So many of us started our spiritual paths as solitaries. Our circumstances were all different, some of us may have come from families that did not understand our openness to Spirit, or our search for meaning in life. Maybe we were brought up in religious structures that were more dogma that spirit, or we may have had a curiosity about other cultures and belief systems. But the result was the same - it left us on our own to explore different spiritual practices.

When I started my journey with meditation and tarot as a teenager, there was only one other friend my age who I could talk to about such topics. As I broadened into Wiccan and Goddess wisdom studies in my 20’s, I felt like I couldn’t share that with many friends either, and preferred to keep that part of myself hidden from most other people.  Keep in mind I am a Gen-Xer and when I was a teen and in my early 20’s, we didn’t have household computers or cell phones – there was no internet for the public use then. I did all my exploring and studying with books. Connecting with others meant face to face meetings at bookstores, meditation centers and by synchronicity.

Now thirty plus years later we can study any topic through our screens and can connect to people and groups anywhere in the world in minutes. That can lead to the other end of the spectrum – too much connection that can distract us from our inner work! However it does give us the amazing opportunity to meet with kindred spirits all over the world.

I have a connection with a new friend in another country who is also a shamanic practitioner and visionary. She is around my age and has done much work as a solitary in the past. She and I had a great conversation via Zoom where we both concluded that the time for solitary work is done and now is the time for the shift to working in community.

Some of us who have been solitary for so long and are happily introverted may feel uncomfortable at first switching gears. But we realize that after working on ourselves for so many years, we have gone as far as we can go, we’ve hit a plateau. What takes it to the next level in our inner work is outer work. It means that we take the steps to put ourselves out there to share our gifts with the world.  Maybe some of us have felt the draw to start our own practice to help others.  If we have had the training and the years of experience, we could be feeling nudges from Spirit that points to this being our path. We may be called to start our own business as a practitioner, healer, teacher, life coach, artist, or other service provider. Or maybe we are called to be in service inside our communities by starting a shamanic journey circle, a Reiki share group, a spiritual book coffee chat or other group. Coming together in community to practice, share ideas, and support one another on our spiritual paths fuels our well-being and the well-being of the world.

Covid helped bring this to light for so many people. Even though we were forced into solitary circumstances via lockdown, we now had the technology, time, and motivation to connect. That opened new opportunities for community, friendships, and work groups that could connect from wherever they were. What a gift!

Screens cannot replace the in-person gatherings and circles that feed our souls in such a strong way. Being able to hold hands around a circle and hugging one another is such an important part of human living. But whether we come together online or in person, the important part is the coming together. We know that when we set intentions as a group the energy is amplified exponentially. We have the power to make beneficial change in the world by being weavers that extend a webwork of thriving throughout our communities. We just have to take that first step and pick up the thread.

Recently I did a journey to connect with Gaia, the Deva of Earth, for a message about this time of pause and reset that we are in now.

It came as a lesson, as many journeys do, and it came with a sound and sensation.

WHOOMPH. As if she took her hand and pushed me right down into the dirt which absorbed me in an energetic embrace. It was heavy, sudden, serious. And enlivening.

She gave me the feeling of indigenous creation stories where First People were made from her mud and her breath gave them lifeforce.

She gave me the feeling of how she gifted me life in this body, and how when this life is done my body will be returned to her through the Elementals dancing away my form.

She spoke to me as one speaks to a child, and lovingly. She said that my blood is her blood, my bones are her bones. She came into my lungs with a sensation of what it really feels like to breathe, and a knowing that it is her breath as well.

WHOOMPH. This is what it really feels like to be in my body. 

She gave me the feeling of being part of the entire world, and that everything on the planet really is my kin. Not just all humans, animals and plants; but also buildings, dump trucks, computers, trash heaps, refrigerators, filing cabinets, plastic bags, sneakers, viruses, everything. I had sensory awareness of a cellular and heart energy connection to everything. It was like plugging into a current of reverence.

WHOOMPH. She says the time for complacency is over.

The great shift in humanity will come when the realization that we are of the earth becomes crystal clear to all our senses. And that we physically are kin and connected to all that is her. I keenly felt that connection as my body was surrounded by her body, and I could feel the energetic matrix of all things. Many indigenous people have not lost this feeling and are aware of it all the time. 

Everything we are and everything we have is of the earth. We can know this in our head, and we can feel the intuitive rightness of it, but it really does not sink in until we feel the sensation in our bodies, our cells, our energy systems. 

When we can feel and realize the sacred in all things at every moment, we will have shifted.

WHOOMPH. Thank you, Mother.

Gaia by Susan Seddon Boulet

In shamanic practice, it is common to work with ancestors from one’s lineage.  Our ancestors can be wise teachers and healers who pass on special skills and information to us and can help heal ancestral karma for the entire lineage.  It is also good practice to work with one’s descendants as well. They can provide information and teaching about how humanity got through difficult time periods. They also provide a window to what the possible future holds.

With the world at a major turning point right now, I felt called to do a journey to a descendant who could give me some insights about how we got through it.

My helping spirits led me where I needed to go, and we stepped into a yard next to a house. I do not remember the details of the building, but the surrounding land was full of colors. Green and gold grass swept over the hills behind the structure, the sky was deep blue with a few puffy clouds. An orchard next to the yard had many long rows of robust trees full of red and gold apples. A woman came walking from the orchard towards me carrying a big basket of apples. She was middle aged, tall with wavy graying hair. She was dressed in a woven fabric dress the color of olive green, with a slate blue and orange tunic or scarf covering her shoulders.

I told her who I was and what we were all going through in my time now, and that I had come to her for any advice or insights she could share.  She told me that she was in the year 2150. She and her husband and children lived on this regenerative farm. She said that there are still cities and technology, but around the cities and stretching out to the rural towns, there are farms and co-ops that regenerate the land and provide food for area communities. There is balance. All waste, broken or used up items are recycled into general building block materials for making new things. There are no power lines. The air felt clean and energized.  She took an apple from her basket and handed it to me and told me to plant the seeds.

I thanked her and went back to my garden in non-ordinary reality and planted the apple seeds. The nature spirits and deva of the tree helped it to grow quickly and flower full of exquisite blossoms. I felt clarity as I stood next to it.  It spoke. “The way we live during these times are seeds for the future. What future are you stepping into?”

For the past few months, I have been receiving reminders from my spirit teachers about being mindful of the seeds I plant. They are helping me to see that planting seeds is the beginning of choosing our timeline. Not all seeds sprout, which is a good thing. Seeds planted in fear, anger, hate are only going to propagate more of the same, and continue to keep us on a painful timeline, just like the one collective humanity has been on for thousands of years. When we plant seeds with mindfulness and intention, and nurture the sprouting with love and care, those new shoots guide us onto the path of the timeline we choose to be on now. It can be a very subtle thing. However, we have free will and we can choose to direct ourselves into a new timeline to a different outcome. A different Earth.

So I’ve been thinking, after the immediate quarantine is lifted, and businesses and schools reopen, how can we NOT go back to normal? How can we choose a new way of living where the earth and all life is treasured, respected and treated as if it is the Divine embodied?  What changes do we make in our intention, our way of thinking and lifestyles to guide our timeline to this new world we envision? If enough of us guide our timelines into a new paradigm, will that give birth to it sooner?

In your journeying practice, I encourage you to journey to meet a descendant. Not only can they be a source of information, but they may also become one of your guides and allies.

I also recommend that you to contemplate these two questions (journeying on them might be helpful as well):

“What is it that I want to do differently to not return back to “normal” after this?” 

“What seeds can I plant to help anchor that in my timeline.”

It is time to remember that each one of us has the power to change our worlds.