Be the Mapmaker

By Rev. Dr. David Ault

Within the teachings of shamanism there is a rite of passage that encourages the initiate to not follow the maps drawn by others but instead to become the mapmaker — to find their internal compass and use all their senses to find the path that is true for them.

Similarly, Joseph Campbell urged, “If you can see your path laid out in front of you step by step, it's not your path. Your own path you make with every step that you take. That's why it's your path.”

These pillars of wisdom resonated within me long before I read their words. When first attempting to write a book, I visited a large retail store and made my way to the self-help/spirituality section. Hoping for motivation, I wanted to practice visualizing my book ’s appearance on the shelf. Instead, my first thought was, “Who needs another book?” It was surprisingly deflating to see aisle after aisle of titles. I felt I had nothing original to offer. When I shared this feeling with a friend, he teasingly said, “Yeah, no one should write another love song when so many already exist.” He helped me realize that no matter how many books exist, no one else can be the mapmaker of my personal creative process.

When Emerson challenged us to insist on our ourselves, he was offering instruction to make our own map of inspired action. Our essential nature can never fully breathe by living a path of imitation. We learn to trust ourselves through trusting our instincts, passions and unique inner callings.

—Daily Guide for June 8, 2022, Science of Mind magazine

The Temple of Our Soul

In the annals of religious history, we witness the myriad ways in which spiritual traditions examine the roles of our physical bodies. ‘In many religions, the human body is considered a microcosm of the universe,” Kelly Robbins, M.A., RScP, writes in the June 2022 Science of Mind magazine. “Everything outside the body is represented within.”

Robbins suggests that while many, religious or nonreligious, believe our bodies temporarily house our soul, “another way to look at it is that we do not have a soul. Instead, we are a soul — in a body right now.”

She adds, “Our body is a vessel to experience life in this world.” She believes exploring the relationship religion has with our bodies can help us “decide what our body means to us and how to treat it.” She suggests that “one way of ritualizing and honoring our physical body and our spiritual self is through self-love. We balance eating right, exercising and quieting our mind with loving our physical body as it is — flaws and all. Knowing the two are interconnected can bring peace and a sense of balance to our lives.”

Always One, Never Separated

By Ernest Holmes

Since all parts of Me are forever one with the wholeness of My Being, then that part which you are is never separated from My Being, but is forevermore united with It. Even the cells of your body are some part of this Being, one in consciousness with Me, and if you would be made whole, know that each cell of your body is in union with Me, has never been separated from Me and is forever at one with My Life. They have the consciousness of My Being and this consciousness of My Being alone constitutes Life.

You are the execution of My Will as I Am the One within you that conceives the purpose of that will. I Am the love, you are the beloved. I Am the abstract, you are the concrete. I Am the impersonal, you are the personal. There could be no you without Me. You as an individual are but one unique manifestation of My Being. Because My Being is in all people, each may recognize the other. I Am that which they recognize and I Am the intelligence that responds in each and through all. …

The understanding of this is the key to the mystery of life that unlocks the hidden treasures of My Being — this consciousness of Oneness, this knowledge that the Universal I Am is also the individual I, this recognition that “the highest God and the innermost God is One God.” To know this is to know the Truth that makes you free.

You must know that the infinite creativity of My Nature, the limitless creativeness of My Imagination, projecting My Substance within the void, giving form to the formless, that this inner imagination is the final, sole and only Creative Agency in the universe. You must realize that this Creative Power which I Am is also the Creative Power which you are, for you and I are One.

From the Editor

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