by Matthew Koren | Jun 16, 2023 | Community Conversations
In our collective journey towards spiritual awakening, we encounter challenges that test our resolve and push us to evolve. Presently, there are three remarkable issues that stand out, demanding our attention and introspection. Let us explore these unprecedented challenges that are shaping our spiritual paths in profound and unexpected ways.
Information Overload
The digital age has ushered in an era of unprecedented access to information. While this offers tremendous opportunities for growth, it also presents a challenge to our spiritual awakening. The sheer volume of information, conflicting beliefs, and diverse perspectives can overwhelm and confuse us. Discerning what resonates with our authentic selves becomes crucial. Finding a balance between seeking knowledge and integrating it with our inner wisdom is essential in navigating this information overload.
Disconnection from Nature
In our fast-paced modern lives, we often find ourselves disconnected from the natural world. The constant distractions and urban environments can create a sense of separation from the Earth’s rhythms and the profound wisdom nature offers. This disconnection can hinder our spiritual growth. Reconnecting with nature, even in small ways, can be transformative. Embracing nature’s beauty, spending time in green spaces, and fostering a deep appreciation for the interconnectedness of all life can help rekindle our spiritual connection.
The Ego Trap
We embark on the path of spiritual awakening, our ego can pose a formidable challenge. The ego seeks validation, control, and superiority. It can lure us into a trap of judgment, comparison, and attachment to outcomes. Overcoming the ego’s grip requires deep self-awareness and a commitment to humility and compassion. Recognizing the ego’s influence and embracing a mindset of surrender and non-attachment can liberate us from its limitations, allowing our true essence to shine forth.
Seeking A Path Forward…
As we navigate the complexities of our spiritual awakening, it is essential that we find our true path. The most powerful step you can take in your journey involves seeking, finding, and choosing a spiritual path that resonates with your deepest expression and highest purpose.
While it’s important to acknowledge and address the challenges that arise along the way, we cannot let ourselves get distracted from the most important elements of our spiritual awakening: what we feed our soul.
Embracing discernment amidst the influx of information, reconnecting with nature, and transcending the ego’s influence are pivotal steps towards personal and collective growth. Couple that with a path of ‘Know Thyself’ that has the ability to take you into the fullest expression of your God-self and you will find a never-ending source of growth and inspiration.
By cultivating self-awareness through a mystery or wisdom tradition, finding solace in nature’s embrace, and nurturing a mindset of humility, we can navigate these crazy issues and emerge stronger on our spiritual journeys.
Let us embrace these challenges as opportunities for profound transformation, trusting that the path to awakening is as unique as the individuals traversing it.
Matthew is a certified Guide for Conscious Leaders, and is inspired by the potential of connecting the measurable and immeasurable, Science and Spirit, to bridge the worlds of scientific theory with the magick of real-world experience. He is driven by a need to understand why we exist and our place in the multi-universe. Matthew’s approach assimilates the latest research in consciousness studies, psychology, business, organizational development, mindfulness and meditation, resonance and quantum field theory to support his clients. Matthew now serves as a consultant and guide for his clients at Spirit in Transition. His affiliations include: Certified Guide and Ritual Master by the Modern Mystery School, Member of the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, & Conscious Capitalism International. Matthew Koren lives in New York and Florida with his partner, and travels nationally and internationally to coach, consult and teach. Matthew invites you to introduce yourself by contacting him for a virtual meet-and-greet by clicking the following link:
https://templemedicine.as.me/online-consult
by user_dd | May 31, 2022 | Community Conversations
Honest Communication as the Path
We’re at an age where many of us are beginning to understand the universal principle of gender. As an energetic principle, we all have feminine and masculine aspects working within and around us. Understanding these principles can help us to align with our highest expression of these aspects. Empowered with the knowledge needed for us to step into our highest expression, we become better and better versions of ourselves as time goes on.
Misconceptions & Modern Times
There are many misconceptions around masculinity. We don’t need to look too deep below the surface to find the layers of conditioning; masculinity is often associated with brute strength, assertiveness, courage, leadership and bravery. Now, when we look towards the way we’ve evolved, we recognize that the embodiment of this principle becomes less and less physical. We’ve already invented the wheel, forged new inventions and blazed plenty of trails. Now is the time in human history where we can begin to really refine the masculine principle into its Divine form.
Inner Inquiry
So, here we are, poised with the question of ‘how does the Divine Masculine communicate through me?’
The answer may be different for all of us. Yet there are some basic underlying principles that are important to acknowledge. When we apply the traditional traits of masculinity (strength, assertiveness, leadership) toward these modern times, we see that what’s really valiant is to apply these principles to the way we communicate our truth. Embodying the masculine principle in the way we communicate looks like openness and honesty. Oriented toward truth, we usher in clarity with compassion, never shying away from the power of whatever message we’re seeking to get across.
Compassion and Honesty
Through this compassionate expression of one’s truth, the people we’re communicating with are able to better understand where they stand. When I am embodying the principle of Divine Masculinity, I am not only able to clearly and compassionately articulate my truth and know exactly where I stand on any given matter, but I also allow others to know where they stand in relationship to me. The people in my life always know where they stand with me. I share my message gently, and with care, always orienting toward the importance of the intentionality behind my communication. When honesty is at the core, we calibrate to truth, and that is honorable.
Perhaps you can think of something you’ve been wanting to communicate to someone in your life. This is your invitation to practice a bit, perhaps with yourself first, finding compassion in the way your truth is communicated. Step by step, the Divine Masculine principle will continue to crystallize in your field as you become a stronger and more compassionately courageous human being!
by user_dd | Feb 28, 2022 | Community Conversations
So if you’ve been noticing, there’s a massive collective shift going on. Atop our precious little spinning rock floating in space, we’re experiencing energetic changes that aren’t difficult to see and feel. These shifts that are happening are personal, global, planetary and utterly cosmic. Of course, how we relate to these shifts is an essential aspect of how well we can adapt to them and embrace the newness that continues to arrive.
The irony dwells in the space that brings balance to tradition and newness. How can we stay true to what’s been, in order to align ourselves with all that’s coming? How can we preserve the traditions that have sustained us, while also inspiring ourselves to stay flexible and inclusive toward all the radical change that’s emerging? These are some important questions to reflect on at this time.
Gender Polarity
We’re seeing big change happening with regard to gender polarity. There has been a reckoning with the patriarchal power structures and antiquated hegemonic frameworks in many of the societies around the world. If we are to usher in a new paradigm of love and feminine leadership, we will need some serious grace. Simply put, we cannot demonize ‘the man’ for what has happened in our planetary history. Sure, we’ve had many injustices occur and are learning the deeply negative impacts of having people in power command with righteous greed. These are important to note.
However, villainizing the “other”, is a very dangerous route to take, and I’m here to encourage you otherwise. You see, there’s something deeply relieving about the power of forgiveness to empower us to meet the ever-arriving ‘now’. Forgiving injustices is not about turning a blind eye. Instead, it’s about looking at the circumstance with compassion, in order to move forward with love in the heart and practical logic in the mind (perhaps not in equal proportion).
Proportions and Differentials
So that brings me to the concept of proportions. At the end of the day, equality does not equal sameness. What the first wave feminists did for women was great, and at the same time, their efforts have now translated to a mass amount of Western women rejecting their femininity in order to make it in the ‘man’s world’. What’s important to note are the proportions of energy; the differentials between passive and active energy are an essential aspect of one’s existence to be looked at and understood. For, in Hermetic philosophy, balance is not the same as equal; differentials in proportion allow for creation and manifestation to occur (i.e. 70/30 vs 50/50).
Within the Modern Mystery School, we are guardians of the sanctity of this polarity within our culture. We’re responsible to adhere to this tradition, as stewards of global and interplanetary balance. This work, however vast it may come off, is work that starts within. So consider this an invitation to take a read on your own passive/active proportion and feel what came up for you while reading this! It’s time we break down the calcification that’s come from a rigid devotion to ‘equality’, and celebrate our diversity, celebrate our depth and our differentials.
by user_dd | Sep 17, 2021 | Transitory Thoughts
This time of year is all about balance. We’re invited now to notice where we are in balance and where we’re off kilter. Once we become more aware of how we are in this Autumnal threshold, we can then restore our balance accordingly, in order to move into the colder months with stability, steady feet, a happy heart and a nourished body.
In the Northern hemisphere, Mabon corresponds to the Sun’s alignment with the equator, which results in an equal duration of daytime and nighttime. Light and dark are balanced.
Traditionally speaking, this was a time where all the hard work of the summer months became readily available for survey; we could take stock of all our progress (back in the day this looked like a successful crop, well-fed animals, and the security of knowing you and your family have enough food for the winter months to come).
Celebrating Mabon & Inviting Balance
Let’s have a look at modern applications of this ancient tradition, which has been celebrated in many different ways by cultures from all around the world, including Chinese, Northern America, Greek and Bavarian.
The common denominator within all the different iterations of this holiday has to do with a celebration of rest after a bountiful harvest. Oftentimes the summer months translate to a lot of fruiting; we get involved with many projects, new and old relationships build and develop, and our creative fires are stoked by the long summer days.
The seasonal shift that Mabon represents, occurring at the Autumnal Equinox, is presenting an opportunity to tie up any loose ends, clear up any clutter that has accumulated over the last few months, and prepare for the winter months ahead, so that they can be peaceful, restful and energetically clean.
This inflection point in the seasons is a ripe invitation for ritual and celebration; here are common and accessible ways to honor this festival:
→ Apple harvesting (or supporting your local farmer by stopping by a farmer’s market for some apples) and including them on your altar (honoring the balance and harmony that the apple represents as a symbol; the ancient Biblical and modern technological implications of this fruit cannot be ignored!)
→ Creating a culinary treat for a celebratory feast with friends
→ Dedicate an afternoon to cleaning your external world; perhaps this is a portion of your living space, or your car if you drive one. Call on the practice of cleaning the outside to correspond with a cleaning on the inside.
Whatever way you’re called to honor the shift of seasons, be sure to celebrate the balance between light and the dark; honoring this balance will help to restore harmony in your life and, in turn, the lives of those you relate with.
