Spei Lumina - Light's Of Hope

Christmas may have come and gone almost a week ago, but liturgically at least, we are still in the Christmas Season until Epiphany on January 6th. As this is being recorded on New Year's Eve, I thought I'd share a simple meditation of some beautiful Epiphany prayers to closer out our earthly remembrance of the year 2022 and to embark with surer footing on that path to Epiphany this year where we ask to be like the Magi, transformed, enkindled, renewed by God's manifestation of the Light of the World within and through our own lives.

For those of you who observe Lent and Easter, I hope that yours was a blessed Lenten season and Easter celebration.  I hope that all listeners have had a blessed Winter and the budding leaves and flowers and green of Spring instills hope to the beauty of this year that lies ahead.   During Lent, I came across this quote from David Benner which really spoke to my soul:   “We are created from love, of love, for love.  Our existence makes no sense apart from Divine Love.” — David G. Banner   It is so easy in the hustle and bustle of life to forget this.  It is so easy in the polarized society we live in to forget that all those we meet are also create from love, of love, for love.  The news cycles and the media incite us to boycott, to shame, to call out, to ostracize those we who do not believe as we do.  While not enabling and turning a blind eye to those who oppress, to those who discriminate, to those who sew fear, to those who bend the truth, we must all come back to that center of knowing, of living, of reflecting that great truth that all of God's children are loved by God and you will never look into the eyes of another person whom Divine Love does not love.    So I thought we'd take time to unwind at this moment of time and sit down, relax, take a deep breath.  To get comfortable and preferably seated away from our phone, away from a clock.  To somehow stop the measure of minutes in our day and minutes we can afford to “make time” to spend in that truth of the Love of Divine Love.  To close our eyes, breath in, and just be for a moment with that Love.  For it is in moments like these, moments with our loved ones and friends that fond, consoling, comforting memories are made.

omorrow is Thanksgiving here in the US.  A time when we gather together with family and friends giving thanks for the abundance and opportunity we have in our wonderful democratic republic.   I am looking forward to tomorrow's Thanksgiving holiday.  I hope you are too.  Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday by far.  Has been to some degree since I was a kid. Over the years, I have gathered and celebrated Thanksgiving in the home I grew up in, the various homes of friends and neighbors, a parish hall of a church, the homes that I have lived in as an adult, the homes of various family members. I've gathered in Tulsa, New Bedford, Tukwila, Boston, Hudson, New Ipswich, Louisa, Virginia Beach, Huntingdon, Floyd and Palymyra with family and friends to celebrate Thanksgiving. I've gathered with beloved family members, beloved friends and acquaintances old and new.  I've gathered with friends and family of all faiths — Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu and those who don't subscribe to any one in particular or those who let their subscriptions expire long ago journeying along, hoping to find a renewal of faith, always eager to gather and give thanks and gratitude for the abundance we enjoy in our beloved democratic republic. I've gathered with people on the right, on the left, and those just present with no need to pick a side or color.  I've gathered with those who support and affirm you, those who like to push your buttons, those who roll their eyes as you are just you, those who love and cherish you being you. I've gathered with many no longer physically present on this earthly journey, with many still present on their earthly journey.  I've gathered in person.  I've gathered on the phone — you know those friends and family that Thanksgiving, Christmas and their birthday may be the only times you talk to one another.  I've gathered on cold Thanksgivings, on mild Thanksgivings where I walked along the beach with only a light sweater on, on rainy dreary Thanksgivings, on sunny bright Thanksgivings. Each and every Thanksgiving gathering I've attended I cherish in my heart.  There may have been tension between some of the hosts and hostesses and attendees and friends and family members.  There may have been differences of opinion, of faith, of what it was each of us were thankful for.   It's not the tensions I remember.  It's not the petty things said, thought, expressed that I remember.  It's not the food — no gathering was lacking in that.  Nor the drinks or dessert.  It's not the topics discussed I remember.  It's not the opinions or politics of the attendees present at each gathering. What I remember most about each gathering were the moments where I was able to steal away from my ego and tap into my heart energy, my higher self and realize it was in these gathered moments that memories are made, that love is recorded, that the wonder of having an opportunity be it ever so rare to gather with friends, family, and acquaintances and offer thanksgiving each in our own way transcended time, space, here and now, and all our individual differences.  Somehow in that moment, we weren't just brother, sister, mother, father, niece, nephew, aunt, uncle, grandfather, grandmother, son, daughter, or friend.  We were all united by our toddling along, attempting as best we can to express gratitude in this journey and to reflect that great Love from which we all come.  I hope that you have memories of similar gatherings and similar experiences of the eternal power of love in your life as well. I thought today's imaginal prayer, would be one of imaginally gathering with our ancestors, our spirit guides, and those we've known in this life who have passed over in spirit to help us prepare for the big celebration with family and friends.

Spei Lumina has been on a hiatus of sorts since April.  My apologies for the long delay in publishing a new episode of imaginal prayer during these trying times.  If you are like me, the polarity and division that continues within our society and culture between the Left and the Right, Conservatives and Liberals, Maskers and Anti-Maskers, Vaccinated and Unvaccinated in this ongoing post COVID-19 pandemic is truly wearing to your soul.  It's hard to be that reflector of Light, of Hope, of Truth when all around us is division and scorn for the other and those who don't agree with us.   I've been reading some old metaphysical and spiritualist journals and papers from the 1800's to early 20th century.  From 1934 - 1937, Joseph Benner of Akron, OH published a periodical titled The Inner Life - The Herald of the New Age.  Benner was the owner of SUN PUBLISHING CO. in Akron, OH.  He wrote many books, his most notable was, “The Impersonal Life.” Also known as “The I AM teaching.” Elvis Presley was known to have been introduced to this book by one of his acquaintances and it was supposedly one of his favorite book that he gave away hundreds of copies of the book during his lifetime.   In the July, 1937 issue of The Inner Life there is an article entitled, “A Challenge to Metaphysicians”  wherein the author asks his brothers and sisters in spiritual ministry to consider developing the Christ Consciousness within all by starting their meetings with his proposed invocation and prayers outlined int he article. What follows is my adaptation of his invocations as an imaginal prayer exercise, helping us to invite that Light of the Christ consciousness within so that we in turn may broadcast that Light, that Love, that truth out to all in these trying times. I hope you will join me in this imaginal prayer exercise grounding ourselves in the Christ consciousness within each of us and emanating and broadcasting that Light and power and love out to all. This episode is dedicated to the memory, ministry, and mission of the article's author who is known simply by the initials H.F.C.

It seems to me we live in a time where more and more people are being devalued.  Where corporate rights appear to be growing at the expense of individual rights.  Where, in the age of Artificial Intelligence or AI, many services including customer support and chat support are being replaced by AI bots that supposedly provide the same level of service as their human counterparts once did.  The trend seems to be an expanding devaluation of the human person and with this expansion a greater denial of the existence of that which truly provides us value — the soul.   Our value comes from the spark of the divine that innately exists in each and every person.  Our value comes in helping nourish that spark within ourselves and shining the light of that spark brightly so as to nourish and heal and restore awareness of that spark within for those individuals directly impacted by this expansion of devaluation of the person. I recently came across the Gnostic influenced Manichaean writings that really seemed to speak to my soul.  Manichaeism would be condemned by the Latin Church as a heresy, the Manichaean writings provide a richness that speaks more true to the human condition as a soul embodied, incarnated in this physical body we live and experience this earthly life than most of the Christian spiritual writings ever shed on the soul.   I hope you too find it just as enriching as I did.

In this age we live in with so much dissension and rhetoric dividing humanity across the globe, I thought it important to remind ourselves of the mandatum Christ left his followers, “To love one another as I have loved you.”  The love that Christ was speaking about and instructed and lived out by example is not solely a feeling, or an emotion, rather, it is a dimension with which to live your life.  The dimension of love connects you to the divine in a way that no other dimension, no other emotion, no other feeling or thought can. Please join me.

A year ago, we closed out 2019 and welcomed 2020 by offering our minds, hearts and wills to allow the Light, Love and Purpose of the Mind of God to enter us through praying the Great Invocation. What a year it has been.   Who would have imagined that 2020 would bring us the global COVID-19 pandemic and all that resulted from it — the deaths, the infections, the social isolation, the economic impact locally, nationally and globally?   Who would have imagined how contentious the U.S. 2020 Presidential election would be and that we’d have a sitting president long after the electoral college met and voted fail to concede the election to his successor? Who would have imagined the long overdue cry for racial justice and equality here in the United States rising to a fever pitch and challenging all Americans to acknowledge the Black Lives Matter movement?  Although I haven’t enjoyed all of the social isolation; nor the ugliness and shadow we were all faced to deal with within ourselves and observed in others; nor the economic impact this shutdown and continued responses to curtail the spread of COVID-19 has wreaked upon the livelihoods of friends, family, and neighbors; nor the suffering and struggle those who came down with COVID-19 went through; nor the sadness, grief, and pain those who lost their battle with COVID-19 went through — many isolated and alone without family in the hospital and the grief their loved ones left to mourn them had to go through — many not able to gather together in person with their larger family and clan to celebrate the life of their loved one who died of COVID-19, 2020 will always be a special year for me.  In the last hours of 2020 I have to look back and realize 2020 has not been a total wash out for me. I hope I can keep the awareness and knowledge I’ve gained in 2020 to help shape all the New Years ahead 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024…. May we all take the awareness and growth gained from 2020 and do our part to make all the New Years ahead better and better and better. As I said last year, I have a strong feeling that 2020 and the decade it will define is going to be a tremendously blessed time for humanity, for light workers, for the cosmos as we all grow in awareness and raise our vibrations to the higher realms. I can think of no better way to close out 2020 and eagerly anticipate 2021 and the decade that is bursting to unfold within the cosmos than to imaginary pray Alice Bailey’s “The Great Invocation.”   I hope you will be able to participate in this imaginal prayer as 2020 comes to an end and 2021 begins.  Regardless of if you are able to do it literally as 2020 ends and 2021 begins are several hours, days, weeks, months later — I know the collective power of all the intentions and imaginings of light within the cosmos will energetically illuminating the hearts, minds and souls of all within the cosmos. Please join me. 

Welcome to Spei Lumina and day 9  the conclusion of our Novena honoring the Anima Mundi for All Souls day.  Today is all souls day — a day set aside by the church to remember all the faithful departed throughout the last year.  Year to date, worldwide, 1,206,312 people across the earth have died from COVID-19.  In the United States, 235,460 people have died from COVID-19.  In Mexico, 91,895 have died from COVID-19.  In Canada, 10,179 people have died.  Many of our brothers and sisters in North America are grieving the loss of a loved one to this pandemic this All Souls Day.  Let us remember the souls of all lost to this pandemic and those left to grieve their loss as we conclude our novena prayer to the Anima Mundi Day Number 9.  Our intention today is for Freedom and Liberty. Novena, 9 days of devotion, 9 days of prayer, 9 ways of showing our dedication to connecting with spirit and interceding.  May these 9 days influence a greater connection to Spirit, to the Divine, to the Anima Mundi, the Soul of the World that is just the beginning of a greater relationship that serves to transform the rest of your life and is an ongoing relationship with your soul nourishing and restoring your soul and giving you moment by moment, hour by hour, day by day from now through eternity a greater trust and love of Spirit, the Divine, the Anima Mundi as you have come to know and experience these 9 days. Please note in the show notes there is a link for the text version of today’s 9th Day Novena prayer on the Angels of the Nativity blog. The text for today’s novena prayer can be found at: http://angelsofthenativity.org/2020/11/02/anima-mundi-all-souls-day-novena-day-9-for-freedom/

Welcome to Spei Lumina and day 8 of our Novena honoring the Anima Mundi for All Souls day.  This year, All Souls Day occurs on the eve of the US 2020 Presidential Election.  This election is positioned to be one of the most important elections in our lifetime.  Definitely one of the most important elections in over 50 years, not to mention perhaps the most contentious.  America’s democratic republic as we know it and the soul of America as some have coined it is at stake in this election. Today, Sunday November1st we continue our Novena Prayer to the Anima Mundi Day Number 8.  Our intention today is for Integrity. Also, please note in the show notes there is a link for the text version of today’s 8th Day Novena prayer on the Angels of the Nativity blog. The text for today’s novena prayer can be found at: http://angelsofthenativity.org/2020/11/01/anima-mundi-all-souls-day-novena-day-8-for-justice/

Welcome to Spei Lumina and day 7 of our Novena honoring the Anima Mundi for All Souls day.  This year, All Souls Day occurs on the eve of the 2020 Presidential Election.  This election is positioned to be one of the most important elections in our lifetime.  Definitely one of the most important elections in over 50 years, not to mention perhaps the most contentious.  America’s democratic republic as we know it and the soul of America as some have coined it is at stake in this election. Today, Saturday October 31st we continue our Novena Prayer to the Anima Mundi Day Number 7.  Our intention today is for Integrity. Also, please note in the show notes there is a link for the text version of today’s 7th Day Novena prayer on the Angels of the Nativity blog. The text for today’s novena prayer can be found at: http://angelsofthenativity.org/2020/10/31/anima-mundi-all-souls-day-novena-day-7-for-integrity/

Welcome to Spei Lumina and day 6 of our Novena honoring the Anima Mundi for All Souls day.  This year, All Souls Day occurs on the eve of the 2020 Presidential Election.  This election is positioned to be one of the most important elections in our lifetime.  Definitely one of the most important elections in over 50 years, not to mention perhaps the most contentious.  America’s democratic republic as we know it and the soul of America as some have coined it is at stake in this election. Today, Friday October 30th we continue our Novena Prayer to the Anima Mundi Day Number 6.  Our intention today is for honesty. Also, please note in the show notes there is a link for the text version of today’s 6th Day Novena prayer on the Angels of the Nativity blog at:  http://angelsofthenativity.org/2020/10/30/anima-mundi-all-souls-day-novena-day-6-for-honesty/

Welcome to Spei Lumina and day 5 of our Novena honoring the Anima Mundi for All Souls day.  This year, All Souls Day occurs on the eve of the 2020 Presidential Election.  This election is positioned to be one of the most important elections in our lifetime.  Definitely one of the most important elections in over 50 years, not to mention perhaps the most contentious.  America’s democratic republic as we know it and the soul of America as some have coined it is at stake in this election. Today, Thursday October 29th we continue our Novena Prayer to the Anima Mundi Day Number 5.  Our intention today is for dignity. Also, please note in the show notes there is a link for the text version of today’s 5th Day Novena prayer on the Angels of the Nativity blog. http://angelsofthenativity.org/2020/10/29/anima-mundi-all-souls-day-novena-day-5-for-dignity/

Welcome to Spei Lumina and day 4 of our Novena honoring the Anima Mundi for All Souls day.  This year, All Souls Day occurs on the eve of the 2020 Presidential Election.  This election is positioned to be one of the most important elections in our lifetime.  Definitely one of the most important elections in over 50 years, not to mention perhaps the most contentious.  America’s democratic republic as we know it and the soul of America as some have coined it is at stake in this election. Today, Wednesday October 28th we continue our Novena Prayer to the Anima Mundi Day Number 4.  Our intention today is for honor. Also, please note in the show notes there is a link for the text version of today’s 4th Day Novena prayer on the Angels of the Nativity blog. The text for today’s novena prayer can be found at: http://angelsofthenativity.org/2020/10/28/anima-mundi-all-souls-day-novena-day-4-for-honor/

Welcome to Spei Lumina and day 3 of our Novena honoring the Anima Mundi for All Souls day.  This year, All Souls Day occurs on the eve of the 2020 Presidential Election.  This election is positioned to be one of the most important elections in our lifetime.  Definitely one of the most important elections in over 50 years, not to mention perhaps the most contentious.  America’s democratic republic as we know it and the soul of America as some have coined it is at stake in this election. Today, Tuesday October 27th we continue the third day of our Novena Prayer to the Anima Mundi.  Our intention today is for kindness. Also, please note in the show notes there is a link for the text version of today’s 3rd Day Novena prayer on the Angels of the Nativity blog. The text for today’s novena prayer can be found at: http://angelsofthenativity.org/2020/10/27/anima-mundi-all-souls-day-novena-day-3-for-kindness/

Welcome to Spei Lumina and day 2 of our Novena honoring the Anima Mundi for All Souls day.  This year, All Souls Day occurs on the eve of the 2020 Presidential Election.  This election is positioned to be one of the most important elections in our lifetime.  Definitely one of the most important elections in over 50 years, not to mention perhaps the most contentious.  America’s democratic republic as we know it and the soul of America as some have coined it is at stake in this election. Today, Monday October 26th we continue the second day of our Novena Prayer to the Anima Mundi.  Our intention today is for compassion. Also, please note in the show notes there is a link for the text version of today’s 2nd Day Novena prayer on the Angels of the Nativity blog. The text for today’s novena prayer can be found at: http://angelsofthenativity.org/2020/10/26/anima-mundi-all-souls-day-novena-day-2-for-compassion/

Welcome to Spei Lumina as we kick off Season 3.  This year, All Souls Day occurs on the eve of the 2020 Presidential Election.  This election is positioned to be one of the most important elections in our lifetime.  Definitely one of the most important elections in over 50 years, not to mention perhaps the most contentious.  America’s democratic republic as we know it and the soul of America as some have coined it is at stake in this election. Perhaps, it is no coincidence that this presidential election occurs the day after All Souls Day, the day in the church’s calendar when we recall those who have recently passed and honor their lives.   Today, Sunday October 25th we begin praying a novena to the World Soul — the Anima Mundi.  Praying for her protection, restoration, and guidance as America goes to the polls and votes for the next president.  I hope you will join us in praying this novena — nine days of a devotional prayer to the Anima Munda for the healing of America and the recovery of America from those who would seek to see our democracy and brotherhood amongst all our citizens destroyed and for the transformation of America and the world to a more heart centric consciousness where charity, compassion, kindness, honor, respect, dignity, honesty, integrity and celebration are lifted up as the ideals to model in this earthly journey.   If you catch this episode after October 25th, no worries, if you feel drawn to pray the novena with us, begin day 1 whenever you may catch it and continue for 9 days. Also, please note in the show notes there is a link to a pdf file for all text version of all nine days of our novena. The text for today’s novena prayer can be found at: http://angelsofthenativity.org/2020/10/25/anima-mundi-all-souls-day-novena-day-1-for-charity/

The holidays are fast approaching, as is the 2020 US Presidential election.  The rhetoric and polarity on both sides is ratcheting up in the final march to the election.  We are bombarded with so much mixed messages, false truths, half truths, fake truths and outright lies.  All in an effort to push our buttons to live out of fear and reaction.  To live from a place of bigotry and hate.  To live from a place of defensiveness. It’s enough sometimes to wonder what exactly is the truth and where can the Divine be in all this chaos. So much of our life is built around simply hearing the information media broadcasts to us only to react to it.   To refresh my soul, I don’t seek to hear so much as to listen to that still quiet whisper of the divine calling to me and respond and follow in helping to reflect more of the healing, loving, and rejuvenating energy of the divine, of Source in my life through my words and actions and in so doing, reflect that energy of the Divine within the cosmos. I started this podcast over 2 years ago with mission in mind.  I hope that you have found this podcast beneficial in helping you quiet down, pause, and open your imagination to the imaginal realm, the Divine realm, and be illuminated by Source to responding by following that illumination and adapting it in your lives through your thoughts, words and actions and likewise helping to reflect that Divine energy within and through the cosmos. Tonight’s podcast episode is the 20th episode of Season 2 and our final episode for Season 2.  I thought that as we seek to be instruments reflecting the Divine, reflecting Source in the cosmos during these tumultuous times that imaginally praying the peace prayer of St. Francis would be a great imaginal prayer to wind down October with as we anticipate the outcome of the presidential election here in the United States. Also stay tuned for the announcement of the special way we will be opening up Season 3 beginning with our first episode of Season 3 being published this Sunday October 25th, 2020

As this episode is being recorded, the death toll to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States has exceeded 200,000.  I continue to find myself occasionally overwhelmed by the enormity of the impact this pandemic is having at the global, national, and local levels.  Pondering the economic impact even at the local level is overwhelming with concern as I see and hear about local business shutdown or furloughing.  Pondering the human impact as I learn of friends and acquaintances who have lost loved ones to COVID-19 and who themselves have contracted the virus and recovered from it adjusting to a new normal until they are back on their feet is overwhelming.  I thought the imaginal prayer we’d walk through today is the Sanctuary of the World Soul meditation reflecting on the 1st Creation story in Genesis allowing it to help us tune into the world soul.  There seems to be so much void and chaos in the world wanting to negate the good that is in the world, that exists within everyone.  May we proclaim “let there be light” in all the areas of the world today so being ravaged by the negation of the void. I hope you will join me, soul to soul, in creating sanctuary for your soul, sanctuary for the world soul, to find rest, to rest in that Love, rest in that Light, radiate that Light and radiate that Love from your soul to where it is needed the most.  Helping nurture hope, healing and consolation in the cosmos during this COVID-19 pandemic shutdown.  Helping shine that light of Hope, of Love, of transformation upon and within ourselves and throughout the cosmos.

  I don’t know about you, but I hurt.  I hurt seeing an America so divided.  I hurt seeing an America stirred to react out of fear.  So stirred to react in bigoted ways.  So stirred to react in unloving ways, to act out of hate and spite.  I hurt seeing Americans throw their support behind a leader who shows no remorse for the ways his words and actions divide, kill, and harm Americans and America.  As the rhetoric, fear mongering, and polarity heats up seeking to sew only dissension and division during this election cycle, may we remember we are not called to live in fear, nor anger, nor to be divided from our neighbor and our brother and sisters.  We are called to walk in love. In his book, The Four Loves, C.S. Lewis describes the four loves found in scripture. — storge, philia, eros, and agape.   First, there’s storge — the affectionate bond that grows between parents and children, brothers and sisters, and family members.   Second, philia the powerful emotional bond experienced between close friends; the most general love found in Scriptures that includes the love for fellow humans, care, respect, and compassion for those in need.   Thirdly, there’s eros the sensual romantic love between two people celebrated and enjoyed as a blessing from God.   All three of these loves carry a spark of the Divine, of Source and when freely shared and experienced between and among all of God’s children, each and every one of us these loves reflect and shine a glimpse of the Divine Light, of Source upon the cosmos.  That healing love reflected on the cosmos unites, heals, and restores our souls but no love does all of this greater than the last and greatest of these loves — agape. Agape is the immeasurable, incomparable love for all of creation.  It the perfect love, unconditional love, sacrificial love, and pure love from Source.   Love is the most powerful, transformative, upbuilding, healing emotion that humanity can experience, express, and share with others.  Love is the closest emotion, force, action, behavior, influence that animates us which makes us as close to God as possible.  Love is the most unifying force that brings us in unity with Source, with God, with our creator. I thought imaginally praying with the four loves of scripture and basing our meditation on the universal power of LOVE, we can heal our souls and the souls of our brothers and sisters during this peri-coved 19 highly polarized 2020 Presidential election cycle we are about to wrap up in the next few months.  I hope you will join me.   

In this peri-Covid-19 world we are experiencing right now, it seems like the world is full of provocateurs provoking the fears, the prejudices, the insecurities and pet peeves of everyone.   It is so easy to fall into the trap of reacting to the machinations of the provocateurs and doing exactly what they want you to do — to react with anger, to react with spite, to react with frustration, to react with meanness, to react with blaming and similar snide attitudes to those we don’t agree with.  Provocateurs know that stirring up trouble is easy and it’s easier if you can tap into the emotional reactionary sides of people based on fear, hate, or prejudice.  This is a time, like no other, when we must shut out the noise of the provocateurs and listen to that small voice of God, the Divine, of Source calling within us and step into fully and joyfully being a vocateur — someone completely living out their vocation and allowing their spark of the Divine to brightly shine as they do so.  Each and everyone of us has a vocation, a calling from God, from source which is our soul's purpose in life. The provocateurs of this age want to dupe us into thinking whatever we do will never make a difference, that we don’t have a purpose.  We know, as light workers and those committed to shining the light of hope, the light of truth, the light of love in the cosmos that fulling living out our vocation is the way our unique spark of the Divine shines from and through us in the world lighting hope, truth, and love in the cosmos. I thought tonight we would imaginally pray with a few verses from the Nag Hammadi text Trimorphic Protennioia or Three Forms of First Thought to help us raise our frequencies to listening to that call from source and shutting out the racket of the provocateurs all around us.

On Saturday, July 4, 2020 the United States will celebrate the 224th anniversary of the birth of our nation.  The 224th anniversary of the severing of ties with Great Britain with the Declaration of Independence.   In light of COVID-19 and all that has happened since the murder of George Floyd an unarmed black man at the hands of police, we know first hand that however inspired — divinely or otherwise — the beginning paragraphs of the Declaration of Independence may have been, those words have never fully been made flesh in the United States.  We know that history has proven time and time again that those words apply to some citizens more readily than they do to all others.  For those of us who are U.S. citizens of European American descent, if we are honest with our past and ourselves without making excuses for the behavior of our ancestors, we have to admit our ancestors never really applied those words to the enslaved African Americans and their descendants and that the growth and advancement of our nation has suffered the consequence as a result. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.  In honor of Independence Day July 4th, I hope you will join me, soul to soul, in creating sanctuary for your soul to find rest, to rest in that Love, rest in that Light, and be inspired to radiate that Light and radiate that Love from your soul, helping to raise the frequency of our nation and imagine a United States of America where it truly is self-evident, that all men are created equal.

As we exit week 10 of the COVID-19 social isolation and shutdown here in my state in the United States and begin the process of “re-opening” much of the businesses with social distancing in place, I find myself occasionally overwhelmed by the enormity of the impact this pandemic is having at the global, national, and local levels.  Pondering the economic impact even at the local level is overwhelming with concern as I see and hear about local business shutdown or furloughing.  Pondering the human impact as I learn of friends and acquaintances who have lost loved ones to COVID-19 and who themselves have contracted the virus and recovered from it adjusting to a new normal until they are back on their feet is overwhelming.  The death toll here in the United States this week surpassed the 90,000 fatality mark and is quickly approaching the 100,000 mark.  Now is not the time to continue to assess the national, state and local response and whether or not it was efficient or it was incompetent.   Now is the time to focus our consciousness and response at the heart level and quiet the flotsam and jetsam of our rational mind as the numbers begin to get so high that they almost have a numbing effect to our rational mind.  Numbers so high that pondering the impact of their loss brings restlessness to the soul.  It’s the time to find sanctuary for our souls. Our souls know, through focusing our consciousness at the heart level, that those who have died from complications due to COVID-19 are more than just a number.  They are our brothers, our sisters, our mothers, our fathers, our cousins, our friends, our family.  Our soul knows they left behind loved one’s to mourn their loss beyond just the rational shock of the high number of fatalities from the COVID-19 pandemic. During this COVID-19 self isolation more so now than at any other point in my life, I have to ground myself each evening after chores in my sacred space in quiet meditation.  I have to quiet my mind down and sit in the Silence.  I have to rest in the awareness of Divine Light and Love and bathe in its presence.  This is how I provide sanctuary to my restless soul. Late last year I read Whitley Strieber’s A New World and joined his unknowncountry.com website.  If you are one that has an interest in extraterrestrials or are an experiencer I highly recommend his book and website.  If you have an interest in UFOs and all things higher conscious, I’d recommend it too.  Whitley describes in his book the meditational practice he’s used for decades that he calls “The Sensing Exercise”.  I’ve adapted the sensing exercise and blended it with the chakra energizing exercise I’ve done for a few years.  I must say the blending of these two practices — Whitley’s sensing exercise and the chakra exercise — have really quieted the flotsam and jetsam of my restless soul when I take time to meditate.  This meditational practice has provided sanctuary for my soul during this pandemic shutdown and isolation and physical distancing. It is this sanctuary what helps ground me, helps ground my soul in that energy of Spirit God’s love for all.  From that focal point I send out that love to all and where it is needed.  I strive to reflect that spark of Divine love in my actions and thoughts and rest in the awareness that that kind of love can transform the world, can drive out the darkness, can never be overpowered by the Darkness the global White corporate technocratic elite seeks to advance across the earth. The journey to my sanctuary of the soul is uniquely my own.  The journey to your sanctuary of the soul is uniquely your own.  But as you will see, it leads us to that one Divine Light, to that one Divine Love, that one Divine Hope. I hope you will join me, soul to soul, in creating sanctuary for your soul to find rest, to rest in that Love, rest in that Light, radiate that Light and radiate that Love from your soul to where it is needed the most.  Helping nurture hope, healing and consolation in the cosmos during this COVID-19 pandemic shutdown.  Helping shine that light of Hope, of Love, of transformation upon and within ourselves and throughout the cosmos.

This time of self isolation and lockdown to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 offers all of us a wonderful opportunity for self improvement.  I recently came across the Gnostic Text “The Secret Book of John”.  In this text is a description of the 4 Luminaries and the 4 realms they are in charge of.  I thought this scripture would offer us rich reflective material to work on our own inner perfection through the 4 luminary lights and imaginally praying the text seeking further illumination in our minds from our guardian angel and guides. 

Here in the United States, the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown and social distancing mandate has entered its second month.  The economic and humanitarian impact of the virus is unfathomable.  States are slowly beginning the process of “re-opening” as protests occur across the country asserting the right to reopen and that all stay at home, shelter in place, social isolation measures taken by the states have gone too far.  Even the president, tweeted last week for protesters in key states with governors who have been vocal about their opposition to the White House’s response to the pandemic to “liberate” those states. The death toll in the United States from the COVID-19 pandemic now exceeds 52,000.  The social isolation and shelter in place actions taken by most of us, the alarming news of the protesters across the country and our government’s ongoing misinformation and misleading responses, the continued media coverage of the blaming for equipment, testing, and overall critical analysis of the response taken by our government, it’s enough to make one worry, feel oppressed and lose hope if we let it. The COVID-19 pandemic indeed calls each and everyone of us to liberation -- liberation from our dependence on all forms of news media and expecting commercial news media to provide rational truth for us to follow and base our own understanding upon, liberation from placing all our trust in a capitalistic fueled technocracy to meet the needs of all citizens when in such a government some citizens are always deemed collateral damage or canaries in a coal mine when facing such tragedies as this pandemic, liberation from the religious extremes which expect us to throw our support behind leaders who only nominally support their views and whose actions continue to to harm humanity and the cosmos, liberation from the fear aroused mob mentality stoked by the leaders of the technocracy and commercial media outlets — each with their own agendas serving their own needs and not the common good of all citizens.  Lastly, and most importantly, liberation from modern rational thought that drives actions from the mind and focuses consciousness solely on that which can be scientifically proven leaving no room for expanding heart consciousness. The desperate need of this time, of what we can learn from this COVID-19 era and carry with us as life post COVID-19 begins to unfold, is to be liberated from this head centric consciousness that has proven so harmful to ourselves, to some of our brothers and sisters, to humanity and the earth and grow in heart centric consciousness that opens us up to the awareness of how we are all one, of how the suffering of one impacts the all, the hoarding of one impacts the all, the selfishness of one, impacts the all, the misunderstanding that my actions only impact me and no one else to the awareness of how my actions reverberate and have impact on others as well as theirs on me.   This liberation then is a liberation from the darkness and deceptions of the self centeredness of empire and the technocracy it controls that keeps us bound to finding the enemy, the other, those not like “us” to a liberation in the Light of living from the heart, living out of love and compassion, living in hope as we recognize and acknowledge the importance and value of each other. We are never truly alone, even when we think we are in total control and definitely when we are down and think we can go no further and our efforts are useless in changing the dynamic around us. The world, the news media, the technocracy manipulated by corporate profits and influence wants us to think we are alone and that we cannot make a difference.  They want us to think that some people in our society are collateral, are pawns to be sacrificed as we step lightly into reopening our economy because the economy is more important to their bottom line than the humanitarian impact of the social isolation guidelines implemented to save lives. We are never alone.  We do have a voice.  We have a purpose.  Each and every one of us carry within us the spark of the Divine and each and every one of us has a guardian angel to guide us in our journey.  Paul Levy wonderfully summarizes Henry Corbin’s teachings on this when he describes Corbin’s teachings as “we are not only battling “along with” the Angel against the darker forces that obscure the light of the world from shining, but are at the same time battling to ultimately re-claim and unite with our Angel, our true and perfect nature.” I thought today’s imaginal prayer exercise would be one that nurtures our understanding, awareness and hopefully our experience of this angel and help to liberate us from the forces in the world, especially during this COVID-19 pandemic, which would seek to keep us oppressed to mob mentality driven by the fear mongering of the technocracy which wants us to continue to be distanced from our true and perfect nature that uniting with our Angel helps us to shine, reflect and achieve.

This show is being recorded during the height of self isolation and quarantine and shelter in place at home as the COVID 19 pandemic spreads its destruction across the globe and is in full outbreak in the United States. If you are like me, as each day unfolds during this COVID-19 pandemic being felt across the world and across the United States, your heart grows heavier, your thoughts become more solemn and reflective, yearning sets in… yearning for what?  You are grieving and mourning.  It’s ok to feel grief and to mourn those lost during this pandemic. So far, many of us are perhaps fortunate enough to not be directly impacted by the death of a loved one to the Coronavirus.  Some of us no doubt have been directly impacted. As the media bombards us with the growing tally of those infected across the world and those across the United States and those who have died across the world and those within the Unites States due to complications from Coronavirus we feel our hearts weigh heavier as our hearts and bodies and minds physiologically react to the news of many suffering from the virus and dying from the virus in isolation apart from their families.  We begin to worry and sigh as we imagine the impact this will have not only on the economy of the world but most importantly for those of us on this spiritual journey, the impact it will have on humanity, human life, on the souls of those dealing with the loss of a loved one, those who lost their lives, those medical professionals working tirelessly. Sometimes we need permission to cry.  It’s ok to cry.  It’s ok to mourn. I thought we’d imaginally pray an abbreviated form of the Office of the Dead for all those who've lost their lives to the Corona Virus. I hope you will join me.

Recently, a friend of mine posted on FaceBook the question “How are hope and wish different or alike?”  The question immediately piqued my curiosity and I promptly replied with the following: “Hope is that light of faith, light of Grace, that Light that keeps me going even in the darkest most troubling times.  Wish is just that, a desire for an outcome that really may or may not be in my best interest.  I can live without wishing.  Living without hope would be miserable as life would seem “hope”-less.” Helping each of us nurture that light of faith, that light of Grace, that Light inwardly is the mission of this podcast in these times that can often seem dark and troubling.  These days we find ourselves in new territory with the social distancing and closedowns of so much in our society and the run on toilet paper, sanitizer, and so many household items at our grocery stores as schools were closed, businesses sent employees to work from home and so many public gathering events cancelled with the intention of helping halt the spread of Covid 19, the Corona Virus. I thought imaginally praying Psalm 139 would be a great way to anchor ourselves in hope and in faith during these uncertain times most of us have never navigated before as we are called to socially distance ourselves and stay at home and as some of us in larger cities where the outbreak is greater are asked to shelter in place.  I can think of no better way to “shelter in place” than to rest in that abiding presence of the divine as the psalmist teaches us in Psalm 139.

Conflict, retribution, revenge, hostility, accusations, denials.  Themes such as these are what we’ve been bombarded with in the opening weeks of 2020.  Be it the US drone strike in Iraq that took down an Iranian commander, Iran’s retaliatory attacks against American bases in Iraq just days later, which tragically included the accidental downing of the Ukrainian passenger plane killing all 176 people on board, or the partisan rhetoric being spewed by both parties as the Impeachment trial of President Trump completes its first week in the Senate, it seems as though peace among mankind is impossible.  It seems as though in the 21st Century, the peace that Jesus heralded and the love and humility he exhorted his disciples and followers to model has no meaning as Christians and religious faithful of all traditions in our country  remain silent while our government expands military power and flexes that power across the globe without first attempting any form of diplomacy. We are being led to believe that only might makes right.  That righteousness comes to those with the strongest military power not afraid to exercise it against those who “might” harm us.  That vengeance and retribution, not God’s grace and God’s mercy, should drive all of our country’s actions in order to make the word “safe for future generations.”  Peace does not motivate military actions by our government as much as stoking fear by constantly reiterating the need to “insure the safety of future generations”. We are not called to live in fear, to live in anger, to live in such a way as to seek revenge and retribution.  We are called to the transformative power of love and humility.  This episode is being recorded about a week after Martin Luther King Jr. Day 2020 — January 20th, 2020.  A quote from his his speech on the occasion of accepting the Nobel Peace Prize in December 1964, echos some 55 plus years later to the challenge still besetting humankind, “Sooner or later all the people of the world will have to discover a way to live together in peace, and thereby transform this pending cosmic elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. If this is to be achieved, man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.” I thought it fitting in the current environment we find ourselves in and the occasion of remembering Dr. King this week, to imaginally pray the beatitudes from Matthew 5:3-11.  The Beatitudes in Matthew are the beginning teachings of Jesus to his disciples and the crowds who followed him up the mountain.  Teachings that are just as relevant today as they were back then when Jesus walked and taught. I hope you will join me in imaginally praying the Beatitudes seeking to be transformed by Divine Love and to be inspired to respond in Love to God’s call to each of us to reflect a spark of the Divine in the world around us.

Welcome to Spei Lumina — Light’s of Hope podcast. The year 2020 is unfolding at our doorstep in the next day, hours, and depending on when you listen to this podcast it may have already unfolded.  I am not one for New Years resolutions.  I hate the guilt and frustration that arises within myself when I make “new year’s resolutions” that are quickly broken like exercising more, praying more, spending more time with God, spending more time with family, spending more me time.  I don’t know about you, but I am ready for 2019 and this second decade of the millennium to wind down and come to an end.  It’s been years since I have eagerly and joyfully anticipated the beginning of a new year.  The prospect of beginning 2020 in the coming days excites me and I have a strong feeling that 2020 and the decade it will define is going to be a tremendously blessed time for humanity, for light workers, for the cosmos as we all grow in awareness and raise our vibrations to the higher realms. I can think of no better way to close out 2019 and eagerly anticipate 2020 and the decade that is bursting to unfold within the cosmos than to imaginary pray Alice Bailey’s “The Great Invocation.”  I hope you will be able to participate in this imaginal prayer as 2019 comes to an end and 2020 begins.  Regardless of if you are able to do it literally as 2019 ends and 2020 begins are several hours, days, weeks, months later — I know the collective power of all the intentions and imaginings of light within the cosmos will energetically illuminating the hearts, minds and souls of all within the cosmos. Please join me.

In our last episode we began the Advent season with a look at the Nag Hammadi text titled “The Discourse on the Eighth and Ninth” which probably dates to the 2nd and 3rd century and appears to be some form of an initiation rite into a visionary journey. I thought as we wind down the year 2019 and prepare for the renewal that waits us in 2020, praying the Prayer for the Ascent to the Eighth and Ninth would be a great way to end one year and joyfully anticipate the self awakening and self growth and self transformation that awaits all of us in the coming year ahead and to help envision a greater awakening and growth and transformation throughout the cosmos in 2020.

This episode is being recorded on the 1st Sunday of Advent.  Advent is a season of anticipation, hope and light.  It is one of my favorite seasons of the liturgical calendar as it comes into place just as the days are getting noticeably shorter and the nights are getting noticeably longer.  Just as the autumn warmth of “Indian Summer” in north America starts giving in to cooler and cooler temperatures and northern winds and cold and snow. I recently read the Nag Hammadi text titled “The Discourse on the Eighth and Ninth”.  A link to the gnosis.org website where the complete text can be found will be in the show summary.  I encourage you to discover it yourself.  I found it enriching to my prayer life.  I also was pleased to discover the ritual vowel phrases, like the intonements we exercise before each of our imaginal prayer exercises, fascinating.  According to scholars these ritual vowel phrases are “meditational vocalizations based on the sacred name: IAO.”  The gnosis.org website goes on to explain that the text probably dates to the 2nd and 3rd century and appears to be some form of an initiation rite into a visionary journey. This episodes imaginal prayer exercise will be different than the others.  This episode will focus on listening to the text in its entirety with little “commentary” from me on breathing in and visioning.  Then, depending on how this episode goes, I will record part two of this episode by taking the prayer portion of the text and reading it in verses and pausing for our breathing and envisioning/imagining exercises. I hope you enjoy this text and the rich meditation it offers. http://gnosis.org/naghamm/discourse-meyer.html

We’ve heard a lot about quid pro quo in the news cycles these days.  All this talk about the funding to the Ukraine allegedly being tied up and not released unless the Ukraine leader investigated the Bidens helped me to realize just how often we fall into the same pattern with our prayer life to God.  Our prayers become, “God please heal Janie, please help me make ends meet, please help me forgive, etc…..” and may go on to be “if you do this, I promise I will do….”  We tend to only communicate with God when we have time to make the requests or to bargain with God or question God and the rest of the time we may not give much attention or awareness to God’s presence. God wants us to live in an abiding presence relationship.  We see that in the creation story of the Garden of Eden where God, Adam and Eve and the angels and creation all dwelt together in harmony and in a close and personal relationship with each other. One of the passages of the Hebrew scriptures that most exemplifies the abiding presence that God wants to have in each of our lives is in the 23rd Psalm, the Lord is My Shepherd psalm. I thought we’d imaginally pray the 23rd Psalm in order to help us remember that we each cary and reflect a spark of the Divine within us and that the relationship God calls each of us to is to have an abiding presence, a dwelling presence, a Sh’khinah relationship with each and every one of us.

From the Amazon rainforest wildfires to the September 20th international youth climate change strike from school, to Greta Thunberg’s Sept. 23 speech at the 2019 UN Climate Action Summit, to the breaking news of Italy’s Mont Blanc Glacier’s immanent collapse, the global climate crisis has been front and center in the news cycles this past week.  The global climate crisis is not new.  It is not fake news.  The greater and growing awareness of the climate crisis is much needed.  Today’s imaginal prayer exercise is focused on healing Holy Mother Earth and the impact that the climate crisis has upon her through imaginally praying with The Essene Gospel of Peace.  The Essene Gospel of Peace is attributed to Plinius and was first translated by Edmund Szekely (TSAY-kay) in 1928.  Some question the authenticity of Szekely’s story behind finding it in the Vatican Archives as it has not been found since. Regardless of the authenticity of the text, it offers a wonderful look at Jesus’ teachings about our earthly mother, our heavenly father, and communing with the angels.  No doubt, had a gospel with so much teaching honoring holy mother earth been included in the Christian canon, today’s climate crisis would be all but non-existent. I hope that you find this imaginal prayer exercise utilizing The Essene Gospel of Peace honoring greater respect and love for Mother Earth enriching to your prayer life.

This episode was recorded and edited on the eve of the 18th anniversary since the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States.    Today we honor and remember the 2,977 lives lost in the 9 11 terrorist attacks. We cannot honor those lives lost without recalling and retelling and acknowledge in some way the tremendous impact 9 11 has had upon the American psyche.  Without calling to mind all the lives lost since 9 11 in the “war on terror”.  We honor, recall, and acknowledge all the lives lost in hopes of recognizing that it is only when we enter the stillness and silence that we can begin to fathom the the healing power of God’s Divine love.   

Thank you for joining me today on Spei Lumina — Light’s of Hope.  Today I think you are in for a treat as we have a deeper look at the Gnostic scriptures as we explore The Sentences of Sextus.  I recently read the text and was amazed with how deeply some of the statements spoke to my soul in this age that we live in where some political and national leaders have no qualms about stifling the truth and spreading lies as truth.  Where they have no qualms about name calling and harassing those who disagree with them and call them out on their lies.  Where they identify themselves with titles that are so contrary to their actions and out right blasphemous to believers. One of the reasons why I started this podcast is because of the actions and lies and misleadings of some of our leaders and the reactionary energetic their out right lies and deceptive actions stirred within me.  Maybe you’ve felt the same things too.  Maybe you have friends who are so reactionary and seeking all means to vote out our leaders even if it means stooping to the same vitriol and polarity and fear mongering that political leaders on the opposite spectrum from them stoop to. The Sentences of Sextus admonishes the listener to love the truth, to avoid deceiving others, to seek Wisdom, and how to stay grounded in the Divine light energy that heals, reveals and appeals to the soul to always seek higher ideals. I hope you enjoy the imaginal prayer exercise that follows based on the sentences from The Sentences of Sextus that spoke to my soul the most.  I am using the translation by Frederik Wisse.

Earlier this week I re-read the Gnostic text The Thunder, Perfect Mind.  I loved it’s riddle laden monologue with pronouncements that are rich in meditative thought yet if taken literally are so opposite to one another it might confuse the listener.  It reminded me of the fate of all light working, modern minds seeking to establish justice, equality, love and a more egalitarian culture and despise the actions, words, rhetoric and policies of those now in power in the United States. On the one hand all are created equal, all are loved by God, but the agitations and words and decisions of some leaders stir reactions of anger, bitterness, hatred, disdain towards the man who he and his minions have done so much to undo the strides that our government has made towards equality, towards women rights, towards civil rights. Tolerance is no longer an option.  Tolerance of those opposed to American ideals as equality and justice for all and religious freedom not just the promotion of the narrow minded understanding of Christianity that those evangelical fundamentalists who have made their beds with the conservative politicians in this country seek to force on all of us is what has got us into this mess.  Tolerance is no longer the answer.  Tolerance is toxic. In The Thunder, Perfect Mind we are presented with the discourse of a feminine savior, represented as afterthought.  She proclaims who she is and challenges us to seek her, to seek wisdom, perfect intellect.  I do not claim to understand the passage completely or deeply, but I found it’s juxtaposition of opposites so rich in meditating on.  I would like to imaginally pray it with you and hoping it will be rich in helping you not succumb fully to the effects of the negative reactions contemporary politics might incite in you, but help you to stay focused on that greater calling of being we are all called to — to seek the light, to be the light and to be illuminated by reflecting the Divine Light within and an in the cosmos.  And in that way loving one another as the Christ loves each and every one of us.  The translation I will be using for today’s imaginal prayer of The Thunder, Perfect Mind is by George W. MacRae.   

Welcome to Season 2 of Spei Lumina.  Today is our first episode of season 2.  I am excited for the upcoming season.  Today I thought we’d explore imaginal prayer through praying the “Prayer of the Apostle Paul” in an imaginal prayer fashion. “The Prayer of the Apostle Paul” is one of the ancient Nag Hamidi codices discovered in 1945 in upper Egypt.  The text is written in Coptic and is clearly pseudonymous and not written by the historic Apostle Paul.  It is thought to be composed around 150 to 310 AD.  Regardless of it’s real author, I find it to be a beautiful prayer that helps the pray-er transcend above the impacts of the day to day journey as an embodied soul to that spiritual journey to the imaginal reals, the angelic realms, wherein the soul seeks a closer, more dynamic relationship with God. As the 2020 election cycle here in the United States unfolds into full force and the impacts that that has on our psyche — the name calling, the accusations, the bantering about of who is racist and who is not — a prayer like the Gnostic influenced “Prayer of the Apostle Paul” truly helps us focus on the true meaning of who we are and our purpose — a soul living an embodied life here on earth and respond and reflect that Divine Light of God on the cosmos that has so many seeking to stoke up reactions and dissension.  May our imaginal praying of the “Prayer of the Apostle Paul” open all of us up to healing and closer reflection of the Divine and Divine Light in the cosmos.

This episode is being recorded on July 5th.  It was exactly one year ago today that I uploaded the first trailer for Spei Lumina — Light’s of Hope podcast.  This 20th episode is the season finale of season 1.  I hope that you have enjoyed the podcast and enjoy this episode.  Please leave me some feedback or rate the podcast and show on iTunes.  The show’s email address is spei.lumina@angelsofthenativity.org. It’s been a very patriotic and political week here in the United States.  It began with the first debates amongst the 20+ Democratic Party candidates running for nomination by the DNC to be the 2020 Democratic Presidential Candidate and ended with the 243rd anniversary celebration of our nation’s declaration of independence. Of the candidates on the stage for the Democratic debates, only one, in my opinion, spoke with conviction and such positive energy as to speak to the renewal of the soul of not only America of each and every American.  Her words were not words of derision and disdain for our sitting president, but one calling America to a greater duty, a greater response that reaction and anger and name calling.  Marianne Williamson’s words and responses that night called us all to the transformative power of love and to the dire need to work for peace in the world. Her message was not just a sound bite of words chosen to speak because they “polled well” nor were they words spoken to pander to large groups of the Democratic electorate.  They are words from the heart, and true to her calling.  22 years ago, she wrote a book entitled Healing the Soul of America, in which she said: It is a task of our generation to recreate the American politeia, to awaken from our culture of distraction and re-engage the process of democracy with soulfulness and hope. Yes, we see there are problems in the world. But we believe in a universal force that, when activated by the human heart, has the power to make all things right. Such is the divine authority of love: to renew the heart, renew the nations, and ultimately, renew the world. — Marianne Williamson - Healing the Soul Of America. Awaken from our culture of distraction and re-engage the process of democracy with soulfulness and hope.  Wow.  Marianne Williamson’s quote from 22 years ago inspired the imaginal prayer exercise we are about to embark on.  May this imaginal prayer exercise inspire us to awaken from our distractions — distractions celebrating America’s independence with a show of military might and strength and readiness to wage war at any moment, distractions leading us to believe that to seek peace is to be weak, to be meek is to be weak — and explore helping being a part of establishing the peace and freedom of the Kingdom of God. I hope that you will find a spot to relax and get comfortable and join us in setting aside our distractions, hoping to awaken from our culture of distraction, and join us in our imaginal prayer.  The great Catholic Saint Padre Pio once said, “Prayer is the oxygen of the soul.”  May our souls be renewed and illuminated as we set aside time for this imaginal prayer.

Earlier this week there was a meme going around on FaceBook which had a picture of a prominent congressional leader, who in turn due to their position is one of the most powerful figures in their political party.  In prominent type at top it read “Public Enemy #1” and went on to state how they and their party are ruining America and are public enemy number one. It was shared by a friend of mine.  I am keeping it generic, because it doesn’t matter which congressional leader it is, if you are of one party — you can picture the leader of the opposite party and if you are of the other party, you can picture the leader of the party you are not a member of.  The sentiment and energy of the meme is the same, it stokes up reactionary feelings and agreement towards the “public enemy.” I agreed with the public enemy label of this individual.  What I wrestled with, and I commented on my friend’s post about my struggles as a Christian yes… but more so as a spiritual person who believe’s in God’s mercy and love for all creation… is the exhortation of Christ in Luke 6:27: “Listen, all of you. Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. Pray for the happiness of those who curse you; implore God’s blessing on those who hurt you.” Luke 6:27-28  The Living Bible Luke 6 is not the only gospel passage that discusses love of enemy.  In the gospel of Matthew 5:44-45, we here Christ similarly as in Luke proclaim: “But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for God makes the sun rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and unrighteous.” Matthew 5:44-45 I may agree with the sentiment the meme that this political leader and the party they represent are public enemy #1, but I don’t know that all this naming, shaming, labelling does anything towards building the Kingdom of God, towards accepting that call to transform the world around us through following the command to love our enemies.  The path of love is not just a Christian path but a universal call.  If we take loving your enemy out of the Way, the Truth, and the Life that Christ pointed us towards and was, is that still following in the path of the Christ?  Are we still Light? Not to rationalize the negative actions of this leader and of their party — both parties have their own agendas and neither are truly altruistic in their motives — but praying for their conversion? praying for them to follow in the way of Truth and Love?  Imagining them growing in compassion and mercy just as God is compassionate and merciful?  Is that more along the lines of Christ’s exhortations to love our enemy? Personally, I am worn out by all of this negative energy and polarity of naming, blaming and shaming our “enemies” when perhaps the greatest enemy to our growth in our spiritual journey is ourselves for not trusting in expressing love for our “enemies” in times like these, for not opening hearts and offering love to transform the negativity of our time into a productive, creative, restoring force upon the cosmos. I thought an imaginal prayer exercise, gathering ourselves into the silence and opening our hearts, our minds, our imagination to be illuminated by the gospel passages from Luke and Matthew to love our enemies was in order to strengthen us in our journey of expanding love, heart consciousness, light, healing upon the cosmos and the world around us.

This episode is being recorded on May 30, 2019.  It is a special edition episode that is part history, part imaginal prayer, part generational healing, part reminder of the violence that man is capable when we veer too far away from the commandment to love the Lord your God with your whole heart, your whole soul, and your whole mind and to love your neighbor as yourself.  It is not meant to rationalize or explain away the horrible actions of white mobs, nor is it meant to diminish in anyway the haunting horrible effects their actions had on those days.  It is an event that occurred in my home city nearly 50 years before I was born and it’s aftermath haunts the residents of that city and of our nation to this day.  The purpose of this imaginal prayer exercise is recall that tragic and violent event and pray for healing of the city and nation it occurred in, for healing of the victims, for healing of the perpetrators and for healing of the racial tensions still festered and harbored below the surface by many in our country who are European American, African American, Latin American, and Native American.  On this date 98 years ago in 1921 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, one of the worst incidents of racial violence in the history of the United States was about to erupt.  On the morning of May 30, 1921, a young black man named Dick Rowland was riding in the elevator of the Drexel Building at Third and Main with a 17 year old white elevator attendant named Sarah Page.  The details of what occurred are not certain.  Sarah Page screamed and Dick Rowland was seen running from the elevator.  Police were called, Rowland was accused of assault.  Newspaper accounts spread news of the suspected assault of a white girl by a black man. The Tulsa Tribune — the evening newspaper int he city — printed an editorial to “Nab Negro for Attacking Girl on Elevator”. By the next day, May 31, Rowland was arrested and taken into custody.  Whites gathered around the courthouse which led to fears he’d be lynched.  Alarmed, some of the local black population gathered at the courthouse too, some armed.  Shots were fired.  12 people were killed.  The mobs dispersed — the black community members went back to the Greenwood District where most of the black community in Tulsa lived at the time.  The Greenwood District was a prosperous black business area.  Booker T. Washington dubbed it the “black Wall Street.” In the early hours of June 1, 1921 a white mob retaliated by invading the Greenwood District looting and burning the district destroying many of the businesses, homes, and buildings in the area.  The racial massacre lasted for over 16 hours and in the end some 40 city blocks of buildings and homes had been destroyed, the “official” death toll was reported to be 36 killed — now believed to be closer to 300 black people killed, 10,000 black citizens of Tulsa left homeless. No rioters were ever charged.  Dick Rowland was never charged for the incident in the elevator.   It was a dark moment in the city of Tulsa, and our country for that matter, that was rarely discussed or taught in the schools.  Growing up and being educated in the Tulsa Public Schools, what little was discussed about the worst racial violence in our country was described as a “race riot” with little details save for the description of the incident in the elevator and a high level discussion of what ensued.  Today, we know that it was described as a “race riot” because a riot was one of the few clauses in most insurance policies at the time where the insurance company did not have to pay on claims involving a riot.  None of the black owned businesses ever received compensation for any claims maid against their insurance during the incident. The light of truth shines today as we now know it was not a “race riot”, but thanks to historians and activists who have helped us identify it for what it was a “race massacre.” In recent years there has been much talk about reparations.  I don’t know how reparations could ever truly be made for the utter violence and destruction that occurred at the hands of angry white mobs.  I do know that God’s grace, God’s love, God’s light and truth heals. I thought an imaginal prayer exercise remembering those involved, those who witnessed it, the victims, the violent mobs, and all their descendants left to make sense of the violent massacre and destruction and loss was in order. This imaginal prayer exercise will be holding all of the above — living and deceased — in Divine Light and love with the intention of healing all involved and impacted by the events and seeking to eradicate in our imaginal prayer such racially violent energy and desires from taking hold of men again. 

We’ve officially begun another election cycle here in the United States with the news that the first Democratic Debates will occur June 26th and June 27th.  Just over four weeks away.  The news cycles are already providing viral fodder for the debates with the coverage of the China tariffs, the Mueller report disclosure, the House subpoenas for President Trump’s tax returns, generic drug price gouging, and the measles outbreak.  Are you ready for a bumpy ride for the next 18 months until the 2020 election?  Are you ready for the increased polarity rhetoric designed solely to evoke reactions?  Are you prepared to ascend above the rhetoric and reaction and fray and stay anchored in your true being, your true nature, your true calling, the person God created you to be? We were not created to be reactionary… to react in anger… to react with shame and blame at those who wrong us or make the wrong decisions… each of us were created with a divine calling from God.  A calling unique to each and every one of us.  A calling to change and transform the world through reflecting the Divine Light of God within and upon the cosmos.  I thought an imaginal prayer exercise, grounding us in awareness of the greatest commandment and it’s second similar commandment is in order to help us stay focused on being true to our calling and standing strong agains reactionary, divisive, political rhetoric seeking only to further divide us from our neighbor and from striving to be faithful to the greatest commandments.

Last week I had the honor of being interviewed on Dr. Joshua Black, Phd and Shawn Ram’s Grief Dreams podcast.  Dr. Black and Shawn really seam to be living out their passion helping so many heal from their grieving through providing a platform to discuss the dreams people have of loved one’s and beloved pet’s that have died. These two young Canadians and many of the guests that they have on their podcast, through their grief journey have stumbled upon the secret of living out one’s passion, of living out one’s vocation — divine calling — in allowing their grief journey to transform their lives by helping others in their journey. On their podcast, I had a chance discuss my own grief journey and grief dreams, a little bit about relics and their veneration in the catholic tradition, this podcast Spei Lumina and a little bit about Henry Corbin’s work regarding the Imaginal Mundi and how it has influenced my own attempts in this podcast of providing a praxis for laying out the basics of imaginal prayer putting it to work in helping me and others transform our lives by reflecting Divine light and hope throughout the cosmos. It always encourages me when I learn about and experience first hand young people like Dr. Black and Shawn Ram whose souls are on fire and burning with that zeal that comes when you are actively pursuing and living out your passion, your vocation, your Divine calling.  Vocation comes from the Latin word vocare or “to call” and it refers to God’s call for each and every one of us, not just for those called to ministry or religious life, but for all of creation. Dr. Black’s research on grief dreams and his work with Shawn on the podcast and the lives they touch are indeed a great reflection of that wondrous process that occurs in the imaginal realm where, as Henri Corbin describes, “the Active Imagination is Creative Imagination and exploration of the subtle realm requires participation between the human and divine and is at once discovery and creation.” Henri Corbin, in his work Alone with the Alone: Creative Imagination in the Sufism of Ibn ‘Arabi,  describes prayer as “the highest form, the supreme act of the Creative Imagination.  For prayer is not a request for something; it is the expression of a mode of being, a means of existing and causing to exist… The organ of Prayer is the heart, the psychospiritual organ, with it’s concentration of energy, it’s himma.  Prayer is a “creator” of vision.” Inspired by Dr. Black and Shawn Ram and so many others who are not merely living by the ways and means society programs us, manipulates us to live, in pursuit of material gain only, in a reactionary or rote fashion, but who live out their passion and meaning in life and in so doing reflect a greater spark of the Divine, of hope in the world, I thought an imaginal prayer exercise using quotes from Hebrew and Christian scripture and from the Sufi mystic Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi, regarding wisdom, the soul, and passion would inflame passion and purpose and hope and meaning in each of us growing in our practice of imaginal prayer.

In the past week, the news cycles have reported the stories about 2 survivors of the Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School mass shooting dying by suicide and the father of a Sandy Hook mass shooting victim dying by suicide.  Three lives irreversibly traumatized by gun violence.  Three lives whose inner Light was so diminished by an act of evil.  Three lives who bore the weight of unfathomable grief. Once again we find ourselves as a family, as a community, as a country talking more about suicide and mental health.  Beginning to acknowledge as a country the growing epidemic of suicide.  I have no answers as to the best way to solve and halt and stop gun violence.  Nor do I have a solution for reducing suicide.  Nor a solution for helping people so traumatized by violence to grieve over the violent loss of a loved one.  I can only imagine the sorrow and burdens those directly impacted by gun violence, by thoughts of suicide and by suicide itself carry with them for the rest of their life. I thought an imaginal prayer exercise envisioning hopefulness is what is called for in times like these.  It’s not an empty “thoughts and prayers” often derided by so many today because our political leaders who could make change who refuse to make change and only offer their “thoughts and prayers.”  This imaginal prayer exercise of hopefulness is being offered to radiate Light out into the cosmos to all those who may be in their darkest moments, to radiate Hope in a world that is bombarded with messages and images seeking to destroy all hope, and to radiate healing and consolation on all victims of gun violence and their families.  That the pain stop and healing can begin.  Most importantly, it is being offered to send God’s Light, Hope and Healing upon all those struggling with thoughts of suicide and those contemplating suicide.

Three weeks ago, on February 15, 2019, President Donald Trump declared a national emergency along our southern border to get the funding for his border wall.  It seems like there are numerous other emergencies facing this country that are greater than the crisis down at our southern border with Mexico and the thousands of refugees and immigrants seeking to enter the United States in pursuit of the American Dream.   It is time that we emerge from our our privileged life, our comfortable life, our protected and sheltered life and see the real emergencies facing our country today:   the opioid crisis climate change US veteran suicide young adult suicide the fading American dream   Please join me in this imaginal prayer exercise as we seek illumination on emerging from our darkness and seeing the true emergencies, the true great needs around us and being guided by Christ on how best to respond and offer ourselves in service to being present to those in need and experiencing a greater emergency than the declaration made by our president for the border wall simply to circumvent Congress and the appropriations process.

Over the passed 10 days, the news cycles have fueled the polarity between the American people from the the detailed coverage of the 35 day government shutdown where political grandstanding and name calling between congressional leaders and the president to the sensational story MAGA hatted teens purportedly taunting the Native American elder right after the right to life march in DC.  As that story unraveled, the American public would learn ever so slowly that there was to the story than the 20 seconds or so initially publicized showing white teens confronting the elder.  There were far more players in that story than just the teens and the Native American elder, yet the third group of instigators in that scene got little to no air time.   Your loyalty to a cause was quickly assumed by whether you sympathized with the MAGA hatted teens or the Native American Elder.  Few had an opportunity to consider the contribution, much less sympathize with, the third group that perhaps were the most vocal instigators.  It’s as if our media sought to erase the contribution that this third group made to the furor and wanted us to choose only between the teens and the elder.   In both of the major news cycle stories mentioned above, we saw the worst of American media and directly experienced first hand the media’s corrosive impact on our individual consciousness.  Neither the shutdown coverage nor the MAGA hatted teens and Native American elder coverage were broadcast to raise up our consciousness but to keep it’s hearers and viewers and readers imprisoned and bound in their emotional reactions to the stories.   Luckily, I had the opportunity to end the week on Saturday learning about Robert A. Monroe and The Monroe Institute in Faber, VA and their contributions to expanded consciousness exploration and meditation through attending their 1 day open house program.  Experiencing first hand the effects of binaural beats and Hemi-Sync technology helping stimulate both hemispheres of the brain and move into beneficial brainwave states was the perfect antidote to all that reactionary media blitz over the shutdown and the MAGA hatted teens.   I thought we would use these two news cycles — the coverage of the longest government shutdown in American history and the coverage of the White Teens and the Native American elders as the basis of this weeks imaginal prayer exercise.

This week has been a week of epiphanies for me and in this episode, I hope to use a different style of podcasting, one that is more conversational and less scripted.  Particularly for the imaginal prayer exercise I will be guiding us through today.  Please offer any feedback you may have with this change in style.  I’d welcome and and all feedback you may want to e-mail me at spei.lumina@angelsofthenativity.org. Earlier this summer, my friend Annette shared on FaceBook a picture of a painting she had started.  She was inspired to paint this picture of a woman holding an orb between her hands.  When I saw it, it spoke volumes to me and I shared with her how it reminded me of the Anima Mundi — the World Soul that holds all together and keeps mankind from completely destroying the earth. This week, I had the pleasure of seeing her finished work and it spoke deeply to my soul.  After seeing it, I understood the fall from Eden story as depicted in Genesis 3:1-7 in a completely different way.  Later that day, I was listening to the Awakening Code Radio podcast and Erik Rankin made a comment in passing about “Eve’s decision was not so much about the fall of humanity as it was about shifting from unity consciousness to private consciousness.  From knowing how everything is connected and acting based on that knowledge, to disregarding that connectedness and acting based upon preserving yourself.” I blogged about this in the Pro Anima Blog I write.  Both the painting and Eric’s comments spoke deeply as to how I understood the fall in a whole new way.  I never interpreted the fall of man in a literal sense, but now it had so much more meaning to me after seeing Annette’s finished work and listening to Eric’s comments about the shift from unity consciousness to private consciousness.

Happy New Year!  I hope 2019 is off to a great start for you and that you are stepping out into 2019 with lots of light, hope and enthusiasm for helping be agents of light and hope and not agents of enabling the culture of division and despair and demeaning we find so readily in the world. I thought to start the new year off right, we’d have an imaginal prayer exercise focusing on taking stock of our successes and failures in 2018 and looking towards 2019 spreading hope and light and truth in ways that God has called each and every one of us to uniquely do in the world. Our new years’ imaginal prayer exercise will utilize the prologue from the Gospel of John (John 1:1-18) as the foundation for our imaginal work. 

I am late publishing this week’s podcast due to self made busy-ness the holiday season sometimes brings.  I try to publish this podcast once every two weeks on Friday evening.  I hope that your holiday season is off to a great start with lots of fun and joyful celebrations with friends and family and are embarking on closing out 2018 with renewed energy, hope, joy and excitement.   It seems like not a day goes by that the broadcast news does not present us with a story about the actions or words of our political leaders, the lenient or harsh decisions in our judicial system, the deplorable actions of some individual presented in such a way to incite our reactions of judgement, fear, anger, resentment.   We can sometimes lose touch with the fact that we were created for something greater.  Reacting in anger, in judgment, in resentment is not what God created us for.    I thought today we’d do an imaginal prayer exercise that helps us focus on and be grounded in the fact that the spark of the Divine exists within each of us and that we are all wonderfully and fearfully created, even those whose actions and opinions and views are so radically different than ours and whose actions are so caustic to human decency and society.   This episode’s imaginal prayer exercise will take portions of Psalm 139 as our visioning source to familiarize ourselves with and illuminate our imagining with the fact that we ourselves and all people are wonderfully and fearfully made.   This imaginal prayer exercise can easily be prayed in the first person for ourselves, helping us be grounded in being the Light we seek in the world.  It can also be prayed in the first person with the intention being for those whose actions lack Light, lack hope, lack joy to also come to know that spark of the Divine light within them and that they too may be that Light, so desperately needed in the cosmos.  May it help us and those we pray it for reflect the Divine Light of hope, love and peace into the cosmos.   Before starting, quiet down your mind and get comfortable in a chair or laying down and determine the intention of your imaginal prayer exercise — are you praying for greater clarity of the awareness of your own fearful and wonderfully made creation or for the intention that someone else may come to know their fearful and wonderful creation?  If for someone else, picture them in your mind’s eye and hold them in light, love and prayer as we begin our imaginal prayer exercise.

Welcome to Episode 9 of the Spei Lumina — Light’s of Hope podcast.  Spei Lumina is written, produced, and hosted by me Fr. Donald Knight.  I hope you like the imaginal prayer exercise I will be guiding you through today.  Today’s episode is titled Remembrance of Those Lost in Mass Shootings from All Souls 2017 Through November 8, 2018 and originally broadcast on Friday, November 9, 2018.  Since first drafting the details and prayer for this episode, two other mass shooting incidents have occurred as I went to edit and publish.  I have re-recorded the episode in order to include those violent tragic mass shootings in our imaginal prayer exercise.   If you like the show, I ask that you please subscribe to the show on iTunes and rate the episode and show.  Your ratings make a difference in helping get the word out about transforming the negativity of most mass media through imaginal prayer and pray dreaming and helping be a part of reflecting and increasing the Divine Light of God within the cosmos.   Intro:   November is the month of remembrance in so many ways.  In the liturgical Christian tradition it begins with All Saints Day on November 1st and continues with remembering the loved ones we lost throughout the previous year and all the years before on All Souls Day on November 2.  Which is followed by November 11, when Remembrance Day — or Veterans Day — is observed in the United States the UK and most of Europe commemorating all those who gave their lives in the service of defending freedom during World War I.  Not long after Remembrance day Thanksgiving is celebrated in the US, where families gather together to pause and reflect and celebrate a meal together and express gratitude for the abundant ways the Divine has blessed their lives.   In preparing for today’s podcast, I stumbled across the Gun Violence Archive website at www.gunviolence.org.  A website established to provide free and accurate information about gun violence in the United States.  Being that this podcast is being published roughly 10 days following the tragic mass shooting at the the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh fresh in the American psyche and not even 9 months after the tragic mass shooting at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL, it’s easy to experience these tragic and violent events through the media and taken separately, forget about the tragedies until the next one occurs.    I went to the the Gun Violence Archive website and was startled to learn that from Nov. 2, 2017 (All Souls Day 2017) to Nov. 2, 2018 (All Souls Day 2018) and including and up through November 8th 2018 — 377 days — there have been 350 mass shootings in the United States — one mass shooting every 1.06 days, or stated differently, 1 mass shooting every 25.44 hours.  During that time frame, 384 people were killed in mass shootings across the United States. During that same time period, 1,437 people were injured during the violence wrought by these mass shootings.    For this episode, I would like to focus our imaginal prayer exercise in this month of remembrance and being close to All Souls Day on remembering those who lost their lives to gun violence in mass shootings.  Remembering, so as to never forget.  Remembering so as to not be swayed by the rhetoric that promotes belief that gun violence and mass shootings are rare and infrequent and shedding light on the epidemic of gun violence in our lives.  Remembering to honor those who died in mass shootings and had a name.  Remembering in order to pray for those who are left to pick up the pieces when their loved ones were ripped out of their lives by gun violence.  Remembering so that we might be inspired to be that spark of Light, of Life that can make a difference and help illuminate the presence of hatred, bigotry, prejudice in the cosmos and respond in Love and Light.

Last week, I tuned into CBS Morning News and the lead story was about active shooter training at an elementary school in Florida.  The reporter was in the classroom of 4th grade students when the school was having an active shooter drill.  The viewers got to witness first hand as the principal came over the intercom and stated “we are pretending that there is an active shooter in the school.”  Pretending?  That didn’t seem like the best choice of words.  Then as the drill instructions continued the 9 - 10 year old children quickly, as CBS news reports “sprang into action, barricading the door to their classroom, lining up along a wall out of sight from the door and arming themselves with whatever items they could grab, including pencils, scissors and water bottles.” After the drill was complete, when the reporter asked if they were scared during the drill, almost every hand went up.  These drills have become a normal part of life for many students in the United States.  Realizing that this is a “normal part of life” for school aged children and witnessing their robotic spring to action under the guise of making them safer even though the majority still admitted to being scared, spoke volumes to me about how our young children are influenced from the earliest of ages to live and act out of fear.  I realized too, that schools are no longer bastions of safety and protection that they once were thought to be. This week in the news we heard of the explosives mailed to twelve leading Democrats and other officials and leaders who have been critics of President Trump.  Thankgfully, the individual thought to be behind the bombs has just been taken into custody and no one was hurt but could have been. It is startling that someone was so manipulated by the rhetoric of political leaders, by their own bigotry and prejudice as to react in the most negative and potentially destructive ways as to take the time to plan, purchase the materials, make explosives and send them to those whom they disagree with, whom they see as the “other”, the “enemy”, the “problem” because certain leaders have always cast their critics in that light. It is precisely because of reactions like this and the potential for more people to be so manipulated as to desire harm and destruction of those who disagree with them, who they’ve been told are the “other” that Spei Lumina came into being.  The goal of this podcast and of imaginal prayer is to take the negative effects of media and news, those effects that only stoke reactions and respond with meditation, prayer, imaginal prayer imaging Divine Light in the darkness of all that rhetoric.  A practice done to illuminate in our mind that True Self the Divine has called us to be.  The better self that we are.  Or, as Henry Corbin described in his cosmology, “our angel out ahead” whom we will be reunited with someday and who leads us to our highest, illuminated, self.  In his book The Way Back to Paradise: Restoring the Balance Between Magic and Reason, the philosopher Joseph M. Felser, PH. D., discusses doppelgängers and how the universe sometimes works in such a synchronistic way as to give us a glimpse of our doppelgänger — not just the common understanding of the“double of a living person” but the fuller American Heritage Dictionary definition of “a ghostly double of a living person, especially one that haunts its fleshy counterpart” (Felser, Joseph The Way Back to Paradise, 51).  Dr. Felser goes on to explain that sometimes we are presented a glimpse of our doppelgänger by the universe in ways that may not make sense at the time, but later as we reflect we become aware of that’s who we risk turning into if we continue along the present course, feeding our present reactions and not taking time to respond to the situations we are in.  For some it might be seeing an obese version of themselves if they don’t change their diet, or exercise more.  For others it might be seeing a glimpse of a bitter version of themselves if they do not change the current occupation they are in that they no longer find fulfilling and squashes their creative side.   For others, it may be as simple as not taking time to be in nature and observing first hand the interconnectivity of all creation and not bothering to recycle, to pay attention to taking care of the earth, etc… Felser’s Doppelgänger fits in well with Corbin’s “angel out ahead” cosmology when we put it into the perspective that our doppelgänger is who we risk becoming when we have lost touch with, lost sight of or no longer are in communion with our “angel out ahead”. The current polarity facing our country between the right and the left, Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and liberals is greatly fed by our reactions to the news we hear and our lack of taking the time to mindfully, prayerfully, purposely respond in a way that is part of the solution of the problem not further spewing of diversionary rhetoric on the situation. For this episode, I would like to focus our imaginal prayer exercise on ourselves and our young who are in our life and how we might participate in the Anima Mundi — the soul of the world —safety net of protection, of hope, of love.  Rather than risk giving more life and credence to the reactionary destructive energies of our cosmic doppelgänger may our imaginal prayer exercise help us foster and nurture a closer relationship with our “angel out ahead”.  May it help us discover how to counteract the influences that encourage our young to live out of fear.  May the Divine Light of God inspire within our consciousness, our mind, our imagination how to brightly go about spreading divine hope, divine love, divine light and further empower the Anima Mundi protecting our world, our cosmos.

Today, I thought I would take a moment to honor a great thinker, philosopher and theologian who has greatly influenced my spiritual journey and prayer life. A person, who if I had never been introduced to their work, may have never been inspired to start this podcast. I do not have an imaginal prayer exercise but do have a tribute to this theologian who, I think is a saint for his scholarly work and deserves a remembrance on a liturgical calendar. Today, October 7th, marks the 40th anniversary of the passing of Islamic Studies scholar, theologian and philosopher Henry Corbin. Corbin’s greatest contribution perhaps is helping the world discover and appreciate a mysticism not world denying but founded on the principle that all of creation is a theophany, a manifestation of God. For Corbin, the Imagination is the primary means to engage with Creation. From this, he holds that, “Prayer is the supreme act of the Creative Imagination.” This understanding, this worldview or cosmology, sparked within me the notion of “imaginal prayer”. My idea imaginal prayer involves further developing a means of contemplation based not on the self creating the vision to be sought after, nor on self creating that which is to be contemplated upon but on making the space, the place to quiet down the mind and consciousness and open up to the Divine illuminating our imagination with the image of that which we individually and collectively are called to be a part of in helping radiate the Divine Light of Love, of Grace, of Hope throughout the cosmos. Through Spei Lumina, I hope to take those events in our world, often portrayed by media in such a manipulative way so as to greatly incite emotional and negative reactions amongst its receivers and to use an imaginal prayer exercise that transforms our reaction into responsive reflective action seeking to halt the chaotic reactions incited by media and reflect the Divine Light of Hope, of Love, of Joy, of Light. For, as St. Francis of Assisi said, “All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a single candle.” Without reading Henry Corbin’s works and learning about his cosmology of the Imaginal Mundi, my prayer life and spiritual journey would be far less rich as it is today and I hope that in my small, less academic way, but one of promoting a spiritual praxis I call imaginal prayer, I too can help others discover the rich reality of imaginal prayer and experiencing the Divine and Creation in a whole new way. May our imaginal prayers be like a million candle lights bursting forth upon cosmos eradicating the darkness most modern media seeks to unveil. May the memory of Henry Corbin continue to be a blessing upon the world and a light shining brightly within the cosmos. I hope that you are enjoying the podcast and our imaginal prayer exercises we’ve published to date. I would welcome your feedback at fr.donald@angelsofthenativity.org or speilumina@angelsofthenativity.org. Thank you for listening.

Welcome to Episode 6 of Spei Lumina — Lights of Hope. Yesterday, Oct. 4th, was the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi. I thought rather than take a recent news cycle and work on transforming its reactionary impact on the cosmos, on each of our psyches into an imaginal prayer exercise, I’d use this remembrance of St. Francis of Assisi and his words and works attributed to him as the basis of our imaginal prayer exercise. In so doing, I thought it would give me an opportunity to further explain or give examples of what I mean by “imaginal prayer”. St. Francis is quoted as saying, “All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a single candle.” It is my hope and intention through this podcast to help emblazon and inflame the light of God, the light of hope, in the world which is bombarded with so much darkness, division, criticism, judgment, and fear through modern media. This podcast came into being as a result of my feeling called to help make a difference in the world through nurturing the reflection of Divine Light in the world so overshadowed by the darkness. I have long had a devotion to Archangel Uriel and wanted to honor that devotion by grounding my imaginal prayer exercises praying to Archangel Uriel for intercession and enlightenment as we imaginally journeyed in our conscious and opened ourselves to God’s Divine light illuminating our conscious with the vision of how we could be vessels of that reflected light and hope in the cosmos. Imaginal prayer is not so much praying with words as it is making space in our consciousness for settling down and quieting, clearing, and vanishing from our mind the thoughts and images which distract us from our Divine calling. So much of our exposure to media — be it broadcast news, social media, radio, and other sources on the Internet — incites intense reactions and emotions. This reactionary impact is what prompted me in my spiritual journey to explore better ways of dealing with the reactionary impact of media within my own life. Meditation indeed seemed key, but I was drawn to something more, to some way of taking the negative reactionary effect, the darkness and transforming that reaction to something positive and reflecting great light and love in the world. This passion for further exploring a way of transforming this reactionary impact of media into something Source focused, Light focused, God focused led me to exploring what I call imaginal prayer, visioning prayer, or pray dreaming. This exploration of imaginal prayer has been greatly influenced by the late Islamic studies philosopher and theologian Dr. Henry Corbin, Phd, and his cosmology of the Imaginal Mundi and more recently by the work of Dr. Joseph M. Felser, Phd and his work The Way Back to Paradise, Restoring the Balance Between Magic and Reason. So, in a nutshell, imaginal prayer offers us not only a way to transform the negative reactionary impact of media within our lives and replace the reactions with making space for God to illuminate our imagination to the solution and how we might respond and offer ourselves in creating that solution. Imaginal prayer leads us from reaction to responsive action that helps reflect and co-create the grace of God, of light, of hope in the cosmos. I have come to believe and know that imaginal prayer is not so much controlling and creating the vision we seek to participate in and ask God to enlighten us how to make it be, as it is humbly clearing our mind, our consciousness from distracting images, visions and thoughts and creating that silence and solitude and blank slate within our consciousness to be open to God/Sprit/the Universe illuminating our mind with the vision that God/Spirit/the Universe calls us to be co-creators in helping come to fruition on Earth. I don’t claim to have all the answers about imaginal prayer, but I do believe that it is a method of contemplative prayer beneficial to those for whom praying with words can occasionally become monotonous and have no meaning. I hope that you too are enjoying this exploration into imaginal prayer. I’d love to hear your feedback. I try to respond to all emails I receive. I can be reached at fr.donald@angelsofthenativity.org. Let us now begin our imaginal prayer exploration of the the Peace Prayer which is attributed to St. Francis.