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Twelve Layers of a Spiritual Awakening
- Mary Mueller Shutan
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In today’s episode of “Healing from Within” your host, Sheryl Glick, author of The Living Spirit: Answers for Healing and Infinite Love which shares stories of spiritual awakenings, spiritual communication, healing energies, miracles and ways to go within to find your Higher Self, welcomes Mary Mueller Shutan author of The Spiritual Awakening Guide. Mary is an acupuncturist, herbalist, cranio-sacral therapist and spiritual healer who helps others navigate their spiritual awakening process and to enhance their intuitive development.
Mary says “We are all part of the overwhelming and joyous experience of the flow of divine unfolding.” For some awakening is something that is actively searched for..years of meditation yoga workshops and healing methods…one of gradual changes and deep understanding of a spiritual nature. Some of us were simply born into an awakened state and may gradually lose this state or put ourselves to sleep when we come to understand that it is not culturally appropriate to be awake in a world that is not. In an effort to be normal—relating in similar ways and understandings to our family members friends and community we shut down our awareness. Some awaken over time and in a step by step process while others awaken suddenly resulting in dramatic physical, psychological and spiritual changes within a short time. Along with different types of awakenings there are also variations in the degree of the awakened state. However an awakening begins it is the start of an inner calling, a chance to do something great to contribute to humanity. It is a signal to become a teacher, leader healer, a force of compassion and wisdom in the world…it is a call to service.”
Mary goes on to describe 3 states of Being:
1 The Sleeper state is a lack of the present moment and ordinary conditioned reality where we just get through life and often relive the same patterns of trauma over and over again failing to make the changes that might let go of the past and future worries.
2 When Somewhat Awakened we have an understanding of our place in society but are looking for more out of life than the same wants and needs of those who are asleep…We also have an understanding of our emotions and an understanding that our past and childhood have contributed and made us who we are.
3 For Those Who Are Awaken know that real spiritual understanding is a constantly evolving process. A truly awakened teacher will teach the student to follow his own path.
Sheryl Says “In my book The Living Spirit I express the joy of knowing and awakening to your own divinity and personal power to manifest a healthy and joyful life by being in alignment to Universal Energy this way…. “ My role In my work to assist my clients in realizing that they have ultimate control over their life decisions while not necessarily over the circumstances that occur. In the moment of awareness, they achieve a sense of completeness and oneness with Spirit that is beyond anything they have felt before. The question is how do we arrive at this wonderful moment of awareness? How might you begin to let go of the bits and pieces of beliefs imposed on you during your childhood, which in adulthood limits your ability to find fulfillment? By realizing our childhood beliefs and behaviors no longer work for us, we can choose to take responsibility for making positive improvements in thoughts and actions and move past the bits and pieces imposed on us in childhood. Even a child who has a difficult early life can, with the right support, transcend his or her circumstances to find a decent and fulfilling life.”
When we have an experience that shows us how small we are in the universe it creates recognition and an understanding that “we are part of “the collective whole” or something bigger than ourselves”…this awareness catapults us into awakening. This sensation is also the moment of understanding that there is a force out there that is guiding us or has some sort of collective intelligence. Sheryl Says…. “In Reiki as I am a Reiki energy practitioner and teacher, we call this “Universal Energy” and express the truth that we each have the divine spark of this creative evolutionary force within us and that is what connects us to each other and all of life. While we are one in this sense we are not the same as each soul has its unique individuality and purpose in the Universe.”
Mary mentions the twelve layers that cover an awakened state. We are constructed of many layers going from the outermost layer to the innermost… Each layer of say like a series of nesting dolls offers us the ability to become aware of the largest and most external work though it, and move one step to who we truly are within.
The TWELFTH LAYER OF CONDITIONED REALITY IS THAT OF THE SELF:
Our experience of the world from an in-utero state to our current age. In this stage we can let go of past negative or charged life experiences.
THE ELEVENTH LAYER OF PAST LIVES:
It is not unusual for some of us to resist the clearing of past lives due to religious upbringing. We do not remember issues from past lives the same way we understand the patterns from direct experiences in this life. Past life issues are typically body-part specific (PHYSICAL) such as feeling our throat release and becoming aware that in a past life our throat was cut. Or understanding that our pelvic pain is rooted in a miscarriage or death during giving birth in a past life…these traumas and patterns can release in any manner such as having visions, dreams, or sudden senses of knowing.
THE TENTH LAYER OF IMMEDIATE FAMILY SYSTEMS:
This type of awakening is often the first awakening of love and although many of us have difficult family existences the possibility and love that appears in a new mother and father shows us what is possible in the Universe. We begin to question,” Is this mine,” in regard to processing Self or family issues. When we clear our own issues we are often clearing that of those around us. Focusing on the love and the oneness of the family even if there are difficulties allow for us to deal with the fears of children, anger of a spouse, and the chaos of an elderly parent. This level can be uncomfortable because we begin to see the patterns and wounds of others and to look outside and see their faults. It is important to realize that everyone has a path and their own unique prison or issues to clear and release.
THE NINTH LAYER OF ANCESTRAL PATTERNS:
At a certain point or simply when we are ready we will begin to release the ancestral layer of conditioned reality. By realizing there is a pattern or place that is affecting us we can break the threads of patterns…we begin to see how the plight of our ancestors has passed down to us…wars, immigration, starvation plagues genocides and family tragedies are common. When we understand the fears anger and traumas of our ancestral line we can see how these patterns still exist within us and can clear them… ex…a group of women displaying signs of hoarding food, insomnia with dreams of being chased, never feeling settled or grounded, and always feeling the need to be on high alert… It turned out the women in the group were all descendants of the Holocaust and the feelings they were experiencing weren’t their own….Ancestral issues may be housed within our physical body The ancestral layer of awakening is often more emotional than physical
THE EIGHT LAYER OF SOCIETAL AND COLLECTIVE CONDITIONING:
This layer often presents as a grid..we may perceive ourselves to be awake and that the whole world is asleep…We begin to see that society is asleep and that the media is following the same patterns and conversations like a script…This may make us depressed. We know all that we knew to be true is falling away…obsolete…Many of us at this point drop long standing relationships and friendships, let go of possessions and begin deeply questioning our faith and our lives as a whole. This is the stage of realizing that more than the Self creates the world. During this awakening many are lead to THE DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL where a sense of despair, a loss of the comfort of being asleep is gone. Some stay in the societal awakening stage for lengthy periods of time and it can be overwhelming….
When we reach this level of awakening it is not uncommon to temporarily have issues with electronics static-electricity type sensations when touching objects or find that television or computers are making us ill. The ability to heal others with modalities like Reiki or Healing Touch intensifies as well as an interest in healing spirituality and being of service….an increase in psychic abilities…development of new sensitivities inability to digest specific foods intolerance to alcohol and drugs and hearing seeing smelling tasting and feeling things beyond our normal range…It is important to maintain a consistent meditation practice to develop our relationship with our guides and a physical practice like hiking yoga tai chi to keep us in our physical body and grounded. To go beyond this point requires the disintegration of the “I”.
THE SEVENTH LAYER OF KARMIC PATTERNS:
Karma which means action- meaning at some point had an action that created a reaction and a need to make up for past debts, problems and trespasses of our former selves. Karma clears similarly to past lives in that we become aware of a pattern and can become aware of the threads leading us to our former selves. The best manner of clearing karma is to be a good person in this lifetime and clear the layers of conditioning and patterning that came before…Working with karma is a lifetime process…Karma has to do with lessons that have more to do with divine timing than some of the other patterns…There is nothing we need do with karma …it will release in divine timing. We simply surrender, let go of the idea we have control over every facet of our lives, and not allow for fear to create blockage so it can release.
THE SIXTH LAYER OF WORLD, GLOBAL AND COSMIC PATTERNS:
This layer also appears as a grid…we have worked through the personal, past lives, family and ancestral and some of societal layers and may come to know that we are the world and the world is us….now the Ego begins to drop away and feelings of compassion appear without conditions. We also know that although we are awakening we will always have more to learn and grow. There are many beautiful understandings that come through at this stage about the state of the world and how the world at its core is about compassion and love.
As we move away from a state of victimhood or from the “I” mentality that demands we stay in that state we can get a perspective on ourselves as a global being. Therefore when a major shift, weather pattern, war and so on happens we feel it physically in our body. Know that we are processing these energies because we are awake to them. When we awaken to global energies we become a release valve for them and become a tool of the divine.
THE FIFTH LAYER OF EGO DEATH:
At the level of global awareness and beginnings of oneness we understand that there is divine flow and we are part of the whole. There is an understanding that the people surrounding us are us and that they are showing us our deepest wounds…there is a deepening compassion for others and the beginnings of true self-love. We also begin to experience Ego Death which is temporary and then the second phase where we re-identify with our individual nature and physical bodies.
Many believe that this is the last stage of awakening but that is not so… we have thought that the ego is bad and keeps us from the Oneness or the flow of divine life. However we must reclaim the ego and live in a balanced state with our physical and spiritual energies. Our fear of physical death is gone because we know the physical form has purpose and appreciate it and know it is temporary…We identify as an individual and as a part of divine flow with no contradictions. Our base primal emotion keeps us in line and within the confines of constructed reality….in the known. To realize full awakening we must let go of fear and have faith. We must surrender and fully immerse ourselves in the divine flow…We will realize freedom..We are a web a tapestry of thoughts.
THE FOURTH LEVEL OF UNDERSTANDING AND RELEASING THOUGHT FORMS:
In this stage of awakening we let go of our strong mental faculties, the illusions and conditioned layers of realties we create from our thoughts as well as our need for logic. We are taught that everything must have a reason—a cause and effect. In some ways that is true. We have a bad childhood with a bad role model as a father, so we choose bad relationships with men..We lack self-love so we chose situations that prove to us that we do not deserve love. We are angry so we call to us reasons to be angry…What we think creates a field of energy, either positive or negative, and draws more of those reactions or experiences to us…The Law of Attraction is at play here.
At some point in the awakening process we begin to understand that thoughts or thought forms weave a web of illusions that is separate from event and the conditioned layers of reality. These thought forms may cloud our vision and create a grid that can confine us…If we can only imagine our lives being one way our lives will be that way… These thoughts combined with the thoughts of millions of other people in the world create our expectations and conformities in religion sex class politics race gender occupation and in the grid systems of the societal and world layers of conditioned realities. When we let go of the restrictive thought forms we are able to sit comfortably with dualities…right wrong, black white, etc. and be in the divine flow.
THE THIRD LAYER OF ARCHETYPAL INFLUENCES:
During an awakening we begin to understand the archetypes we embody..Archetypes are labels and patterns of conditioning…Archetypes are symbols personalities and patterns of thought that come together when we make up an image. Plato thought them to be fixed ideas that were imprinted on the soul to be played out throughout the lifetime. Jung thought archetypes to be prototypes—universal understandings and collective conditioning that made people and ideas instantly recognizable to society at large. There are many archetypes…Mystic Warrior Mother Judge Lover Slave Student God Rebel Musician Addict Child Man and Diva….
These archetypes confer a set of expected behaviors and understanding about place and role in society to us when we have been branded with an archetype..ex We would be comforted by a Student or Child acting one way but a Mother acting like a Child would be unacceptable.
THE SECOND LAYER OF MYTHIC INFLUENCES:
Similar to archetypal forces we live within the illusion of many myths and mythic deities…surrounded as children by fairy tales, Greek and Roman myths King Arthur etc..this is how we understand life and its challenges solutions and actions and reactions. Myth and archetype are the outer layers of conditioned reality and they form a grid like societal and global energies do.
Mary tells us of our personal and Collective Shadow. The shadow is the part of ourselves that is unconscious—the desires emotions and traumas that have defined us. It is our darkness, the secret violence, anger grief and energy cysts that we are unable or unwilling to process. Collectively our shadows as well as our conscious selves create the world, its violence, wars, racism, sexism classism and rules for appropriate unspoken conduct. When we are able to go beyond simplistic thoughts of good and bad and dark and light we realize there is no part of us or anyone else that is bad and we learn compassion for the shadow and become whole..We must embrace the murderous aspects of ourselves and this is a true awakening. We are physical beings intended to fully experience anger joy love bliss love grief and also on the other end of the spectrum to take great delight in beauty art, music and our senses.
Mary says that when we get to a certain point in our spiritual journey, we are simply open and able “to see and be seen.” We are open to be a channel: to be a tool of the divine but also of the spiritual realms. Although these energies can have a great deal of love, it is very much student—teacher relationship. We are told by these guides or souls what we need to know rather than what we want to hear. The first time or first few times we come into contact with real spiritual energies they are overwhelming and cause physical issues…They are of a different vibratory nature, a different dimension, perhaps a different Universe and it takes a while to entrain or get used to the difference in their energy…At some point we may find ourselves in a space of nothingness…a Void. This is a place we feel momentarily alone and separate and out of our divine flow and we have to let go of our oneness..This space is the Void—the space between the grids of reality and the Godhead.
Mary writes that Cosmic understanding means seeing and feeling things from a drastically different perspective. Throughout the awakening process and all the layers of awakening we have gradually gained a wider perspective and are now able to see that issues are nuanced and contain many opposites: that they have many different layers of meaning…Some logical and some incomprehensible. We are able to see the many patterns and layers of things we previously released and react with compassion instead of anger fear or separation when we view them in ourselves and others. We are now able to interact with people with compassion. More than this the world seems infinitely humorous. Rather than feeling better than or needing to prove ourselves We simply Are.
Mary tells us the journey to Awakening is a long process and ultimately surrendering while difficult leads to feel the beautiful oneness and to remain at peace and in a state at times of stillness..
Mary wrote…. “To fill our cup is a choice. In the Bible there are many references to the empty cup. To be filled it must first be emptied—completely emptied. This is what happens in the previous stages. Total surrender is different for every person: emptying this cup requires tests and limitations to ensure we are ready—testing of our faith of our emotions relationships belongings. For many this is quite literal—we leave our families let go of our belongings, move, or lose jobs. For some it is a choice to let go, for others bankruptcies, sudden loss of income, near death experiences, foreclosures and other experiences have forced us to surrender. The tests are difficult In that moment of surrender. We can realize this is a test of faith, of surrender or we can struggle to maintain who we thought we were. But to be fully filled with divinity to fully become who we are…full of our own power, fully awake, and with the knowledge of what we are here to do and how to do it----requires fearlessness..It can be easy in an awakened state of not doing to stay with the empty cup, finally at peace.”
Mary has shared the joy and tribulations that go along with a deep introspective look at our duality as spiritual and physical beings and has expressed that there may be challenges physically and emotionally and many changes to our life when we embrace this path to self investigation and clear the restrictions and blockages of this and past life times, those of our ancestors and the societal and global structures that are always in the process of changing and encouraging us to adapt. We may release outdated thoughts so new awareness and possibilities for creative self-expression and the manifestation of our soul life needs can be addressed from within and help us balance the influences of the outside world with inner wisdom and knowledge of eternal energy.
Mary in a practical way shares how we are meant to live in the world as awakened individuals within our human bodies By addressing post-awakening states, oneness, dark nights of the soul, ego death, near death, psychic abilities and more we understand the experiences we may go through while struggling with spiritual awakenings.
Mary and Sheryl would have you discover your personal power for accepting change as change is the key to finally awakening and being free fearless courageous and brave and the possibilities when you access those energies is limitless.
