Category Archives: Spirituality

Harvard Leadership Conference Recap

photo-43 This Saturday I went to the Harvard Leadership conference as a “participant”. One of my Kirlian Photographs was submitted and exhibited on the sides of the conference room. Got a lot of positive feedback for it which made me happy. The first workshop I went to was called, “High Awareness through Spiritual Consciousness”. The speaker was a little hard to understand, but he basically said that we should be focusing on how our emotions affect our actions and by focusing on our emotions we become more in tune with the present moment, and thus more in tune to the realization that we’re all connected. By realizing that we should then present ourselves as individuals that stand out from the group and not act as part of a “following” because we’re trying to do what everybody tells us what we should do. Anyway, that’s what I picked up. My speaker was Chat Troutwine who spoke how presenting in a leadership role is like telling a story. Storytelling is very important to leadership and presenting oneself because the brain is hardwired to learn information in a story format. My second workshop was Designing for the Client; Building for the Community. It focused on 3-D design and architecture instead of 2-D design but the concepts are the similar. I was put into the design group and apart of trying to convince clients why design is important for a building. I also got a potential client out of the second workshop as well! I spoke about how design is more about psychology than anything else. The final speaker was Roger Love and he spoke about how to speak in front of a large audience and how music was a big part of how we speak even if we aren’t singing or performing the same kinds of techniques that performers and singers use can be applied to presenting as well. Overall it was a good day, just long. Glad to be home.

On the way to the conference I saw a playing card on the ground and ignored it. When I got there I was advised to go back and put a sign saying I got a permit for parking, and when I walked back to the conference a second time I picked up the card. It was the Queen of Hearts (in Tarot the Queen of Cups). The Q/Hearts is her character card… if that isn’t a sign of what is to come I don’t know what is…

Meditation Space

89295_600

I find looking at altars very inspiring. I’ve been really getting in touch with my spiritual side ever since I got a job as a professional tarot reader. I’ve been needing a place to meditate and protect myself. So here is what I’ve put together! I don’t worship anyone in particular just the Great Spirit of the Universe. I mostly am an elementalist that uses shapes to convey energy. I created the altar from various objects that I inherited from my grandmother as well as I got from my travels.

The rug underneath the altar is handpicked from the Arizonian/Mexican border during a service trip week with my church when I was in high school. I took it home, washed it and it hung around my room for awhile until I created this space.

The artwork to the upper left corner behind my Himalayan salt lamp is a cunniform piece that some artists did at the Chitchen Itza pyramid when my family and I went to Cancun a few years ago. The papyrus has the Egyptian alphabet and the black and white photograph is one of mine that I took using Kirlian Photography. In front of the salt lamp is my stack of tarot decks.

In the center of the space I have my conch shell I picked up during a trip to Key West and in the stand underneath it I have various supplies and divination tools. The doll dressed in white is a representation of Santa Lucia, the Swedish Goddess of Light (I’m part swedish). Next to her on the left is my athame that I got at Celtic Fest in Bethlehem, Pa. Next to that is my Grandmother’s cross.

I’m currently gathering items for Imbolc and planning for it. So on the small altar table in the very front I have a Mandala deck that a co-worker gave me that I’ve been using for healing meditations and little objects that have a spiritual significance.

In front of the spice Cabinet that I inherited from my grandmothers is my oil burner, crystal ball, Book of Light (equivalent to a Book of Shadows) that I handcrafted the cover for, a Native American hand drum I picked up at a Pow-wow a really long time ago and a plastic crystal ball-shaped container

That is most of the major things on this altar. I hope you enjoy 🙂

Healing Affirmations

For any of my frequent readers, if there are any… know that I’m going through one of the most difficult transformations and times of my life thus far. I’ve definitely seen it all and then some, but the difference is that it has always happened to other people and those indirectly related to me. This time it has been directly related to me and I never have experienced so much pain in my life and I’m happy to say that I am finally turning the corner and heading back into the light!!

In August, I approached someone openly about how I felt about them and questioned their feelings toward me. They had flirted with me for five months the beginning part of last year (around this time). Unfortunately, college ended and I graduated and moved six hours back to Boston to never hear of/from them again, when in fact they said they would ‘keep in touch with me’. Knowing my past friendships + relationships with people whom mysteriously seem to come and go from my life like the tides of the sea, I remained skeptical. Of course, like most of my friendships and relationships go, they never contacted me after three months of waiting to hear from them… call me impatient… but that is a long time to wait for someone to contact them (at least in my opinion). In those months, I never stopped thinking about this person… thinking about how they made me feel when I was with them… thinking about how I perhaps made them feel… the relationship we shared between us was wonderful, alive, and free. It was beautiful. I wanted more… before they did.

There’s more to this story than what I am willing to write here, but let’s just say that sometimes being a psychic has its’ burdens… knowing about something way before its’ supposed to happen can be hard and takes strength and patience to deal with. I was fed up with not knowing where this relationship was going and bravely approached them and contacted them. The main intention of my email was to encourage them to pursue me if they wanted. I did not care if they were in a relationship already, it did not matter as they by the time the semester ended wanted to pursue me no matter what… but instead of a joyous and celebratory response, I got a negative, heart wrenching response that literally tore me apart. It was a blow to my heart, mind and soul and I am not exaggerating.

August slowly went by and September approached and then one morning my mom woke me up as usual but in a really distressed voice. I came downstairs and started my breakfast routine thinking she was just in a bad mood as usual…. and then I noticed something different and my dad stayed home. He came up the stairs and announced my beloved grandmother – the one who always came for games, recitals, celebrations, birthdays, holidays, anything that was significant to our family she’d be there – had died. I broke down immediately as anyone would do in that situation. My whole body shook when I tried to eat breakfast… will never forget my dad and the way he acted that day. Fall then went by in a flurry as we hurriedly tried to clean and get rid of the stuff in my grandmothers’ house and sell it by the end of the year (which we did). During September and October I never felt so much emotional pain. It was like my insides were bleeding from the out and I just couldn’t bring myself back up to the health well being I was while I was still in college (and in love…). October was easier, but then my beloved 16 year old cats’ health began to deteriorate rapidly until I found him in the kitchen one night before I went to bed spazzing and paralyzed and couldn’t move. My heart broke again when I put him in his basket for the last time knowing the next day I wouldn’t ever see him again. We finally had to put him down in the beginning of November. In the span of four months my heart broke three times, all the while I was trying to recover and heal from the first heartbreak.

Breakup is one thing, but rejection from the person who you know loves you and that you love back hurts from the inside out. Especially since there was a deep past life connection to this person and you had the opportunity to have a wonderful soulmate experience and the other person just tossed it away. Tossed it away without ever apologizing to you, leaving you wondering if they ever will, and leaving you hurting – bleeding, each day that goes by it hurts even more. Just because I may have healed my heart chakra, doesn’t mean I’m completely over it. I definitely still cry about it time and time again mostly out of frustration. It doesn’t help that the psychics you work with keep telling you they’ll come around and will profess their love to me.

After my family had to put my cat down, I began job searching once again and one day I was searching and I heard “Tremont Tearoom” pop into my head. I took that as a sign and emailed them asking if they had a tarot reading position open. During the time I had to try to recover from the first heart break I had been consulting my tarot deck as well as using an online forum to help gain insight into the situation. So I had hounded my skills as a reader during that time and got quite good. By Thanksgiving I was hired at the Tremont Tearoom as a part-time psychic. The owner also wanted me to do a few graphic design projects for the tearoom (which was quite fine with me… mixing the esoteric and design? SIgn me up!). In one meeting he told me that I was supposed to be at the tearoom because I was broken… and they by spending time there they’d fix me (tearoom in general). After working a few weeks at the tearoom, I was slowly starting to get my confidence back but I was still in a seemingly perpetual black hole of emotions and sadness that I couldn’t seem to get out of. Christmas time arrived, and I started doing healing meditations because I thought If this doesn’t get me out of this depressive hole I don’t know what will. I had created a meditation space in my room and have been using some of the money I earned at the tearoom to do so as well as using some of the things I inherited from my grandmothers’. I honestly believe a lot of the healing energy that is imprinted in the objects from my grandmothers’ contributed a lot too, but who am I to decide.

So here I am, writing this paper about what I have learned during this time of healing. I used a mandala deck a co-worker gave to me and I thought it was perfect asset to these meditations. Something different, but the same idea. I used the Mandala Cosmic Deck of Initiation by Barbara M. Delong. Fantastic imagery!! Anyway, the astrological signs I took as either a person in my life who will play a big role in my healing or an energy that will manifest once the other cards have been learned.

12/24/12 – Healing Within & Foundation = Session a success? Yes! Started to heal within as mandala deck confirmed it is only the beginning however.

12/25/12 – Capricorn & Taurus & Virgo = They are all involved in terms of healing from heartbreak. (people involved)

12/27/12 – Foundation & Golden Rule (=Universal Balance) = In order to achieve well rounded life, let the universe take its’ course. You have created the foundation. Don’t worry about the rest so much.

12/29/12 – Universal Truth & Law of Limitation (=Law of Attraction) = Sometimes a limitation will reveal the universal truth created by the attraction.

1/1/13 – Universal Balance & Law of Free Will (=Foundation) = Under all great foundations come with an expression of universal balance & Free Will! For a great new year foundation go with the flow!

1/2/13 – Virgo & Universal Balance (=Healing Within) = A Virgo with great universal balance will help heal your heart.

1/5/13 – Crown & Libra (=Pisces) = Using intuition & communication share the accomplishment of a goal and it will free your restrictions to developing your own personality & talents.

1/6/13 – Universal Balance & Universal Truth (=Law of Limitation) = Universal balance + Universal Truth Creates Limitation.

Session a success? Yes! Started to heal within as mandala deck confirmed; it is only the beginning however. This session just spoke to beginning the healing process from within. I may have healed from outside inward, but beginning to heal within from here on out.Capricorn, Taurus and Virgo; they are all involved in terms of healing from heartbreak. This just speaks to the major roles that these signs are playing in my life in terms of the astrological energy itself and the actual signs (people) involved. In order to achieve a well rounded life, let the universe take its’ course. You have created the foundation. Don’t worry about the rest. This affirmation just seems to speak to the fact that what happened was supposed to happen, and that it sparked the foundation for something wonderful (just what the other psychics have been telling me as well…). Sometimes a limitation will reveal the universal truth created by the attraction. This affirmation is just a reflection of our situation. The other person had a position of authority (the limitation) but that very aspect may be apart of the attraction as well for both parties. Both people had a bit of power the other person was attracted to either societal wise or just personal and spiritual wise. Under all great foundations come with an expression of universal balance & Free Will! For a great new year foundation go with the flow! This affirmation just seems to say that if I want things to go well in the beginning of the new year related to the situation I’m dealing with, don’t think so much and just go with it! A Virgo with great universal balance will help heal your heart. This is just saying that the Virgo energy will help me through this situation; energetically as well as actual people too (two psychics who were Virgos have read for me in this situation). The Vigro energy wants me to learn how to adapt to different people and situations by finding ways to make myself useful. Its’ energy wants me to hide my vulnerability, and focus attention on what I’m doing rather than who I am. The energy wants me to deflect attention away from myself, and focus on other people by praising their talents and virtues, or by criticizing fault behavior or personal imperfection. Using Intuition & Communication share the accomplishment of a goal and it will free your restrictions to developing your own personality & talents. This affirmation is just reminding me that when the goal is accomplished to share it with others (the obtainment of the relationship with this person) because by doing so, my personality and talents (?) will grow as an individual. Universal Balance & Universal Truth creates Limitation. And finally this affirmation just confirms that sometimes using great patience and protection of a truth limitation needs to be imposed… and that may mean anything from creating distance between two people or actually manifesting a limitation on the (other) person.

So there you have it! This is what the universe wants me to learn about what I’m going through. Perhaps it could be of use to you as well and what you’re perhaps going through too. <3

Incorporating Perfume Bottles into Ritual/Meditation Work

Avon Silver Fawn Charisma Cologne Bottle In Orginal Box by SentimentalWhimsy via etsy

Etsy has these cute little perfume bottles of animals. Stylistically they aren’t my thing, something I would buy to display on a shelf because generally speaking they are a bit tacky (in my opinion). I tend to combine ideas into new ones and have been thinking on a spiritual level lately and thought I could use these cute animal bottles in my rituals/meditative work for the sabbats. I’m currently looking at an owl bottle for Candlemas/Imbolc in February. I’d wrap up the ritual supplies I used in the bottle and carry it around with me.

 

Candlemas Animal Symbolism: Bears, eagle, groundhogs, owls, ravens, sheep, snakes, stags

Ostara Animal Symbolism: rabbits, hares, robins, dragons (associated with eggs the earth and fertility), lambs, chicks

Beltane Animal Symbolism: Swallow, dove, swan, Cats, lynx, leopard, goats, rabbits, honey bees

Litha Animal Symbolism: butterflies, caterpillars, sea creatures, wren, robin, horses, cattle, satyrs, faeries, firebird, dragon, thunderbird

Lughnasadh Animal Symbolism: Griffins, Basilisks, Roosters, Calves, Centaurs, Phoenix

Mabon Animal Symbolism: dogs, wolves, stag, blackbird, owl, eagle, birds of prey, salmon & goat, Gnomes, Sphinx, Minotaur, Cyclops, Andamans and Gulons.

Samhain Animal Symbolism: Stag, cat, bat, owl, jackal, elephant, ram, scorpion, heron, crow, robin

Yule Animal Symbolism: yule goat (nordic), reindeer stag, squirrels, yule cat, Sacred White Buffalo, Kallikantzaroi-ugly chaos monsters(greek), trolls, phoenix, yule elf, jule gnome, squirrels, wren/robin

 

Using these Animal Symbols in our meditative/ritual work we call upon their energy to help us in each season.

 

Altar Table

image by paganspride via ebay

Say hello to my new altar table! I finally found an altar table in my budget range ($25) that I could afford. Apparently I’m going through a transformation and it just feels like the right time to finally set up a permanent altar. Plus I need a place to ground and meditate for work. I just hope it won’t end up being too small, but it looks like the size of a very large laptop to me in the picture. I thought that since I’m going through a transformation it was the right time to make a permanent altar. Yay!

In the future

I keep having a vision of me working in my trolley studio and she is sitting on the bench near my desk on her laptop smiling over at me while I talk to a client on the phone. Its’ strangely incredibly romantic, the love of my life working along beside me in my studio. Alas, but it it only a vision… and not reality.

Altar/Meditation Space

Since spirituality seems to be an ever increasing presence in my life, I think its about time to get an altar/meditation space. My current desktop altar isn’t cutting it. I need a space in my room that is *specifically* for meditations. I’ve been thinking about cleaning out one corner of my room that faces west. Now the religion I have only really known to use an altar is the Wiccan/Pagan religion and they align their altars to North. But my desktop and computer area is already facing north and there is no way am I going to move my desk around. My desk came with a miniature extension table to store a printer. Since I’m home from school, I’m gonna have to clean that off since its’ storing craft supplies right now and move my printer to it. Once I clean that area out I think I will have enough space for a small meditation altar.

HOWEVER, this space is facing West. So I’ve been doing research about the significance of having an altar face West and apparently there’s some significance from the eastern traditions which is perfect.

 

In the Buddhist tradition,

B. The Location of a Buddhist Altar

It is ideal to set up a Buddhist altar in a dedicated room. If the building is of two or more stories, it is proper to set it up on the top floor. If there is no dedicated room available, a quiet place or a room which can be closed up for quiet meditation at the regular practice time should be selected.

The orientation of a Buddhist altar depends on the main Buddha worshipped. If the practitioner majors in the Pureland school, the main Holiness should be Amitabha Buddha And hence the altar

should be oriented toward the East. In case of the Healing Buddha who eliminates misfortunes and prolongs lives, it should be orientated toward the West. (All notes below are added into the English translation by Dr. Lin. Note 1: Amitabha Buddha’s Pureland is in the West, hence the altar ideally is to be set up such that when we face Him, we are facing the West. A similar remark applies to the case of the Healing Buddha whose Pureland is in the East.) If the wall available is not of the ideal orientation, it is also fine to ignore this point. It is proper to select a wall with sufficient illumination so that it is easier for the practitioner to concentrate on gazing at the holy images .

The north doesn’t feel right to me. I just don’t seem to have any spiritual connection to the North, however, only during rituals and meditations do I face the North… I really do feel a strong pull towards to the to set up this altar.

The early Christians also faced West,

Worshippers in the courtyard could witness the sacrifices offered in front of the holy of holies, and knew that therein God dwelt behind a series of curtains, through which only the high priest could pass.  Priests and people faced west toward the Presence of God, the Shekinah.  With the entrance in the east, sunlight was admitted in the morning, while the structure provided a modicum of shade over the courtyard in the hot afternoon.

Most spiritualists say you should put a place that is easiest for you. Just orientate the ritual/circle to north when you are actually doing one. For some reason I seem to have a strong elemental connection to water (the element of the west) right now. Dunno why.

Upon doing more research however I found this pagan thread in a forum where someone asked the question, The Altar-is it ok to have it facing the west? 

One reply really resonated with me,

Your altar should face the direction that is taught in your tradition. Usually this would be the North or the East. The West is the direction of endings, imagination, the subconscious, and dreams; I don’t know of any tradition which uses it on a regular basis.

Of course!! Subconscious, dreams, imagination, all things related to the third eye! No wonder I feel a strong connection there. But I *DO* like what other traditions say about the Presence of God being in the West. Also I get a lot of sunlight this time of year and to have it shine down on my altar would be cool. So I think that’s settled, I will put near that wall when I’ve saved enough monies for the table I’m thinking about buying.

Jessica – “He Sees.”

Ever since my pineal gland has been pulsating occasionally I get random names and such pop into my head. Sometimes they mean nothing at the time, and sometimes they relate to something. As I’ve blogged about before I’ve been going through a lot of heavy emotions lately regarding a relationship that I’m expecting to blossom but I’m really in no position to be the active pursuer anymore. Real frustrating. Anyway, this week a name, Jessica, popped into my head and I thought it was weird because I haven’t been connected to any Jessicas of late. I recently joined an online social network called, Temple Illuminatus and its a bunch of people who are into the occult arts and sciences – not only that but the maturity level is decent, no fluff in other words. I posted my experience as well with a tarot reading I did on it – I never use reversals – so for some reason I felt it was necessary for me to do reversals. I haven’t been great at reading for myself lately because of all these heavy emotions clouding my intuition and judgement.

For the reading I got;

hanged man rv (shadow) – 9/wands (past) – page/cups (present) – king/cups (future) – queen/swords (highlight)

For me, the shadow represents unseen motivations in the situation and the highlight represents something clouding the situation and/or something important to be aware of in the situation.

A fellow temple member contacted me tonight about his insights into the reading and it made total sense. First he sees that the hanged man represents action in something that I don’t see having any action – something that’s been stagnated so to speak – “no more searching for answers, no more needing to wait, maturity, answers.”  9/wands in the past is someone who has been fighting their way through and trying to search for answers. Presently the page of cups is showing, in some decks the page holds a heart crystal in one hand this fellow member sees this as my intuition giving me a message from the heart (a.k.a “Jessica”). In the Future position represents the person or a person who, “responds to emotional needs, a good person to be in love with or with a relationship – compassionate – it is an answer to your prayers“. What about the queen? I asked them. “This could mean you, my friend. – You strike me as very intelligent. This person out there is very, very emotional – something that would be good for you. You might scare her away being, well, too much yourself.” Be more open? I asked. “See this queen as a shadow yes. More your inner feelings… less talk – more on her level for now. They need this at least in the beginning. See it as a warning to still be you, but not as boldly. “ My friend continued the conversation by returning to the hanged man – “This refers to your ‘actions’ – will you take the advice once you meet this person, or will you take no action.. and blow it all away by scaring them away… without showing how emotional of a side you have. I see this as a wonderful omen.” Me too!! That’s why I asked cause it was so clear. I exclaimed. “Keep your senses open now… you need to be ready… you may have only one first impression here – or – a second chance.” After this I excitedly go search for the meaning of the name “Jessica”! Why had I never thought of the symbolic, etymological or metaphorical meaning of the name Jessica!!! Jessica \j(e)-ssi-ca\ as a girl’s name is pronounced JESS-a-kah. It is of Hebrew origin, and the meaning of Jessica is “He sees”.“YES…keep your eyes open..be ready to be YOU (from the heart)…and SEE the opportunity…and take it (Hanged Man REV)” affirmed my friend.

Tremont Tearoom #2

So I went into the Tearoom again and I am officially a psychic there!!! I’m so excited. I’ve always wanted to work/be paid for my spiritual services professionally. I don’t feel comfortable charging for my services as an individual but this is with 19 other psychics so it feels more natural to me to do it this way. The owner was really impressed with my reading I did for me. The only thing he criticized was my obvious nervousness. I did tell them this was my first time reading professionally but I guess it doesn’t matter in this case. I just hope my nervousness is just from being judged and analyzed during the hiring process and it will go away once I start to relax more there. I have 14 hours and work Sundays (12 – 6pm) and Wednesdays (12 – 8pm). My mom was funny she was like, “Well you can always fake being calm“. Yes I could, but psychics tend to be generally sensitive to subtle things like that. 😉
Then one of the other psychics there when he was officiating me said, “The energy in this room feels weird. I’m gonna smudge it again. Its probably because of all the new people.” And I was like, “Sorry its probably my fault.”  😉

Correspondence

Lately, I’ve been thinking about Correspondence in terms of energy work. Last new moon I did a meditation ritual regarding employment. I drew a mandala featuring symbols that symbolized the place I want to work in, as well as the kind of work I wanted. I used symbols for moving and desire. This is the full moon and I’ve gotten two responses from my resume. Nothing is settled yet, as one isn’t that consistent but it would get me experience and probably move out of my parents’ house (which I need). I burned (released) the mandala in the ritual and put the ashes with Cinnamon oil and amethyst under my pillow in a pouch for the entire moon cycle. Seems to have worked. Again, I haven’t made any decisions, as I don’t know much about these positions. BUT its a start. I could really use the experience but I have to figure out my living situation first before I could do anything.

In terms of correspondence, what really helped me realize and understand how to use correspondence is that symbols, color and other forms project a subtle energy and when used properly these subtle energies are attracted to you. Different colors and forms when coupled with each other create different energy patterns and these patterns are attracted to the energies you seek.

I think I’ll definitely be using this method in the future when I’m finding myself in a hole in my life.

 

EDIT: So one that looked promising ended up being a scam. Oh well back to square one. Let’s hope the other one will come through.

Moving on…?

Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/giophotos/3869802312/

Not to make this blog become “emo-centric” but its’ been about three months since I’ve had my heartbroken for the 100th time. I keep asking myself why do I even bother letting my heart feel, if its’ only ever going to end up being broken if I follow those feelings? One of the worst things in the world is still having feelings for someone who certainly doesn’t seem interested in you or at one point did, and isn’t admitting to their feelings. How do you move on from that? How do you get closure for a bond that was once so close and intimate? You can’t. You can only hope that they’ll choose to follow those feelings and come back to you. And so far its’ looking pretty bleak and its hard to say that they’ll come back; but at least the cards say they will. It doesn’t help that whenever I’m away from them it makes me miss them and want to be near them even more. Its’ becoming quite clear to me that I’m not supposed to find the love I seek in this life time and rather it seems like I’m dealing with a bad karmic cycle. Cause this isn’t the first time something like this has happened, it just gets worse and worse each time it does happen. Whatever I did in a previous life must have been pretty bad. One can only hope that they will come back one day….

Is Heaven Real?

An article on thedailybeast.com caught my eye today, titled: “Heaven Is Real: A Doctor’s Experience With the Afterlife” and it was very compelling. Many alchemical woodcut drawings from the 1700’s – 1800’s depict a sky opening and leading up to a place; or a land of light. In William Henry’s book, The Secret of Sion, discusses the existence of a land of light that’s been termed “heaven” in Christian terminology. The doctor may indeed have discovered something truly profound. As one commenter said that what this experience does prove that the doctor has experienced a realm of consciousness that exists outside of the brain – as the bacteria that infected the part that created conscious reality was ultimately inactive, this meant there there is a realm of consciousness interacting with reality. Is this heavenly destination the very same place that is depicted in these alchemical drawings? The skeptic may point out that the alchemical drawings were drenched in symbolism and the alchemical knowledge was actually stored in the images but conveyed in symbolism. Quoting the doctor he describes beings he saw while at this heaven-like place, Higher than the clouds—immeasurably higher—flocks of transparent, shimmering beings arced across the sky, leaving long, streamer-like lines behind them. Depicted in the alchemical image to the left there is a dove at the center top of the image according to Henry a Dove has a cosmic meaning, If we think of John instructing Jesus in some form of stellar knowledge it opens us to the possibility that he was infusing Jesus’ consciousness with the light of certain stars or star systems. In particular, following the flight of the dove will lead us to the Mother Star, Sion. “ Earlier in the chapter Henry states, …Before the cross gained prominence in the fourth century, the second-century church father Clement of Alexandria urged early Christians to use the dove or a fish as a symbol to identify themselves and each other as followers of Jesus. In the alchemical image to the left the dove here may in fact be the cosmic meaning and embodiment of stellar knowledge and thus the center of Sion; the land of light – or heaven. At one point in his book Henry states, For the awakened Gnostic, Christ is a being of light and the Christ narrative is an allegory of a universal internal spiritual experience, the Way of Light.[…] This is the ancient spiritual journey of the Wayshower, Jesus demonstrated. We follow (and will complete) this light path both individually and as a species… The doctor further in the article anaylizes  his experience by saying, Before my experience these ideas were abstractions. Today they are realities. Not only is the universe defined by unity, it is also—I now know—defined by love. The universe as I experienced it in my coma is—I have come to see with both shock and joy—the same one that both Einstein and Jesus were speaking of in their (very) different ways. No matter what way you look at it, in the end it seems we all will be bathed in an explosion of light, color, love, and beauty!

 

I think I may have found my next book too – Proof of Heaven; Eben Alexander – after I finish reading Tuning the Diamonds.