Calling Our Spirits Home: Gateways to Full Consciousness
Preface
We all are called. Everyone is special. There is Someone who speaks to us in the fall of the evening and brings visions to us in our dreams. There is Someone who yearns within our bodies. These are the ways that Spirit calls. Someone is the Spirit of our Selves. We are the Collective Spirit of the Web of Life, and each of us separately is a strand of that Whole. Spirit calls to bring each of us home — home to where we started.
In philosophy, there is the age-old debate regarding whether each of us begins this life as a blank slate — tabula rasa — and are shaped by our environment; or do we experience genetic imprinting that will determine our paths? In other words, is it a done deal resulting from our genetic line or a Higher Power? Either/or. Black and white. And do we have free will or is all determined for us? If all is determined, who does the determining? Or, is there a mix of free will and predetermination from whatever the source is? These are the questions that frame this book. It does not contain the answers. The considerations are yours just as they are mine. I am and have been a Pilgrim, Seeker, Initiate, Priestess — just as you are and have been. None of us have shed these separate frames. We only step into them again at different places in the circles of our lives and take them deeper with each replay of our particular venue.
In these writings, I offer you the belief that we all are born with the Wisdom of the Ages. This wisdom is innately present in our Spirits. Our Spirits are enduring. Only our bodies and minds are new to us. It is in making our separate ways through our lives that we take on layers that cover our wisdom to varying degrees. I offer you, the reader, this book as a catalyst to address these questions.
What does your heart call out for?
Where do you long to be?
Who do you long to be with?
What is your lifework?
What are your expressions of life?
What shines within you?
What makes its way through you to shine without?
As you read this book, you will notice that, just as there are other people’s stories, there are the stories of this writer. In writing, speaking or just being, none of us can help but tell our stories. We cannot really hide.
I was called from the gentle rolling hills of Ohio to the nurturing strength of the Southwest mountains. There was no doubt within me that in order to continue my journey I had to leave what had been my geographical home for one-third of my life. The mountains called to me. I drew sustenance from them. I didn’t know exactly where that mountainous terrain was at the time, but I saw it in my mind’s eye. I knew that I would recognize it when I saw it.
I wandered through the Wasatch Mountains but knew that wasn’t my place. I only lighted there for a short time to clarify my own path. Now, I am in my place — the one that speaks to my Spirit. This is the place that nurtures me, that facilitates my lifework and projects it outward. I have learned that I can carry this place with me no matter where I go.
When I started this book, I had the framework but not always the exact content of chapters until I started to write each of them. Invariably, by holding the message of the chapter in my heart, Providence brought me experiences and remembrances on which to draw…other people telling their stories to me and exactly the right book to be read at that particular time from which to cull a reference. This writing came through me from a place called Faith, which I cannot see. With Faith, we can cast our Selves upon the wind knowing that our hearts hold the course that will blow us to the center that we can call Home. I invite you to invoke the ecstatic journey.
— Carla Woody
For Big B and the roads we traveled…
So all these scribbled pages, Jack, are to help you understand that an awakening or Emergence, as the Indians call it, is more than a single momentary experience. It requires a slow painful process of realization and orientation…How many thousands of obscure people just like me all the world over are having the same experience right now? And for no apparent reason, like me. Keeping quiet about it, too…
— From Helen Chalmers’ Journal. The Woman at Otowi Crossing by Frank Waters.
All events described in this book are true. Some of the names have been changed to protect the privacy of the people involved.
Bio
Carla Woody is a spiritual mentor, writer and visual artist. She is the founder of Kenosis, an organization based in Prescott, Arizona, supporting human potential since 1999 through life enhancement coaching, retreats and spiritual travel programs working with Indigenous leaders and healers in the US, Mexico, Central and South America. In 2007 she founded Kenosis Spirit Keepers, a volunteer-run 501(c)3 nonprofit organization to help preserve Indigenous traditions threatened with decimation.
Table of Contents
Part I. THE NATURE OF THE JOURNEY
Chapter Two: Awakening to Consciousness
Part II. INVOLUTION
Chapter Three: Cultivating Mindfulness
Chapter Four: The Masks We Wear
Chapter Five: Things Buried Deep and Tended Well
Chapter Six: Bootcamp for the Soul
Part III. EVOLUTION
Chapter Seven: The Seasons of Our Times
Chapter Eight: Staying in the Field
Chapter Nine: The Un-Namable Sacred
Chapter Ten: The Pilgrimage Home
Permissions: The author has given great effort to locate copyright holders of any material other than her own that have been quoted in this book, and regrets if any have been inadvertently overlooked.
Calling Our Spirits Home: Gateways to Full Consciousness
Copyright 1999 by Carla Woody. All rights reserved. No portion of this book, except for brief review, may be reproduced in any form without written permission of the publisher. Inquiries may be directed to: Kenosis Press, P.O. Box 10441, Prescott, AZ 86304, [email protected].
Also by Carla Woody:
Standing Stark: The Willingness to Engage. Read in Illumination Book Chapters.
Portals to the Vision Serpent. Coming soon to Illumination Book Chapters.
