Month: January 2011

Reverend David McArthur

The archetypal patterns of our spiritual journey are found in our ancient tales, like “Rapunzel”. In the beginning the woman who will become Rapunzel’s mother wants a beautiful garden flower very badly, thinking, “if I get that, I’ll be just fine.” But there is a cost for relying on the outer world for fulfillment. It will not fulfill who you are. It does not have that power.

Losing control of Rapunzel, the witch puts her in the tower. Her hair represents the long-focused thought or out-pouring of the brain. But our brains focus on fear. When we’re in fear we don’t connect with the whole of life. Rapunzel herself represents the feminine in all of us, the feelings of beauty and harmony (for which the men in our society get no support). Our growing spirituality – feelings of the Presence – are isolated in lots of us, as is Rapunzel so isolated in the tower. So she sang, her beautiful voice symbolizing attunement gained through meditation in silence. Her beautiful singing attracts the prince, who symbolizes thought, mind, knowledge. He lives with the King (God) and so the prince knows he a child of God. I’m a child of God. Rapunzel learns from the prince that she’s a child of God. I’m a spiritual being, living in a spiritual world, governed by spiritual laws. We come to awareness through focusing on spiritual things. We awaken to the power of choice.

The witch cut Rapunzel’s hair and sent her to the desert. The desert is depression. So Rapunzel no longer had choice or the support of her knowing. There is no stimulus in the desert.

The prince again climbed up the braid of hair only to find the witch, not Rapunzel. He does not choose to be with fear and so he leaps out the window. He falls in the thorny bushes below. He feels pain. He goes blind. When we run into pain we go blind – not seeing the divine, not seeing the truth. We say, “Why did God do this?” “How come I have to go through this?” It is painful. Giving up fear means you have to give up the drama. That is painful for many of us.

We must move from knowing to being. Rapunzel returns to singing, to being in harmony, to attunement. So the beauty she is comes back into her life. The prince hears her. When she sees the pain and blindness of the prince she responds with tears of compassion. Compassion heals pain. You find healing. Vision is restored. We’re able to know and understand. The power comes from within, not from anything without. Choose a greater state of being. Experience a new state of consciousness and live happily ever after.

Reverend David McArthur

We live the dream we hold. If it isn’t big enough, we don’t live as fully as we are capable. Dream a higher dream. Say yes to the dream in your heart. We won’t live in a world of harmony until we decide to live in harmony with those around us in our lives. We won’t have justice or forgiveness until we live with justice and forgiveness in our own lives. The time has come to make a commitment to the dream. Say, “This is the quality of life I want.” This year, like never before.

This year is a time we’re being asked to step into our dream, a time when the power to do so will rise to levels previously hard to even hope for. Rumi: “There is a candle in your heart waiting to be kindled. There is a void in your soul, ready to be filled. You feel it, don’t you?”

Say “no” to what no longer serves. Say no to what is no longer a part of your higher dream. No is a commitment to have only that in your life which supports the life you are committed to. “To be uncommitted is to be full of hesitancy, ready to go back, ineffectiveness.” Saying no to what doesn’t work is committing to what does. That is the point where your commitments become most real. Let go of that which doesn’t work and no longer serves.

There is no holding back on the part of the Divine. From Lao Tzu: “The Tao gives birth to all beings …creating without possessing, acting without expecting, guiding without interfering. That is why love of the the Tao is in the very nature of things.” Everything you need is provided by that Infinite Intelligence which guides you when you say “yes” to the big dream. “The moment one commits oneself, Providence moves.” All sorts of things begin to occur in support of the dream. Open up to assistance you couldn’t have imagined before. Once you commit to a dream that’s big enough to fill what your soul is about, you are letting that amazing spiritual being you are live who you are. You know it because you can feel it. Feel the candle be kindled. Feel the void be filled. It’s the dream. The time has come. When you commit, when you say yes, the fun begins! Kindle that candle in your heart!

Guest Speaker: Karen Drucker

Let your big bright beam of light inside of you shine!  When you are shining your light your energy is up and it helps everybody else around you.  When you “get” your divinity you come alive.  You can see it in other people– in their eyes.  “I am the light of the world” refers to the divine light within us.  Stand up and let it shine.  Say, “When you see me you will see Spirit.”

Shining is a choice. Say, “I am not giving my power away!”  Connect to that power.  Change yourself, but only go as fast as the slowest part of you will go.  (That’s the other side of this.  Hold yourself as if you were holding a baby.)  But you will know when it is time to shine.  So practice everyday– practice kindness.  Be aware of the people around you.  Notice people.  Shine.  Twinkle.  Sing, “You are the face of God.  I hold you in my heart.  You are a part of me.  You are the face of God.”

Clutter dims down your life.  Clutter is the things that don’t represent who you are anymore– the clothes that don’t fit, the old books you read decades ago.  Everything has energy.  Are there things in your  life that no longer serve you – a job?  – a friend?  – that dim you down, even slightly.  Clutter will make you feel overwhelmed and stop you from expressing Spirit.  It is who you used to be.  You send a message to the universe that you want to stay with what you used to be.

Then what brings you joy?  Who brings you joy?  How much am I allowing life to come in?  Make a point to ask, “What is it in my life that will light me up today?” To amp yourself up and clear the clutter out, go to gratitude every morning.  Sing, “Gratitude above me.  Gratitude below me.  Gratitude before me.  Gratitude behind.  Gratitude to the left of me.  Gratitude to the right of me.  Gratitude above me.  Gratitude below me.  Gratitude within me.  Gratitude all around me.  I’m so grateful!  I’m so grateful!  I’m so grateful!  I’m so grateful!  I’m so grateful!

Affirm, I am a big bright radiant being of radiant life!  I shine that light to everyone everywhere!

Reverend David McArthur

This is a beautiful new year when Spirit is focused on supporting you in being what you came here to be – your purpose, your growth, that desire in your heart, your “heart’s desire”. What is in your heart? You might say, “Give me a hint!” Jesus said it’s not your duty or station – “What is that to you? Follow me.” He said “me” as the Christ self rather than as “Jesus”. As humankind has awakened to the divine within, we are called by the higher self, the Divine Presence, the Buddha Nature. We experience it in ourselves as our purpose at this point in life. We experience it as our heart’s desire.

Look at your heart’s desire. Take a hold of what you want to put your energy into. As it unfolds it empowers you. Meet the needs in life without struggle. When you touch your heart’s desire you touch Oneness. One mind, one heart – which beats in all of us! When you’re at a point of choice and you find it’s time to take a step, touch your heart’s desire. At this point, maybe it’s just to heal. Whatever it is, every experience of your heart’s desire calls you into something greater. Thank goodness we don’t know the full extent of our choices. Say yes. It will show you oneness. It will remove the illusion of separation.

Take the time and go to your heart. “What has meaning to me?” “What has value?” “What is important to me? What do I really want to say “yes” to?” Ask your heart. It will take you far beyond your mind. When you say “yes”, you don’t know ­where it will eventually lead. Say “yes” anyway! This is a beautiful new year when our “yes” is part of many yesses. That is what we all will step into this year.