Becoming Intimate with Divine Reality
ICN Living Lineages Series – Beloved Community
This week’s rhythm of loving evolution: Becoming
We engage in processes of becoming to deepen the transformative work and play of evolution, participating in our growth from divine being, as God is beckoning us here and now.
The Becoming offerings below invite us into personal and communal deepening in our divine becoming. They can be practiced in WeSpace groups and our daily lives today and throughout the week ahead. Rather than one-time experiences, we encourage ongoing and repeated practice to better support our growth and evolution.
If you missed it last week, we encourage you first to read the Beckoning article informing these processes:
Our Vital Need for Spiritual Intimacy
Spiritual intimacy is a great gift and a vital, generative need in these times. Rather than simply a way to feel good about ourselves and find security in deep connection (though there’s nothing wrong with that!), it is also one of the primary pathways through which evolutionary emergence seeks to flow.
As Bonnitta Roy put it, “a group of wise people tethered through intimacy is the most powerful problem-solving system in the universe!”
However, if we might expand that just a bit, even more powerful is the generative potency found in the spiritual intimacy incorporating the fullness of the divine reality of beloved community.
For our becoming invitation this week, we are invited into pathways of deepening intimacy with both one another, and—in the cosmotheandric wholeness of our beloved community—with spirit guides and living nature/material reality.
Following the Allure of Communion
The following process is a way to welcome deeper spiritual intimacy in direct experience.
In this approach, we recognize that as we come from the ground of trust, and with growing capacity for connecting, we can become more attuned to perceiving the allure of communion. This arises both from an inner attraction in ourselves and with a growing sensitivity to the magnetism coming from “another” toward us.
Again, this allure exists in more than just human relations. It can be felt moving throughout the fullness of the divine reality of our beloved community, including with spirit guides and with forms of nature. In this spirit, our practice invites us into the potentiality of integrating more holistic communal relationships of intimacy and life-giving companionship.
Opening to the Allure – First Movements
This practice is best done in a setting where you can physically go into nature, but can also be done as an inner visualization if necessary.
Begin by setting your intention to be open to a deepening of spiritual intimacy, either in a new relationship or with somebody or a group already known to you. Don’t pre-determine who this will be. Rather, this time ahead will be an opening to whoever, whatever might arise for us to commune with.
Starting in the place you are, welcome this intention in whatever way you form it within yourself.
When you are ready, begin moving from the place you are now (either physically or in spirit). As you begin to travel slowly, let yourself be open to moving in whatever direction you intuitively feel drawn without predetermining your path. Even if there is a trail or direction you usually follow, let yourself feel open to being drawn in a different way. Trust your body and soul intuition.
You can also trust your embodied senses. Is there a smell or sound that draws you in a certain direction? Maybe a glimmer of light or passing bird that catches your eye? Be open to the allure touching into any of your physical senses along with your intuitive guidance.
You are now on your way, having taken the first step in openness to being with more deeply.
Allure from Nature
On your journey, hold an inner posture of sensitivity and receptivity. You are welcoming, with openness of mind and spirit, the freedom to notice an arising of perception that feels like an allure.
It may come from within your own being, like an inner attraction toward a direction. Or it may feel like it is coming from somewhere beyond your own body, like an outer force drawing you toward something.
And, eventually, this inner turning or honing focus will move toward a particular “being” of nature. It may be a tree, a plant, a flower, a rock, a cloud, a butterfly, a bird, a blade of grass, a flowing stream, or any other “body” of nature.
As you approach, first honor and respect the sovereignty of this being. ICN community member Gisela Steenbuck describes how she does this:
“Once we realize that every being in nature, the trees, plants, microorganisms, animals, the earth we walk on are living beings with their own rights, the attitude of respect, care and love grows. I don’t know better than showing this attitude other than approaching i.e. a tree with the politeness and respect I learned in the human world. I introduce myself, ask for permission to come closer or to touch, I am interested “how are you doing?”, I listen, I feel into the experience of the tree and into her divine nature. On leaving I say good-bye and thank you. This way I hope adds the love and care-based attitude to the interaction. The prayer into greater intraconnection and oneness is thus expressed in the concrete encounter.”
How you approach, engage, and commune with one another will be determined by the nature of your relationship and the ways of “getting to know each other” emerge out of your meeting. You can treat the moment just as you would “a first date,” but with a slight difference.
Nature gifts us with the grace of receiving and entering into communion with us without pretense, without persona, and even perhaps without the “separation” we may be bringing to the meeting.
As we welcome the authentic communion between and among us, we can “meet” from this deeper place within us, opening to the true intimacy that is already present.
Stay with each other in whatever way feels right, for as long as feels right. Allow yourself to simply enjoy communing with no need to rush or move on too soon.
If it feels fitting, you might consecrate your communion with a sacred touch.
Just one example of this would be the familiar practice of hugging a tree—though the form of touch that arises from the sense of communion can be unique and born out of the relationality between you. Let the allure guide you into what feels right and appropriate.
Here is one example of how Abby Wynne in Energy Healing Made Easy describes her approach to hugging a tree. You can apply principles here to any form of nature.
"Go to your tree – either in real life or in your mind. The tree is bigger than you; walk right up to the trunk of the tree and connect with it – touch it, say hello with your energy to its energy. Notice how tall the tree is, how the trunk rises high above you, how the branches and leaves reach right up to the sky. Ask the tree if you can work with it [hug it]. (It's always polite to ask!) Imagine your energy is now merging with the tree, stretching up high with the branches, but also moving down, down deep to the root system.
In your mind, imagine yourself travelling down through the ground, the mud, the stone, with the tree, to the deepest, longest, strongest roots. How does this feel? Now you can imagine your energy wrapping itself around the root of the tree, so it can hold you deep down below the earth. Bring your focus of awareness back up to your body, leaving your energy down there, breathing out any fear, anxiety or heaviness you may be carrying. Feel your feet on the ground, feel yourself in your body fully, feel strong and tall and long like the tree.
Say thank you to the tree! Then you can either let the image dissolve away, or you can walk away, and you are grounded."
Before you leave from this space of communion, perhaps you feel something that you want to express, almost like a benediction or sacred expression of parting.
And/or, you may feel—from the allure—a receptivity to hearing what this being of nature might say or ask of you.
Be open to whatever they might bring forth!
Allure with Spirit Guides
In a similar way, as you journey, you may feel the allure arising, in you or from another, not only from nature but also perhaps from the spirit realm.
In this movement, there may be a surfacing of an inner desire you’ve had to meet someone in the spirit realm. It could be a spiritual master such as Jesus, Mary, or another spirit guide. It may be a spirit companion you already know or someone new. Perhaps an ancestor or ancient elder.
If you feel the allure to commune with a spirit presence—perhaps originating from the guide themself, but you don’t know who it is, you can take this approach:
Sense a direction to go toward. It may be a literal path or one in your mind’s eye.
Look toward this opening, waiting for a sense of noticing someone coming up the path. At first, they are too far away to identify.
As they get closer, you recognize them as the guide you have been waiting for. Seeing in the eye of your mind and with the feelings of your heart isn’t just playful fantasy. Instead, it creates a space for non-physical beings to enter and participate in the conversation with you. The key is to let this picturing process happen spontaneously so that new information comes through.
After welcoming their presence, begin the conversation—either with words or with simple presence. Assume your guide is present. Greet your spirit friend. Call them by name or ask their name if you don't know it already. You might say why you want to meet or ask why they came to you.
Learn about your spirit friend by asking them questions. Trust the first images, words, or feelings that come to you when you speak And seek your spirit companion and talk with them. The first response is nearly always the most relevant. The more you know about your guide, the easier it is to feel close. If you feel any distance with your guide, you can think about their life or what you know about them. This will help you feel more heart-to-heart with them. After you've become acquainted, you can bring up whatever you like or just be together in silence.
Again, stay with each other in whatever way feels right, for as long as feels right.
When the time together feels finished or they have given you all you can handle, feel free to end the encounter. Say what it meant to you. Similarly, you may ask if there is something they want to leave you with—a request, a parting word, or perhaps even a gift.
Thank the other and say goodbye for the time being.
Allure into Human Communing
Your journey my also bring you into an arising of the allure of human community. Perhaps a person or group comes to mind—or you end up encountering someone along the way. This may not be random or a distraction, but perhaps an invitation. Do you feel any allure?
Of course, our human family is an integral part of the divine reality of our beloved community. As we open to the flow of living communion among us, who are you drawn toward in deepening spiritual intimacy?
Is there a relational movement or invitation into greater kinship arising here and now?
Or, from the deepening intimacy brought about through your experience so far—either with nature and/or spirit guides—how might you feel the integrative allure to weave your human community into an inclusive, expanding circle of communal intimacy?
Beloved Community flourishes through healthy and effusive mutuality, as we release self-referentialism, embrace precious personhood, and inhabit deeper connectedness with holistic trust, born out of spiritual intimacy.
Abiding as the field of love,
Attending from the ground of trust,
Here and now in the womb of spiritual intimacy.
Are there any commitments being asked of you or that you feel drawn to make with your intimates?
What calling for you, for us, is arising out of the allure of communion among us?
Statement of WeCreating Authorship
This article was WeCreated by Luke Healy, Kathy Leach, Allen Bourque, Beth Biery and Gisela Steenbuck.
All of the wisdom, creativity, and spiritual emergence in ICN comes from the communal field of wisdom and spirit speaking in and through the “We.”
All text in this article is human-authored without the use of AI, according to our AI policy: 0 out of 10
All Images are open-source, used with permission, or created by ICN using AI