What Can I Do?

These days, in conversations and in emails, I am often asked, “What can I do about what is happening in the world?” If the questioner is an American citizen, their question focuses upon President Trump and the billionaire Elon Musk and their destructuring of the American government (at least as it has been). Even non-Americans ask me about this, but there are also many other hurtful things going on in the world that are causing suffering and pain. How do we deal with the times in which we are living?

This is not a simple question for which there is a simple answer. All I can share is my personal perspective and approach.

Start with Love

Let’s start by addressing an important issue: whatever I do, whatever actions I take, how can I do it so as not to add to the problem?

The questioner almost always goes further, saying, “I know I’m supposed to be a loving person, but how can I love ….. (insert name of a chosen politician, world leader, billionaire, celebrity, or some other hated person)?”

From my perspective, the answer to this latter question depends on an understanding and appreciation of how the subtle world—in particular, the subtle environment—works.

Let’s imagine that I have come across a virulent, nasty—and spreading—toxic waste dump. It’s a danger since the chemicals and sewage that are present contain elements that are pathogenic and likely deadly.

I don’t have to love this toxic waste dump, and I don’t have to accept that it’s just part of the environment now. I don’t want that toxic dump to be part of my world, but I can’t begin to clean it up if every time I visit it, I bring along and dump my own toxic products into it. Then I become a contributor to its spreading.

No, what I need to do is develop strategies that can contain the expansion of this toxic material and skillfully work to clean it up. Among other things, this will include accessing sources of purification. I need to replace the toxic land and soil with healthy soil, fed by clean water. I need to restore wholeness to the environment, and this means being able to tap into wholeness myself.

Dealing with human toxic waste dumps requires a two-pronged approach, neither of which benefits from adding our own distress, fear, and hatred into the mix.

On the one hand, each person needs to see what strategies he or she can undertake to contain and clean up the negativity. This might be taking political action or economic action (supporting those who are dealing directly with the containment and clean-up strategies). I might, for instance, run for office with the intent of bringing new vision, hope, and ideas into the political morass—or I might identify and support someone who is doing so.

On the other hand, what actions and strategies might I take in my everyday life that alter the overall understanding of the environment so that people stop creating toxic waste dumps in the first place? What visions of the world’s wholeness can I embody that do not simply go along with “business as usual,” but that change our relationship to the planet and to each other?

In other words, where possible, I want to address both the specific problem to prevent it from getting worse or doing more damage and the larger context of expectation, attitude, and behavior that allowed the problem to arise in the first place. For instance, how do my attitudes and behaviors possibly contribute to a worldview that allows toxic waste dumps to be created in the environment? Perhaps the change I want to see begins with me.

Whatever I do, including changing myself, I want to do it with love. Why? For two good reasons.

First, it keeps me from generating and injecting my own toxic energies of fear or hatred into the subtle environment, where it becomes part of the energy environment we all must deal with.

Second, it aligns me with spiritual forces of hope and inspiration, healing and blessing, forces that can greatly augment my own personal efforts. In my metaphor above, it puts me in touch with resources of purity and renewal that act to bring wholeness and healing into the energy environment.

Sometimes, it’s not at all easy to do this. When we see how a person in power is misusing that power, when we see corruption at work, when we see innocent people being harmed, of course we’re likely to feel anger. Anger lifts us out of apathy and fear; it is a powerful force for good when properly utilized. But if not, it simply adds to the toxicity of our world when we just broadcast it out of frustration or weaponize and focus it upon a person, whose own psychic immune system is likely to reflect it back. It leads to more anger and a potential loss of hope. I need to be better in order to do better.

I discovered a powerful approach through my experience with surgery and intense pain. While parts of my body dealt with cancer and suffering, other parts remained perfectly healthy. By attuning to these healthy areas and calling upon them as allies to comfort and heal the parts in pain, I found the pain diminished. I was able to find balance.

There’s toxicity in the world, but there’s a lot that is beautiful, uplifting, empowering, encouraging, hopeful, and healthy. These can be sources of positive energy for us.

This principle extends beyond the physical. When I tune into the subtle realms, it's like a radio with various frequencies. Some channels overflow with healthy life and blessing. In these frequencies, life flows in service to all beings. Yes, there are also frequencies filled with pain and obstruction, largely emanating from human behavior. It’s not a matter of choosing one over the other but of attuning to one in order to bring healing to the other.

If I’m going to confront and transform maliciousness and toxicity, it helps if I can draw on sources of wholeness and renewal, either from the Light within us or from outer sources that inspire and put us in touch with a source of inspiration and empowerment. It also helps if I don’t give energy to negativity that can further pollute the subtle environment, thus adding energy and force to the very conditions I want to banish. Love enables me to do both.

Jesus said for us to love our enemies. He never said for us to condone their actions or behavior; he never encouraged us to be passive and accepting of the toxic waste dumps among us.

The trick is to act with love, grounded in our own spiritual practices of wholeness and attunement, but nevertheless, to act in whatever skillful way is open to us. We are far from helpless, unless we choose to be hopeless.

My wife Julie wisely wrote: "We knew we incarnated into a time of transition and have never really known what that would look like, but here we are. This is what we all came for: to hold bright love and presence and to keep joy while the unknown future stares us in the face. Our work is to hold the best of humanity that we can, and hold resonance with the new while the old stuff gets worked out.”

Subtle Activism

When thinking about the planetary, national, or local situation I wish to transform, my first step is to bring a loving heart and mind to guide my actions. But then, what can I do?

When someone asks me this question, I have to assume they do so not expecting me to answer as a politician, an economist, or a community activist, as these are not my fields of expertise. They are asking me because of my insight into the subtle and spiritual realms and my work with subtle energies. They are asking because they want to know how to act using their own subtle and spiritual nature and resources.

Let’s begin by asking how the subtle worlds themselves are engaging with the world situation. For illustration, I’ll use the current situation in the United States where the Trump Administration, with the help of billionaire Elon Musk, is dismantling much of the federal government as we know it and enacting policies of retribution and division that challenge the spirit, the intent, and the application of the Constitution.

We see this Administration as made up of people, but the subtle worlds see it as made up of souls. These are souls, like all souls, that are on a long arc of evolution lasting through many lives; they do not come in black and white, evil or good, but, again like all souls, are a mixed bag of wisdom and folly, selfishness and attunement to the larger Whole, positive and negative energies. The objective of the spiritual worlds is to enable the growth of the Light within each of us, aware as they are of the sacredness within us each.

Consequently, when I tune into the subtle worlds, I am aware of spiritual and subtle beings who work with the souls currently occupying positions of earthly political, economic, and social power to inspire and help them to bring out their positive side and their Light. They work to enable these incarnate souls to live up to the promise and expression of the sacredness within them. These inner forces are obviously not always successful, or are both successful and failing in degrees (as is true of humanity in general), but the effort is there. They want this Administration to be a force for good in the world, certainly in the long term if not in the short term. They look for possibilities of opening to the Light and to the wellbeing of others and seek to expand those possibilities into action.

It’s important to understand that their support of the souls within the Administration has nothing to do with earthly politics or economics but with soul evolution and the empowerment of Humanity’s evolution as well.

On the other hand, there is a second group who are opposed to any and all actions on the part of the Administration that bring harm to innocent people or that damage and corrupt the spiritual destiny of the United States and the work of the Angel of America. They support those who oppose the actions of Trump, Musk, and others that are born of selfishness or in support of a few against the good of the many. Again, this has nothing to do with earthly politics but rather with a deep understanding of the qualities of soul that the Angel of America seeks to cultivate within the American population: qualities of compassion, creativity, innovation, freedom, and personal Sovereignty in service to a larger community of life. To the extent this Administration (or any group of incarnate souls) seeks to spread meanness, cruelty, disrespect, hatred, and a love of power, these spiritual forces oppose it. They also act to protect those who are the victims of hateful policies.

That’s not all.

I am aware when I tune in of at least two other groups of spiritual forces and beings. One of these acts to encourage, inspire, and support those who seek to rebuild America’s political and economic life in keeping with its ideals of equality, freedom, and justice for all. They are not opposing anything but rather seeking out and supporting souls in Incarnation who wish to work within traditional means to restore good government, good economics, and so forth.

Another group is exploring wholly new forms of politics, economics, and society that may yet carry forward the larger evolutionary arc of human spiritual and incarnational development but in ways that might be very different from the status quo or from anything that has gone before.

Equivalents to these four groups can be found in all parts of the world, configuring themselves to the specific situations amongst the human populations they seek to serve. What is important to understand here is that, though these four groups have different specific areas of working, which determines the incarnate individuals with whom the will work or whom they are trying to inspire, they are all ultimately serving the overall evolution of humanity. These are not political or economic groups; they are collections of souls, angels, Devas, and the like that are cultivating in harmony with each other—particular “gardens” within collective human consciousness.

Subtle activism is like making a financial contribution to organizations of your choice who are doing the work you support. In this case, you are making a donation of subtle energy. It’s up to you which of the four groups I’ve mentioned you feel deserve your energy and inner support (and you can support more than one). You do so by aligning with their overall purpose (the evolution and well-being of Humanity as a whole) and with their specific work of aiding a particular group of incarnate souls rise above personality or ego interactions to a larger vision and attunement linked with the good of the Whole.

Each of these four groups has its incarnate counterparts in the form of individuals, organizations, non-profit groups, community activities, and so on. Do some research to see who in your world best represents the inner group or groups you wish to support. Then hold them in Light, in prayer, in blessing—in addition, of course, to any outer actions, financial, political, or social, that you may take in physical support of their endeavors.

Just remember, you are acting as an agent for the Light within Humanity and the world, not just within a particular incarnate or subtle group.

You have the power

There is another important thing you can do as a person with subtle energy resources. This is to remember that whenever you encounter another person (or, for that matter, anything within nature), you are encountering the world. This makes little or no sense on a physical level, but it makes perfect sense on the spiritual and subtle levels. There, we are all interconnected. Jesus put this well when he said that what we do for the least person we meet, we do as well for or to him.

If I feel the current American administration—or any political leadership in the world—is spreading lies, meanness, hatred, disrespect, intolerance, and other negative energies and attitudes intended to separate us into disempowered minorities, then I am in a position to spread the opposite. I can bring kindness, respect, dignity for others, and a sense of community and love into all my encounters. I can create the world I wish to live in one person at a time. This may require inner work on my part, especially if I encounter someone who represents something I fear or dislike, but doing that inner work is precisely one reason we’re in incarnation. Souls grow and evolve through the immediate and often challenging work of daily encounters.

Questions I can ask myself are these: “Am I representing the Light within me or am I mimicking and spreading the attitudes and energies of Trump (or any other “power-over” dictator in the world) and those like him?” What world do I wish to live in, one shaped by hatred and fear or one shaped by love? How am I contributing right now to the emergence of the world that I want?”

Each encounter, no matter how brief or trivial, is an opportunity for silent subtle activism. It is something we can definitely do. Love and healing live or die in my world through my choices and actions.

Finally, the allies of those who seek power and control at the expense of others and of those who deliberately create energetic toxic waste dumps of human suffering for selfish reasons are apathy, acquiescence, and ignorance. It can feel easier to give up than to resist, especially when we feel powerless to make a difference. Skillful resistance to what is amiss takes effort, energy, and often a willingness to learn, to be informed, and to change.

​If something is worth fighting for, then fight for it! But do so with love, with care, and in a spirit of serving the good for all Humanity.

The Light Bank

Editor’s note: Between the California wildfires and so many other distressing events happening all around the world, we thought this would be a good time to reprint this essay by David Spangler, which first appeared in 2022 as David’s Desk #178. It has been adapted to use Los Angeles in the example because we have many friends there, but it can be used for any area to which you want to send light.

THE LIGHT BANK

For many reasons, there are many people in our area who are experiencing food insecurity. To meet this challenge, neighborhood food banks gather and distribute food to those in need. These food banks are invaluable not only as a place from which to receive help but also as a central place, a hub, to receive donations of food and money. If I contribute to my local food bank, that’s a way for me to reach and help those families who have needs but who are unknown to me personally. Our local food bank does know these specifics and can distribute aid accordingly.

As most of you know, my experience embraces the reality of a subtle, non-physical dimension of spirit and energy in which we are all profoundly interconnected, even, to borrow a word from quantum physics, “entangled.” What affects one can affect all, and vice versa. I don’t write about this dimension much here in David’s Desk; I leave that to my classes and workshops. But today, I feel I want to offer an insight from that side of my life and work.

Consciously or unconsciously, we all participate in the subtle dimension of the world. When we are aware of this as a reality in our lives, we discover we have the ability, through thought, feeling, imagination, and embodiment, to create a field of energy around ourselves that can hold a spiritual quality such as love, peace, courage, compassion, and the like. Such a field of energy, when shared with another, can be a source of vitality and blessing, transferring that quality from our life to theirs. As part of their life and subtle energy field, that shared quality can make a difference.

What we create through our love and caring can be shared through our love and caring. Most importantly, where the subtle dimension is concerned, distance is not a factor. Resonance is. If I can feel connected with someone in my mind and heart, then it doesn’t matter where that person is in the world. As far as transferring that energy field of quality from my life to theirs is concerned, they might as well be standing next to me.

Sharing a helpful, vital, spiritual, emotional, or mental quality with another who is in difficulty or who is suffering somewhere in the world, in order to enhance their ability to deal with and change that difficulty, is called subtle activism. It can envelop a person who is in despair with hope, with courage, with clarity, and with attunement to their own sacred core. Such subtle activism can be directed towards individuals or towards environments or towards collective fields of thought and feeling.

The more specific one can be when doing subtle activism, the easier it is to establish resonance between yourself and another (even when that “other” may be a collective field of energy shared by many). Simply put, a general rule of thumb is that you can share best with whom or what you know best. For example, if I know a family who is suffering from food insecurity, then I can bring them food directly, and more importantly, I know exactly the kind and amount of food that they need. I can tailor my response to their specific situation.

But when it comes to subtle activism, more often than not, I don’t have that kind of specific connection or information. Here is where the example of the food bank is a useful metaphor. There are “Light Banks” in the subtle dimensions held and managed by various spiritual beings whose purpose is to do exactly what a food bank does: to receive “donations” of Light, of prayers, of goodwill and blessings from individuals who wish to help but don’t know specifically where their good energies should be directed. Such Light Banks do know and can “distribute” or share these blessings specifically with other individuals and situations that are reaching out for spiritual help, for guidance, and for blessing. In my own subtle activism work, therefore, I connect with an appropriate Light Bank and know that by adding my intention and blessing to it, help will be given where it is needed, even when I don’t know who or what that recipient may be.

To help you visualize this process, here is a sample example of how I might go about this. If you wish, you can adapt this example to your own unique style and way of engaging with subtle and spiritual dimensions.

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A SUBTLE ACTIVISM EXAMPLE USING A “LIGHT BANK:”

I begin by imagining what quality of subtle, vital energy I’d like to share with people in California and thus which I’d like to “donate” to the Light Bank. Let’s say, I’d like to share the qualities of courage, steadfastness, hope, and resilience with the citizens of Los Angeles as they cope with the devastation of the landscape and the loss of their homes and businesses. The first thing I do is imagine as fully as I can what I feel like when I embody these qualities. I don’t want this to be just a mental or imaginative image but something I really feel in my body. This aspect of embodiment is important. We generate subtle energies and qualities as a full person, not just as an act of thought or feeling, a mind or a heart. Our body is definitely a participant in the process.

Therefore, I want to discern in myself the felt sense of the quality or blend of qualities I want to share. I want to know myself as an embodiment of these qualities.

Once I have this felt sense and I can feel the quality or qualities I wish to share as mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical realities in and around me, then I put my imagination to work. I know what a Light Bank feels like in the subtle dimension, but I don’t know what it looks like in any physical sense. But I don’t have to. Subtle allies can read my intention. What I need is a pictorial or imaginal language that demonstrates my intention and enables me to connect with the proper subtle ally.

So, I picture a building (and it could be anything: a person, a place in nature, an abstract geometric form, etc.) over which hangs a sign: “Los Angeles Light Bank: Donations Welcome!” I’m using the physical model of a local food bank to give shape to my subtle intention. This image of the Los Angeles Light Bank is a symbol of where I want my blessing to go, and those in the subtle realms who are in charge of such a Light Bank can easily read this symbol and discern this intent.

In my imagination, I go up to this building, holding steady in myself the felt sense of the quality or qualities I am bringing to the Light Bank, and there I meet its “Custodian,” the being who receives my “donation.” I can imagine this Custodian any way I wish; again, I’m working with symbols here that connect my physical mind with the non-physical reality of the subtle and spiritual dimension. Standing with this Custodian, I visualize my package of energy, the felt sense of qualities I’m holding in my whole being, shifting from me to this representative of the Light Bank. If you are doing this, you can see this happening in any manner that gives you a felt sense of the reality of what you are doing.

Once this sharing and exchange has taken place, I give thanks to the Custodian and to the Light Bank, affirming that it knows how to both magnify and distribute my blessing and contribution of energy to the city of Los Angeles, to its overlighting angel, and to the people who are part of that city.

At this point, I let it all go, bringing my awareness fully back to my everyday self, my everyday life, and to my own wholeness and balance.

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This is a simple example, one that, as I say, you can adapt however you find useful to yourself, should you wish to work with a Light Bank.

The important point about subtle activism is that it is rooted in the fact that we are all part of one world, which includes a shared ecology of spirit and energy. None of us is without the power to contribute to this shared world and help nudge it in directions of wholeness. We are all citizens of every country on earth, part of nature, part of Gaia.

Subtle activism is a finger pointing to this reality as well as offering a way of acting from that connectedness for the blessing of all.

May all our Light Banks be filled to overflowing, their blessings advancing goodwill and peace on Earth.

Standing in Light: A Call to Our Power

For years now there has been a gathering of energies within the spiritual realms to stimulate humanity’s evolution towards greater planetary awareness and wholeness. The purpose of this energy is not to make change happen but to enable humanity to find within itself the power to partner with spirit and with Gaia to respond positively and effectively to the changes that are already unfolding. Anyone who chooses to embody this power of partnership and bring Light into the world will find allies in the subtle and spiritual worlds.

Even on our own (and we are never wholly on our own, for we are always embedded in a larger reality of Light), there are clear things we can do.

For one, we can be aware that we are in the midst of a process of redefining the reality in which we live—is it one of wonder, of joy, of compassion, of love, of Light, of hope? Or is it one of fear, of hatred, of contempt, of separation, of isolation?

For another, we can avoid characterizing this process as a battle between light and dark; to do so is to trivialize and distort it, it is more complex than that. It is not a battle but a metamorphosis, a growing up and leaving behind childish ways. It is an organic process involving humanity, Gaia, the spiritual and subtle realms, and the Sacred in a wondrous alchemy of transformation and emergence.

The third important thing to do is to bring to both our personal and global situations our love, compassion, and forgiveness on the one hand, and on the other, the courage to stand in our sovereignty and refuse to be shaped and defined by fear, anger, or hatred. We need to stand our ground and not let those who are shaped in the moment by fear and anger define the nature of reality. We embrace them as lovingly as we can, but we do not give ground. We don’t need to. When we stand in our Light, we do not stand alone. The universe of Spirit stands with us.

Think of it this way: a battle implies adversaries, winners and losers, conquerors and victims. Those are the categories humanity has lived with for millennia, and they are more than outworn now. They are dangerous. Instead, we need to think the way a caterpillar thinks as it transforms into a butterfly. The cells that formed the old structure of its body are not enemies to be defeated and cast out by the new shape; they contain the very life force and substance from which the new will be built once they surrender to the alchemical miracle of metamorphosis. In this time through which we are living, we may and do have opponents, but we do not have enemies. Everyone potentially has something vital to contribute to the new body that seeks emergence.

This process is a soul-size challenge worthy of everything we can bring to it. We are not without tools in doing this. We not only have the rich traditions of compassion, forgiveness, loving, and communion found in all the world’s spiritual traditions, but we have new insights and tools such as non-violent communication, conflict resolution techniques, new insights into self and sovereignty, and the tools of subtle activism or intentional work upon the energies of the adjacent subtle realms. What we need are the knowledge and willingness to use these tools and to reach for them first before grabbing the more familiar responses of anger and fear. When we do this, even if only in the context of our personal lives, we nourish a calming field of collaboration with spiritual forces that can spread out into the subtle worlds, becoming part of humanity’s overall response. The simple fact is that we do not act alone; in the power of our individual sovereignty, we are in resonance and connection with the whole of humanity.

When we refuse to entertain fear, hatred or anger towards those different from ourselves and refuse to participate in the spreading of such hurtful thoughts and emotions, we create an energetic habit that makes a similar response easier for everyone else. We support each other energetically, pulling each other towards the Light. We can provide a powerful intentionality to move in more loving directions, towards peace and compassion, listening and respect. We can intentionally promote the Light, and when we do, we find we have powerful allies, for that intentionality puts us, as they say, on the side of the angels who are pulling in that direction with us.

This moment in our history calls to us to stand in our power, the power of our love, our hope, our joy, and our Light. It’s up to each of us to determine how we do so in order to bring energies of peace, compassion, and courage to meet the needs of the world. As I say, there are many tools available to us to bring love to our world. We simply need to use them.

Here is an example of a simple subtle activism exercise:

The key to all subtle activism is to find and stand in an inner presence of calm, peace, sovereignty, spaciousness, and love. The power underlying subtle activism lies in our ability to feel connected through this presence to the Sacred, to the well-being of humanity, to spiritual allies, and to Gaia—the spirit and life force of the earth. From this presence and this connectedness comes a power of blessing, what I think of as a “Grail Field.” Just as the mythic Holy Grail held sacredness in a way that was healing and transformative, so our personal Grail Field holds our sacredness on behalf of humanity and the world.

So the first step is to enter your own Grail Field. How you do this is up to you, but here is a simple suggestion:

– Find a place in your heart and mind in which you feel stable, calm, peaceful, and loving. Use whatever spiritual, psychological, energetic, and physical tools or techniques to help you accomplish this.

– Imagine (contemplate or reflect on) as clearly and lovingly as you can, your connections to the rest of humanity, to the world of nature and the land, and to whatever spiritual forces and images of sacredness are meaningful to you. Feel those connections enhance your presence by enabling you to be part of a larger wholeness, one graced with compassion, love and an intelligent, wise awareness.

– Hold your sense of yourself within that enhanced presence and feel its energy go out to your immediate environment, connecting in loving ways with the specific world around you. Once you have a sense of your own Grail Field, then focus on a quality of constructive and peaceful collaboration. Imagine people who otherwise are split apart by differences of race, politics, ethnicity, religion, geography, and who may experience those differences in fearful ways leading to anger and violence, now held in the spirit of this collaboration.

– Feel and see them held in the grace of a loving, peaceful spirit in which non-violent communication is possible. Your task is not to impose anything but to hold a condition in which this clear, constructive non-violent communication is possible. See the people in your vision able to overcome the emotions of fear, anger, hatred, suspicion and the like and able to listen to and hear one another. Your task is not to get them to agree but to enable them to listen without fear and with mutual respect. Use this visualization with any situation of conflict that you’ve seen, heard or read about in the media.

– Finally, imagine that you are a lighthouse. You radiate all around you a light of stability, peace, calm, forgiveness, love, and compassion. Imagine the subtle fields surrounding you calming and becoming clear and stable, able to receive and hold an outpouring of Light from spiritual levels. 

Visualize this clarity and stability spreading far and wide, linking up with the light of other similar lighthouses, other people who are reaching to express peace, compassion and love. As these beams connect, a web of light is woven over the land that empowers all of us everywhere and makes the fear less fearful, the anger and hatred less persuasive.

– Do this as long as it feels comfortable. Then give thanks for any and all help you may feel you received in doing this bit of inner work; carrying this presence of Light in your heart and mind, go about your day. As you go through your day, when you encounter either the presence of fear and its offshoots of anger and hate or you see it reflected in the media, reaffirm that you are a beacon of courage, strength, calm, love, the creator of a space in which clear communication may take place.

Like Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings when confronting the Balrog, stand in your sovereignty and say to the spirit and energy of fear, “You shall not pass!” And let it be so!

America and the Election

With President Biden’s halting performance in the Presidential debate with former President Trump, followed less than a week later by the Supreme Court decision to grant complete immunity to a President for crimes committed while executing “core Constitutional functions,” the Presidential race has taken on even greater drama and urgency. Depending on who you are, both the fear and the expectation of a Trump Presidency and its consequences have risen.

For most of my life, I have been able, by observing flows of energy within the subtle realms, to know, sometimes weeks in advance, who the winner of a Presidential campaign would be. This time, however, when I tune in, all I see is the subtle equivalent of a fog, a swirling turmoil that does not resolve itself. It’s as if the question of the future of the United States—that is, what kind of country will it be moving forward—is still unresolved and being debated.

It’s important to understand that, at least in my experience, the subtle realms are not monolithic, possessing a single vision and perspective on everything, but they are diverse and pluralistic, with many agendas about the future. I often sense unanimity about the overall spiritual objectives in a given area while being aware that different “factions” or soul groups have different ideas on how to achieve those objectives.

To put this into a larger context, Gaia itself is undergoing profound spiritual changes—a topic I shall write about in a later essay—with a particularly intense inflow of spiritual energies over the next two or three years. One effect of these energies is to stimulate the Light within individuals, which will be liberating and empowering for some and disorienting and discombobulating for others, depending in part on how open a person is to change. Again, I’ll write more about this later, as it’s an important topic all on its own. My point right now, though, is that established institutions and structures of all kinds will be challenged by this and by a need to adapt to provide more openness and freedom for individual expression.

In other words, these new spiritual energies are not being channeled into and through organizations but into people within organizations, which may lead to pressure being put on the organizations to change. Obviously, many organizations and their leadership will resist.

This can be a scary situation, both for established institutions and for individuals whose sense of safety and power is invested in those institutions. It’s important to understand that these new energies, as I understand them, are not antiestablishmentarian or against institutions and organized structures per se. They are for embodiment and expression within individuals. This can certainly take place within organizations but only if the organizational culture and structure is open enough, and courageous and flexible enough, to allow it.

What we will likely see—and are already seeing—is a growth in conflict and turmoil between new vision and ideas and older institutions and structures, especially if those new ideas arise from a pluralistic view of humanity—one that honors all people, nationalities, religions, genders, and so forth—and the institutions are the kind that include some but exclude others through arbitrary distinctions.

When I attune to all this in the subtle realms, I’m often aware of two influential groups, each of which has a different vision of how the United States as a nation may meet the changes occurring in Gaia. Interestingly, both groups share an overall vision that America’s destiny is to be a “planetary nation,” but they are very different in how they seek to achieve that vision. One group sees America as a place where many different types of people representing all of humanity can come together to create a pluralistic and holistic nation, thus demonstrating a unity in diversity: E pluribus unum, as it says on the Great Seal of the United States: “out of many, one.” It sees America as an inclusive place, part of a global community. It is the nation as a brother and sister to other nations. It is more “people-minded,” viewing power as residing in individuals.

The other group sees power as focused through organization and structure. It honors American exceptionalism and sees America as a “nation on a hill,” an “apex nation” that stands alone in its spiritual destiny and greatness and by its accomplishments inspires (or imposes upon) other nations to be like it or to follow its values, to do what it says (whether it fully embodies those values or not). It is the nation as a parent to other nations, telling them what is for their own good.

It’s important to understand that neither group can force anyone to believe or do anything. They can inspire, and they can offer energy to those who resonate with their perspective, but the choice rests with us. We who are incarnated as citizens of the country are the responsible parties, the ones who must decide the country in which we wish to live—for we are the ones who must then live in it and experience the consequences of our choices.

The group with whom I identify and with whom I have worked for many years is one that honors the individual as a source of sacredness in the world. The persons within it see the spiritual power and destiny of America as focused within and arising from its people. Their philosophy is summed up in the Declaration of Independence, that all people are created equal and endowed by the creator the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Indeed, some in this group were involved in creating this document in the first place. For them, America’s destiny as a planetary nation is grounded in its ability to be a pluralistic society, not dominated by any one group. It follows what I call a “galactic model,” a system made up of equal stars, each and all shining bright.

The second group—and some of these were involved in the creation of our country as well—sees safety and the protection and continuation of American society as rooted in organization and hierarchy. It sees America as having important gifts to offer the world but in a paternalistic way. This group is really responding to an ancient impulse, one that has always championed the importance of structure and leadership, which usually is hierarchical in nature. It follows what I call a “sun-satellite model,” a system made up of a central sun or source around which everyone else orbits like a planet and receives illumination and energy.

Structure is important. But structure can take many forms and can, where there is love, be fluid and dynamic in its nature, rather than rigid and dogmatic. The future is not an either/or between what these two groups represent but most likely a blend of the best of each. In the subtle worlds, dialog and cooperation takes place between the two, something we have yet to achieve here.

I should also say that these two are not the only forces at work from the subtle realms, and we need to be careful about reducing the complexity of the situation to a simple polarity. There are also those in the shadowy dimensions of human energy whose motives have little to do with spirit and much to do with division, separation, and destruction. They have no interest in any form of spiritual destiny for America—or for any other nation. They work to tear down, to manipulate, and to control, and they feed off anger, hatred, fear, and suffering. They have little or no interest in the good of any larger whole but only in meeting their own selfish needs and hungers. This group, if I may call it such, is an expression of humanity’s karma and its shadow and is not particular to any single nation, Party, or people. Its influence is international and seeks only to diminish or extinguish the Light. It can work through tyranny and structure and through anarchy and the mob. Its identity is Chaos, and its influence can be seen in our history in acts such as slavery and the decimation of the Native Americans, an influence that has acted regardless of which governmental philosophy or Party was in control.

Here is what one of my subtle colleagues, a member of the first group I mentioned, had to say:

Our “faction,” if you wish to call us such, seeks to support those individuals who are attuned to the spirit of America and the Declaration of Independence, regardless of their partisan affiliation. We are attuned to those who have hope, not fear, love and not hate or discrimination. But our soul brothers and sisters in the other “faction” are not necessarily acting out of fear or hate but out of an honest sense that, in the midst of turmoil, what will save America is a strong and clear structure, led by a strong leader. Hierarchy has served and saved people in the past, and they believe it will do so again. These differences in approach and methodology can be found in both your political Parties, although at any given moment in your history, one Party may embody one vision more than another. But the new energies emerging present humanity with a different challenge than anything you have met before, something beyond your familiar and habitual ways of doing things. They challenge you to become a creative and flexible part of the planetary community of all beings, a conscious part of Gaia, and to participate in wholeness, which is not a structure, not a political position, but a process of life itself.

In my opinion, neither the Republican nor the Democratic Party understand or embody the vision of new kind of “galactic” polity that is an embodiment of wholeness; both are still beholden to “sun-satellite” ideas of hierarchy and structure. However, the Republican Party at this time is more caught in the glamor of hierarchy and the imposition of a structure and leadership that is fundamentally separative, inclusive of some and exclusive of others. It looks to what worked in the past rather than to what will work in a more holistic and pluralistic future. This gives it a rigidity at the moment that will make it less capable of responding gracefully or effectively to the changes that are happening in the world. Light is emerging in and through the people, and this will challenge structures, no matter who controls the Presidency and the government.

Turmoil is ahead—indeed, has already started—but one approach to government and structure will be able to respond with less fear and with more adaptability than another. Attempts to impose and protect a hierarchy will only increase the turmoil, as suppression will prove incapable of creating obedience and order and will only aggravate the situation. Love and trust, not fear and coercion, hold the solutions we will need. This is particularly true when it comes to resisting the influence and encroachment of those beings who interest is primarily or only in conflict, division, and destruction.

This election is a crucial point for America, a moment of profound choice between two visions of who and what America is and can become, much like what we faced in our Civil War. The reason there is a fog in the inner that obscures the outcome of the election—at least as far as my capabilities of inner vision go—is that it’s not clear what we, as a people, will decide. Which America do we want?

To dispel this fog, we must choose the way we wish to go and those who can inspire us in that direction. For myself, I look for those candidates able to articulate a vision of the positive future, who do not look to the past, either in nostalgia or in listing accomplishments, but who speak of hope and call forth to the creative possibilities within us. I look for the candidate who does not claim that safety and hope lies in him or her, or the structure he or she will provide, or who demonizes and diminishes his or her opponents. I look for the candidate who sees the future of America alive and powerful in each of us, whoever we are, whatever our gender, our race, or our religion, and who knows that the life and power of America emerges best when we reach out to support and trust and work with each other as Americans, whatever our surface differences may be. I look for the candidate who does not manipulate me but respects and uplifts me as a citizen and thus as essential to the fulfillment of this country’s destiny. I look for the candidate who offers a vision and practical steps to take us beyond conflict and division and towards unity. I look for the candidate who, though love and largeness of soul, can diminish the power of hatred and shadow amongst us and open us to the wholeness.

My subtle colleagues had a final word to say:

Fear has a momentum. If you wish to halt and change its influence in this election, then you must do the work to provide a counter-momentum, one based on a positive vision of what is possible and a vision of trust and collaboration. To base all your efforts on eliciting fear of what will happen if the other Party wins is ultimately to serve fear itself, which in the end will only serve the turmoil in your lives and those who wish to destroy all that you have gained.

©️2024 David Spangler

David's Desk #205: Finale

The time has come for me to write my final David’s Desk. You may have noticed that the most recent David Desk essays were reruns from the archives of past issues. I was ill most of last fall and this spring dealing with bladder cancer. The pain made working difficult, and I was unable to write a new essay every month. This culminated in a recent eleven-hour surgery to remove the damaged organ and reconstruct my urinary tract. All is very much better now—I’m pain-free for the first time in months—but I have a road of recovery ahead of me which will require much of my energy and focus.

So, I have decided to bring David’s Desk to a close. It’s been a good 16-year run, far beyond anything I expected when I started. Its success has been due to your continued interest and support, for which I am most grateful. It’s been a privilege to share my ideas with you.

This will not be the last you’ll hear from me. When I have something to say in the future, I’ll find a way to say it through Lorian’s mailing list, perhaps in a blog or a newsletter article. I’m just setting aside the expectation of having to come up with something new to write every month while I concentrate on healing.

If there has been a theme running through David’s Desk all these years, it has been an affirmation and celebration of the spirituality of ordinary physical life and the fact that each of us is an expression of a sacred spirit. Incarnation is not exile from a “true home” but an expansion of our spirit to embrace and engage the wholeness of the world. 

Each of us has a capacity to bring Light into the world. Sometimes this can have a dramatic effect, and we can see the difference it makes. But usually the effect of our Light is cumulative, the result of uncounted moments of grace, of joy, of appreciation, of courage, and of love. It is these simple everyday blessings of kindness that fill the world with Light and over time and space, make a difference.

I like to think that David’s Desk has been a celebration of YOU and a reminder of your identity as a source of Light in the world. In these challenging times, it’s easy to forget this, but when we do remember, we bring wholeness to our lives and to our world. This, to me, is what spirituality is all about. It is the essence of fiery hope.

Thank you again for sharing this journey with me.

Blessings,
David

David's Desk #204

David's Desk is my opportunity to share thoughts and tools for the spiritual journey. These letters are my personal insights and opinions and do not necessarily reflect the sentiments or thoughts of any other person in Lorian or of Lorian as a whole. If you wish to share this letter with others, please feel free to do so; however, the material is ©2024 by David Spangler.

Editor’s Note: David’s Desk is on hiatus. This essay originally appeared in 2006.

Spirituality in Everyday Life

At a lecture recently, I was asked “What is the use of spirituality in everyday life? How can it help us address the problems of the world? We need action, not meditation.”

This is not an unusual question. I imagine most, if not all, spiritual teachers are asked it from time to time. Nor is it an unfair question. We are a practical species, after all, and we want to know not only how things work but how they will work for us and what benefit we will derive. And while the question as stated perpetuates a common misunderstanding that spirituality is other-worldly (and that meditation is what spirituality is all about), it carries a genuine caring of the questioner for the well-being of others and the world.

It also expresses the perplexity of a person raised in an industrial, technological, strongly materialistic culture faced with problems such as climate change, nuclear proliferation, the widening of the economic and social disparity between rich and poor nations, and terrorism that are themselves the by-products of such a culture and which are resistant to purely industrial, technological, or materialistic solutions.

The times we are in create stress, and we naturally want to relieve that stress, preferably as soon as possible, which means a desire for quick fixes. Like a magical spell, the speed of technological processes has entranced us and turned us into impatient, short-term thinkers who want our solutions and gratifications now. Consider the irritation we may feel if our computers take thirty seconds to access a website instead of five. And when it comes to spirituality, if I can’t learn it and do it after a weekend course, then what use is it?

But spirituality has never been about short-term experiences or solutions. It is part of the “long wave” of human experience and growth. It some ways it’s not even about solutions but about the process of arriving at solutions, about how we think, how we feel, how we see, how we engage.

It is common to say that spirituality is about being rather than about doing. But this is a largely artificial and rhetorical distinction. When I act, I act from my being, and that I can act at all is because I have beingness. But we can also say that we come into being through our actions, that being itself is an action.

I think of incarnation as an ongoing act of will in relationship and engagement with the world. So, spirituality is as much about doing as it is about being. Indeed, I would say that spirituality and spiritual practice are about uniting the apparent dichotomies of being and doing into a unity, a wholeness of active presence.

Imagine a group of people in a room engaging in a craft project. Some are knitting, some are crocheting, some are doing needlepoint, and some are sewing. Each of these is a separate and distinct art requiring specific skills; they are different ways of doing. But all of them require and use hand and eye coordination and the fine motor skills of finger work. If I am “all thumbs,” it doesn’t matter which craft I’m doing, the results will be mediocre at best. I may even fail completely. With practice, though, I can master the coordination and muscle movements necessary to skillfully manipulate the knitting needles or the crochet hook or the needle and thread. As I do, I can concentrate more and more on the pattern I’m trying to create—the sweater, the picture, the dress, the quilt—and less and less on just getting my fingers to do the right thing.

In this example, spirituality should be seen not as a technique, such as knitting or sewing, but as the skill of hand-eye coordination and the fine motor skills that make all these arts and crafts possible. In other words, spirituality is metaphorically the underlying skill that enables the doing of these crafts, not the crafts themselves. Spirituality is the equivalent of good coordination. It is the ability of my fingers to do the right thing in the moment. It is the “muscle knowing” of the appropriate action that honors the stitch or the knit I’m making, the larger pattern I’m working with, the spirit of the craft itself, and the joy I have in participating in this craft.

What does this mean in our everyday world? Well, think about those qualities or actions that we call “spiritual.” What might they have in common? Think about love, compassion, caring, forgiveness, peacefulness, integrity, coherency. What do they do?

Think of them in terms of “I/hand” coordination, that is, how I blend, connect, and engage with my world. Being loving or compassionate doesn’t make me otherworldly. Rather it gives me the “fine motor skills” of human relationship that can enhance communication, cooperation, understanding, effectiveness. Any of the spiritual qualities enable me to “stitch” or “knit” the human fabric together more closely. And if I have cultivated an inner peace, I’m more able to focus on the larger patterns of humanity and the sacred, on the wholeness of things around me and the wholeness of the world, rather than focusing on the fumbling of my fingers as I try to master a particular technique.

It could be said we face so many planetary problems precisely because we have become “all thumbs” where the world, where nature, and where our fellow human beings are concerned. We are not coordinated. We are dropping stitches, losing threads, missing connections, and breaking patterns all over the place. We are fumbling through life.

Spiritual practice and techniques, from meditation and prayer to ritual and reflection, are our finger exercises to develop the skills of coordination. Love coordinates. Peacefulness coordinates. Compassion and forgiveness coordinate. They are the fine motor skills of good human relationships. Attunement to nature coordinates and is the fine motor skill of good environmental relationships. Yes, a person can get lost in just doing the finger exercises and never picking up a needle and thread. But simply trying to act—to sew more, knit more, crochet more—without being more coordinated is not going to solve the problem. It’s only going to give us more of the tangle we already have.

David's Desk #203

David's Desk is my opportunity to share thoughts and tools for the spiritual journey. These letters are my personal insights and opinions and do not necessarily reflect the sentiments or thoughts of any other person in Lorian or of Lorian as a whole. If you wish to share this letter with others, please feel free to do so; however, the material is ©2024 by David Spangler.

April’s Fool

No one quite knows the origin of April Fool’s Day, a day of pranks and jokes played on unsuspecting people. However it started, the custom of having such a day, whether on the first of April or not, is widespread now, found in North America, Europe, and even in the Middle East. And since its origins are shrouded in the mists of history, it leaves me free to speculate.

We think of a fool as someone who is easily tricked or misled, someone with little discernment or wisdom and ignorant of worldly affairs. “A fool and his money are soon parted,” so the old saying goes, and this susceptibility to loss can apply in other areas of human affairs as well.

However, there is another interpretation of the fool that one finds in esoteric traditions. Here, the fool represents a state of “Beginner’s Mind” or innocence (but not necessarily naiveté). It’s the openness to the new and to what can be discovered that marks the beginning of a journey of exploration. It is, in fact, a state of wisdom that understands there is much more to the world that we do not know than what we know and, therefore, is ready and willing to learn. This is the Holy Fool, the Wise Fool.

In a way, the fool is a symbol of rebirth and regeneration. Whatever our past has been and whatever knowledge we have gained, as in the Tarot card of the Fool, in front of us, we stand on the cliff edge of…who knows what? Unlike the person who has to have every forward step carefully mapped out, the fool steps forward into the unknown in faith and trust. Whatever happened yesterday, today is a new day. Who knows what it will bring?

As I write this, I am looking out the big window in our living room at a flowering tree across the street, its branches covered with white flowers, each blossom a testament to hope and new beginnings. This is the tree starting over after its winter dormancy. It’s a sign of Spring, the season of rebirth. (Interestingly, April 1 is in the middle of the zodiac sign of Aires, which marks the beginning of the astrological year.)

Is it a coincidence that April Fool’s Day and Spring coincide, or that it’s April’s Fool, not, say, November’s Fool or August’s Fool? The uprising life and joy of Spring certainly can lead to feeling jolly and inspiring laughter and pranks, but that’s on the surface of things. Underneath, there’s hope and trust and openness to emergence. There’s a wise foolishness that affirms Beginner’s Mind, the start of a new season of possibility.

No one should be blind to the dangers of the world. There are cliffs we do not want to stumble over. But neither should we be blind to those moments of trusting openness to the possibilities of life, moments that show us that our past need not dictate nor define our future. Change is possible. New directions may be available to us if the wise fool in us can see them and take them.

The knowledge and habits of the world have brought us to a dire place. Our planet is threatened, our species and many others are threatened. We are pranking ourselves into non-existence, and it’s no joke. Perhaps it’s well past time to discover our Fool and choose a different way.

Incarnational Spirituality and the Healing of Trauma

Over the years, I have often been asked, “How does Incarnational Spirituality address the problems of trauma and suffering? How can we be sacred individuals, beings of Light, when it’s obvious there’s so much darkness and brokenness within humanity—and within each of us?”

I have always felt this is a vitally important question, one not to be taken lightly or ignored. But at the same time, I have not felt ready to answer it. To understand why, I need to explain something of the origin of Incarnational Spirituality and the vision that has guided my work for more than sixty years.

Before I do, however, let me say that I have never felt that IS in its current form is a finished or complete package. It is an evolving approach to human wholeness, individually and collectively. A human being is a synergy of body, psyche, subtle energies, and spirit. Ultimately, wholeness depends on the coherence and integration of all these parts, which means that, when and where necessary, healing must take place at each of these levels. A full expression of Incarnational Spirituality would, in order to support an individual’s unique incarnation, address the healing of suffering and trauma through a holistic blend of somatic, psychological, energetic, and spiritual modalities.  

This is the future I see for Incarnational Spirituality, and it will require people trained in all these modalities working together to blend their wisdom and skills in service to the individual as a wholeness. Fortunately, IS is already attracting such people.

Before Incarnational Spirituality can unfold its future, though, I’d like you to understand why it has evolved the way it has up to this point.

I have always been aware of a subtle energy dimension in which the physical world is embedded. Occasionally, I would encounter a place that held uncomfortable and even scary energies, but for the most part, I experienced this energetic world as a place of vitality and joy. It was as if behind the surface of the world the most beautiful music was playing, with disharmonious chords occurring here and there.

When I was seven, I experienced a vaster and even more joyous and harmonious realm, a spiritual realm, a realm of Light. During that experience, I touched into my soul and even went on to witness the process of my own incarnation from those realms of Light into the physical world. What was most striking about this experience was how beautiful and radiant the physical world looked to my soul and the joy and love that I felt for the Earth as I took incarnation. I describe this experience in more detail in my memoir, Apprenticed to Spirit.

From that time onward, I was aware of an overlay of joy that was present in the subtle energy fields of the world around me, areas of disharmony and negativity notwithstanding. The fundamental underpinnings of the world were those of love and Light, and as an incarnate soul, I was part of that Light.

When I was seventeen and about to enter college, I was granted a vision of my future. In it, I saw a human figure, genderless like a department store mannequin, that was translucent and radiating Light from within itself. A voice accompanied this vision and said in effect, “Incarnation is a sacred act, and the incarnate individual is a being of Light. A new spirituality is emerging that will honor and celebrate this, empowering individuals to bring their love and their Light into the world. Your life and work is to take part in this emergence.”

This was my first introduction to the core ideas behind Incarnational Spirituality, even though I didn’t know it at the time. To my surprise, it was only three years later that I began this work and entered into a co-creative partnership with a non-physical spiritual mentor I called “John,” as well as with other subtle and spiritual allies. However, thirty-five years passed before I gave the name “Incarnational Spirituality” to what I was doing and teaching.

Working with John and with the subtle and spiritual worlds was, without question, an experience of working with joy and Light and love. However, early on in my training with John (most of which is detailed in Apprenticed to Spirit for anyone who is interested), he had me experience a layer of woundedness and suffering within the collective energy field of humanity. It contained the results of millennia of trauma and was a presence of habit, anger, pain, and negativity that exerted a powerful and distorting effect upon the course of human development. I called it “the Scream,” because it was like an unending scream of pain and a cry for help within humanity—and within each of us as part of humanity.

When John first introduced this “Scream” or energetic layer of collective trauma to me, I wanted very much to engage with it and to bring healing to it. But John was very clear. “It’s important that you know this condition exists within humanity,” he said, “but it’s not your work to deal with it, at least not directly. There are others for whom this is their soul’s work and service to humanity. You have a different calling, which is to represent the joy of incarnation and the sacredness of being part of the physical world.”

John, as it turned out, was the spokesperson for—and my liaison with—a group of spiritual beings who were engaging in an experiment. The overall objective was to heal the collective trauma of humanity and to liberate individuals from the negative habits of the unconscious and often malign influence of “the Scream.” 

However, rather than engaging this negative energy and the trauma and suffering it causes directly, their experiment was to find and empower people who could realize the sacredness of their incarnation and consequently shift their sense of identity into one of being a generative source of Light and love in the world.

As one of my subtle colleagues said many years later, long after Incarnational Spirituality had become a coherent teaching, “our objective has been to focus on the healthy energies within humanity as a foundation from which to heal what is unhealthy.”

Representing this “healthy energy” or Light within humanity and the sacredness of the incarnate individual turned out to be a challenging task, and I made mistakes. The joy and vitality of the subtle realms was so real to me, so much a part of the subtle energy structure of the everyday world, that I often overstressed its reality in contrast with the negativity and darkness that people actually experienced. I remember one of the first lectures I gave was about the “illusion of suffering” and the “reality of joy.” I was speaking out of experience, but I was also asking a huge shift of awareness on the part of my audience (most of whom were at least thirty to forty years older than me at the time). These people had known suffering and trauma in their lives, and there had been nothing illusory about it for them. One woman, incensed by what I was saying, rose up in the audience, called me the “Anti-Christ” (the first (though not the last) time that name has been thrown at me!) and walked out.

It had not been my intent to demean or lessen anyone’s experiences of suffering, or the strengths and wisdom they may have gained from them. I simply wanted them to align with a different identity, one resonant with the joy and Light of the spiritual realms. I learned quickly that what I experienced as a natural fact of life was only a theological theory for many others and seemingly difficult to attain. Metaphorically, like Marie Antoinette, I was asking people to “eat cake” when they were actually struggling just to find bread.

However, my inexperience in presenting my message was not the primary challenge, and it was one I improved through practice and training. More disconcertingly, I discovered there were strong habits of mind when it came to defining who we are as incarnate individuals. One of the most powerful was the religious and cultural idea that incarnation itself was a “fallen” state, one that had to be redeemed. Even in the metaphysical and esoteric circles where most of my early work took place, incarnation was seen as a kind of exile from our true home, something to be endured for the lessons we might learn or the karma we might expunge. Messages through channels and mediums from the post-mortem realms often spoke of how happy souls were to be rid of the physical world and its limitations and to finally be back in the realms of Light. Asking people to see the world itself as a realm of Light and themselves as generative sources of Light within it was a big ask. As I say, it flew against habits of mind.

Another challenge was the understandable need to address the suffering and trauma in the world. There were those who felt Incarnational Spirituality was failing in this need. Putting emphasis on realizing one’s sacredness and Light seemed like a “spiritual bypass,” a denial of the need of the world and a retreat into a personal nirvana. And the sad thing is that it could be. I knew people who used spiritual teaching and attunement as a way of escaping or denying the negativity and darkness in the world. But what my spiritual colleagues were offering wasn’t escape; rather, it was being in the world from an unfamiliar and (in our culture) relatively new place, a place of Light and joy and the knowledge of one’s innate sacredness and acting from that place to be a presence of healing and wholeness.

The Greek philosopher Archimedes is reported to have said, “Give me a lever and a place to stand, and I will move the world!” This is the outlook of the spiritual colleagues with whom I have been working. The “lever” in this case is a sense of joyous, generative, sacred identity, and the “place to stand” is the ordinary, everyday physical world with all its beauty and its ugliness, its light and its dark, its health and its illness. A person who can stand in their sovereignty and presence as a person of Light can indeed begin to move the world—at least the part of it with which they are in contact. They become a source of blessing in a world that all too often seems cursed.

Let me be very clear. My intent, and certainly that of my subtle and spiritual colleagues in the non-physical realms, has been and is the liberation of individuals and humanity as a whole from the effects and compulsions of the “Scream.” Their approach, and mine, has been to stand in and draw power from the healthy, sacred, Light-infused energy that is innate in each of us and that itself is untouched by the Scream. This is not a matter of years of spiritual development or attainment; it is a shift of identification. It is a shift from identifying oneself with one’s wounds and trauma, using them to say who one is, to identifying oneself with the soul’s Light that is always present and permeating one’s life. This shift doesn’t deny the presence of trauma, but it gives us a different perspective from which to address it.

Sometimes I’ve seen people make this shift of identity in a very short span of time; other times, it can take years of moving past limiting habits of mind (which themselves can arise from our collective human trauma). But I and all the other IS Lorian faculty have seen it happen and the changes this can make in a person’s life—and the consequent positive effects they can have in bringing Light into the world.

Over the years, I have felt the need–sometimes through overemphasis or focus–to keep the message and vision of Incarnational Spirituality clear and strong in spite of the habits of mind and the very real presence of suffering that would move it in a different direction and turn it into something else. As IS was developing and finding definition and coherency, I felt that to focus on the negative aspects of ourselves, our trauma and our “shadow,” would dilute, if not actually distort, what Incarnational Spirituality was about and what it was trying to accomplish. 

IS is about healing our sense of spiritual identity, which is every bit as important as healing ourselves psychologically or physically. It’s part of our wholeness, as is the healing and wholeness of our subtle energy “body” or field, which is also a focus of Incarnational Spirituality.

I am no longer as concerned that the essential message and purpose of IS can be lost, though care must always be taken. Over the years, Incarnational Spirituality has clarified and strengthened its work and its contribution to human wholeness. Increasingly, it takes its place as offering a powerful set of tools to bring our innate spiritual resources into play. But other tools are possible and needed as well, which is why, looking ahead, I am delighted that steps are being made to add to the IS toolbox psychological and somatic forms of healing and empowerment. This recognizes and honors the many levels that make up our incarnation.  

Such a holistic approach is necessary if we are to fully engage, neutralize, heal, and dissolve the “Scream” that continues to haunt humanity. This is the promise of the future, one to which Incarnational Spirituality has a unique and important contribution to make.

David's Desk #202

David's Desk is my opportunity to share thoughts and tools for the spiritual journey. These letters are my personal insights and opinions and do not necessarily reflect the sentiments or thoughts of any other person in Lorian or of Lorian as a whole. If you wish to share this letter with others, please feel free to do so; however, the material is ©2024 by David Spangler.

To See the World with Love

When I attune to the angelic realms of Light, I have often received the following message:

If you could see the world as we see it, we would be better able to work with you.

It has to do with resonance. The greater the resonance between two beings, the deeper and more effective the partnership or collaboration can be between them. This is true for us in the physical world. It’s even more true for beings in the subtle dimensions. Put in human terms, if you and I share the same perspective on the world, we can work more closely and easily together than if our perspectives are different or even in opposition. If I say the world is a good place and you say it is a fallen, evil place, then at some point our ways of understanding and engaging the world are going to diverge.

It also has to do with love. In the angelic realms, love is an essential mode of being and doing.  They bring love to the world. But this is not true for us. We can love the world, but for many of us, the world is not a lovable place. It is a place of challenge, of difficulty, of suffering, even of darkness. We look out at the world and see conflict and violence; we see injustice and oppression; we see damage and destruction. We see a world that is imperfect and at times, broken, particularly in its human aspects. The angels can see this, too; they are not blind to human dysfunctions and suffering. But this is not the nature of the world they see. The world they see is one of Light.

Is the angelic perspective more real than the one that we have? Do they have a truer grasp on the nature of things than we do? A mystic would likely say yes. But in my experience, the angelic realms are not denying the reality of the world as we see it; at least, they are not denying that it is real to us and therefore the world with which we are dealing. As I said, they are not oblivious to human suffering nor the challenges that face us. But—and this is a subtle point—they aresaying that they could work more closely and in greater resonance with us if we also saw the world as they do. They are inviting us to participate in a shared awareness of the world as a manifestation of Light. By sharing in this perception, a resonance is created between us that strengthens the bonds through which they can partner and work with us.          

When I am in touch with the angelic layer of consciousness, I am aware of the sacredness, the beauty, the wonder of the world, and I am filled with love for the earth and all within it. As a result, my life becomes a clearer conduit for their blessing. Put simply, an angel can work more closely with someone who loves and rejoices in the world as they do, seeing it as a manifestation of the sacred.

One does not have to have psychic or subtle perceptions to see the world with eyes of love.  Partnership with angels is not limited to a select few. Also, one doesn’t have to deny or ignore the suffering and broken aspects of our world. These things call out to our compassion and our efforts towards wholeness and healing, just as they do for the angels. But it is a powerful act of resonance with the spiritual worlds to open our hearts and minds to choose to hold love for the world and to see the beauty of life within it. From such a choice, blessings can flow and the presence of angels made closer than before.

The world calls for a partnership between human and angels that can bring healing to the Earth. It is within our ability to expand our vision and our love to make it so.

David's Desk #201

David's Desk is my opportunity to share thoughts and tools for the spiritual journey. These letters are my personal insights and opinions and do not necessarily reflect the sentiments or thoughts of any other person in Lorian or of Lorian as a whole. If you wish to share this letter with others, please feel free to do so; however, the material is ©2024 by David Spangler.

Honoring the Light in Each of Us

Illness and a stay in the hospital over Christmas has kept me away from the computer and writing my David’s Desk. I missed the opportunity to wish each of you a Happy New Year, so I am doing this now. May 2024 bring you joy, light, love, and blessings in abundance! 

As the days lengthen into the New Year, my own energy grows as well. I am hopeful for a good prognosis and healthier times ahead with my own medical situation. At the same time, I’m all too aware of the turmoil that a Presidential election year is bringing in this country. A heightening of polarization in an already divided nation is nothing to look forward to! This is on top of foreign crises and the prospects of even greater climate disruptions. 

Our world is in a challenging state. This makes it all the more important for people to resist the tides of separation and conflict and take a stand on the side of civility and respect for each other, as well as for the natural world around us.

In the end, what divides us is an unwillingness to see the other in ourselves, or ourselves in the other. We are threatened by attitudes and beliefs that highlight our differences and fail to see what unites us.

For those who are seriously following and striving to embody a spiritual path, it is more than time for us to recognize the Light within us each and to honor this common bond. How can we help each other live out from this Light, not as a set of beliefs or dogmas but as a presence of love waiting to emerge in mutual respect, partnership, and blessing?

This, I feel, is the challenge of this year and all the years to come. We can shape the future. If we feel inconsequential or powerless, the Light within us is not. Our attitudes, our choices, our actions do make a difference, however ordinary they may seem to us. This is especially true when we are inspired by the Light within us and within each other.

In an election year, in any year, may we elect to honor the Light in each of us.  

Blessings, 
David

David's Desk #200

David's Desk is my opportunity to share thoughts and tools for the spiritual journey. These letters are my personal insights and opinions and do not necessarily reflect the sentiments or thoughts of any other person in Lorian or of Lorian as a whole. If you wish to share this letter with others, please feel free to do so; however, the material is ©2024 by David Spangler.

Editor’s Note: David’s Desk is on hiatus this month. This essay originally appeared in 2011.

Happy Mobile New Year!

A new year begins. As our solar system journeys through space, making its own millennia-long spin around the center of our galaxy, our own world has now completed a cycle of its own, returning after three hundred and sixty five nights and days to a position relative to the sun equivalent to where it was last January. Now it starts that same cycle again.

There is no law that says a new year has to be measured from this time of year. Any place along the circle of the year could be designated as the beginning of a new cycle. That we celebrate New Year’s Day at this time of year is a result of a combination of factors unique to the Northern Hemisphere of our world. There is the cycle of the moon’s phases which gives rise to the lunar calendar, the phenomenon of the solstice in which the longest night gives way to the return of the light in the increasingly lengthening day, and the nature of winter itself in which the world seems to take a creative in-breath in the silence and the cold prior to all the creativity activity of spring and summer. These and other elements conspire to give us a feeling of renewal and newness at this time in the earth’s journey around the sun.

But whatever the reason we celebrate New Year’s now, the fact is that we do so. The birth of a new year was heralded around the world with a succession of spectacular fireworks displays in humanity’s major cities beginning with New Zealand. Watching it on television, I could only marvel at the extent of this planetary event celebrated even in countries like China whose native calendar marks the New Year at a different time of the year. For one twenty four hour moment, humanity is united in its hope for a better future.

However, looking out the window of my living room at the snow-covered street and houses of our neighborhood, I see no evidence that a New Year has begun, though the day itself is dawning gloriously. The pine and maple trees that surround our house pay no attention to human calendars. The mountains on the horizon looked the same on January 1st as they did on December 31st. If I wanted to see the arrival of New Year displayed in my environment, I would look and wait in vain.

So where do I see this New Year? In the light in my wife’s eyes. In the sense of new possibilities in my own heart and mind. In the wishes of “Happy New Year” from our children. In the emails of good wishes coming from friends. The inner environment is alive with the spirit of new beginnings. I know from experience that there are always subtle beings—potential spiritual allies—who, though uncaring and even unknowing about human calendars, are more than willing to respond positively and supportively to our intimations of possibility and renewal.

Similarly, where do I locate New Year’s in time? Well, obviously it’s on the first day of the year, January 1st. That’s New Year’s Day, But when on January 1st is it New Year’s? Is it only during the first hour? Is it during the first minute? Is it the first second or even the first nanosecond after the clock strikes 12 pm midnight? By convention, it’s the whole day. January 1st is twenty-four hours long. But what about January 2nd? Does the sense of newness, of possibility and potential, suddenly stop one minute after 11:59 pm on January 1st? Is a new year like a new car, depreciating in value the moment you sign the contract and drive it out of the dealership? Does 2024 become a Used Year when January 2nd dawns?

How long does the energy of renewal and hope last? At what point in our lives does the New Year become just “the year?”

This is not a silly question. One of our most powerful human attributes is our ability to envision possibility and to act on that vision. We are creators of newness and transformation, honoring the past but not enslaved to it when change is important and necessary. What enables us to use this attribute? What gives us the energy to press forward to bring something new into being when faced with the inertia of the familiar and the habitual? We have unfortunately turned the idea of New Year Resolutions into something of a joke, making them with a sense of wink-wink, nod-nod that they will never be fulfilled once we settle back into the routines of our lives. Possibility then becomes a contact high that doesn’t survive long after January 1st becomes one of our yesterdays. This is a shame, for our ability to make a resolution and keep it is one of the bedrocks on which human civilization is based. But resolutions do require energy if we are to keep them alive and maintain our commitment to them. We feel this energy in the joyous and exciting spirit of potential that fills us on New Year’s Eve and Day, but how do we maintain it?

In this process, we are not served by identifying this spirit with a minute, an hour or a day on a calendar, that is, with something that has a beginning and an ending. Though it has outer points of reference in the environment, New Year’s is primarily an inner festival, a festival of the imagination. It is spiritual software which is as portable within our hearts as physical software is now increasingly a mobile part of our lives through our smartphones and I-pads. Any point on a circle can be its beginning. The spirit of New Year’s is as real and available at 4 pm on April 4th or 7 am on September 18th as it is at midnight on January 1st

So, what you want to do now is to “download” the joy and promise of New Year’s (which I hope you’re still feeling when you read this). You want to put this energy into your personal, inner “I-Pad” (where the “I” can stand for “Identity” or “Incarnation”). Here’s one way to do this:

If you saw the New Year in with celebration on New Year’s Eve, then remember the happiness and sense of promise and new beginnings that you felt. If you were with friends and family, remember the joy of those associations. Pay attention to how this joy, expectation, promise, and sense of newness and possibility feel in your body. Your body doesn’t know a calendar from a colander; it lives in the moment. The date doesn’t mean anything but what you’re feeling does, and your body will remember this felt sense.

Call this felt sense of the promise of new beginnings and the spirit of New Year’s your “New Year’s Self.”

Now go to your calendar and pick a day in every month. It doesn’t have to be the same day. It might be a Tuesday one month and a Thursday the next. It can be anytime during the month. On your calendar, write yourself a note that says, in effect, “Remember! Today you will be visited by your New Year’s Self.” Then when that day comes, take a moment to recapture the felt sense within your body of this New Year’s Self and welcome it into your life. If you want, say “Happy New Year!” to yourself! But whatever else you do, feel into the spirit of possibility and new beginnings and know that spirit is as much a part of you, as present in your life, on this day as it may have felt on January 1st.

This exercise lets you know that the spirit of New Year’s is not lost as the year goes on but is always accessible. And if ever we needed to know that we can access a spirit of change and potential as we face the challenges of our world, it’s now!

I’ve used this technique with participants in workshops to help them recapture later on the uplifting spirit they felt during the workshop itself. It’s always worked well, and I expect it will work well in recapturing the spirit of New Year’s, too. It’s just a fun thing to do, but behind it is a very real principle. New Year’s is one day out of three hundred and sixty five but the spirit it celebrates is timeless. It is mobile, not static, and is as available to us at any time in our lives as it is on January 1st. We can choose when we will open to new possibilities and invoke our powers to imagine, to envision and to change. There is no reason that any day you choose cannot become the beginning of a new cycle of possibility and accomplishment for you.

With that in mind, I wish you a very HAPPY MOBILE NEW YEAR! May its spirit no longer be confined to January 1st, but be alive and well and filled with blessing in the I-Pad of your daily life.

David's Desk #199

David's Desk is my opportunity to share thoughts and tools for the spiritual journey. These letters are my personal insights and opinions and do not necessarily reflect the sentiments or thoughts of any other person in Lorian or of Lorian as a whole. If you wish to share this letter with others, please feel free to do so; however, the material is ©2023 by David Spangler.

Editor’s Note: David’s Desk is on hiatus this month. This essay originally appeared in 2014

Gifting

Ever since our distant ancestors dropped out of the trees and stood upright on the vast plains of Africa, we have been oriented around a vertical axis. In the beginning, I’m sure those ancient proto-humans thought of safety as up, in the trees, and danger as down, on the ground where predators roamed. Out of this very practical assessment of their environment, early humans laid the foundation for our mythic imagination. Is it too far-fetched to suppose that the reason we see heaven as above us and hell as below may be rooted in this primeval exploration of standing upright on the ground? Do we think of Light as descending from higher levels of being because of the sunlight that comes from the sky above us?

Whatever the reason, there is no doubt that we privilege vertical thinking. We think of higher and lower ranks in society and try to be “upwardly mobile.” We speak of a “higher self” wherein our spiritual nature is located as contrasted with a “lower self” that can obstruct that spirituality with its earthly needs and characteristics. When we’re happy, we speak of being “up” while when we’re sad or depressed, we complain that we’re “down.”

Humanity is now engaged in a struggle to learn to think in new ways. The world and the times demand it. At the very least, we need to learn the language of ecology so that we can properly engage the environmental challenges such as climate change that threaten us.

The problem is that ecology involves thinking horizontally. A rain forest is not “higher” than a desert in value; there is no hierarchy of ecosystems, no rank that says goodness comes from meadows but not from swamps. All manner of ecosystems are needed for the benefit of life and the health of the planet, not just one or two. As systems, they interact as collaborators. Vertical thinking can lead us to visualize the world in terms of dominance and submission, the “higher” controlling the “lower.” But this is not the way to see the interconnectedness and interdependency of the world. We need to think horizontally, partner to partner, not master to servant.

It’s not that “vertical spirituality” is incorrect and must now be abandoned. Rather it’s that we need to complement it with a horizontal perspective as well, one that sees Light and Spirit in the world about us, in the bodies we wear, in the nature around us, even in the very fabric of matter. We need to think in a way that has neither up nor down, right nor left, back nor forward. Spirit is all around, and Light flows in all directions.

Vertical spirituality is aspirational (a reaching up) and invocational (a drawing down), but what is a horizontal spirituality? Surely it is a reaching out, a spirituality of connection, collaboration, and blessing. It discerns the Light within the world and within others and adds to that Light from the gifts of one’s own being.

In fact, the act of giving provides a wonderful image of horizontal spirituality at work, an image in keeping with the spirit of the Holiday Season now upon us. However, for this image to work, we need to understand giving as something more than just the exchange of objects, however delightful such exchanges can be.

Giving is not simply the satisfying of a need or a desire, nor only an act of generosity, again however important and worthy such an act may be. Giving is an act of perception. It is the opening of the heart to see another both in their uniqueness and sovereignty and in their connectedness to oneself as part of a greater whole. When such a perception arises, love flows, and the gift is a celebration and recognition of mutual participation in the life of the world. In other words, the gift is an affirmation of another’s identity and individuality and of the value of that identity to the community of being we all share.

If I think of giving (and of gifts) in this way, I realize that it’s an act of meeting a deep need we each have to be seen and appreciated for who we are. In this context, the gift doesn’t have to be an object. It could be something as simple as a smile, an appreciative nod, a friendly word, a helping hand, a loving embrace. What makes it a gift is that it comes from a part of me that takes the time and energy to truly see the other in his or her individuality, looking beyond whatever labels and categories I may have mentally attached to this person. It comes from a part of me that honors the other and acknowledges that in their unique nature, they are a gift to the world. It comes from a part of me that loves and blesses and wants to support the other in the miracle of their being.

We all want to be recognized and honored for who we are as persons, not just for our roles or our titles, our activities or our contributions. We want to know we mean something, that we are not just random collections of atoms spinning in space. The act of giving as an act of horizontal spirituality says “You are meaningful. You are valuable just as you are. I appreciate and honor your presence in the world with me. Thank you for being!”

As the holiday season comes upon us, we’re going to hear a lot about giving (television shows are already filling up with ads for Christmas presents). We will all feel the pressure to buy this or that, and the emphasis often will be on the nature of the gift, not necessarily on the nature of the person to whom it is going. Caught up in the swirl of advertisements, we will feel the commercialism of the holidays and the tendency to turn the act of giving into a social necessity, a ritual of exchange and transaction that is more about getting than it is about being.

But it is well within our power to pause and recover the deeper meaning of gifting as an act of horizontal spirituality. We just need to stop and see the Light that is in each soul, each person, and in the world around us. We need simply to remember that we are each gifts. We are each a soul giving itself to be part of the life and Light of the world. To recognize this in each other is itself a powerful act of blessing. Then, when we give, whatever we give, we do so saying in our hearts, “I give this to you, my friend, in loving recognition and honor of the gift you are.”

David's Desk #198

David's Desk is my opportunity to share thoughts and tools for the spiritual journey. These letters are my personal insights and opinions and do not necessarily reflect the sentiments or thoughts of any other person in Lorian or of Lorian as a whole. If you wish to share this letter with others, please feel free to do so; however, the material is ©2023 by David Spangler.

Responding in kindness

As I have written in the past, with David’s Desk, I try not to “follow the news,” shaping the content of a month’s essay to the events happening in the world. There are other people doing that and often far more knowledgeably and skillfully than I can. My objective, as I say above, is to “share thoughts and tools for the spiritual journey.”

Nevertheless, we journey through a world that is suffering from an inflammation of fear, anger, and violence. This inflammation is constantly erupting in individual acts that cause suffering, but occasionally it manifests in ways that affect thousands—and perhaps the whole world itself.

Such an eruption occurred this past month in Palestine and Israel with consequences that are spreading. As is usually the case in such situations, the innocent suffer.

At times like these, the question arises, “What can I do? How can I make a difference?” For many of us, there is no obvious answer. We can protest, we can write checks to agencies of relief and help, we can donate our time and energy if opportunities arise to do so, but most of us remain far removed from where the bombs are falling, the bullets are flying, and the screams of the wounded ring through the air.

For many of us, prayer is a powerful option, but in our materialistic time, it is not apparent that prayer makes any difference. It can be seen as spiritual bypassing, a way of helping us to feel better. But skilled prayer is not hopeful petitioning but an art and science of mindful and deliberate working with subtle and spiritual energies and presence. It can be a powerful response, but like any action in the human realm—physical or subtle—its success is not guaranteed as human will, inflamed with fear and hate, can interfere, like noise that obscures a clear transmission.

However, there is something any of us can do in response to these eruptions of violence, and that is to respond in kindness. If the images on the news distress me, then rather than stew in my emotions, I can go out into my world and look for acts of kindness that I can perform. These don’t have to be major acts; something as simple as a smile, a thoughtful word of encouragement, a helping hand, a listening ear can enhance the level of goodwill in the moment.

Thus, when the news of the world lies heavy on my heart, I go out to where there are people. It may be to a grocery store where I have an opportunity to interact smilingly, kindly, thoughtfully, appreciatively with a clerk or another shopper, seeking to make their day, their work, happier.

The principle here is simple: am I adding to the inflammation bedeviling humanity or am I counteracting it by adding, in however small amount, to the level of goodwill and love in the world? This may not make things easier for the people suffering in Palestine or Israel, the Ukraine, or elsewhere where there is conflict, but it addresses the long-term problem of the inflammation itself.

If I were a doctor treating a patient who was suffering from a painful disease caused by inflammation, I would have two tasks. The first is to address the immediate suffering of the disease itself, and the second is to deal with the underlying inflammatory cause. Healing the former without healing the latter only means that that inflammation will resurface in some other way.

The spiritual forces of humanity definitely respond to the outbursts and eruptions of violence, seeking to enhance healing and peace, but over the long term, they work to reduce the inflammation itself. It’s a long-term plan of replacing hatred with love, fear with safety, and intolerance with respect, but in the end, it’s what will finally lead humanity into wholeness.

Each of us can be a response of kindness wherever we are, whatever we are doing. If we have a chance to do more, then we can take it, but at the least (and from the standpoint of spirit, it’s NOT the least), we can perform everyday acts of kindness that increase the temperature of goodwill.

A good friend of many years, Andy Smallman, is an excellent teacher of performing small acts of transformative kindness. He has a wonderful website, https://kindliving.net/. I thoroughly recommend it. Andy’s an inflammation healer of the best kind! Then, if the news leaves you upset and wondering what to do, you know how to respond in kindness.

An Experiment

One of the advantages of David’s Desk being digital is that I can do things I couldn’t if it were printed. My Lorian colleague and friend, James Tousignant, and I do podcasts together. He thought it might be interesting to you, my Reader, if he and I were to have a discussion around the theme of that month’s essay and then add the audio at the end. That way, you could both read my thoughts for that month and also listen to me talk about them with James. So, without further ado, here is this month’s conversation. I hope you enjoy it and the added dimension it brings to David’s Desk.

David's Desk #197

David's Desk is my opportunity to share thoughts and tools for the spiritual journey. These letters are my personal insights and opinions and do not necessarily reflect the sentiments or thoughts of any other person in Lorian or of Lorian as a whole. If you wish to share this letter with others, please feel free to do so; however, the material is ©2023 by David Spangler.

A Balrog Moment

“I am a servant of the Secret Fire, wielder of the flame of Anor. You cannot pass.” Thus spoke Gandalf the Grey standing on Durin’s Bridge in the abandoned Dwarven city of Khazad-dûm deep in the mines of Moria. The target of his denial was a Balrog, a fire demon, who, in Tolkien’s timeless Lord of the Rings, was attempting to catch and destroy the Fellowship of the Ring who were escaping over the bridge. Only Gandalf stood in the Balrog’s way, but, in Tolkien’s cosmology, Gandalf, though in human form, was actually an angel of Light. The “Secret Fire” was the Sacred itself, and the “flame of Anor” was literally the plasmic fire of the sun, the light that gave energy and life to all the earth. The Balrog, a fallen angel itself, had met its match.

From time to time, I ask my subtle colleagues, “Given the world situation now, what can we do that would be helpful?” I always get essentially the same reply: “It’s important for you to be and to hold the Light. Be a radiant presence of Light in your life in all that you do and in all relationships. Be a Sun!”

Interestingly, this past month, I had a letter from a dear friend, Susan Stanton Rotman, who is a wonderful sensitive with her own inner contacts. She said, 

“I had received a message from one of my inner contacts recently. It said, ‘Be Light. That is the most important thing.’ I asked what that means, how to be light, and got this response: ‘Joy. Hope. Love. Laughter. Optimism. Patience. While you do whatever you do, be the Sun. Light actually is transmuting, transforming, and restructuring human circuitry. It is not nothing! Holding its resonance is supporting the reworking of the human mind/body. It is a long game. But it is real. Understand you are an electrical transformer.’”

It’s not surprising anymore to me that often when I’ve received a message from one of my invisible subtle colleagues, I’ll get some form of confirmation of that message from an independent outside source, as happened here. Even some of the words were the same in what I received and in what Susan received: “Be the Sun!”

The consistent message I’ve had from the spiritual realms is that each of us can be a generative source of Light in the world. We are each essentially beings of Light. The challenge, of course, is making this real in practical ways in our daily lives and in the life of the world.

In the world of the Lord of the Rings, Gandalf is seen as an old man, a wizard. No one save a few of the elves know that he is an angel in human form. His angelic nature is hidden, and his power veiled so that he can interact with men, hobbits, and elves as part of their world. It is only when confronted with a Balrog that he shows his true self, for then it is needed if the Fellowship is to survive and save their world.

I find in this story a parable for who we are. We, too, are beings of Light whose sacred nature is cloaked and hidden as we live our lives in the physical world. But we are now confronting a Balrog moment in our world. The planetary and social consequences of our greed, our fears, our hatred, our violence, our selfishness, and our divisiveness are rising like Tolkien’s demon to confront us. If we and our world are to survive, on the bridge of this moment in our human history, we must stand in our Light and let the better angels of our nature say with courage, “We are servants of the Secret Fire, Wielders of the flame of Anor! You shall not pass to shape our future!”

An Experiment

One of the advantages of David’s Desk being digital is that I can do things I couldn’t if it were printed. My Lorian colleague and friend, James Tousignant, and I do podcasts together. He thought it might be interesting to you, my Reader, if he and I were to have a discussion around the theme of that month’s essay and then add the audio at the end. That way, you could both read my thoughts for that month and also listen to me talk about them with James. So, without further ado, here is this month’s conversation. I hope you enjoy it and the added dimension it brings to David’s Desk.

David's Desk #196

Findhorn and Beyond

David's Desk is my opportunity to share thoughts and tools for the spiritual journey. These letters are my personal insights and opinions and do not necessarily reflect the sentiments or thoughts of any other person in Lorian or of Lorian as a whole. If you wish to share this letter with others, please feel free to do so; however, the material is ©2023 by David Spangler.

I received word a few weeks ago that the Findhorn Foundation would be ceasing all its educational programs and closing its operations by the end of this month. For years, people from around the world have been coming to this spiritual center in the north of Scotland to participate in its residential programs and to help in the community. The valid desire of people to reduce their carbon footprint by not traveling, plus the COVID pandemic and the new Brexit regulations had all cut off this flow of visitors and guests, leaving the Foundation without income and without volunteers. The recent fires that destroyed both the main Sanctuary and the Community Center didn’t help, either. All these things proved a perfect economic storm that the Foundation couldn’t weather.

This was sad news. As a co-director of the community for three years beginning in 1970 and a close friend of Peter and Eileen Caddy and Dorothy Maclean, the three founders of the community, Findhorn has occupied a special place in my heart. It was the place where I met my wife. It was also the place where those of us who formed the Lorian Association in 1974 first met and began working together. Both Findhorn and Lorian share a complementary vision of helping the impulse towards a new holistic culture emerge, though we have gone about it using different strategies. I think I had taken it for granted that Findhorn would always be there.

But things are not always as they seem on the surface. After the initial shock of the announcement had passed, I had an interesting experience. I spontaneously found myself in contact with the Findhorn Angel, the angelic presence tasked with empowering the work and growth of that spiritual center. In essence, it said that all was well, that while an outworn form was being discarded, the spiritual work of the community was strong and continuing. Further, from the angel’s point of view, the “Findhorn community” wasn’t simply the people living in the physical environs of Findhorn but included all the thousands of people throughout the world who had touched the energy and vision of that spiritual center and had made it a part of their lives. The educational courses might be ending for a time until new structures evolve to contain them, but the living inspiration and impact of Findhorn’s spirit continues as strongly as ever.

Contacting friends who live in the actual Findhorn community, I was told that a new spirit of creativity and a determination to fulfill Findhorn’s founding principles and vision was alive and well there. Good people were seeking to shepherd the core of Findhorn’s work into new forms more appropriate for the world we have today. I am confident they will succeed. Findhorn Strong!

I bring this up because, in a story like this, it’s possible to look at what is happening in three ways. The story could be one of ending and grief. Findhorn has come to an end; certainly, the Findhorn Foundation that we’ve known for the past fifty years has done so. Or the story could be one of new beginnings and hope. The community is letting go of an old form that no longer works, which opens up the possibility of something better emerging. Or the story could be that both are true, that reality is complex, and we live in a time when endings and beginnings are mixing together in ways that are threatening, uncomfortable, exciting, and creative all at the same time.

If the latter is the story we choose, then we need to rise to the challenge of embodying a consciousness that can handle the complexity with equanimity and poise. Like a surfer riding a constantly changing wave that is crashing and moving forward at the same time, we need to develop a sense of inner balance so we are not thrown off into deep waters. Fear and despair, anger and loss are all around us, but so are hope and courage, creativity and empowerment.

I feel we need to be suspicious of simple stories. “Oh, Findhorn has collapsed!” or “Wow, Findhorn is evolving!” We need stories worthy of the complexity of the world around us, not to mention the complexity of people, that allow us to see that many things are happening at once, and that we need to respond to the whole of it.

What is happening to Findhorn evokes sadness and grief in me but also excitement and creative joyousness. What is happening in the world evokes anxiety, sadness, and anger in me but also hope and the empowerment of new vision and new possibilities. Both bad and good things are happening, and my story of this moment needs to embrace both and not focus on just one or the other. I believe firmly in holding the whole picture in a centered way within myself, for that is when I truly feel the emergence of a spirit that in its love creates the space for healing and renewal.

On September 24, from 2 pm EST to 3:30 pm EST, my wife Julia and I will be joined by Roger and Katherine Collis and Mary Inglis in an online conversation discussing the ongoing story and inspiration of Findhorn and its work celebrating the sacredness of all creation, a work that is part of Lorian’s vision as well. Roger and Katherine are two of the founders of Lorian who also shared time with Julia and me at Findhorn while I was a co-director. Mary Inglis currently lives in the Findhorn Community and has been part of its growth and work for over forty years. This event is being sponsored by the Center for Contemporary Mysticism. If you are interested, here is a link for further information and for registration.

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AN EXPERIMENT

One of the advantages of David’s Desk being digital is that I can do things I couldn’t if it were printed. My Lorian colleague and friend, James Tousignant, and I do podcasts together. He thought it might be interesting to you, my Reader, if he and I were to have a discussion around the theme of that month’s essay and then add the audio at the end. That way, you could both read my thoughts for that month and also listen to me talk about them with James. So, without further ado, here is this month’s conversation. I hope you enjoy it and the added dimension it brings to David’s Desk.