art by Cynthia
Spiritual Instruction Module: Cynthia Winton-‐Henry How to Play, Get Recognized and Credentialed as a Creative, Dreamer, Healer, Worrywart & Wisdom Worker Your Soul Credentials! 2 You’re Not Sick, You’re Sensitive! Recognizing the 1-in-5 4 How to Make Sensitivity More Fun 6 Playing with Initiations 8 Initiated by the Nature of Life 9 Initiation Inventories for One-In-Fivers 15 Credentialed to Serve 18 In this module I play with shifting the picture from labeling people as overly sensitive misfits to recognizing and initiating them as part of the “ One-‐In-‐Five,” the Gifted & Sensitive Wise People. Then I give some suggestions about how to proceed if you are one.
Your Soul Credentials!
Believe What You Notice! Humans are streaming more data than ever from our unparalleled data-‐rich media driven lives. Some suggest that we are in an evolutionary surge. Others say it’s the end time. Whole populations need sensitivity tools. Oprah to the rescue! Meanwhile, the struggling sensitive person gets diagnosed and pathologized. Not surprising when we are prone to agitation, violence, addiction, and depression when we are overwhelmed. Not fun. Not fun. Not fun. Why not make sensitivity more fun? The Challenge: With no recognition or credentialing it is hard to see the path of a mystic, psychic, soul-companion, or saint much less become one. A lot of us get so discouraged that we treat our life as a series of failures instead of necessary initiations. We compare ourselves to “norms” that don’t apply to our level of sensitivity. During the first half of life we wonder if we will ever be of service, because wisdom training is a long process that gives a person grey hair and wisdom wrinkles. In the second half our vulnerabilities take a greater toll. The Hope: I believe that recognizing, accepting, and training sensitives is on the rise. Intuitive pioneers today write about wisdom initiations. Authors talk about soul characteristics. And certainly, if geeks can become successful and well regarded for inventiveness, sensitives are next in line to be regarded for intuitive insights, ability to make connections, anticipate outcomes, and envision creative solutions. The Latin root for credential, credentia, means “trust” or credence. According to Miriam-‐Webster “trust results from assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something.” Trust is an embodiment of consistent and competent practice. For instance, I trust myself to do crazy artist things. When we garner trust our sensitivity credentials are formally and informally bestowed on us. . • Through self-‐honoring: When I realized nobody else could say I was an artist, I gave myself that name. • By teacher or mentors: Flora Wuellner, a trusted author and guide called me a Psychic Neuro-Surgeon over lunch one day. Once, when InterPlay and me needed a boost I asked professor Doug Adams to honor me with a certificate as Arts Minister of the Year. • By groups that see, celebrate and support our capacities: Companions from Body and Soul Dance Company and Wing It! Performance Ensemble blessed and encouraged me.
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• Via ongoing recognition from those who respect your service: My first ten years of teaching I collected thank you notes in a special basket. • Through regular expressions of gratitude and payment: I asked my first playmates to pay. Investing in my gifts they told me I had something of value. • In systems of learning.: degrees, awards, and ceremonies: My ordination process was a powerful time of recognition. • In direct encounters with the Divine: I had one on my knees in college and another on a trail with campers in the mountains. Over the years such direct connections helped me develop my relationship with Mystery and Love as my means of sustenance. Particularly, if you’ve been credentialed from “on high” or struck by a direct experience of true love, coming out, or the magic of suddenly recognizing a gift, and weren’t too unnerved you may not need as much group endorsement. With or without divine endorsement, I know that humans need accountability and connection for reassurance. We are not designed to carry soul work alone. Therefore, it is best if we are “credentialed” in multiple ways. Sensitive people must have supportive teachers, mentors or family members, supportive groups and learning environments, meaningful, recognized work and a sense of “higher” support. If you do not have any of these then creating a connection in any one of these areas is a great place to start.
You’re Not Sick, You’re Sensitive: Recognizing the 1-in-5’s
15-‐20 percent of us, One-‐in-‐Five, are highly sensitive people. Wikipedia says, “Highly sensitive persons (HSP) have an innate trait of high sensory processing sensitivity (or innate sensitiveness as Carl Jung originally coined it. According to Elaine N. Aron and colleagues… highly sensitive people, who comprise about a fifth of the population (equal numbers in men and women), may process sensory data much more deeply and thoroughly due to a biological difference in their nervous systems. This is a specific trait, with key consequences for how we view people, that in the past has often been confused with innate shyness, social anxiety problems, inhibition, social phobia, innate fearfulness, and introversion. The trait is measured using the HSP Scale, which has been demonstrated to have both internal and external validity. Although the term is primarily used to describe humans, something similar to the trait is present in over 100 other species. If you are highly sensitive you stream higher than average levels of beautiful and horrible data. You have great imagination, intellect, creative abilities, and a curious mind. You work hard, are a good problem solver, extremely conscious and
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compassionate, intuitive, caring and spiritual. You have strong aesthetic awareness, and respect nature, art and music. You experience profound and intense sensations, access important information from the unconscious mind, a depth of understanding and feeling, an ability to be objective and see the big picture. If your sensory stimuli and empathy are tuned way up it will easily overwhelm your physical system. Neither school nor religion teaches you how to manage this. Consequently, you have most likely felt awkward and a bit of a social curse with one part of you feeling normal and the other part feeling “complicated.” You probably balance a variety of extremes, feeling like both an angel and a devil, knowing things in strange ways, struggling with regulating your energy, and strangely sensing more going on in the big picture than people talk about. Earth’s earliest peoples had ways to see, name, and initiate these sensitives. Wonderful examples of this are shared in Malidome Some’s The Healing Wisdom of Africa: Finding Life Purpose Through Art, Nature, Ritual and Community, Robert Wolff’s Original Wisdom about first peoples in Malaysia, and Daughters of Copperwoman about Native women on Vancouver Island by Anne Cameron. Do you recognize yourself in these attributes from sensitiveperson.com? Attributes of Highly Sensitive People Emotion HSPs are often acutely aware of other's emotions. Sensitive people learn early in life to mask their wonderful attributes of sensitivity, intuition and creativity. Physical, HSPs may have low tolerance to noise, glaring lights, strong odors, clutter and/or chaos, tend to have more body awareness of themselves and know instinctually when the environment they are in is not working for them. Social, introverted HSP may feel like misfits. They actually enjoy their own company and are totally comfortable being alone. Both introverted and socially extroverted HSP often find they need time alone to recover after social interactions. Psychology, HSPs compensate for sensitivity by either protecting themselves by being alone too much, or, by trying to be 'normal' or sociable which then over-‐ stimulates them into stress. Work HSPs are often overlooked for promotions even though they are usually the most conscientious employees. They are excellent project oriented employees because they are responsible and thorough in their work. Relationships HSPs may be confronted with their unresolved personal issues. They can however, offer their partner the gifts of intuitive insights. Cultural HSPs do not fit the tough, stoic, outgoing ideals of modern society portrayed in the entertainment media.
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Childhood wounds have a more devastating effect on HSPs. It is important for them to heal past hurts because they can’t just forget and go on in denial. Spiritual, sensitive people have a greater capacity for inner searching. This is one of their greatest blessings. Nutrition, HSPs may need more simplicity in their diet. They may be vitally aware of the effects of food on the health of their body and their emotional stability. Roya Rad alludes to the challenging aspects of character initiations for the highly sensitive in her Huffington Post article. We need to learn to tolerate imperfections we see in the depth of others. connect while having clear boundaries as to when to say no and how far to go with something and someone. become assertive and have regular "me" times. give and receive love realizing that “loving” has to have a balance point. understand that self-‐sacrifice that leads to emotional deprivation is not healthy. be vulnerable face problems rather than run away from them relate positively to life and learn from experiences, realizing that in some of these challenges lies great opportunity. find meaning in life, as a primary need to help others be happy, bring their creative side out and make this world a better place for all, even if a small step.
Ways to Make Sensitivity More Fun
Here are the facts of life. Fact 1: Life initiates us. Fact 2: Nature exposes us to extremes: dark-‐light, horror-‐beauty. Fact 3: Death is immanent. Fact 4: Life isn’t safe. Fact 5: The human baseline is set at fight and flight. Since pain and suffering will happen and sensitives experience it acutely, fight and flight are not sufficient. We need a third option that involves learning to track and co-‐create with life. In both Buddha’s school of detachment and Jesus’ gang of compassionate forgivers you can see wisdom practices for an alternate path. Stories about Buddha and Christ reveal that even they had to be initiated into their wisdom. If you are a lucky One-‐In-‐Fiver you gather strength and tools in a family and community that sees, celebrates, and honors them. You are assigned or find a sensitivity mentor, usually someone known to the family. Sadly, many times the
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opposite occurs. You are in a harsh family or culture until somehow sensitivity directs you elsewhere. In the meantime, you rely on the idealized morality disseminated through religion, education, and family morays. Rituals like the Hindu diksha, Christian baptism or confirmation, Jewish bar or bat mitzvah, acceptance into a fraternal organization, secret society, religious order, or graduation from school or recruit training may empower us. but don’t guarantee the tools needed to help you embody said ideals. Disembodied idealism sets up confusion for sensitives who intuit their personal capacity for higher levels of embodiment. Our inability to organize our sensitivity and be of service often backfires into shame and blame. Shame on me that I cannot be what I sense I can be. Shame on us that we don’t do what we say. At this point, some sensitives engage a shadow side. Shadow play is a counter intuitive means of self-‐empowerment, the flip side of character formation. We can purposely take on the negative side of our gifts and show up as Cultural Disaster Zones, Schemers, Hotties, Control Freaks, Crazies, Busy Bodies, Sickos, Virtue Police, Fear Junkies, Power Addicts, and Lost Causes. If we survive this version of initiatory process, we find that controlling our persona is tiresome, whether we try to be holy or too hip for holiness. Body and soul refuse anything less than full, magical multi-‐ dimensionality. The good news? Whether poorly or delightfully initiated we are always on our path. Questions for Reflection What school, religious, training initiations have you been through? Did they strengthen or colonize, take you over? Which initiations were meaningful or meaningless? If you could do it different would life be different? When were you were initiated informally, outside of a recognized institution? Was it in nature, by a mentor, friend, a visitation, or just by life? Playing with Initiations Wikipedia says “initiation” derives from the Latin, initium: "entrance" or "beginning," literally "a going in." Initiations are both entrances, exits, and processes.” Artists, mystics, psychics and healers generally go on a journey, a kind of vision quest to claim their transcendent worldview and develop gifts. Playing with dreams, art, sacred activism, soul work, and travel ignites and propels the initiatory conversation. This is fun except for the accompanying anxieties, passions and confusion. It is hard to enter into a new phase. Sometimes a development initiation sneaks up and catches me off guard. At these times to play with life is to ask
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“If what I resist persists (will always be present), what am I resisting and can I embrace it?” “If I am stuck in an either/or is there a third way of looking at my experience?” “What am I attached to and can I relax that?” Sometimes I just need to recognize that certain underlying questions and sensitivities are forming a pattern. Am I or have I ever been led to see or hear in new ways? What particular moments did my mind or heart open to another reality? What is my experience of mysticism in my family, work, or community? When did any conscious mystic practices and initiations begin for me? Can I trace any of the development of my unique forms of knowing? What dream, idea, art, expression, voice, or gift is original to me? Who supports the integration of my creative, mystical skills? What cultures have shared some of their mysteries with me? What have I studied and practiced to heal and become stronger? What set backs and initiations have strengthened me? How do I relate to whatever guides me? What is the mystery of life about for me? How do I relate my mysticism to my ability to reason? In my ups and downs I like to find the more playful ways to • self-‐sooth instead of self medicate • cultivate a healthy ground of being instead of shaky ground • find wise teachers instead of narrow-‐minded ones. • Develop supportive community lifestyles instead of settling for loneliness and confusion. In times of transition, growth and change I use creativity. Creativity keeps me in the present moment. It opens my mind. I noticed in writing down my mystical experiences and sensitivity challenges in “Chasing the Dance of Life” and “Dancing on the Dark Side of the Moon” I can better name and claim my initiations. If you can doddle, paint, or write your memories you’ll find helpful ways to play with your life.
Initiated by the Nature of Life
To be a player it helps to know how life plays and what the rules are. In some strange ways life is not limitless. It has five natures. The nature of innate character strengths and limits, the nature of purpose, the nature of connection
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with land, family, community, and nation, the planetary nature of time, energy, and space, and the nature of a power greater than ourselves. It’s good that developing expertise in any one nature taps into similar truths in other areas. Nature is one interrelated system. 1. The nature of character strengths and limits Life gives each of us nuanced, innate limits and powers. Since I am as liable to limit my personal power as to abuse it, I overcompensate, hide, and sometimes honor my limits. Discovering that self understanding is where I have greatest influence, I employ personal development instruments like the Enneagram, Myers Briggs, and Focused Energy Balance Indicator (FEBI) to be “initiated” in areas that need affirmation and attention. I took the Birkman Needs Assessment in my early thirties and discovered that on an empathy scale I was 98 out of 100, way too empathetic. On the scale for Material Needs I was a 1 out of 100, way too low for living in the world. Empathy and generosity are among my gifts. Knowing the difficulty that my “disposition” created in my life, I noticed that some of my most challenging initiations result from resisting life while good leadership is defined by one’s willingness to overcome resistance to our own and other people’s gifts, limits, and reactions. I am glad I’ve played hard and been initiated in a broad set of choices and possibilities for living with my limits and strengths. Questions for Reflection Have you developed your innate gifts, arts, skills, and character strengths? Have you found the limits of your energy, strength, and character? Have you managed too much or too little energy? Can you play without o8overwhelming yourself or others? How do you balance power without turning it against you or others? Have you purposefully or unconsciously submerged or disregard gifts? Have you endured and transcended conscious conflict in you and with others? Do you play with your limits and strengths? 2. The nature of purpose (See SIM on Divining Purpose). Many teachers talk about an inner force that drives us toward something we long to manifest, learn, or embody. It doesn’t seem to matter if we feel up to it. Purpose is always there. But, when we know what it is, we can playfully and powerfully accelerate our ability to create what we want. The bad news is that clarity of purpose also initiates us into the shadow side of longing, exposing us to what we don’t want. If my purpose is to foster freedom, I also learn ways that I block freedom. This gives me ample opportunity to detach from judgments, take care of myself AND open to life on its terms. In other words, more initiations.
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Questions for Reflection Are you moved to embody a quality? Is your purpose physical like creating home? Have you experienced and embraced the opposite of what you want? Have you ever asked what your purpose is? Do you sense some underlying vision or purpose? Clarity of purpose initiates us into both the shadow and bright side of our longing, teaching us what we do and don’t want. Do you play with purpose? 3. The nature of land, family, community, and nation. Our own people and place on Earth claims us. Our connective nature demands that we engage in the mundane and inspiring requirements of tending land, home, family, and the body politic. We may balance or resist the initiatory pull into the arts of cultivation and harvest, when to risk and when to protect, and how to work with the effects of order and disorder. Questions for Reflection What forms of service or commitment have you been drawn into? Were your gifts invoked even when you didn’t want to be of service? Were you able to respond in a way that worked for you? Do you play with service to land, people, and politics? 4. The nature of time, energy, and space We must learn to respect Earth’s conditions, understanding the consequences if we disregard planetary welfare and their correlations to the human body. Core Conditions • Time • Energy or Effort • Space • Mass The elements • Fire • Air • Water • Earth Principles of Permaculture 1. Observe and interact 2. Catch and store energy 3. Obtain a yield: Ensure that you are getting truly useful rewards as part of the work that you are doing. 4. Apply self-‐regulation and accept feedback: We need to discourage inappropriate activity to ensure that systems can continue to function well.
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5. Use and value renewable resources and services: Make the best use of nature's abundance to reduce our consumptive behavior and dependence on non-‐renewable resources. 6. Produce no waste: By valuing and making use of all the resources that are available to us, nothing goes to waste. 7. Design from patterns to details: By stepping back, we can observe patterns in nature and society. These can form the backbone of our designs, with the details filled in as we go. 8. Integrate rather than segregate: By putting the right things in the right place, relationships develop between those things and they work together to support each other. 9. Use small and slow solutions: Small and slow systems are easier to maintain than big ones, making better use of local resources and producing more sustainable outcomes. 10. Use and value diversity: Diversity reduces vulnerability to a variety of threats and takes advantage of the unique nature of the environment in which it resides. 11. Use edges and value the marginal: The interface between things is where the most interesting events take place. These are often the most valuable, diverse and productive elements in the system. 12. Creatively use and respond to change:
Laws of Physics • Inertia: an object in motion will stay in motion unless acted upon by an outside force • Force=mass x acceleration • Reciprocity. “Every action has an equal and opposite reaction." • Gravity: the attractive force between a pair of masses. • Conservation of Mass-‐Energy: The total energy in a closed or isolated system is constant, no matter what happens. and the total of both mass and energy is retained, although some may change forms. • And Conservation of Momentum, Thermodynamics, Electrostatic Laws, and the Invariance of the Speed of Light.
Eight Body Wisdom Principles of InterPlay 1. Practice Using Easy Focus: Life Doesn’t Have to be so hard. 2. Notice Body Data, Body Knowledge, Body Wisdom 3. Trust Inner Authority: You can believe what you notice 4. Move Toward the Physicality of Grace 5. Exformation: Let Go of Icky Stuff 6. Body Wisdom Practices: Practice What You Want More Of 7. Incrementality: Enjoy Taking Steps 8. Affirmation: Move with Appreciation. Questions for Reflection Where have you learned about Earth Wisdom?
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What happened when you ignored time, space, or energy conditions? Where do you most easily cooperate with Earth Wisdom? What physical practices teach you respect for Earth conditions? Do you play with Earth? 5. The nature of a power greater than ourselves. This power arises in an anointing, awakening, call, theophany, revelation or synchronicity. A Higher Nature may activate us to attune to a “call.” This is often accompanied by strong emotions like love and a desire to respond in greater service. Questions for Reflection Have you experienced a vision, voice, or sensed a need to do something for your own good or the good of others? Was this higher force aligned with your purpose or someone else’s? Do you listen for calls and spiritual suggestions? Are you open and responsive to synchronicity? Do you play with a higher power? ___________ Life pushes, pulls, grows, dances, destroys and challenges us to remain true to our soul. This is ongoing, not once and for all. If we can stay awake to life and play with it we realize that we continuously fail and succeed. Playfulness makes this journey more intriguing and fun. If you are lucky enough to be a mystic then connection with something bigger will sustain you no matter what. If you are lucky enough to be creative your natural ability to plug into a source of generative energy will carry you. If you have forgotten that you are a mystic or creative, maybe it’s time to reframe your struggles as initiations and start playing!
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Initiation Inventories for One-In-Fivers
from Wikipedia (Wik) and the Online Etymology Dictionary ( OED) Highly Sensitive People need practices to minimize discomfort and chaos and maximize joy and love. Those who are successful develop virtues. Wikipedia says “virtues are characteristic of a person who supports individual moral excellence and collective well-‐being.” Virtues are not feelings as much as choices. For instance you may not feel courageous, but others note your courage. In the inventories below Check boxes by innate sensitivities characterizing your experience. Circle boxes that you long to embody. They may relate to your purpose. This is not a test. It is a means of noticing. Innate Characteristics Self control Temperance -‐ self-‐control regarding pleasure Good temper -‐ self-‐control regarding anger Ambition -‐ self-‐control regarding one's goals Curiosity -‐ self-‐control regarding knowledge Frugality (Thrift) -‐ self-‐control regarding material lifestyle Industry -‐ self-‐control regarding play, recreation and entertainment Contentment -‐ self-‐control regarding one's possessions and the possessions of others; acknowledgement and satisfaction of reaching capacity. Continence -‐ self-‐control regarding bodily functions Meekness-‐ ‘disciplined calmness” & “disciplined strength” (Thank you Susan Pudelek)
Self-efficacy Courage -‐ willingness to do the right thing in the face of danger, pain, significant harm or risk Patience -‐ ability to delay or wait for what is desired Perseverance -‐ courageous patience, integrity Persistence -‐ ability to achieve an objective regardless of desires Regard Fair-‐mindedness -‐ concern that all get their due (including oneself) in cooperative arrangements of mutual benefit Tolerance -‐ willingness to allow others to lead a life based on a certain set of beliefs differing from ones own
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Truthfulness/Honesty -‐ telling someone what you believe to be true in the context of a direct inquiry
Respect Respect -‐ regard for the worth of others Self respect -‐ regard for the worth of oneself. Social virtues: Politeness, Charisma, Unpretentiousness, Friendliness, Sportsmanship, Cleanliness Kindness Kindness -‐ Regard for those who are within an individual’s ability to help. Generosity -‐ Giving to those in need. Forgiveness -‐ Willingness to overlook transgressions made against you by repentant persons. Compassion -‐ Empathy and understanding for the suffering of others.
7 Christian Virtues prudence justice restraint or temperance courage or fortitude faith hope love or charity Gutsy Women soul qualities, Lisa Sarasohn vitality, pleasure, confidence compassion, creativity intuition purpose The Virtues Embodied, Noel Davis Serenity; It is being at ease with oneself, conscious of being blessed, It is the reassurance of one’s capacities and living with that clarity and focus. It is true contentment with who one is, the living from self worth, free from having to try hard to feel better. Humility: It is being your right size in the universe aware that all is gift and passing on the gifts one has received. It is living from one’s limits and asking for
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what one needs. It is being a channel of blessing, free from the constant need for approval and being needed. Equanimity: It is being in exquisite harmony and balance with one’s whole environment, in tune with its energies. It is being the splendor of life in movement, action, word, and dress. It is embodying elegance, tastefulness, and originality. It is sensitivity to life, beauty, and the artistic. A sense of the appropriate arrangements and the unrivalled aspect of the original. It is Freedom from a life of longing to be discovered and loved for one’s true wealth. Detachment: It is the freedom to share what is most precious to oneself. It is letting go of all that is not essential, a flowing freely, an openness of mind and spirit, an emptying that has one full to overflowing. It is an awareness of ones true needs and the living of traveling light, the less is more in essential living. Courage It is the fearlessness and strength of living from one’s own inner authority, free from having to defend oneself. It is standing one’s ground believing one is loved and loving, free of the need to check out where it is safe and secure to be with others. Sobriety: It is living fully in the present, satisfied and open to the ordinary, both its joys and its hurts. It is living the real of oneself, ruins and all, free from the need for intoxication, being high, falsely optimistic, numbed to pain and problems. It is the essential OK experience of being loved, loving, and most of all loving oneself. It is the experience of a deep and lasting peace in the midst of the present, without the need to trip off elsewhere to find it. The power of the higher self is right there within oneself. Innocence: It is being childlike, without guile, disarmingly truthful, spontaneous, and playful. There is a simplicity about it that is without calculation and self consciousness, free of power play. It is soft centered and soul engaging. Essential action: It is being sensitive, clear, focused, decisive in action in doing what is needed to be done without distraction, hesitation, procrastinating. What needs to be addressed is addressed and the right action flows with ease. It is done! Completed! The needed energy is self engaging.
Credentialed to Serve
Gifts and purpose may lead us down paths with no name or job description that can feel and look odd. We might call ourselves performance artists, advocates, wanderers, consultants, coaches, ministers, entrepreneurs or plain old confused. In one poem I called myself a Choreo-‐transducer. I had to learn to claim practices as vital to my identity. Remember that we earn credentials as sensitives • From the recognition of a teacher • By groups in rituals that see, celebrate and develop our capacity • Via regular recognition from those who respect our service • Through receiving regular expressions of gratitude and payment
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• •
In systems of learning.: degrees, awards, and ceremonies And in direct encounters with the Divine.
Engaged action and whole process learning; seeing the world as interwoven and connected Idealism and activism Globalism and ecology The importance of women Altruism Self-‐actualization Spirituality
Circle titles that describe your practices and actions. Check any boxes indicative of your journey. Are there other titles or practices that should be on the list? Cultural Creative is initiated as one with a more artistic worldview. Coined by sociologist Paul H. Ray and psychologist Sherry Ruth Anderson to describe educated, leading-‐edge thinkers that includes writers, artists, musicians, psychotherapists, feminists, alternative health care providers and other professionals with a serious focus on their spirituality and a strong passion for social activism….Core values are rooted in authenticity and action consistent with words and beliefs.
Includes love of nature, deep care about preservation and natural balance. strong awareness of planet-‐wide issues (i.e. climate change, poverty etc.) and a desire to see more action on them being active themselves willingness to pay higher taxes or spend more money for goods if that money went to improving the environment. heavy emphasis on developing and maintaining relationships. heavy emphasis o helping others and developing their unique gifts. volunteer with one or more good causes intense interest in spiritual and psychological development see spirituality as an important aspect of life, but worry about religious fundamentalism. desire equality for women/men in business, life and politics. concern and support of the wellbeing of all women and children. want politics and government to spend more money on education, community programs and a more ecologically sustainable future are unhappy with the left and right in politics optimism towards the future. want to be involved in creating a new and better way of life.
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are concerned with big business and the means they use to generate profits, including destroying the environment and exploiting poorer countries. unlikely to overspend or be in heavy debt. dislike the emphasis of modern cultures on "making it" and "success" on consuming and making money. like people, places and things that are different or exotic. ❑ Healer one who heals or attempts to heal from Old English hælan "cure; save; make whole, sound and well.” (OED) The World Health Organization (WHO) defines traditional medicine as: "the health practices, approaches, knowledge and beliefs incorporating plant, animal and mineral-‐based medicines, spiritual therapies, manual techniques and exercises, applied singularly or in combination to treat, diagnose and prevent illnesses or maintain well-‐being. “ “Three factors legitimize the role of the healer their own beliefs, the success of their actions and the beliefs of the community. (Wik) ❑ Hag Fully initiated female…at one time meant "woman of prophetic and oracular powers" OED) …Later, the word was used of village wise women…If the hægtesse was once a powerful supernatural woman (in Norse it is an alternative word for Norn, any of the three weird sisters, the equivalent of the Fates), it might originally have carried the hawthorn sense. Later, when the pagan magic was reduced to local scatterings, it might have had the sense of "hedge-‐rider," or "she who straddles the hedge," because the hedge was the boundary between the "civilized" world of the village and the wild world beyond. The hægtesse would have a foot in each reality. Even later, when it meant the local healer and root collector, living in the open and moving from village to village, it may have had the mildly pejorative sense of hedge-‐ in Middle English (hedge-‐priest, etc.), suggesting an itinerant sleeping under bushes, perhaps. The same word could have contained all three senses before being reduced to its modern one.” Wik. ❑ Mystic from the Greek meaning "to conceal", and its derivative mystikos, meaning 'an initiate in who is in pursuit of communion with, identity with, or conscious awareness of an ultimate reality, divinity, spiritual truth, or God through direct experience, intuition, instinct or insight. Mysticism usually centers on practices intended to nurture those experiences, may be dualistic, maintaining a distinction between the self and the divine, or may be nondualistic…According to Belzen and Geels, mysticism is "a way of life and a 'direct consciousness of the presence of God, 'the ground of being' or similar expressions. …Mysticism can be distinguished from ordinary religious belief by its emphasis on…unique states of consciousness, particularly those of a transcendentally blissful character. Wik. ❑ Oracle Initiated in the ability to speak messages from the divine, from the Latin ōrāre "to speak." …a shrine where an oracular god is consulted, a prophecy (usually
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obscure or allegorical) revealed by a priest or priestess; believed to be infallible, an authoritative person who divines the future. (Fine Dictionary) …Walter Burkert observes that "Frenzied women from whose lips the god speaks" are recorded in the Near East as in Mari in the second millennium BC and in Assyria in the first millennium BC. In Egypt the goddess Wadjet (eye of the moon) was depicted as a snake-‐headed woman or a woman with two snake-‐heads…In Greece the old oracles were devoted to the Mother Goddess. Wik ❑ Psychic from Greek psykhikos "of the soul, spirit, or mind," from psykhe-‐"soul, mind”(OED). Real-‐world people are initiated in gifts of Apportation -‐ Materialization, disappearance, or teleportation of an object Aura reading -‐ Perception of the energy fields surrounding people, places, and things. Automatic writing -‐ Writing produced without conscious thought. Astral projection or mental projection – An out-‐of-‐body experience in which an "astral body" becomes separate from the physical body. Bilocation or multilocation – Being in multiple places at the same time. Clairaudience -‐ receiving messages in thought form from another frequency or realm. It is considered a form of channeling. Clairvoyance, second sight -‐ Perception outside the known human senses. Death-‐warning – A vision of a living person prior to his or her death. Divination -‐ Gaining insight into a situation via a ritual. Dowsing -‐ Ability to locate objects. Energy medicine -‐ Healing by channeling a form of energy. Faith healing -‐ Diagnosing and curing disease using religious devotion. Mediumship or channeling – Communicating with spirits. Precognition, premonition and precognitive dreams -‐ Perception of events before they happen. Psychic surgery -‐ Removal of diseased body tissue via an incision that heals immediately afterwards. Psychokinesis or telekinesis -‐ Manipulation of matter or energy by the power of the mind. Psychometry or psychoscopy -‐ Obtaining information about a person or object. Pyrokinesis -‐ Manipulation of fire. Remote viewing -‐ Gathering of information at a distance. Retrocognition -‐ Perception of past events. Scrying -‐ Use of an item to view events at a distance or in the future. Telepathy -‐ Transfer of thoughts or emotions. Transvection -‐ Bodily levitation or flying. Dreamer’s supernatural communication and means of divine intervention, also able to unravel dreams. Communication with Animals
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❑ Saint (Wik) Initiated to embody an exceptional degree of holiness, sanctity, and virtue… Jewish Tzadik, Islamic wali, Hindu rishi or guru, and Buddhist arahat or boddhisatva... (see also Folk saints). The English word saint is a translation of the Greek (hagios), derived from the verb (hagiazo), which means "to set apart", "to sanctify" or "to make holy." Anthropologist Lawrence Babb: asserts “Saintly figures are "focal points of spiritual force-‐fields", exerting "powerful attractive influence on followers but touch the inner lives of others in transforming ways as well.”…John A. Coleman S.J., Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, wrote that saints across various cultures and religions have the following family resemblances: exemplary model extraordinary teacher wonder worker or source of benevolent power intercessor a life often refusing material attachments or comforts possession of a special and revelatory relation to the holy. ❑ Shaman a practitioner who has access to, and influence in, the world of benevolent and malevolent spirits, who typically enters into a trance state during a ritual, and practices divination and healing. (Wik) Shamans are said to treat ailments/illness by mending the soul. Alleviating traumas affecting the soul/spirit restores the physical body of the individual to balance and wholeness…The restoration of balance results in the elimination of the ailment. ❑ Spiritual director/Soul Coach Serves people to deepen their relationship with the divine and to learn and grow in their own personal spirituality. The person seeking direction shares stories of his or her encounters of the divine, or how he or she is experiencing spiritual issues. The director listens and asks questions to assist the directee in his or her process of reflection and spiritual growth. Spiritual direction develops a deeper relationship with the spiritual aspect of being human. Wik..Soul is derived from a verb "to cool, to blow" and hence refers to the vital breath, the animating principle in humans and other animals.. ❑ Spiritual Leader
maintains personal, professional, and spiritual balance. guides a transformational faith experience (conversion). motivates and develop a congregation to be n outpost" develops and communicate a vision. interprets and lead change. promotes and lead spiritual formation provides leadership for high-‐quality, relevant worship. identifies, develop, and support volunteers and leaders. builds, inspires, and leads a "team" of both staff and volunteers. The ability to manage conflict. navigates successfully the world of technology. a lifelong learner…run smarter, not faster. 18
Alban Institute http://www.alban.org/conversation.aspx?id=9274 What do you notice from reviewing these inventories? What support do you think you might need? What gifts, limits, and desires do you need to balance? Might you need affirmation and recognition? How much? Do you want to live a path of greater service? How can sensitivity be a part of that?
For more information and resources visit CynthiaWinton-‐Henry.com, Mystic Tech, Cynthia@interplay.org.
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