SPIRIT        LODGE   LIBRARY Spiritual Development Page 58

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Removing Blockages
By CinnamonMoon

Connecting to Spirit is something that takes time for some people. It is more common than you
might think to struggle with this. The elements may seem easier or less complicated in some
ways, at least until that initial contact is made. It really comes down to them being a part of
Spirit. People struggle with looking a different interpretations of Gods and goddesses, of the
Creator, and putting a face on them. Actually, I see them all as Spirit, the cosmic link of life that
keeps everthing flowing. One time when I was on vision quest Spirit appeared to me and it was a
kaleidoscope of images shifting in and out melding into one and other in a state of constant
change. If I thought of an aspect it appeared and vanished to become something else. It was as if
Spirit wanted me to perceive it as the All. I have never forgotten that image or images, so for me
all are one. I believe Spirit is consciousness with the ability to take form when necessary, but I
do not see it as being of form. It is Creation stepping out of Chaos and containing both. The
forms simply make it more pliable to our minds.

While I have addressed certain Gods and goddesses from time to time even then I know it was an
aspect or personality of Spirit being focused on for a specific reason. On the whole I see Spirit as
the presence that comprises Sacred Energy and its permeation of life. In that we are a part of one
and other as Spirit resides within us, so we reside in Spirit. As Sacred Energy it is essentially the
creative force. You first come to know it from within yourself in conceptual form and then
gradually through experience. When you know your inner spirit seeing its link to the universe
and cosmic consciousness, you come to realize that Spirit is all-pervasive.

The next phase of knowing Spirit is when you project yourself from the physical body. You
become one with that pervasive precious presence. As you project you discover that your own
spirit can expand into that consciousness to an infinite degree and you absorb knowledge through
osmosis absorbing into Spirit and you just understand. Normally this is what will occur on a
vision quest or at least on a shamanic journey. Coming to this oneness is something taken on
from the level of your spiritual being and offered up as if a prayer to Spirit. When you take th
time to do that alone is enough to trigger later response from Spirit that is quite direct. Things
will happen when you least expect them to and you may experience spontaneous visions or other
events. You might have a series of Dream Lodge encounters that will provide you with the
concrete proof that you need.

The more you advance the more you get a feel for this. Spiritual blockages can come at any point
and we are quite capable of encountering them even if our path is well established. It applies
when you have slipped into some form of denial that the contact you have had in the past was
only a possibility and not a reality. If you trust then Spirit will bless you with your answers. If
the question is there it can appear much as a call from Spirit might and a vision quest may be in
order to overcome the obstacles you are facing. If this is the case it will demand an answer and
Spirit is the only one who can truly show you the reality of it all. I can try to express it but in
truth it is way beyond words for anyone to do. It must be experienced first-hand.

Other blockages exist in the perceptions we hold of the path we are walking. It is quite normal to
see yourself becoming one thing and finding out it is something else that is taking place. We
keep our mind on the goal and in the process other transformations of the Self manifest. That is
why you will often hear that it is the journey that matters not the destination. One day we turn
around to realize how far we have come, how much we have learned, and how magical it really
is. The view changes with time and we pass through many stages. It is at these stages that the
blockages often present themselves.

The path itself can present a blockage as you try to discover what your purpose in life truly is. It
all starts with the self and if you are just beginning I do promise you the magic is there. Magic
dissolves into understanding as you progress along your path. Magic is magic because we do not
understand the principles behind it. As we come to know them the magic turns to knowledge and
the wisdom to apply it. Magic is an illusion that the mundane world puts on things they cannot
explain. True magic stems from the channel you are able to open and the way you direct the flow
of Sacred Energy. Once you understand the process there is no limit to what you can do with the
knowledge. Everything we do magically or spiritually speaking begins in the realm of Spirit. It
must be conceived there and seeded there to materialize in the physical realm. Period.

Learning about yourself is truly the first step of any novice to a pathway. You have to know who
you are and understand yourself very well so that you can develop your integrity and character.
You have to know where you want to go. Your inner spirit and your Spirit Guides are leading
you there right now whether you know it or not. Do not discredit the work you are doing simply
because you run into a blockage. That is nothing more than denial. You need to honestly
confront your questions and feelings so that where you are going can be made known to you.
There are two aspects of the vision quest. One is to come to know Spirit and the other is to come
to know what your path is to be. As a Medicine Woman I will continue to quest throughout my
life. I generally do it once a year in a formal setting and then journey every month informally.
My path was set many years ago and I kept waiting for the thunderbolt to strike and tell me what
it was all about. As the years passed and I reflected back on them I realized that it was a gradual
process of be-coming what I already was. Today my pathwork is an expansion of what it has
always been and I am touching more lives in new ways. Spirit has guided me to this point and
when we see that is the way of the Medicine Path we come to accept that the reason for things
will reveal itself when the time is right.

I could not have done this if I had not experienced the growth myself. Your growth and
understanding of you and your relationship to Spirit will allow you to share the process with
others and touch their lives too. There is magic in that. You have to be ready to receive
knowledge, build your integrity, and grow. It does not begin on the physical level but that is
where many of our blockages reside. We have to tear them down so that we can push past them
and into the enlightenment that comes through higher consciousness.

Learning to trust the self is hard. Patience is the one lesson we never stop learning. I am still
being shown I need to have it over and over and if you talk to people who know me they will tell
you I am the most patient person they know. In my heart I want to know just as everyone else
does. I may know better than that, but I am human in spite of it all. That, too, is part of the lesson
and we need to recognize it. The key is to realize that when we put our spirit first we start
making some very serious progress, not just on an intellectual level but on an evolutionary one.
Spiritual evolution is the true purpose of life. Whatever twists and turns your path takes you will
come to see the Medicine of those encounters. There is great power in that and it is very magical.
The secret is in realizing that all power is borrowed from Spirit and we just channel it. in this
way the magic wand is us. That is how spells are woven. Though the witch is going to tell you
that she is calling on spirits or bending the forces of nature to accomplish her will, the shaman is
going to tell you that they "have the power" because they have the channel to it.

Most of our gifts come to us in early childhood or adolescence to reveal themselves. We may
ignore them or not, but that is the first sign we need to examine when discovering what we are to
learn. Look to your natural gifts, things that were odd and you kept secret because you did not
want the label of being strange put on yourself. Those are clues. Look to the things that have
always held an interest for you. those are clues. What do you want to achieve? If you can name it
aloud you can find it.

Blockages can come when we face the possibility of wielding the power. Whether it is a personal
issue of pain or abuse in any form it allows us to feel it on all levels: mentally, physically, and
spiritually. Most people stop there, but it is also felt emotionally and that is the thread that runs
through all of these areas...the connecting link. It can be a feeling of connecting to the power too
strongly, creating feelings or emotional responses to a situation. The natural reaction is to protect
ourselves from the situation and vow: "I will never let this happen again." Bingo. The decision
has been made. Anytime we are exposed to something painful or fearsome we have a tendency to
do this. We toss our spiritual hands right up into the air along with our physical ones and we say
"stop" the flows that allow those things into our lives.

This is not self-delusion; it is self-defense for what we cannot control. It can happen in the
process of being victimized, abused, or harmed in some very negative ways. In the first place, we
do not get those feelings of victimization or impressions of blockages based on nothing at all.
Experiences tell us that things can get out of hand. Most of us who walk our path for any amount
of time are confronted with the temptation to misuse our knowledge in one form or another. It is
part of the path itself to be tested in that way. Remember that it is all a matter of choice and in
the case of wielding power we might choose to stop the power creating our own block.

Later, as time passes, we forget the blockages because they are working. We offered them in the
first place along with an emotional choice (will or intent). We believe with all our being that the
vow will hold from the time we make it into the infinite future. That was, after all, part of the
vow to never let it happen again ever. What have we done? We have cast a spell on ourselves.
Whenever we come to a point where we go to apply a skill or get past some issue it really does
not happen for us and we wonder why.

The symptoms start to show. You may have a feeling of not knowing where you want to go next.
You may feel disconnected or unable to follow through with things. Journeys or work with your
Spirit Guides may suddenly be unsuccessful. You start to try different methods of overcoming
these obstacles but nothing seems to work. Eventually you come to realize that it is not the
wrong method but a true blockage within you somewhere. Now others do not block us; we block
ourselves. This happens either by refusing to do something we need to do, denying our own
truths, letting mundane life overwhelm, scars from childhood or other times in your life,, or any
number of other things. We all have to face these times. All of us.

The only way past the blockage is in confronting it. You have to admit it exists first of all and
then choose to act on that fact or stagnate. I am giving you the logic behind this so that you will
see what is needed. You have to make a definite choice to un-block your pain. It cannot be
reasoning through it and just saying "well that was foolish, I will just let it go". It is not quite that
simple. The blocks are too cemented in place. You have to want to take those walls, shields,
decisions apart one brick at a time.

For instance, using the example of facing the power and mishandling it to have it backfire might
well create a block to not wield it that way again. You might try to use the power in a different
way and found out that it's not working because you had set a blockage in place. The
confrontation must take place now. This is not like soul searching to examine your shadow
nature, understand it, and then restrict the behavior from surfacing until you can channel it
properly. This calls for acceptance in another form.

By understanding that temptation plays on your weakness you can use your strengths to
compensate for them and make a good choice. Your logic is set in a foundation of knowing the
integrity of your path. Realizing this you need to acknowledge that the power is not yours. It
belongs to Spirit. You are welcome to use it, tap it, wield it, channel it, but only for the right
reasons. That is what you perhaps have not been able to see. You perhaps thought the power to
belong to you and closed the door to it causing any more damage.

By giving the power back to Spirit you give up the control. At the same time you need to
sacrifice the weakness for the temptation in order to feel worthy to wield it now. What needs to
take place is a journey. Not one that projects the inner spirit somewhere out-of-body, merely a
journey that requires it to step back into time to confront the memories and unlock them. They
must be released and if a rage was part of those memories that must be released too. You have to
feel everything you felt back then. Feel all the fears and emotions you held when you made the
decision to stop your flow of power. Really get into it. Own those fears again and bring them
back to the Now. Own the emotions again and bring them back into the Now. Know why you
were feeling them and the temptation that you were faced with at the time. Relive it all.
All the issues must be seen as if they were challenging you right now. You have to feel it to your
core and that can bring back terror or tears or both. You have to let them come. Feel it all. It does
not stop there. These temptations are hard to resist. That is why they are temptations and my
reactions are as to unruly children in a brawl. They are throwing their proverbial fists, fits, and
tempers and saying and doing things they will regret. Now they are regretting what was done and
they need to be forgiven.

Forgiveness is love. By making the choice to love them as a parent would a child, as Spirit loves
you, you start to shift gears and see the lesson that needed to be learned. To recognize that the
issue will probably present itself again, that the lesson will repeat itself in some other form, you
allow yourself to embrace all these dammed-up feelings. You need to make the choice to love
the lesson and vow to yourself and Spirit that you will not yield to such temptation. Break and
remake the spell.

Anytime you have a blockage of any sort you have to journey back to the blockage itself. Recall
why you put it up and examine it in every detail. What stopped you when you put it up is still
stopping you now. You did not "fix" anything back then. You simply refused it life, or a place in
yours. By embracing the lesson, loving it for the gift it was and still is you are able to release it.
The process in theory is simple. The complications set in when you have to own all those old
ugly feelings you never wanted back in your life. It must be a conscious decision to relive that
ugly moment. To understand it for what it was and acknowledging it shatters the spell. The walls
come tumbling down, the boulders on your path vanish, and Spirit embraces your embrace.
A sense of cleansing an old wound will wash over you and a healing takes place. Suddenly you
are free and experience a moment of enlightenment that reaches beyond the reasoning it took to
get you here. You instantly understand why the power exists in the first place, that you are a part
of it but that it is not wholly yours. It belongs to everyone and what you do with it affects
everyone and everything around you. Now you know that you are the hollow bone of the
shaman, the channel for that power and it is up to you to be purified before you wield it so that
you will not misuse it.

Instead of saying "I will never wield this again" you say "I will wield it for the right reasons
only". You make a new vow, cast a new spell, and gain some integrity in the process. Now this
does not mean that you cannot use it to defend yourself. Certainly you can, but you will never
wield it in arrogance. You will never wield it for the sake of the power itself. You will wield it as
a part of the whole by honoring its source as the Sacred Energy of Spirit.

Your path clears and you move ahead. These lessons and blockages repeat all through life until
you understand the pattern they take. Everytime you are gifted in some way, have new
knowledge, or master a new skill you are going to be tempted to misuse it--and that includes
showing off for others since it is tempting to prove yourself in the pitfall of arrogance. That is the
first lesson to follow. Then when you control your reaction you pass that test. The next test will
be to use it in a positive way. You learn to recognize that applying your new skill and honing it.
YOu pass this test and the pattern repeats with new gifts, new growth, evolution of your inner
spirit and the testing that follows. The situation will continue to repeat itself until you learn from
your mistakes or from the painful experiences in life. You have to pass the test at each stage.
That pattern is never broken but by recognizing it, it does become easier to deal with as each
time you confront it your integrity grows. Intent, integrity, and impeccability are three little
magic words.

A transformation comes about in the dance toward the self. It is okay to feel the feelings you
hold. In fact it tells you how alive and serious you are. It shows you have made some major
breakthrough. Sometimes it hurts to grow; muscles have to stretch--even mental ones. Any
doubts you hold are just another way of your inner spirit reaching out to you and saying look
deeper. They reflect, too, the logical mind's insatiable need to aruge spirituality every step of the
way...well, at least until you meet and take union with Spirit and then it cannot deny the truth any
longer. Things pick up a bit after that. The truth of this matter is that you may be confused, but
untangling the knot is the secret to ending it. That means looking at the most recent pain you felt
and taking it one step at a time in a regressive examination of the issues in you life.

By following the blockage back to the issues surrounding it one of the best tools you hold is the
Medicine Wheel. By centering amid the Seven Sacred Directions and posing the question in
mind or issue you face as your focus the confrontation occurs. In entering each of the realms you
feel the impressions and see waht is shown you regarding that focus. The answer will get many
perspectives. Air is mental without emotion. Fire is passion and trust. Water is introspection on
how it applies to your life and path. Earth is the wisdom you have gained from life to apply the
knowledge within this new cycle shift. The Below World will show you how to work with it.
The Above World will let you tap Sacred Energy and let Spirit flow through you with teachers
and Guides. Finally the Middle World will let you put it all to good use as you walk between the
worlds day to day.

The blockages occur because we throw up our hands and refuse to suffer some form of pain,
abuse, violation, or experience. Whatever the reason it stops us from evolving spiritually or
making progress on our path. Knowing the difference between going about things wrong or a
blockage is a trial and error process of discovery. Confronting the issues helps us find our
answers and the blockages fall to the wayside. IN learning to differentiate them you will find that
progress resumes very quickly and opens a floodgate that sweeps you up into elevated
conscousness once more.

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