Every time I open a meditation or go into a birth space, when I wake up in the morning or light candles on my altar, at the start of many different activities during each day, I will invoke. One line that I think I always say is …
‘I call on all of my teachers, guides and friends in the spiritual hierarchy who love me unconditionally’
- I invoke for protection
- I invoke for guidance
- I invoke to help align my energy with unconditional love
- I invoke to be open to healing
I find it a very useful and practical practice and one that I encourage some of the people I work with to experiment using themselves.
So the opposite of that is community, connection, and mutual support, reciprocity and interconnectedness.
Interestingly this needs to be an energetic reality before it can become a physical reality. We need to feel and believe we are worthy of love and support and connection, and then more will come.
For me, feeling loved and connected to the Divine helps me to experience this internally, which then helps me to feel safe and open to this in relationships with others. Whether that is my child, my partner, my clients, my friends, my family, feeling safe and loved first internally gives the safety I need to navigate relationships in life. One way to access this energy of divine love is through a teacher or being that already holds a great deal of this energy in their field.
So do we need a teacher in real life?
I think it seems to be different for different people, so maybe not everyone does. I didn’t have a doula when I gave birth for example (although I did look for one!).
But certainly I have benefitted over and over again from people or guides who have experience at the frontier that I am working into.
- When I started doula-ing older doulas mentored and supported me
- At every stage of motherhood I have enjoyed peer friendships with parents at the same point of parenting as me, as well as friends whos kids are just that bit older
- I have benefitted from help from therapists, coaches, healers, from my teens to the present day – to listen, support, and offer guidance
- I found my home-base teacher with Shakti Durga and Gayatri 11 years ago and this commitment within one school has supported me to really go deep in one path
- I have found my home base but I have also found great resource in other teachers from other schools that have complimented what I have found at home
This month I have been able to spend, in real life, time with two of my wonderful mentors and teachers.
Rocio Alcaron came to Brighton to teach Rohipping post partum healing massage and stayed with me over the weekend. Our lovely friend Terri also stayed too for the training and so we had a great weekend, of healing and learning and practicing together along with 10 other doulas who wish to support the post partum period in this way.
Last weekend the amazing Gayatri came back to the UK for her PhD viva and to run a retreat and two satsangs. She is such a blazing embodiment of divine light, and my weekend with her and the other students was out of this world. We had healing meditation and beautiful devotional ceremony, these practices have been pathways for me to open up to inner experience of love and bliss.
So for me having a teacher has been essential, and to be part of communities that are working towards a shared aim and intention has been invaluable. Connecting to (unconditionally loving) teachers in meditation is also something that I have found brings a sense of inner bliss and supports me to find clarity in times of confusion.
Our model for what it has meant to have a teacher (priest, guru, shaman, rabbi ) in the old model of power has meant that there are some potential problems of abuse, and giving our power away, even violence have occurred. We may have had some pretty bad experiences with teachers from our school days that mean we are wary of or easily triggered by any one with ‘authority’. We may have also had some abusive experiences with those who are meant to care for us and guide us in other settings, including the home, church or yoga studio.
So we must choose our teachers carefully, we must be discerning. Does the teacher expand my energy, or contract my energy? What does my body tell me? Does the teaching align with my values?
We might also lean into the possibility that we might be hearing something new and that we might feel defensive or challenged by that, and so we need to be able to sit with information sometimes and let it percolate and figure out what might be arising for us with the teaching.
In our society’s sense of hyper individualism having a teacher is a beautiful antidote to the sense of needing to know everything now and already. Having to do it alone and without support.
How do we benefit from the wisdom and experience and support of others while still orienting ourselves back to our own power and wisdom?
- If your guide or teacher is dictatorial or uses fear to coerce you then its unlikely they are pointing you back to your own power
- If your guide or teacher gives you guidelines or suggestions and you feel free to take what resonates and decline anything that doesnt then that is an indication that they are orienting you back to your own power
- If your guide or teacher says their way is better than the other ways then this might be a warning too
I’d love to know your experiences. Have you benefited from having a guide or teacher in your life?