Category: B6:Growth/Integration
Soul Journey (1) : the Journey of the Hero
The Journey of the Hero
Somewhere along the path of our life, we might find ourselves in a difficult situation.To really face the questions of our life. The long road of finding the connection with your Essence asks much courage, and bravery. You are a hero if you dare to listen to your deep knowing and longings, to be true to what you feel and realize and to act upon it all.
We have the choice for a life in comfort, boredom, walking away from any difficulty and risk and not hearing the quest of our soul and to be dictated by our ego-desires. Or you are going to leave our comfortable home, start on our own journey and say goodby to the path that every body walks.
1.Listening to the signs to depart
There is a poem by Mary Oliver. She describes so well that this is a moment full of temptation. One evening she says, while there was a storm and the path was full with branches and stones, I left my house. And there were all kind of voices who told me to stay home. But I decided to go, in the dark. I could not see where I was walking, and I left all those voices behind me. And the further I went, the more I walked in the light of the stars amidst the dark clouds. And I began to hear another voice and I knew that it was my own voice, the voice of my true self, my Essence. Now I was determined, to save the only life that I can save, my own life.
Tell me, she says in another poem, what are you going to do with your one wild and precious life?
http://peacefulrivers.homestead.com/maryoliver.html
Do you dare to go on the journey that will ultimately lead you deeper to your true call in life? Do you dare to listen to your feelings of uneasiness, knowing that something has to change in the world, that Mother Earth calls on us and that our love and goodness will help to heal her? Real love will never go unnoticed. Are you willing to come out of denial about the way we improverish the web of life and are part of the unraveling of the life systems, as Joanna Macy calls it. That place of pain and shame, deeply buried in our soul. We will look into it and find beautiful ways to live on Mother Earth and be in her service. Are you aware that to look for your unique call and work in the world is the most important thing to do? Come let us go and set out on the journey.
2.The Call
The sacred literature of the many spiritual movements and religions tell us about people who in wondrous ways came to know what they had to do in life. Do you remember one of these stories? The story of the Buddha, of Jesus, of Muhammed. Do not think that only such extraordinary people experienced special ways to find their call. You are as special and each human is important enough for such a story. So do not think of yourself as small: this time with so many challenges and crisis in the world is for us, who are not extraordinary, but special in our giftedness and aspirations. Take time to reflect, to meditate and to get used to the voices in yourself. Do not be afraid if there many. Listen to those voices, dreams, longings that make you happy and full of love.
There are also stories of the person who tries to escape from the highest purpose of his life. Often people will get sick, experience all kind of calamities in their life, if they run away of what is asked from them. In the Christian Bible we find the Story of Jonah, the prophet wo did not want to go to the city where he had to deliver his message. He embarked on a ship, the ship was hit by a storm and Jonah ended up in the sea and was eaten by a whale. One day he found himself again on the beach. He had become obedient and went to the city where he was sent to.
3. The underworld and the world of shadows
New parts of your emotions and deep feelings will make themselves known to you. Old wounds break open again and your seeing, thinking is no longer clear. You loose direction and you find yourself in a desert, a swamp or a dark wood. Sometimes people cannot stop crying. There is darkness and depression and often so much anger. You are lost and meet now monsters and wild beasts on your way. Your life is one big disenchantment. You have to deal with your shame and take responsibility for your choices and for all you have left undone. Now the challenge is to face the shadows of yourself and find self- forgiveness and self- acceptance. To say yes to your life in whatever ways it has enfolded itself.
4. The Most Holy: the soul is full of light again (Illumination)
Now I begin to feel my true Self, my Essence. it can be after years of darkness and turmoil, sometimes after not so long a time. I am attuned again to the journey of my soul. Only my soul knows what is real, only my soul can discern what is Divine and what Gods gift is. I know myself as an expression of the Divine. My eyes are opened to see how all is connected and I experience a deep sense of Oneness. My heart is opened; the purifying fire of my pain has brought healing and I begin to know what love is. I become more and more a channel of love. My eyes SEE the other person. And my love for myself is deep enough now so that I am not constantly seeking the love of another human. I can give love and am not so needy anymore. The heart is at rest and in peace. It is important not to become proud of all these special experiences. I have not worked for it, do not deserve it, but humbly say that this state of bliss is the gift of God for me. I need to continue my way in all simplicity and not let the whole world know that I am so extra ordinary and that I am the “guru” of every body.
5. The return to everyday life
“What do you do after Illumination” a pupil once asked the master. “The same as what you did before illumination”, the master said. To cut wood and bring the water into your house”. Do whatever comes on your path: in the ordinary is the highway for spiritual growth. There is only one way to measure it….do I grow in my capacity to love!
Elly Verrijt, 2015
Soul Journey (2)
The four births
- Our first birth and home coming happens when we leave the warm nest of the womb of our mother and start the long journey of our life on Earth. Children in their early years still remember the place they come from and why they came. Therefore sometimes, they are very wise and say astonishing things. Mother Earth will embrace the child in a very intimate and deeply concerned way. Children are the children of Mother Earth.
- Our second birth is when the child enters puberty/adolescence. Now the ego is sufficiently formed and as a result of schooling the child might have accommodated very much to so called modern life with all the claims of a consumer society. The Earth connection might be broken already. Now the child tries to break out the web of authority figures. It is the time to manifest oneself in the world and the” we” instead of I is very important. Now the ego is the authority in life and the innate deep sensitivity for the Earth and for their own uniqueness might have grown dim. This is a necessary part in the development of a strong personality. Some very gifted children never loose the connection with the Light within. More and more young people are enlightened at a very young age and are prepared to take up leadership for the world and the Earth. The moment of homecoming is when the young adult can enter into the world from his own inner strength and can say: here I am.
- The third birth happens when a person really looks into the so called midlife crisis and faces the confusion and suffering of it. Sometimes the midlife crisis starts already around the thirties. It was C. G. Jung, who stated that all that happens in a life after the age of 30 is a spiritual quest. A life overpowered by ego will ask for conflicts and strong emotional movements, sometimes deep sufferings and painful losses. One day healing will come, choices are made for a life powered by the light of our Essence and the true call in life, our soul’s life task will become clear. A new love for self, the earth, others, God is there and we have come home again in Essence. It is a true rebirth.
- The fourth birth happens when one returns to our eternal home, from where we came. To the unknown land beyond our life on Earth. And our Earth Mother will receive us once more. We rest in her and we are home.
It is up to us how often we will be born…if we only can be true to our path and do not look away from our weak and dark sides. Just in these times the deep connection with Earth will help us so much. The Earth will teach us how to live and how to die. When we walk on our Mother in truth and respect, she will walk with us. We will not grow into our full glory and stature, without honoring the Earth and all her life. So our soul path is an Earth path, there is no difference between the two. There is no spiritual path besides our common daily life. The path we go is a spiritual path because we walk an earth path and that path we find through the happenings of our soul life. Now all is One again.
May you walk your spiritual path in beauty on this beautiful Earth.
Elly Verrijt, July 2015
Heart consciousness and the wellbeing of the Earth
The Power of the Heart
If we would give the other person(s) we live with, two minutes of undivided attention a day- a presence from the heart, the relationship will continue to deepen and become more healthy and wholesome. (Cosmic Law: what we will give attention will grow) What will not get attention will wither and die.
Remember moments when you received full attention, when you were “seen” from the heart by another person. You feel strong, grounded, radiant. It is the most normal way of being and it should not be the an exception!
People nowadays have lost the heart connection. The ecological crisis can come to people at large losing their connection with the heart. If we are not seen, we will not see and loose our contact with the flow of life. Just imagine how our Earth can change if each person receives 2 minutes of loving attention a day! Let us not just search solutions for problems, but give attention to what is really there. The wisdom of the heart will bring the solutions. All wisdom is in the life we live from the heart.
When we give full attention life energy (Prana) flows and is passed on. We give the other person the great gift of life-energy. This energy comes from the zero -point field of ( free ) energy. When we open our heart we open the door to an immense field of energy. The open heart is connected to a field beyond space and time; an enormous field of information. ( see heart coherence science, internet)
Feelings of compassion and love, care, respect, full attention, honor bring a coherent heart rhythm, while feelings of frustration, anger, insecurity and fear can lead to an incoherent heart rhythm.
If you experience love, respect, honor, full attention a hormone called DHEA is produced and helps in the process of slowing down the process of aging, Alzheimer, loss of memory, diabetes, depression, tiredness.
A loving body absorbs less cholesterol and produces more immunoglobulin A and blood pressure is lowered.
How to open the heart?
Bring your attention to the area of your heart. Visualize that you breathe in through the heart and breathe out through your solar plexus, right under your breast bone. Allow positive feelings to come. E.g. precious memories. Your heart rhythm will change immediately.
Heart energy heals the world.
Not the brain will ’save” the world, but the heart. It has been proven scientifically that the heart is much more attuned to the situation than our brain. Feelings in the heart are much quicker and powerful than our brains. Positive thinking helps but positive feeling is a much stronger impulse for health: both personally, communally and for the life of the Earth.
Our heart has a very strong electromagnetic field; 5000 times stronger than the field of our brain. Our heart has a great impact on electromagnetic radiation all around us. The start you want to see in the world starts in your heart.
Global warming, climate change, poverty, massive loss of life, dying environment, fear insight of great disasters…what will help ? A heart that is open and peaceful can give us more power to deepen our desires and intentions.

Inspirations: H. Andeweg in his book “Scheppend leven”.
http://www.heartintelligence.com/0/index.html
www.healthy-heart-meditation.com/heart–coherence.html