The Journey and the Path

Personal Growth & Healing through Awakening, Evolving, and Expanding

The Seeker Awakens

“You have been chosen, and you must use such strength and heart and wits as you have.” – J.R.R. Tolkein

In my personal experience, I have found that there is the journey and then there is the path. I started writing this article which I quickly found impossible to produce without sharing the struggles and triumphs of my personal story. So, I ask you to journey with me through the lens of my experiences of life and self-discovery. No journey is complete without intrigue, challenges and hidden treasure along the way, so let’s go!

“The key to growth is the introduction of higher dimensions of consciousness into our awareness.” – Lao Tzu
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The day my life changed forever, I was living in Beaumont, Texas, which was a mere 10 miles from the small town where I grew up. (I’ve shed my Southern accent and so much more since those days, but I digress…) It was spring of 2007 and a friend called me and asked if I had seen the movie “The Secret”.  I hadn’t even heard of it. She had watched it a few days earlier and “something keeps telling me to watch it again with you. I know that probably sounds weird but it’s a really good movie”. “Sure, why not.” As I watched, I felt time warp and shift and the foundation of my life to that point crumble beneath my feet. Oh wow, wow. I know Oprah talks about “Aha moments” but this was intense. Little did I know the Law of Attraction was about to put my life in the spin cycle. Since that moment I’ve looked at this point in my life as my spiritual awakening. It opened in me an insatiable curiosity about the nature of reality and who and what I really am.

“When we love, we see the infinite in the finite. We find the Creator in the creation.” – Eliphas Levi

A New Direction

Over the next few years, I would dig in and teach myself to meditate and to read tarot. I would sit for hours pondering over Eastern philosophy and Buddhism, the Sikhs and galactic beings, wondering if we are really alone in the galaxy? I sought out metaphysical teachings, readings, and explored raising my kundalini energy. Searched the far corners of the internet and found some awesome as well as highly suspect materials, but I devoured them all. The impulse to search and to know was huge. I chanted mantras, tried to unlock my psychic gifts, learned about Reiki, astrology, totem animals, auras and crystals. I explored my past lives, did telepathic experiments with friends, found the Goddess, spent hours on vision boards, started yoga, delved into Mayan prophecy and generally tried every kind of New Age thing I could get my hands on. I wanted to get to the bottom of the burning questions… How can I have everything I desire and still grow? Is suffering necessary? Are past lives real? Should I eat meat? What is karma? Who am I? What is my purpose? Why the heck do I exist? What is this really all about anyway?

Part of my journey to finding my true path involved a trip to Seattle, WA to see Abraham Hicks live. The Abraham material came into my life at a very crucial part of my awakening and helped to open me up to the next stage of my spiritual evolution.  I was ecstatic to be in the presence of someone who was in the very movie that started my spiritual awakening explosion. And I was intrigued to see this ‘channeling’ thing in action. What I found was mostly great and I felt like I was in the presence of wisdom. One of the best things about this experience was that I felt comfort beyond measure knowing I was among other seekers like myself, who really wanted to know and were open to exploring creative answers to create the best life for ourselves and others, and I could meet hundreds of them at once and talk about all kinds of things! Yet, after all the excitement of the experience wore off, I knew in the core of my being that this was really good stuff, but that there was much much more.

I recalled noticing when Abraham paused for just a second too long, and I simply knew like I knew, like I knew that they couldn’t say certain things. That not everyone in the room was ready for more, or for what that more meant. I wanted to know those things in the pauses. The questions I had about the space in-between were driving me from within and I wanted to know the still deeper answers to the questions of life. It felt almost like a biological imperative from within the core of my body and being.

“Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of it’s dream.” – Paulo Coelho

Leaping Forward with Eyes Open

Fast forward a few more years to 2010 and I quit my cushy well-paid office job in Houston, sold my car, sold most of my things and threw the rest into a U-haul (half of which were my books!) and made the cross-country journey to Seattle, WA to start the next phase of my life. What prompted this radical shift? I had received guidance in a deep meditation to make this move, and it was obvious that to me there was something BIG on the horizon, but I had no idea what. The feeling behind this vision was unquestionable. I had to go. I just had to trust and take the leap. So I jumped…

“We will not find the inner strength to evolve to a higher level if we do not inwardly develop this profound feeling that there is something higher than ourselves.” – Rudolf Steiner

My first year in Seattle was the hardest year of my life to that point. I didn’t know anyone and I made some friends, but it was slow going. I was working a minimum wage job and I had pretty much given up hope while questioning every decision I’d ever made, doubting my intuition, suspicious of everything I’d been learning about… and then something happened. I met someone who introduced me to the Modern Mystery School. I knew in that moment that I had found what my soul journey was leading me towards. I had found an ancient school of the arts and science of metaphysics that had answers and, more importantly, tools that worked to transform the negativity of my life into positivity, and to help me discover my unique life purpose and start living it! I had found my path and my life journey took on a whole new meaning beyond what I could have imagined. I went from seeker to finder, from lost to found, from limited to limitless. One big sign that you have found a true path is that there is no end to it, and that it uplifts and supports your unique life purpose. I found my life purpose and a path upon which to walk towards it swiftly and in a straight line instead of meandering through different systems of thought and confusion in the upheaval of paradoxes and divisions.

Finding Requires Evolution

“One of the best definitions which I have come across is that which defines evolution as the unfolding of a continually increasing power to respond.” – Alice A. Bailey

A few years into my study I began to realize that as I evolved, new and higher energy tools became available to me. In order to ascend, we must let go of one rung of the ladder and reach up to the next rung. I learned I couldn’t be attached to any specific tool, way of thinking, healing modality, ritual, prayer or meditation in order to get to the next level. A crucial part of reaching to that next rung on the ladder of our personal evolution is to empty ourselves of what we think we know. To release our attachments so that we become an empty vessel, open to receive new knowledge and understanding. All of those experiences on our journey that lead us up to the point of stepping onto our true path are incredibly valuable, and we must also be unattached to them once we are on the next rung of the ladder, else we hold ourselves back. It’s so important to acknowledge these experiences and honor them by letting them go so that we can become something greater.

“The empty vessel makes the loudest sound.” – Shakespeare

Letting Go is an Act of Love and Faith

In my journey from seeking to finding, I found myself letting go of what most people would say was a pretty good life. I had a job that paid well, family nearby, good friends, a boyfriend that was really there for me. Yet, when it came down to it I had to sacrifice these things to find my own soul, to become who I really am. What I’ve come to understand is that these things in my life that I had to let go of were calling out to be transformed so that I could evolve. However you come by the sacrifices along your journey, just know that nothing truly great was ever attained without sacrificing what wasn’t really working to gain your highest and best good. A key is to simply be willing to make the sacrifice, to let go of your negative ego bullshit, to release those shadows that are stopping you, to say sayonara to the fears. The willingness to reach that next rung means you have faith in yourself that you can grab on and pull yourself up a little higher and see things from a new perspective a little clearer.

“We must let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the one that is waiting for us.” – Joseph Campbell

From me to you, the seeker and finder on your unique journey, I truly respect you and I honor you. What you are yearning and asking for, where you choose to dive into the parts of yourself that are amazing that you’ve been hiding away and also the parts that need refinement – I know that takes so much courage, resiliency and heart! My covenant with you is that I will always be ready to listen. I will make available the tools for true transcendence and transformation. I will spend time with you so you know you aren’t alone. I know what it feels like to think that no one else can relate, and on the flip side I know the true joy of finding my pure path where I can be all of who I am, including a tribe to share my gifts with and learn together. What I ask of you is that no matter what your experiences in life to this point, that you consider approaching life with your cup emptied, your heart open as much as possible, ready to receive and use what you are given so you may taste the sweet fruits of a more awakened life for yourself.

Say not, ‘I have found the truth,’ but rather, ‘I have found a truth.’ – Kahlil Gibran

Learning through Expansion

“In these days of the shattering of the old form and the building of the new, adaptability is needed. We must avert the danger of crystallisation through pliability and expansion. The “old order changeth,” but primarily it is a change of dimension and of aspect, and not of material or of foundation.” ― Alice A. Bailey

I found answers to the questions I was seeking, and then I found the deeper aspects of those questions! I kept asking and the Universe responded. The shattering of the old forms in my life was part of the process that had to occur for my life to expand. There is layer upon layer to this reality, rung upon rung on the ladder of self-discovery and knowledge of life and the Universe. And part of the journey is that you have learned to expand and “rise above it”. You are going to put people on pedestals and as you grow, at some point, those pedestals will come crashing down and you know what? You will still have to find a way to rise above it all and continue your journey to find and walk your path. This is true alchemy, true transformation. It changes us into strong, capable, incredible beings.

“Imagine all the people living life in peace. You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us and the world will live as one.” – John Lennon

Initiated into the Ancient Mysteries

How do we rise above when thoughts and emotions that arise on our journey threaten to knock us off our path? By learning and working with a foundation of essentials!

Finding the Mystery School was a huge leg-up in my life. No longer did I have to put all the pieces together by myself. No longer was I alone in my journey. Laid out before me was a path of progression through the wisdom teachings of the entire world! Proven methods and tried and true ways of creating a beautiful life used by some of the most influential figures in history from Socrates to Leonardo DaVinci to Nikola Tesla to Albert Einstein, all initiated into this Mystery School. In all my seeking I had never encountered such an elegant system and I set forth to learn so that I could share with others. 

In the Empower Thyself class & Initiation, I hand down tools, techniques, specific meditations and teachings to set sacred space, dispel negative thoughts, and call upon supportive positive energies for your protection and benefit. These essential tools allow you to instantly shift your energy to a higher vibration and literally rise above and keep going, keep expanding! Being initiated into the Mystery School lineage of King Salomon is about being your own guru, your own King or Queen, through embracing the process of  “Know Thyself” and uncovering and engaging in your unique life purpose that only you can bring to the world.

“Initiation, or the process of undergoing an expansion of consciousness, is part of the normal process of evolutionary development, viewed on a large scale, and not from the standpoint of the individual.”  ― Alice A. Bailey

The Alchemy of Self-Mastery

Your path is something you will keep being called to again and again anytime your life journey takes you a little off course. Find yourself wandering around in the weeds? There will likely be a wake-up call before too long! One hallmark of a true path is the call to a service of others as well as yourself. After my initiation in the Empower Thyself class, I became eligible to attend Healer’s Academy to learn the technique of the Life Activation. This activation opens and awakens the spiritual DNA in someone, allowing for rapid expansion and growth. I also received the 2nd step initiation which is about moving into serving others and allowed me to begin to step outside of yourself and gain insights into a larger part of my life purpose.

“An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

An authentic path has the potential to reconcile all systems and to resolve paradox, discord and confusion. Contained within the Mystery School path is the Universal Kabbalah, the system of creation which contains all systems of creation. There is nothing in your journey thus far that will not fit into the Universal Kabbalah. Thousands of people have studied this form of Kabbalah in which everything is found and everything may be resolved within it. Whatever background, race, nationality, heritage, genetics, socioeconomics, etc. you come from, whatever you have studied before, whatever your life purpose, whatever you are called to do, be and become – all can be found within Universal Kabbalah. It is the ultimate tool of the Mystery School path and an incredibly powerful system to use to consciously heal and recreate your life.

“Healing does not come through intense affirmation of divinity, or by simply pouring out love and the expression of a vague mysticism. It comes through mastering an exact science of contact, impression, of invocation plus an understanding of the subtle apparatus of the etheric vehicle.” – Alice A. Bailey

All of the great thinkers, philosophers, inventors, movers and shakers throughout history have said it in one way or another: Follow the journey of your heart, find your path, transform yourself, and you ultimately create your destination as well as your destiny. I say that you have the ability to do this and so much more.

This is Your Time to Shine

We are living in an unprecedented time on the planet where there has never been such a call to wake up, to seek, to find, and to live out the best versions of our ever-evolving selves. I look at my life today and am overwhelmed with gratitude for my journey and for the path that I am on. I am so thankful for all of the people who committed themselves to the process of becoming who they truly are, those Lights that shine on the horizon of human consciousness as beacons of what is possible in our human potential. And I count myself incredibly blessed to continue evolving as one of these Lights that I may shine hope to others.

With you in love, peace, freedom, and connection through the heart,
Beth <3