I’ve long held an appreciation of what my Celtic ancestors call the Otherworld. In my book Soul’s Homecoming: An Empath’s Journey to Inner Wisdom I wrote that you “learn [about] the Otherworld through dream messages, insights, meditation and prayer, connection to the land where you live, or through gut feelings.”
The book underpins the importance of becoming aware of the ways we are interacting with our guidance system. I believe our inner wisdom is a threshold through which we meld what’s known with our unknown. The Otherworld prods our consciousness with synchronicities, memories, dream images, and insights from Spirit. In my work as a spiritual life coach, deep listening is the way we unravel the logic of our behaviors. Along the way we often find there is another intelligence speaking to us through the energy of angels, intuitions, or energy centers.
Human Lens on Insight
Body language, hand signs, and words are how we convey thoughts and feelings to one another. We can shout, sing, dance, or otherwise creatively express what needs to be said. It’s simple in its complexity. Given the diversity of spoken languages, shared experiences can be angry or compassionate. They can hurt or heal, resolve or exacerbate. Basically, language addressed broadly, is the way we exchange the ideas and thoughts from our lives.
In modern times we paid such close attention to personal communication that we created comprehensive scientific disciplines to help expose the process of thoughts into behaviors. We even apply some of these same psychological modalities to animals in our quest to understand their interactions more fully.
To be sure, these are important advances promoting health and wholeness. At the same time, what if our inner wisdom was detecting something else beyond our anthropocentrism? If we stepped away from the idea that humans are centrally the most important beings in the world, what other presence would reveal itself?
Angels, Intuitions, and Energy Centers
I recently did a favor for someone. She called to thank me and said, “You have no idea. You are like a guardian angel.” Given that I was in the middle of writing this article, her particular expression gave me pause. It’s been a while since anyone has used that terminology in reference to their experience. Yet, I have to admit I grew up in a culture where speaking of angels was commonplace. I remember my mother used to sing us to sleep with a traditional blessing asking angels to watch over us. As a child I was fine with this and felt comforted by it.
When barely 20 years old I could already recall several dangerous situations in my life. Describing them to others I said that I felt protected by “a flock of angels.” At that time, I felt no awkwardness including angels in my story. As an adult, however, I became careful using what felt like “old” jargon. The word angel lost its power yet, interestingly, I adopted similar words to describe this same angelic living entity such as life force, Qi, intuitions, synchronicities, chakra and meridian energy.
The use of other names to describe this felt presence has been with us for a millennia. Some of our ancestors called these energy manifestations archangels, soul companions, and guardian spirits. The Norse called their spirit companion fylgia. Socrates called it daimon or guiding spirit. For the Romans genius loci was a supernatural force that watched over the land. Then there are indigenous traditions who speak of the Spirit of the land.
Reclaiming and Reimagining
Recently, in meditation, I sat quietly and sensed a presence. I was struck with surprise when the thought “guardian angel” came to mind. I had a sudden deep realization that my guardian angel who had been with me my whole life was there. My surprise made me smile. Again, had the presence named itself or is writing this article conjuring up the past?
Even so I was familiar with this presence. After all, hadn’t she/he been with me all those times I needed protection and guidance? Acknowledgement felt like a reclamation. It was time to ask this guardian spirit to step forward more clearly. I gave myself permission to reimagine who and what was making itself known. To do this seemed important. Instead of framing this felt presence in a way that was defined by thoughts or memories, I waited. How does this presence envision itself? Perhaps there isn’t a gender or a shape. Had I considered that?
In dreamwork it’s so important to let the images or symbols speak for themselves. Instead of rushing to insert an interpretation, dreamwork asks that we honor them as living entities with a voice of their own. They tell their story versus providing the dream image with my meaning. It is the same in Spirit work. Allowing it/they/she/he to emerge and tell their story.
Impact of Reimagining Spirit
As Spirit work has become important in my inner journey, so too has it expanded to include my relationship with the land. I am caretaker of the place where I am rooted. I am actively trying to find ways to give thanks to the ancestral spirits already here in the soil, under my feet, and the woods I can see nearby. For me, accessing my inner child and her natural ability to trust in the Other has helped bring this eco-sacredness back again into a real and tangible presence.
The initial step is to become aware that there is, in fact, a presence beyond our understanding of what IS. Applying human attributes to the presence of this Other (that may/may not look like me), including bestowing on it a particular significance and meaning, seems a next phase in the process. However, this is just the beginning. When you are ready to reimagine Spirit, there is another step. That is, allow this energy to speak for itself.
If you tap into your inner wisdom and acknowledge this as a threshold, how would your ever-present, sacred intelligence present itself? Does it have a name, a shape, a gender, a significance in your life? Does it appear to you as a spark of intuition, a felt sense in the surrounding energy, or as a being of some kind? How is this Otherness imagining itself? At the end of this article, I’m aware that answering these questions opens yet another portal about how to listen to this presence.