Mon, 12 Aug 2013 15:17:24 +0000

Photo by Lisa Mehlin, www.mehlinconservation.com 

A good friend of mine in Massachusetts took this photo and posted it on Facebook. I’ve been thinking a lot about the white light glow coming from the flowers. I think she posted it a week ago, and the white light just keeps swirling around me. That white light to me is spirit caught in the act. It’s not just in this photo, of course. Each of us have glimpses of the light all the time. 

We see our family pet glowing, or a certain glow coming from our child or partner or sister. We see a tree that seems to be on fire, a burning bush. And it’s not just a visual light, but one that can be sparked in our souls by poetry or dance or music. Poets often write about the light.

I Lost my World, my Fame, my Mind

I lost my world, my fame, my mind —
The Sun appeared, and all the shadows ran.
I ran after them, but they vanished as I ran —
Light ran after me and hunted me down.

— Rumi

I thought about how I seem to be able to find the light more often when I’m painting, and could feel the light around me as I painted this self portrait of me in my Massachusetts studio.

www.carolineallen.com

And then I kept thinking about how we all have access to this light. It’s always there. We just can’t access it. Oh we get glimpses. We feel it there inside of us, and every once in a while we catch the flash of light from objects, both animate and inanimate. It’s just that the clouds roll in and obscure the light. So how do we get it back again?

I really believe it starts with doing daily spiritual work.  Read spiritual books. Meditate. I hate the word “pray” because I grew up in a Catholic Church and a Catholic school, called ominously enough Immaculate Conception, and was surrounded for 18 years by nuns and priests. The word “pray” invokes oppression to me, small-mindedness. But yes, to get to the light we do need to ask, to invoke, to query. One exercise I use and recommend to tarot clients is this: Do a nightly Gratitudinal. In other words, as you go to sleep, name 20 things you’re grateful for THAT day. The bed is comfortable. The car started. The clerk at Starbucks was super nice. The swirl of color in the clouds at dusk. Anything you’re grateful for. If you can’t do 20, try 30, then push for 40. Keep upping the ante of gratitude.

I study the Course in Miracles and read Marianne Williamson and light is discussed often, how to stay in light, how to focus on light instead of the dark, how what we focus on grows. “Miracles are seen in the light,” to quote the book.

I realize this is why I read tarot. I read it for myself to try to pry open difficulties so I can see the light. I read it for others to help them recognize the light that is inherent inside of them, to try to blow away the clouds at least for a moment or two. 

I believe we all have our own way of finding the light. Some of us paint. Some dance. Some read poetry. Some take photographs. Days may go by, and even when we’re painting, we may not find the light. But then suddenly, there it is. A moment of it, a flash, or even a few hours. And we know it’s real, because we feel right, we feel light. We feel relief. The struggle is over. Only to begin again.

What is your way of finding the light? 

Contact me, Caroline Allen, if you’d like a reading, www.shiftingperceptions.com