It FEELS LIKE a Spiritual Renaissance

If being spiritual is not being weird, it’s at least being uncomfortable. We’re so rational, savvy and technological. Everyone is so mesmerized by artificial intelligence that any open discussion about divine intelligence these days is viewed— at best—as cliched dated quaint trivial—at worst—backwards ignorant politically incorrect unenlightened; regardless, it’s a bullet on a “What’s Not Hot” list written decades ago.

We couldn’t care less who made us or why we’re here.

Wait a minute.

What’s this? All these articles about … gasp! Religion, Spirituality, and things otherwise Ethereal.

Computer Generated Spirituality by R. P. Nettelhorst I’d invite R2D2 and C-3PO to the church potluck.

Godman as Rockstar by Udhav Naig A guru paves a road to Hinduism through Bollywood.

Five Approaches to Interspirituality by Carl McColman I’d add a sixth, spiritual voyeurism.

Oprah Finds Reasons to Believe The same week she acquires a 10% share in Weight Watchers. Just sayin.

Spirituality and the Hookup Culture by Rachel Snodgrass Apparently, the rigidities of casual sex aren’t tantric.

Snapchat Spirituality: How Technology Can Be a Force for Religious Good or Evil by Jonathan Merritt Biceps and Dimples, and Jesus, oh my!

Let’s Stop Being Embarrassed by Spirituality by Jay Michelson A journalist does his mea culpa for writing a book about spirituality. Hugs.

Yeah, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. I keep a lid on my own spirituality in my daily life, because:

• It’s really personal.
• It’s nobodies business what I believe.
• I don’t want to offend anyone.
• I don’t want to open the door to conversion, evangelization, or proselytizing. Really, I just can’t stand that. You know, you just sit there, teeth gritted, while they bear down on you with their quoted scripture. Like you’ve never heard it before.
• Since we constantly grow and change, but not necessarily at the same rate, or in the same direction, we’re not necessarily going to be on the same page. The conversation could get tricky.
• I don’t want to step in the shit of your self-righteousness.
• You’ll probably think I’m weird if you really know what I think about all this.
• I’m so over westerners ditching christianity for buddhism and then claiming they’re not religious. Dogma is dogma. Indoctrination is indoctrination. No, I did not just say that. But, if the higher ups are wearing robes …
• I’m so sick of women being 2nd class citizens in otherworldly paradigms that I’d rather stick a fork in my eye than listen to your tired-ass rationalizations for male superiority. I mean, really? Are you kidding me? YOU REALLY BELIEVE THAT?
• No, I did not just say that, either.
• All of the above.
• None of the above.

Really, I’m okay with whatever you believe, as long as you don’t inflict it on me. And I’m okay if you don’t believe what I believe, because it’s very possible that what I believe will change. If not next year, then maybe over the next decade. I’m old enough to know that. I’ve lived it. More than once. Yes, I’m that old.

It’s possible that online affords us just the right amount of distance and anonymity to have the conversations that we don’t dare have in our bedrooms, classrooms, and work places. Check it out … all over the web … all over the world … people are taking advantage of cyberspace to engage in discussions, exchanges, musings, and outpourings about God/not god, the divine, the infinite—THAT THING.

It definitely feels like a spiritual renaissance.

Is Being Spiritual Being Weird?

I made the changes to my social media accounts and website to prepare for the Sunburned blog series on the evening of October 12, 2015. That morning, I realized a new moon was pending, so I searched Youtube for some insight. Astrology often gets a bad rap, and I’m not here to defend it’s limitations, but “on earth as it is in heaven” [the lord’s prayer, christian], “as above, so below” [hermes trismegistus, pagan] … a little spiritual riffing there, hehe … so, on occasion I enjoy listening to the astrological mystics.

And that morning, I stumbled upon this crazy, weird, and completely wonderful video created by Timothy Halloran of Rasa Lila Healing [rasa-lila roughly translates to "the dance of divine love”, hindu], which I’ve embedded below. And as I watched the video with a huge grin on my face—for sure—I thought yes … Yes … YES!

Because, unless you’ve been super busy and/or massively overwhelmed you’ve probably noticed “the times they are a changing” [bob dylan, singer/songwriter].

What was it about this video, on that morning, that so enchanted me?

Well, if I had to narrow it down to a single quality, it would have to be it’s exuberant weirdness! And if there’s one word I’ve fallen back on to describe myself again and again throughout my life it’s: weird. So … I felt a really special kinship with Timothy’s passionate call to embody [I’ll be creating a glossary with my current definition of spiritual terms along the way, soon …] our own special brand of weirdness, because …

"the uniqueness that makes us totally weird is our individual brilliance and we cannot suppress any of that if we truly want to live in harmonious relationships”

I totally concur with this point of view, and it was awesome to connect with such an impassioned expression of it on the day I embarked on a new endeavor … which might be considered: kind of weird!

Other issues Timothy addresses as he walks us through the astrological aspects occurring in the skies are: equality, the divine feminine and masculine principles, our need to listen to others’ points of view to evolve, and what it’s like to live on the edge of profound change.

In the end, he touches on another concept that is near and dear to my heart: Bridging. He addresses bridging on two levels: within the individual—the bridging of our highest spiritual ideals with our mundane, “selfish” desires; and within community—the bridging of the “unique autonomous individual, doing my thing in the world, and my thing that I’m doing in the world is simultaneously contributing to the benefitting of others”

This video is such a great share for kicking off Sunburned, because the essence of what I believe spirituality is:

“By giving my uniqueness I create harmony in the world”

Allow that to settle deep within you.

More Astrological Forecasts from Timothy

RasaLilaHealing

Thank you, Timothy for helping me kick off this series. Everyone else, take a 30-minute break and enjoy the dance of Rasa-Lila’s vibrant cosmic perspective yourself. I'll be back on Friday.

Why Sunburned?

Greetings, Fellow Travelers!

The end of Summer and beginning of Fall became an interesting time for me. When I settled in to write the final installment in Daughter of Light, there were a lot of questions on my mind as I reflected on the series as a whole.

If you've read Half Faerie and/or Half Mortal, you know that each has a distinct tone, and I intend for War & Grace to continue in that vein. The feedback from readers has also confirmed that each book is better than the one preceding it, and I'm determined that the culmination of Melia's quest doesn't disappoint.

So, I've been digging deeper. That exploration circled me back to the roots of why I began telling this story in the first place; and all the dreams, hope, and love that I've invested in these books since 2008. I want to honor and celebrate all that. Plus, I've made some fascinating discoveries along the way that I'd like to share. To that end, I'm creating Sunburned, a blog series about spirituality to accompany this last phase in my journey of writing Daughter of Light.

Why Sunburned?

Becoming sunburned in the physical sense results from being overexposed to sun-Light. Blistering and painful, tender reddening occurs.

It's not uncommon to become overexposed to religious and spiritual ideals, as well. Being subjected to doctrines and concepts again and again can feel like—and in some instances is—brain-washing. We run in the other direction simply to avoid the parroted language and uncomfortable emotions these kinds of experiences invoke.

On the other hand, spiritual experiences and realities can be mesmerizing. Perhaps, we forget ourselves and play on the beach of other dimensions too long. Losing touch with the mundane, we return to the every day with a different sort of sensitivity.

What about the "Great Awakening?" I haven't had one, but listening to the experience of those who have, the resultant burning away of mind and/or personal identity can leave behind an altered sense of universal truth that can take months if not years to integrate.

And since they speak directly to our inner life, when religious and spiritual ideals are false, they can cause inner damage akin to a burn. We shut down.

For the past two months, I've been immersed in discovering the abundance of spiritual resources available on the internet. It's left me wide-eyed. The internet didn't exist when I had my first spiritual shift. I was both lost, traveling without a guide, and determined, stubbornly and blindly throwing aside every voice except the one within.

But it was hard for me. So I'm thrilled to find that the beliefs I've thought about and questioned and grappled with so much of my life in private, the concepts that fuel my writing, are now being talked about and debated in a very "public square." And I looking forward to participating in the discussion.

Some of the many questions I’ll be exploring in Sunburned are:

• Is the internet ushering in a spiritual renaissance?
• Who are the new spiritual leaders and what are they teaching?
• What’s fueling this spiritual boom?
• How can these resources support our individual hunger for deeper connection, truth and union?

I’ll also be drawing from themes in Daughter of Light—specifically the spiritual nature of Melia’s journey and the evolution of consciousness as the essence of the Whole—and my own story to expand the discourse.

Please join me and be inspired to pursue your own truth as we tread the road to taking our Selves and our Beliefs more Light-ly.

Sincerely,
Heidi

P.S. If you haven't already, please participate in the POLL!