Month: December 2022

Writing Toward Wholeness

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I have started a local in-person writing group​ and​ it has totally jump-started my writing​.​ I have found that the every week writing opportunity is fantastic for actually sitting down to writ​e​​ and so ​I wanted to share a more spiritual​-​direction focused online writing community-based opportunity.

This is now offered online at your own pace.

You will need one book: Writing Toward Wholeness: Lessons Inspired by C. G. Jung by Susan M. Tiberian. No previous writing or knowledge of Jung needed, but if you are a devotee of Jung, this book allows you to engage personally with your past learning as well. Note that many contemporary spiritual writer insights are included in the book, including Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Annie Dillard, Thich Nhat Hanh, Maya Angelou and many more.

For each online sessions, plan on 60-90 minutes to allow ample time for writing. You are encouraged to participate with a buddy, with each of. you registering for the program.

  • 15 minute presentation
  • 50-60 minutes of silent writing
  • 15 minutes to share any ahas through journaling or sharing with your writing buddy.

I find writing for yourself and just sharing verbally how the process went frees up our writing when we know we will not be required to share our first drafts on the spot!

If you are a current spiritual directee, you are welcome to bring your writing to our next session (and if you are not yet a regular spiritual directee of mine, you can schedule individual or sets of 5 sessions with me–at your convenience).

Please purchase the book Writing Toward Wholeness: Lessons Inspired by C. G. Jung by Susan M. Tiberian when you sign up and read through Chapter 1, page 35 or if a Kindle ebook, stop when you get to Chapter 2, Active Listening. I will also draw from several other books on writing the spiritual journey.

Cost for the series is $100 per participant and $50 if you are a current regular spiritual directee of mine. Email twinflowerpress@gmail.com to confirm (or ask questions) and I will send you an invoice (perhaps your professional development funds will cover this), and the password for the sessions. You have all of 2023 to complete it (and if you pay in 2024, you have all of 2024 to participate).

Feel free to pass on to any seekers who you would like to embark on this Spiritual Writing Journey together. Email twinflowerpress@gmail.com to confirm your participation.

Mystics

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Mark Nepo’s
Book of Awakenings

Recently, the poet Mark Nepo did an online poetry reading to support Spirituality and Practice. He quoted that a mystic is anyone who believes there is something beyond themselves.

Another quote on mysticism: “A mystic is a person who has a direct experience of the sacred, unmediated by conventional religious rituals or intermediaries,” Mirabai Starr, author of Wild Mercy: Living the Fierce and Tender Wisdom of the Women Mystics, tells OprahMag.com.

I have so appreciated Nepo’s Book of Awakenings, which is a day-by-day meditation and action book. For me, each day encourages me to look beyond myself and be in connection with the world, which I term mysticism. One of the quotes I particularly like for spiritual direction:

“Sometimes the simplest and best use of our will is to drop it all and just walk out from under everything that is covering us, even if only for an hour or so—just walk out from under the webs we’ve spun, the tasks we’ve assumed, the problems we have to solve. They’ll be there when we get back, and maybe some of them will fall apart without our worry to hold them up.”

Perspective Changing Dreams

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One of the classes I am taking with a colleague has focused on looking at the darker characters in our dreams, or perhaps when doing a guided meditation, poke around to see if there are any dark bits. These more negative characters and insights may just have something to tell us. As an example from one of my guided meditations, I saw a flower blooming in response to asking “what do I need to know.” Of course, this gave me great pleasure and hope as focused on what new growth or learning was unfolding in me. However, when I look at the entire seen and look for the darker bits, I saw that the background in my image was blurred and although my blooming flower appeared to be in a forest near the ground, the blurriness of the background was now interesting to me. Why would the background be so blurry? What does a background of blurred dirt and trees suggest to me? How am I like a blurry background? Dirt? Trees?

round glass ball reflecting man standing

Looking for the dark bits to see the whole.

I appreciated this model of moving more deeply into our images and recognizing, like ourselves, that a whole image includes what we see at first (our ego, persona) and that when we look at the context (the collective) we might see parts of ourselves that were otherwise hidden. Our perspective of the darkness can bring deeper understanding of ourselves and our connection to the mystery of life.