Unworthy of the Holy Mind?

 Joy is all there is. Anything else is a preoccupation of the ego, unworthy of your holy mind.

Doreen Virtue ( many years ago before the transition)

I am thinking of Doreen Virtue's transition from what is roughly deemed as "new age" to her fundamentalist Christian beliefs. She introduced me to this concept of talking to "my angels"...well not really...as an Irish Catholic, I grew up saying the Gaurdian angel prayer every night....but she got me talking and even writing to my gaurdian angels everyday. (This is the first time I shared that in public in fear of being seen as a "woo-woo crazy lady"  lol. a little too late for that eh?) 

What a transition she has made.  Growing up in the metaphysical realm of understanding, becoming a psychologist, and from there going off in search of even  more metaphysical connection  she has become an icon in the spiritual self-help movement. Though she focused on the metaphysical, she never initally rejected the dogma of the religions that surrounded her. She embraced all religions, seeing one path to God. Though I only touched the fringes of her teachings because I myself was much too skeptical, for some reason, what she said and wrote resonated in me, in many ways. Thus my writing in a devotional journal since 2014, entitled "Dear Angels..." Now, she has renounced and denounced everything she has ever taught. This left me very confused.

Hmm! Well today, after being encouraged to connect to these angelic forces by Laura Lynn Jackson, the author of Signs I reopened that journal to my first entries in that devotional...which ironically started this time of the month 11 years ago. Every early entry began with an angel message from one of her books...and they were beautiful messages, getting past the shame, fear, despair that fills the human psyche and touching something within me. They "felt" true and real. Much truer than many of the messages I got from my own religion and the related scripture and dogma. 

Preoccupation with ego?

As I was reading her old messages I couldn't help but wonder how she went from such a loving, unconditional approach and  connection with the Divine to such a fear and shame based one. I did some research (and I do not know anything but) I see it was fear that brought her where she is now. I believe from what I read that it was ego that brought her into the public eye as a spiritual teacher and it was ego ...a very broken, paranoid, and fearful one...that brought her to where she is now. She was preoccupied with ego!

Huh?

No doubt the "New Age " movement is an ego based one. It is a multi billion dollar industry for a reason...things, including people, need to be promoted and sold. There is a population out here grasping for meaning and willing to buy up what is being sold. Many, many teachers get into this movement to reap  the rewards of the industry. Ego is very, very much active in many of these teachers...even the teachers I love to listen to, even the ones who may have been truely divinely inspired and gifted. So, when ego is involved there is bound to be ego inflation. When egos are inflamed in this material world where everything is at one's bidding...it is easy to get lost ...as many do. Teachers can lose touch with their internal motivations for the splendor of material success. That doesn't mean that some of them  didn't start out "connected" to something deeper.  Doreen Virtue started off experiencing the metaphysical understanding of things. From what I read I never heard her say that everything she said she experienced was a lie. She never said she was not gifted as a medium...she just said she discovered from reading a passage in Deuteronomy that it was a sin to use those gifts. They were evil. I immediately had visions of women with such gifts being burned at the stake. Who determines it is a sin?  The Bible or a patriarchal society?

I do not take the bible quite as literaly as a fundamentalist Christian might.  I see how open for interpretation and human intervention it is. So much was lost in translation, so much was lost and so much was removed in order to serve who...God or man? 

My open mind...my analytical mind...my love of science mind...my "Holy Mind" will continue to question anything metaphyiscal but I will often ask myself...what teaching, what belief, what understanding "feels" more real. In this case...her old teaching or her new? What do you think I might choose? What is truly unworthy of the Holy Mind?

Anyway...I pray for an understanding of Truth for all beings. May she find peace where she is now.

All is well.