Owning Wisdom and Power in Spiritualist Traditions.

This is not my usual post, as I don’t often talk about the shamanic side of Mediumship, mostly because it is misunderstood and misinterpreted by a predominately white european view of Mediumship. And yet, spiritualist traditions have a beautiful trajectory throughout the world, and a very strong root in the black, latin and indigenous communities. 

Last week I had a conversation with a wonderful priestess and friend that walks the same path I do in the African Diaspora Spiritualist traditions, Ambrozine Legare. We were puzzling over what happens when one steps up into owning our place in our traditions, and what that responsibility is like. It does kick one’s butt as it opens up a door to greater wisdom and knowledge. As women, we do not have many role models in a mostly male leadership situation with colonialized overtones. Women I feel have a different take on leadership, especially spiritual leadership. Here are my thoughts on that.

It’s our ego that tells us that we have to be “something” to be a spiritual leader. Most of us just know we are, at some level, and start acting like it. Some of us were acting like it all along and didn’t notice. Others of us have to be shown the way. However it happens, it is a calling, and it is not for everyone.

Once you step in the light of your destiny as a leader, you notice the fakery and hollow spirituality all around you. But don’t for one moment fall for the trap of thinking you are better than this or that person. What we are really noticing is how our own egos are at play in every situation. It is good to look at what doesn’t work. We find our own leadership that way. It is not judgmental to notice it if we take it to heart and learn from it. If we are not doing our own shadow work, confronting our ego through self-inquiry and psychological work to unmask that friend; then we risk losing our connection to our ancestors and our spiritual guidance. It is an ongoing process, to be undertaken one’s whole life. Integrating, and not demonizing our ego, is a life’s work, and companion to unfolding our spiritual gifts. It can keep us out of a lot of trouble. Spirit corrects us if we are listening. Our elders too. This is what is called walking the razors edge.

Honestly walking one’s talk is a recognition that you could lose it in a second. It is that perilous. So, when we step into our gifts and feel like, “Oh no, how am I a leader?” then one must take a step back and recognize our friend in all of its glory and get to work confronting it, knowing it thoroughly. When we know ourselves, our gifts and our weaknesses, highs and lows, we understand when spirit is in us and when it is not. We also know it is a gift and we do not dally making use of it and letting it out into the world.

There are so many of us now on this planet that are meant to be spiritual leaders on all kinds of levels, in our communities, in our spheres of influence, in our families. Standing for what is right, understanding our own imperfections and taking the risk to be led and to lead at the same time. We risk falling from grace, but if we have led our communities correctly, we will be held by them and allowed to find our way back. To find humility and grace to mend the parts of our soul that we cannot see, that takes a fall from grace to correct so that we can get back up there and be a human, flawed, work in progress. A true leader is not perfected. In fact, the more flawed the better, in that there is an accessability to other people’s pain and suffering. But they MUST be teachable, humble enough to be corrected and take action around that correction.

True leaders listen without and within. They understand it is not about them at all, rather they are a facilitator, a place holder for the greater wisdom to flow through. This is come to in a very humble, working for the greater good, kind of way. It means delegating and letting power flow through oneself and onto others. And teaching them how to channel that power and let it flow through them to the next person. True power is from the collective letting itself be led, by trust and belief in that person’s ability to transmit power and use it well.

Whether we are called into service or not, there is a version of priestess in all of us. Once we take on that part of us, and struggle with it and our friend the ego, then we can have the compassion to hold our leadership with more ferocity and love. That is our part in things as a community. Holding our leadership accountable means loving them as we love ourselves. With everything we’ve got. Even the ones we cannot stand. If we are demonizing without, then we are condemning within. Find that place within and illuminate it with love and hope. We cannot as spiritual people believe there is only light. The truth is that there is only balance and love for the darkness. It is our teacher and our friend. That does not mean we condone it, or fall down in its face. We see that it’s only power is in the parts in us that are afraid of it. We say no with all the love in our hearts. We create boundaries with a recognition of purpose and gratitude for the understanding of their importance. We recognize the ego and call BS. But then we have to leave room for change to take place. Holding space is a priestesses job. Creating sacred space for the power of what is needed to move through and change what it can.

Let us all step into being the priestess that we need to be, inside and outside, and hold the space together.