Incarnational Spirituality is a practical approach to being spiritually and energetically effective in this world, both in crafting our own lives and in service to others and to the planet. Rather than seeing incarnation — the act of taking on a physical body and being part of this physical world — as a detriment to one’s spiritual nature, it is a resource for spiritual energy. The personal is as much a source of spirit as the transpersonal, and the two acting together in synthesis create a powerful generative focus for blessing and serving the world.
Although part of the focus of Incarnational Spirituality is on the self, it is not a form of self-development in the usual sense of that term. Its emphasis is not on self-empowerment per se, but on the empowerment that lies in the spiritual and energetic processes from which self arises. It is a practice of learning to tap into those processes. While a healthy self-image and greater self-esteem can be a by-product, the primary aim is contributing to the betterment of the human condition and the wellbeing of our world.
An Act of Love
Incarnational Spirituality is a love story, the story of our love for the world, which inspires us to incarnate in the first place. The world’s love for us draws us to it in partnership.
A basic premise is that each incarnation proceeds from the Soul’s act of loving will. Whatever habits, tasks, obligations, memories, and so forth may be in play in crafting that life — this basic impulse of love and will is always there as a source of inner power and light, like a personal Big Bang.
This impulse surrounds and fills our lives with a spiritual energy that is the result of the incarnational process, not in spite of it.
A metaphor for this is an actor in a play. An actor appears in a play as a character with a specific role, lines to learn, costumes to wear, other actors to engage, an audience to communicate with, and so forth. He may take this specific role at his agent’s recommendation, because the producers sought him out, because he needs the money, or because he loves the role.
But behind all this is the actor’s love of his craft and of the theater itself. If he remembers this original love, it becomes a powerful source of energy and inspiration no matter what role he is in. As he performs his role, if he can also embody his love of theater, that energy will empower and fill his performance. It will connect him with the other actors in deeper and more energetic ways; it will enable him to communicate with the audience in more powerful ways.
And his love of the craft, his love of his art, his love of theater will make him more supportive of the other actors. He will want them to do well so that the craft of acting itself does well and the potential of the art of theater is fulfilled.
Analogously, Incarnational Spirituality may be seen as a way of attuning to and drawing energy and inspiration from the craft, the art, of incarnation itself. It is a practice that enables us to support this process and craft of incarnation in ourselves, in others, and in the world at large.
A Gift
Incarnational Spirituality affirms that we are each a gift to the world, and the world is a gift to us. A gift freely given creates spaciousness and imposes no obligation; it is generative, releasing energies that are empowering and liberating. It is different from a transactional relationship in which the purpose is to balance the scales, making sure each person receives exactly according to what he puts out and reaps what he sows. Transactions deal with equality; gifts manifest abundance. We are each an abundance of potentials waiting to unfold, of love waiting to manifest, of creativity waiting to be expressed. Our incarnations are not transactions with life but gifts of emergence, filling the cosmos with new possibilities and grace.
Becoming a Star
Incarnational Spirituality sees incarnation as the crossing of a threshold between two spiritual states, two states of energy and matter. One is non-physical to our sense and the other is the physical world, and they are blended. This crossing sets energy into motion and generates a field of spiritual forces around us that accompany us throughout our life, a potential source of blessing for ourselves and our world.
This field is like a radiant star within us. Incarnational Spirituality offers a set of tools and practices for attuning to and releasing this radiance.
Engaging with Energies
We incarnate not only into a physical world, but into a world of subtle forces and energies. We deal not only with our physical ecology, but an invisible ecology of thought, feeling, and energy. But because of the act of incarnation itself, we are a source of powerful creative, transformative energies. Just as the flow of electricity through a wire generates a magnetic field, the flow of the soul’s intent through the layers and dimensions of our life, invisible and visible, generates a field of spiritual energy. This energy, this field, is there because of the flow of power that initiates and sustains an incarnation. It is there because of the love that initiated our soul’s purpose and the processes of incarnation. It is there because we are gifts to life. It is there because we have crossed a threshold between the physical and non-physical states of being. It is a source of spiritual energy. Incarnational Spirituality is a set of practices for accessing the resources of this field to engage the world with blessing.
Deep Individuality,
Deep Connectedness
Incarnational Spirituality honors our unique individuality. Many of its practices might be thought of as a “mysticism of the Self,” intended to help a person to deepen into themselves and to attune to and express through action the energetic and spiritual resources of their innate sacredness. Incarnational Spirituality does not set any part of us against another part, but seeks coherency and an integral wholeness instead. It does not see the personality as an obstacle to the spiritual or an adversary to the soul. It does not emphasize the transpersonal over the personal, but sees them as partners. It sees them both as essential parts of our creative wholeness, both necessary to bless the world, just as a pianist needs both hands to play a Mozart sonata.
But individuality is only half of the picture. The other essential part of incarnation is connectedness and relationship. Incarnational Spirituality offers practices designed to deepen us into the Other, into that which is not-Self and different from us, and to do so in ways that generate co-creativity, coherency, emergence, and mutual blessing and empowerment. Skills and capacities of compassion and connectedness are very much part of Incarnational Spirituality.
A Partnership with Spiritual Forces
The material and exercises that are designed to share Incarnational Spirituality come from an evolving, emerging research study. This is based on supersensible or clairvoyant perceptions and interactions with the non-physical worlds of soul and spirit where our incarnations originate. Much of this work comes out of my life over the past 45 years and my contact and communication with the inner worlds. But colleagues, friends, and people who come to my workshops are contributing their experiences, perceptions, insights, and wisdom to this emergent spirituality.
Incarnational Spirituality explores the skill of forming partnerships and alliances with spiritual beings and forces who wish to bring greater Light and wholeness to the world. Their interest, as well as ours, is to achieve a greater integration of the physical and non-physical, the personal and the transpersonal, the spiritual and the mundane aspects of life so that blessing may flow more fully from the Wholeness of the world.
The perspective of these beings is not that humanity is too material or too incarnated, but that we are fragments of what we could be. Our lives are not as large or full as the potentialities — and the needs and challenges — demand. We are partial beings, not whole ones. Their desire is to help us recognize that larger fullness is possible (without having to die or leave the physical earth to achieve it) and that we can lead incarnate lives that match the magnificence, the beauty, the potentials, and the wholeness of this world. Many of the ideas of Incarnational Spirituality represent their contributions to assist us to achieve that fullness and wholeness of life.
An Experimental Work in Progress
Incarnational Spirituality may be seen as an experimental work-in-process, a form of spiritual science. It is not “revelation from on high” or a new religion, but it is evolving as part of my life work.
The material in Incarnational Spirituality should be considered as working hypotheses subject to change as more information and insights become available. We invite you to test the material out in the laboratory of your own life. Don’t accept it or reject it simply because of its supersensible origins, but try it out and see if it makes any difference for you. Does it help you make your life more creative, more attuned, more effective? Does it aid your spiritual practice and bring spirit more fully and powerfully into your lives? Does it help you be a blessing to yourselves, to others, and to the world at large?
Reprinted with permission of the Lorian Association, www.lorian.org, the fine organization that has sponsored much of Dorothy Maclean and David Spangler’s work since they left Findhorn. Please visit Lorian’s website to learn about their online classes exploring emergent spirituality, the capacities of incarnation, personal spiritual formation, and world service.
Back to Center Post Contents | Home