The topic of manifestation these days can feel like a slippery slope. All of a sudden when the law of attraction became mainstream knowledge, we  learned that we supposedly have the power to manifest anything we want in our lives. Seems like the world should be our oyster, right? Well, not exactly. I would venture to say that on the topic of the law of attraction I am on the same boat as Chief Laughing Cloud (Shiloh Sophia) with a few more twists and turns of my propeller. According to my understanding of the law of attraction, what we are attracting is what we are vibrating (energetically). Then all we have to do to manifest what we want is to “pretend” we already have it (because by divine law we are all infinite beings and therefore are capable of manifesting anything), get into the vibration of what it FEELS like to already have what we KNOW we don’t really have. Then once we are in this supposedly blissful state of “having it” we are supposed to let go of any attachment to actually having it. Cause if we don’t  let go of an attachment to the outcome, then we are still vibrating with scarcity, that is, coming from a place of energetically not having it (which we know that we don’t). Okay,  so that is just the beginning of the hitches that it turns out are part of this whole law. And there is another hitch. We can be vibrating something on a conscious level but our unconscious fears and blocks are the ones that are really running the show, so if we haven’t dealt with those, then we might end up getting the opposite of what we truly want. Does it sound like I’m talking in circles here?

Then there are all the scary implications that go along with this whole philosophy, as Chief LC mentioned in her article.  If I’m not manifesting what I want, then what am I doing wrong? And if something really bad happens to me, is it my fault? Not to mention the fact that there are those days when for me “I just want what I want,” and I don’t want to have to do any psychic somersaults or jumping through hoops to get what I want. Do you know what I mean?

Does this mean that I think that you have no power over your own life? No definitely not. Don’t get me wrong, I play the manifestation game like everyone else, and I am rather a good manifester, if I do say so myself. BUT my methods do not follow the rules of the law of attraction. I think the “law of attraction” is an oversimplification of the process of manifestation that has become more focused on an ego-based fulfillment of our dreams rather than a soul-based practice that enriches our lives.

So let’s talk about a soul-based practice that is powered by intentional creativity and a connection to SPIRIT. As a member of this wild and wondrous tribe and a great believer in the power of intentional creativity, I do believe that we have the ability to co-create a juicy, ALIVE, awake and legendary life. Do we always manifest everything we desire and does it always show up the way we expect? Well, no, not even close. And is it our fault if things don’t work out? I would have to concur with Shiloh on this, that no it is not.

Here are just a few of my observations and conclusions about soul-based manifestation. Your desires are  treasures and they hold a cornucopia of clues that can assist you in the yanking, pulling, receiving, flirting, flouncing, pulling, jerking, flipping, tugging, wrenching, jiggling, plucking, and oh, did I forget visioning and intending(?!!!) dance of manifestation that you do with the Universe. So let’s play with your desires for a bit. In my extensive research into the topic of manifestation, I have discovered that there is a “sea of infinite wisdom” contained in each want, desire, whim, fancy, wish, impulse and craving. Manifestation becomes far more easeful and graceful when we are in alignment with our soul’s purpose and in service to the highest good of all, including our own healing journey. Desires are clues to your soul’s true longing, but alone they are not necessarily what they appear to be. Unpacking and unraveling them is the place where you can come to truly know your soul. Feel the exalted pull of your soul’s true longings, and then you know you are a little closer to the stardust of manifestation.

 

Let’s play with a real life example here so that you can have fun with this yourself. I’ll use myself as an example. I have this obsession with being in Maui, going to Maui and would love to manifest a lifestyle where I could spend about half the year or more there. I’d love to manifest a home near the ocean that would be beautiful and relaxing. When I desire something I play this game with myself of going on a “treasure hunt” of sorts into what are the desires that lie beneath what I think I desire. Truthfully most of time when we want the house or car or dress or whatever it is, it is not the object that we are after. It is the FEELING that we think we will get if we have that object. So the desire for more money may have at its core financial freedom and security, ease when paying bills, more time to relax and spend with your family, etc. I have spent a long time “unpacking” my desire to be in Maui and will continue to do so. Some of what I have discovered is that I truly desire the feeling I have when I am there. A feeling of being more connected to my body and Mother Earth and to the cycles of nature and therefore more at ease and in less physical pain. I find it healing to be there and that is also what I want more of. I find it easier to be mindful and in a place of graceful momentum. So I then ask myself, knowing that right now I am here in San Francisco, what can I choose in my life right NOW that brings me more of the feeling that I have when I am there? I can make choices that bring me more peace and connection to nature in my daily life and while the swimming pool at the JCC is not the ocean, I find that choosing this as my form of daily exercise, relaxation and meditation, I am actually able to transport myself to that feeling to some degree. While I still intend to manifest the home in Maui, I am happier here for now, choosing also to have faith that the Universe will bring me the true soul desire that lies beneath it and surrendering to the divine timing. I am even open to the possibility that the Universe may surprise me and bring me something better or different. Perhaps another home or a move right now would create more and not less stress. As you can see, unpacking my desire has allowed me to enter into a process of clarifying what I truly long for and has also inspired me to make healthier choices and changes in my life AND to find more happiness in my current life.

When we are looking to manifest something really big it can be very overwhelming. What I find most helpful is to remember SARK’s advice about micro-movements. Take baby steps every day and plant seeds and once you have “manifested” the momentum for your dream, it is far easier and more graceful to just connect with the energy of that momentum and then, all of a sudden, the Universe is bringing you delightful synchronicities and surprises. Being in alignment with your soul’s true purpose is, in my opinion, a golden key to manifestation of this kind. I’ve thought about writing out the ABC’s of manifestation and perhaps I will but this article is already far too long, and I have more that I want to share with you! My formula goes something like this; Alignment with your soul’s true purpose + desire + gratitude + momentum + intention + surrender= manifestation. One of my favorite books on soul-based manifestation is “Hiring the Heavens” by Jean Slater, A Practical Guide to Developing a Working Relationship with the Spirits of Creation. It is an easy and quick read and full of great ways to engage celestial helpers.

Intention is  an astounding tool when it comes to manifestation and what I truly love is that I continue to learn more and more about its power every day.  I came across a book called The Intention Experiment by Lynne McTaggart, and it rocks my world. If you have not yet heard of it or read it, I highly recommend it. It is an exploration of the science of intention and it is a mind blowing journey into the study of thoughts and human consciousness and how you can improve your life and change the world. She offers great information on “intention practices” with clear and specific guidelines to strengthen your intention skills. What I find very intriguing is the perspective that it is a “skill” that can be learned and improved with practice. And yes it is a choice and it is a practice. I also appreciate a book that confirms what my intuition tells me: thoughts and intentions can alter physical reality. I came across an interview with Lynne McTaggart and was particularly struck with what she said about the work of Dr. John Diamond in relationship to people being weakened by the negative thoughts of others and how this relates to our Cosmic Cowgirls culture. Lynne states: ” I like the work of Dr. John Diamond, who was the father of behavioral kinesiology. He found that there’s only one thing that prevents people from being weakened by negative thoughts, and that is what he calls the “homing thought,” which is the sense of what you were put on this earth to do. It’s the thing you do that transcends everything. If you keep that in mind when you’re bombarded by someone’s negative thoughts, that makes you strong.” What keeps us strong is being in alignment with our soul’s true purpose so when we distill it down to this, perhaps when we desire to manifest something we might ask: “Is this in alignment with my soul’s true purpose or what part of it is and what part of it isn’t?”

That brings me to the topic of energy clearing. Manifestation for me, is also about creating a life where I am more of who I truly am and where I am clear of limiting beliefs and energy programs that block me from becoming that. Another great tool that I have discovered in my travels is energy clearing as taught by one of my great teachers and mentors, Christie Marie Sheldon. If you’d like to learn more about these techniques, come on over to my Facebook page, the Palace of the Soul, where I have posted Energy Clearing Recipes or message me on Facebook and I’d be happy to send you these. Here is the link for my page https://www.facebook.com/ThePalaceOfTheSoul.

I realize that this article has jumped around quite a bit and perhaps not so gracefully moved through musings on the law of attraction, desire, your soul’s purpose, the science of intention and energy clearing. It has been challenging for me to write on this topic and perhaps I have taken you through too much territory. Know my intention has been to offer you many of the discoveries and tools I have learned about that will assist you on your own inquiry into the topic of manifestation. And it is my prayer you will find something here that will resonate for you and you will take what you need and leave the rest.

 

Truthfully one of the most brilliant and beautiful mystics of all time, RUMI, got it right when he said, “The gist is: whatever anyone seeks, 
that is seeking the seeker.”  I will leave you with the beauty of this poem, one of the treasures I discovered on my journey into this topic.

Desire and the Importance of Failing

A window opens. 
A curtain pulls back.

The lamp of lovers connect, 
not at their ceramic bases, 
but in their lightedness.

No lover wants union with the Beloved 
without the Beloved also wanting the lover.

Love makes the lover weak,
 while the Beloved gets strong.

Lightning from here strikes there. 
When you begin to love God, God 
is loving you. A clapping sound 
does not come from one hand.

A thirsty man calls out, ‘Delicious water,
where are you?’ while the water moans, 
’Where is the water drinker?’

The thirst in our souls is the attraction 
put out by the Water itself.

We belong to It,
 and It to us.

God’s wisdom made us lovers of one another. 
In fact, all the particles of the world 
are in love and looking for lovers.

Pieces of straw tremble 
in the presence of amber.

We tremble like iron filings
 welcoming the magnet.

Whatever that Presence gives us 
we take in. Earth signs feed. 
Water signs wash and freshen. 
Air signs clear the atmosphere. 
Fire signs jiggle the skillet, 
so we cook without getting burnt.

And the Holy Spirit helps with everything, 
like a young man trying to support a family.
 We, like the man’s young wife, stay home, 
taking care of the house, nursing the children.

Spirit and matter work together like this, 
in a division of labor.

Sweethearts kiss and taste the delight
 before they slip into bed and mate.

The desire of each lover is 
that the work of the other be perfected. 
By this man-and-woman cooperation,
 the world gets preserved. 
Generation occurs.

Roses and blue arghawan flowers flower. 
Night and day meet in a mutual hug.

So different, but they do love each other, 
the day and the night, like family.

And without their mutual alternation 
we would have no energy.

Every part of the cosmos is drawn towards its mate.
The ground keeps talking to the body, 
saying, ‘Come back! It’s better for you 
down here where you came from.’

The streamwater calls to the moisture in the body.
 The fiery aether whispers to the body’s heat,
 ‘I am your origin. Come with me.’
 Seventy-two diseases are caused 
by the various elements pulling inside the body. 
Disease comes, and the organs 
fall out of harmony.

We’re like four different birds, 
that each had one leg tied in 
with the other birds.

A flopping bouquet of birds! 
Death releases the binding, and they fly off, 
but before that, their pulling is our pain.

Consider how the soul must be, 
in the midst of these tensions, 
feeling its own exalted pull.

My longing is more profound.
The birds want sweet green herbs
 and the water running by.

I want the infinite! I want wisdom. 
These birds want orchards and meadows 
and vines with fruit on them.

I want a vast expansion.
 They want profit and security 
of having enough food.

Remember what the soul wants, 
because in that, eternity
 is wanting our souls!

Which is the meaning of the text, 
They love That, and That loves Them.

If I keep on explaining this, 
the Mathnawi will run to eighty volumes!

The gist is: whatever anyone seeks, 
that is seeking the seeker.

No matter if its animal,
 or vegetable, or mineral.

Every bit of the universe
 is filled with wanting, 
and whatever any bit wants, 
wants the wanter!

This subject must dissolve again.

Back to Sadri Jahan and the uneducated peasant 
who loved him, so that gradually Sadri Jahan 
loved the lowly man. But who really 
attracted who, whoom, Huuuu?

Don’t be presumptuous and say one or the other.
 Close your lips. The mystery of loving 
is God’s sweetest secret.

Keep it. Bury it. Leave it here
 where I leave it, drawn as I am 
by the pull of the Puller 
to something else.

You know how it is. Sometimes
 we plan a trip to one place, 
but something takes us to another.

When a horse is being broken, the trainer 
pulls it in many different directions, 
so the horse will come to know
 what it is to be ridden.

The most beautiful and alert horse is one 
completely attuned to the rider.

God fixes a passionate desire in you,
 and then disappoints you.
 God does that a hundred times!

God breaks the wings of one intention
 and then gives you another, 
cuts the rope of contriving, 
so you’ll remember your dependence.

But sometimes your plans work out!
 You feel fulfilled and in control.

That’s because, if you were always failing, 
you might give up. But remember, it is by failures that lovers 
stay aware of how they are loved.

Failure is the key 
to the kingdom within.

Your prayer should be, “Break the legs 
of what I want to happen. Humiliate 
my desire. Eat me like candy.
 It’s spring and finally 
I have no will.”

(Mathnawi, III, 4391 – 4472)

From: Feeling the Shoulder of the Lion,
 Translated by Coleman Barks

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