From the Holy Encounter found in Pentecost…the perceiving, understanding, and knowing of the other and of the self by the other, we move to St John’s Tide…the season of friendship, deep, essential spiritual friendship. This is the friendship that embraces and cultivates the unique karma and destiny of each friend.
In Higher Worlds, Rudolf Steiner said we no longer need gurus, we need spiritual friends. What did he mean?
What is a spiritual friend? And it is important to realize and consider that a spiritual friendship is always about two spiritual friends — togetherness and individuality.
In the John gospel, John is described as “a man sent from God.” Who are the people in your life that were sent by your Angel?
St John’s Tide offers to our hearts, the illuminating and guiding imagination of the 30-year spiritual friendship between John the Baptist and Jesus of Nazareth before the Baptism.
Imagine the spiritual friendship between the two cousins, John and Jesus. See them as boys, as adolescents, as young men and awaken an imagination of their intimate conversations as they grew into their extraordinary destinies. What questions did they ask each other? Imagine them laughing together as they shared a meal. Did they have a sense that they would sacrifice their lives for the evolution of humanity?
Yes, we can move beyond what is recorded in the New Testament and build an imagination that inspires us in our spiritual friendships.
We look at John the Baptist as the forerunner, as a preacher, as a martyr, but we really would be blessed by looking at him as the friend of Jesus, the friend of 30 years. What was this friendship like? Jesus needed John’s friendship, without it there would not be the incarnation of the Christ at the Baptism. And without Jesus, John would have been just another wild man in the desert.
How do you imagine John and Jesus celebrating their spiritual friendship as they grew up together with growing awareness of their intertwined destinies?
Spend some sacred time this weekend meditating and journaling about John and Jesus and their friendship. Then think about the spiritual friends in your life. Be inspired and be grateful.
A spiritual friend is one that plays a significant role as you are resolving your karma, working with all the challenges, hungers, and threats that you must overcome to develop the capacities for fulfilling your destiny. A spiritual friend sees you arrive at your destiny and bows with awe and joy.
If you have been reading my posts, you know I see the life of Jesus Christ and those around Him as templates and models for how we come to know each other finding the Christ within, the John within, the Mary within self and other.
So here are some of my thoughts on how we each come to understand a spiritual friendship, a friendship that has moments that reflect both the intimate and the cosmic John/Jesus friendship.
In our relationships, the spiritual qualities and capacities are not always active. They lie dormant until certain questions or events appear…”now is the time.”
A spiritual friend offers attention that is never lazy or sentimental.
A spiritual friend wants to know you, not just be with you.
You are never an object to a spiritual friend. You are a mysterious becoming.
There is an equality of mutual love in a spiritual friendship.
Spiritual friendship enlivens, centers, expands, and encourages.
A spiritual friend is not always your best friend.
A spiritual friend has a threefold task…
- Recognition – I recognize your thinking with my thinking. I see your truth and your quest for great Truths.
- Comfort – I comfort your feelings with my feelings. I nurture your beauty and encourage your harmonious composure.
- Support – I support your will with my will. I revere your goodness and stand beside you in your great deeds, the deeds only you can achieve.
Spiritual Conversations liberate thoughts and perceptions, heal soul wounds, and energize deeds of destiny. Spiritual conversations make sense of suffering and bring confidence to living. The questions in a spiritual conversation are stunning in how they open up the soul.
Who are your spiritual friends? This is a spiritual question and not about your social biography, but about your awareness of your own incarnating divinity and those who have witnessed its growing presence. When you laugh with a spiritual friend, your angels laugh with you.
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Whose destiny have you recognized, comforted, and supported? Who has recognized, comforted, and supported you?
Celebrate your giving and receiving of spiritual friendship.
In the Spirit of Love,
Lynn
PS: I want to discern the difference between a spiritual friend and a life friend. Both are precious and essential. Life friends share our stories with earthly intimacy. A spiritual friend recognizes, comforts, and supports our initiatory and incarnational processes needed for our inner development and our earthly manifestation. What are your thoughts on friendship…both kinds.
