Be Still

During times of great upheaval, chaos, and turmoil, the most loving thing we can do for ourselves and the world is to be still. Being still draws us inward toward our original nature which is peace. In stillness we are able to locate the deep well of contentment that is present within us always – when we remember to take the time to return there. Returning there is the remedy to the anxiety, fear, and hyper-fixation that is triggered when everything around us feels to be outside of our control. In that deep well of inner peace, we find comfort, inspiration, guidance, and even a sense of safety when everything around us seems to be on the verge of collapse.

Collapsing it is. Collapsing is what it needs to do. We cannot prevent the collapse, nor should we try.

Instead, we are invited to be. To be witness. To wait and watch. To observe where and how we are being triggered by the collapse, and care for ourselves by turning within.

It is in being still that we shall be unharmed. Stillness provides us with safety and protection. Simply being allows us to find center while everything around us is turning to shit.

Eventually, the collapse will come to its natural end. What will remain will be those who were able to be still. Those who knew how to simply be will be the ones gathering the seeds left behind by the winnowing and who will know how to plant them so that a new world might begin.

If you want to be part of the new world that is coming into being:

Be still.


For over 25 years, Lauri Ann Lumby, MA, has provided one-on-one support for those seeking peace and/or direction in their lives. As a trained spiritual director with a master’s degree in Transpersonal Psychology, Lauri has the perfect education, background, and experience to support you in hearing your own truth, healing past wounds, overcoming trauma, and finding the tools to help you move through the inner obstacles that might be keeping you from the inner contentment you most desire.

Unable to Make Plans

The most surreal experience I have had (am having) in my life is living through the collapse of an empire. In case you haven’t noticed:  ROME IS BURNING.  In this case, “Rome” is every single thing in our world that has been built on a foundation of fear, power, and control.  It is all collapsing with the United States seemingly leading the charge.

Times of collapse are both a death and a birth. Old systems and the world as we have known it is falling away while new systems are trying to be born. Collapse is a time of great unrest, and when we remember to look, a time of great hope. Those who have benefitted from the old system cling, and fight, and grieve. Those who have suffered from the system are hoping for something new.

Currently we are living on the shifting sands of the collapse. Nothing makes sense. The truly bizarre and insane seem to hold reign while reason and sanity seem to have left the room. Every moment of every day is an exercise in shock and surprise.  “What the hell is happening,” we wonder.

Living through a collapse is like John Mulaney’s analogy of a “horse loose in the hospital.”  We never know what the horse might do, and we are surprised at the things it is able to do, and dumbfounded by the basic essential human skills that seem to be lacking. While John Mulaney wrote this bit about Donald Trump, it isn’t just about him. It is truly about the entire system – that which serves the needs of the very wealthy while leaving everyone else behind.

Normal people are anxious, angry, and afraid. We have a right to be. What about our rights? What about our needs? What about the economy and the cost of housing? What about education and healthcare? What are we to do and how are we to prepare for the possible worst?

The answer is:  WE CAN’T!  A system in collapse, by definition, is unpredictable, volatile, and potentially violent (think earthquake or hurricane). A collapsing system touches on every single thing to which we have become accustomed. On the other side of the collapse, likely nothing will look the same. We don’t even know what our currency for exchange will be, our sources of energy, our models of education and healthcare, banking, commerce, entertainment, religion, etc. etc. etc.  EVERY SINGLE SYSTEM will fall and be rebuilt – but into what we do not yet know. In truth – the new world will not be mine (Gen X) to build. Neither will it likely be built by Millennials. Gen Z and Gen Alpha, and those yet to come will be awarded this task – but not until the current has painfully and finally come to an end.

In the meantime – we wait. We watch. We bear witness. We keep ourselves and our loved ones safe. We do what we need to care for ourselves. We get out of the way of the collapsing system and we let it fall.

And we live radically IN THE PRESENT MOMENT, for there is nothing for which we can plan. We meet each moment as it comes to us. We respond accordingly. And for the love of all things, we refrain from the normal human reactions to fear: clinging to the need to control. We cannot control the collapse. Neither can we control what will follow. Instead, we live for this present moment and nothing more. Only by doing so will we survive the ebb and flow of the collapse  – not by the skin of our teeth – but in the peaceful state of acceptance by surrendering to what is.

While always and in every moment being and choosing Love.


The Book of Revelation as a Guide to Inner Peace

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 can build a whole new world – one rooted in peace, understanding, wisdom, harmony and love.

Tested in Fire: New LIVE Course

Live online course with Lauri Ann Lumby

Six sessions

Wednesdays 6:30 – 8:30 pm central time

May 8 – June 12, 2024

Live via ZOOM*

After we have tasted the unifying experience of Union with God/Source/Love that we experience at ascension (enlightenment, bliss, etc.) we are cast out of that bliss into a process in which we are “tested like gold that is tested in fire.” The ancients have called this the journey of descent.  Here we come face to face with all the aspects of ourselves that are not wholly rooted in love: our unhealed fears, past traumas, societal conditioning, and ego attachments. In this we are invited to confront our own inner “demons” and transform them into vehicles of Love so that we might fulfill the purpose of the human spiritual journey – the embodiment of Love/God.

In this six-week course, you will:

  • Explore the psychology of the journey of descent as it relates to human development.
  • Acknowledge and confront the challenges inherent in the journey of descent.
  • Learn the language and stages of descent through the Tree of Life as articulated in ancient pre-Christian mystical traditions.
  • Come to understand the Tree of Death as a vehicle of liberation from egoic attachments.
  • Find support in identifying that which limits your ability to know and be Love.
  • Provided with tools for transforming the “demons” experienced in the journey of descent into vehicles of Love.
  • Grow in becoming the embodiment of Love.

This course is:

  • Inspired by scholarship
  • Anchored in original source material
  • Grounded in sound mindfulness and creativity practices
  • Incorporating tried and tested methods for transformation
  • Rooted in the psychology of human development

** For those who have already taken the Beyond Ascension course, Tested in Fire stands on its own while going into much greater depth than was able to be covered in the Beyond Ascension class.