Be the Change

*

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant,
gorgeous, talented, fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking
so that other people won't feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine, as children do.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.
It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously
give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear,
our presence automatically liberates others.

a return to love - marianne williamson

I have wanted to understand why there is such acceptance and lack of resistance to what is occurring in our country and around the world.? Even though day by day I am witnessing many who are complaining about the cuts there appears to be an overriding drive not to move beyond the status quo. To look at what created the system and not to just blame the bankers. And in doing so to question the system itself and look at how we as individuals and societies continue to support such a dysfunctional system.

Those with a more spiritual focus have described this system as a game or an illusion or greed. While those from political focus describe this system as capitalism. And those from a psychotherapy focus describe this system as a drama, addiction, or co-dependency. Many from different disciplines describe this as individualism and materialism. Many agree that this system is destroying our planet and killing many lives both human and non human. Many agree that this system if unchecked will devour itself and exhaust the world's resources. I would say this system is an act of violence.

I have been wanting to understand what I experience as numbing to dreams and hopes for a better healthy world. A world where the focus is on creativity, growth, potential and the best outcomes. Where people dare to dream of internal and external freedom. Not one that is resigned to choosing second best. That focuses on the worst outcomes so as not to be disappointed. One which shrinks people down, controls and limits. These acts are violent.

For years I have searched for meaning to understand what perpetuates the cycle of fear and violence that I see in myself and in others. I have dabbled in anthropology, philosophy, politics, feminism, environmentalism and spirituality. I've read many books, met many people, attended various groups, meetings, workshops and trainings. Through my searching, researching, exploring, experiencing and sharing I have come to value the teachings in all these disciplines. And I have met others who also draw on different disciplines so they can act like pieces of a jigsaw.

While I was focusing on my own healing this led me to connecting with like minded souls. For a long period I felt I had found a home within the Reclaiming Community whose aim I understood was to connect many of these jigsaw pieces. This was a place where I could experientially connect these different disciplines with an aim of creating a fulfilling alternative way of living. A place where theory could be tested; a grand experiment!

I took a step away from being actively involved with the Reclaiming Community and I withdrew from my outward search and embarked on a relationship which drew me into re-enacting a generational cycle. My mind had thought I had 'sorted' myself through reading psychotherapy, self-help books, many years of analysis and my involvement in groups and workshops. However I was yet to gain a further deeper understanding at a level which included my body and unconscious. Which allowed space for my soul to explore it's voice and begin to sing.

It was in the relationship that my Soul felt increasingly trapped and caged. My first step was to leave. Then when when I was at a safe distance I was able to embark on a deeper understanding. I began to realize how this negative cycle fed on fear through control. Control was an ever decreasing cage that trapped and squashed me. And the ultimate manifestation of this cycle was violence. I began to listen to myself and understand that my anxiety was a natural response to an unhealthy environment. I started to stop being victim to my emotional state which was being used to re-enforce my lack of self-confidence and self-worth. I had started to thaw my heart and feel my souls natural desire for enjoyment of life. And it is from that space that I was able to explore being with others. Connecting more with and in life. It this space that enabled me to see how the personal is linked with the public.

How we live in our personal lives affects how we live in our public lives. Our capacity/tolerance for personal freedoms affects our capacity/tolerance of public freedoms. Both are interlinked. If the majority of society are struggling to survive; using up all their energy on tiring low paid jobs which only the few are lucky to have or, dysfunctional relationships. Then they are more easily controlled. It works both ways. For our families are also a reflection of our society. Another way of looking at this pattern is noticying how the outside world reflects our inner world. For instance isn't uncanny that when feeling happy with yourself and the world the world smiles back? Literally! But if you are feeling isolated, impatient or angry, then the world mirrors this back through situations and people putting up obstacles.

The cages we place ourselves in are cages around our hearts. And these cages come lined with deluxe furnishings. With the trappings of gold and plasma TVs pumping out 'reality tv shows' or shows on 'make overs' to create perfect human beings with perfect homes. We are fed and feed images to compare ourselves with thus creating envy. We want to live the impossible dream.So we keep our cages comfortable, full of desirable material things to keep ourselves occupied. An illusion of security. These cages fed by addiction is what Capatilism thrives and relies on. Hence the frequent remark in response to percieved negative feelings, overwhelming emotions or situations ~ 'I am off for a bit of shopping therapy' or 'I could murder for a pint'. Until we look at the drivers behind addiction, we will not stop the bankers earning huge bonuses or people craving more and more money through credit. And society will not own up to the fact that alcohol is a drug which is the cause of so much violence. Because the terrible truth is that so many in society are addicted to violence. So many in society are not aware what is violent.

In "Freedom for Sale ~ How we made money and lost our liberty" John Kampfner refers to private and public freedoms which I think has parallels to what I have referred to as personal and public freedom. He divides his book into different countries including Britain. Under Britain: Surveillance State, John Kampfner first quotes Brendan O'Neill " Britain used to export textiles, iron, steel and pop music; now it exports Orwellian methods for monitoring the masses".

"By the time Blair left office in 2007, he had bequeathed to his successor a surveillance state unrivalled anywhere in the democratic world. Parliament passed forty-five criminal justice laws ~ more than the total for the whole of the previous century ~ creating more than three thousand new criminal offences...The scope was extensive: police and security forces were given greater powers of arrest and detention; all institutions of state were granted increased rights to snoop; individuals were required to hand over unprecedented forms of data. Abroad, the government colluded with the transport of terrorist suspects by the US government to secret prisons around the world, giving landing rights at British airports for these so-called "rendition" flights. At home, new crimes were created, such as glorifying terrorism or inciting religious hatred"

So the message is clear. Remain in terror. There is an increasing threat of criminal behaviour. Of terrorism. The cage is just a barrier to keep the dangerous out. Them and Us. And because the enemy is within we have surveillance. Depending on the society and culture cages come in all shapes and sizes. In his book John Kampfner shares his investigations into the different countries of Singapore, China, Russia, United Arab Emirates, India, Italy, Britain and USA. He suggests that there is a world wide pattern. He says:

"The specific rules varied between countries, but the template was similar. Repression was selective, confined to those who openly challenged the status quo. The number of people who fell into that category was actually very few ~ journalists who criticised the state or published information that cast the powerful in a negative light; lawyers who defended these agitators; and politicians and others who publicly went out of their way to "cause trouble". The rest of the population could enjoy freedom to travel, to live more or less as they wished and to make and spend their money. This was the difference between public freedoms and private, or privatised, freedoms. For many people this presented an attractive proposition. After all, how many members of public, going about their daily lives, wish to challenge the structures of power? One can more easily than one realises be lulled into thinking that one is sufficiently free.

This is the pact. In each country it varies; citizens hand over different freedoms in accordance with their own customs and priorities. In some it is press freedom; in some it is the right to vote out their government; in some it is an impartial judiciary; in others it is the ability to get on with their lives without being spied upon. In many it is a combination of these and more.
"In the global order of the past two decades, the alliance of political leaders, business and the middle classes was the key. The arrangement was built on a clear, but usually discreet set of understandings. What mattered in all these societies was that the number of people who benefited from this deal gradually increased, and that the state remained flexible enough to meet their various needs. These needs could be summarised as: property rights, contract law, environmental protection, lifestyle choices, the right to travel, and the right to earn money ~ and keep it. the people who mattered ~ the wealthy and the aspiring wealthy ~ were to be protected against the use of arbitrary state power. But could such protection be provided without the tools of conventional democracy, such as free elections and open media? That was the conundrum that authoritarian capitalists faced"

This book was written prior UK coalition government's right wing radical changes which are sweeping UK under the banner of necessary cuts. And the more recent events in the middle east. The middle east uprisings have created a wave of hope not just in the middle east but across the globe. On the wave has lept British PM David Cameron through publicly travelling middle eastern countries speaking of democracy and freedom at the same time ensuring future investment in arms. Ofcourse he has to utter both in the same breath. And I think what is so disturbing is he believes in what he does and says. The swift timely eager response of his tour for me betrays his anxiety to ensure the continued arms trade; in order to keep the status quo in tact. And of course there is big money to be made. But what would happen if more and more people began to believe that there was not this ever present and increasing threat? That started to question the morality of the arms trade. No longer being 'lulled into believing they were sufficiently free', began to believe in more liberated ways of living? Maybe then revolution might even occur on our own doorsteps here in UK and other countries. This is what unfortunately David Cameron and many others fear. With change comes the potential of fear. But I would also add that with change come the potential for excitement.

In "Peace is the Way, Bringing war and violence to an end" by Deepak Chopra refers to three major components to the ultimate myth of security ~ the ultimate manifestation of violence and control; the arms build up:
Money brings happiness
Technology brings well-being
Military strength brings security

This holy trinity of capitalism is the ultimate cage. The ultimate trap that does not make us safer. Living outside of the cage is safer. I believe that peaceful change is a stronger power. Because it is life affirming. I hear that many in the peaceful uprising in Egypt were inspired by the works of Gene Sharp who speaks of peaceful ways of liberation. It was not as the media have promoted the power of technology such as Internet and mobile phones that was key to the revolution but the message of peace. So when other regimes try to stop peaceful liberation through blocking Internet and mobiles they will in the end fail.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama said; "'If we want to change the world, we have to begin by changing ourselves".

The veil between humans and nature, between private and public, between mind and matter, between thought and action, between being and doing is an illusion. There is a third way which can also be described as multi-disciplinary or holistic. That moves away from a dualistic/conflictual/advisory mind set. Creating an expansive space. Moves away from the rigid and brittle. To the flexible and changeable. Opening up up new possibilities. This is the creative spark which is Divine. That is light and Dark. It is Consciousness. It is Infinite. It is.

As Gandhi said:"Can you be the change that you wish to see in the world?"

So I take courage and inspiration from those who are able to connect with peaceful liberation. Whether that is on a mass scale as in Egypt or on a personal scale. Both are the change that can be seen in the world. And there by changes the world. Which reminds me of the chant that is so often used at Reclaiming gatherings:

"She changes everything she touches and touches everything she changes!" Blessed Be!

***

References:

Britain can push democracy or weapons but not both. By Simon Jenkins. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/feb/22/britain-push-democracy-weapons-cameron

UK arms sales to the Middle east, who do we sell to, how much is military and how much just 'controlled'?.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/feb/22/uk-arms-sales-middle-east-north-africa?intcmp=239

Gene Sharp Web page Albert Einstein Institution
http://www.aeinstein.org/

Freedom for Sale: How we made mondey and lost our liberty. By John Kampfner.

Peace is the Way: Bringing War and violence to an end. By Deepak Chopra.

Reclaiming Web page
http://www.reclaiming.org/

Raven Returns to Dover after 120 years!

Call of the Raven by Jarmo Manninen

http://www.luontokuvat.net/index.htm

The Raven returning to the White Cliffs of Dover after 120 years {both icons for Britain now again linked} previously hunted from extinction from this part of England; Fills me with hope after a week of hysteria following a suspected incident of an urban fox attacking a human baby. As us humans further domesticate ourselves taking over more and more green space, and so alienating ourselves from nature. We forget that this story is repeated over and over. Be it tigers, elephants, polar bears, wolves or foxes. It took time but the Raven is now a protected bird. So what has been the Raven's story, myth and medicine?

Raven is found in myths all around the world. A powerful figure. Linked with creation and Shamans. A shape shifter, transformer, bringer of light out of the darkness, creator of the world egg, messenger and trickster to name just a few key elements of Raven's medicine and power.

It is Bigger than the British Buzzard. A beautiful, formidable and cunning bird.

Linked with Celtic mythology of Bran the Blessed, primordial Deity and protector of Britain ~ whose name means 'Raven'. "A master of the Isle of Britain, he is a cauldron-God, associated with a cauldron of regeneration which would revive the slain while leaving them voiceless. His cauldron destroyed, and he mortally wounded in a war to rescue his sister Branwen, he instructed his adherents to decapitate him and, after many travels, bear the head to London and bury it, where it would become a defense and a protection to the whole Isle. " (1)

So Legend says Bran's head was cut off and buried on the White Mount of London now the place of the Tower of London. Here lives the belief that England will fall should the Raven's depart. I still find it curious for many reasons, as well as cruel; that even today there are keepers of Raven's at the Tower who clip the Raven's wings to stop them departing.

Raven is also connected with Celtic Goddess Morrigan of darkness/night/battle/fertility/death and lover of the son of Lugh. Raven is also directly associate with the God Lugh ~ bringer of light, divine ruler. Raven a bridge between the worlds and between darkness and light. The fear of Raven has been mirrored by our interpretation of Shamans and Witches.

Morrigan and Lugh are Deities associated with Giant Semi-God race of Tuatha Dé Danann named the Shining Ones by W.B Yeats. They have close associations with the Angelic race who fell to earth and gave birth to the Nephilim ~ founded in Middle Eastern myths (referred to in the Bible and Book of Enoch}. Both are described as a beautiful frightening powerful giant race, with god like powers who taught humankind the arts such as smith craft and medicine.

***

References:
General Intro to world myths of Raven ~ http://www.ravenfamily.org/nascakiyetl/obs/rav1.html

How to identify Raven and much much more! ~

http://www.shades-of-night.com/aviary/index.html

W.B. Yeats 'A Vision'

http://www.yeatsvision.com/Sitemap.html
Lugh ~
http://www.celtnet.org.uk/gods_l/lugus.html
Morrigan ~

http://www.pantheon.org/articles/m/morrigan.html
Raven and Dover ~
http://www.thisiskent.co.uk/news/Raven-chicks-reared-Dover-Kent-fledglings-120-years/article-1135266-detail/article.html

Bran ~

http://www.realmagick.com/articles/36/2036.html
Raven and Tower of London ~ http://www.forteantimes.com/features/articles/879/myths_of_the_raven.html
Tuatha Dé Danann ~
http://www.timelessmyths.com/celtic/danann.html
http://www.shee-eire.com/magic&mythology/races/tuatha-de-danann/page1.htm

(1) Bran the Blessed by Obsidian ~

( http://www.realmagick.com/articles/01/901.html
Nephilim ~
I recommend 'From the Ashes of Angels' by Andrew Collins though at times he makes leaps with his conclusions it is a very interesting read and has many references.

Queen Hornet

http://www.bwars.com/ ~ Queen, In woodland below the Wrekin, Shropshire, 2005 by Nigel Jones

In 2 weeks I have seen 2 Queen Hornets. 1st in Hungary. 2nd nr Yeoford Devon. Both times I was completely transfixed. Amber Gold red colour. Such powerful confidence. Strong. I remember how the mention of Hornets people quake and shake.
So why was I so at ease? What was I missing? Or were other's missing something?
Tigers on wing. To be respected. Their beauty admired.

Some species of Queen Hornet apparently have enough lethal venom to kill a human. Hornets can kill bees and wasps. So everything including us has a place. Us who are at the top of the food chain.

The Queen and her female workers maintain the nest. Shamanically a Hornet would connect with female warrior energy, sisterhood and understanding female societies and communal living. I am very excited that I am meeting Hornet.
And with this {shamanic/spirit} medicine I experience working on befriending my shadow side which is fiercely protective. So many insects and animals have had so much shadow projected onto them do we see who/what they are?
I wonder at the misleading shadow we cast onto them. I wonder that I am connecting with ancient as my dear friend said today Hornets are mostly to be found in ancient woodland. She also told me an amazing story of when she first saw a Hornet she did not know they existed and watched with awe as she heard it's jaws crunching eating a wasp! And I wonder whether as man has reduced ancient wilderness so maybe the Hornet is coming into more domesticated spheres...Would that affect the medicine of the Hornet...Would many more meet that medicine?...
With this thought of my need my desire to meet wilderness of my heart. This year I have been faced with what I would have assumed as other's similar desire, has been at times glamour in service to the ego. At worst this has a dangerous echo of colonialism. Misunderstanding and misusing other oppressed people's life/culture/being which is inter-connected with the land.
I refer to many westerners after apparently seeking out indigenous shamanic teachers, using their experience to sell and promote themselves. Some ask whether you have trained with an aboriginal/indigenous shaman or 'their' shaman~ there by clearly defining the 'pecking order' and offering something which you can only get from them.
When I have met indigenous healers/shamans which I have learned a lot from; they have been very down to earth, average person/every day people. They have a job. They earn respect. And do not separate out their job/role from life and other people. I experience them of having studied bloody hard with open hearted and open eyed curiosity. Like our wonderful British naturalists who sit hours on end watching and observing nature. Tired and aching. On their own. They are rewarded by such amazing knowledge and I believe in time gifted with wisdom.
What I am describing is being in service. Full of love and therefore full of power. And I think that westerners have much to learn about what power is. Power not connected with ego.
I am hearing too often western people describing themselves as Shamans when I am not clear what their intention is.
It has been a journey for me to witness women within the alternative spiritual subcultures promoting themselves as a business. We trip into not only the tricky area of £ for spirituality but also the tricky area of the previously oppressed, marginalised and misunderstood ~ women's power and spirituality.

For me my journey this year has been about reclaiming my authentic spiritual woman self. I have been working with not giving my power away to other female figures in my desire to heal the wounded daughter that comes from a line of mothers and daughters who have been abondoned. My journey has been to see this ancestral thread. A woman's wound. That thread, that blood which longs to bleed into the earth and belong.
This journey of healing the woman's wound has connected me with a desire to connect with the Divine feminine. That which is woven inside my womb, vulva and heart. In my blood. That vibrant hot red energy. That song.
And so I have been meeting Queen Hornet. A truly humbling experience.
And with that, dare I connect with that power. Not distort. Not demonise ~ internally or externally. Be that either an unclaimed part of my self or another woman.

For we are all mirrors and 'our worst teachers are our best teachers'

I am reminded that to connect with Divine it is that volcano that burning star that burning sting. Fire. Red. Orange. Yellow. Sun. Hot.

I am reminded of the wonder, diversity, power and beauty of Her Divinity.

*

For an interesting read on a related subject ~ "Personality" by W.E.Butler

http://www.servantsofthelight.org/knowledge/butler-personality.html

http://www.etsy.com/shop/elsita

via Blessed Wild Apple Girl

Goddess Litany

She folded into infinity
At the centre and the circumference of all
In the Silence the never ending embrace

In the eyes of new born babes she dances the Song of Elders
Black ashen feet She dances
Rattle bone brittle into dust
Stars of pain and joy

With dew from her tongues she forges your heart
Burn smoulder sharpened carved
You bright flame the first born
Black as the innocent

Silver Fox

Dancing in the Sky

I am your desire

Light in your hand
Dancing in the sky

Dust of stars my throat burbling springs of joy
Oceans deep with teeth of mountains and
Sharp mirror to your eyes

Sound your longing
That birth you into being
In the cavern of my breast

I was born to desire you

Your kiss burning my heart
Your winged eyes fan the heavens
A thousand suns beating in your veins
Blood of heaven
Blood of earth
Blood of body
Blood of Light
Blood of Life
Blood of Death

silver fox

Symphony

Emerging~Song

In Darkness Mirror

Embrace

Peacock God ~ Star Goddess
The union
In The beginning
The Ending
Flowing from ~ to the fountain
Orgasm of life
See with his eyes ~ Star Goddess

Embrace

Silver Fox

Mirror

Wheels Turning

Yesterday I was on the underground and a man with a huge rucksack and a bulging coat, long hair bustled onto the carriage. The train was delayed and he stuck his head out of the carriage and shouted 'When you are ready driver!' ~shortly after the train pulled out and he exclaiming 'always works!’ This man had his back to the main carriage and proceeded to light a cigarette after which smoking he threw down by the door and extinguished by pouring a canned drink onto it. I studied this man and never saw his face. His clothes were well kept and washed. However, he was I decided an outsider. Why? And this thought troubled me. As soon as I had thought it I thanked him for being.
'The Faery Teachings' by Orion Foxwood. Here I quote:
'To truly look into who we are means to delve into the 'River of Blood', that deep ancestral wellspring within us that contains the voices of our bloodline and all that we have experienced in our journeys through flesh, form and the inner worlds. Deeper and deeper we go, passing through the layers of voices within us until we approach the 'voice of one' {R.J Stewart} the 'voice that utters creation' that speaks of 'who we truly are'. In this journey we discover the living community that comprises our physical forms and that lives within our blood. For indeed our bodies, our blood and our life walk are sacred ~ and everything matters. We are, as we will explore in the following chapters, living communities within ourselves.
In the quest for an answer to the first question {who am I}, we discover our hardships and difficulties are the vice which presses the coal of thy potential to the diamond of thy becoming. Again, everything matters. A crucial aspect to answering this question is to understand that 'we see the world from where we stand'.
I am left still wanting to have seen that man on the underground face...what curiosity would have been quenched? What judgments might I have made? I remember reading Luisah Teish Jambalaya in which she wrote about Spirits ~ those who walk the edge and that it is important to take note of what message these Spirits might be saying. I remember her saying they can look very convincing as alive human! Which interestingly Orion Foxwood speaks about in his book and how important it is to ask beings who appear who they are as sometimes the Fey can take the guise of our imagination or our lost beloved.
This seems to me so obvious but I do not recollect actually checking this. Asking. Seems to me this would be a useful fundamental tool for anyone working with Spirit. As would checking intention.
As for the man on the train. What was his intention. For me though he was walking the edge and hid his face. His presence was incredibly powerful and pervasive. Was he a spirit... a ghost...was he forgotten?

Blessings to Kali

It has been some considerable length of time since I visited my Blogg. December has been and passed and January is now drawing to a close. In December Amma ~ ‘The Hugging Saint’ came to Alexandra Palace. So much happened in that week it felt like a month. Each time I visit Amma I allow myself to expand ~ to take in more of the experience. Taking the steps out of the smallness of ego into the vastness of which Amma who is connected ~ is awe inspiring and for me feelings of fear and resistance ebb and flow ~ sometimes like waves/ sometimes lightly. I notice how addicted I am to struggle ~ to conflict ~ this drama “Opera of Life”. I experience Amma as being connected with the Divine in a way I have never experienced before. In away she is a living breathing portal and more than a portal ~ IS. Amma has an affinity with Kali and when she calls out ‘Ma Ma’ ~ coming from the place of who and where she is ~ I find hard to express in words ~ is Divine ~ biblical phrazes come to mind like 'burning bush'!. I went up for Darshan and my ego/mind gave me more permission to be open and to receive I had the experience that as a consequence I received two embraces ~ each person usually gets one. Amma received thousands as she does for hours on end without a break. To be in the presence of someone so developed is incredible.
And so it is also not a surprise that Amma is surrounded by many people’s ego’s and ‘stuff’ranging from fears to desires, passions, experiences, feelings of wonder and connection as well as feelings of being alone ~ full of the variety of life. This year there was also large number of western young people dancing ecstatically and singing. This has not happened in the previous years I have visited Amma. So culturally there is an extra-ordinary mix going on.
Amma has defied allot of conventional/conservative Indian traditions ~ this includes promoting the rights/equality of women in India. As a world campaigner for justice/peace and fighting poverty including funding hospitals/schools/housing the ‘Amma’ organization is doing an incredible amount.
Amma has fully encompassed life/Divine’s abundance. The more she gives the more she has to offer. And in turn the more the 'universe' gives back.
I allowed myself to have moments of waking up from this dream ~ this separation from the Divine. The experience of watching myself and forgetting my time alive is finite. But yet I battle with being more awake!
So the Wheel turns.
I will end this post with one anecdote.
I was on a London bus after work. Tired and strained after having to leave the ~seemingly ever increasing breakdown of London Underground service ~ I found a seat towards the back of the bus. I had closed my awareness and attention down and felt jolted out of my slumber by a man shouting. I was not clear what he was saying ~ but quickly came to the conclusion that he had mental health issues and was probably on medication. The man he was shouting at had a push chair which he hadn’t folded up. The man with the push chair mother was elderly and very calmly said to him to sit down next to her. This he did and she then spoke to him further. She did not appear threatened or phased. She appeared to see beyond his aggression to his fear/anxiety. He calmed down. Briefly another woman shouted at him which triggered him again, however the woman who had asked him to sit down next to him calmed the situation.
If I had been sitting where she was I would have felt threatened. I did not see his anxiety/fear. And I would have probably moved.
She showed me a third way. She reminded me of Amma who embracing everyone who comes to her. But she was not extraordinary like Amma. She did a simple act.

Blessings to Kali

Darshan

From intro in book 'Rumi ~ Gazing at the Beloved'.

"Just as archers fix their gaze upon a distant target before loosing their strings of their bows and sending their arrows flying, so do lovers of God fix their gaze on the face of God, each releasing the soul so it too can fly toward its target where it celebrates its homecoming. All spiritual paths teach us that if we want to find God, then we need to turn directly toward God, come face-to-face with the energies of the Divine, and then surrender to whatever encounter creates our lives. But where do we turn? And where exactly is that we find the face of the Divine? Is it everywhere? Or in one particular location only? And can perhaps a particular location, a particular face, serve as the doorway to the face of God?
One way to look upon the face of God is to create on image of God, either a painting or a sculpture, and then gaze at that image for an extended period of time. This practice can be found in the Greek Orthodox church where icons of saints and personages from the Bible are the only companions that monks and nuns take with them into the isolation of their cells during long periods of retreat.
When one fixes his or her entire attention on these images over long hours and days, the images may come to life and enter into animated dialogue with the practitioner. Many devout Hindus create personal shrines in their homes and temples in which images of a God or Goddess serve as the means for personal dialogue with the Divine. It is said that the eyes of these images are the most important of all the facial features, for by creating eye contact the image a devotee achieves darshan, a sanskrit word meaning "seeing and being seen by God".

Will Johnson