If you receive Reflections, you know that I offer spiritual direction. I’ve also written about it here a few times. As I return to the flow of the The Way of the River, I find I want to be clear about some things.
- Having a spiritual director does not mean that you are “directed” by that person. On the contrary, spiritual direction is about you finding your sense of direction, your way in the world.
- Which brings me to a second point. The heart and soul of spiritual direction is listening. The director listening to you, and your listening to your own deepest self, where you may find your own sense of the Most Sacred–what is of greatest value to you–lives and speaks.
- Everyone has something in their lives that offers them guidance. Everyone has something that they hold close as their greatest value. Some people name that guidance gnosis. Some people call the guide God. Others have faith in the power of human potential or in the healing energy of Earth. Many of us have a combination of these ways of being and moving through our lives. My practice as a spiritual director honors all these ways and more.
- Given that folks have all kinds of ways of engaging the Most Sacred, it clearly follows that we will have all kinds of institutional relationships. Some of us have no relationship with any kind of religious or spiritual institutions. Others of us are active in our religious communities. Some of us are committed leaders or clergy in our traditions. My practice honors all these relationships and more.
Who am I?
How can I make these claims? How do I dare to say I can honor all these ways? I do not have a certificate or degree in spiritual direction, so who am I to offer to companion you along your way?
I make these claims because I mean them and stand by them.
I make these claims because I have drunk from many deep wells of spirituality and religion, both.
I have been a mystic agnostic–knowing that my experiences were powerful and undeniable, and yet not been willing to claim I know their origin to be Divine.
I am a Priestess of the Third Degree in the tradition of Stone Circle Wicca, now in the process of founding SCW’s west-coast cousin.
I have graduated from Wesley Theological Seminary with my MDiv, and am a fellowshipped and ordained minister in the Unitarian Universalist tradition.
I love poetry and art and music and dance. I love Earth and Her creatures and systems and ways.
I have studied spiritual direction and mentorship in different contexts since 1999–Roman Catholicism, interfaith Paganism, and Wicca have all contributed lessons.
I am Here for You
“Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination.” ~~Mary Oliver~~
I am not the world. I am not Earth. I am one Earth-being offering to move with you through the ways the world offers itself to your imagination.
I am offering to help you discern your right life….to help you listen to what your life is saying to you.
If you are interested in a further conversation–free of charge, of course–about what work we might do together, please use the Contact Me page and we’ll talk.
Blessings of love on you and your house — Catharine