Personal Mastery

Beyond Ascension: Upcoming Live Course

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Ascension is not the goal, neither is it the purpose of the human journey. Instead, ascension is recognized as the midpoint of the human experience, and a danger for those who would seek to remain there. As was well-attested by the ancients, we are not meant to escape the human condition, but are meant to immerse ourselves fully within it. In this, we move beyond ascension (unity consciousness) and toward full Divine embodiment – the true purpose of the human experience. 

In this live, online, course you will:

  • Discover the distinction between ascension and embodiment and their proper roles in your journey.
  • Understand the temptations to remaining in ascension.
  • Identify the symptoms of resistance to embodiment.
  • Explore the ancient map of the human spiritual journey as it was articulate through the Kabbalah. 
  • Learn the predictable stages of depth work required for embodiment. 
  • Join in this exploration through sharing and discussion in the company of like-minded individuals. 

3 Live Sessions via ZOOM

March 6, 13, 20, 2024

6:30 – 8:30 pm central time

Learn more and enroll here.

Magdalene Deep Dive

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FREE LIVE EVENT!

Beyond institutional condemnation and pop-culture mythology are the documented truths of Mary, called Magdalene. Combining scholarly exegesis with deep contemplative practice, the truths of the Magdalene are revealed: the foremost among Jesus’ disciples who most fully embodied his teachings and was then called to continue Jesus’ mission of Love – catalyzing and then supporting the evolution of human consciousness – calling forth and supporting humans in becoming fully self-actualized – knowing who they are, what their unique gifts are and how they are called to share those gifts in the world for the sake of their own fulfillment and in support of the betterment of our world.

Hosted by CoCreators Convergence
FREE and Open to the public

ZOOM Access:   https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83114637833

During this Live Event, we will be taking a deep dive into scriptural evidence related to Mary Magdalene of an in-depth protocol and process for supporting human development that Jesus revealed to Mary and that she went on to share with others. Integrating ancient psychology with spiritual practice, this process supported individuals in transforming the inner obstacles to Love so that they might become “fully human” – what today we would refer to as self-realized or self-actualized.   Lauri then presents a streamlined, modern interpretation of this protocol that she has come to call “Authentic Freedom.” making this process accessible to a diverse and modern audience.

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Learn more HERE

What Comes After “The End?”

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In this week’s gathering of the Magdalene Membership community, we explored the question, “What is on the other side of the end?”  Taking inspiration from Isaiah 64, we dove deep into our own experiences of endings and what came after? Or rather, how did we survive them?

Isaiah 64, penned not by the prophet Isaiah himself, but by a disciple of his teachings, identified by scholars as “Third Isaiah,” unveils the confusion, heartache, and sense of hopelessness and lack of direction experienced by the Hebrews as they were released from their exile in Babylon and were returning to Israel.  The home they had once known had been destroyed. The temple had been torn down, obliterating all they thought they had known of their “God” and their relationship to “Him.” The beliefs and practices that had been the center of their existence were no longer.  The slate they were left with was blank and they were forced to be present to unknowing, unbelieving and the feeling of having no guidance to draw from.

Third Isaiah gives expression to all the many layers of bewilderment and in doing so, affirms and validates the experience of the Hebrews while attempting to give them hope in the possibility of something not yet known.

In short, Third Isaiah reminds the Hebrews that in the no-thing (Ain-Sof)

is limitless potential.

When the end has come and we are left with nothing, we can be certain that there will be something on the other side of the end. Getting to that other side, however, is everything but easy! In order to get to the other side of the end, we first have to be willing to let go.  Not just “let IT go,” we have to LET IT ALL GO.  We have to let go of our attachment to everything we thought we knew, thought we believed, and hoped for of our life before the end. We have to let go so much that there is literally nothing left – including (especially) our need to control.

As we are letting go, we have to grieve. We must grieve every loss, every old belief, every past relationship, every goal and every hope. In the grieving, we are supporting ourselves in healing from the loss and inner sense of betrayal that happens as we approach the end. Further, grief allows us to continue our emptying.

We must be fully empty, and fully immersed in the VOID before we can begin to receive anything new. In order to be immersed in the VOID, however, we first have to move through the sheer terror that comes with the VOID – and this is no easy feat! 

As it turns out, our greatest fear is not of death,

but of the possibility that after life there is NOTHING.

This is the fear we encounter as we approach the void.  When we allow ourselves to be fully present to that terror, we find comfort in the state of nothingness. It only in finding this comfort that we can begin to be open to something new.

This is what the Hebrews experienced in their return from exile. In being present with the no-thing, they began to be open to the Mystery revealing itself and to simply being present with what is in this moment. This is where we too are invited when facing the many endings of our lives – learning to be present to what is and simply being present to the mystery of life. This alone, we eventually discover, is really all there is, and it is enough.

From Knowledge to Embodiment

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It’s one thing to know about the teachings of Jesus. It is another thing to embody them.

For centuries, institutional religion has placed an almost exclusive emphasis on knowing about Jesus, about scripture, and about the teachings of the religion to which one belongs, while ignoring what Jesus himself modelled.

Knowing about something is limited to intellectual knowledge alone. One might be able to pass a written test on what Jesus said and taught. But can they live it?

More importantly, can they live it without having to be told, or because they’ve been threatened with damnation if they don’t. Actions that arise out of fear of threat, or because an outside perceived authority told us to are neither authentic nor sincere.

Embodiment transcends the limitations of doctrine and interpretations that have been handed down by an outside perceived authority. Embodiment clears the way for Love (God) to speak directly to our hearts, and in the way that is unique to each of us. Here we are able to access and live from the place of our own truth – not that which has been handed down by some outside perceived authority.

Jesus’ teachings were never meant to be intellectualized. His words were not meant to be blindly memorized and then spit out as proof that one is good at memorization. Instead, Jesus’ teachings were meant to be embodied in the same what that he embodied them.

Embodiment moves beyond the acquiring of knowledge, to the application of the teachings such that we are profoundly changed. In moving beyond knowledge to embodiment, we move away from the person that we were with our limited beliefs, conditioned fears, and unhealed wounds, and more and more toward Love. Love, in this instance is not an intellectual knowledge of, or idea about love. Instead, it is living as Love because we have turned Jesus’ teachings inward and have come to know, as Jesus did, ourselves as Love.

In the embodiment of Love, we move through life differently. We act, not because we are told or expected to, but because this is what Love wants from us. In embodiment, Love simply arises out of us naturally and without effort, because it is who we are and who we are meant to be.

How are you supporting yourself in being the embodiment of Love?

Supporting Embodiment

All of the online courses and trainings with Lauri Ann Lumby support you in embodiment. Utilizing mindfulness and creativity practices, you are supporting in moving beyond sheer knowledge, through transformation, and into the embodiment of each lesson. Check out the menu tabs above to learn more.

Pride is an Obstacle to Love

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As much as Jesus’ teachings have been convoluted by institutional religion, I still consider Jesus to be my teacher, and find profound guidance and wisdom in his words – especially when understood through the lenses of scholarship and Love.

Scholarship provides us with knowledge of the times in which Jesus was living, the social and political environment in which he found himself, and the context in which the authors of scripture were writing. We cannot even begin to understand scripture without sound scholarship.

Love, as we understand it here, is our Source, our Cause, our Purpose, and our Mission – that which some have called God. When we allow ourselves to be fully open to Source/Love, we can see beyond the human constructs and conditioning that have turned Jesus’ words into the cause of division, prejudice, hatred, and pride.

The author of the Book of Proverbs was correct in acknowledging that “pride goeth before the fall (Prov 16:18).”  It has been said that pride is the cause of our separation from God. More accurately, perhaps, we can understand pride as being that which has caused us to forget that we are Love, and in this forgetting, perceiving ourselves as being separate/rejected/forgotten by God. We might also understand pride as being the natural consequence of choosing the human condition and that it is out of pride that our original core spiritual wound arises, and it is out of that wound that all of our fears have arisen (See Authentic Freedom – Claiming a Life of Contentment and Joy for a deeper discussion on this).

Regardless of how we understand pride and its origin, the consequence remains the same. Pride is an obstacle to our knowledge and embodiment of Love.

Jesus spoke often of pride as an obstacle. Over and over and over, he admonished those in positions of perceived authority for their prideful behaviors. He called them out for drawing attention to themselves, lauding their religious or charitable actions, taking the seats of honor at banquets, putting themselves ahead of or over others, and for all the ways in which they made themselves appear special or better than others.

In contrast to Jesus’ warnings against prideful behaviors, he celebrated humility and acknowledged it as the greatest of human virtues. Over and over again, Jesus notes that “the last will be first,” meaning that it will be the humble who will remember their true nature, live as Love, and experience the contentment, peace, and joy that comes with that knowledge.

Jesus didn’t just preach humility. He embodied it. As Paul said in his letter to the Philippians:

Though he was in the form of God,
he did not regard equality with God
as something to be grasped.
Rather, he emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
being born in human likeness.
Being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself,

and became obedient to death,
even death on a cross.

Phil: 2: 6-8

Through Jesus’ spiritual journey, he came to understand himself as One with God and sought to support his companions in coming to understand the same truth. Remembering this Oneness is the “source of eternal life” and the “Kingdom of God” as Jesus explained.  

Equality with God, however, was NOT something Jesus considered of himself, neither did he lead anyone down a path through which they might consider themselves equal to God. Instead, Jesus preached humility – the characteristics of which he described in detail through his teachings and provided by his example – echoed here by St. Paul.

Therefore, if Love is our intention, then humility must be our action.

Being Salvation

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In the Apocrapha of James (Nag Hammadi Library), Jesus makes a distinction between those who accompany him and those who pursue (follow) him:

“Instead of accompanying me, you pursued me.” – Jesus

Those who pursue (follow) are those Jesus identifies as:

  • Listening but not hearing.
  • Preaching but not living it out.
  • Memorizing but not embodying.
  • Chasing after Jesus as the cause of salvation without first being saved within themselves.

In this Jesus is calling out a kind of co-dependency among those who pursue rather than accompany – looking for an outside perceived authority to do the work of salvation for them.

In contrast, those who accompany Jesus, are known for:

  • Coming to know the Love that they are in Union with Source – as Jesus himself did.
  • Hearing Jesus’ teachings and applying them in their everyday lives.
  • Applying these teachings and in doing so, being transformed through the healing of separation and the return to Oneness.
  • Embodying Jesus’ teachings such that they understand that they are their own source of salvation.
  • Achieving the salvation that can only come from within, as Jesus taught.
  • Being that salvation in the world through the embodiment of Love such that others are inspired to discover and deepen that love within themselves.
  • Understanding that salvation is only the beginning of the journey. It is being salvation that the purpose of our lives is fulfilled.

We are all pursuers at some point in our journey, but the ultimate goal, as it relates to Jesus, is to accompany him on that journey of inner salvation, and then being that salvation in the world so that others too might know the fullness of Love that they are and be that Love in the world.

PS: We don’t have to call ourselves Christian or proclaim Jesus Christ as “our personal Lord and savior” to apply his teachings, thus embodying our original nature as Love. The Love about which Jesus spoke is universal and meant for everyone regardless of their race, religion, sexual orientation, gender, or nationality.

The Practice of Peace

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We find ourselves at a fragile time in our human history where violence and hatred seems to be more palpable and troubling. Please enjoy this FREE recording of the weekly spiritual service that I provide for the Order of the Magdalene Membership Community.

To learn more about our membership community and services provided there, please go HERE.

Revelation, Rapture, and Apocalypse

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With the recent (ongoing) war in Palestine and Israel, there has been an uptick in talk of the apocalypse, the rapture, and the end of days. This uptick is based on the belief of a fringe group of evangelical Christians that the return of Jews to the Holy Land and their eventual conversion to Christianity are both necessary for paving the way for “The Second Coming of Christ.”

Christian Zionism is an insult to our Jewish brothers and sisters and to the faith they rightly hold. It is also an affront to the Palestinian people who have been displaced and increasingly sequestered since the partition of 1948. Christian Zionism is a gross misrepresentation of what it means to be an adherent to the Love that Jesus embodied and taught. Finally, and the point of this writing, Christian Zionism’s beliefs are based on a grave misunderstanding of the writings of John of Patmos, specifically his creation of The Book of Revelation.

Throughout the centuries, The Book of Revelation has defied interpretation and has been used by many (if not most) to put forward their own fear-based agenda. The Book of Revelation falls within a specific and unique biblical genre, that of apocryphal writings. Apocryphal writings have one intention only: TO REVEAL. To reveal what is hidden. Unique to apocryphal writings are the language of code – a code that is known only to the community for and to whom they were written.

In the case of John of Patmos, he was writing to and for his own community of Christians who were suffering persecution under the Roman Emperor Nero. John was writing to remind them of the teachings they had already received. He was writing to encourage and support them in their ongoing endeavor to remember and live as Love – the Love that John learned from Jesus and that John was called to bring forth into the world. John wrote in a code that his community would understand. Like Jesus, John was writing in a symbolic language (parable), that would be fully understood by those who had received the fullness of Love, but which might confuse others.

The Book of Revelation was never meant to be a predication of future end times. It was not meant to herald “The Coming of Christ” as it has most often been perceived (Jesus coming out of the sky on a cloud to save all of humanity). It was not meant to predict plagues and horrors that would mark the end of days.

Instead, The Book of Revelation is an instruction manual for the inner journey of transformation. By following its instruction, we are each, in our own unique journey, led to the remembrance of Love, and supported in embodying that Love as Jesus did and as Jesus instructed his followers.

In embracing the guidance of this text, we will indeed experience “The Second Coming of Christ,” but not in the form of Jesus on a cloud.  Instead, we will come to know The Christ within us and in this experience our own salvation. This is not a salvation experienced in some heaven light years away. Instead, it is the peaceable kingdom Isaiah foresaw, the promised land that Moses pursued, and the kingdom of God about which Jesus spoke. This is a salvation that is present within ourselves and when known, leads us to the Love, peace, contentment, understanding, compassion, and joy that is our true nature. In this Love, we know that all of humanity is One and that this oneness is independent of religion, race, nation, or belief.

Come and explore this mysterious and often confusing book of the Bible from a different perspective while reclaiming the role of the Divine Feminine as the true heroine of this epic mythological tale. 

Victory of the Holy Bride shatters over 2000 years of patriarchal dogma that cast the Book of Revelation in the role of doomsday prophecy and presents to you the tools for discovering a profoundly simple truth that is the key to inner peace and the formula through which we endure the “times of tribulation” while building a whole new world – one rooted in peace, understanding, wisdom, harmony and love. 

Learn more here.

Can We Love Humanity Enough?

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The most radical form of love is knowing when to let go. This is the way that we are loved by our creator. Love made us. Then Love let us go so that we could live our own life, pursue our own dreams, make our own mistakes, distance ourselves from Love, only to hopefully and eventually find our way back. But indeed, out of love, our Creator let us go. Not intruding. Not interfering. Not interjecting its own intention or desire for our lives. Instead, our Creator just is. Present. Watching. Listening. Holding us in Love. All while letting us live our lives in our own way.  

Love means letting go.

This is the meaning of the story of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15: 11-32). The wise father, knowing his son, let him go. The father left his son to his own devices, knowing that his son’s wanderlust would not be quenched by forcing him to stay at home. He let him go to discover the world, apart from the love and protection of his father, where he could learn, and grow, have adventures, and make mistakes. It was through the father’s love that he let his son go. The father did not intrude. He didn’t go out and try to save his son or attempt to protect him from himself. Instead, the father let him be. In letting him be, the father never stopped loving his son. He never stopped waiting, watching, allowing, and hoping the best for his son. But he did let him go. And when the son returned, the father didn’t punish or shame him or taunt him for his mistakes. Instead, the father welcomed his son home with open arms and celebrated his return.

This is the radical kind of love that we are invited to embrace. Indeed, it may be in living this kind of radical love that we can finally be free from all the ways we wish, hope, dream, that humanity will one day work itself out, get its shit together, and learn to live as love. We cannot change those who don’t want to change, and we cannot heal those who don’t want to be healed. All we can do is be present.  Wait. Watch. Listen. And Allow. Humanity is working out its own salvation, in its own way, in its own time. And it is none of our business, except to be the Love that we are and welcome humanity home to that Love when they too are ready to embrace it.