I was raised with no particular religion, since my mother was a part of the hippy era, and my grandmother took me a few times to a Unitarian service, but that was it. In fact, our family was fairly biased against Christianity due to the p.c. stance that so many horrors have been done in the name of the religion. My first exposure to the Bible at all was in college, of course, only as literature and within the context of comparative religious history courses.
Side note: doing genealogy has revealed a huge number of pastors, clergy (and psychologists, the lay clergy) in my ancestry.
- pastor (8)
So the idea of fostering the Christ within, came to me through the Yule metaphors, that in the darkest time of the year, there is still a light to be fostered. And that the loving sentiments of Christ can be fostered within our nature, to essentially develop compassion.
At some point I must have heard about the idea that Christ was an Ascended Master, in a constellation of others. I think I was attracted to this way of viewing Him because I felt it gave a much more spiritual credence than the common rhetoric I was raised with of ".... oh sure, He was a good Man when he was on earth, an important figure in history."
Flash forward to my 30s, and I had a series of events that resulted in my moving from the city of Portland (population 600K) to a small town of The Dalles (population 15K). Long story short, I became involved in 12 Step groups, in town that I used to joke had churches on nearly every corner. In this time in my life I witnessed miracles of transformation in people who appeared to be very "down-and-out" to obtaining new leases on life, not of their own making.
One man in particular, that I was dating at the time, invited me to go to Bible Study, and I eventually chose to be baptised. I always continued to question which denomination I could be at home with, but something else was going on for me and that was a mystical relationship with Christ.
Christian Denomination Selector:
http://www.selectsmart.com/FREE/select.php?client=christiandenom
Every religion has a fundamentalist side, and a mystical side!
As an aside, the beautiful thing about 12 Step groups is I consider them to promote mysticism, not fundamentalism. You are encouraged to have your own relationship with whatever you understand your higher power to be, and it can change and transform, according to your own experience, not any external doctrine or dogma.
Anyway, during the time I attended my first church, I had a vision of Christ in a beautiful golden light, and I've always thought that light was more yellow than white.
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| The Yellow Christ (in French: Le Christ jaune) is a painting executed by Paul Gauguin in autumn 1889 in Pont-Aven. |
At some point in my 30s, I also became interested in A Course in Miracles (ACIM). If you are not familiar with ACIM, you may have heard of one of it's most famous proponents, Marianne Williamson. You can do the course (a daily lesson for one year) by email here.
I refer to ACIM as Christianity for Buddhists, and Buddhism for Christians. Two psychologists wrote the course, but it was really channeled. It is a full year of lessons, that are extremely metaphysical, but boil down to the idea that there is only fear and love, and that the true miracles are about forgivenesss.
Flash forward again, to when I began to learn Reiki (or got my first attunement, around Thanksgiving time of 2009). The reason I was awakened to seek out Reiki, was I had a miscarriage and my doctor recommended I get Reiki. During that session that I sought out, I was able to significantly heal the guilt and grief of that loss, or at least begin to. I immediately felt the spiritual power of the energy.
Later, I began to develop a certain clairvoyance, as many gifts are also developed along with Reiki attunement. I don't "see the future" but rather, see visual symbols and presences during session. Not only have I seen Christ, but also both Mary, the virgin and the Magdalene. I have seen other Angels, most often Michael and Metatron, all attending.
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