Here I said: here where you stand And stop, and let everything go still Feeling your breath as you glance down Is the ground that is everywhere — John Ramsay

SOUL JOURNEY

In life we experience periods of rest when our life is in balance, and periods of restlessness when an intuitive stirring strikes midnight. We are forced then, to admit that our golden carriage is about to turn into a pumpkin, and we have to confront inevitable change.

The Gnostics—First Century Christian mystics--believed that ultimate truth is found within ourselves, rather than without, through intercession by human beings clothed in priestly robes. Gnostics asked initiates to ponder heavy questions: From when do you come? Unto what do you speed? Still today, contemplation of such weighty considerations provides insight, self-awareness and enlightenment.

When my life reaches a tipping-point, I’ve developed a self-reflective system: journal, meditate, contemplate, go to Barnes and Noble. I admit to a sort of Ouija Board book search, heretical as that may be. Philosophy, Religion, Self-Help, Memoir, Fiction, whatever section seems to intuitively draw me, I drag books off the shelf and pile them beside my wide green armchair. Cloistered with a grande mocha, I let my heart lead, turn the pages and dream big dreams. The voice of reason usually tells me that these books will lead to a cul-de-sac. But I carry out an armful, intuitively knowing that when I’m ready for the next step, voila, the exact book I need already sits on my bookshelf.

At a crossroad over the past six years, I’ve traveled to the beginning: attended a class reunion, connected with long-lost family members, emailed others, absorbed foreign films, pored over maps and travel journals, in search of answers to questions rattling around in the basement of my psyche. Does our affinity for other cultures, and other historical times, source from actual DNA inherited through ancestral roots? Is our wandering quest the result of unresolved past-life memory? Or nudges from the collective unconscious, as Carl Jung, seminal way-shower of the inner way suggests? Whatever the root cause, heart-longings lead us home to our bigger story, and eventually provide terra firma, a strong standpoint that supports wise decisions.

Salmon know when it’s time to swim upstream. Penguins return to their breeding grounds. Even homo sapiens—like you and me--experience creative longings which instinctively drive us toward reunion, and sure fertilization.

At the outset of this leg of my journey, The Spiritual Traveler, by Martin Palmer and Nigel Palmer, ended up in a pile of new books on my coffee table. This soulful travel guide overflows with helpful information about the nature of pilgrimage, and experience of personal truth: “There are two ways of experiencing and entering a sacred space, or discovering the sacred.... We can observe, or we can become a part of it.”

Which comes first? Realizing that we are a part of the people, places and things we encounter on our journeys, or re-member-ing that they are all parts of us? Thumbing through the pages of The Spiritual Traveler, I recently discovered an enlightening pilgrim’s process, which mirrors the journey of soul, both within and without:

The first stage involves meditating on what it means to be a spiritual pilgrim, a great deal more than logically traveling from point A to point B, in our minds or on the ground.

In the second stage we read the road signs, and see that journeys take on a personality all their own.

In the third stage we become aware of our companions, and the magic, both positive and perplexing, that connects us.

The fourth stage relates to the historical matrix we absorb and its social, spiritual, and political implications for us personally.

The fifth stage is about losing our role as observer, and becoming a part of the landscape, part of the story.
In the sixth stage we develop visionary appreciation of the mystical surroundings, as seen through spiritual eyes.

In the seventh and final stage we see ourselves, and every experience we encounter, as one with the Infinite, whatever name we use to describe the Creative Source of All That Is. Spiritual beings in human form, as pilgrims we open to our soul in mystical ways which are potentially mind-boggling, but imminently transformative.

Like Willie Nelson sings, I’m “on the road again,” swept along in an evolutionary spiral. In my physical travels, I walk on sacred European ground where my ancestors once stood. Deep memory is awakened, on soil I first envisioned through past-life recall. Who knows? Maybe I’m stepping through a threshold that reveals some future story.

Where are you today? Taking a first imaginative step toward your gnostic truth, however nonsensical, outrageous and inconceivable it may seem? Every journey begins with a dream. Take heart... Gather courage... Follow...