The Reiki Centre
Spiritual Peacemaking Education & Networking

 

Peacemaking an Economic Paradigm
By Rev. Christine Jefferson 
November 2008

   Spiritual peacemaking is an inside out job in that each one of us is solely responsible for finding the Peace that exists deep within even the most chaotic circumstances of life. Many of us are aware that bringing peace to old belief systems, old ways of doing things can be very challenging indeed.

  
My intention this past year was to focus on and reveal the sincere gratitude and appreciation I knew was hidden within our North American system of monetary exchange by opening a Spiritual Education facility disguised as a small business in the downtown core of a small Southern Ontario town. On the outside we look like any average storefront, complete with appropriate signage, windows for visibility, and accessibility. On the inside however, we are very different. We are all about Peace. 

  
One year ago a core group of dedicated individuals gathered together to create a powerful energy vortex based on the teachings of “The Art of Spiritual Peacemaking”, a book by James Twyman. Then we set our intention to only attract money that was given with the energy of gratitude or appreciation. We offered much needed support systems during times of personal transition, a safe space for people to gather, to learn, to celebrate, or to worship. Most of our programs and services were offered on a donation basis.

  
We set to work building collaborative relationships with local holistic practitioners, healers, artists, and spiritual teachers with the objective of promoting one anothers services. Truly accepting and embracing all healing methods as valid while working with practitioners to encourage the highest levels of integrity. We
know that each teacher has their own audience, their own resonance pattern through which the message of peace and wellness can be heard.

  
To some it seemed as though we were giving away our business, but we knew that our generosity flowed from the principle of “give everything to everything”, and the deeper knowing that we were only giving to Ourselves. This facility turned “Sanctuary of Peace”, was called into Being by the prayers of the people. We literally felt their desire to return to a spiritual community based on inclusion rather than exclusion, so month after month we held fast to our “YES”, keeping trust and faith were our guides.  

  
We were challenged by a fear based opposition, skeptical visitors, and an impending economic crisis. Even so, we continued to hold ourselves firmly in the place of “Being in this world, but not of it.”

 
Our success speaks for itself. Our numbers are growing, our practitioners are thriving, and our network is expanding. We continue to exemplify the teachings of the “Art of Spiritual Peacemaking” by holding the sacred space, speaking openly and easily about generosity and abundance, while being ready and available to serve the diverse spiritual needs of the community. We operate in true collaboration rather than a competition mindset, serving everyone equally regardless of their ability to pay.   

  
We coined the phrase “gratitude tithing”, such that by only receiving funds that are offered in true gratitude, we help keep the energy of monetary exchange pure. In trusting that the funds we need to continue will arrive in some form, we patiently hold the intention to help shift everyone into prosperity. As Spiritual Peacemakers it is our responsibility to lead the way especially in the face of uncertainty, to trust and to hold firm to the vision of Peace and natural prosperity.
 
  
In turn, we must hold the feelings of gratitude in our hearts, talk about what we are doing, and model the behaviour of clear intention and integrity. As Ghandi said; “We must Be the change we wish to see in the world.”

Our motto and mission statement: Peace Prevails Now. Give everything to everything. Be open to receive, and just keep saying “YES”!
 
  
   
 

There is no Death

by Rev. C - January 2009


     I had to be ready for the transfer of power. Just like my Seminary vows, I was being asked to commit to the task of being a vessel to hold the power of the Divine Feminine in my heart until the world is ready to receive it.


     Penny transferred the power and commission of holding Unconditional Love unto me. I am now the vessel for that Love; responsible for this powerful medicine as in the Native American traditions. The gifts she “held” sacred were always freely given – no conditions applied, nothing withheld. Her eyes reflected my certainty of that Love – the loyalty and devotion to Love – as all of my animals have before her. They've been the messengers, delivering their message through their simple presence and responding to me from that place of Love – true instruments of peace.


     The sorrow I felt belonged to the pain body and the story of separation and aloneness and therefore caused suffering. The truth however, is joyful, liberating, and expansive. We were never separate her and I. She existed as an Angel before her birth and visited for a time in physical form, only to rejoin the celestial realm when the time was right, except that her perception of that realm was never lost, her connection never broken as mine has been.


     We think we are severed from our Angelic Selves because we've been focusing so powerfully on the appearance of separation – distinct bodies, minds, lives, and yet that is not the Truth. In our stubbornness and ignorance we believe we are alone, unsafe, unprotected, vulnerable, unloved and unlovable. We humans perpetuate this belief despite the multitudes of symbols, signs and messages that are placed before us every day that remind us of our eternalness, interconnectedness, and true state of Love.


     The vet said; “She's gone.”, and as my heart pounded through my chest I knew absolutely – “Oh no she's not!” She's more here now than ever before, literally and figuratively as reflected in my elevated heart rate! This was more powerful than a Reiki attunement yet with the same side effects of high vibrations in my body, heart pounding, feeling ungrounded, tears of Joy & Freedom. The task of staying focused and aware of what was happening was more challenging as I had to deal with the clinic staffs beliefs around death, their sorrow and their baggage.


     I grounded as best I could the energy expanding minute by minute into and through my heart. I breathed deeply and moved the energy down to my root and legs accepting this intense initiation of Transfer of Power. On the outside it looked as though I was grieving death but on the inside I was overwhelmed with the power of LIFE. I knew at once that I'd needed to be ready for this powerful spiritual medicine. My body, mind, and spirit had to be ready to accept fully what this implied. To love as God loves, to see as God sees, to know as God knows.


     The eyes of the dog reflected back to me the love that flows from my own eyes. Tears of gratitude flowed with this realization. I no longer needed her physical presence to remind me. I had become patience, I had become acceptance, I had become Love.


     The spirits we think are separate from ourselves are always nearby just waiting for our call, quietly protecting, supporting, guiding, made manifest by our simply focusing upon them; coalescing energy patterns of love and light, offering their gifts of service for all of eternity. The sickness and tiredness of her small body was the old ways departing. They are gone now, the old ways of suffering are gone. Thank you for heralding that! The ways of holding pain, transmuting disharmony through the body are gone. She took them with her. I need not go through that. I need not suffer, or fall ill or experience decrepit age. Those ways are gone. Her last year of incontinence was a brilliant mirror for me that I was no longer holding onto anything! An indication of my surrender to the flow. Ridiculous and grand in its Divine humor. 


     With the days and weeks that pass, I recognize an absence of rituals, routines of daily pet maintenance. I do not however “miss her” in the old sense, because I feel her with me, as it has always been. There is no sorrow, only joy as this experience brings me closer still to fully realizing that we are indeed All One.

Tamara's Pretty Penny
December 1991 – January 2009
   


A Discourse on Love

by Rev. C - January 2006


          For all my beautiful brothers and sisters:
To be "in" Love is to exist inside of, or within, or in the energy that IS Love.
The projection of Love onto another is as a catalyst, a trigger to initiate us back into Love, to trick us into feeling Love again, to opening the Heart, to breathing in Life, Love, and God. God IS Love.

          To be "in" Love is to be IN God. It is never found outside the Self - it is only found within. When we recognize that we ARE God, we ARE Love - embodied, emanating various levels or frequencies of Love. We then come to see this Love emanating from others and from all of Life. When two people are in Love, they are experiencing euphoria, bliss, an openness to Love - the energy which heals, nurtures, comforts, expands, and nourishes our spirits. We can feel the energy of someone who is "in love" - they radiate it.

          When an outside trigger occurs - enters our lives - we can respond with "new" Love, a greater depth or understanding of the essence of Love, it can act as a force to propel us into greater heights of enthusiasm, excitement, anticipation, and Joy. But for many, when the Love is removed, ie: the trigger for that re-surgence of Love is gone, or dies away; then we cannot sustain the feelings of being "in love", because we associated our euphoria with the external trigger. This is when we begin the search again for another trigger, so we can get back to that feeling of "being in love".

          The lesson is and always has been that the triggers are meant to assist us in remembering what we are capable of feeling, and from that place, that Love, or being inside and within Love, is our natural state - anything outside of our natural state is uncomfortable, sad, lonely, depressing, and increasingly unbearable. So, the feeling is the thing - feeling Love - if at first towards another person or being, just to remind us of how to get to that feeling - then to hold this feeling of existing within Love - while we turn that love upon ourselves, directing it towards ourselves as if we were looking in a mirror, both sending and feeling the Love - projecting it outwards - radiating it, and receiving it - from the only source it can be truly sent from - ourselves.

          Being IN Love, in communion, in unity with ourselves, leaves us free to be in partnership with everyone - with all of Life - not just one person, one ideal, or one thing. Being in, residing in, existing within, the scope or feelings of Love, liberates us at our very core - all judgments cease, all criticism stops. Peace, contentment, and joy become the dominant experience. An immensely powerful shift occurs, quietly, gradually, and permanently. It's a challenge to contemplate being in Love with the Self. It's very different to not consider, fantasize, or dream about some external other. We can practice using another as a trigger to initiate the Love feelings and then subtly turn those feelings onto the Self. At first it feels odd, but with practice I am certain we will experience a new deeply peaceful way of Being.  


 
   

The Secrets of the Heart


by Rev. C, June 2006

    To be "in" Love is to exist inside of, or within, or in the energy that IS Love.
         

          The purpose of life is to live - to feel - to fall - to rise - and to fall again.
My emotions are what make me human. They open my heart. They cause me to feel great joy and great pain alike. Without my emotions I would be dry and brittle as a stick of old wood. I would cease to live, I would cease to understand the ebb and flow of cosmic forces within my body, I would cease to dream, I would cease to imagine - I would fade away to nothing. So, what of the painful emotions - the one’s that bring tears of sorrow and separation? How do I accept these as part of my human adventure? How do I learn to experience these emotions without remorse or bitterness at their presence?

          By seeing and accepting the gift of emotion itself. For without my emotional body I could not experience deeply the myriad perspectives of the human condition. I could not empathize. I could not forgive. I could not feel compassion for another. But most of all, I could not relate to other humans having their earthly experiences. I would seem foreign, an alien among the people of earth. I would seem cold and distant and heartless. For it is through the heart that the deepest emotions are felt.

          The heart is the doorway, the portal through which we all participate in life. It is the meeting ground, the communal place, the place where we find unity amidst our illusions of separation. Through the heart we find peace and love and joy and laughter. Through the heart we bond from common experiences of life and living. The heart can be broken and the heart can heal. The heart is the eternal doorway leading us to the very depths of our Soul. Our dreams live in the heart - our deepest desires - and our deepest fears. As we grow, we learn the lessons of the heart, its pliability, its elasticity, and its vulnerability, and still we go on living and feeling, loving and hating, laughing and crying. For the passions which drive each of us are unique and special and holy. The experience of the One is not to judge good or bad, right or wrong, proper or improper, but to relish ALL experience, ALL perspective, ALL of Life and what it means to Live as a Human.

          So, I choose to embrace my emotions, the "good" and the "bad". I choose to accept my attachments, as they are and as I AM. I choose not to judge whether my feelings are appropriate or not, but to embrace them as part of a grand legacy that can be appreciated only from this finite human perspective. I AM as God created me - in the image and likeness of It, and for now, my form of creation is my Life and how I choose to Live it.
In my own unique and special way.


          Amen

The Return of the Bride Groom


by Rev. Christine – October 2008

          There has been so much talk about the return of the Divine Feminine energies to the world. In the last 12 years that I've been seriously working my spiritual path, the Goddess and all her attributes have been the focus of many ceremonies, womens gatherings, meditations, and sacred circles. It seems that with the absence of “her” influence, the world in general experienced such an imbalance as to drive the open worship of the Divine Female underground. The resurgence of healing work, particularly around the persecuted female has served to return empowerment to women in all walks of life. But its not just the women who have benefited in this, many men are so uncomfortable and unfamiliar with their feminine side that their contribution to the imbalance could not be overlooked. For so long, the aspects of compassion, gentleness, loving kindness, and forgiveness were seen as a weakness when displayed through a man. And because men were in such denial and confusion around their seemingly softer side, the women through the law of balance held too much of the forgiving, gentler energies. So much so, they continued to “settle for less than they deserved” in situation after situation.


          Through my own personal spiritual practice I've studied, embraced, and merged with my lost feminine principles. My energy growing up was predominantly male as I struggled with an incomplete understanding of what Divine Feminine energy looked like. It felt safer to me to block out the softer side mainly because my female role models were steeped in a paternalistic world view of victim consciousness and preconceived limitations. In short, the women of my world grudgingly accepted their lot in life; some gracefully, some not. However, the limitations I developed because of my environment were the very impetus I needed to change and grow.


          My development included phases of standing up for what I wanted rather than submitting to the influence of others, finding within myself the worthiness necessary to feel like I deserved to be happy and in control of my life choices, to a place of comfortable certainty and self assurance. Forgiveness and compassion, both qualities of Divine Feminine were the aspects most instrumental in my process of bringing myself into balance. Recently however, I'd been sensing something more, something new. Now that the Divine Feminine was back, and securely anchored within me, her true strengths now fully revealed, I was able to predict the return of the Bride Groom to the Sacred Chamber; a mystical place where the male and female could join in equality and balance. 


          Now that the Bride had been properly prepared so to speak, the stranger (the long lost Divine Masculine) who had been absent from our world for so long, could now return home. The Balanced Male could now be accepted without the female fearing a re-occurrence of past mis-creations. She feels safe, and now her lover, The Beloved, can now return to her. What this looks like for me in my life is a calm, serene clarity around almost every situation. I certainly still have a few moments when my ego, or pain body is triggered, but for the most part, I feel capable, adaptable, and almost unconsciously able to respond with equal amounts of courage, strength, compassion and forgiveness. In other words qualities I'd associated with both the Divine male and female have equal representation.


          The Divine Masculine brings such an element of “rightness”; an otherworldly knowing of the original intention for life on this planet, such that when I encounter a situation or person who is using their creative abilities to purposely bring distraction, perpetuate fear based assumptions, or some other misrepresentation of the Godhead, something deep inside me goes into “action". It feels sort of like a large stop sign, raised up high, causing the movement of energy or activity to cease. Then there is a sort of “resetting” sensation that occurs which serves two purposes. If there are any “innocents” in the room; people who are overly open or vulnerable to fear based energy, they are immediately protected. A sort of shield of Grace is placed around them. Secondly, another force of energy sets to work dealing directly with the person presenting the disruptive influence. A lot of times the so called “teacher” or presenter, is fully convinced of their “rightness”, in that their view is irrevocably and undeniably the most enlightened one in the room. The danger, if we could actually call it that, of such a scenario is in the blatant misrepresentation of the vastness of consciousness vs the much more constricted view of the ego. 


          Neal Donald Walsch in Conversations With God said; “Be aware of those who think they know.” In their un-knowingness they will unintentionally perpetuate those aspects of the illusion that tend to distract the less discerning spiritual seekers. The Divine Feminine energies of course also come into play, releasing or repairing any “damage” by infusing forgiveness and compassion. By combining these two powerful perspectives peace is instantly restored.


          The progression through the various stages of awakening or enlightenment has been a fascinating experience. I've always felt that no matter where we feel we are along our journey, there's always more to experience in this ever expanding universe.

          Life indeed goes on.




February 2009

Deeper Into The Bridal Chamber

The Return of the Bride Groom - Pt 2 


          The old male energy contaminated by beliefs of competition, control, power struggles, and insecurity required the healing powers of the Divine Feminine attributes of forgiveness, compassion, kindness, and nurturing.


          He needed the Divine Female in all her strength, power of love, balance in the heart, truth about god, peace, and oneness to eradicate the trespasses of shame, guilt, and pain, suffered by all. For the old male energy to submit, She needed to be quiet, open, receptive, ready, patiently waiting, sitting in silence, stillness – being-ness, rather than doing-ness. Her stillness is what draws him in; the magnetic pull of her Love attracts him, soothes him, lends him courage to proceed.

          In Her acceptance and unconditional love He finds solace, a safe harbour, welcoming open arms that embrace Him lovingly, gently, and passionately. Here Love envelopes Him, draws him into The Beloveds sweet embrace, placing a protective cocoon of Light around Him so that he might enter into his transformation. A time of deep surrender to the wisdom of the ages, He is safe, loved, forgiven for all trespasses throughout time. The process of metamorphosis has begun in earnest, the final stages in completion.


          In this safety, His strength returns, his clarity, wisdom, purpose, and direction laid out before him. Divine intelligence fuels his systems, he becomes immutable, strong, and certain once again. When the time is ripe, He will emerge, Angel Wings spread wide, His Divine Presence felt on this planet once again.

          He will emerge into a different place of partnership, His existence un-threatened by Her powerful Love. His surrender has been his salvation. Her Love; his tonic. The faults of the past mis-creations dissolve into Divine Acceptance; losing all their negative power. Dying to the sins of the father, old paradigms of lack and insecurity fade into the mists.


          She too is feeling un-threatened as She stands fully in her Divine Female Power of Peace and Knowing. They will stand together now, first within the Sacred Hearts of each individual, then reflected out into our world.

          The past is gone, the old ways soon forgotten; into The New Earth we walk, hand in hand, arm in arm, heart to heart. Both of us heard. Both of us listening. No longer are we threatened by one another's power; instead we honour, appreciate, and celebrate our diversity.

          The Bride and the Bride Groom together once more in the Sacred Chamber of the Heart. Thus creating a time of harmony, balance, and beauty.

          The reality is Love, the measure of which is our Joy.

          We are free to create, to dance this dance as Divine Male and Divine Female, in harmony, unison, and Oneness. Time to celebrate indeed!

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