It took me quite some time to find an image that felt just right, for the background of my blog cover page. It had to be an apple orchard, and there is a very good reason why. It was in an apple orchard, where, at about the age of 7, I first experienced the Divine.
Over the back fence and beyond the fields behind my childhood home, stood the remains of an ancient and once vast apple orchard. That orchard was 'my' place, and within it, 'my' special tree, a tree I went back to again and again for many years, to think, to play, to dream. It was a source of comfort, companionship, even love, for me. It was my friend, a sacred sister, rooted in holy ground. It was my 'anam cara', a Gaelic word meaning 'soul friend' I had discovered, written down and tucked away with a quiet knowing that it somehow held some special significance for me.
Most importantly, it was there that I first experienced the Presence of the Divine.
I carried this deep and innate sense of the sacredness of apple trees and apple orchards into my adult life, but it wasn`t until 1991, when I started my quest for the feminine face of God, that I began to understand the why of this deep affinity, and how the Divine begins to lay the stones of our life`s path from very early on.
Some years earlier, I had written, entirely in flow, a fairy tale called "Rhadra and the Rainbow Fish", and was told by a scholar who studied these things, that there were many symbols and hidden meanings in it. So I began to research archetypal symbolism in fairy tales, mythology and folklore, and was awestruck to discover that the apple tree had long been held as the representation of the Goddesses`sacred heart of immortality, and of transformation through the feminine energy of the Universe.
I began to deeply explore ways of discovering my soul`s purpose in this life and world, voraciously studying everything I could get my hands on, on the subject, eventually developing a course aimed at helping others discern God`s Presence and Call in their lives.
Another deeply imprinted sense of the sacred came to me through my Celtic roots. So when I discovered the great significance of the apple for the Celts, who called their after-life paradise 'Avalon', meaning 'Apple-land`, a place ruled by the triple Goddess whose priestesses chose as their place of worship the holy ground of the apple orchards, I felt I had reclaimed another piece of my soul's story. I knew then that the concept of ancient ancestral memory being carried at the cellular level, was for me, more than a theory. It was a profound personal truth. As an artist, singer and healer, I have found great joy in producing images and sounds that spring out of my Celtic inheritance.
My life-long relationship with God that started with those early conversations in my childhood apple tree, eventually led, in 2000, to a discernment of a Call to the ministry. But what kind of ministry?... Ordination via a Masters of Divinity seemed too traditional an approach for me, and besides it was years away. Other approaches such as Matthew Fox's University of Creation Spirituality in Berkley California seemed too radical, and besides, it was too far away.
Then one day I came across a calendar from the Vancouver School of Theology, and noticed a course called "Spiritual Direction". Thinking that it sounded interesting, I sent away for more information and in a few days received a booklet about the course. I opened it up and read the introductory description:
" We are living in an axial moment in the history of the planet. In such a moment the ancient ministry of 'soul-friending'-- 'anam cara' is being recovered, (anam cara! rang through my mind as I read on...) providing a process in which persons or groups meet with a soul friend, in order to discern deeply and faithfully, God's Presence and Call"
I closed the booklet, revealing on the back cover the logo for the Spiritual Direction course... a Celtic cross in the shape of an apple tree. I had been shown the next step on my path. Thank you Divine. I am blessed.
Today, 14 years later, I am more deeply connected to the Divine Presence and the soul's voice than I ever thought possible, because in 2009, I listened, and my soul led me to Master Sha. I am deeply humbled and honoured to now be a Divine Channel in training, to become a representative of this Great Teacher, something I never dreamed possible. I am so grateful to God for all that I have been given, for directing my soul, heart, mind and body, to where I am today, and to be able to serve others.
I hope through my blog, you too will look through the stories of your life, both past and present, to see how the voice of your own soul is speaking to you, and that this will help you to more clearly discern and follow that Voice... the 'still small Voice', which is with us always, to guide and help us.
