We put ourselves in the Circle. Enter from the Eastern Door. Circle the fire once, always clockwise. When leaving, always circle once, clockwise, then leave by the Western Door.
This post is a brief aside in the Class/Book Notes – Levels of Awareness, Trances and Journeying arc. I’m including it here as it may clarify things we bring up in Class/Book Notes – Levels of Awareness, Trances and Journeying, Part 4; Being Called to Journey.
I’ve been involved in The Practice most of my life, quite definitely the past 25-30 years, first learned of The Calling about twenty years ago and just started getting a handle on in this past year. Just about seven months ago, in fact (as I write this). I was just lucky enough to be in the right spot at the right time studying with the right teacher and his offhand remark opened the gates of understanding for me.
The Practice is like that lots of times.
So, what is The Calling?
Ah…good question…glad you asked.
It’s What You’re Meant to Do
Have you ever heard someone say “He was called to be a priest” or “She was called to be a doctor” or “You could tell s/he had the calling” or “The stage was calling her”, something like that?
Well, that’s about as close as modern languages get to it. It’s a signification that some profession (my emphasis because I want the older meaning to dominate) has taken hold of someone and that they were destined to pursue that career. The phrase usually has a spiritual connotation, sometimes there’s an aspect of sacrifice involved, a kind of “S/he really wanted to be a used car salesperson, they really had that as a dream, but then they got the calling to be a neurosurgeon and quit the used car business completely.”
The concept of being called is also used to signify some kind of duty or obligation, as in “He was called to serve his country”, “She was called up” and so on.
The Practice has something similar but without the spiritual, professional (modern sense), duty and/or obligation aspects.
Everyone I know who’s active in The Practice has a bunch of things they can do at what I’d call the everyday or mundane level. For example, you may know some basic First Aid. You know how to take care of minor cuts and scrapes, insect bites, upset stomachs and sore muscles but you can’t transplant a kidney, remove a brain tumor, replace a hip joint, things like that.
Going with our previous example, your First Aid skills are at the everyday, “everybody knows how to do that” level. Don’t get me wrong, your everyday skills may save a life some day and few people, suffering from a ruptured femoral artery, are going to come asking you for a band-aid.
It is what the Universe designed you for
And everyone I know who’s active in The Practice has one or perhaps two (I don’t know of anybody with more than two although I do know a few people with incredible everyday level skills) talents/skills/abilities that they are called to do. It is what the Universe designed them for, usually without their knowing it until that talent/skill/ability is needed and they simply respond.
Example: in my case, I’m called to be a Healer. Now-a-days I might be called a medical intuitive and my understanding of the latter indicates they’re different at a fundamental level.
But what’s important to this discussion is that being a Healer is what I’m called to do. It’s what I’m best designed to do. Yes, I can do some other things and my natural talent is as a Healer.
Calling Things to You
The other way that “Calling” is used in The Practice is when someone has the ability to call things to themselves. Imagine your kids are out playing in the backyard and you call them in. Now stretch your imagination and imagine them coming in, no questions asked, ready, willing and able to do what you need them to do.
That’s the other way The Practice uses The Calling, it’s the ability to brings things to yourself (including the ability to bring things into existence). Essentially, if The Calling is what you’re called to do, you call things to yourself.
The Calling is not “The Secret”
Does this remind you of “The Secret”? I appreciate that it might and, from what I understand of “The Secret”, they are different (and I’ll be blogging about that soon). In fact, the differences between “The Secret” and The Calling may explain why “The Secret” never worked for you.
Understanding The Calling
Here’s what I learned about The Calling in the past few months that I didn’t understand before.
As I wrote above, I’ve known about The Calling for a while and I even know some folks who have that ability. What I didn’t know was how to manifest it myself. I knew I could because I had from time to time, although I didn’t know how I was doing it (and that’s why it’s called “The Practice”. You practice so you can do things on purpose, not by accident).
So here’s the “trick” of it. It’s really pretty easy. So easy, in fact, few people can do it.
- Figure out what the Universe wants for you.
- Go for it.
Yep, easy two-step process.
Here’s where, if you’re like me, you’ll get botched up (and this is part of what I’m working on now; working the process): You have to Call what the Universe wants done and will allow to happen.
Imagine a catcher on a baseball team. He signals the pitcher what he wants, the pitcher yays or nays it, finally they agree and the catcher’s mitt is exactly where the pitcher throws the ball each and every time. It’s kind of like that.
Especially that “exactly” part. The Universe can be throwing curves, sliders, knuckleballs, fastballs, anything it wants, and so long as you and the Universe agree on what’s being thrown your glove will always be there to catch it.
This is also where it gets sticky. Just because the Universe wants you to have something doesn’t mean you’re going to get it. If you call a slider and the Universe throws a curve, you miss the ball entirely.
The catcher can call the pitch and unless catcher and pitcher agree there’ll be lots of errors on the field. In essense, the catcher calls the pitch. So long as pitcher (Universe) and catcher (the person calling) agree.
Funny thing, the more you and the pitcher are in sync, the more you can call to you.
The more you know what the Universe wants for you, the easier it is to Call it into existence.
Now, if you’re like me, as soon as you get a lock on that you’ll probably remember “…Thy Will be done.”
First, where do you think the bible authors got it? As one of my teachers told me, read the Judeo-Christian bible as an anthropologist and it’s one of the most incredible catalogs of shamanic practice around (side note: as societies changed, those who would normally have studied shamanic practices ended up going into two fields of study far more than any others. Care to guess what those two fields were?
religion and science.
Because that’s what shamanic practice is really all about as it’s core; a technology for interacting with natural systems. That’s why we have the Cara Richards quote at the top of our What We Believe page)
Second, it goes a bit further than sitting back and waiting for the Universe to give you things.
One of the things I share with people is how to win at Solitaire. A lot. All kinds of solitaire. I’ve had runs of 80+ wins before I had to stop due to fatigue.
I’ve also shared with some people that I will often start my day playing different types of solitaire, the goal being to sync myself with the Universe.
What’s the secret to winning? Did you notice that the goal is to sync myself with the Universe, not “winning”? My goal is to feel the energy of the cards (doesn’t matter if they’re physical or electronic) and by opening myself up to the energy of the cards, to being in harmony with them (if you will), to then put myself in harmony with the Universe as a whole.
So it is with The Calling. I’m not Calling to get something I want or think I need. The Universe takes care of that for me (even when I don’t think it is). Nor am I meditating on something like “Joseph to Universe, your will be done”.
It is more like practicing being able to know what the Universe needs me to have in order to do what the Universe needs me to get done. It is understanding, primarily myself and through myself, others.
Because the more I understand myself, the more I’m able to call what is necessary for myself. The more I understand others, the more I’m able to call what is necessary for them.
Just letting you know there’s more to The Practice than just practice. You have to want it.
And you have to be careful. You can’t want it unless you’re willing to take it when it’s offered. Like President Obama said to Jerry Seinfeld on Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, “If you’re going to have a bite of the apple you’ve got to take it.”
What If I Ask for Something the Universe Doesn’t Want Me to Have?
Ah, here’s sticky part 2 and I cover that in my next post, The Practice (Specifically, The Calling) versus “The Secret”…
