Category: The Earth

A Non-Religious Approach to “Pray Without Ceasing”

On By ellenbessoIn meditation, prayer, spirituality, Spirituality in Action, The Earth, Uncategorized3 Comments

Photo by Simon Matzinger

 

“Pray Without Ceasing”     Thessalonians 5:17

When I was studying counselling one of our instructors defined spirituality as anything that gives your life meaning. This idea had broad potential. It could be the trees, helping refugees, visiting an elder, a deep connection with a friend. It could be your children, he told us.

My approach to spirituality is an integrative, holistic one, not religiously oriented, but not exclusive of religion either. Currently I’m moving towards continuous prayer. Not prayer using words, although I do pray regularly  for specific people and situations, but being in union with the Divine continuously.

We cannot pray in a deliberate, analytical way 24/7. Our creative right brain with its holistic design, using intuition and visualization, enables us to create a different type of reality for ourselves. It lets us feel our way into the essence of life. It helps me create a vision for my prayer, one my soul can relate to.

Prayer is joining with whatever represents God to you. In my prayer visuallization I picture Light pouring onto the planet from the Source. This Net of Light, or Cosmic Web, is the spiritual power that heals and protects the planet and all of us. It is pure love. “The Net of Light is a pattern/network/fabric or grid of love. It is love. It anchors, supports and penetrates everyone and everything on earth.”, say the Grandmothers.

During my day, whenever I think of it, I cast the Net of Light and draw down spirit, both to help all beings on our planet, and to heal myself. Breathing in the Light and calling on the Grandmothers, aspects of the Divine, fills me with relaxation. The Grandmothers invite us to do this in many ways throughout the three books channelled through Sharon McErlane. When we call on them, our nerve endings relax, they tell us.

Going to Richard Rohr once more, the Franciscan friar who founded The Centre for Action and Contemplation, I find that Jesus taught prayer beyond words. He joined with God in his predawn prayers, in what many today call contemplation, Rohr says, “…union with God’s presence; resting in God more than actively seeking to fully know or understand.”

My way of prayer embraces a broad and deep spirituality, wordless for the most part. The Grandmothers nudge me towards the giant coniferous tree at the bottom of our garden, where we do our Grandmother empowerments and cast the Net of Light. The more often I remember to cast the Net and call in the Grandmothers, the more comfort I receive.

This visualization is my pathway to the Divine, the route most available to me. It did not happen right away after my “discovery” of the Grandmothers and the Net of Light a couple of years ago. It has been a slow opening, a melding of my various spiritual beliefs, with the Net becoming a powerful co-ordinator, a focus that encompasses my various spiritual beliefs. Our journey to our first Net of Light gathering at Joshua Tree Retreat Centre last spring deepened the process.

I asked three friends for their unique perspective on praying without ceasing. Pastor Jaz of Christian Life Assembly Church, the sponsor of our two Syrian refugee families says:

“To me to pray without ceasing means that we are constantly keeping Jesus on our minds and hearts and bringing not only our needs to him but also our thanks to him through out the day. Praying without ceasing being less about staying in a constant state of prayer, and more about having a constant heart and mindset of communication with Jesus.

Judy, who has been part of the Divine Love prayer group for more than thirty years wrote me:

“Sincere prayer and longing for the Creator’s Love transforms or awakens the soul…then a longing for an ever deepening communion with God grows…we become more trusting and willing to call upon God to help us in our daily lives.

The challenge of the soul to remain in constant receptivity of God’s infinite Love is the mind.  We have a choice whether to allow our mind’s dominance or to grow our soul in the love of God…eventually a tipping point is reached – we move in grace, enveloped in the flow of God’s Love. In this state, our lives become a constant prayer. God’s Love within our soul becomes our inner compass.

My dear friend Rose says: “For me, it’s noticing my breathing, through the day. Because I know, and deeply feel, that I am breathed into life by the loving Creator, consciously attending to my breathing, without trying to change it, puts me in a prayerful state, more feeling than thinking.”

Athough my words differ in certain ways, my friends’ beliefs segue with and enhance mine. Visuallizing and calling on the Net of Light and the Grandmothers allows me to get my mind out of the way, the left brain, dominant part particularly. My hope is that as I grow into this way of being more and more, that it will lead my heart and soul to the Light.

Love & Light

Ellen

Copyright 2019 Ellen Besso

Ellen Besso is a former Life Coach & Counsellor & is an energy worker. She is the author of An Indian Sojourn: One woman’s spiritual experience of travel & volunteering, and Surviving Eldercare: Where their needs end & yours begin, both available through Amazon.

Expansion or Withdrawal, What Do You Choose?

On By ellenbessoIn change, Positivity, spirituality, The Earth, Uncategorized2 Comments

“We cannot ever stop this process, [of spiritual evolution], although we are capable of slowing it down to an agonizing pace, until our choices match up with the inner wisdom of our soul’s essence.”   (Matt Kahn)

There’s a tremendous amount of energy coming down the pipe these days. Now we have reached the 11/11 spiritual portal, a catalyst of  both collective and individual  potentiality, one that will allow us to enter a space of higher vibration than ever before. How do you choose to deal with this powerful energy? Will you hide from this profound shift or embrace it?

Note: A spiritual portal is a doorway that allows free access to and from the spirit world, a merging of our three dimensional earthbound plane and the four dimensional etheric plane.

Each day when I awake I feel different. It’s not just me; many of us seem to be moving at a rapid pace, spurred on in our spiritual growth by our intent and by the rapidly changing physical and energetic situations around us. At this point in my life I have a certain amount of clarity. The goals I’m working towards remain constant: to move forward spiritually and to keep my physical body healthy.

My methods of doing this are varied, mainly involving emptying myself through meditation, prayer, singing, energy treatments and gentle exercise, and by assisting other folks through my presence, healing sessions and refugee resettlement volunteer work.

A year after the Great Council of Grandmothers called me to their work of healing the planet by restoring the balance of yin and yang, I attended a Net of Light gathering in Joshua Tree, California, then began a women’s group in my home. Our monthly meetings have added to the collective waves of energy directed at healing our planet and have comforted and empowered us.

Although my overall focus is clear, my motivation waivers, as doubts enter to take me off course.  This seems to be a commonplace occurrence with people of varying ages during this time of strong energies.  Old feelings and memories are surfacing, asking to be processed, life reviews are taking place.

Upon rereading one of Judith Onley’s channelling’s from US, (United Souls of Heaven and Earth) – from 9 years ago – I learned that even then our increased ability to cross time lines and dimensions allows us to see, hear and feel the past, present and future at the same time.

So it is natural that old cellular and soul material is arising and being dealt with in increasing quantities during this time of intensification. If we ignore it, it comes back to bite us in various ways – emotionally, mentally, physically and/or spiritually.

We are being offered a unique opportunity to grow spiritually – to empty ourselves and fill with light energy. We can choose to embrace the spiritual expansion being offered or  attempt to maintain the status quo.

The Universe is calling us to step up at this time, to take our place, to help make our lives and the life of our planet better, to expand spiritually. We are being shown how to live. We will hear the subtle whispers from spirit if we listen carefully.

Knowing that I’m all about the energy, the other day the spirits offered me a way to protect and strengthen myself. During my morning journalling I received guidance to visualize expanding my energy instead of keeping myself small. Not shrinking and disempowering myself when the challenges come.

Our energy system is both within and outside of us, as you are aware. Seven energetic layers surround us, to a distance of up to three feet from our bodies. Our aura can shrink when we are afraid.

I believe that now is the time for me to ‘just do it’. To listen to my guidance, however subtle, and make the changes necessary to move ahead and contribute all I can to the world.

Our changes don’t have to be big, heroic things – I was reminded of that this morning. If I continue doing the activities and projects I have put in place in a consistent way, then I am doing my part.

We owe it to ourselves and the planet to accept our power. And we are not alone. The veil is lifting, the other side is closer now than it has ever been. The angels walk among us, helping us to fill ourselves with light.

We have a choice: Embrace Expansion or Hide from it. I choose to embrace expansion – because what is the alternative?

“You’re a part of something integral…something wonderful”, the Grandmothers tell us…You aren’t a separate entity at all,”…”You’re the Net of Light, an eternal, endless being — greater by far than you’ve imagined.”

Love & Light

Ellen

Copyright 2018 Ellen Besso

Ellen Besso is a former Life Coach & Counsellor & is an energy worker. She is the author of An Indian Sojourn: One woman’s spiritual experience of travel & volunteering, and Surviving Eldercare: Where their needs end & yours begin, both available through Amazon.

 

 

 

The Great Mother Returns – Amazing Volcano Picture of Pele

On By ellenbessoIn spirituality, The Earth, UncategorizedLeave a comment
There are many forms of the Great Mother; every culture has its own. Pele is the ancient fire goddess, who lives at the top of Mount Kilauea and is revered as the creator of Hawaii’s landscape. She’s also known as Ka wahine ‘ai honus, the woman who devours the Earth, giving a sense of her destructive power.
Kali, the Hindu goddess of time, a Hindu form of the feminine Divine, is sometimes misunderstood as the evil bloodthirsty goddess of death and destruction. In fact she is one of the most beloved goddesses in India. Kali destroys only what needs to be destroyed – be it a powerful demon, sin, fear or ignorance.

 

The text and picture below are reprinted from Net of Light newsletter with Sharon McErlane’s permission.

We are living in a time foretold by indigenous cultures and ancient scripture as the moment when the Mother would return to Earth.  The Earth and all her beings are now in desperate need of the Divine Feminine and so She has come.

Here is a photograph of Pele, a form of the Mother, taken by Brian Powers sometime last month during a series of eruptions on Kilauea in Hawaii.   There are many forms of the Divine Mother but here you can see Her powerful, fierce and loving self in action.

Our Spirits in Synchronicity

On By ellenbessoIn spirituality, Spirituality in Action, The Earth, UncategorizedLeave a comment
Path behind the Dalai Lama’s Temple, Photo Don G. Smith
                          “It is our true nature we are trying to realize.” 
                               Tenzin Palma

We live in both the material and spiritual worlds. The spirit world transcends time and space; it does not function on our time, rather in natural, or Kairos time. There is a Oneness between our two worlds and between all of us and nature. When we are connected with others, whether they are in spirit or presently embodied, we are with them always. I am in British Columbia, but part of me lives on in Dharamshala, my other spiritual home, on the pathway to the Dalai Lama’s temple, in the homes of my dear Tibetan and Indian friends.

Synchronicity plays a role in our lives. Everything and everyone intersects – we are One with each other. The Grandmothers are an excellent example of this. There are two sets of Grandmothers councils that I’m presently aware of, although I’m sure there are many more. One group is in spirit and the other in human body.

I have written about The Great Council of Grandmothers before and the Net of Light that protects our earth, and was privileged to attend the group’s annual California Gathering in April.  The Grandmothers are spirits from all walks of life, they appeared to Sharon McErlane over twenty years ago on a bluff in Southern California. This was the beginning of Sharon’s intense shamanic relationship with these spirits, aspects of the Divine, who appear as women at times, and powerful eagles at other times.

The Grandmothers are here to rectify the severe imbalance of yin and yang energy on our earth, and to help imbue the planet and all of us with the powerful, healing Net of Light. Through empowerments given to women (and a few men), and through casting the Net of Light, the planet and every single aspect of nature and humans will be healed.

Twice recently I’ve come across another council, the International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers, who come together from all over the world for the purpose of sharing their ancestral teachings of prayer, peacemaking and healing, to help us at this time of great need. Tsering Dolma Gyaltong, one of the Tibetan Grandmothers, recently deceased, sponsored a conference in 2006 in Dharamshala, one year before my partner and I first visited this home of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, in the Himalayan foothills. The ten minute video is heartwarming, and to my surprise, one of my dear Tibetan friends, formerly a Tibetan nomad, is in the video footage. The video is called For the Next 7 Generations, Scenes from Dharamsala.

This international council had been spoken of in prophecy and seen in visions since time immemorial, and it came together after the 9/11 attacks in the US. “From the get go this council originated from the Spirit World ” says Grandmother Agnes Baker Pilgrim. “The Ancient Ones are speaking through our voices…We can help stop spiritual blindness around the world.”

There are many commonalities in various teachings and spiritual philosophies. For instance, Circles of Stones play a prominent role in spiritual healing. Stones have Spirit to most indigenous people, they are the oldest beings on the planet. “It is believed that the simple act of picking up a stone and holding it in silence changes a person in subtle and profound ways.”, says Carol Schaefer, author of Grandmothers Counsel the World, one of the thirteen Grandmothers’ books.

The Great Council of Grandmothers advised Sharon McErlane to form circles of stones to enhance healings. Judith Duerk, who I was privileged to work with in retreat twenty years ago, was guided to write Circle of Stones, Woman’s Journey to Herself, embracing ancient women’s ways in the time before the patriarchal period when the Goddess was worshipped. Judith describes ancient circles of stones with women sitting around fires.

Spiritual synchronicity is everywhere. As we draw closer to the Divine, we may find our attention to it growing. We ourselves will be filled with Spirit and gradually our lives will shift into a gentle, peaceful, flowing stream.

Love & Light

Ellen

Copyright 2018 Ellen Besso

Ellen Besso is a former Life Coach & Counsellor & is an energy worker. She is the author of An Indian Sojourn: One woman’s spiritual experience of travel & volunteering, and Surviving Eldercare: Where their needs end & yours begin, both available through Amazon.

 

Net of Light Newsletter – Sharon McErlane – Live from THIS Place

On By ellenbessoIn Positivity, spirituality, Spirituality in Action, The Earth, Uncategorized2 Comments

From the Great Council of Grandmothers,

through Sharon McErlane

Live From THIS Place

I went to the Grandmothers, although I wasn’t really sure why. What did I want to ask them? But before I could form a question, they spoke. “Why do you think we come to you as the Grandmothers?” they asked. “Why do we show up as women? Older women? Why as a group?” they asked, peering intently into my eyes. “I don’t know, Grandmothers,” I said. “I mean, I have some ideas about these things but I don’t really know.”

“We are wise women,” they said, referring to themselves, ” … older, experienced in living. We’ve learned how to give away, how to love with no strings attached. We listen and because we do, we’ve accrued great understanding. You don’t gain that except through experience,” they laughed, “and we have experience! We also work together,” they smiled, “always together.

“In the world the older woman is overlooked, dismissed, and ignored,” they said, and I found that I agreed with them. “Most people are in a great hurry. Rushing, pushing, worrying, scrambling,” they said, “but not us. No,” they shook their heads. “We know better. We understand that nothing happens before its time. There’s no rushing life,” they said. “It unfolds on its own. You’ve learned that too, haven’t you?” they asked, looking me over. “Uh, yes, Grandmothers,” I agreed, “well, at least I’m continuing to learn.”

“We know, we know!” they crowed. “And we’re here to teach you!” “Oh!” I exclaimed. “Is that what this is about? Is it time for me to learn more patience?” but the Grandmothers only laughed.

“You are growing impatient,” they said, “impatient with the way things are in the world. Eager for goodness, for kindness and peace to reassert themselves on earth. You’re tired of all the darkness. Tired of the anger and meanness that continue to surface. In fact,” they said, “you can hardly bear any more of it.” “Yes, Grandmothers,” I shook my head, “you’re right.”

“Come here!” they suddenly said, and reached their arms to me. “Step into our circle. Come into alignment with us. Don’t hold yourself separate,” they said. “Don’t hold yourself ‘over there,'” they gestured, “but instead, come ‘over here’!” I did as they said. I stepped forward into their embrace and when I did, they aligned my spine with theirs. Now I was part of a long line of women … part of the formation that is the Grandmothers.

“Take a look at life on earth from THIS position,” they said, and I lifted my head and gazed out over the horizon. Everywhere I looked there was beauty. Above and below, near and far. Beauty. Only beauty. Flowing patterns of color and form. It was a visual symphony, magnificent in every way. “Where’s all the darkness? The ugliness?” I asked, squinting to see where it was hiding. But there was no darkness. There was no ugliness. Only beauty. Beauty and then … more beauty.

“Live from this place,” the Grandmothers said. “Look out at the world from here, from the place of alignment with us. We promise that things will look very different to you,” they said.

The Grandmothers had given me a new way of seeing the world. It wasn’t a new world; this world had always been there, but before they adjusted my vision, I hadn’t been able to see it. But now I could because I had the larger view. I turned to the Grandmothers then, so moved by their generosity, I couldn’t speak. All I could do was mutely nod my head in thanks to them for this great gift they’d given me. This gift of the larger vision is for you too.

from Sharon McErlane

Net of Light Gathering, Joshua Tree, CA, April 2018

On By ellenbessoIn lifestyle change, spirituality, Spirituality in Action, The Earth, travel, Uncategorized2 Comments

In mid April, my partner Don and I travelled to Joshua Tree, Southern California, for the Net of Light gathering. I needed time to process the experience before journalling; here is my attempt to put into words this powerful, ephemeral experience.

We arrived early and settled in at Joshua Tree Retreat Center. The Center is the oldest in North America at 77 years of age and was built by Frank Lloyd Wright and Son, after a unique man named Edwin Dingle, who had studied Eastern philosophy in Tibet, was guided to the land.

I felt honoured to be invited to attend the Beacons, or group leaders’ meeting prior to the gathering, as I planned to start a Net of Light group in my home town after this retreat. Beacons from all over the world attended, several from the Netherlands, some of them group leaders for many years.

The highlight of the meeting was meeting Sharon McErlane in a small group setting. Sharon’s Net of Light organization had grown to 250 groups worldwide over the twenty plus years since the Grandmothers appeared to her on a bluff in Southern California. Sharon told me I had definitely been called to this work.

In the early months of 2017 I had come across the Net of Light website while researching, returning to it repeatedly, not knowing why. I subscribed to Sharon’s newsletter, eventually meeting the Canadian Co-ordinator, Laura in Horseshoe Bay, West Vancouver, our shared ferry terminal.

That afternoon, under the big, old trees in the park by the water, I received my first empowerment, a gentle introduction to the energy of the Grandmothers, meant to connect us to them and to allow us to bring out our unique gifts in a greater way. Things began to change subtly for me after the empowerment, I received nudges and small messages from the Grandmothers that helped me to live more fully and mindfully with an increased level of trust in myself.  I realized the  Grandmothers  had been around me before I knew who they were.

One hundred people attended the Southern California Gathering, ninety women and close to ten men. I had felt the presence of the Grandmothers strongly for two weeks before the gathering, helping me release powerful old held material from deep within myself. At the retreat they filled the room, and indeed the whole property, with a strong, but light energy.

During our four days together we worked both in the larger group and in ten breakout groups. We drummed and sang, calling in the Grandmothers and the Great Mother, casting and strengthening the Net of Light, the great energetic fishnet that holds and heals the planet and us during these difficult times. Sharon and others took us through guided meditations. In the small groups we debriefed and sometimes did exercises.

For four days we lived in a cocoon of delight and heart felt love. Because we were in an altered state and the experiential nature of the Gathering, I could not explain precisely what we did to friends who questioned me later.

One exercise impacted me powerfully, and remains in my memory banks to this day. We took turns expressing to a partner the qualities of the goddess we saw within ourselves.

When the weekend was over we reluctantly left our spiritual cocoon, spreading out in all directions, Don and I in the direction of Sedona, Arizona.

Since that time I feel I have made slow, but steady progress, beginning our Net of Light women’s group in my home, and building trust withing myself by taking more risks, speaking out more, both in person and in my writing. In these ventures I am supported strongly by the Grandmothers, by my dear women friends and by claiming my Tibetan name more fully, Lhakpa, meaning courageous speech, the name that came to me in a dream several years ago.

Love & light to you.

Ellen / Lhakpa

Copyright 2018 Ellen Besso

Ellen Besso is a former Life Coach & Counsellor & an energy worker. She is the author of An Indian Sojourn: One woman’s spiritual experience of travel & volunteering, and Surviving Eldercare: Where their needs end & yours begin, both available through Amazon.

 

Light or Darkness, Your Choice

On By ellenbessoIn spirituality, Spirituality in Action, The Earth, Uncategorized1 Comment

For me this is a time to step back, to simplify, to clarify my personal truth. To pay attention to the guidance that is always within and around me, whether my awareness is focused on it or not. Trusting that things are unfolding as they are meant to, that chaos is leading us to new clarity is a challenge, but this way of being has been slowly developing for many of us over many years.

We have a choice, to go to the light, or to the dark. To make our life about positivity in all ways…in our thoughts, words and actions. For much good is taking place on this planet, despite, or perhaps because of, the darkness.

The searching for the light, is a good thing, because “…We are the ones we have been waiting for!!” as the words of A Hopi Elder Speaks tell us. The poem has been attributed to many people, including Thomas Banyacya Sr., (1910-1999), an Elder of the Hopi Nation. This widely adopted poem was apparently originally meant for the Hopi, however it has felt meaningful and timely since I first came across it a few years ago.

The Grandmothers and their Net of Light  are sending the same message, although wrapped in a different package. The Grandmothers are a council of ascended souls, who teach about the Net of Light, the healing net that surrounds the planet. Their message is a powerful one: they have come to help rectify the imbalance between yin and yang on this earth. They are here for any and all of us, female or male, whoever is drawn to them, folks want to both help the world and be uplifted themselves.

In 2002 Nasa first saw the Net through the Hubble Telescope, and named it the Cosmic Web. This web of invisible dark matter lights up the galaxies, enabling scientists to see them better than before. Here are beautiful Hubble pics.

Since my introduction to the Grandmothers and the Net a few months ago, on the surface my life has remained the same , but internally I am different…more focused, more in touch with spirit. My work with the Grandmothers and the Net  harmonizes with and enhances other aspects of my life.

In this current time of massive dichotomy and changes, we all have a choice – to go to the Light and create a sacred space wherever we are, or wallow in the negativity of Darkness and hopelessness.

Which do you choose?

Ellen

Copyright Ellen Besso 2017

The Grandmothers picture is from a Net of Light newsletter; painted by one of the members.

 

 

Separation vs. Joining – When the Planet Heals, She’ll Heal Us

On By ellenbessoIn change, spirituality, The Earth, UncategorizedLeave a comment

“Daesh, i.e. ISIL/ISIS, and Donald Trump are very much on the same side: the side of separation.”    Mark Heley

I recently received an intuitive message: “When the planet heals she will heal us.”

We and our planet are inextricably joined, we can’t talk about one without considering the other. Mother Earth has much to teach us about togetherness, working together, co-creating, helping each other.

My previously random praying has become more regular and refined over the course of the last six months. My involvement in the Divine Love prayer group has sensitized me to many things, including my environment. I usually begin my prayer with  healing for the planet, asking that Divine Love and Light pour down upon her, while visualizing the earth as a globe.

The planet works by natural laws, as a well oiled machine, when not interfered with. We have harmed her, and now we as a society are slowly beginning to feel compassion for her, to notice how out of balance she is and to begin to make amends.

Having compassion for our planet instead of ignoring the damage that’s been inflicted on her changes us. It softens something inside us, something that we may have ignored in our state of denial. This softening enables us to feel more compassion and empathy for all those who live here on the earth, whether they’re in our backyard or many thousands of miles away.

Separation or Joining…we have a choice.

Blessings to you  
Ellen

An interesting article on having empathy, & not just for people we know http://upliftconnect.com/whole-world-needs-healing/   

The ancient practice of marrying the land, Irish folklore & goddesses http://upliftconnect.com/marrying-the-land/

Ayurvedic Exercises given to me: When springtime comes round again, I will remind myself to lie on the grass underneath a large pine tree in my backyard, to soak up the earth energy. Also to walk in the sand at the edge of the water on the beach.