As we contemplate the glory of the Essential Self in the Inner Sanctuary and allow it to incarnate more fully within us, the local self, weary of its compulsive behavior, becomes ever more magnetized toward the Beloved. It feels pleasure in the presence of this beneficent, loving energy that draws it forward like a baby to its mother's breast. At this stage the local, egoic personality self becomes so enchanted with the experience of its Essential Self that it freely, voluntarily, even joyfully, chooses to surrender its dominance. It invites the Beloved Essential Self to enter in the whole way, to take dominion within its “household of local selves,” the many subpersonalities or aspects of the local self.
There is a time in the life of a newborn infant when it starts to be more comfortable with its physical body. It opens its eyes and learns to coordinate itself—nursing, eliminating, smiling. So, too, as newly emerging Universal Humans, we begin to feel more at home within ourselves, making a conscious choice to come in the whole way as who we really are.
The Story…
On a personal level, I began to feel the excitement and fulfillment of a passionate, inner love affair. There was the joy of homecoming, of being “mother” to myself, losing the orphaned feeling I have had since Mother's death. I realized I'd never had a motherly influence in my life from that time forward. I had been a mother of five, and wife, editor, and helper to my husband, and I had passionately loved my work and the work of so many others, but I had never regained a motherly influence in my own life. Now I was about to become mother to myself.
Finally, with the invitation from my local self to the Beloved to take dominion, “mother” came home and held the wounded child in her embrace.
In the journal, the words came:
You have put this purpose first. You built the Inner Sanctuary and placed your attention on me. Through that attention you, local self, substantiated me. You called me in. This process requires that I, the Beloved, be invited by the local self. This is the meaning of free will. This is the meaning of personal conscious evolution. This is the substance of the transformation open to every human being on Earth. I am now, by grace of your choice, to give you the reward.
The reward is union with me, the ever-present, ever-loving, and all-knowing divine self of every human being on Earth. Rest your attention in me so that I can infuse you minute by minute with the elixir of the substance that actually does transubstantiate and transfigure you.
I knew a phase change in my process was occurring. First I had consciously created the space for something new to happen. Now I was experiencing that something new as the incarnation of the Beloved, the Essential Self, the God-self. There came a point when I realized that I, local self, wanted to fully dissolve my own identity. I no longer could stand being separate. My local self made a momentous decision.
In the Inner Sanctuary, one morning, I deliberately created a new ritual—the Invitation to Take Dominion. I prepared the inner space and began my meditation as usual. Then solemnly, as though preparing for a marriage, I, as my local self, lifting my attention to the Beloved, asked the presence of the divine to take dominion within me.
I freely gave up all domination as a local self. I realized that the illusion of separation was just that—an illusion. At that moment of invitation, like a bride preparing for the bridegroom, I declared my heart's desire for union with the Beloved. From this point on there was no turning back to the separated self, no returning to my past life of striving. The invitation to the Essential Self to take dominion is the greatest single choice I ever made since I had said yes to my vocation. I asked that the union be consummated in me eternally.
The Guidance…
When we make the choice to invite our Essential Self to take dominion within, we are, each of us, crossing the great divide from unconscious to conscious self-evolution. By this choice, we are transforming the nature of evolution, person by person, for evolution proceeds ever more by choice rather than by chance from this time forward.
This is the true meaning of conscious evolution at the personal level. Conscious evolution does not mean that we control evolution by human will alone. It means we humbly seek to be response-able, able to respond, to the deeper patterns of creation for ever-higher consciousness and greater freedom through more complex and synergistic order. It means we work with this awesome tendency in evolution, so often communicated through our inner voices urging us to transcend the limits of our personality and egoic needs.
With this choice to surrender to the dominion of the Essential Self, we set ourselves definitively on the gentle path to the next stage of our evolution. This is the way of love. This is the natural birth process of Universal Humans as we cross the threshold from our self-centered, self-conscious state of being into the next phase of our development.
In the Emergence Process, the local selves do not need to be forced to change; they desire it and long for their own ascension to a higher frequency because it feels so good. The pleasure principle is at work, attracting us to self-evolve, just as it attracts us to reproduce.
On this path there is no need to punish or deny the egoic, local self, whether within ourselves, personally, or in the larger world. There is forgiveness of the “sins” of the past. Sin is understood here to mean the illusion of separation from each other, from nature, and from Spirit.
As the illusion begins to fade within us, we can see that the root cause of our cruelty to one another and to other species comes from that illusion. When we actually feel the internal reconnection with the divine, not as an external deity but as an internal presence in resonance with the non-dual reality, or the Godhead, equally available within all, we naturally and spontaneously experience the “other” as an Essential Self, connected to the One Supreme Reality.
At the level of Essence, we are all aspects of the One, whereas as individual egoic personalities, we feel, and indeed often are, in a real struggle with one another.
From the vantage point of our evolving selves, we “forgive” our own behavior and that of others as we do of an upset child. Through the process of the incarnation of the Essential Self, the separation is gradually healed, and the childlike human matures to become a conscious participant in creation, that is, a young Universal Human.
I do not mean to imply that this is a quick and simple task, only that it is my experience that as it begins to happen to us, we naturally and spontaneously begin to love one another as part of ourselves. But until this kind of self-evolution spreads, there are still not enough people who feel this way, and therefore society, as it is now constructed, is based on separation and competition.
It is up to those who are evolving to create the social conditions, systems, and institutions that support the planetary shift. This is our task.
Our local selves are often very much like lost and wounded children who yearn to go home. This is the basis of my hope. The natural heart's desire of the separated self is reunion with the divine. We are like individual cells in the body of a planetary system undergoing its crisis of birth as a whole. And the crisis of our “birth”—the new conditions that limit one form of growth in the womb of Earth—is the trigger that will hasten the inner maturation of enough of us to shift the tide of history.
In other words, I see our own Emergence as a natural aspect of the planetary shift from one phase of evolution to the next. The path is to start by loving our own local selves and healing the separation between ego and Essence within ourselves. This is the feminine path to the future. It is guided by the feminine within us all, both women and men, for the love of all the children of Earth, its species, and nature herself.
This is time for the Divine Mother to rise up within us and to take her rightful place as co-equal co-creator with the Divine Masculine, which has so brilliantly given us the power to create and destroy, but who can no longer guide that power for us alone.
Let the noosphere, the thinking layer of Earth, sound a clarion call to its feminine voices of co-creation! Let the feminine co-creator, who understands these new powers, join with the masculine co-creator, to lovingly and ethically guide our new capacities to heal and evolve our world!
Releasing the Illusion of Separation
Prepare for the Beloved to take dominion by taking a moral inventory to deliberately release whatever you no longer choose to have happening in your life. (In my case, it was my compulsive, workaholic fear of failure.) Record your answers. Realize that when the Beloved takes dominion, those experiences will no longer be dominant; our contracted local selves are lifted up and transformed.
At this stage we come to the realization that the local self, like an alcoholic, can no longer handle our life, yet there is a higher power that can, and we are ready to turn our lives over to that higher power, our Essential Self, connected incorruptibly to Source. In preparation for the Invitation, we take a moral inventory and prepare each aspect of our personality to release their illusion of separation. Record in your journal whatever you have received that you are now offering up to be dissolved.
Preparation for the Invitation
Now, in your meditation, prepare the Inner Sanctuary for a special event. Place your attention in the household of local selves, the ones who have been asking, seeking, and attempting to follow guidance. Raise your consciousness upward toward the Essential Self, readying yourself to invite the Beloved to take dominion within the household of all the selves—the anxious, the fearful, the driven.
Feel the Beloved radiating its presence upon the primal source of all fear—the great fall, fault, or chasm within, which is the illusion of separation of the human from the divine. Declare that you want to cast the light of truth upon the shadow, the unconscious source of fear within yourself. Normally, in our interactions with others, we radiate our best thoughts and intentions outward and receive energy back from others' responses to what we have given. In support of the Emergence Process, however, we can practice a different kind of interaction, which is consciously radiating the internal presence, the Beloved, inwardly rather than outwardly.
The Invitation to Take Dominion
Remember the attraction for the Beloved and keep returning to the contemplation of the glory of the divine Essence. Now you are ready for the actual Invitation to Take Dominion. This step is a sacred invitation. It deserves special time and attention. Prepare your Inner Sanctuary with flowers, candles, music, if you so choose. Or simply allow the silence to deepen. Give yourself whatever time you need. This is your inner wedding day. As your local self, focus your attention on your passionate desire for union with your own Essence, your feelings of love, of bliss, of joy at being safe and protected. Solemnly, make your vow to release the illusion of separation of your local self from your Essential Self. With all the power of the local self's yearning for the bliss of union, for the fulfillment of its desire for love, invite your Essential Self to come in the whole way, to incarnate. Slowly, deliberately, ask for a complete Union of the Human and the Divine within yourself. With dignity and presence, invite your Essential Self to take dominion. Allow the process to unfold. Experience every moment with heightened intensity. When you feel the reality of Essential Self entering into your being the whole way, rest in silence. Let it be. If possible, give yourself extra time after the ritual. Take long walks in nature. Be poised and expectant with a “beginner's mind,” no thoughts, no agenda, just innocence, openness, and love.
Journal
Take a moral inventory in preparation for offering your Essential Self the sacred Invitation to Take Dominion. Ask yourself what you no longer choose to have happen in your life. What are you now offering up to be dissolved? Record your answers.
What inspires your local selves to want to surrender their control and release their illusion of separation?
Declare your heart's desire for union with the Beloved.
Offer in sacred ceremony the Invitation to Take Dominion.
Describe how the ceremony unfolds. What is the experience like as your Essential Self takes dominion within the “household of local selves”?
Be aware as you write that you are recording your own inner scripture. Take your time. Nourish yourself. Allow inspiration to flow through you.
Highlight any inspired insights so you can reread them as you would beloved scripture or poetry.