Do You See It Yet?

July 8, 2025 / Lauri Ann Lumby / Leave a comment

This afternoon, the social media world was abuzz with the latest in a long-line of actions that have threatened the separation of church and state in the U.S. – something upon which our nation was established (Article 1 of the Constitution) and disseminated through a wide variety of laws. One of those laws appears to have been threatened today by a filing of the IRS which seems to give pastors the right to endorse political candidates without the risk of losing their tax-exempt status. Social media is in an uproar.

What I want to know is why the uproar? More pointedly, why the shock and surprise? From my vantage point, the separation of church and state is nothing more than a lie we’ve been telling ourselves for the past 250 years.

We need only look at the violence and hatred perpetuated by churches via Christian Nationalism, the pro-birth and anti-ERA, anti-LGTBQ+, and anti-civil rights movements to know that church has always been given power in our nation, despite our valiant attempts to stop them. The fact that in some states access to women’s health care has been banned due to religious influence, and that in some states government buildings are required to post the Ten Commandments, and valuable public educational funding is being whittled away by school vouchers to private (often religious) schools, tells me all I need to know about the lie we’ve been told.

Do you see it? The lie?

The myth of separation of church and state is not, however, the only lie. We are living through an exciting (albeit unsettling) time in human history where all the lies are being laid bare. One by one by one, everything we’ve been told to be true about the freedoms and liberties we are guaranteed by the Constitution are showing themselves to be false. If not an outright lie, we are being shown where the foundation upon which our nation was built is vulnerable and full of holes. We are being shown, that the United States is a nation, not built out of brick, but made out of sand.

For those who rely on the perceived certainty of the Constitution, this can feel like a terrifying time. No one wants to learn that the system of checks and balances upon which we have placed our trust is complete and utter bullshit. It is, in fact, horrifying to watch how easily these supposed guarantees are not just, whittled away, but completely ignored with zero consequence.

This is an apocalypse in the truest sense of the word: to reveal. We are being shown what is true about our nation, and what is not. We are also being given a choice. Do we allow the revelation of these truths/falsehoods destroy us, or do we see them for what they are – errors to be repaired and wounds to be healed. We cannot heal what is wrong with our nation until we are fully able to see what is wrong. Only then can we begin the critically important tasks of reform.

But first we have to be willing to see.

What are you seeing?

Sloth is the compulsion through which we refuse to use the mind we’ve been given to reason, discern, and exercise truth. Healing the fear that causes this compulsion is one step in the path of our true liberation. Embracing the truth that WE DO KNOW and WE CAN SEE frees us from ignorance and the power of others to manipulate us through falsehoods.

Learn more HERE

It’s All About Power

July 6, 2025 / Lauri Ann Lumby / 2 Comments

how we cultivate it, protect it, with whom and under what circumstances we share it

It is not a coincidence that the recent surgery I had (and from which I am still recovering) was to repair a separation of the muscles in the center of my abdomen in the area of the solar plexus and to secure that (likely genetic) weakness. Throughout my life, I have tended to be a leaky person – giving my energy and power away (governed by the solar plexus chakra) to those who don’t deserve it and allowing my energy and power to be stolen from me by ill-intended beings.

In a culture that trains us to be co-dependent, a leaky solar plexus isn’t unusual. We are conditioned to be caretakers of everyone else’s needs but our own, while also being taught it is our responsibility to make the world a better place to live by conquering evil and birthing “love and light.” Whereas I do not argue the love part, what I’ve learned is that conquering evil is less about what we do “out there” and more about what we do within.

Those who operated in our world from a place of evil, gluttony, lust, wrath, envy, greed, sloth, and pride are doing so from a place of great emptiness. Due to their brokenness, they have no power of their own. As a result, they seek to get that power from others. Think of sexual predators, abusers, manipulators, and deceivers. They all do what they do so as to steal energy and power away from the (perhaps) less broken, but decidedly vulnerable.

Let’s use the “Big Beautiful Bill” as an example. Only powerless, hateful humans would come up with a plan to deprive the most vulnerable among us of the programs that provide for their most basic needs. I had a moment of fear and allowed myself a couple days to grieve after the tentative passing of the bill. Myself, my son, my father, and other people I dearly love, stand to lose access to life-saving care should the bill be implemented as planned.

This brings me back to power. It was appropriate for me to allow a day to grieve and process, but with this, and other situations I find myself facing in this moment, I also have a choice. Will I allow my own energy and power to be drawn from me by ill-intended beings? Am I willing to give my energy to worry, fear, anger, hatred, and rage (which is exactly what the ill-intended want), or do I call my energy back to myself and anchor it deep within my own being where it belongs?

The easy answer is the latter. Accomplishing this task, however, is easier said than done. It takes years, and sometimes a lifetime, to realize that we have been giving our energy away or that it is being stolen from us. Some never learn this. I’m grateful that sometime in the last 20ish years, I came to understand the energy draining behavior with which I had become familiar. Today, I’m still working on NOT giving my energy away and keeping it to myself. It is a daily, if not a moment by moment practice.

Our energy and power was never meant for anyone but ourselves. It is ours. It is what fuels our gifts and draws those in need of our gifts toward us. Unfortunately, it also draws to us those who want our energy for their own with no intention of acknowledging or applying the gifts we so freely share. Our power serves as a magnet, drawing toward us those of like mind, our “tribe,” along with those who would use our gifts for their own ill-intended benefit. I think of it this way, fully-in-power humans draw other fully-in-power humans along with those who are lacking in true power and think they can get some by spending time with us. The mythological name for the latter of these two is succubi. You know of whom I speak – those who are draining just to be around and those who enthusiastically claim to respect and honor your gifts and drink deeply of the well you provide, but who actually learn nothing for lack of application. Equally guilty are those who say they value your gifts but do nothing to engage, utilize, or share them.

Every time we give our energy to these kinds of people, we are depriving ourselves of our own power and diminishing that which we may be called to share with those who would actually benefit. You will know this experience by how you feel exhausted, frustrated, impatient, and even angry over how you’ve given your energy away or how it’s been stolen from you.

The key, is to STOP. Stop giving away your gifts, your energy, your time, your power, to those undeserving. The politicians and constituents who supported the “Big Beautiful Bill” are not deserving of your energy or power. Engaging in worry and fear, anger and hatred, the desire to do battle, serves no one except those who want you to feel afraid. Instead of giving into the temptation of allowing your energy and power to be drained away, CALL IT BACK. When you find yourself worried, impatient, afraid, angry, STOP and call that energy back. Draw it deep into yourself and hold it there. Allow the magic of your power to gather, grow, strengthen, and become anchored in who you are as a person of Love. SIT in that Love and allow it to radiate from within you. Sitting in the center of your own power deprives life-force vampires from taking your energy and triggering your fears. Keeping your energy to yourself prevents succubi and other ill-intended beings from their source of nourishment. Don’t let them have it -your power or your energy. Keep it to yourself. This is how we drain the swamp – not by giving into their ministrations, chaos, and bullying tactics, but by calling our energy back to ourselves and keeping it there. When we stop giving them our power, they have nothing left to live from. Then, they will either get help for their brokenness, or die from lack of nourishment.

When we stop giving our energy away, we and our solar plexus energy center will find itself healthy and wholly intact – as it was always meant to be.

PS Thank you to Dr. Lee Stratton and his team at Aurora Hospital for your expert care and support.

In my online course, Into the Wilderness with Authentic Freedom, we do a deep dive into the chakra system – how each chakra corresponds to our physical, mental, emotional, and especially spiritual bodies. In this course, you learn how to identify the fears that are triggering energy leaks (for example) and other non-life-giving symptoms and how to heal and transform those fears so that you might return to your most authentic self.

Learn more HERE

Honing Our Witness Practice

June 19, 2025 / Lauri Ann Lumby / 1 Comment

Being an objective witness to the natural unfolding of the universe without interjecting our own need to control, our unhealed wounds, or our desperate desire to feel safe, is a really difficult task. If we have the ability to read people, events and choices for the likely outcome they will produce, it makes being witness even more challenging.

As one who has almost always been right (I admit a shred of pride in sharing this, but mostly it is a statement of historical fact), it physically hurts me to watch people I care about stepping in a direction that I know will likely cause them harm. Further, it enrages me when I watch liars and charlatans taking advantage of the weak and vulnerable and gaining wealth and notoriety while doing so. As a first-born who developed the defense mechanisms of fixer and protector, I want with my whole soul to intervene. Intervention, I have learned, rarely helps and most often harms. (The exception being life-choices that may be life-threatening.)

Being an objective witness requires that we lay our need to control aside, allowing individuals to make their own choices – no matter how poor those choices might be. The savior in me cringes in even writing this, but it is true. What I am continually reminded of is that each of us is on our own individual journey and who we choose to be and how we choose to follow our path is really nobody else’s business but our own. We are here to learn our own lessons – or not learn them as the case may be.

Instead of reaching out in warning, putting forth a challenge, or getting emotionally worked up over human beings’ choices, we are invited to stand back. Watch. Observe. For me, this includes the additional practice of silencing my inner critic who stands in judgment with arms crossed in self-righteousness. Further, I find I am invited to acknowledge the strong outward pull of my unhealed wounds of fixer and protector, and draw that pull inward, reminding myself that it is not my job to fix or protect others from their potentially harmful decisions. Sometimes I have to sit on my hands, bite my tongue, and close my eyes, my whole body shaking in effort as I wrestle that former impulse to intervene into stillness.

Being objective witness is not easy, but as my Zen friends would say, “We are all here in our own sit.” It is not my job to interfere with the life-journey of another. The best I can do is use what I see as seeds for my own healing and growth, while giving others the freedom to experience the consequences of their choices and the opportunities for learning that come in those choices. Further, I can share the lessons I’ve learned and the tools I’ve gathered in the event that some might find them helpful.

How are you honing your witness practice?

Being objective witness begins with our own journey of self-awareness and healing. The Authentic Freedom protocol developed by Lauri Ann Lumby is a great place to get started with that healing.

Learn more about Authentic Freedom here and how you can begin that journey.

Undoing Toxic Capitalistic Conditioning

June 8, 2025 / Lauri Ann Lumby / 2 Comments

I am not afraid to publicly admit my vulnerability or share my woundedness. I have observed that in being open and transparent, others are often able to find healing themselves, or at the very least validation for their own feelings and experiences.

Most recently, the thing with which I am most struggling is my sense of failure and shame over where I find myself in my life. Nowhere in my life have I succeeded in the ways in which we are measured or judged in a capitalistic society. I’ve never been given opportunities for wealth. I’ve never had enough discretionary income to save or invest. I don’t have a wall full of awards. I’m not popular in the capitalistic sense of popularity. I’ve never even been “Almost Famous.”

Instead, the opportunities I’ve been given led me to a kind of calling that cannot be measured through externals but only by what is within. At one time, I received validation, affirmation, support, praise and even a sort of notoriety through said-calling, but even that was taken from me (rather, I chose obedience to a calling over obedience to an institution).

Since leaving the institution of the Catholic Church, I’ve been out in the world doing what I have felt called to do. But as of this moment, even this seems to be falling away. Instead of having something somewhat tangible to hold, I find myself doing work to pay my bills that in some ways has its own kind of reward, but which strongly suppresses what I consider to be my truest gifts. There is a sense of emptiness and loss as my gifts lay dying on the ground while I’m just trying to survive in a world that was not made for me.

I’m tired. I feel empty. I’m quite close to abandoning any and all hope of fulfillment in the sense that we’ve been conditioned to believe we are deserving of.

One thing I’ve learned in this life is that we don’t deserve shit. Hard work does not equal success. Neither does a so-called Divine calling. But how, really, is Divine Calling measured?

Jesus was crucified.
Joan of Arc was burned at the stake.
Edith Stein was sent to the gas chamber.
Maximilian Kolbe died by lethal injection.
Gandhi was assassinated.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated.
Nelson Mandella was imprisoned and tortured.

A Divine Calling provides no guarantees. And yet, for some of us, it seems we have no choice but to follow this so-called Divine path, sacrificing capitalistic rewards for something else.

Today I’m not sure what that “something else” might be. Instead, I feel like I’m drowning in a sense of failure and its accompanying shame. The voice of this shame is continually trying to convince me I did something wrong, I chose the wrong path, and my true gifts don’t really matter. Everyday I feel like I’m bumping up against an impenetrable wall keeping me from my gifts and those who find them to be of value. It’s exhausting and heartbreaking.

And I know I’m not alone. This is why I’m baring my soul. I see you. In know who you are. You are my closest friends and companions who have equally “failed” in the capitalistic sense. You are the intuitives, neurodiverse, visionaries, prophets, and sensitive souls who have found this world simply too much to bear. Many of you struggle with “chronic illness,” in a world for which you were not made. I see you. I know you. I’ve heard your stories. Our stories are very much the same.

This too was Jesus’ story and the story of many who followed him:

“I have given them your Word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.” John 17: 14-16

Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world.” John 18:36

As those who are called to be and do the work of Love in a world that wants to divide through hatred, we, like Jesus, are not of this world. Instead, we are working on a different plane (so to speak). The work we do is vibrational. It is spiritual. It is energetic. It is intangible and subjective. It cannot be measured by either mathematics, physics, or capitalism. While we may know and believe this in the depths of our soul, this does not free us from the conflict between what our hearts know and what the world wants us to believe. This is where our spiritual practice becomes ever-more important. For me it is this:

I first had to recognize the sense of failure and shame – in how it has been coming out sideways, then as it is anchored in my conditioning.
Then, through inner pondering, I had to identify the nature and source of that shame. Where did I learn this? How is it part of my conditioning? How is it proving harmful.
Then, I chose a self-forgiveness practice to support the healing and release of that shame.
This practice is an ongoing work in progress, but I know that and know to have patience with myself as I heal.
I’m also seeing all the ways in which I try to barrel through the pain of this shame and am TRYING to choose self-care and rest over forcing myself to abide by the “rules of survival.”
Then comes the hard part – trusting that as I care for myself my material needs will be taken care of.

This capitalistic world is not made for us. Yet we have spent our entire lives being conditioned by its rules and measures of success. Undoing toxic capitalistic conditioning isn’t easy. But if we feel called to be Love, we have no choice but to transcend the capitalistic conditioning that has kept the entire world imprisoned. In undoing this conditioning, we are freed from this imprisonment, while providing an example that others may one day choose to follow.

Oh….and here’s a great anthem for undoing toxic capitalistic conditioning: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwhBRJStz7w

Deepening Your Practic

The Authentic Freedom protocol, created by Lauri Ann Lumby, provides a solid and reliable framework for undoing toxic conditioning and healing our inner spiritual wounds. Into the Wilderness guides you through the in-depth process of learning and applying this process for the sake of your own liberation and freedom.

Learn more HERE

Magdalene Training Open For Enrollment

June 7, 2025 / Lauri Ann Lumby / Leave a comment

As the current group of students in the Magdalene Training Program are approaching the end of their training, and preparing to celebrate their final ordination, I am opening the Magdalene Training Program for the next group of interested students.

The Magdalene Training Program provides resources, knowledge, and tools to support you in your journey of self-discovery and empowered self-actualization.

Through this eighteen-month training program, you will:

Become rooted in scholarly and intuitive knowledge of the Magdalene, her role in the ministry of Jesus, and her leadership in the ongoing mission of Love.
Discern your own unique giftedness and how you are called to use these gifts for the sake of your own fulfillment and in service to the world.
Learn practical skills for uncovering and healing all that separates you from Love and from living as your most authentic self.
Rediscover ancient knowledge and practices for self-healing.
Cultivate and deepen your contemplative life while growing in contentment and compassion.

Created and facilitated by Lauri Ann Lumby

64 weeks of content

7 individual courses

6 private mentoring sessions

With its focus on developmental psychology, mindfulness practices, and the historical Magdalene, this training is unlike any other out there. This program maintains the integrity of the psychological and healing training that Mary, called Magdalene undertook through the guidance of her teacher, Jesus of Nazareth, by keeping the story of the Magdalene in its proper place within the Judeo-Christian narrative. Consistent with the Way of Love as Jesus taught it, the Magdalene Training program transcends dogma and doctrine, thereby restoring the essence of Jesus’ authentic teachings as they were lived out uniquely through the Magdalene and those who eventually became her students.

Resources used in this training include:

Canonical and non-canonical scripture (including The Gospel of Mary Magdalene).
The Universal Spiritual Gifts Inventory
The Enneagram Temperament Profile
The Aramaic Lord’s Prayer
The Chakra System
The Authentic Freedom™ Protocol
The Ignatian Spiritual Exercises
Ignatius’ Rules of Discernment
Meditation and Mindfulness
Creativity Practices
Guided and self-created ritual

Created and facilitated by Lauri Ann Lumby

64 weeks of content (done in your own time at your own pace)

7 individual online courses

6 private mentoring sessions (via ZOOM)

To learn more and begin your enrollment, please click HERE.

Not Quite Sure?

Please enjoy the FREE Magdalene Training preview course by clicking on the image to the left.

Bearing the Magdalene Wound

May 31, 2025 / Lauri Ann Lumby / Leave a comment

The Crucifixions of the Magdalene: Jesus was lucky, he only had to be crucified once. Mary Magdalene, on the other hand, was crucified more times than we could ever count. She was crucified first for being born a woman. She was crucified again by whatever it was in her life that caused her to need to be healed of “seven demons.” She was crucified as she walked with her Beloved to his death and then watched as he was nailed to the cross and as he suffered the agonizing death by crucifixion. She was crucified again when she and her companions took Jesus’ bleeding, broken and beaten body off the cross and laid it in the tomb. She was crucified again as the stone was rolled over the opening of the tomb and she said her final goodbyes. Again she was crucified when Jesus appeared to her on Easter morning and then just as quickly disappeared from her sight. Again as she went to tell the male disciples and they did not believe her. Again and again and again as Jesus appeared to her in prayer imparting secret teachings and every time disappearing from her sight. Again as she was asked by the male disciples to share what Jesus had taught her and who then rejected her teachings along with the love Jesus had for her. Again as she was apparently no longer welcome by the Jerusalem community of disciples and left to fend for herself. Again and again and again as she made her way in the world carrying the burden of all these crucifixions in her heart, along with the new and fresh crucifixions everytime her mission of love was rejected. And then…..the millions of countless crucifixions that have happened since her death anytime an individual or the Church ignored her role in Jesus’ life and ministry, denied the calling Jesus gave to her, rejected her as prostitute, adulterous woman or whore, demoted the important initiatory process (healed of seven demons) she underwent as demonic possession, denied women’s rightful and necessary place within the mission of love, etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. The list is endless.

The Burden of Pain: This is the Magdalene Wound and one that is carried in some degree by all women being called forth to resurrect the Magdalene and reclaim her rightful place in the mission of love by taking on this mission ourselves. As one who bears this wound, I must tell you that it is excruciating. It is a burden I would not wish on another, and yet I know literally hundreds of women who share this burden with me on behalf of the Magdalene (with many not knowing or understanding the source of this excruciating pain) and who continue to feel the pain of crucifixion everytime the world cries out for the lost feminine.

Excruciating Longing: The Magdalene Wound is known by a longing that cannot be quenched. It is a pain that has no relief. It is the feeling of constantly beating one’s head against the wall seemingly getting nowhere. It is the pain of constant rejection. Of speaking and sharing truth and seeing it fall on deaf ears. It is the painful longing of missing our beloved and finding nothing to take its place. It is the knowledge of having been loved beyond measure, of being held in rapt adoration and worshipped for our gifts…and then having that love torn from our grasp. It is the pain of knowing that literally millions of women throughout history have been subject to rejection, abuse, even killed simply because they were born a woman in a world where the masculine rules….knowing that at one time in the history of patriarchal culture, there was ONE MAN who honored women as equal, elevating them to positions equal with their male counterparts and who called all of humanity to do the same…and that the first action taken by those who had the opportunity to fulfill this man’s vision was to sell out the women in favor of the presiding cultural norm….and that this single act has kept women subservient for 2000+ years! It is the constant and enduring pain of a world that is suffering and feeling the blows of this suffering in our own bodies, hearing the cries with our own ears, seeing it with our own eyes and knowing we possess the remedy to this suffering if only….someone…..anyone….would care to ask. I can’t speak for others, but I know for myself, the Magdalene Wound makes me weary…a bone crushing, soul splitting weariness longing for the world to be made free. It is the same burden of truth that Jesus carried – a truth for which he was willing to die.

Our Cross to Bear: This is the Magdalene Wound and I’m sad to say I’m not sure there is a remedy to this wound. It is the cross we have to bear as those who have been called to restore the Magdalene (and all women with her) to her rightful place in history and in our world. I’m not sure we will see the fulfillment of this resurrection in our lifetime, but there are signs of its happening and it is not just about the plethora of research, writings and books that have been accomplished on behalf of the Magdalene. It includes all ways in which women are finding their voice, speaking their truth and rediscovering their rightful place in world that 5000 years ago stole their power from them. I am humbled and honored to be a part of this movement and grateful for the resources and tools that have come through me in support of the mission of love as Mary Magdalene had envisioned and embodied it.

The work of the Magdalene is not for the faint of heart. Saying yes to her call and embarking on her path will bring you to your knees. The Magdalene journey is first deeply personal – bringing you face to face with your shadow – all that is need of healing and all that desires to be transformed – freeing you from illusion so that only Love might remain.

Learn more about the Magdalene Training HERE

Magdalene Training Open For Enrollment

May 26, 2025 / Lauri Ann Lumby / Leave a comment

The Magdalene Training Program provides resources, knowledge, and tools to support you in your journey of self-discovery and empowered self-actualization.

Through this eighteen-month training program, you will:

Become rooted in scholarly and intuitive knowledge of the Magdalene, her role in the ministry of Jesus, and her leadership in the ongoing mission of Love.
Discern your own unique giftedness and how you are called to use these gifts for the sake of your own fulfillment and in service to the world.
Learn practical skills for uncovering and healing all that separates you from Love and from living as your most authentic self.
Rediscover ancient knowledge and practices for self-healing.
Cultivate and deepen your contemplative life while growing in contentment and compassion.

Created and facilitated by Lauri Ann Lumby

64 weeks of content

7 individual courses

6 private mentoring sessions

Resources used in this training include:

Canonical and non-canonical scripture (including The Gospel of Mary Magdalene).
The Universal Spiritual Gifts Inventory
The Enneagram Temperament Profile
The Aramaic Lord’s Prayer
The Chakra System
The Authentic Freedom™ Protocol
The Ignatian Spiritual Exercises
Ignatius’ Rules of Discernment
Meditation and Mindfulness
Creativity Practices
Guided and self-created ritual

Created and facilitated by Lauri Ann Lumby

64 weeks of content (done in your own time at your own pace)

7 individual online courses

6 private mentoring sessions (via ZOOM)

To learn more and begin your enrollment, please click HERE.

Not Quite Sure?

Please enjoy the FREE Magdalene Training preview course by clicking on the image to the left.

Being Love in a World that Wants to Hate

May 25, 2025 / Lauri Ann Lumby

Being Love in a World that Wants to Hate

May 25, 2025May 25, 2025 / Lauri Ann Lumby / 1 Comment

Being Love requires persistence, discipline, personal responsibility, accountability, and courage. Being Love requires vulnerability and humility. Being Love asks us to be willing to admit where we have been wrong, especially when our being wrong has wronged another. Being Love requires forgiveness – forgiveness of self and other – but likely not the kind of forgiveness you learned about in church. Being Love requires commitment along with countless opportunities to re-commit.

Being Love is an inside job. Being Love takes work. Being Love is hard. It is for these reasons, and the ones mentioned above, that so few even attempt, let alone succeed at being Love. This is especially true in a world that wants to be hate and which appears to be overwhelmingly successful in being hate.

Hate is easy. Born out of our instinctual drive to be suspicious of that which is unfamiliar, hate separates and divides in an attempt to keep us safe from the unknown. As reasoning animals, we are supposed to evolve past this drive to separate. Sadly, most have not evolved past this, simply because evolving takes work. Hating is easy. Being Love is hard.

Even with intention, desire, commitment, and drive, being Love is hard. I’ve learned and experienced this in my own life. One of the reasons hatred is so easy is because it feeds us. Hatred allows us to believe we are right and everyone else is wrong. Hatred fills us with a charge that can feel energizing and empowering. Hatred makes us feel powerful. Hatred allows us to feel superior. Hatred creates in us the illusion of being safe from those who have or could cause us harm.

Feeding on hatred, however, is like ingesting poison. Feeding on hatred makes us sick. Many years ago I became aware of the ways in which hatred was harming me. Eventually I decided to stop.

Deciding to stop was only the first step, however. From then on, I have dived deeply into researching and applying a multitude of wisdom practices that have helped me move from being hate to being Love. In applying these practices, this is what I’ve learned:

We cannot just “think” our way into being Love.
Instead, we must go deep within ourselves to the places we have forgotten that we are Love and heal those.
Over and over and over and over and over and over again.
Being Love (and by association forgiveness) has NOTHING to do with “the other,” and everything to do with ourselves.
As we heal the inner obstacles to Love, we are not only healing ourselves, others are healed as well.
Another human’s inability to being Love is none of our business, except as an invitation to being more loving ourselves.
We cannot heal or change anyone but ourselves.
We can despise an individual’s actions while still having Love for them.

This #8 may in fact be the single most important challenge to us as we try to be Love. Every single day we encounter wounded and broken human beings who do not know they are Love. Having never been given a chance, or having never chosen to evolve, they find themselves living solely out of their instinctual center. From this fear center, the only way they know how to function is to divide themselves from that which they perceive as different. It is out of this fear that things like racism, classism, sexism, xenophobia, and homophobia arise. While our reasoning minds might not be able to understand how someone would purposefully choose hatred, until we evolve beyond our instinctual drives, anything other than hatred might not be a choice. To put it succinctly, hatred is just another word for fear. While we might despise the actions of someone choosing hatred over Love, we can have compassion and love for the wounded human inside of them who doesn’t know any other way to respond to fear.

While responding to fear/hatred with more fear/hatred might be easy, it is not how we bring more Love into our world. The only way for Love to grow is to be Love ourselves. In being Love and continuing to heal the places in ourselves that have forgotten we are Love, we are providing humanity with an example of what Love looks like which then gives them an opportunity to make another choice.

Being hatred or being Love? It is a choice.

Being Love begins with self-knowledge.

The Order of the Magdalene Formation Program provides you with resources, knowledge, and tools to support you in your own journey of self-discovery and empowerment.

Learn more HERE