Path of the Warrior(ess), Natural Healer and Priestess/Spiritual Guide
I was doing a blog topic every month until January 2018, but was so busy last month that I did not do my topic, so I decided to place this topic here and do two this month.
I already have a page to the side here on this blog about this Path I walk and teach, but received more questions on this topic ... "a spiritual/mystical path" and how I have worked along this line. There were questions like ... do I still practice... how is it a life-long path... how do these different aspects of the path work...etc. In addition to reading this topic today, in which I talk a little about how I walk along this path, read the page to the side of this blog which talks about it more as well.
This path and its tools are very practical... the path itself is also mystical... it is both.
Once I got on this Path, I never stopped my on-going studies, training or my personal practices. This is now 25+ years since I first embarked on my personal/spiritual journey. I tell you this so you know I walk my talk... continue to learn and to do my daily 'practices' ... or what some yogis or other people may know of as 'sadhana'. I have a daily practice always ....even when it gets tough as it sometimes can ... which is also different for all of us.
I have had my own share of traumas, challenges, dark woods and difficult transitions. The tools I have found and have been taught work for me. Find a path that works for you and walk it ... even when it gets tough - especially when it gets tough...
The Spiritual path I walk is the Path of the Warrior(ess), Natural Healer and Priestess/Spiritual Guide. I spent over 10 years ... hours a day ... 6 days a week in classes training in Kung fu/ Chi Kung and its philosophies/healing. Once my teacher stopped teaching, I continued to develop myself in this Art by reflecting and continuing with my own practices ever since. So my core studies were in the philosophy, healing and the movements of what my teacher called a Kung fu Chi Kung Life System, as this is what I studied most and have never stopped learning or 'walking in this Way'.
Now, it is so integrated into my life that I see it as a lifestyle. At first we learn, then we practice, then we simply live this Way. To me, though, I never stop learning. It keeps me on my edge and I experience that there is always a deeper place to go or another layer of understanding or 'unveiling' ... whether it is on the physical, mental/emotional or spiritual aspect of our 'Being'.
I spent time with other Movement Arts and master/teachers in order to expand my understanding of these movement-oriented Arts and was interested in their relation to one another. For many years I also studied, continued to work with various healing modalities, and worked with individuals on their healing journeys as a part of my Natural Healer training. I spent many years in 'Priestess studies'... developing this aspect of myself and learning how to apply these things to what I already do. These three aspects are all inter-related and part of the same Path. Once you walk it, you experience this for yourself.
These three areas are not something we 'reach an end to'...like my Kung fu/Chi Kung and Yoga practices... which I integrate into my every day. They are all on-going and lifelong learning aspects. They all relate to one another when you walk a spiritual path of this nature... they integrate very well when done in a certain way.
On the Path I walk and teach, the Warrior/Warrioress, Natural Healer and Priestess/Spiritual Guide... are aspects we develop and continue to master over a lifetime. Walking and learning in this way through life not only offers me tools with which I am able to assist myself during challenging times, it enables me to assist others as well.
As the page I wrote already on this blog (look to the side bar) on The Path of the Warrior(ess), Natural Healer and Priestess/Spiritual Guide, these three aspects are things we learn in an on-going way... they don't really separate in the end, they integrate into a whole, and we can see how they interconnect and truly are a part of each other and ourselves ...all through the training. Even if we may spend time focussing on learning along a healing line or a priestess line for some time, we are still doing all three at the same time.
Yes, I have spent many years and much of my time doing these things. You can walk this path to the degree and depth you choose to. Depending on how you walk it (as well as your own unique characteristics as a person), you will attain various levels of understanding and attainment.
I highly recommend walking a Spiritual Path as a tool for those who have experienced trauma... but truly for anyone, as the benefits are too numerous to describe!
So many times I tell people... find a path that works for you... yes, the path I walk is a true path... no, it is not the only one. Simply be aware of whether your path or 'Way' is working for you or not. In order to determine this, you can ask yourself what you desire to attain through Walking a Path .. then, after some time on it, ask yourself if you are attaining that. If not... ask if you are walking it as it was taught ... if so, and you are applying things as taught consistently for some time but you are not getting the results you were looking for, then it may not be the true path for you. Also ask... 'am I realistic in what I desire to attain?'
The path I walked involved studying several different paths... but they all were applicable to my core Path. Anything I studied was always interconnected to the Kung fu/Chi Kung Way of the Warrior(ess), Natural Healer and Priestess. I saw how everything I did and studied related to this Way. The path I took involved various studies which led me to understand the common roots of all true paths. If you find one 'true' path and walk that way deep enough you will also come to know all 'true paths' and what they have at their core. The point is to go deep enough in order to get to that place of understanding and experience. It is a very personal thing.
Some of us seek out the truth via the 'many ways to the one'... others go from the 'one way to the many'. In the end, if we walk a true spiritual path, we can get to the same 'place'. I use the word 'true' to emphasize a path which will lead you to where you desire to go when you were first seeking it out...
Right after my previous blog this month blog went on, I received some questions about a 'true spiritual path'... I will write more on this one day but I came back in here and answered you briefly...
Yes... as some of you have already noted and told me about from your own disappointments and experiences... some places will not take you where you thought you were going! These places are not what I call a 'True Spiritual Path' ... very likely due to the fact that the ones teaching it or passing it on never got to the place you are looking to go in your journey. It may also be that you are not able to move further due to some place in which you are stuck personally. Keep going.
Some paths are 'diluted' ... this can also occur when those who learn to a certain point and then go out and teach have not attained the same level perhaps as that original 'path' once had. Then this continues to dilute more and more and more as those students go out and teach as well. Most of these 'paths' have many wonderful things to teach ... however, this is now generally speaking and often ends up being diluted to only physical or basic mental/emotional tools and techniques... they may lack some important aspects which are needed in order to move deeper.
Paths of this sort can take you up to a certain point in your development... and this may be a great way to start... but if you are seeking what I am referring to, you will eventually plateau and then begin to ask once again "Is this all there is to this Way?"
One of the benefits I gained by maintaining a deep core 'Path' while also studying other paths, is that I learned a great deal about 'paths' from first-hand experience. I went deep enough in my own work that I could easily see the 'problems' in certain places due to experience. For example, I began to be able to know when a teacher said something that was not accurate, and could see how this then got passed onto other unknowing students who passed on the same inaccurate statements. I was quite shocked, but realized quickly that this is human nature. Look around... inaccurate information is passed on everywhere... from beliefs to inaccurate facts and so on. Spiritual paths are no different.
This is why discernment is a very vital ability to develop... But this is so unique to the individual. You will know this when you begin to question it yourself. Not everyone does, of course. It's just the way it is... very individual... always has been.
"You can lead a (dehydrated) horse to the water, but you can't make them drink."
