There is a saying in Celtic spirituality that we’ve been exploring in this current session of our Wise Souls Circle:
“Let your feet follow your heart to the place of your resurrection.”
This quote embraces the act of pilgrimage. Among the Celtic people, pilgrimage is less an out and back journey to a holy destination. It is more a way of moving through life, walking gently on the earth, and trusting in divine guidance to open the way ahead.
As we approach the end of Holy Week and the religious observation of the death and resurrection of Jesus, can this quote be relevant in your life? Let’s unpack it, phrase by phrase.
“Let your feet…”
The quote begins with a call to action, an invitation to move your feet, in actuality or metaphorically. While you could take a physical trip outside your comfort zone and go out into the world to explore a particular holy site, your inner journeying is just as impactful, if not more so.
What actions are required for an inner journey?
You’ll need a healthy dose of discernment to help you figure out what to leave behind. Let go of any practices or beliefs that no longer make sense nor align with your soul. In the words of Walt Whitman from Leaves of Grass: “re-examine all you have been told in school or church or in any book [or even in this post!], and dismiss whatever insults your own soul.”
That discernment will help you know what to bring. Most importantly, you’ll need an openness to what lies behind the known and a willingness to trust Godde. But how do you do that? By following your heart….
“Follow your heart…”
The quote calls us to follow your heart, not your intellect. I interpret this a call to trust your intuition. You can read more about that in my last post. Let’s throw off the shackles of conditioning which prioritize our reliance on the intellect and ignore or denigrate our intuition. A balance of the two is what is needed now.
Listening to your intuition is how you hear Godde’s guidance for you. Your intuition doesn't rely on your conscious reasoning powers, but on something deeper within you, something that I refer to as the soul. The divine spark that is in you from birth lives in your soul.
How can you develop your intuition muscle? How can you pay attention to your intuition? One thing that will help is turning down the external noise around you so you can hear the still small voice of your soul. Create opportunities for yourself for stillness and silence.
Beside spending more time in silence, the Quakers would have us “proceed as way opens.” This quote from the Quaker tradition captures the ease that opens before us when our actions are in alignment with our soul. Does the path you’re currently following feel too hard? Perhaps you need to pause and wait patiently for the way to open, trusting that Godde will open only those ways that are relevant to your unique journey, and will close off other routes that are not part of your journey. Godde is on your side and wants you to flourish!
Waiting for the way to open came into play as I was considering paths to my ordination. The two most obvious paths were fraught with peril for me and so I was stymied. I waited patiently and eventually was able to discern a different and unexpected path - one that was so full of ease that it felt as if the way had opened up and suddenly the way forward was clear.
But here’s the rub: When you follow your intuition and trust more completely in Godde, you will need to be comfortable with not knowing what’s around the bend. When you follow your heart, you need to release any grip on certainty and the illusion that you are in control. Can you be open to divine surprises? Are you willing to encounter “a wider and wilder God?”
“To the place...”
Will the place of your resurrection be a physical place outside of you, like a well-known holy site, or will it be the base of your favorite tree or the bank of a babbling brook?
Or will the place of your resurrection be an inner sanctuary space, a place of transformation, of openness with lots of room for expansion?
There is no wrong answer. Godde can meet you anywhere you are and guide you along your way.
But do take notice of what you are allowing into your environment, both the physical space around you and the mental space inside of you. Notice whether you’ve hemmed yourself into a small cramped space, trying not to take up room or make waves. Notice whether you are overly concerned with how others will react if you express your needs, your voice, yourself.
Pay attention to what belongs in this sacred space and what you need to keep out.
When you return to the place of your resurrection, you will know it in a new way and you’ll be inspired to do life in a new way.
This is the time and place where you can live as your true self, the self Godde sees when Godde looks at you. This is the time and place where you will offer your gifts to a world hungry for them.
Your inner transformation is key to arriving at the place of your resurrection. But as I mentioned above, this is not an out and back one-time journey. Your journey will most likely spiral and cover some of the same ground over and over again.
“Of your resurrection.”
What is meant by “your resurrection?” Resurrection is defined as “reviving the practice, use, or memory of (something); bring new vigor to.”
Synonyms of resurrection are revive, restore, regenerate, revitalize, renew, awaken, relaunch. Are you feeling the invitation in any of those words?
You may be more familiar with the term “resurrection” as referring to the resurrection of Jesus. Images in churches in the west portray Jesus as the only one resurrecting on Easter Sunday. Images in churches in the east portray Jesus as resurrecting along with Adam and Eve, which may be a foreshadowing of the end times.
But this quote talks about “your” resurrection!
In a mystical sense, we are called to our own resurrection, to the liberation of our true selves, and to the birth of Christ within us.
Could it be that our resurrection is the resurrection of the Christ within? Here, I am referring to the Universal Christ, the one whose divine energy permeates all of creation.
Our resurrection leads us to be Christ for others. It sure feels like we need to bring a ‘restoration’ of compassion into the world. There is a huge need for more unconditional love and extravagant tenderness, for ourselves first, and then for those around us. The world needs a ‘renewal’ of kindness. And we are the ones called to bring it forth as we follow our hearts to the place of our resurrection.
On Easter Sunday, and beyond…
Practicing Resurrection:
Each morning, allow yourself a moment to see this new day as a gift, a clean slate, a new beginning to awaken to your true self.
Make a promise to yourself that you will respond with love to those negative thoughts that flood your brain unbidden, before your feet hit the floor.
Take a moment to place your hand on your heart and commit, just for the next 24 hours, to see yourself with the same compassion that God sees you.
Tend to the garden of your mind by pulling out those limiting beliefs that keep popping up like weeds, and plant new seeds of positive reminders that you are a treasure worthy of great price!
Invite compassion into your journaling practice and listen to how she reframes your worries. What does compassion have to say about what is going on in your external life?
Let me know in the comments which of these practices resonate with you! Do you have any other ways you can practice resurrection?
I leave you with this prayer to weave into your practice:
It’s from A Different Kind of Fast by Christine Valters Paintner.
Wilderness God, bless this sanctuary space that I offer to you, a meeting place where I can rest in your embrace each day, a vessel for transformation, a temple to journey inward.
Sustain me in the coming days as I release that which does not nourish and guide me toward fulfilling my true hungers.
I commit to returning here again and again, even when my attention wanders, I return to you always.