Embodying Divine Presence

Principle: The more I'm fully inhabiting my body temple, the more connected I am with the Divine.

Practice: Breathing into your belly is grounding and provides a strong, stable presence in your body.

Because I'm doing less journaling and more meditating in my spiritual practice these days, I'm trying an experiment with posting two short, related journal entries. Let me know what you think! Do you like both, or would you prefer to have one quite short post?

written 7/23/21 - #1

Good morning, Beloveds All: Isis, Sekhmet, Great Mother, Yeshua, Archangel Michael, G.P., all guides, angels, wise ones. I want to write a bit on therapy and spiritual direction yesterday, and meditate. Thank You for a new day to walk this sacred Earth path with You, as You, through You and in You.

Yesterday in therapy, and then in spiritual direction, we were talking about my discovery of the ways I dissociate and push my body away from the Earth. For example, I've been aware when I'm sitting (in meditation) lately that I tense my buttock muscles in a way that lifts me off my cushion so I'm not solidly seated. It feels like I'm ambivalent about fully inhabiting my body, fully living solidly on the Earth.

And through the two conversations, I discovered how much I want joy, pleasure, passion in my body temple; in short, I want to embody You, Beloveds. I want to know Your Presence in my body as joy, pleasure, passion. This is my birthright!

My spiritual director suggested a practice of holding my overlapped hands on my belly when I'm sitting and breathing into it. I tried it in morning prayer this morning, and discovered I don't really breathe fully into my belly - my breath stops above my waist, at my abdomen. And when I relaxed and allowed it to flow a little lower this morning, a sense of passion and joy rose spontaneously through my body. It was both wonderful and scary!

So please help me with reclaiming Your Presence in my body temple, in whatever forms You choose. I am willing to practice breathing into my belly! Blessed Be!

written 7/24/21 - #2 (skipping my standard opening prayer since it's above)

My heart is very open to You this morning, Beloveds, in love and gratitude! And the unfolding of fully living in my body, of embodying You, Beloveds, as joy, pleasure, passion and whatever else, is moving along. I'm so aware of Your guidance and presence, especially Archangel Michael. He's holding a sacred container around me so I can experiment and explore without worry about interference or anyone else. Thank you, Michael! You are my defender and protector, and I'm experiencing you as positive masculine power. I'm so grateful!

And it seems the more embodied I am, the more I'm fully inhabiting my physical body, the more connected I feel to You! A couple days ago, I decided to draw a card from the Sapiential Tarot published by my Order (see Resources), and it was a revelation. The Hanged Man showed up, depicted (a) naked and (b) hanging upside down with his feet in the Divine and his head and heart in the Tree of Life (which is also upside down). The vulnerability of that position is somehow just now hitting me!

And that was my experience on my walk yesterday. I had so much fear of being in my body, and felt so exposed! I comforted my Little Ones, who were in an uproar, and did move into a sense of owning my body, of feeling the power of my body, of feeling safe in my body, of claiming my agency in my body. And still feeling very vulnerable. It makes me distinguish between "fear" and "vulnerability." Fear seems usually associated with an experience from the past, so I'm triggered; vulnerability is a present-day, human experience.

And I can't believe that that experience with walking yesterday and my openness to You this morning are unrelated, Beloveds. It was also easier to breathe into my belly in morning prayer today, and I felt more embodied. I feel willing to be the Hanged Man this morning - I want to be! Blessed be!