I am not sure how I feel about all of this. I think reading the book might help. What am I going on about? I am what is called spiritual, I guess. I use the word guess because I think that is how most people might view me. And by most people, I mean most of those that I interact with on social media. I have friends that are “in the church” as they say. It’s a male and female married couple of whom the male is a pastor or reverend. I got a message from the wife saying that they were going to send me a book. I really thought they were going to send me a copy of the bible. They didn’t. I was open but a little taken aback when I got the book and read the first chapter title “Pushed towards Evil: Experiences in the World of Hypnotism, Witchcraft, and the Occult”.
I thought don’t judge just yet. I read on and learned that this book “The Gurus, the Young Man, and Elder Paisios” seems to be about a guy who was in the church and then went off to search for the meaning of life or to find “God” only to return to the church. When I learned of this, I was led to believe that my friends might believe that my answers may be in the church too. I can appreciate that. It’s like sharing a road map, or directions. They didn’t push it on me and offered a gift of what they hold as proof or answers to what some and I might be seeking. This came about as I have been studying for my Yoga Teacher Training course and post on SM about yoga and meditation among other things. I have talked about shamanism, esoteric subjects, plant medicine, spirit guides, mediums, tarot cards, and many other subjects on my social media so this may be the picture of me these folks see. I have also posted about participating in Lent 2020. I participated to support a friend but then became curious about the path that Jesus took because he was a teacher and is an ascended master, plus an all-around great dude according to the accounts of him. Not just that, I have worked with Jesus. Yes, that is right, he came into my awareness in 2017 and took me through a bunch of lessons I describe in my podcast episode #4. I believe I have found god. I am very confident I have found the meaning of my life. Heck, I have found and know the secrets of the Universe as far as I can tell. I am very content and have never been happier. Why share all of this? Because I didn’t find it through the church. I found it through practices of quieting my mind and coming into harmony with my ego. I came to it through yoga and meditation mostly. I have found it through other things like occultism. Later today, on this summer solstice, I am going to pour moon cycle blood in the middle of the labyrinth I was guided to create in my yard because my spirit guides taught me the middle represents the woman’s womb. I guess that sounds a little witchy. I have explored the path of the church. I go into detail about that in the podcast episode I mentioned above. I gave it a real go and I didn’t find god there. I found god totally when I practiced Lent after having quieted my mind with yoga and meditation. After I had huge perspective shifts and was able to be aware of the subtleties around me. I stripped away what I thought I knew and looked at things with eyes that were wanting to see the truth of what they beheld. I don’t believe in a white-bearded god in heaven looking upon us with judgment. I don’t see it as a “he” or even a “she”. I sense it as it. I used to think the church was all bad and had a dislike of it but there are some valuable things in the church. I was throwing the baby out with the bathwater. I learned to become more discerning and was able to see what is in harmony within the church and tap into that. An example of that is that the Greek Orthodox Church believes that Lent is a time of redemption and that redemption is translated into something like changing one’s mind. Well, that is just one of the things Jesus taught me. He said about what seem like miracles, “It’s not about them getting what they want, it’s about them changing their mind.” This was said to me by Jesus in reference to a couple getting pregnant after having a trying time doing so. I see that can apply to so many things. It is all about us changing our minds, not how “good” we can be by following commandments. It’s interesting that during Lent I learned about a few mystics within the church and Elder Paisios is one of them. I wanted to learn more about him anyway, so there is that. I may change my mind about some things after having read the book and look very much forward to doing so.
Best and blessings, Carlita