This article is to introduce  my new Category, ” Journal of Awakening”  which will have as its focus, How to Recognize and Follow Spirit’s Guidance (actually, I tend to think of Spirit as being The Great Mother, or, The Goddess,  so I’ll probably use these terms interchangeably.)  I’ll be using my own personal experiences for illustration purposes,  but, of course,   you will have your own personal experiences and adventures with The Goddess which will be tailored to you and your needs and requirements. 

Our Great Mother  is always trying to guide us, but we don’t realize this because we’re not usually paying Her any attention. We are usually too busy paying attention to another guide: our ego, that dazzlingly deluded creation of our thinking mind that thinks it’s an expert on everything! (Well, mine thinks it’s an expert on everything, I don’t know about yours.)

Learning to Recognize and Follow Spirit’s Guidance is a Practice and a Discipline.

 Learning how to recognize and  follow Spirit’s guidance  is a practice, a discipline, and it marks a new stage of accelerated growth and awakening for us. It’s also a practice which, ultimately,  frees us from being dependent on any other person  for guidance -  persons such as myself. Unfortunately, we often only turn to Spirit for leadership and guidance when we realize how incapable our ego-mind  is in protecting us and leading us towards wholeness and joy. As I discussed in my article, “Initiation: Crucifixion, Death and Resurrection,” we sometimes need to reach a very low point in our life before we’ll admit to ourselves that we need  a higher, wiser,  form of guidance than our own thinking, rational mind has been providing us with. 

If you have reached this point you will know it, because you will know that you  need help. This marks the beginning of wisdom for us: we are finally ready to admit that we can’t go it alone! Now, we start to look for our Divine Mother to lead us towards wholeness, safety and joy. 

Where is Our Divine Mother?

The simple answer to that question is: Everywhere. She surrounds and contains us, holds us and supports us. More specifically, Spirit is in Nature. Form. Things. Physical Matter. But, let’s begin with Nature. If you  want to find Spirit,  She exists in all of Creation,  so pay attention to what’s going on around you in the world of Nature.

Look to see what the birds are doing, for example, and the worms, the ladybirds, the dogs and cats, all God’s/Goddess’s creatures and creations. Pay attention, even to  the landscape, and understand this: if you recognize that they,  and it,  are all a part of you, all intimately and inextricably linked to you, you will start to see proof of this in some way because they will start to “speak” to you and “tell” you things. You just have to learn to understand the language, and this understanding will come by paying attention to what “is.”

For example, crows for me are messengers of darkness, they signal pain, loss, heartache, death. They forewarn me and prepare me. When crows are in my visual and/or auditory space,  I pay them very close attention to see if they have a message for me. If  they do, they will exhibit some unusual, attention grabbing behaviour in order to alert me.  Sometimes, this behaviour will involve a huge flock of them flying noisily overhead. I know what this heralds, and I know that it will involve someone who lives in the direction from which they fly. The larger the flock, the faster they flee/fly, the more of the sky above me they fill and the greater the darkness they produce in my space as they fly between me and the sun, the graver the problem.

I don’t dread crows because of this, I love them. I know they are performing this unpleasant service for me because they know I love, respect and admire them. They are such intelligent birds, and they are never far from their mate if they have one.  I understand that many people don’t like them because they eat carrion, but this too is a service they perform for Creation, and it is performed out of love, not because they are “bad” “dark” birds.  What all this means is that,  if we love and respect Creation in all its diverse forms, then the Spirit that is Creation will love us back. 

So, first thing, if you want the Great Mother to guide you and always hold you safe,  you need to pay attention to Her and form a loving and respectful relationship with all aspects of Creation.  

You might notice a worm in your path, for instance. How you relate to this worm is very important. Are you so involved in your own thoughts that you barely notice it? Do you realize that it’s in danger of being stepped on? Do you then lift it out of danger? In other words, do you respect the worm, perhaps the lowliest of creatures, and show it love by acting to protect it? Do you allow the worm to “be”.  I know, it’s so funny to be talking about loving and respecting worms, but worms might be  one of the life forms that Spirit uses to guide you, one day, or to provide you with an important sign.  If you haven’t treated them well they won’t cooperate with  you.

Critter and Insect Tests.

If you want Spirit to guide you, then The Goddess will probably present you with a few “tests” from critters, insects, birds or whatever, to see if you are ready/worthy of this next phase in your journey.  She will want to see how you respond to Her overtures. It will be up to you whether you see and recognize these attempts to establish a deeper, more meaningful and personal relationship between yourself and the world in which you live.  If you want this connection and look for it, it will happen, I promise you. 

Also, look out for any signs of  unusual behaviour  in  the Natural world or landscape around you.  Does anything strike you in particular,  or seem to be trying to capture your attention or interest? If so, what do you feel it means?  What do you imagine this activity or view, or event is trying to tell you? Being in this state of alertness  will  become  more habitual the more you practice it, although you may find that you are falling into forgetfulness quite often at first. 

Hello Unus Mundus!

Entering into this stage of our spiritual journey is very exciting and fun because it marks the beginning for us of   the ”magical world.” This is when we begin to experience a shift in the world we see: it shifts from being entirely  mundane to being sacred,  or magical. No longer do we experience ourselves as completely isolated from all that we see, but suddenly,  we begin to see the link between our consciousness and the world around us.

Having passed  through our deepest suffering (our Crucifixion,)  and surrendered our ego,  we now begin to take our first infant steps back into the arms of Spirit, our  Divine Mother. We are finally beginning to find Heaven, realizing that it was here all the time, we just couldn’t see it. It’s Hello Unus Mundus! Here I come! ( and if you don’t know what the unus mundus is, look through my archives and/or Google it! You need to know where you are headed.)