Today I woke up with a very clear vision of several African women (all in bright, beautiful traditional clothing and head wraps) holding huge cards in front of them. I could sense words coming to fill in the different cards. I knew I was receiving a personal development exercise, but I wasn’t sure exactly what, or how it worked.
Nevertheless, I started filling in the words on each card as they came to me: Integrity, Creativity, Intelligence. When I was pretty sure I was not going to be able to remember any more, I grabbed my handy-dandy notebook from my nightstand and quickly sketched an outline of what I was seeing.
It didn’t take long before I realized I was going to need more room. I started over, writing the raw words and phrases vertically, side-by-side like fence posts, in the order I visualized them on the cards: “creativity” near the left, “integrity” near the right, and so on and so forth.
As I worked, more and more words unfolded to fill in the missing lines on my page–some alone, some grouped into relationships with other words on the same line. Things I had never thought of as being related started to come together on the page.
I watched as my pencil effortlessly took notes of the concepts running through my mind’s eye.
But then something changed.
The words started to overfill the page and started to become disjointed fragments–some of which were just plain nonsense. Still, I chose to trust the process until it stopped, after which I took a moment and reviewed the results as objectively as possible.
What had happened to my wonderful exercise that I was receiving? How was this going to help anyone? Where was the corruption coming from? It shouldn’t have been polluted – I started clean and clear. Had my brain taken over and made a mess of what was supposed to be a gift from Wisdom?
The exercise that had begun as “Integrity”, “Ingenuity”, “Creativity”, etc., had morphed into “French Fries” by the end, literally.
Instead of beating myself up too much though, I again chose to trust the process and simply started asking questions. I set my intention and inquired about the purpose of the exercise and the mishmash result I was left with. This is what I received:
“The holy becomes splintered into factions that are unrecognizable. Their value gets contaminated with drivel so they can’t easily be seen as truth versus fiction.”
I got the point. It made sense and was very easily understandable in the context of the way the words and ideas flowed onto the pages. But I wanted more, so I opened a Wisdom dialog.
The Channel
I started my dialog by noting my own observations of the exercise that had just unfolded; but my journaling was quickly replaced with a channel within a line or two:
“The exercise started as values, then a path to spirituality or perhaps a model that represents holistic spirituality and practice? But is Spirituality really the desired outcome? Or is it just a tool to the desired outcome?
I would posit that Spirituality is a tool. The desired outcome is a sense of wholeness or greater being within oneself and in connection to everything—known and unknown.
Clearly, right now, some of us would prefer to not be connected to some of what we see in the world. We don’t want any part of it and don’t want to associate with it. We hold ourselves separate from it and go so far as to say that we will not be part of this mutiny of values.
Instead we seek a solution, a chance to overthrow the rebels who are not like us and don’t share our own philosophies and views, virtuous or otherwise.
It’s always us against them, each one trying to do damage control.
But in the “real” world, we can no more separate ourselves from them than we can build a bridge single-handedly across the River Themes[1].
We must work together to create lasting change. We must seek global unification and community. But that is never going to happen within our current understanding of the structure, which is men and God, neither of which exist alone in the whole, solely and explicitly because if nothing else, each affects the other.
Power-over will never win.
The only path to peace and prosperity is through personal change and trying to do our part, our best, without making the other wrong.
As long as we must make each other wrong, no lasting change will ever take effect and endure.
Look at the political climate right now. One side makes changes; the other undoes them as soon as they have the power to do so—both believing they are more right and their way is the right way. Neither side is trying to destroy the country/the world. They just can’t see the world through any lens but their own.
I personally believe that the only way to peace is through a grand effort to be accountable, work together in grassroots movements and woo the “others” into liking what you have to offer. It’s like making a sale rather than winning a debate.
You do not go out to sell a product or service and beat your potential customer about the head. Rather, you show them their problem; or better yet, let them tell you their problem in excruciating detail. Then you suggest that if there was a solution, how would it change their lives? What would it look like? What would it feel like?
Then you work with them to provide a solution, to help them achieve the desired state whether or not your product or offering actually addresses their original perceived issues.
The problem they believe/perceive often isn’t really the problem at all. It’s just the only path they can imagine to the state they want to achieve.
But the only way to find solutions to complicated problems – or rather, elevated solutions – is by working together.
If it was easy, it would already be done.
So brace yourselves for a turbulent year of growth and learning, because that is the path to victory, and we are all on this road together whether you want to believe it or not.
Every action affects everything else it touches or comes in contact with—physically, politically—demonstrably in every level of personal and communal structure. We are all either part of the solution or part of the problem.
Are you brave enough to be part of the solution? Because it is going to require humility, humbleness, kindness and love, especially when it’s hard or maybe even [when it] feels impossible.”
~Lucius Aurelius Verus Augustus
The Source
Well, OK, then! So let’s take a look at this channel and unpack it.
It was clearly not channeled from a guide, as is evident by the many “I” statements and opinions, e.g., “In my opinion,”.
I rarely get channels from deceased people. In the past, they used to come to me if they needed help crossing, but that is ghost work and is different. So this was definitely something unusual for me.
Another oddity was that our current reality – what’s currently happening in the world right now – was clearly perceived and blended into the content provided in the channel, for example, the passages where he included himself in the collective ‘we’ as in, “We are all on this road together whether you want to believe it or not.”
This was weird to me, since he is clearly not in body here with us at this time or he wouldn’t be coming through my pen. So to be working with someone that is not a guide person, and considers himself to be part of the “we” even though he is long gone from this physical plane, was quite interesting to me.
So now, I am perplexed. I received this great channel that seems to have some tough, but excellent points in it directly related to what is happening in our world right now. People need this information, but it’s not from a guide. It is from a person(ality).
So, I have this great resource who is aware of the current goings-on in the world, and speaks from his own related experience and knowing about politics, relationships and business, but I have no idea what to do with this information or how to present it because I don’t know who it is from precisely.
So, I go ahead and ask who I am speaking with. I get, “Lucas Aurelius”.
I am not a history buff by any measure and had never heard of Lucas Aurelius. However, I had heard of the famous Stoic, Marcus Aurelius, so at least I was familiar with the name and spelling and could more easily search on line for what I thought I had heard. To my pleasant surprise, although I didn’t find “Lucas Aurelius”, I found a reference to “Lucius Aurelius Verus Augustus”, ironically, who so-happened to be advisor to his senior, Marcus Aurelius, and Co-Emperor of Rome during that period.
Fun! I had the real name of a real person from a significant time of history on this planet, and who had to have been a staunch Stoic if he was the advisor to Marcus Aurelius. Suddenly, the nature of the comments shared make perfect sense in the context of their origin.
So that’s all great and everything, but what are the take-aways from this experience and channeled message?
#1 – The time is ripe for this message.
This came through Friday morning, January 31, 2020, and by Friday afternoon Brexit was passed in Great Britain and Trump’s impeachment trial in the US Senate had just declined any witnesses or requests for documents. A couple days previous, Trump announced his Israel-Palestine peace plan as well. All of these issues have been very divisive politically and created deep rifts in the countries in which they are happening.
I had also been discussing both politics and Stoicism with the leader of my spiritual community on Thursday, the day before I woke up with this channel. I suspect that is what lined me up to receive this message that appears to be very Stoic in nature based on the name provided, “Lucius Aurelius”, and the methodical, balanced assessment and strategy provided.
#2 – Something must change. What we are doing is not working. Our methods are causing more upset and division than they are solving problems.
The United States is totally up in arms over the attempted impeachment of President Trump. No matter which side you are on, it is very difficult to see why the other side believes what they believe, and it is very hard not to feel like the other side is being played like pawns by an overtly corrupt party. So the comments, “It’s like making a sale rather than winning a debate. You do not go out to sell a product or service and beat your potential customer about the head,” makes perfect sense. Right now, provable facts don’t seem to matter, so winning a debate is not a good strategy. No one cares.
And yet, wooing the others is a tall order. That is a tough recommendation to pull off. We obviously have some work to do individually and collectively if we hope to get to the next phase of our development; because right now, if our governments are any indication of our individual levels of awareness, we are sucking horribly.
#3 – Beyond the philosophical and strategic concepts provided, is there an underlying spiritual message in this channel?
Let’s start with the commentary on unification,
“…in the “real” world, we can no more separate ourselves from them than we can build a bridge single-handedly across the River Themes. We must work together to create lasting change. We must seek global unification and community. But that is never going to happen within our current understanding of the structure, which is men and God, neither of which exist alone in the whole, solely and explicitly because if nothing else, each affects the other.”
Is he saying that men affect God equally as much as God affects men? Does this play into the debate over whether God created man or man created God? Is he even saying that God exists beyond the construct of man’s belief and perception?
And what about Stoicism in general? Is it helpful to you in your daily life?
Personally, I find Stoicism valuable for staying balanced mentally and emotionally, especially in the face of adversity–real or contrived. Stoicism can be very empowering for decision-making because you are prepared and and at the same time able to let go of the need to control. It is also a very nice mental/reasoning compliment to my witchy work that is more spiritual in nature and focuses on the intangibles of connection, creativity, intuition, magic and mystery.
What about you? Can you apply stoicism in a beneficial way without undermining any spirituality that you may also practice?
Footnotes
[1] The River Themes reference
I’m not much of a history or geography buff, so I was pleasantly surprised to do a little research and find that the River Themes is in London and has seemingly an inordinately high number of bridges crossing it, which means it was a great choice for the analogy in the channel of building a bridge over it. Fun!
[2] Names of persons or entities given when receiving a channeled message
In my own divination work, guidance has explained to me that names are about an energetic signature. So particularly with Spirit names, I might be given the closest equivalent that I can receive and understand. Even though it’s not exactly correct, what is important is that energetically, they are basically the same.
I think it’s reasonable to assume the same thing happens with people’s names as well, because in some cases, I will not be able to correctly hear or understand the real name, so my guides have no choice but to provide me the closest possible thing that I can understand and go from there.
Regardless, in my opinion, people stake way too much credibility on the name provided by the channeler as the source of the message. I have seen people who state they are channeling a specific being that is well known in certain circles, yet as I listen to their channel and observe, I am confident they are mistaken. I am not saying their channel didn’t have value or merit. I am just saying that a lot of this stuff can’t be proven and instead of believing blinding, it makes more sense to explore the content for its own merit. Does it ring true? Does it feel right? Does it help you in your life?
Names are like icing on a cake, all pomp and circumstance. They’re not necessary as long as the person receiving the message is well aligned, and you trust they are tapped into a viable benevolent source. And when in doubt, block it out.
This article was inspired by a vision/journey I experienced on Friday, January 31, 2020.
