(Continued from last week’s post) THE PRACTICE OF UJJAYI PRANAYAMA In order to practice ujjayi, a subtle shift takes place in the movement of air-flow, which creates a flowing ocean-like sound. However, too often I have seen an attachment to using this breath create deeper tension in both the physical and energy systems of the …
WHAT IS THE UJJAYI BREATH AND SHOULD I PRACTICE IT? In Hatha Yoga, we practice a series of physical exercises intended to purify the subtle energy channels in our body/being, so that we may one day experience a state of non-dual unity, that is, a oneness with the divine energy that pervades all things. The …
A Gift the World publication
Copyright © 2023 by Parvati Devi
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Published in Toronto by Kupid’s Play. Parvati.world
Cover design by Jellyfunk
THE CALL10
THE GUIDES AND THE GATEKEEPER19
PART 2: THREE GRACE MINDSETS30
THE MIND31
THE FIRST GRACE MINDSET: NON-RESISTANCE36
THE BLOCK: ANTAGONISM AND “YES, BUT”41
THE SECOND GRACE MINDSET: GRATITUDE48
THE OBSTACLE: NON-DISCRIMINATION59
THE THIRD GRACE MINDSET: HUMILITY63
THE OBSTACLE: SELF-NEGATION AND SELF-PUNITION69
THE COURAGE TO GO INTO THE DARK75
THE NATURE OF MIRACULOUS HEALING81
CONCLUSION: YOU ARE THE WORLD92
APPENDIX: YOU, THE GRACE MINDSET AND MAPS95
FROM YOUR HEART TO THE WORLD97
Dedicated to Amma, the angels, the whales, and you.
Parvati is a force of Nature hardwired to support the evolution of human law with natural and universal law. Her exceptional creative capacity and broad range of expertise arise from her innate ability to listen to and work with Nature’s intelligence. An architect and musician by training, a creative director by vision, and a CEO of a multinational charity by heart, she serves a healthy world. Attuned to the frequency of the universe in homeostasis, she is a catalytic vehicle for the awakening of our inherent interconnection with all living things. In this, she assists the necessary realignment to solve the greatest challenges we face today, such as poverty, war, species loss, ecosystem collapse and an overheated world choking on carbon emissions. Her work harmonizes the dissonance between our current political climate, economic and humanitarian actions into universal aid, uniting world leaders and global citizens alike to respond with compassion for the wellbeing of all.
Though we live in a high-speed, often-agitated world where there can be tremendous suffering, there has never been a greater call than there is today for collective and individual wellbeing. We cannot deny the existence of pain. However, grace is also present to assuage it. When we tap into its abundance, health and happiness can happen in ways that seem miraculous. Of this, I have firsthand experience, both as a practitioner and as a patient.
Having founded the Active Integration and Holistic Education program at the University of Toronto, where I taught six courses, and having facilitated workshops and assisted individual clients since 1998 with intuitive counseling and several forms of sound and energy healing, it has been my privilege to witness extraordinary transformations in the lives of others.
On my travels, I have witnessed the world as a whole struggling to heal. Some conflicts resolve quickly, while others leave their mark for generations and flare anew. I see the acts of violence that continue to occur globally today as a sign of a collective illness. These incidents call each of us to awaken into a new way of being. Just as our world needs healing, so do we.
It is as though each of us is a cell within a greater whole. Each cell has its own vitality, its own health, its own vibration. The more we align with joy, love, and healing, the greater benefit to ourselves and to those around us. When we close our hearts and choose fear, hatred, and revenge, we harm ourselves and the world. Painful choices are like cancerous mutations of our beautiful human nature. They wreak havoc, upset balance, and seek to overtake the life force present throughout our shared body.
The answer to our external suffering is the same as the answer to the internal suffering.
Whether inwardly resentful, wanting this moment to be other than it is, or outwardly antagonistic because we only see the people and events around us through our own distorted perception, we all have within us the seeds of pain. It is up to each one of us to choose whether we act in ways that support wellbeing—not sometime in the future, but now, today, in this moment.
Through practice and observation, through guidance both explicit and subtle, I have come to understand that there are three essential mindsets that support healing. I share them with you in this book in the hopes that you will implement them and find greater joy and well-being in your own life—and in the world around you.
However, no one can do the healing for you. Though I share what I can with you, this is your journey to take. If you do not, this book will simply remain words on a page. As we move through the book together, I will ask you to pause at times, with points of contemplation, to help you integrate the material. The physical act of writing in a journal has been scientifically proven to help your brain retain information. I also suggest that you read this book out loud, at least the integration points, as well as your answers. It will help you feel the power and truth of what you read and write. The more you experience this book in your body, the more the Grace Mindset can become a part of your everyday living.
As I look back, I can see how the creation of this book, and much that I now understand about healing, began with the dream of a whale.
During Toronto’s unusually hot summer of 2010, I was scheduled to do a musical tour in Asia. But I kept having a dream of lying on ice, while a great blue whale swam below. It was waiting for me. Finally, I postponed my Asian tour and traveled instead to the North Pole to help raise awareness of the melting Arctic sea ice and our global interconnection.
Three weeks later, in a remote village in the High Arctic on my way to the North Pole, I was greeted by two Inuit elders who said, “You are the one who has come to do healing for the planet. We knew you were coming—the whale told us.” In that moment, I knew I was part of something vast and purposeful beyond my understanding. Nature’s intelligence works through us if we are willing to listen.
On a frozen sea at the top of the world, I gave the northernmost musical performance ever. I dedicated every note I sang to the well-being of all, to the Earth, to life itself. Then I offered prayers and energy work to Nature. I went deep within, became very still, and asked that I might be a vessel for healing for the planet as a whole, and all beings. What followed was a visceral experience of the Earth’s critical role of balance within the universe; the deep suffering it currently experiences from the weight of our ignorance; and the profound pain that exists in humanity because of that ignorance. In the face of this, a spontaneous prayer poured from my heart to the planet itself: “Mother, I know you are suffering. If I can help, if I can alleviate your burden in some way, please let me know.”
When I returned to Toronto, I had a very intense time trying to integrate the immensity of suffering I saw in our world: the way we resist the exquisite joy of being here; the way we hold onto pain and make it “mine”; the way millions all over the world suffer from not having very basic needs met; the way those with so much squander their gifts and take their bounty for granted. I cried for weeks, not in a sentimental feeling of sadness, but in shock from what I saw and felt. My heart was breaking open to a whole new reality, and I was grieving.
After a couple of months, that phase of grief started to subside. I thought my life was going to return to normal, and I could resume the musical tour I had put aside for the North Pole journey. But the emotional shift I was experiencing was just the first opening of a deeper crack in my heart and soul, bringing new information into my consciousness. The whale had not completed its teachings. My prayers for the planet were still floating in the ethers. I would never have imagined possible what happened next.
* * *
When the tsunami devastated Japan on March 11, 2011, I was sound asleep on the other side of the world. I woke up that morning from a turbulent night riddled with nightmares, feeling inexplicably shaken to my core. I could not get out of bed at first, as my legs were numb and not fully responsive.
I pushed through that morning to attend meetings with executives at an international music conference. I had to lift my legs with my hands whenever I got into or out of cars, because my legs were not working properly. Yet I thought the strangeness would pass as spontaneously as it had arrived. Soon after I returned home, however, that would prove not to be the case.
Out of nowhere while I was attending to some simple tasks, overwhelming pain suddenly shot through my spine. My mind went blank from sheer trauma. I could not move my spine or my legs at all. I do not fully remember the details that followed. But I do know that my blood-curdling scream brought Rishi, my husband, running into the room. As I cried in agony, he took me by my arms and half-lifted, half-dragged me—because I could not bear for him to pick up my legs and bend my body in any way—across the hall and onto my bed. Paralyzed from the waist down, I would remain there for three months.
Doctors took a look at the state of my spine and were certain I had been in a car accident. They were shocked when I said I had not experienced any actual physical impact and this had happened spontaneously. They recommended immediate spinal surgery, and I was given just a 50-50 chance of walking again.
When I walked again, without an operation, my recovery was deemed miraculous.
gifttheworld.org
A Gift the World publication
Copyright © 2021 by Parvati Devi
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Published in Toronto by Kupid’s Play. Parvati.world
Cover Photograph by Rishi Deva, Parvati and Jellyfunk
Wardrobe by Parvati
Design by Jellyfunk
Parvati is a force of Nature hardwired to support the evolution of human law with natural and universal law. Her exceptional creative capacity and broad range of expertise arise from her innate ability to listen to and work with Nature’s intelligence. An architect and musician by training, a creative director by vision, and a CEO of a multinational charity by heart, she serves a healthy world. Attuned to the frequency of the universe in homeostasis, she is a catalytic vehicle for the awakening of our inherent interconnection with all living things. In this, and as the creator of the Marine Arctic Peace Sanctuary (MAPS), she assists the necessary realignment to solve the greatest challenges we face today, such as poverty, war, species loss, ecosystem collapse and an overheated world choking on carbon emissions. Her work harmonizes the dissonance between our current political climate, economic and humanitarian actions into universal aid, uniting world leaders and global citizens alike to respond with compassion for the wellbeing of all.
To the Light of the One
that shines through the celestials,
Nature,
and you.
I would like to share with you one of the most precious gifts I have ever received. Until now, only a few people knew of its existence. It came in a period of my life when I was in agonizing pain, debilitation, and uncertainty about my future. Despite the extreme trauma I was undergoing, I look back at that harrowing time as one of immense grace, precisely because the gift came through it.
I have written songs and books, held workshops, and given interviews about some of the transformative experiences I had from that period and how they influenced my professional and artistic work. But what I have never yet revealed, outside a handful of friends, is how one night, in the midst of it all, I was unmistakably visited by angels. The visit, and the celestial message they delivered through a dream, are the contents of this book. Their teachings have changed my life and will change yours too, if you are open, ready, and willing.
Everyone dreams. Some dreams we remember vividly, as though we had lived them wide awake. Other dreams flutter vaguely at the surface of our memory when we return to the waking world. Most remain hidden in the domains we inhabit when we are sound asleep. Once we depart their scenes, they are forever sealed from our conscious memory, yet they live on in our being, imprinted at some level in our spirit. Whether we recall our nightly sojourns or not, I have come to understand that they are of three kinds: Contemplative, Intuitive, and Given.
Most of the dreams we recall are Contemplative Dreams. While our conscious mind is at rest, they churn through our past experiences and our anticipated future in search of resolution. We could dream many times, for example, of arriving at an exam in the wrong classroom or without supplies, reflecting a feeling of being unprepared for something in our life. Once awake, we heed the message and make changes to address the root cause of our anxiety. Then we find the dream evolves to one where we arrive fully equipped, in the right location, to succeed at our test. Contemplative Dreams can help us process traumas and confront our shadows as we move to greater wholeness. They provide an inner laboratory in which we work out how to overcome the various personal obstacles we face daily. They help us become the best versions of ourselves and realize our life’s purpose.
Intuitive Dreams catalyze our creative thinking. They express a connection we all have between our conscious mind and a greater field of knowing. There are famous examples of Intuitive Dreams in the work of leading artists and scientists. World-renowned physicist Albert Einstein published the principle of relativity after one such dream. Nobel Laureate Otto Loewi, often referred to as the “father of neuroscience”, had dreams that helped him prove how nerve signals were transmitted. Elias Howe invented the sewing machine based on a dream that illustrated the mechanics. Sir Paul McCartney awoke one morning with the melody for the Beatles’ hit song Yesterday fully formed. As a musical artist, I have had various Intuitive Dreams, when songs have come to me as I emerged from sleep. And as the founder and director of a multinational charity as well as the president of a media company, I have woken many times knowing how to navigate difficult situations. Throughout history, Intuitive Dreams have framed critical moments and sculpted our cultural trajectory. They remind us of the immensity of the human imagination, the depth of our resilience, and our vast capacity for growth.
Given Dreams are entirely different. They are bestowed from a power beyond us. In them, we receive insight into the eternal nature of existence, and often meet spiritual teachers and guides. Such dreams are glimpses of the interconnected Presence that the great Italian poet Dante Alighieri calls “the Love that moves the sun and all the other stars.”
I have dedicated my life to discovering and serving that Presence through all. Raised by churchgoing parents who taught me from an early age the value of service while encouraging me to discover my own path, I found yoga and meditation to be deep homecomings. Soon after my university studies, having begun a career as a young architect, I felt called to leave the working world and deepen my spiritual practice in India. After living and traveling in that vibrant and culturally diverse country for a year, I had a Given Dream in which my paternal grandfather urgently summoned me home. Heeding the call, I immediately returned to Toronto, Canada to find that he was in intensive care. He died the day after I visited him in hospital, where I learned he had been asking to see me.
My maternal grandmother and I had a particular spiritual connection. I grew up cherishing her annual Christmas visits from her home in Edmonton to my parent’s house in Toronto, Canada. We engaged in long conversations about meditation and prayer, and she shared her insights on the purpose of life. One summer after university, while I was working as a musical artist in Toronto and she was living 3000 km away, she appeared to me in a Given Dream. In it, we touched foreheads. A light shone through her and travelled into my being, uniting us. I woke up feeling that she was about to leave this world and was saying goodbye. I did not know then that she was ill and would die soon after.
Around the same time, an East Asian woman in the Himalayas, whom I have never met, appeared in my dreams to teach me ancient healing techniques. The dreams were vivid, as though I were physically with her—at times in an expansive, arid landscape surrounded by snow-capped mountains, at other times by a fire in her dimly lit hut. Waking in full recall of the lessons, I applied them to the holistic education classes I was teaching at the University of Toronto, to the YEM: Yoga as Energy Medicine method I was developing, and to my work in sound and energy healing. The growth and wellbeing I saw in my students and clients demonstrated the accuracy and power of the teachings.
The most notable Given Dreams I have ever had, prior to the one that illuminated this book, came in the form of nocturnal visits by a Great Blue Whale. They occurred during an unusually intense summer heat wave in Toronto, while I was preparing for a scheduled performance tour through Asia. The weather felt out of balance, a warning that our world had become sick. As I drifted into sleep, I would repeatedly dream of lying on a frozen ocean while a great blue whale swam below, summoning me there.
As an active meditator, I began each morning—like I have for years—sitting quietly before dawn with a receptive mind and heart, sensing and surrendering to the deep silence and infinite stillness from which all life arises. The expansive peace and rich vitality I found there would then infuse my work with maximum effectiveness, efficiency, and creativity. As I opened to the meaning of the dream, a message became clear that I could neither dismiss nor ignore. It rang true in every cell of my being and resonated with the dire news of the warming world: I needed to postpone my concert plans in Asia, much to my manager’s chagrin, and journey instead to the North Pole.
Three weeks later, I was at the top of the world, lending my spoken and singing voice to raise awareness of our interconnection with the planet and each other, of the melting Arctic Ocean, and of our inescapable dependence on this gravely threatened yet essential ecosystem.
In the High Arctic, I was given the opportunity to speak with Inuit elders. At our first meeting, they told me they had known I was coming to help heal the planet, because the whale had told them. This serendipitous and prophetic encounter showed me that something immense and purposeful was at work. My soul resonated with the reminder that we each are an aspect of a vast, intelligent whole, far beyond what we could ever fully comprehend.
When I was at our planet’s crown, I stood alone on the icy seascape. From the bottom of my heart and depth of my soul, I humbly offered my songs and prayers for the well-being of all life everywhere. As my last note hung in the dry, frigid air, I remember looking up to see streaks of clear, golden light shoot through the early dusk of the mid-afternoon sky, washed in crimson, ochre, and magenta. A feeling of awe flooded my being. I sensed that the natural world and a host of celestials were rejoicing in what was taking place. Yet amidst the expansive splendour, I could not have foreseen the cornucopia of vast changes my life would undergo from that moment onward.
A few months after my return from the North Pole, I woke up in my Toronto home after a turbulent night’s sleep with a spontaneous and inexplicable spinal injury. At the hospital, I was assessed and told it looked as though I had been in a car accident. But I had experienced no physical impact. I was now paralyzed from the waist down. Soon after, I had the Given Dream with the angels that summoned this book into being.
The universe in all its compassion and wisdom has a way of making sure we come to live in harmony with our soul. Prayers are always answered, yet not the way we think they will be. I understand now that the entirety of what followed my Arctic trip, including a spinal healing that was medically deemed exceptional, responded to my prayers at the North Pole. The angels were guiding me all along.
The wise and compassionate Indian humanitarian and spiritual leader Sri Mata Amritanandamayi Devi, lovingly known internationally as Amma, has said, “Only when you become a zero, can you become a hero.” Through the various life challenges and the diverse experiences that have broken me down, lifted me up, and cracked me open, I see the timeless truth in her potent words. We all tend to distort our understanding of the present moment through the lens of our ego. It is as though we see a plant with thorns and angrily try to prune them away, without recognizing a rosebush that will yield countless fragrant blossoms when given the chance to flourish, protected by its thorns. In the same way, the thorns we encounter do not need to be perceived as against us. Their presence supports our blossoming into our full, expansive selves in ways we may not recognize in the moment. As we let go of fighting life and wanting it to be other than it is, we experience the richness of being alive. We begin to realize that we are always within and surrounded by grace.
Through means yet to be understood by hard science but that have permeated mystical traditions worldwide for millennia, we are inherently interconnected and able to commune with all that exists. The wisdom of Given Dreams reflects this invisible bond and reminds us of the essential value of being a zero. When we are in that state, we become receptive to a wealth of possibilities beyond our conception.
In light of this reminder, and considering the beauty of Amma’s words, I feel moved to underscore that I have never sought to conjure or invoke dreams. Nor am I advocating that people do. That would be the opposite of being a zero, as it would attempt to impose one’s will on life. It would close, rather than open, to the eternal. The insights and teachings that came to me through Given Dreams have been unsolicited and unexpected. I was not trying to hear from my grandfather or grandmother by having a dream. Nor was I attempting to find a special teacher in the East Asian woman, let alone in the Great Blue Whale. Given Dreams have occurred when I was in a state of innocence, free from wanting. Similarly, after receiving dreams of this nature, I have had no emotional reaction or attachment to them. Despite their spectacular, even supernatural quality, with each one I felt a deep calm. There was neither excitement for what had happened, nor anticipation for more. In fact, that is how I can tell Given Dreams are truthful. They don’t engage my ego.
Cognizant of the special conditions required for such dreams, I have hesitated to publish this book. Yet as I look to the world, there is tremendous suffering. In the darkness is a call for light, compassion, and comfort, as I experienced first-hand in the Given Dream that I am about to share.
END OF SAMPLE
A Gift the World publication for the Marine Arctic Peace Sanctuary (MAPS)
Copyright © 2022 by Parvati Devi
All rights reserved. No part of this sample book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Published in Toronto by Positive Possibilities Press. Parvati.world
Cover design by Jellyfunk and Parvati
Layout by Jellyfunk
Photography by Jeff Gerald and Eric Benchimol
The hour has come for mankind to embrace,
for the sun blazes upon the conscience of the earth
and time is growing short and what is visible must be seen,
for the fire is intense in the consciousness of the planet
and healing is the yearning of her heart.
Our cells are life’s tissue,
our bones and marrow her rivers and narrows,
our heart pumps the cry of her heart
and our soul breathes the spirit of her song.
Where art thou, O family of man, brothers and sisters?
O family of man the time is growing short
and what is visible must be seen
for the hour has come to love.
Carole Leckner
THE SUMMONS
PART 1: THE FIRES OF AGITATION
PART 2: THE PURE FLAMES
PART 3: THE BRILLIANCE OF ILLUMINATION
There was darkness, infinite and pure. Yet, within its stillness, I felt a deep yearning – a longing for you.
So, I gave rise to all matter, and it flared into fiery luminosity. But I could not see the light in your eyes. I created the stars that filled the blackness of space with brilliance. But they were alone, and I could not hear your laughter. You were not yet born.
I conceived the universe where you could experience my love. My stars burned, then exploded into supernovae. They formed complex atoms in their cores and became ever greater stars. I ignited your Sun from an interstellar cloud and pulled its planets into orbit. The universe danced and I was in awe. Yet you still had no form.
Then I brought the Earth into being. I summoned volcanoes to release the planet’s heat, giving rise to the oceans you depend on and the atmosphere you need to breathe. I nourished countless creatures as your companions and grew plants as your food. As part of the tapestry of life, among its exquisite shape, I then gave you life. From my body, you were born. In your beauty, I rejoice. I have waited billions of years to see you. You now walk upon me, within me, and I am forever in you.
Yet you do not see me, though I am all around you. Once awake to the gift of being, you have since fallen asleep to the story of your life. Your eyes and heart are closed, dreaming of what could be, running from what was, resenting what is. Do not fear what I need to say, as I am the voice of your heart and soul, the knowing that you have long forgotten, but always will be. I do not speak to you, but of you, for you and with you. I know you feel desperately alone, muted by the weight of living, having forgotten your true nature.
I have heard your soul call to me through the dark recesses of your life and the suffering of the world. I have come to show you the way to heal the pain you feel in longing for love, wishing for happiness, wanting life to be anything but what it is.
In the secrets of your being, you feel you have slipped into the deepest chasm of despair and fear, one you can never escape. Yet beneath all doubt, beyond any pain, a fiery light shines in your soul. It animates your body, warms your heart, illuminates your mind, and radiates outward to touch everyone and everything. Within that light, which is who you most naturally are, is the awareness of my unconditional love for you.
You know a mother’s capacity to give. Like every human and animal, you have a biological mother through whom you were born on Earth. You received your life via the creative portal of her body. After a moment of passion, nine months of incubation, hours of pain and focused determination, you appeared as a raw and vulnerable child to the world. Completely dependent on her willingness to continue giving, at the very least of her body, you clung to her for dear life.
Through your biological mother, I gave you form and birth. As Nature, I continue holding you every moment of every day while you are alive. And at the end of your physical frame, I receive you back into my boundless and eternal expanse. From age to age and lifetime to lifetime, I have always been and always will be your Mother. That which grows through my body nourishes, supports, and sustains you. Your body is the very stuff of matter—the ground of the maternal, Mother Earth. This is but one of my gifts to you, so that as an infinite being, you may have a temporal human experience within the unparalleled beauty and potency of Earth. Your relationship with your biological mother takes place for the entirety of your life in this form. Through it, I am with you, just as I was before you arrived, and will be after you depart. Whether you have ever called out to me from the depths of your soul, by any name, or you have fallen silent in despair or resentment, I hear you. We cannot be separate, as you are of my own essence. I will never stop loving you, for this Mother’s love is endless.
The universe in which you live arose from pure consciousness. This cosmic awareness co-created with primordial energy to manifest form. As the Divine Masculine, it joined with the creative power as the Divine Feminine to give birth to existence. This partnership is ongoing, is who I am, is ever expanding and evolving.
I, Mother, am the dynamic force that moves through all that is. Known by many names and faces, such as Shakti, Durga, Mary, Isis, Brigid, Juno, Wakan-Taka (Great Spirit), Freya, or the Star Goddess—yet beyond them, I am both form and formless, neither male nor female. The energy of creation, and the agent of change, are both emanations of my being. Ether, air, fire, earth, and water are aspects of my body. The sound that sings all these elements into being is my voice. I am the force from which you come, which supports your evolution, and to which you return. To say you do not know me would be to say you do not know the womb from which you were born. I nurture you in all ways, in every moment. Within my aspect as Prakruti, the totality of Nature, I am all matter and the primordial substance within it.
I will come to you in any form, and speak to you in any voice, that helps to awaken your soul so that you know you are my beloved child. That which is at the substratum of all things can express as male, female, both, and neither. Through the ages, I have been born and reborn through the brilliance of fire into this world to protect and uplift you. I have burst forth in blinding radiance to create the cosmos. I have come in a pillar of light in the sky, departed on a pyre, arisen again from a sacrificial firepit a mile long, and shone in eternal sacred flames—for love of you.
Now, I speak with you as your Mother. I embrace all cultures because to see the Divine as Mother is deeply natural. Just as you once floated within your mother’s physical body, created from her flesh, now and always I carry you within me, and you are of my being. You seek peace, love, and happiness in the Divine. In your earliest memories of infancy, were you not seeking such from your mother? You rested into her lap in innocent trust, feeling safe, cared for, and accepted by a presence you felt was immortal. This is my love for you. It will never die.
Given the vast compassion that holds you in this very moment, let the doors of your heart open. It is time to gather into your awareness, just as I am embracing you now, all the ways you have been suffering, both personally and collectively.
I know you can feel the fever in the burning world. It is in the heat that parches crops and drives fish toward the poles in search of cool seas. It is in the diseases that even the best-equipped doctors struggle to treat, and the most recent pandemic that ripped through your lives at the speed of your breath. It is in the pollution that hangs in the air and taints the water. Above all, it is in the delirium of discontent that overheats every mind. Now, from people to birds to whales, all creatures are gasping to survive.
You ask, why these burnings? Why are people starving, crops failing and species going extinct in alarming numbers today? And why do billions of people turn away in apathy?
The answer to each question is the same: you, and everyone, have lost touch with your most natural self. Feeling disconnected, you have been looking for my love in what is fleeting. Through this misguided search, you have fueled the Fires of Agitation.
The Fires of Agitation are born of your restlessness, your resentments, your wish for the moment to be different than it is. Left unchecked, they have taken on momentum of their own and singe the world in the form of greed, pride, and hate, leaving only impurities behind.
You must understand the power you have because you are a part of all life. What you think, feel, and do affects everything in creation.
The Earth is an intelligent living organism, an aspect of me. She is feverish today, like a patient with a raging temperature in response to infection. She burns to shake off the effects of agitation put upon Her by humans because they believe themselves separate. The physical pollution you emit into the air, water, and ground finds its way into all plants, oceans, and animals, then into your food, ultimately returning to your own body—a vicious cycle, indeed. And there are also etheric toxins you emit in your thoughts, feelings, and actions when you disregard your interconnection with Her, and with each other. These, too, burden the planet and life upon it. You have lost touch with the reality that your choices affect all beings everywhere. The inherent responsibility that comes with this inescapable unity feels threatening to your separate identity that you avidly defend. So, you try to manage, outsmart, even out-do Nature. But in so doing, you only fuel the Fires of Agitation.
Fire itself is neither good nor bad. In balance, it is a life-giving force that destroys only to create anew. When out of balance, however, fire takes and ravages. The capacity for fire is unique to your planet. Even the sun and the stars, their cores alight with the heat of fusion, cannot burn as flames do on Earth. It is the oxygen in your atmosphere that makes fire possible, just as it sustains the furnace of your body through the bellows of your breath.
The Fires of Agitation consume life and leave dross. But there are also fires that consume the dross and restore life. I now burn with those life-giving fires for your sake. As you rediscover and nurture your inner fire, you illuminate not only the path to your survival, but to the joyful wellbeing of all.
Before a caterpillar becomes a butterfly, it must shed its skin several times to grow big enough for metamorphosis. You, too, have stages of unfolding into your natural self. Through the Fires of Transformation, you can shed the old and expand into the new. Yet you have resisted this growth, choosing to remain small and constricted. As a result, the fires that would have supported you have been misdirected. Like any fires out of place that burn inappropriate fuel, they become dangerous. You have lost sight of the whole.
Through the Earth, I give, yet you cannot just take. When you try to impose, direct, and coerce life to do your bidding, you will not prosper. You must not abuse the elements. Doing so is to forget the Divine, to lose harmony with yourself, all life, and the planet. It also denies my love.
I have sent many messengers to alert you to the urgent need to change your ways. In this very moment, millions of people are dying needless deaths due to starvation, lack of clean water, and even shortages of oxygen to breathe. The crops that were sown to feed them have shriveled under extraordinary heat, drought, and pestilence. Mistreated since the rise of industry, Nature cannot sustain all life as She once did. Those who suffer need your compassion, just as one hand soothes the other when injured. Nature needs your compassion as well.
This is my body, given for you and for all. Yet now, sickened, and traumatized, Nature is convulsing with earthquakes and tsunamis that have levelled homes, caused nuclear disasters, and left my children struggling for years to rebuild from rubble. Creatures are disappearing forever from Her surface, hundreds of times faster than the natural rate.
The bodies of your brothers and sisters are also in pain. The gaunt and dull-eyed millions starving right now can barely dream of a day in which they eat to their fill. Lacking the simplest of medical care, people writhe in agony when their ailments could have been so easily remedied. Do you hear them crying?
Can you see that these countless tragedies have been summoning your attention to alter your ways? If not, then heed the tens of thousands of scientists who have warned humanity of your emergency and that the time to change is now.
Even the coronavirus pandemic has been one of many messengers. Numerous viruses before it have jumped species from stressed animals to human beings and created widespread sickness such as HIV, Ebola and SARS. In sending you into isolation, COVID-19 has asked you to go inward and consider how to treat life with respect.
You must care for all beings as your brothers and sisters. You cannot be whole if you ignore but one among you. Yet the messengers have not been heard. How much louder will their call become before you listen?
The Sun gives light and energy to sustain life on Earth. Yet its increasing heat and forceful rays fuel cancers and ruin crops. Who has considered that the Sun itself is suffering? Burdened too by the Fires of Agitation, it is as though it has developed cancer. Any day, there could be a solar disaster.
While the destructive fires rage through the world, you are experiencing the consequences of your choices and actions, even if you do not yet understand the part you have played in their making. As the heat increases, you can no longer avoid the pain of disconnection within your heart and mind. It is awakening you from your slumber of apathy and despair, so that you will survive. The fierce light of your compassion for interconnection, for all beings, including yourself, must return in its full potency.
It may feel unbearable to consider the ways you have created the crises you face today. Perhaps you wish to deny this truth and plead innocence, while judging others for their choices. Yet you must understand the heat as a summons to connect more deeply with your true nature. In it is a fiery and focused call from my heart, teaching you, as a mother would, how to become wiser and more loving. When you act in a disconnected manner, all life dies, yourself included. You are not isolated islands but one Earth family.
It is not by chance that you are on this planet now. I brought you here because the universe was not complete without you. You have an essential role in helping restore the world to balance by returning to your natural self.
I am here to draw your attention towards the eternal light that you are, beyond any sense of duality. From this place, you have come. To it, you are returning. You are not a limited physical being having finite experiences. Instead, your true self is beyond the stories your mind creates, deeper than the weight you carry through misperceptions, brighter than the sense that you are divided, unloved, alone, and must struggle to survive. You are indeed effervescent luminosity that never ceases, a gift to the world. Yet you are not seeing it clearly, because your connection with this light within yourself has dimmed or even gone out.
I see your light. I always have, and I always will. Your natural self is Divine. Let it come forward now because all of life needs you. Beyond the ravages of this world, through the fever, I am calling you and everyone to remember who you are and your place within the whole—for your house is on fire, and you are not alone.
END OF SAMPLE