Healing Is About Integration
A few months ago I gave a meditation where we connected with all of the stars in the Milky Way and with the archangels, especially Michael and Zadkiel. The angels slide up and down the spiritual dimensions to reach us in the physical world. When I asked my intuition why blend the two, the response was that soul healing runs along two major axes.
The angels help us go up and down a vertical ladder of awareness - much like a piano where we learn to play all of the octaves. The star metaphor helps with lateral integration, or relationships. It's how we get along with ourselves and others.
a) Vertical Integration (Spiritual)
If we think of consciousness as a ladder of awareness, we can go upwards to get a sense of a spiritual world - whether we believe in angels, goddesses, or one particular understanding of God. We can also take our awareness down to connect with the natural world, becoming sensitive to the energy and spirit of Mother Nature, which includes trees, rivers, mountains, flowers and crystals.
Some traditions emphasize the Heavens, while others focus on Nature and Mother Earth. Energy Healers spend lots of time grounding because planet Earth gives us the foundations needed to access the upper echelons of the ladder. This is how we activate our intution and psychic abilities.
Up isn't better than down. The natural world has plenty of wisdom and magick to share with us. It is also healing and de-stressing. Just think about how it feels to leave your phone behind and go for a hike. Grounding is essential for healers; without it, we can burn ourselves out, or even lose our sense of reality and purpose on Earth. The first chapter of Chakra Healing & Magick focuses on grounding your energy.
Vertical integration means feeling just as comfortable with the spiritual world as the physical world - going up, going down, and bringing both together in the Heart.💜
b) Lateral Integration (Human)
This is the part that I found most intriguing. We connected with the stars in this clairvoyant meditation, taking our attention to other planets, dimensions and universes (or inwards, to your own universe of feelings, experiences, and associations). In my consumer marketing days, we used to say that every human being was a universe: complete with beliefs, affinities, and unimaginable social interactions.
Lateral integration involves healing of relationships: personal (with yourself), individual (friends, lovers, family) and collective (society). It's how we relate to one another. It often needs work. Intuition can make us more sensitive too, making lateral integration more pressing.
Ask yourself, how do you get along with people in your life, at work, in school and in the world? There are social groups that we feel a part of and others that we see as distant, different or foreign. This is where self awareness comes into play; the attributes that we shy away from are often projected onto others.
🫶🏻 We can shine a light on the unconscious in many ways; tarot, natal astrology, counseling and meditation etc. Energy healing fills us with compassion.
What do we stand to gain by expanding our awareness to include all of the planets & stars in the Milky Way? My intuition brings me back to the basics: connect with yourself (inwards) and the people around you (outwards). Healing relationships so that we feel belonging, community and compassion on a global, cross-cultural level. Visualizing the universe makes us feel closer to those next to us. Resolving conflicts and processing emotions is a big part of this.
Lateral integration makes it easier for us to send healing to the collective; this happens when energy healing flows through the transpersonal energy centers in your Aura to people in your community and in the world. Heal yourself, heal the world. I'll come back to this in the future as it involves both vertical and lateral awareness.
c) The Intersection is the Sweet Spot
We heal by integrating the four directions (Up/Down, In/Out). Many personal conflicts come from stumbling blocks in the subconscious; these can be found by going inward. I have often looked to natal astrology for clues. You can work with Energy Healing and with creative tools to shine a light on your inner self. At the end of the day, lateral integration involves working with the psyche and our emotions.
Spiritual Integration (Vertical) is fun and exciting but the human aspect (Lateral) can be messy, painful and even ugly. It confronts us. It's not uncommon for spiritual types to shy away from it; I have done so myself. This is what I am working on now and it dawned on me that the four directions consolidate our healing efforts.
The concept has given me a framework to work with, hope it helps you too! FYI - I am a philosophy major and energy healer, I am NOT a psychologist or a counselor.
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