Acts of Disabusing Evil
“The Roots of Good and Evil”
Transformation happens when our learning is infused with intentional processes of becoming.
Each week, following an ICN article, we offer invitations into deeper becoming—spiritual practices, ways of engagement, and opportunities for life integration. This rhythm seeks to intensify our mystical practice, deepen our embodied engagement, and call forth greater transformation in ourselves, our communities, and the world—the I, the We, and the All.
IF YOU MISSED IT the LAST two WEEKs, WE ENCOURAGE YOU TO FIRST READ both parts of THE ARTICLE INFORMING THESE PROCESSES: Disabusing Evil.
We invite you to consciously and intentionally engage in the following processes for your personal lives, WeSpace groups or other spiritual communities, and global participation.
Invitations to Engage with Our Shadow
As we engage in acts of disabusing evil, we are encouraged to begin by looking within—to remove the plank from our own eye first, as Jesus taught.
We sometimes call this “shadow work,” as you can’t see what’s in your own eye! Or, if you prefer, we can call it shadow play or shadow dancing.
Our call to this, personally and communally, is not an excuse to neglect or negate our perceptions of how we recognize evil in the world. If we can’t look within, we will be muddled with projections and false energy—leading to what is sometimes referred to as “shadow boxing.”
And as we clear our lenses and clean out our eyes, together in community, we are more free and honest because of our work and effort to come to greater clarity. We do not take our perspectives for granted or spilling our energy toward false forms born out of our projections.
Then we will have greater power from a “cleaner” energy source, rooted in divine vitality and with mental clarity, held in common. From this place, regardless of our persuasions and identities, as we repent of our tribalism, we are more able in truth to disavow and denounce all actions that are evil, unjust, destructive, and harmful—regardless of political party, religious camp, or other associated affiliations we may hold.
Shadow work invites us to ways of moving with greater self-awareness and truthful clarity. We come to recognize more of ourselves and our motivations—and the limitations of our perspectives when they are mired in projection and emotional triggers. We can grow in “watching the watcher” ourselves and supporting one another in seeing through our windows of self-awareness.
ICN, as a community, is holding and seeking to grow in how we practice with shadow together. Along with Resonating Prayer, a practice of golden shadow work, we recognize and feel spirit moving to engage and incorporate more ways of moving with our personal and collective darker shadows. We hope and intend to have more ways WeCreated in our midst as we continue to grow in this area.
And, there are lots of great resources and ways to work with shadow. Here are a few that you might find beneficial to engage with in your “becoming” processes this week:
The Art of Quantum Living is a transformative course that delves into shadow, triggers, and releasing the limited stories with live by. Many in the ICN community have taken this course and found it extremely beneficial and transformative.
Integral Life Podcast on the Shadow of Trump:
This podcast goes into a deep dive of shadow projections many experience with a powerful political figure.
Click here to listen (and see the written text below for words of helpful context and guidance)
Paul Smith’s book, Integral Christianity, has a wonderful chapter, “The Shadow Knows,” describing the 3-2-1 shadow process and his own journey with Jesus and healing.
Click here to purchase a copy if you don’t already have it—or if you do pull it off your shelf and revisit chapter 16.
Engaging in Disabusing Evil
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Holistic Attending to Our Spheres of Influence
So then how do we live?
“Spheres of Influence” refers to the areas of our lives we can make an impact through our presence and actions. As we seek to integrate spiritual practices and learnings into our everyday lives, we are invited to consider how these lessons, practices, and ways of being can influence the world around us.
We invite you to consciously reflect on how you might embody disabusing evil in your life—in your local community, online spaces, or throughout the mystical cosmos.
From our integrated state of being, in harmony with a living and vibrant magic structure of consciousness, how might we dwell in divine vitality and show up in the world in ways that disabuse, disavow, and diminish evil?
Consider these spheres of influence and the invitations to specific intentions and enaction. You might consider going through each of these spheres with space for conscious reflection, perhaps journaling responses and intentions with each section. You can also share in this practice together with a WeSpace or small group, giving time for each sphere and then sharing with one another your reflections, recognized shadows, and held intentions.
🕯️ Personal Sphere (I):
Disentangle your roots
Where do you sense and recognize ways you have been sourcing from the force of the deficient magic structure?
Seeing the areas you need to stand apart from, set the intention to cut off from within yourself any contaminated energy sources while also rooting deeper into your truer source.
Acknowledge Shadow
Where might your singular perspective be limiting and insufficient?
Set the intention to hold your perceptions loosely, while also asking, “What is my part in this situation?”
💞 Relational Sphere (We):
Stop Feeding the Beast
Is there a situation or setting where you’ve been feeding the beast?
Set the intention to stop, root deeper into your divine vitality, and respond in a different way.
Acknowledge Shadow
Where do you see the forces of evil at play in your own group, your camp, your tribe?
Set the intention to look for ways you can be a mirror or even a prophetic voice—perhaps with humility and strength, curiosity and justice.
🌍 Global Sphere (All):
Love Our Enemies
Where do you see the abuses and persecutions of evil you will not accept or allow?
Set the intention to find your true voice, praying for your enemies, calling some to follow, and speaking in empowered truth from the force of our ever-present divine source.
Acknowledge Shadow
Where might we recognize the common shadows held by all of humanity?
Set the intention to be open to receiving the unseen wisdom and truth known only by nature and the cosmos, revealed in divine animation and participation when we enter into deeper participation with material reality in more-than-human consciousness. And, to receiving from our spirit guides that which we cannot see alone.
🌀 Evolutionary Sphere (Becoming):
Welcome the sphere of the possible future, where the roots of evil have shriveled and faded away, and the charge of divine vitality is flowing and alive from the magic structure of consciousness, enlivening and empowering a flourishing world.
Welcome the sphere of the past, where evil has not prevailed, and even where evil was given almost no footing to even take root. Draw upon these roots of the sacred past where divine life thrived and we lived in harmony and vitality.
Welcome the sphere of the now, where we can live with power and strength in the face of evil. May we stand apart and disavow; may we love our enemies and find our true voice; may we live from the creative force of generative mysticism and live into our divine vocation, making the world anew from our holistic, living communion.
Welcome the sphere of the eternal, where we can participate in the fundamental reality of life and spirit, underneath and beyond good and evil. Perhaps not only from the womb space, but from your whole integrated body, the full sphere of being, personal, communal, and cosmic, welcome the essence of Origin, the fullness of Omega, the wholeness of all undivided and present in our very midst.
“Open Heavens” – image by Dalmo Mendonça
DISABUSING EVIL BODY PRAYER
1. Empowered Stance
We start off where we left of in the Body Prayer of Resurrecting Hope…Standing in Power
“We come to find our true voice, rooted in the authentic divine power of our true source. It is about coming into the empowered, integrated consciousness of the fullness of our being, enlivened by the ever-present divine source as a real and felt force in any and every moment of our lives.”
Can you represent POWER with your body?
What might it look like, feel like, and SOUND like, to bring forth?
2. Dispelling Evil
We hold up our hands as an act of setting apart and disentangling from the roots of evil
“We stand deeply rooted in our own inner, divine power, and refuse to partake in the fight. We must see the fragmentation, the void, the absence and set it apart from ourselves, seeing the force for what it truly is. We stand apart from this energy source. We cut it off from within ourselves.”
Can we hold our hands out before us in a STOP to dispel, disavow, and disempower evil?
What might you be feeling drawn to stand firm apart from?
3. Rooted Arising
We root down, again and again, tapping into our true source, arising with inspired action and sacred response.
“We can root down into the great force of divine vitality and arise in harmony with our whole being as we are meant to live and be, with all of our ways of being and knowing attuned and present to what truly is—and what is emerging anew in this time. A deep source of divine vitality that inhabits a degree of enchantment which compels and inspires. And it has to take shape with empowered action that makes a difference, that taps into the creative force and life that is within each person.”
How does your body want to express this flow?
What shape does empowered action take?
4. Abiding in Divine Vitality
We reside confidently in who we are, posturing in wholeness, disabusing evil.
“We dwell in the hope and power of our authentic divine vitality, which transforms our lives and invites us into a stronger calling and inspiring divine vocation.”
How does your body want to express the trustful rest of abiding in divine vitality?
How might you want to move or remain in a posture of hope and openness?
5. Shadow Dance
We welcome bringing the unconscious into consciousness, and in turn the promise of removing the logs from our own eyes.
“In authenticity and honesty, with humility, we can seek to come to the truest perceptions we can manage, dispelling as much illusion and falsity as we can in all the ways we can—spiritually, psychologically, relationally. To do this well though, we must have a posture of being open and willing to do our deep shadow work.”
Can we stand before our own face in mirrored reflection, allowing spaciousness and acceptance to arrive?
What expressions of humility and receptivity arise now?
6. Illumination of Divine Vocation
We open up and welcome the light of the wholeness of our being.
“We come into a real and actionable divine vocation. From our divine vitality, we become divine makers in the world, living in a power and purpose so much greater and more meaningful than any distortion of false power. From this wholeness and living force, evil is disabused and dispelled of its false power.”
How might our body show us the movement of attending and offering, in each moment, and in the world, here and now?
Let these movements unfold within the embrace of the Communal We.
From the first posture to stepping into divine vocation, you are not alone.
These gestures are held by us all, echoing through the shared field of Becoming. These movements are not a fixed ritual, but a living vocabulary—gestures we can return to, alone or together, whenever we are called to respond to evil, shadow, truth, or the invitation to love.
This practice was WeCreated by Beth Biery & Luke Healy
All Images are open-source, used with permission, or created by ICN