What is a Divine Compass?

We are spiritual beings having a human experience and we are billions of little sparks flickering from the greater creative energy of the divine. We are born with an inner guiding current that longs to be plugged into this source of energy, like a light socket connected to the unified grid. This longing resides deep within our soul - a gut feeling, a hunch, a message delivered in a dream, a sense of inner knowing you feel in your body. Sometimes felt as intuition, it communicates with the invisible intelligence that permeates and sustains all of life (prana or “life force energy”) from the mycelium network beneath trees to your dog. We don’t always listen to our intuition and after many years of neglect the signal becomes weakened and we stray off course. With a little coaxing and commitment, however, its signal is reawakened and we are once again reunited with its timeless mission of guiding and protecting us.

What have I inherited?

In childhood, we become domesticated into our culture’s ways of being by learning what produces reward vs. punishment. The volume at which we heard that inner guidance starts to diminish as we grow out of adolescence. On top of this domestication, we may be born into a family whose ancestral wounds we have inherited, whether from one or multiple generations and one or multiple instances. This includes not only war, famine, poverty, tragic death, illness, and natural disasters but also physical and sexual abuse, addictions, phobias, avoidant and hypervigilant behavior, violence, discrimination, etc. We may suffer from and repeat any number of these onto others, weaving ourselves into the continuing pattern rather than breaking the cycle.

What am I denying myself?

By the time we have transitioned from adolescence into adulthood (if we are lucky enough to do so), the nervous system and psyche have formed patterns of coping that may have been similar to our ancestors. We learn to adapt to environments and relationships that are neglectful, unsafe, unpredictable, untrustworthy, and a threat to our physical, mental, and emotional well-being. We strive to meet the expectations and standards of our parents, peers, and culture (having learned what’s accepted vs. rejected) at the expense of what we truly desire and the purpose we are meant to fulfill (even if we don’t know it yet). Whether it’s obsessing over that corner office and denying ourselves an artistic career or staying in that abusive relationship and denying ourselves a spiritual partnership, ignoring our patterns of thought, behavior, and emotion that got us “here” only works for so long.

What direction am I being pulled in?

Our future doesn’t have to follow in our ancestors’ footsteps thankfully. Out of longing to reunite with the protective care of the Divine, of Source, of Spirit, we are called to awaken or more commonly, we finally hit rock bottom. Tired of feeling lost and numb we accept a friend’s invitation to a yoga class where our heart cracks open and we cry a river of grief we’ve been damning for years. Amidst a nasty divorce and collecting anti-anxiety meds, we finally admit we are powerless and attend our first AA meeting. It arises differently for everyone, but there is a point when that whisper inside us grows so loud that the noise of our distractions begins to fade. Cultivating more space so that the volume can increase, we develop self-awareness and the desire for change brings courage to try something different from what we’ve always done.

And so begins the journey!

We return home to ourselves within, reconnect to our divine compass, and investigate the patterns of thought, behavior, and emotion we inherited but were never ours to carry. We tune into our body (kriya yoga & meditation), the healing power of breath (pranayama), the energy of the Earth (rewilding, vision quest), and the wisdom of our ancestors (ancestral contact) and find compassion for our suffering. We meet forgiveness head-on, asking it of ourselves and from our ancestors as well as asking for forgiveness of our wrong doings. [For some, forgiveness may not yet be possible, and by no means does it mean we forget the hurt that’s been endured] We cleanse our psyche and heart center (in some cases our physical home) creating fertile soil in which our and our ancestors’ healing will grow. We now have the proof needed to find the courage to accept our mission and share our unique gift which aids in Earth’s healing.