Category: B6:Growth/Integration

As we go back to our youth and our years of young adulthood we might see again what has become of our call is and why we came to Earth!
We live in a time that the Earth is in a great crisis. It is up to our courage and strength to deal with the challenge put before us. We will learn that scars on our soul are ultimately chances to find our sources of wisdom and goodness.

Our spiritual journey is a life-long path
We might hear the invitation to enter into our inner room and experience the intimacy with ourselves, others, God, Cosmos and Earth with all life. Coming home to the intimacy of our soul we will discover we are not alone there. Someone is waiting there for us.

Some One, “something” guides our life, shows the way and we know this One. We find the most dear friend we can think of; our true Self. So intimate, so trustworthy, so compassionate, so strong and vulnerable at the same time. This friend will always assure us that we are okay as we are. There is always this new challenge; to open ourselves in a deeper way to all we experience. The painful episodes will present itself again and again. It is the stuff for our spiritual growth.

This is a website about Spiritual Ecology and Ecological Leadership. It will bring you a deeper understanding of the spiritual path: there is only one path and that is our life and the life of our soul. The ways in which we grow in intimacy with the Earth and awareness of the planet is the core of spiritual growth.
In my life as spiritual coach I have often experienced that people thought that awareness of the Earth was fine, but not really spiritual.
I have helped people to see, that everything that is created is as the medieval mystic Meister Eckhart says, a “Word of God”. I have seen so much (spiritual) growth in people, once they were really intimate again with Earth. So I invite you to take time to come to understand how you as a human person grow into a spiritual person in your love for the Earth. It is the same heart that both loves God and the Earth!

It is a real courageous choice to decide to become the person
we are meant to be:
unique and special in the eyes of Earth and our Creator.

In each one of us the Earth has a chance to survive, if only we hear her cry and invitation. We are equiped with all we need, to fulfill our duty and to follow our call. What we need most is the determination to put our destination in the hands of our Soul (the Divine Essence in us) and let go of any control the way our life unfolds. We make the move from an ego- driven life into the pureness of the guidance of our soul. Only the one who lives from Essence can understand the intentions of our Creator with the Earth and the future of life.

To rediscover our Soul and to reconnect with our spiritual destination
In our time so many lost or never had a deep connection with their Essence, Self and this results in fear, barrenness, boredom, emptiness, confusion, lack of direction and meaning in life. It is called soul loss. It is part of the worldwide ecological crisis. Also now people thirst for joy, bliss and meaning; the gifts of Essence. In our contact with and life from our Essence we will flood the Earth and the world with the gifts of Essence: the original Wisdom of our Creator. Knowing how it is meant to be.

Albert Schweitzer who worked as a doctor in the remote forests of Africa in the early years of last century wrote about the soul. He was a well known philosopher and theologian. ” Nobody can give a definition of Soul. The soul is that sense of something higher than ourselves, something that moves our thoughts and aspirations, our goodness and hope. The soul is the desire to reach out to a world of beauty and goodness. To breathe in a realm of Light and never to “loose the knowing  to be children of the Light”.

“Soul is given, not something I can make, control. How huge is the mystery of the breath of our soul. Our soul cannot be separated from the universe in which we are born. In every soul God loves the world and the world is saved in an unique way“.  Teilhard de Chardin

Every human being walks an unique path. So also in this training process. The essence of this journey is part of the whole process of transformation (evolution) of the Earth. In us the Earth grows and heals.

So let us walk our spiritual path in all integrity, because our time needs people with a deep soul life. From this deep connection with our soul, we will be able to give our part in directing the future of life on Earth. In this deep place we grasp the sacred intention of our Creator to create and the loving Force that directs the evolution. Enjoy and be Light!

Song of my soul
Song of my soul, ascending, swelling
pure as splashing waters
coming down from eternal mountains
filling the arches of the ancient cathedral inside me.
Old as the first hymn of the universe
and young, so young
as the song of early birds this summer morning.
Song of my soul, so alive
the church bells ring
I enter the most sacred space in me.
I surrender to the simple song of living.
Elly Verrijt, 1995

image:source free internet

We are created out of Love, we have come from the Light. We are born with Divine Essence and we will return to that state of Knowing. We might have experiences in our life, when we have forgotten who we are. We can fall in places of deep darkness, where we do not love ourselves, do not respect how we were made and ignore the place we received in the midst of the whole community of life. In such a state we can easily harm the Earth, because we do not feel connected with the Earth anymore.

Calling the children of the Earth to come home!

photo, private collection

The good news is, that deep down in our soul, we will always remember this Original place of intimacy with the One. You might have experienced like me, how again and again there was a strong attraction, a deep yearning to stay on our way home, whatever our circumstances were telling us. So we are never without hope and our soul knows that we can always go home to that great silence deep in us.  We are part of the cosmos, and the cosmos never forgets, because the source of knowing and memory is eternal.

Take time now, to sit with these words, let them sink in and feel what happens to you now.
And when you are ready, I invite you for a meditation.

In the safety of the Original Light, the “In The Beginning of Creation” present in my heart, I open myself to the journey of my soul. This journey started so long ago, who knows when. Imagine that with your inner eyes and you see your journey as it is. Say in your heart: “This is my journey, this is my life and I am grateful”.

I know that I am deeply loved and seen by the One who wanted me and again and again touches me, attracts me.

I want to embrace the revelation of Light and Love in my life. I also remember moments of emptiness, darkness, deep pain, ignorance, anger in my life. Moments when I had lost the direction of my path. Now I know that this is the desert of my life and I accept this. Can it be that I begin to hear the true, small still voice of my life? I open myself to an immeasurable Source of love.

No expectations now, no visions, I allow myself to be found. I am a channel for Love: for the world, for this moment, for those given to me, for the whole community of life. I consciously enter into the Divine Light that enlightens my inner center.

I stay in this inner place and there is no action at all. This is not easy and I focus my attention on what reveals itself in the silence. It can just be anything….a thought, an image, a face, a memory, strong emotions, words…or  emptiness. All I have is the here and now..here is the happiness, and nowhere else.

Elly Verrijt

“The whole cosmos hears you and responds to you…
There is so much hope because of your deep yearning to open to love”.
F. Coppieters

Handbook for the Evolving Heart, ISBN 0-97553559-92,

“May you walk your spiritual path
on this beautiful Earth in Oneness”.
Elly Verrijt, 2020

If you follow this program without any introduction it will take a bit longer to deal with the challenges of this program. Trust that you can do it.

For those who had an intruction go back to the introduction experience .
Now you have some distance in time from those days and it creates an opportunity to see deeper. What was the gift of those days for you? Do you have experienced changes in your way of thinking, looking at things? What has changed in your relationship with yourself, with your community, with the community of life around you? What were/are real breakthrough experiences for you? Write about it in your journal.

If you can see the shift and changes in yourself, then you also will be able to see it in others, once you work with these materials with others, groups etc. Only when you can put words to deep inner changes, they have really happened to you because they need to be named and grounded.

Have you been able to be guided by those changes and transformations?
Have you grown in your capacity to truly listen to the Earth, to feel her and hear her? Where are you now? What are you faced by? What is the challenge of this moment?
Do you have questions, new insights?
Do you feel you will be able to commit yourself to this experience?  Hesitations, questions?

From now on

Start with grounding meditations (daily)
Let every day start with connecting with Mother Earth. It is a great preparation also for your daily meditation.

Write down your reflections (daily)
Insights, wisdom that you are gifted with through your deepened Earth connection.

Mindfulness: slow down, look, listen, observe
Learn to live more and more in the here and now. You will find many good practices in the videos, songs, guided meditations of the Plum Village community of Thich Nhat Hahn. It is a long journey of learning. There are many meditations, songs on You Tube.

Keep an Earth Journal
Your journey of connection with the natural world is going to take you into new territory. It will lead you into discoveries, insights, to beauty and seeing your place in the community of life. Record your experiences in a journal. Just write about those discoveries, what draws your attention, or paint a sunrise or a dawn. After doing this for some time, you may feel that nature wants to tell you something. You can ask a question when you walk in nature. In ancient traditions this is called a Vision Quest. Nature might reveal the answer.
Source image: picture internet

We will discover where we need healing and how we can be healed. We will see how we have wounded ourselves, others and the Earth from our own woundedness.

It will be the foundation of building awareness and skills in helping others to come home to Mother Earth and to become Earth Healers. We will know where we need forgiveness and conversion. This will empower us and give us the strength for an Earth commitment.

Writing your green life story
As you begin to do that, memories will come back and be sure that what you need to remember in order to grow, will come back to you.

During the training we will experience all kind of initiation experiences that will help us to see the deeper layers of our ecological woundedness, ignorance, denial and pain. Write about the processes that are the source of your learning and growing expertise. Record whatever happens to you. And do not forget dreams you might have about the Earth.

You will discover moments of great shifts and growth in ecological awareness. Try to describe it as close to your heart as possible. There are not many writings yet about shifting ecological awareness. So write your own book.

To get started

• From what water, soil have you come? Where is your bone country? (This is how the Aboriginals call their birthplace) Write about your bone country, visit it if possible if you are not living there now. It has formed your soul. Do you see a connection in how your soul has developed and the landscape where you grew up? What is happening now in your bone country and how do you feel about that?
• Write about early experiences of Earth connectedness. How do these experiences speak about your image of God? Your memories, traumatic experiences, your relationship to animals, water, seasons etc. Very often children have mystical experiences in early childhood, experiences of oneness with all. Write about it if you had them. Moments of alienation. Have you lost that deep intimacy of your childhood? How? Why?
• Look at your decisions for study, leaving home, life decisions. How do they speak about your Earth connectedness?
• What has religious education and formal education done to your Earth connectedness? Anything to do with your life call? Great changes in life style?
• Look at crisis times in your life. Has the Earth helped you to get through it or was it a source of more alienation?
• How has the situation of the dying planet come home to you? Where are you with this? Write about your deep feelings.
• Have you experienced the call of the Earth lately? Why are you here in this training?
• What steps in Earth connectedness have you not yet taken in your life? Unfinished business?

“O keeper of ancient knowing,
Whisper your wisdom in me,
That I always may remember
Life’s sacred mystery”
Jamie Sams

Earth Pilgrim – Satish Kumar  ( if the link does not work, search on vimeo  and the movie is there. You can also find this move on Youtube)

Kingdom of Shambala. A story for our time
You tube film by Joanna Macy A very old prophecy for our time.

Embracing pain – Joanna Macy
How to deal with the pain for the world

New Story Movie Findhorn
Watch this beautiful movie from Findhorn. Do it in these weeks of preparation. It will help you to get introduced to the process of the training!

Grounding is a deepened awareness of my energy from my center. Grounding is an awareness of being present fully in the here and now. If we are grounded we function better, we are able to handle our situation with calmness. Grounding is a way of being, a way of life. If we are not grounded we might become sick, we loose our energy and strength. Being grounded is a continuous state of relaxation and calmness.

Mostly we are not aware that we are not grounded. Then there are problems, we feel scattered, not focused, tired and often anxious and fearful. We know that we have lost our grounding. Sometimes it is needed to let go of too much energies and emotions. We need to go into deep relaxation. We might experience that for one reason or another we are no longer present because  we have withdrawn from life around us, from the world around us.

Our body is continuously in contact with the world around us. We can feel the warmth of the sun, the wind, coolness of water. It is through our body that we can experience how we are connected with everything around us, that we a part of the whole web of life.

Also our mind /spirit needs to be grounded. We need to experience the connection between our mind and our body. If not our many thoughts and feelings are not focused and become scattered and unclear. Our spirit has to be incarnated fully in our body. There is a balance between the energy of the Cosmos and the Earth, in our body. It means that we at the same time are nourished by the energy of the Cosmos and of the Earth. Lack of balance can bring spiritual confusion, lack of self-confidence, self-doubt, stress.

By grounding ourselves, we strengthen the connection with ourselves, the contact between ourselves and the Earth. We ground ourselves when we can experience our energy of body and mind. We bring ourselves fully in the here and now. Our spiritual energies and the energies of the Earth are connected again. We are fully present in our body. We are connected with our environment and with the people around us. We are rooted in the here and now and we are people who are fully awake.

Not being grounded
Thinking and attention are no longer focused. Not being grounded also has a deep influence on our body. We can feel pain and stiffness in our body, strange pains. That means that energy is blocked in a certain area, often in head (headaches) and stiffness of back and shoulders. There can be a lack of feeling or the strong flow of emotions that we cannot stop anymore. It can also be so strong, that one has the feeling not to be present in the body altogether. Lack of grounding is always a lack of feeling in legs and feet. You can see it in the way a person moves and walks, if he is present in his body, especially in his legs.

Grounding and the modern way of life
To be grounded does not come by itself and often asks for real effort. Grounding always  starts with paying attention to your own body. Once you are in good contact with your own body, you will grow in your awareness of the world around you. You have found a new foundation to live from. You will experience that your life will change; you become stronger, happier, calmer.You feel like a tree with roots into the soil, drawing from the Earth energies. You are much more able to release stress.

Attention to your own grounding is the beginning of strengthening your Earth connectedness. To restore our relationship with the Earth, with the web of life asks for a simple practice, every day. Slowly, after months, years of practice you become that strong tree, deeply rooted in the Earth. So let us start…

A Daily Grounding Exercise

• You are sitting or standing, preferable outside. Each person has an unique connection with the Earth.
• Feel the Earth under your feet.
• Feel the quality of Earth energy, see it, what color? Never black or white.
• In your imagination you open the soles of your feet. Let what recently was, old energy, flow into the earth.
• Feel and see how strong warm energy enters your body through your feet. See the color of that energy.
• This energy fills your feet, ankles, calves, knees, loins, pelvic area.
• Feel the places where is flows freely and places where the stream is blocked.
• With the tenderness that is your heart, you give a massage to that part of your body.
• Through your “sittingbone” Earth energy fills your pelvic area. In your pelvic area Earth energy meets with cosmic energy.
• We all have our unique connection with cosmic energy. The Sun is the source and filters, channels and spreads this energy.
• See a sun just above your head. Let cosmic energy flow into you. Just above your crown chakra and through the backpart of your  head.
• See a central canal, a hollow pipe, in front of your spine- in your body, from down upwards.
• Earth Energy and cosmic energy, both flow up and down.
• Be aware of the pace/intensity of that energy (vibrations).
• Intensify the contact with your body: pelvis, solar plexis area, heart, lungs, throat, head. See the flow with your inner eyes.
• If you see a block in the stream of energy, let go of what is there.
• Be tender and mild towards yourself, let all flow into the Earth. Mother Earth will transform this energy.
• See where Earth energy comes into your body, goes through the central canal to your crown. Flows with cosmic energy back towards Earth.
• See how energy from the heart flows through shouders, arms, hands, fingertips into the world.
• Feel both streams, flowing out and in, in your body, through your body out..
• Breathe calmly- enjoy your Earth/cosmos connection.
• Feel the difference of the two streams and the unity of both streams.

• Create space in your daily rhythm.
• Be aware that even if you have done emotional work before, the present moment asks again very different things. Learn to deal with fear and uncertainty. A chaotic world is more emotionally taxing. Do not over ask yourself.
• Connect with your body in a special way every day. It helps to stay grounded.
• Practice gratitude every day in every situation, even to the ones that challenge you or feel unfair or bothersome. Always be grateful and thank for how the day enfolds.
• Practice radical kindness in every occasion, even if you do not feel inclined to.
• Create something beautiful every day, like art, story-telling, music. It will nourish our soul in what is becoming a soul-less world.
• Make a journal of hope: write about what gives you hope, from day to day. Just one line will do!

Inspiration
Book: Navigating the Coming Chaos by C.Baker

Therefore I suggest this activity, first of all  for yourself. It is a good example of how we can make the present crisis of our Earth known to people and build awareness. The workshop online takes only two to three hours. You can do it alone, or with a small or larger group.

1) Go to Awakening the Dreamer.and you will see an introduction video of the program. At the end of that page you can simply sign up  for this course. You can go through the program and can do that in segments of the whole program. It takes about two hours. Free of charge.

2) After this course you can sign up for the Game Changer Intensive course. This is a deepening program and will give more leadership skills to facilitate such a program. Free donation, if you choose to do so.

I have seen in Indonesia how effective this course can be for young people and not so young people. You can became a trained instructor for this work and give it a start in E. Africa or in other places of the world. . I have not seen, that this program is available. Yet it is a program that is globally known. I do not know in how far the present corona crisis is mentioned and reflected upon. You just discover this and add it to your discussions. In the training we will do a lot of reflection around corona.
I think it is great if you in the coming weeks look at and experience this program. It is a good case for learning. Please be critical.

See also the website of Patchamama Alienance. https://www.pachamama.org/

• Am I willing to set out on such a journey?
• Am I ready to invest and give the energy to all this proces will take?
• Am I willing to be very honest with myself and ready to deal what I will be exposed to on this journey?
• Do I have  a sense of the difference between  a soul process and a way of solving inner problems just to feel better?
• Respect the feelings you have around this challenge. It is alright to be afraid, insecure.
• Write about it in your journal: My hopes and expectations for this process of growing in ecological awareness.
  

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image source free internet

If you feel you are ready, create  for yourself a nice and intimate celebration to express to God, the Cosmos and the whole community of life your desire and intention is. If there is a clear and outspoken intention, the energy and the strength will be given to do what you have to do. The whole community of life, the whole cosmos will support you and hear you.

• Connect with your allies. Who are your supporters?
• Make a short statement, a poem, a drawing that expresses your intention.

Be gentle and let the commitment grow in you. There is no hurry in the cosmos, but time. Have a good time as you work with this module to prepare you for the journey! Share your commitment with some one who really will support you.

“We all can hear the small, still voice, deep in us.
Be still and know that I Am is in you, the voice of the Beloved. Trust and Live!”
Eileen Caddy, foundress of Findhorn Community, Scotland

“I do not allow myself to be overcome by hopelessness, no matter how tough the situation. I believe that if you just do your little bit without thinking of the bigness of what you stand against, if you turn to the enlargement of your own capacities, just that in itself creates new potential”.
Vandana Shiva, author, activist, India

“Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out”.
Vaclav Havel, former Czech president

“We are here to love as broadly and as deeply as we possibly can- knowing that we cannot do this without the support of the entire community of Life. Our purpose is to consciously further evolution in ways that serve everyone and everything,not just ourselves . This is our calling. This is our Great Work. Indeed, it is our destiny”.
Miriam McGilles, Genesis Farm, USA

”The world cannot be discovered by a journey of miles, no matter how long, but only by a spiritual journey, a journey of one inch, very arduous and humbling and joyful, by which we arrive at the “ground” at our feet, and learn to be home”.
Wendell Berry; author, poet and farmer

Mystical prayer: “the person who looks inside. In the inner world there is no beginning nor end. First of all you encounter the mystery of yourself. If you go deep in yourself you find an entrance into the limitless Self. Here is Source, the experience of Oneness in Love. Here you encounter God in the core of your being…all that is external falls away. In this way you honor God by your own Being”.
Source: Medieval teachings of a monk to his pupil

“In my travels I spent time with a great yogi. Once he said to me: “Become so still you hear the blood flowing through your veins”. One night as I sat in quiet, I seemed on the verge of entering a world inside so vast I know it is the source of all of us”.
Mirabai, woman poet, Medieval India

“The Zen Master Thich Nhat Than was once asked what we need most to do to save our world. “What we most need to do, he replied, is to hear within us the sound of the Earth crying”.
Quoted in Coming back to Life – Joanna Macy and Molly Brown

Words from Eileen Caddy, foundress of Findhorn:
“Without prayer our life is empty and meaningless. Because in prayer, when we connect with our higher Self, we experience the fullness of our life, our true heritage. Let your prayers be hopeful and positive and be grateful for what you will receive, even before you pray for it. Feel the Oneness when you pray, the Oneness with all life. There is no dividedness, because everything is One. I am in you, do not look for me outside yourself. Just feel our Oneness now. I in you and you in Me”.

The great unknow is preparing you
to step beyond yourself into the mystery of Divine Love.
You are being asked to let go of what which is not love.
Let go of what no longer serves the highest good.

Ask “what is the highest good?” and guidance will show you.
Guidance comes from Source.
which, in your heart, you have never left.

You cannot leave what you are.
such is Divine Law.
Divine Law has been established beyond time
and can be accessed in the Eternal Now.

To live in the Eternal now is what you came here to do.
Living in the Eternal Now allows you
to heal and remember who you truly are.
Frank Coppieters, Handbook for the Evolving Heart

“The purpose of awakening is to dispel the illusion of separation.
Nothing else is holding back the evolution of your planet”.
Frank Coppieters, Handbook for the Evolving Heart

“When going through a transition
give yourself permission to reinvent yourself.
Choose freedom, choose creativity,
and especially choose to be your authentic self”.
Frank Coppieters, Handbook for the Evolving Heart

“In the center of the storm
there is an immense quiet.
Find that place within yourself
and life your life from it –
undisturbed, efficient, at peace”.
Frank Coppieters, Handbook for the Evolving Heart

The Queendom of God is among you.
Historical Jesus

The queendom of God is not a thing. It is not an object. It is not something that is about to happen. It has already happened; it is among us. We have to clean up our perception to see it better. It is a relationship, many relationships. Develop an amongness consciousness. This is a relation consciousness.
M.Fox
Christian Mystics,  365 Readings and Meditations

Holy Spirit, you are  the mighty way in which everything
 that is in the heavens, on the earth, and under the earth,
 is penetrated with connectedness, is penetrated with relatedness.
Hildegard of Bingen

Ask yourself: Am I attuned to my connection with everything that is in the heavens, on the earth, and under the earth? With all my relations? For Hildegarde this is the Spirit’s work: Holy Spirit is the “mighty way of connectedness and relatedness.
M.Fox
Christian Mystics,  365 Readings and Meditations

There is no creation that does not have radiance.
Be it greeness or seed, blossom or beauty.
It could not be creation without it.
Hildegard of Bingen

Look around you: Do you find a radiance in everything you see? Can you look for it,
find it, touch it in everything you see today?

Christian Mystics,  365 Readings and Meditations

We have to find the Oneness in ourselves . Then we can leave ourselves behind and move on.
Then Oness becomes Unity, we enter into the reality that we are connected. Connected with others.

The journey starts from our brokeness. We sense there is a much greater Oneness in ourselves.
To  feel our disconnection is to feel the root of sinfulness. The source of all disconnection is fear.
Meditation brings us home in the discovering of the unending Love in our heart.
J.Main, Basic attitudes to meditation

“As the day’s light breaks the darkness of the night
as the first movements of the morning pierce the night’s stillness
so a new waking of life downs within me,
so a fresh beginning opens.
In the early light of this day,
in the first actions of the morning,
let me be awake to life.
in my soul and in my seeing
let me be alive to the gift of this new day,
let me be fully alive”.
J.Philip Newell, Sounds of the Eternal

“In the great lights of the night sky
and its unbound streches of space
I glimpse the shinings of your presence, o God.
In the universe of my soul
and it boundless depths
I look for emanations of your light.
In the silence of sleep
and the dreams of the night
I watch for jewels of infinity.
In the silence of sleep
and the dreams of the night
I watch for the shinings of your presence”.
J.Philip Newell, Sounds of the Eternal

Photo private collection Philippines