Redefining Grace
Grace is not mercy- it's our inheritance.
As a child, I was taught that Grace was "the unmerited favor, kindness, and mercy of God." (Ephesians 2:8-9)
Part and parcel of my Baptist upbringing, I believed that humans sucked, God was omnipotent, and Grace, our one path to redemption, was a gift we certainly didn’t deserve.
Shame is a heavy burden, especially for a child. It fed a lifelong pursuit of striving and perfectionism. I’d do anything to be worthy of God's (and the world's) approval.
As I've grown older, I've come to understand that Grace is not something we have to earn but something that we are. Grace isn’t about worthiness; it’s about acceptance.
It's difficult to think about Grace much less embody it in our fast-paced, distraction-filled world. But Grace is a salve for our harried soul and at the heart of living a full and compassionate life.
Why then, is opening to Grace and all its magic so mysterious?
Culturally there’s little support for trusting our inner knowing.
Many of us have been taught to believe that only people who have gone to seminary or special training programs to become ministers, rabbis, priests, or shamans are sanctioned to interact with Spirit. We’re happy to ask them to do the blessing while we bow our heads in agreement.
By outsourcing our faith, we may be limiting our capacity for direct spiritual revelation and growth.
José Luis Stevens, founder of Power Path Seminars, studies cross-cultural shamanism around the world to distill the core elements of shamanic healing and practice, to apply indigenous wisdom to business and everyday life.
Regarding Grace, he writes, “Shamans the world over understand that humans are born with a toolbox preloaded with three exceptional tools for healing and accelerating freedom. These user-friendly and quite ordinary tools are often overlooked as being simplistic and not respectable, especially in the fields of science and Western psychology.”
Like wrenches or drills, these tools will not work all by themselves; they sit in the toolbox patiently waiting to be picked up.
Indigenous people, he explains, have employed these tools for thousands of years. They are so powerful in fact, that just by one’s willingness to pick them up, they will begin their extraordinary work.
These are the tools of gratitude, forgiveness, and blessing.
Gratitude
The first tool in our toolbox is gratitude. Gratitude is a high-frequency attitude designed to open portals, windows, and doorways into the spirit world.
Shamans believe that just behind the illusions that make up the ordinary world, Spirit lies camouflaged, bursting with light and freedom, just waiting to be recognized and resourced. They believe these portals, if opened, lead directly into the power of our inner reality where all answers lie.
These portals are everywhere, the most accessible being our heart. The fact that it resides so obviously, just beneath our chin, smack dab in the middle of our chest, may make it easier to ignore.
Each time we speak it vibrates; each time we breathe, it brings us life. Without this miraculous pump, we would die, yet we take this immense gift for granted. What keeps our hearts and consciousness closed?
Shamans believe that self-importance, created by the ego, keeps the powerful heart portal closed off to prevent Spirit from shining through. The ego is part of our humanity, but it can also block our spiritual growth.
Portals can only open when a certain amplitude is reached. When it is muted, we don’t have full access. What keeps amplitude low are all the familiar maladies: fear, hostility, self-importance, depression, self-doubt, cynicism, and frustration.
When our hearts are shut down, it not only feels bad, it also prevents the very remedy needed for healing: an open heart.
Gratitude can counter our parasitical false personality and raise the amplitude high enough to begin the heart-opening process.
Gratitude reframes experiences so that what seemed like a problem or something that hardly mattered becomes a good thing instead.
For example, when we are grateful for the tree in our front yard, we can focus on the gifts it brings us. Instead of resenting the leaves we have to rake each fall, we recognize the gift of shade it provides for most of the year.
When we are grateful, we can connect to something outside of ourselves, recognizing that we depend on others and a higher connection: Spirit.
Gratitude switches our orientation away from self-importance to remind us that we are all interconnected.
Gratitude reinforces what benefits us because Spirit is always inclined to give us more of what we recognize and acknowledge. The greater our gratitude, the more we will receive that for which we are grateful.
Gratitude opens the door to grace.
Seeing
The second great tool in our toolbox is seeing. For a shaman, “to see” is to cut through the veil of ignorance and false appearances to observe Spirit as it manifests through all of reality.
Shamans view truth as an integral part of “seeing.” Truth clears distorted thinking and projections to shift our energy to open the heart and other portals to the world of Spirit. When we perceive the truth; there is no need for hostility, fear, or aggression.
In other traditions, seeing is known as forgiveness or compassion. This is considered the most powerful method for releasing blame, guilt, and shame.
Our ego may try to convince us that forgiveness is a weakness and that we are setting ourselves up for more hurt. It may also convince us that we (and others) have no value and deserve ill-treatment or self-loathing. This false personality is a delusional construct created by the egoic self; in dealing with the world, it tends to create lies in which we and others take refuge.
Forgiveness makes these terrible perceptions impossible. Forgiveness isn’t accepting what happened- it’s choosing not to let what happened, control us anymore.
Compassion helps to end the war within us and with others. Forgiveness paves the way for healing, expansion, and grace.
Blessing
The third great power tool in our toolbox is one we were given at birth- the ability to bless.
Shamans believe that many people do not know their function as human beings; it never occurs to them that their job is actually to bless the world. We may have been taught to bless our food, a few words mumbled over a meal, lacking heart or meaning.
This is not what shamans mean by blessing.
Blessing is the act of recognizing that Spirit is coming through all that we are witnessing or experiencing. It is recognizing and acknowledging the grand flow of Beingness that is always present- in what we eat, what we see around us, and what we experience in making love, cleaning the house, walking to work, or taking a shower.
That Beingness which flows through the landscape, through our bodies, through each moment of now, yields immense vitality and life force. If we are not present, the physical plane will camouflage the universe so Spirit does not appear to exist.
This is a form of deep hypnosis (or sleep) where we no longer recognize that Spirit is present. Not only do we go to sleep, but large parts of the world may temporarily go to sleep as well. It is our job to wake up and awaken all that is around us.
This act of waking up could be called “blessing the world.”
When we agree to outsource blessing to “ordained” to do so, we miss the incredible power of direct revelation and connection to Source. Each of us has the capacity and ability to bestow blessings. It’s not only our gift, but our responsibility.
To bless means that you become conscious that you are alive and that Spirit is flowing all around you and through you; everything and everyone is interconnected. When you sense or feel this, the mere acknowledgment is a blessing.
In response, everything receives a boost, everything celebrates, everything is grateful, and everything forgives its slumber. There are few practices as powerful as this awakening.
Blessing is incomprehensibly powerful and is perhaps the greatest tool of all because it is the pathway back to Spirit. What you give is what you get, so make sure you give the best you can imagine.
It’s hard to bless if you have no gratitude and you have not seen the need to forgive. These three tools work together as a powerhouse trio.
They are all important characteristics of the physical universe: Truth, Love, and Energy, or Yachay, Munay, and Llankay, the three Andean shamanic principles of living.
Each tool works with all three components:
Gratitude recognizes truth, transmits love, and enhances energy.
Seeing tells the truth, generates love, and liberates energy.
Blessing acknowledges the truth, radiates love, and releases phenomenal energy.
We all have these shamanic tools resting in our toolbox. When used regularly and deliberately, they open us to ourselves and each other. They open us to Grace.
Grace is not God’s mercy to a woeful humanity- it's our blessing and an opportunity to wake up to our inheritance.
Opening to Grace Retreat December 6-8, 2024 Timber Creek Retreat House
Join me in Kansas City at the uncomparable Timber Creek Retreat House for a weekend retreat to open to Grace practicing these three tools and more.
What you will learn on this retreat:
Calming breathwork and rituals to clear dense energy, increase awareness, and connect in the present.
Practices for cleansing and supporting our chakras and endocrine system.
Explore the four levels of our physical brain and how they influence our potential for spiritual growth and connection.
How we can eat and move to support optimal brain function and bliss.
Simple daily practices and prayers to implement gratitude, forgiveness, and blessing to transform your life.
Beautiful ❤️