Symmetry of Purpose: How to Make Something from Nothing

ALCHEMY IS THE ANCIENT PRACTICE OF SHIFTING PERSPECTIVE.

Long before Medieval forerunners adopted alchemy for personal exploration in their mystery schools, alchemy was once thought of as a philosophical branch of self-awareness, according to much of the guidance I receive in my personal meditations.

Alchemy is less to do with turning metal into gold, as we have come to think of this ancient art and more to do with the spiritual practice of shining light unto the soul-self. We are light bodies. We come from light and we live on light. Were it not for the sun we would not exist. And the ancients knew this. So to adopt a spiritual practice of blessing the light was in essence a way to bless the soul-self.

Light begets light. Metal begets metal. Turning metal into gold is symbolic of turning the body into light.

Turning the body into light is simply a way of returning the body back to its original essence or light form. A way of saying, “Use these light codes and you too will be transformed!”

Think of the body as light, as gold, as the ancients did and the body begins to realign with its soul-self. The key isn’t in the sun or in the gold but in the essence of what the light embodies. Source. We might turn to this light when we are in need. My Quaker family often says, “I will hold you in the light.” Meaning: I will hold you in love. I will hold you in prayer. We can turn to the light for inspiration and divine purpose.

I regard the light as love. But more than being a peaceful and calming embodiment of the divine, I love the idea of being held in light as both transformational and informative, as meditative energy often brings about interesting healing vibrations and a renewed sense of purpose.

I REFER TO THESE CODES OF TRANSFORMATION AS LIGHT LANGUAGE.

Gold, the manifestation of God’s light or sunlight, depending on what religious/spiritual preference you might have, was prophesied in every ancient culture as holding the spiritual equivalent of truth. Were it not for the ancients who worshipped their gold, we might not look at the artifacts they produced as anything but simple metal, but because gold was personified as something more important than Earth, gold became the standard bearer of truth.

BEHOLD THE GOLD!

In this morning's meditation, I was shown just how little we adhere to Earth. We dismiss Earth for the glory of what lies beyond us when what is in front of us, our soul-selves, exists to capture the energy of the spiritual soul. Earth is no longer used as a playground for spiritual exploration as many of our ancient cultures once esteemed her, but we can return to this idea of gold, an Earth treasure, and a language within the stars that will help steer us toward balance, equanimity, and a more heart-centered life.

Author Photo: Kiawah, SC

Use the energy of the light (the gold) in your meditation to recapture the essence you seek. We’re all seekers, and what we seek is either material or it is spiritual. Often it is both because we can’t live on this planet without seeking shelter or sustenance for our form, but should you desire a little less material and a little more spiritual, absorbing the golden light will help balance your body and help attain a synergy of purpose.

The body needs direction and we often listen and absorb various opinions from others about how to find what is best for ourselves. Going within and channeling the golden light will help raise the awareness of your soul-self, your truth, your star code, and your relationship to what you seek. It’s not hard to take care of ourselves, but we don’t like it. We want someone else to fix us. We want someone else to redeem us. We want someone else to pat us on the back for a job well done. But when we can begin to acquire self-love, self-awareness, and the glory of our unique selves, energies of need and want begin to dissipate.

We’re hungry for love and going to God helps. But if going to God doesn’t suit your vocabulary style, try adapting this idea of sitting in Pure Source Energy for ease of the mind/body/spirit.

Blessings,

Alicia

Here’s What I Know About the Writer’s Journey

WE CREATE ROADBLOCKS IN OUR MINDS, AND UNLESS WE USE THE MIND TO DISASSEMBLE THESE BLOCKS WE WILL CONTINUE TO STRUGGLE.

Photo by Thom Milkovic on Unsplash

There is not one way to say this, and many writers will attempt to dissect and analyze The Writer’s Journey for us all. My approach, then, will be unique to me, because my experience is unique. Because of me. But I am not alone in saying this: “The Writer’s Journey is difficult.”

My first attempt at The Writer’s Journey led me straight into rejection. It was like I hurled my over-confident self right smack into a brick wall over and over in the hope that the brick wall would move and open up closed doors for me. It didn’t.

This desire to succeed and prove myself was so great that I couldn’t see what I was doing wrong. I thought the wall was wrong to be there. And it took a long time for me to see that I was going to have to take down the wall brick by stupid brick.

Literally, and figuratively, The Writer’s Journey for me has been about disassembling expectations and stepping into a new alignment with the meaning of success. Because I had had a fair amount of success in school and was certainly a creative person, and I knew this, I had a fair amount of certainty that the wall would crumble. For me. I didn’t understand this kind of hard work. And it took me a long time to accept that writing is hard work.

All things being said, I wanted instant success. Right? Each of us has probably experienced this same story, repeatedly. It doesn’t work like this for the majority of us as many Writers’ Journeys are fraught with complications such as not feeling good enough to be here, or continually feeling upended by rejection. We must work to overcome these feelings before we can see that there is success right in front of our noses.

I took another route to work around the feeling of rejection that I want to share.

This became, not how I was going to tear down the wall by myself (remember the wall represents “that which stands in our way”), but how I was going to begin to understand my emotional self to understand how I had built that wall by myself. I was responsible for the wall. No one else created this wall. I created an obstacle because I saw rejection as a problem. It took me a long time to find rejection as only something in my mind. It only existed because I labeled it rejection.

Still with me?

It took years of rejection for me to accept the wall existed because I saw “that which stood in my way” as a construct. I saw rejection as a marker. I saw it as a plush pillow to lie my head upon and cry.

Let’s unearth the emotional journey, because we all have one, whether we’re writers, artists, or creators of any kind.

The emotional response to rejection becomes the wall. It is not the editors, the publishers, or the agents who say “no.”

This makes The Writer’s Journey about conquering emotion. It is not about fighting anyone else. It is not about laying blame. It is not about hurling insults at the world because the world isn’t bending to our latest whim. Therefore, becoming a master at emotional self-restraint is the key to creative success.

People will share their absolutes with you and these absolutes will be encouraging. I wanted to speak to this notion that the wall is our own construct, one we design in our mind that we build and that we when we’re ready can take it down with the help of a strong self.

I think self-esteem has to come from our truth and not from our desire to prove ourselves. We can’t playact our way to writer’s success. We have to be successful in our minds at every step of the way.

My idea of success is having one person drop me a line that says something to the effect of “you’re helping me.” I was desperate for the audience, but an audience of one is just as proven as an audience of one hundred. Or one thousand. I accept this now.

I write often about this need to succeed. To climb. To gain. We’re programmed to march onward and make inroads in our careers, but we tend to march forward without appreciating the steps. This journey is still difficult at times because I tend to still see it as difficult but to get to this place of acceptance that the journey is “a journey,” well, this is my goal.

The Writer's Journey still has its bumpy moments. But because I have a better emotional shock absorber and can appreciate and accept the nitty gritty work, and the fact that I create this idea of rejection as rejection in my mind, instead of seeing it as part of the maturation process, I can honestly say I’m having more fun. And more success!

The mind creates.

Straight Out Of Nowhere

NO ONE SAID THIS PUBLISHING JOURNEY WOULD BE EASY.

We can read just about everyone’s publishing story and find the common denominator: It takes a lot of work to become a published author.

My story is the same, yet different. Yes, it has taken years of pushing through some serious distractions to stay in the writer’s life. I was once a very hands-on mother to two daughters. As they grew, and I continued to work at home to become a writer, I worked alongside them at the kitchen table.

We studied together and formed a bond. As their mother, I felt it was vital that they see me working on my dream. I feel certain this has helped them find the passion for their own dreams. They do not share the same dreams I have but have dreams of their own. Grasping this was, and is, important to us all as I learned how to give them room to explore.

THE WRITER IN ME NEVER WANTED TO GIVE UP.

She was determined to find a way to “succeed” and prove to my loved ones that I was a serious writer with serious goals. For me to be taken seriously, first I had to begin to take myself seriously. This was hard to do. I kept waiting for others to perceive me as serious, but without me first instigating this seriousness, the seriousness, well, it fell on deaf ears. Maintaining seriousness became important. After all, I was out to prove myself.

Can you guess what happened after I began to take myself seriously? And find all the ways I could to prove it? I forgot to play. It was a terrible time. I was so hellbent on succeeding that I forgot to play. The push forward took me away from an important part of myself and I forgot to rummage around in my creative filing cabinet and try new things, explore, and learn. I succeeded in only exhausting myself in the push.

THIS IS WHERE I AM NOW.

On the open road to nowhere. To everywhere. To somewhere. Honestly, I don’t know. I managed to get some of my earlier work published. My first goal. Yay! I reached a mile marker I was determined to get to, but now that I am here I see the road in front of me, and boy, it is wide. It is long. It doesn’t end. Now, what is a writer to do?

Do I tick off the mile markers as I go along on this writer's journey one after the other, or do I ignore the mile markers and look out across the vast expansiveness and forget the road? Forget that I am tired? Forget the plans? The road map?

There are too many stops along the way that look promising. I may be at the beginning of my writer’s journey but I know, having achieved this first publishing marker, that it does not mean I should put my head down and keep driving.

I think I’ll get off the road, park the next writing project in the parking lot, sit back, and look around awhile. There might be a much different highway calling. It might not be the one I am on. I need time to rummage through the weeds a bit and see what lies hidden.

This is the kind of writer I am becoming.

Option. Control. Command.

Option. Control. Command. We instinctively know where these three words appear on the keyboard and we use them repeatedly without pausing to discern. We know what purpose they serve and the ways they will help, yet we look unwillingly at what greater meaning these words bring.

As a writer, I look for inspiration outside myself just as I look for it within. I look to landscape because it inspires me to think about myself in relationship to Earth. Landscape is me. It is me in relationship to my surroundings within this vast biosphere, a deep molecular/spiritual/energetic kinship to something larger than myself. I am but a small thread, nothing without others. Perhaps I should say, “landscape is we,” as the whole of landscape encompasses more than myself.

WE ARE BIO-MOLECULAR INHABITANTS GROPING ABOUT UNEASILY IN SOME SEARCH OF IT ALL.

Rather than stop searching, because there is this inner pull within me to explore alchemy, transformation, and old stories desperately in need of re-writing, all in the name of living, I continue to explore what life means. I don’t do this uneasily, but playfully, lightly, and with a sense of childish wonder. Who are we really? Are we just some random species, having formed from a rudimentary molecular structure to become one of the fortunate ones now able to sustain and continue life? I’d like to think there is an advanced understanding we have with this planet that needs exploring.

Are we in balance with this Earth that supports our magnificent molecular journey? No. We’re gorging ourselves on her bounty. And we know this. Anyone reading this right now knows this. You might have been drawn to the title, the tags, or the photograph, but this is because you and I are probably like-minded individuals, and something about me resonates with you. So what I have to say isn’t new to you. You’re writing/teaching/communicating the same thing hoping people will listen.

LIKE-MINDED SOULS HAVE ONE ANOTHER.

But then how do we reach beyond those who are listening to the planet’s woes to those who are not responding? And what is it we want to say to those not understanding/respecting our symbiotic relationship to the planet?

I want to say this: It isn’t an option not to listen to Earth if we want to continue sustaining human life. Earth will be here longer than we will and it’s on us to respect this. We’re bio-molecular beings, a string of biomes, plasma, bones, and blood systematically strung out because we can’t control Earth or her evolution. Get over trying to control. We can’t. We can inhabit and respect, but we can’t control. We have options. We can respect the way we’re in a relationship with Earth or we can ignore this. I suggest we treat our planet in the same way we take care of ourself.

Can you see where I’m going with this? Unless we take care of ourself we won’t have the mindset to take care of the planet. So what’s a girl to do? Start helping by getting down into the muck to teach self-care, self-awareness, and self-love. Help heal old wounds. Love. Support process, transformation, exploration, and sustainability. I can’t feed the homeless. There are others who do that. I want to help those opening their eyes to the problem and give them a little understanding of alchemy. There are ways to transform ourself by taking better care of our molecular/spiritual/energetic relationship to the planet. By doing so we’ll grow deeper roots and respect who we are and where we belong. We’re alchemists if we choose to be. Let’s transform.

What is Truth?

YOUR TRUTH IS NOT MINE

My Truth is not yours. We’re living at a time when this is becoming more and more apparent. Individualism is pulling us into ourselves at such a sharp clip. It’s frightening how we’re pulling ourselves deeper into only our own people, only our own ideas, only our own needs without addressing the vast Collective. We’re becoming our own limitation.

I’d like to offer you this: as we explore individualism, unpack our self Truth, and make discoveries about ourselves, let us remember that we can be doing this for the betterment of not only ourselves, but others.

We need clarity and a strong alignment with our Truth because when we are clear we can help others discern. Individualism is a fraction of All That Is. We are a fraction of All. Our fractions make up the whole. Without the whole there would be little use for the fraction. Let’s stop tearing apart our threads of humanity just because we can. Individualism might light a fire in us as we get to know ourselves more clearly, but remember this: individualism disrupts the Collective.

There is nuance here, yet this is very hard to unpack. Nuance is difficult to understand, but in The Intrepid Meditator I hope to convey this idea that as much as we are learning about our soul/self (should you be so inclined), we are also learning how this soul/self falls into alignment with All That Is. To destroy for the sake of destroying something such as an institution, a concept, a philosophy, a law will ultimately destroy the Collective. And when the Collective, that which binds us together, falls, we will fall. Without the fraction there will be nothing left of the whole. Without the whole our individual threads become meaningless.

How To Create A Relationship With Meditation

Read Time : 3 Minutes

Meditation guides your journey to a higher self

I’ve been circling this wagon for years trying to find myself, whole. I won’t say meditation is the end-all-be-all of that quest, but it has been a very important part of my journey.

To be able to find me, my creative expression, my truth, I have relied on meditation.

The two are interdependent as they are dependent actions. Meditation is an activity. It is a way. It is a road long traveled, but one where you might not get from where you are to where you wish to be. Meditation takes you places, and yet you find yourself never arriving.

And why is that?

We’re so focused on the points along the road, the dials, the measurements, the markers we forget about the way. If we are asking for a way that will help take us to where we metaphysically, spiritually, or psychologically need to be, and if meditation is perhaps one of those ways, how then can we create a more meaningful relationship with it? And why bother if we never arrive?

Where is it that we so desperately feel we need to be?

Honestly, I don’t mind wandering. I love the nomad soul searching journey that takes me to new places, new towns, new relationships, new houses, and new companions. No, I’m not an unsettled soul. I’m simply a wanderer.

This, I will tell you, took me many years to understand and many new roads to travel down before I began to appreciate the nomad in myself. I am a piece of sagebrush, and more times than not I let the wind take me.

The Never-Ending Journey

I don’t mind the journey. Sure, I would be lying to myself and to you if I told you milestones and markers weren’t important. I travel to those markers, the days and years of my life, but in this quest to understand myself, and by using meditation, I don’t rely on those markers as true markers. They are simply placeholders in time. I may go from point A to point B, and I may be able to mark this part of my journey complete, but as soon as I arrive at point B I usually realize there is a C, a D, and an E to find.

If you could, Would you travel beyond the boundaries of time?

I travel, metaphorically speaking, to unearth myself by traveling across time and not through time. I travel beyond the boundaries of time. Traveling beyond the boundaries of time allows you the freedom to never arrive and to never stop yourself from trying.

You just keep going.

Learning. Growing. Acknowledging. Trusting. Trying.

I’d like to offer you an experience, that should you be so inclined, you may want to try.

If you’ve ever found yourself thwarted by meditation ask yourself- why?

Was it too boring? Too underwhelming? Too complex? Too rigid? Too New Age?

I’ll let you fill in the blank. And if you haven’t tried it in awhile, or ever, I’d like to offer you that opportunity. I’m here to help.

I won’t promise you that you’ll have a change of heart, but I’d like to be there to help you find your inner self, your creative expression, your creative voice through mindfulness. If there is one thing available to all of us it is this. Creative Expression.

Your journey will be uniquely yours, and I honor that, as mine will be uniquely mine.

But should you find yourself curious, or you’re a seasoned meditator and you’d like to boost the confidence in yourself, I’m here. It’s been years of study, years of exploration, and years of a few hard knocks that has put me here to offer this help.

Please join me in my Guided Meditation Series : Winter Into Spring.

This series is structured for the beginner as well as for the most experienced meditator because through these guided meditations, which I have written, you will be free to go where you wish to go. I offer this guided meditation series as a free resource to you.

I am only here to offer a helping hand as you find your own way, your own creative expression.

Sharing My Writer's Journey

I never wanted to become a writer.

I never really aspired to it. I wanted to become a nurse. Or a healer of some kind. Possibly a Hospice nurse. I thought about that a lot. I am a mother. I am a nurse and a healer. I take care of. I actually thought I might become a broadcast journalist. I wanted to share the news. I learned to think and type simultaneously when my father, a broadcaster, told me that this was the only way to write effectively. I would write compositions, term papers, and stories long hand and ask him to type them for me. He quickly gave me my own typewriter and told me I was doing it all wrong, that to think and type simultaneously was the only way I would become a journalist. I changed my mind. I didn’t want to become a journalist. Thinking and typing at the same time was difficult and my muscle memory and my brain reacted against it. But look at me now. I think and type. All the time. It’s my career. My father was right. I am a nurse and a writer. A mother and a healer. I write what intuitively comes to me…words of encouragement and healing. 

Although I didn’t realize it at the time, my journey to becoming a writer began when I started typing…

…playing “writer” on my new electronic typewriter. I would pretend to write words, long sentences, even paragraphs that were a jumbled mess because thinking and writing at the same time was difficult. But pretending was fun. I was an effervescent child, not quite here. Off in the clouds somewhere. I played writer and became a writer. I’m not sure many people approach their life choice this way, but I typed my way into it and now I can only think and type at the same time. I guess you could say I became what I pretended to be.

There’s mysticism in creating oneself.

We all do it. We think and become. I want to become the healer and help others understand that their journey is the journey of creating, manifesting, and becoming. 

Writing is a tool to teaching. I never thought about being a teacher, but I played at that too as a child. We set up “school” and took turns playacting. My friends and I loved playing school. I loved the teacher/student way. Looking back, I guess I’m somewhat stymied by it all struggling to understand the writer’s journey. How did I get here and why can’t I shake this complicated existence? I am a nurse, healer, student, teacher. A seeker. And I write to share. There’s no other way.