise beings assigned to her, to make sure that she was well taken care of. They had great insight and knew the challenges she needed to face in order to grow and learn the great lessons of the Creator.
“Life is so hard” she said, “it’s not for the weary.” Her guides assured her that this was for the best. Among the many planets and galaxies, why did she choose Earth? She had heard that Earth was a difficult planet because it was a place where one could learn many lessons in one lifetime if you are willing to do the work. The Soul pondered on the idea of leaving her safe and loving environment and she became frightened. However, she knew her journey was written in the Akashic records: the place where all that has been and all that will be is recorded.
The Soul’s guides prepared her in a special room where she had the opportunity to pick a life that would have the highest probability of teaching her what she needed to learn. They set up certain “soulmates” who she would intuitively recognize and who would teach her lessons. These “soulmates” were to be her teachers. She was told, “Some will hurt you and some will appear to love you and you will feel safe with them. Paradoxically, a soul who is willing to sacrifice themselves and cause pain to another for a lesson, is a soul with the capacity for great love.”
At the end of her life, she returned to ‘the place between lives’ and journeyed back to her counsel and guides where she experienced a complete life review.
The Soul experienced all events from a neutral perspective. She felt the pain that others had felt due to what she had said and done, purposely or not. The Soul learned to forgive herself and promised to do better in the next life. And so, new plans came together where she and her counsel chose another life in which she would experience the lessons she still needed to learn.
Lisa’s Bio: I began my spiritual journey 20 years ago learning Hypnosis, Energy Medicine, Energy Psychology, Shamanism, became a Master NLP practitioner and I am currently studying Alchemy at a mystery school in Italy called Damanhur University. I ran a wellness center in the Boston area, started and ran a non profit for 10 years, ran a hypnosis/coaching business and was Vice President of Business Development for a really cool virtual reality start up company that unfortunately didn’t get funding. I am passionate about learning, laughter, traveling, deep friendships, my children and being of service to others. I have a High Performance Mindset Coaching business with my partner Kevin. I want to help as many people as possible. I currently live in Central Vermont in a log home with my rescue dog Lilly.
