Prophecy in a Word

I’m part of a small women’s circle. We meet monthly, now well over a decade. We rarely have any agenda except to provide a safe haven. We gather. We talk. We share our lives, the good times and the difficult ones. We act as witnesses for each other. All arises naturally. I’m graced by these women and know how fortunate I am to have found such steady, deep connections.

Several years ago, we initiated an annual ritual where we each choose a word for the following year. Not just any word. Not one taken lightly — because we’ve seen well enough through experience how the word will make appearances in our lives in ways that shape us. In essence, we prophesy through a core act of intent. This is the tasking we set for ourselves.

Set your intent and let it go. Your intent is your beginning. Worrying about the details detracts from the intent. In your strong intent, the attraction will take care of the details.

The first aspect of beginning is assessing yourself and taking responsibility for your own course, where it has taken you and where you are now. That responsibility will determine your future — the one that exists through the vibration you now exude.

This is the Separation and then the Search.* It isn’t really a search as much as it is a surrendering to intent. The giving over is to intent. Then intent takes the lead and brings you what will take you further. It will take you further to recognize your Core Self, the Self that had been hidden from you previously, but the one that had been there all along.

— Excerpt from Standing Stark: The Willingness to Engage, Chapter Four - Intentful Existence

This conjuring calls in the mundane, the beautiful, the difficult. It acts as a teacher, and through this learning, I am consciously involved in my own process and communion. It’s a practice for those who want to delve deeper. I prefer an organic framework that gives rise to things I can’t predict but end up having so much more effect on my evolutionary process than I ever could have dreamed up.

It’s like working with the wazifas of the Sufi tradition. Through wazifa practice, chanting one or more of the Ninety-Nine Beautiful Names of Allah, you’re essentially asking an attribute to open within yourself. The difference here is that you don’t have to chant the word, although you could use it in meditation or some other way to remind yourself.

Part of our annual ritual is sharing the word we’ve selected with each other at the beginning of that year. This does two things. First, consciously putting a name to the intent plucks it out of the mind, or floating around in the ether, and grounds it. Second, by allowing others to witness your process, you make it real, a declaration and commitment. Then at the end of the year, we each review elements the word attracted and how any made some change or deepened understanding. For me, it’s been a welcome practice. Would things have happened without all this? Maybe. But this way, it comes into my consciousness. Self-acknowledgement is also important.

Toward the end of each year, I automatically become open to an expression that will frame my next year. It’s a discovery process of sorts, a winding path leading to a destination. I begin noticing how some words will pop out from others. When the right one does, I feel it. Sometimes I don’t even remember how it came to me.

Such was the case with this year’s word: HU. Whatever I was researching was lost to time. But it brought me to Eckankar, a religious movement drawn from the earlier Indian tradition Sant Mat. HU features prominently in the content on the Eckankar website, identified as the Divine vibration — the sound current — at the basis of all creation. I also knew Hu from the Sufi tradition, a name for God. For me, it contains the elements of full presence and connection. I have no idea where it will take me.

Choosing a word to inform your year isn’t necessarily for the faint of heart but does come with untold benefits in the long run. If you’re tempted to invoke yours, I encourage it. Such an act enlivens you.

If just the right one is elusive, take a look at the Positive Qualities Chart. It’s a useful tool showing roots and related qualities. I notice the chart’s author has one for Divine Attributes as well.

*Separation and Search refer to phases in the Re-Membering Process, a spiritual evolution model. The ways to recognize and mediate them are available to read in Illumination Book Chapters in the Navigating Your Lifepath program, Section I: Preparing for the Journey.