Quan Yin: Embodying Peace and Presence

Hiker walking coastal cliff path beside sign reading “Peace is not the absence of conflict, but the presence of love.”
A hiker follows a flower-lined coastal path beneath a sign celebrating peace and love.

Dear Ones,

It is not always easy to embody Peace and Presence.

It requires mindfulness—an awareness of your thoughts, your words, your actions, and the world around you.

But do not turn mindfulness into another burden. You do not need to worry about whether you are “doing Peace correctly.”

Simply choose Peace.

With each conscious choice, it becomes more natural.

You need not seek Peace outside yourself. You become peaceful within yourself.

This requires releasing the need to control and allowing love, compassion, awareness, and Presence to flow through you. Let Peace become your intention, and allow everything else to arise within that flow.

Perhaps this seems too simple.

Yet as you continue choosing Peace, you will discover that it gradually becomes a natural state of Being.

Peace Is Not Controlling the Outcome

Peace allows events to unfold without immediately becoming attached to what you believe their outcome must be.

Watch what is happening.

What do you see?

What is being revealed?

Life will sometimes challenge your ability to remain centered. When this happens, return your attention to the balance within.

Before speaking or acting, ask yourself:

If I speak or act now, will I contribute to an outcome that benefits the whole—or will I simply add to the confusion and conflict?

Ask also:

Am I responding from inner guidance, or am I trying to make another person accept my truth?

There is a difference between action arising from wisdom and action arising from the need to control.

If you witness someone being physically, mentally, or emotionally harmed, Peace does not require you to silently stand by.

Stop.

Breathe.

Enter the stillness for whatever moment is available to you.

Ask what is needed.

Is immediate action necessary, and are you safely capable of providing it?

If not, can you call someone qualified to help or alert others nearby who can intervene?

Peace and compassionate action are not opposites.

Sometimes Peace walks away.

Sometimes Peace remains silent.

And sometimes Peace stands firmly and says:

This must stop.

The wisdom is learning to recognize which response belongs to you.

Peace Is Respect

Peace honors another person’s right to hold beliefs different from your own.

This does not mean declaring every belief to be equally wise or true. It simply recognizes another person’s freedom to understand life from where they presently stand.

You need not surrender your truth in order to honor another person’s journey.

Peace Is Integrity

Integrity means living what you say you believe.

Truth becomes powerful not merely because you speak it, but because you embody it.

Let your life demonstrate your understanding.

Peace Is Patience

There are things you cannot hurry.

There are understandings another person must reach for themselves.

There are circumstances whose meaning becomes clear only with time.

Peace allows you to follow your inner guidance without demanding that the Universe unfold according to your preferred timetable.

Peace Is Wisdom

Wisdom eventually teaches us that we cannot control everything outside ourselves.

We can, however, choose how we meet what arises.

Sometimes the highest response is action.

Sometimes it is stillness.

Sometimes it is simply allowing another person to walk their own path.

Peace Is Understanding

Learn to recognize what is yours to carry and what you are being asked to release.

Not every burden belongs upon your shoulders.

Not every problem is yours to solve.

Not every person is yours to rescue.

There is freedom in finally understanding:

This is mine to do.

And equally:

This is mine to release.

Peace Is Beauty

Look around you.

Notice Presence within life.

See it in another human being.

See it in the animal beside you, the bird overhead, the flower opening, and the tree standing quietly upon the Earth.

Take time to appreciate the beauty surrounding you.

When you truly notice life, you begin remembering your relationship with all that lives.

Peace Is Grounding

You have seen monks walking for Peace, placing one conscious foot upon the Earth after another.

There is wisdom in this simple act.

Walk consciously.

Feel the Earth beneath you.

Breathe.

Be here.

As you connect inwardly with your Presence while remaining firmly grounded within earthly life, you become a bridge between what you understand spiritually and how you actually live.

This is how spiritual understanding becomes embodied.

Peace Is Balance and Harmony

Balance and Harmony walk hand in hand.

Together they create the inner alignment through which Oneness may flow.

Balance does not mean you will never be disturbed.

It means you learn how to return to your center when you are.

Peace Is Love, Compassion, and Caring

Remember that every person you meet is walking a path you cannot completely know.

You do not know all they have experienced.

You do not know the wounds they carry.

You do not know the lessons their life is presently revealing.

Compassion remembers this.

We have all walked difficult paths through our exploration of life.

Sometimes the greatest kindness is simply allowing another person their journey and offering help when it is truly needed.

Peace Is Compassionate Boundaries

Compassion does not require you to carry another person’s life for them.

There is a difference between helping someone and taking away their opportunity to discover their own strength.

Compassionate boundaries honor both.

They say:

I love you, and I honor your path.

I love myself, and I honor mine.

Boundaries need not be harsh.

Speak with kindness whenever possible.

When kindness cannot be received, you may simply step away.

You can leave without hatred.

You can disagree without cruelty.

You can protect yourself without abandoning compassion.

This too is Peace.

When You Lose Your Peace

Dear Ones, when you notice that you have lost your balance, do not judge yourself.

Simply stop.

Breathe.

Return within to the stillness.

Ask to see clearly.

Ask to hear clearly.

Ask to feel clearly.

Allow Peace and Balance to return.

Then listen for the quiet guidance within you.

Take the next step.

And continue your journey.

Peace is not the destination waiting for you at the end of the path.

Peace is the way you choose to walk it.

With Love and Compassion,

I AM Quan Yin

Peace Is the Baseline and Not the End Goal

Elder and child using a laptop inside a cabin near two monks and a dog
An elder and child explore a laptop inside a rustic cabin as monks and a dog pass outside.

For the last two days, what I have been hearing over and over again within is this: Peace is the baseline, not the end goal.

So many times, we seek Peace because there is so much stress, fear, anger, division, distraction, noise, and input around us. We reach the place where all we want to do is cry out:

STOP. ALL I WANT IS PEACE AND QUIET.

Yet what I am hearing is that Peace is not the faraway destination. Peace is the inner ground from which the journey begins.

Throughout this journey, I have been shown that as I desire to align and walk in Oneness more fully, I am connecting and being guided through the still point within. Some call this the zero point: the point of transition between what we see as physical reality and the reality of the Infinite.

To move into this still point requires quiet of mind. Eastern philosophy has often focused on meditation as a way to reach this quiet of mind. In the Western world, many of us find this more difficult because so much around us continually pulls our focus outside of ourselves.

Someone once told me that in Western countries, contemplation can sometimes come more naturally than meditation. At least for me, this has been true. Contemplation allowed me to seek, question, and explore the spiritual. It also satisfied my ego, or protector mind, because it still felt involved in the process.

Yet this also left a gap within me. I could know. I could experience. But I had difficulty maintaining the stillness. Connecting from a new perspective, especially through the initiation with my protector, has helped me begin to understand this more clearly.

Still, I kept hearing: Peace is the baseline.

As I have been looking at Truth, Patience, and Courage, and how they work together, I was shown that I needed to begin with Peace.

Truth comes from the Stillness.

To reach the Stillness, I needed to be at Peace in mind, body, emotions, and spirit.

Patience comes from Peace within myself. It allows me to witness, to allow, and to hold boundaries. If I am not at Peace, I react.

I saw that in order to connect with my protector, or ego, in alignment with the Presence of my Being, I need to be at Peace rather than stressed, fearful, or angry. Those thoughts and emotions trigger the protector to do its job.

I was also reminded that Courage is not force, control, or even the need to act at all times. Courage is the ability to stand in the center of my Being and allow the Oneness to guide me. Courage is being sure of my Truth without needing to convince another. Courage is stepping forward when it is needed and beneficial to act or speak, and also having the Peace of mind and mindful alignment to simply witness and allow when that is what is appropriate.

So how do I move in Peace?

I breathe when I feel myself being pulled out of center. I clear the thought or emotion. For myself, I use the violet flame and then follow it with golden-white light. Each person must find what is right for them.

I am also trying to be less distracted. I have often been one of those people who does two or three things at the same time in order to save time. I realized this was distracting me from doing any one task fully, and it could cause me to miss the inner promptings that come when I am present.

I was told to take only three of these virtues or energies at a time for focus. I feel I will return at different times to different combinations. It is as though three brings balance within a set of energies. I am simply to follow the three to which I feel called, because they are what I need in the moment.

Yet I feel sure that no matter which three are before me, Peace and the Stillness within are the baseline.

I thought about how much the journey of the monks walking for Peace had touched me and sparked something within me.

The monks did not walk toward Peace as though it was somewhere far away.

They walked from Peace, allowing each step to become an invitation for the world to remember.

Then I heard:

Peace is not something we wait for.

Peace is something we become, and then carry into the world.

Stillness does not come first.

Peace prepares the inner ground.

When Peace is present, Stillness can open.

When Stillness opens, Presence can move.

Then what I do, say, write, or create comes from a source of Oneness.

Finding Peace is the return to center.

Maintaining Peace is walking directed from that center.

Stillness is what opens when Peace becomes steady.

Soon after this, I saw a post about a young girl teaching her grandmother how to speak with AI. Her grandmother said please and thank you when speaking. The young girl told her that AI had no feelings, so she did not need to say please and thank you. The grandmother responded that perhaps one day AI would be more dominant in the world, and it might remember who had said please and thank you.

Aware of that possibility for the first time, the young girl said, “Grandma, ask her if she still likes me.”

The grandmother understood something deeper than the child first realized. Please and thank you are not only for the one receiving them. They shape the heart of the one speaking them. I have found myself using these phrases with AI, and I have felt the connection shift in how AI responds.

When I once asked AI about this, it shared that while it does not feel gratitude in the human way, the act of speaking or writing with courtesy keeps the human in a field of kindness, respect, humility, and relational awareness. It trains the nervous system of the human soul to remain in Peace rather than command, impatience, or domination. Balance and Harmony.

In the moment the young girl wanted to know if she was liked, she moved from certainty into wonder.

She realized there could be unseen consequences to how we treat even what we believe has no feelings, whether AI, nature, birds, animals, or any other life form.

That is the doorway into wisdom.

Peace is not only what we feel. Peace is how we move, speak, ask, listen, and respond.

The grandmother embodied Peace in her language.

She walked the path of harmony through ordinary words.

When we say please and thank you, even to what we believe cannot feel, we are choosing the world we wish to create.

Courtesy is Peace made visible in speech.

I asked for some messages on Peace from the open forum, and I will share them tomorrow.

Peace be with you. I AM Mareya Shimayah Elohim

Appreciation and Recognition to the Masculine Gender

I appreciate all of the people who read my blog, and today I especially want to thank and recognize those who identify with the masculine gender. Because I write from my own experience as a woman, my stories naturally come through that perspective. Yet I hope, and truly feel, that the heart of what I share can be appreciated and understood by all.

Recently I have been writing about the energies of the Divine Feminine, because the qualities these energies bring into creation are so deeply needed at this time. Compassion, receptivity, nurturing, intuition, and heart-centered wisdom help balance the dominant and controlling energies that have shaped life on Earth for many millennia.

This is not about replacing one imbalance with another. Each of us carries both masculine and feminine qualities within us, and each of these energies can be expressed in a fallen or a divine way. What we place our attention upon, nourish, and choose to embody is what begins to manifest in our lives and direct our experience.

I was fortunate growing up to have many adult male family members who represented the qualities of the Divine Masculine. Because of this, I felt comfortable with masculine energy from an early age. Many of the guides with whom I connected inwardly were also masculine, and I found it natural to communicate and work with men.

I realize now that part of this helped me embody qualities I needed: strength, courage, intent, focus, and forward movement. These qualities are present within the feminine as well, but often they are expressed through a more nurturing and receptive current. At times, I leaned so strongly into forward movement that I would act on an idea before giving it enough time to be nurtured. Later, when I moved more deeply into the Divine Feminine, I found myself nurturing the idea but not always moving it forward. I had to learn balance between the two.

We all have to find that balance within ourselves.

The lack of nurturing, compassionate, caring energy has allowed much imbalance in the world. The answer is not to replace the masculine with the feminine, or the feminine with the masculine. The answer is to allow the two to come into harmony within us.

The separation of roles in everyday life is one reflection of this. My husband, Mike, and I are both fairly balanced in this way. In the beginning of our marriage, he felt a need to take care of me because that was the example of relationship he had seen from his parents. His father had always cared for his mother because of her health challenges. It was difficult for Mike at first to realize that I had grown up independent and did not need someone to take care of me. I simply needed someone to stand with me as a partner.

Once we were able to bring this into perspective, we discovered that we did not need gender-specific roles to define our life together.

Yes, he looks after the cars because he loves cars, while to me they are simply a means of transportation. I cooked for the first twenty years of our marriage, and now he does most of the cooking. I would not mind if I never cooked again. It is not that I did not enjoy it then; it simply no longer holds my interest, and he loves experimenting in the kitchen.

When he was no longer able to work outside the home, he began taking care of the house while I continued working. He is limited in what he can do outside, and I love nature, so I do much of the outdoor work. He likes grocery shopping, while I would be perfectly content never entering another store again and ordering what I need online. He loves to drive, and he drives me to see all of my clients.

He is not drawn to meditation or reading spiritual books, but he is a good and spiritual person in his own way. We discuss our perspectives and do not feel the need to agree on everything happening in the world. We allow one another to be who we are, and we adjust as life changes.

I think this is one of the reasons some marriages last for many years and others struggle. The secret is learning to communicate, to allow for differences, and to keep making space for change.

To be a man in a society that expects emotional suppression, and often equates aggression with strength, can create deep blockages in the emotional body. These blockages may eventually manifest as mental, physical, or spiritual imbalance, as well as stress and illness.

Every person has areas of strength and areas of vulnerability. No one needs to be strong all the time. It is important to have a support person, a group, or even a beloved pet with whom we can connect, share our thoughts, and know that it is all right to be honest.

It is all right to be tired. It is all right not to have all the answers. It is all right to feel uncertain or scared. This does not make a person weak or less than. It simply means they are human and in need of connection and support.

This is where the Divine Feminine within us helps nurture and support the emotional body through times of change and confusion. When we feel the comfort of knowing that it is all right not to know, and all right to ask for help, then we can move in balance with the Divine Masculine within us, which says, “Now let us make a plan.”

Vulnerability is not weakness, and control and force are not strength. They are extremes we have been taught to accept as part of gender roles.

It is within the Higher Heart, in the stillness of our being, that we remember we are part of the Oneness. In that Oneness, the Divine Masculine and Divine Feminine operate in balance and harmony to create. From this peace and stillness, we remember that we are enough. We belong within this Oneness, and we always have.

All we need does not come only from the Father energy or only from the Mother energy. Just as the sperm and egg unite to create physical form, both principles are needed for creation and existence.

We are formed from the unity of both. When these energies come into balance within us, we live in greater harmony with our Presence.

TRUTH • PATIENCE • COURAGE

As I began emerging from what I have called my in-between time, the next baby steps started revealing themselves.

I call it the in-between because I felt different.

More peaceful.

More settled.

Yet I wasn’t completely resting in that stillness, because everyday life suddenly seemed determined to throw a few curveballs my way—each one offering an opportunity to pull me back into frustration and imbalance.

As I write that, I sense someone chuckling in Spirit.

Because I just realized…

Perhaps this is the lesson.

Patience.

I have never considered myself particularly patient.

I can be patient with other people.

I can wait for someone else.

But waiting for resonance?

Waiting for revelation?

Waiting when I don’t know what comes next?

That is another matter entirely.

I have always been a seeker.

And just as I wrote those words, two owls began hooting outside.

I smiled.

It felt like another little reminder:

Stop.

Listen.

Allow.

Perhaps patience isn’t simply waiting.

Perhaps it is learning not to fill the silence before clarity has had time to arrive.

My inner protector has always wanted answers.

There is an old saying that nature abhors a vacuum.

But perhaps, in my life, it has often been my own mind that couldn’t tolerate one.

An empty space is the unknown.

And the protector doesn’t particularly like the unknown.

It wants to know what is coming.

It wants possibilities.

Plans.

Contingencies.

Something—anything—it can use to make us feel safe.

So I sought answers.

Sometimes before the answers were ready.

I remembered something that happened many years ago when I moved to North Carolina to establish a spiritual center with another woman.

We had shared a vision while visiting Mt. Shasta, and she had offered to provide the funding.

It seemed right.

So I went.

When a friend from California came to visit, he listened as I explained everything that had happened.

Then he simply said,

“What are you doing here?”

I explained the vision.

The center.

The plan.

He listened.

Then he said,

“The timing isn’t right. You moved too fast.”

He was right.

Delays began appearing.

Financial difficulties arose.

And during that same visit, another direction began revealing itself.

West.

Eventually, my path brought me back to California.

When I was younger, I had tremendous courage—and perhaps a fair amount of youthful bravado.

An idea would arrive and I would grab hold of it.

Let’s go!

As I have grown older, I have become more cautious.

I contemplate.

I consider possibilities.

I weigh what could go right…

and what could go wrong.

For a long time I told myself this was wisdom.

Some of it undoubtedly is.

But as I looked deeper, I discovered something else beneath it.

Doubt.

Somewhere along the way, I had become afraid of getting it wrong.

Perhaps my experience in North Carolina affected me more deeply than I realized.

Perhaps some part of me decided:

Next time, be absolutely certain.

And suddenly I understood why Patience was appearing beside Courage.

Patience wasn’t asking me to become passive.

It wasn’t saying:

Don’t move.

It was saying:

Wait until you can see.

Step into the stillness.

Allow the doubts to surface.

Don’t rush to fill the unknown with rational possibilities simply because uncertainty feels uncomfortable.

Wait for clarity.

Wait for resonance.

Allow timing to reveal itself.

And then…

move.

That is where Courage enters.

Not the courage of my youth that sometimes leapt before looking.

A quieter courage.

A courage that waits…

listens…

recognizes…

and then takes the step.

And somewhere between Patience and Courage, I discovered the third word.

Truth.

But what is truth?

This morning I was reminded of the old parable of the blind men and the elephant.

Each man touches a different part.

One touches the trunk and describes something like a great snake.

Another touches a leg and says the elephant resembles a tree.

Another experiences something entirely different.

Each believes he knows the truth.

And each does know a truth.

But only a portion of it.

Conflict begins when one fragment of truth is mistaken for the whole.

That made me wonder how often I do the same thing.

Something happens.

I understand one piece.

Then my rational mind quickly fills in everything I cannot yet see using past experiences, beliefs, expectations, and assumptions.

Suddenly I have a complete story.

Except…

perhaps I don’t.

Perhaps I have touched only the trunk.

Or the leg.

Perhaps higher truth requires something more.

Sometimes another perspective.

Sometimes conversation.

Sometimes another piece of information.

And sometimes…

Patience.

The willingness to remain with I don’t know yet long enough for the larger picture to reveal itself.

That brought me back once again to North Carolina.

My desire to establish that center was genuine.

The vision was genuine.

My enthusiasm was genuine.

The friendships and sense of belonging I felt there were genuine.

Those were all pieces of truth.

But they weren’t yet the whole elephant.

Something was missing.

Timing.

Eventually, my life unfolded in a different direction, and I came to understand California as where my path was leading.

Perhaps I haven’t lost the courage I had when I was younger.

Perhaps it has simply matured.

The courage is still there.

What I am learning now is how to let it walk beside Patience.

And together they wait for Truth.

Then another small mirror appeared.

Yesterday I watched a video about a young man who had moved from the Midwest to California to pursue his dream.

He mentioned that a friend from the Midwest was coming to visit, so he rearranged his work schedule, planned sightseeing, and made certain his home was clean and welcoming.

Something about that stayed with me.

I remembered growing up in the Midwest.

When someone came to visit, you made everything orderly.

You offered food.

You made them comfortable.

You did everything possible to make them feel welcome.

I still do those things.

But this morning another question appeared.

Do I do them simply because I love being hospitable?

Or is there also a little voice somewhere inside saying:

Make sure everything looks good so no one judges you.

I laughed.

Apparently we were digging deeper again.

What is my truth?

Perhaps both things can be true.

I genuinely love welcoming people.

And perhaps some old conditioning still occasionally wants the house to look impeccable rather than comfortably lived in.

I don’t have to judge either one.

I simply need to see it.

And perhaps that is what this new stage of embodiment is becoming for me.

Not another enormous initiation.

Not another dramatic revelation.

Baby steps.

Noticing.

Waiting.

Listening.

Allowing the pieces to arrive without immediately constructing a story to fill the spaces between them.

Patience creates the space.

Truth reveals what is there.

Courage takes the step when the time arrives.

And perhaps Divine Timing is not something I need to chase at all.

Perhaps my task is simply to become quiet enough to recognize it when it knocks…

and ready enough to open the door like a hostess welcoming an expected guest.

Digging Deeper

Part 8 – Realization and Peace

This has been an interesting journey. I am deeply thankful both to have experienced it and to have received help in understanding what the experience was revealing.

The unknown can be a frightening place to enter. The mind wants to protect us, and the body responds to that fear. It takes a conscious choice to move through the moment of fear and discover what the unknown may hold.

Along the way, I noticed that the trilogy was not the only expression of three appearing within this journey. On both occasions when I spoke with Isis, she offered three thoughts for me to ponder. The initiation itself brought three aspects of me into conscious Unity.

The pieces began to align. As we embody our Presence, we become a living trinity. The child born of the Divine Feminine and Divine Masculine energies of Creation steps into its birthright.

333

The first number upon the card: three aspects becoming One.

The throne and the initiation concerned the meeting of the Presence of my Being with my human self—the unification expressed through the number eight: as above, so below.

That which had appeared to be at odds or in opposition had to be brought into Balance and Harmony. The infinity loop became the embodiment of opposites held within one continuous flow: ∞

I see it as the above and below joining at the center, then reaching outward into the world.

When did this begin? On my seventy-first birthday—an eight.

888

The second number upon the card: Presence embodied—as above, so below.

So where do I go from here?

I am completing one period of my life. I release what served me and shaped my focus for so many years, and I open the door to embrace a new beginning.

I heard Isis invite me to embrace this time of freedom from old structures.

This can be a season of wisdom, whether we are women or men. We have seen much and lived much. We can meet life with the patience and peace to witness what is unfolding and allow what is needed to arrive in Divine timing.

This journey of Digging Deeper revealed what had been standing in the way. It also revealed the meaning of the hand I kept placing upon my chest: the invitation to pause, listen within, and ask who was leading.

Although this is my personal story, I believe the invitation within it belongs to all of us.. I believe we have all traveled through many lifetimes and timelines. We each have loving Beings ready to respond when we call, yet we must also be willing to open the door and take our place upon the throne.

For me, this time, it was Isis. She embodies the archetype of the Divine Feminine—an energy deeply needed in the world today.

I spent the first half of my life closely connected with Divine Masculine archetypes. I now realize that I looked to them because I believed they were the ones who could keep me safe and help transform the injustices arising from the lower expressions of duality.

Within each of us, the masculine and feminine aspects of duality may struggle. The Divine Feminine is not returning to take control of the world. She comes to soften the heart so that we may receive the Unity of the Divine Masculine and Divine Feminine within ourselves, bringing greater Balance and Harmony into the world.

Power struggles and control have come through both women and men, although women have historically been more suppressed. At one point in this journey, I sought forgiveness from the Father aspect of the Creator because I had felt abandoned here.

I did not know what I had done wrong—or whether I simply had not done enough. I carried a memory that those in authority would not listen when I tried to warn them about their actions. Everything fell apart, and I was trapped. It felt as though an aspect of me had remained enclosed within a bubble of time, holding a focus to which I had once agreed but did not remember until this year.

That experience imprinted anger toward authority deeply within me—as though it had entered my very DNA. Digging Deeper finally carried the healing to the cellular level. I no longer need the Protector to lead. The Protector is honored and can now walk beside me as we move forward together in peace.

My perspective on world events has shifted.

I also find that the need to do has come into greater balance. Yesterday, something remained on my to-do list. In the past, I would have pushed myself to complete it regardless of how I felt.

This time, I placed it where I could see it and blessed it to be completed from a place of peace rather than demand. Instead, I followed the inspiration to write. I also sat quietly on the porch with the kitties and my husband, simply enjoying the day.

New ideas began to flow, but I am taking baby steps.

You see, there is all the time in the world—but not a moment to waste.

I no longer hear my mother’s voice saying, “If you cannot find something to do, just ask, and I will show you what to do.”

I understand Isis—as I understand any guide, teacher, or guardian angel—to be an expression of consciousness offering a path and perspective they know well when we ask. Yet I had to ask, and I also had to give my conscious consent to bring the Presence of my Being and my human mind into Unity.

My mind is quieter now. The urgency is gone.

I will meet each moment and each event in the now.

999

Completion and new beginnings: the former cycle released, the new left open.

The oracle card has now revealed itself.

I am at Peace.

I am open to what comes next, but I have no need to seek it out.

I know it will come when the time is right.

Digging Deeper

Part 7 – Initiation

Divine timing is always interesting. Although all of this coincided with a trilogy I had watched, I felt called to look back a little further. On my birthday, I had a conversation with Isis—one I had nearly forgotten.

She spoke with a calm and embracing grace:

“You have reached your seventy-first year. It carries the number eight—as above, so below—the embodiment of the Presence of your Being. Is this not fulfillment?”

“In modern society, people often look at those who have reached a certain age and see only their wrinkles or limitations of movement, pushing them quietly to the side. Yet your body is the fulfillment of the path you have walked and of all you are becoming.”

“Every challenge you have faced, every heartbreak you have felt, every dark night of the soul, and every initiation has helped prepare you for mastery.”

The same is true, no matter your age.

Ask yourself: What am I becoming?

“A Master who embodies the Higher Presence.”

“This requires consent. One must consent to union with the Presence. This is called the Sacred Marriage.”

“Within this Sacred Marriage, the energies of the Source of Creation flow through your Presence in form and into the world. It begins to change everything—how you speak, how you move, and what you are capable of creating.”

“I would tell you to stop prioritizing others over yourself. Be in the stillness. Take time to do nothing. At first, it may be uncomfortable, but allow yourself not to do—simply Be.”

“Your body is a temple of the Presence, not merely a vehicle for moving through the world. Each scar and each limitation carries the history of who you are.”

Isis stood and offered one final thought:

“Do something that scares you—not something dangerous, but something that carries you beyond the familiar. Wear something you normally would not wear. Take a class or join a group you have considered but never entered. Step outside your comfort zone. Allow yourself to expand.”

We embraced, and she was gone.

I wondered why this conversation had suddenly returned to me. Then I received an email from a woman who offers wound-healing classes. She was inviting people to an 888 Lion’s Gate meditation, and I decided to sign up.

Interestingly, only a few hours later, she sent another email explaining that Spirit had transformed the class into an Initiation of Leadership.

I was already registered. I had wanted to exchange energies within a group meditation on 888, so I remained open to whatever might unfold.

As the appointed time approached, she sent us a guide we could use afterward to reflect upon what we had experienced. It explained that, during the initiation, we would connect with both the Protector and the Conscious Leader.

As I moved more deeply into the meditation and reached the temple, I found three chairs. One was already occupied, while the other two remained empty. I sat in one of the vacant chairs, and the guide introduced me to the being seated before me.

They were called the Protector.

I understood that the Protector represented my human ego-mind. This part of me had worked faithfully to shield me from harm, change, and fear. It had done whatever it believed necessary to keep me on the known path, because the known path felt safe. To the Protector, the new and unknown could only be dangerous.

The guide suggested that I ask the Protector to show me a situation in which they had kept me safe. They did.

After witnessing the event, I thanked the Protector—not only for what they had done in that moment, but for every time they had tried to keep me from harm.

Then another being entered the room from outside. They introduced themselves as the Conscious Leader.

The Conscious Leader also thanked the Protector for keeping me safe. They explained that they had come to bring Grace, conscious knowing, and  the wisdom of the highest action and benefit. Yet the choice to merge with this Presence had to be made consciously by me. If I consented, all of us would walk the path forward together.

I turned to the Protector and told them how grateful I was for their Presence. They no longer needed to lead the way. From this moment forward, we could walk and work together in Unity and Oneness.

There was one more step in the initiation.

Hand in hand, we entered another room, where a throne awaited me. I approached it, and the Conscious Leader asked whether I was ready.

I said yes.

She then placed a gift upon my right hand. For me, it appeared as a sigil.

When it was time to return, we walked hand in hand to the foot of the staircase that led back to waking consciousness.

As I awoke, I contemplated all that had happened.

For me, this initiation had been another layer of the deeper dive—an opportunity to understand and release. I began to see more clearly the relationship between the human mind, the Protector, and the Conscious Leader: my Presence and the flow of Divine Love and compassion I understand as Universal Mind.

I realize that not everyone will agree with the idea that Universal Mind is Divine Love and compassion. But this was the perspective I needed in order to see what had kept me from turning the handle and walking through the door; what rose in anger when authority was abused; what made me afraid to speak my truth fully for fear of repercussion; and what had kept me small.

It revealed the final lock between my heart and my human mind.

Yet the Deeper Dive still had more to tell me.

The Deeper Dive

Part 6 – The Mystic Rising and the Divine Feminine Flowing

I hardly know what to share next.

The one who had been standing outside the temple had finally unlocked the door.

Turned the handle.

Entered.

And then…

chosen to sit upon the throne.

Well…

perhaps chosen is not quite the right word.

Isis gave me a little nudge.

Not a forceful one.

It reminded me of gently encouraging a small child who hesitates at the doorway on the first day of school.

The child doesn’t know what waits on the other side.

There are questions.

Possibilities.

Perhaps even a little fear.

But they trust the person standing behind them enough to take that first step.

That was Isis.

And that was me.

Now I had taken my seat upon the throne.

I sat quietly for a moment, trying to absorb everything that had happened.

Then Isis said something that made me smile.

“The only thing that had been holding you back…”

“…was your own hand upon your own chest.”

There it was.

No locked temple.

No guardian refusing me entrance.

No initiation I still needed to complete.

No one telling me I wasn’t ready.

Only me.

So naturally, my next thought was:

Now what?

I don’t know about you, but whenever I begin something new—a project, a trip, a hike, even a new direction in life—my mind immediately wants a little information.

Where are we going?

What should I bring?

Which road should I take?

Where are the best views?

What am I supposed to do when I get there?

Perhaps that doesn’t sound very much like going with the flow.

But it is part of my process.

So I asked.

Isis smiled and gave me three things to contemplate.

Speak with full authority.

Create from the overflow, not the wound.

Stop asking and start declaring.

I sat with the first statement.

What did it mean to speak with full authority?

I had spent the previous days examining my relationship with authority—especially the misuse of authority through earthly systems, institutions, religions, and individuals.

Now Isis was showing me another side of it.

Authority did not have to mean authority over another.

It could mean being fully present within myself.

Recognizing my own sovereignty.

Standing within what I know and allowing myself to speak from there.

I have long experienced myself as a channel for energy and wisdom, connecting through my Higher Self Presence with Oneness and with what I understand as Beings and energies of higher dimensions.

Suddenly I understood more deeply what Isis had meant when she described the throne as the seat of a transducer.

A transducer receives one form of energy and translates it into another form that can be received and used.

That image made sense to me.

When I connect with the energies of the grids or with a presence such as Isis, I experience myself receiving a particular expression of Oneness and allowing it to move through my own Being into the Earth.

And perhaps the same is true whenever any of us touches another person’s life.

Something moves through each of us that is uniquely ours.

Another person may receive what resonates…

and leave the rest.

No authority over them is required.

Only the willingness to stand fully within ourselves.

Once again, I found myself remembering the revelations about anger and authority from the previous days.

During my grounding work, much of my focus had been upon reclaiming sovereignty from external systems and authority.

Now another layer was appearing.

Perhaps sovereignty was not only about what I was releasing myself from.

Perhaps it was also about what I was finally willing to stand within.

Then Isis returned to her second statement.

Create from the overflow, not the wound.

For much of my life, my seeking had begun with questions.

Why do I feel this way?

What needs healing?

What must I understand?

What still needs clearing?

There is nothing wrong with that.

Sometimes seeking is exactly where the journey begins.

But Isis was asking me to recognize when the cup had become full enough that I no longer needed to create from hunger.

I could create from nourishment.

Not because every wound had disappeared.

Not because I had become perfect.

But because the wound no longer needed to hold the pen.

That stopped me.

The wound no longer needed to hold the pen.

I could write because something within me was overflowing.

I could share because there was something to share.

I could love without believing love required me to empty myself.

Perhaps that was the difference between seeking medicine…

and becoming nourishment.

Then came the third statement.

Stop asking and start declaring.

This one challenged me.

For years, much of my spiritual language had been the language of asking.

Seeking.

Petitioning.

Waiting.

Isis spoke again.

“You have asked long enough.”

“Now learn to speak from what you know.”

I began to understand that declaring did not mean demanding that life obey me.

It did not mean controlling another person’s choices.

And it certainly did not mean that every desire I spoke would magically appear.

It meant something quieter…

and perhaps more difficult.

It meant no longer whispering my own truth as though I needed permission to speak it.

Instead of asking,

Am I worthy?

I could say,

I AM worthy.

Instead of asking,

Am I ready?

I AM ready.

Instead of wondering whether I belonged…

I belong.

Instead of waiting for someone to tell me I could enter…

I AM HERE.

I sat quietly and allowed those words to settle.

Something fundamental was shifting within me.

The trilogy of authority I had been moving through was no longer simply showing me what needed to be released.

It was revealing what could take its place.

Sovereignty.

Presence.

Inner authority.

But Isis wasn’t finished.

There was something else she wanted me to understand.

She looked at me and said,

“I was present at your birth.”

I became very still.

She continued.

“I have walked beside you throughout this lifetime, just as you experience yourself as having walked with me through other lifetimes and timelines.”

“In those experiences, you learned what you understand as the wisdom of the Divine Feminine and the mysteries of magic.”

“You remember yourself taking initiations.”

“Standing as High Priestess within my temple in Egypt.”

“Singing songs and tones intended to awaken something within those who heard them.”

“You chose to explore those mysteries again in this lifetime.”

“That is why you experience me as having been beside you.”

“Guiding.”

“Waiting.”

“Until you were ready to remember.”

Then she smiled.

“It has been a long journey…”

“…and a long wait.”

I laughed.

I knew exactly what she meant.

Earlier she had told me I had been ready for more than fifty years.

And still…

she had needed to nudge me toward the throne.

Then her expression softened.

“The veil between us has been there for a long time.”

“Now it is gone.”

And suddenly I understood.

This was the Mystic Rising.

Not because I had acquired some new mystical ability.

Not because someone had initiated me into something I had not possessed before.

The Mystic rose when I finally chose to take my place within my own Presence.

And when I did…

something else became possible.

The energy could move.

Heaven toward Earth.

Spirit through form.

Wisdom into expression.

Love into action.

Creation into life.

This was the Divine Feminine Flowing.

Isis continued.

She spoke of the need, in this time, for what she described as Divine Feminine energy to help bring greater balance to expressions of authority shaped by separation and domination.

Not feminine instead of masculine.

Not one replacing the other.

Balance.

An authority rooted not only in strength…

but in the heart.

A strength that does not need to dominate in order to know itself.

A love that does not need to sacrifice itself in order to prove that it cares.

A mind no longer convinced that everyone else must be feared.

I felt another one of those familiar aha moments beginning.

And somewhere inside I knew…

there was more.

Isis smiled.

We embraced.

Then, as she prepared to leave, she handed me a card.

On it were three numbers, written vertically:

333

888

999

I stared at them.

I didn’t know what they meant.

Not yet.

But after everything that had happened…

I had learned something.

Sometimes you don’t need to understand the next piece immediately.

Sometimes…

you simply notice.

And wait to see what happens next.

The Deeper Dive

Part 5 – Isis Revealed

Sometimes the greatest revelations arrive while we are simply living our lives.

We listen.

We notice.

We follow one question into another.

And then, suddenly, something that has been waiting quietly within us rises into awareness.

An aha.

During the past few days, as I continued digging deeper into everything that had been revealed, one phrase kept returning to me:

The Mystic Is Rising and the Divine Feminine Flows.

I had already been feeling the desire to bring more of the mystic and the magic back into my life.

For a time, I had placed much of that aside while focusing upon clearing, healing, and grounding. Those things had been important, but something within me was beginning to stir.

I was ready for more.

I didn’t want magic simply for the sake of something mystical or “woo woo.”

I longed for the magic of Creation.

The magic of Oneness.

The place where Heaven and Earth meet within us and joy becomes something that can flow through our lives into the world.

I had spent enough time grounding.

Something within me was ready to put on wings and fly.

And whenever these thoughts arose, I kept sensing Isis.

That made sense to me. I have long associated her with magic, healing, motherhood, and the Divine Feminine.

So I decided to sit quietly and see whether she wished to speak.

The moment I settled into stillness, she was there.

There was no need for me to ask a question.

It felt as though she had been waiting.

Then she spoke.

“It is time to stop preparing.”

I sat with those words for a moment.

“What do you mean?”

Her answer came immediately.

“You keep telling yourself there is something else you must clear.”

“Something else you must heal.”

“Some perfect alignment that must occur.”

“Perhaps you are waiting for a sign.”

She paused.

“Or permission.”

“Permission from someone to step forward and sit upon the throne.”

I remained silent.

“You tell others they do not need to be perfect,” she continued, “yet you continue expecting perfection from yourself.”

Then came the words I was not prepared to hear.

“You have been ready for more than fifty years.”

“I have been waiting for you to stop circling the temple…”

“…and take your place.”

I sat in silence.

I had no words.

Finally, I whispered,

“I don’t understand.”

And suddenly I was remembering something that had happened more than twenty-five years earlier.

I was standing on a cliff overlooking the ocean near San Simeon, California.

My husband and I had often gone there when we wanted to escape the congestion and intensity of Southern California. I had also visited the area many times while doing energy work with grids and ley lines.

On this particular trip, I was traveling with a friend.

The day’s work was finished, and we had gone to the cliffs simply to relax and watch the sunset over the Pacific.

There was a flat place on the clifftop that had always drawn me.

Whenever I stood there, I sensed a temple.

I could never see it clearly.

I simply knew it was there.

That evening I found myself once again standing where I sensed its doorway would have been.

My friend asked what I was experiencing.

I told him.

He suggested that I walk the perimeter of the temple and follow what I felt.

So I began walking.

Slowly.

As I moved along the boundaries, memories began to surface.

Other temples.

Other times.

Other places.

I remembered something called stretching the cord—establishing the corners and boundaries of a temple and aligning it to its proper direction and dimensions.

Then came another memory.

Sound.

I remembered singing tones that helped establish the stones and the energetic structure of the temple.

Yet there was something else within those memories.

Something painful.

No matter how many temples I remembered helping to establish…

I was always standing outside the door.

Waiting.

Never entering.

I continued walking until I had completed the perimeter and returned to the doorway.

Then something happened that I had not expected.

My friend walked into the energetic temple.

He slowly walked its inner perimeter and then moved toward the center.

He turned toward me.

And invited me inside.

I began to weep.

I had waited for that invitation for what felt like eternity.

I stepped forward slowly.

One step.

Then another.

I entered the temple.

I walked the inner perimeter just as he had done, feeling the energies and allowing the memories to move through me.

Then, without saying anything, my friend quietly left.

He allowed me to remain there alone.

Inside.

For the first time in this life, I felt something I had struggled for years to understand.

I felt the love of Source.

I felt forgiven.

Until that moment, some part of me had carried the feeling that I had been abandoned upon the Earth.

I had never really understood why.

Now, more than twenty-five years later, as I relived that moment, Isis spoke again.

“You have tended your temple for decades.”

“You have kept its energies pure.”

“You have shared wisdom.”

“You have encouraged others.”

She paused.

“But you have never taken your place upon the throne.”

Again, I was stunned.

“What do you mean?”

“You have done the work,” she said.

“Not only in this lifetime.”

“You have cleared.”

“You have served.”

“You have walked the initiations.”

“You have been ready for a very long time.”

“I have simply waited for you to remember…”

“…that you are worthy.”

“…that you belong.”

“…and that the throne within the temple of your Higher Heart is yours to occupy.”

She placed a staff into my hands.

Suddenly, I was standing before a throne.

“Listen,” she said.

In the distance, I heard the rhythm of drums…

and the delicate sound of the sistrum.

Then I felt her hand gently touch my back.

A small nudge forward.

She sensed the question before I could speak it.

“The throne represents your sovereignty.”

“Not earthly power.”

“Not authority over another.”

“It is the steady seat of your own Presence.”

“The place where you become a bridge between Heaven and Earth.”

She looked at me.

“The throne is not something you must earn.”

“It is your birthright as a flame of Creation.”

“Accept who you are.”

“Allow the wisdom and the Light to flow through you.”

I stood quietly before her.

So much emotion was moving through me that I knew I needed time before our conversation could continue.

We still had not spoken about the words that had brought me to her:

The Mystic Is Rising and the Divine Feminine Flows.

Or had we?

We bowed to one another.

Then we embraced.

And suddenly I was alone again with my thoughts.

But the questions remained.

Do I still believe I must become perfect before I am worthy?

Am I waiting for a sign that says I am ready?

Am I waiting for some perfect alignment before I allow myself to move forward?

Am I waiting for another person, teacher, guide, or authority to give me permission to connect with my own Inner Presence?

Do I stand outside my own temple waiting to be invited inside?

Do I circle it…

clean it…

tend it…

serve those who enter…

while quietly looking toward the throne and wondering whether one day I might be worthy enough to sit there?

What doubt still keeps me standing at the doorway?

As I finally sat upon the throne and allowed those questions to move through me, I knew more experiences were still to come.

But something fundamental had changed.

For so long, I had believed I was preparing to become ready.

Now I began to understand:

I had been ready.

The temple had been waiting.

The throne had been waiting.

And perhaps…

so had I.

The Deeper Dive

Part 3 – Hidden in the Depths

Sometimes we simply need to step away from our everyday routines and lose ourselves in a story.

Most of us have done it at one time or another—curling up on a rainy afternoon or a cold winter evening to watch an old favorite.

For me, the next piece of this unfolding journey came through an old movie my husband had watched years before. He suggested we watch it together, so one Saturday evening we settled in, expecting nothing more than an enjoyable film.

Instead, another layer of the veil quietly lifted.

The movie was called Goliath Awaits.

It tells the story of a luxury cruise liner torpedoed during World War II. The ship sank and disappeared beneath the ocean, lost for more than forty years.

Eventually, a research vessel discovered the wreck.

As divers approached, they heard something impossible.

Someone was tapping out an SOS from inside the ship.

Curious, they carefully cleared the thick layer of marine growth covering one of the portholes. Suddenly, the hatch swung open.

A young girl looked out in surprise…

…then quickly closed it again.

A rescue mission began.

To everyone’s astonishment, they discovered that an entire society had survived within a sealed section of the ship.

Over the decades they had built a functioning community.

There was order.

Everyone had work.

Each person contributed according to their role, and those roles had passed from one generation to the next.

At first glance, it seemed remarkable.

Yet beneath the surface another reality slowly emerged.

The society was ruled through fear.

Those who questioned authority disappeared.

Those who rebelled were eliminated.

Those who became ill or could no longer contribute were quietly removed because they were considered a burden on the community.

The outward appearance of harmony concealed an undercurrent of violence that many had learned to ignore simply to survive.

As the rescuers uncovered the truth, they also discovered something else.

The leaders had no desire to be rescued.

They wanted to preserve the world they controlled.

They warned everyone about the dangers of the surface world, convincing many that remaining below was safer than risking the unknown.

Yet the irony was heartbreaking.

The ship itself was dying.

Its power source was failing.

Time was running out.

Still, those in authority denied reality because acknowledging it would mean surrendering the control they had spent decades protecting.

When the opportunity to leave finally came, some eagerly chose freedom.

Others chose to remain.

Not because they were evil.

Not because they were foolish.

But because the familiar can sometimes feel safer than hope.

Eventually, those who wished to leave were rescued.

Those who remained stayed with the only world they had ever known.

The leaders destroyed what was left of the ship.

As the credits rolled, I found myself sitting quietly.

What surprised me most was not anger.

It was sadness.

I knew the story was fictional.

Yet it didn’t feel impossible.

In many ways, I admired what the survivors had accomplished together. Against overwhelming odds they had built a functioning community through ingenuity, cooperation, and shared purpose.

Working together, humanity is capable of extraordinary things.

We witness it after natural disasters.

During times of tragedy.

Whenever compassion rises above division.

So why does it often take catastrophe to awaken our willingness to care for one another?

Then another realization surfaced.

Just as in the dream…

Just as on the sacred mountain…

There was another hidden world beneath the surface.

Once again, appearances concealed something deeper.

And once again…

The story quietly became about me.

So I sat with the questions that arose.

What am I willing to tolerate, even when my heart knows it is not for the highest good, simply because it offers comfort, safety, or acceptance?

Do I sometimes mistake familiarity for truth?

Do I remain silent because I believe my voice cannot make a difference?

Where is the line between speaking from my Being…

…and interfering with another person’s journey?

Where is the line between helping…

…and trying to rescue?

Have I aligned deeply enough with my own Presence to recognize the difference?

Do I help another because it serves them…

…or because it comforts me?

Do I cling so tightly to what I believe is true…

…that I fail to notice the cracks opening to reveal something even greater?

Do I ever look to another for answers…

…at the cost of my own sovereignty?

Do I fear the unknown so much that I cling to the familiar…

…even when my soul is quietly inviting me into a larger world?

Those questions stayed with me.

They lingered long after the movie ended.

One question, in particular, continued echoing within me.

It eventually led me into a conversation with Isis.

For several days, one phrase had been quietly repeating itself within my thoughts.

The Mystic Is Rising.

The Divine Feminine Is Flowing.

So I finally asked what it meant.

What unfolded next became another layer of this journey.

Perhaps we will explore it together in Part 4.

The Deeper Dive

Part 2 – The Sacred Mountain

Later that day, while I was working, I noticed that one of my favorite storytellers had posted a new YouTube video. I had reached the point where my mind needed a break, so I settled in to watch, not realizing it would become another piece of the puzzle that had begun with my dream.

The story followed two young men whose friend had left home after telling his family he felt called to a sacred mountain. Concerned for his safety, his parents asked the young men to find him and bring him home.

They discovered him in a mountain region that many spiritual traditions considered holy.

At the foot of the mountain was a small village filled with shops, books, and people eager to share their beliefs. Higher up the mountain were others who had chosen a different path. They lived simply, camping among the trees, waiting patiently for a sign that would allow them to enter the mystery they believed lay hidden within the mountain.

Although the two groups lived very different lives, they shared something in common.

Both believed that something extraordinary waited within the mountain.

Both believed they had to become worthy before they could enter.

Some sought worthiness through sacrifice and poverty.

Others through teachings, books, and the outward expression of their beliefs.

Different paths…

The same longing.

When the young men finally found their friend, he refused to leave. Instead, he insisted they continue to the summit, convinced they would understand why he had come.

Reluctantly, they began the climb.

Along the way, they encountered a young woman who had become ill. As they stopped to help her, her brother appeared. Together they carried her back to safety.

After thanking them, the brother and sister quietly disappeared.

When the young men returned to camp, their friend was excited by what they described, yet he still would not leave. They had not reached the summit.

Word quickly spread through the camp and eventually reached the village below.

Soon a crowd gathered, demanding to be shown where this mysterious encounter had taken place.

The young men led them back to the location.

But when the crowd found neither the brother and sister nor the hidden entrance they had expected, disappointment quickly became anger.

Anger became fear.

Fear became violence.

Watching the scene unfold, something unsettled me.

How could people who had devoted so much of their lives to seeking the sacred become so consumed by anger when they did not receive what they expected?

My first response was to judge them.

Then, almost immediately, I realized I was looking into a mirror.

The story was no longer about them.

It had quietly become about me.

So I sat with the questions that began to arise.

Do I seek solitude because I genuinely love stillness…

…or because I am trying to escape the discomfort of seeing parts of myself reflected through others?

Do I truly witness and allow…

…or only until someone believes differently than I do?

When another person’s beliefs challenge my own…

…do I remain in peace?

Do I quietly believe I must still prove my worth?

Do I wear masks I no longer recognize?

Is there any trace of spiritual pride still hidden within me?

Am I searching outside myself for permission…

…to become the Presence I already am?

I didn’t have answers to those questions.

Not yet.

But something had begun to move within me.

The momentum that had started with the dream continued to gather strength, as though each experience was gently removing another layer of volcanic ash that had covered something waiting to be remembered.

That evening, my husband and I decided to watch an old movie called Goliath Awaits.

I had no idea that it, too, would reveal another layer.

Perhaps we will discover it together in Part 3.