I am inspired to write these words in response to Star Maru's (Holistic Visionary Astrologer, mooncycles@sbcglobal.net) wisdom offering on "practical spirituality." I am so thankful to her for her continued infusions of love, light, and intention within the StarLight Journal community and out to include all beings. So I am here to give my own offering, to offer up some energy to the community, as it manifests through this voice. 

I really love this topic. Maru has been sharing her wisdom on this for some time, and I have learned so much from her. The mystic and dreamer archetypes are very strong for me in this lifetime, and so practical, everyday, routine, detail oriented ordinary reality has not held much natural appeal for me. I grew up with a very practical mother, and she was so involved in the details, that she missed sharing the wonder and mystery of life, of just being, with me. From an early age, I was very drawn to dreaming, escaping from ordinary, mundane day to day living. When I saw others who were just going through the motions, seemingly disconnected from the people around them, just doing survival, I knew this was not for me. I first became really conscious of this knowing in my early adolescence, around 10 or 11. I started to connect with nature and feel the mystical pull of the infinite draw me into a seductive embrace. I remember being completely lost at school, in my family, and in most social situations. On reflection, I see that I only felt connected when I was around someone who was conscious, and who saw the Divine in themselves and in me. This was a rare occurence in my life, but the few times I experienced this were profound. Mostly, I just slipped into my own dreamy world of fluid movement, wondering in nature, and wandering through my days turned inward toward the ocean of my soul. This continued through my teenage years, as I dropped out of school (this structured, barely alive environment was suffocating for me.) and began smoking pot, the dreamers escape. My practical mother had no idea what to do with me, though her endless bookshelves filled with spiritual books were my saving grace, as I dived into and hungrily devoured Yogananda, Baba Hari Dass, Kahlil Gibran, Jane Roberts, Carlos Castenada, Shakti Gawain, Thich Nhat Hahn and so many others. She was so drawn to these spiritual mystical teachings, never recognizing that she had a budding mystic in her own house, a young, yearning woman, her shy, introverted, and easliy overlooked daughter. I had read most of these books by the time I was 16, and moved out of the house.

I would say that my conscious awakening came around 21, when I met my first true soul sister, and my first teacher. My stepmom was one of the people who saw me, and she had just taken me to a Spiritual bookstore for my birthday, letting me pick out several books, including StarHawks "The Spiral Dance." I met my friend Shelby at the dinner house where we both were cocktail waitresses. She invited me over to her house, her keen senses revealing my true nature even through my hesitance. She had the Spiral Dance as well, and with this discovery, from that moment, we knew that we were soul family. She gave me the book "Initiation" by Elizabeth Haisch, and I in reading it, I began to experience rapid expansion. Since then, I have been passionately focused on the spiritual path, and it has taken me on a fantastic, intense, and amazing journey. I am now 42, and just witnessed the birth of my granddaughter, Aurora, born to my sweet, mystical and practical Capricorn daughter (and teacher!), Rowan. In this second 21 year cycle, this conscious spiritual journey, as the 7 by 3 years have gone by again, I have come spiralling round to this teaching of practical spirituality, as this lesson has ripened in my life. I welcome this teaching fully, with my whole being, just as I once embraced spiralling in toward my souls whispering pull. I understand this to be the opportunity for this expanded consciousness to live life fully on this planet, in this humble and sacred body, experiencing in a grounded, human way the infinitely faceted face of God manifest as this life.

My favorite teacher of practical spirituality is Byron Katie. Her typical, and most repeated quote is likely "I am a lover of what is. When I argue with reality, I lose." Katie sees things differently than most humans, as she manifests the most practical wisdom of the truth of things. She tells us that to truly love what is, whatever and however this manifests, is freedom. To have no preference, just to be, and to realize that every single manifestation, every experience and every interaction, is a perfect, divine reflection of yourself, and gives you the opportunity to meet "yourself" (aka God) more fully in every moment, this can really shift ones perspective of the mundane of everyday living into the incredible, joyful, life affirming, adventurous, always fresh and new experience that it is. This is a grounded/enlightened perspective, learning to be practical, to be present to each moment, to set intention and watch as your passionate thoughts ("light" and "dark"!) unfold into your reality. Every face that arises in your experience becomes a sublime teacher, a treasured reflection, teaching you about all the places in consciousness, the explored and the unexplored, and showing you how to illuminate it all, to love it all, to love and cherish what is. Byron Katie says Reality is God, and I agree. And I am learning that love is in the details, and every ordinary moment I am born anew. I look forward to hearing more about practical spirituality from others in this community, reflections all in the pure, sweet, infinite rivers song of life.