you & me

The Labyrinth: A Series of Art. {Part Eleven: Spirit, my Truth}

{Photo credit: Kristi Stout}

The truth is, you are not your mind.

Your mind is a part of you. But it’s not You. Your body is also a part of you. But even that is not You. The body and the mind are sacred tools we have been given. That is to say, they have been given to You, the spiritual being.

The truth is, your mind and your body are gifts. Tools to help you along this journey. It seems to be a common theme: “Mind over matter,” “Spiritual beings having physical experiences,” etc. Perhaps it’s time to examine this concept a little deeper?

As a society, it seems as though we have only really identified with the mind, given it too much credence. But there’s a problem here, because the mind is subjective and tends to think and believe only as it was conditioned to think and believe. But I have found in life that so few of us are actually living the truth of Us. Instead we tend to live the truths of what we have been conditioned to think.

I think a lot of us are still trying to wrap our minds around that one. But the truth is, the mind is incapable of wrapping itself around the Ultimate Truth. We are so identified with the mind, but it is just one part of the very sacred three-part whole, all parts of which I theorize that, in order to be fulfilled in life, you must embrace equally, in my version of The Holy Trinity: body, mind and spirit co-operating (cooperating) as one.

I’ve observed that the Christian concept of the Holy Trinity has truth, but it’s been muddled, misinterpreted for millennia. The Christian religion still can’t quite fully understand the concept of the Holy Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy spirit. Are those three gods? Why are there three gods when the Bible says there is only one?

I remember thinking these same things growing up in the Christian faith. “What does that all mean? It makes no sense.”

I’ve found that the research I’ve done on it, and the articles I’ve read, and the sermons I’ve heard about what it all means — none of it really resonates with me. The only thing that does is the idea of it. A lot of what I studied from the Christian perspective seems flailing and far-fetched, and mostly written by men who have failed to embrace in equal parts their sacred Feminine essence.

I find there is more or less a general failure to combine their ego, rationale, fact, and reason with the quieter realm of their intuition and deeper inner wisdom.

In these studies, I’ve found the woman’s voice is usually always missing in these arguments and statements of theosophy, and if it is there, it’s typically the voice of a meek and fearful woman who’s been conditioned and not speaking with her true, Wild, powerful nature. There is something not right about these one-sided perspectives — there seems to be so much fear underlying them.

My idea is that quite simply, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are representations of the Body, which holds the Mind, which in turn is powered by energy, our Divine Spark, which is Holy.

This concept, combined with my masculine rational (the fact and knowledge-seeker), and my strong, inner-feminine knowing, screams of Truth to me, and I don’t think I’m the only one this ideas resonates with, as I’ve heard more talk of it, murmurings about it throughout the spiritual sub-realms and philosophy cultures.

I’m finding this idea of the Holy Trinity is a bit of a paradox. But in order to accept and to understand it without discrimination, we must embrace the paradox of it.

Is this the truth? I don’t know. I can’t know. It’s not a thing for knowing.  I’m not going to pretend here that I know, because I don’t. I can’t know. That is to say it’s not a thing for the mind, not entirely. The mind cannot conceive of it entirely, because it isn’t designed for that, therefore, I can’t know the entire truth. Nobody can.

This is the truth.

But… I can feel it with my spirit.

And the mind cannot stand this, it fights fiercely against this answer: I can feel it. Because the mind wants an absolute. It wants total control. Proof. Facts. Linear aspects. Tangible, tactile things (masculine realm). That is why the mind is the gateway between the body (masculine) and the spirit (feminine).

{Photo credit: Kristi Stout}

The sacred tool that is our mind has the ability to conceive of what’s beyond it, but it cannot know for sure what’s beyond it. Sometimes this can feel a bit like the mind being arrogantly high on the fact that it has the control to tap both realms — the physical and spiritual experiences — therefore it claims total power over our human experience, with the ego running rampant.

But I feel with my spirit that if I can acknowledge this about my mind, honor it for doing its duty and playing its sacred role, my mind quietens and makes more room in me, for feeling things which cannot fully be known, at least not from the logical standpoint. But we find that what we feel but can’t fully be known more or less always comes to light and makes itself known.

It’s amazing and magical, if you ask me.

In this sense, the body and the mind are of the Sacred Masculine realm, that which is physical, tactile, structured. That is His domain. On the other hand, the spirit is something that cannot be tangibly physical, but it can be felt, and this is Her domain, that of the Divine Feminine. He provides Her the mechanism to come through and be seen and heard, from Her realm beyond that which is tactile.

So even the Father (masculine, body), the Son (masculine, mind), and the Holy Spirit (feminine, energy/spirit) fit this concept of the Holy Trinity, which in actuality is most likely the Body, the Mind, and the Spirit operating as one God form.

I want to say this again, because the full meaning of this sentence is one that needs to be digested, reflected on: The mind has the ability to conceive of or imagine what’s beyond itself, but it cannot know in absolute terms what’s beyond it. It has to acknowledge its limitation and let the bigger beyond operate through it.

Knowing the bigger beyond is not the mind’s function. It’s quite simple. Don’t over-think it. You will have a predisposition to do exactly that, but you are met with dichotomy and paradox over and over again, the limit of your mind. You cannot get beyond that paradox and you never will. There is clearly the realm of what is known, and clearly the realm of what is not and/or what cannot be proven.

However, the mind allows us to know this clearly and also holds space for the possibilities of what can be known or made known (the possiblity of, which is the realm of Spirit). The ideas waiting to be created or brought to light. Which is why science is just as miraculous as spirituality. 

One of these — science and spirituality — can embody the other and one cannot. I will let you feel that one out.

All in all, the mind is a sacred tool for the spirit. A giant, miraculous transmitter/receiver. Something that can channel the Holy Spirit and hold it active within our knowing, so that we might experience this physical world of senses and stimulation, ideas and dreams. Emotions and love, despair and solution.

There will be more discoveries. Yes. And more questions. And more facts uncovered. These are all the mind’s responsibility. But the beautiful dichotomy of embodying the Self is to understand simply that the body takes up just as much truth as the mind, and the spirit most likely encompasses it all, acting as the great animator of our life experience.

The sprit of something cannot die. This is the true truth. It is energy, and the first law of thermodynamics, also known as Law of Conservation of Energy, states that “energy can neither be created nor destroyed; energy can only be transferred or changed from one form to another.”

Think about this: The body dies and the mind goes with it. The mind also goes if the body begins to deteriorate. The spirit, however — that which powers all of this — is phenomenal. We cannot conceive of it, but we can feel it. We have seen its light leave our loved ones’ eyes in death, returning to the beyond, leaving behind the body and the mind.

Phenomenon: a fact or situation that is observed to exist or happen, especially one whose cause or explanation is in question.

There’s just no way to prove what’s beyond what our mind can conceive of, as our minds are limited with their perceptions, and rightly so. If we did not have a limit there, we’d cease to function.

Think of yourself when you have no routine. You can feel a little discombobulated or lethargic, and maybe procrastinate. There’s no container to focus flow or movement, versus when we have a routine and we flow in a motion. We get things done, we define the structure of our identity/life that way, and we make things happen.

It’s as though boundaries need to be defined so that we can create things, so that we can fulfill a purpose here, so the mind can do its job for the Spirit, in contribution to the greater whole and good of humanity.

Without boundaries, we are like dark matter in outer space, and the nebulae of exploded stars.

I’d like to go back to paradox for a moment. Paradox, I feel is the secret to peace. Learning how to exist in paradox and embrace it is another truth I feel that has merit.

When we can allow the truth of paradox, there is a beautiful phenomenon that occurs. We begin to feel alive, in a genuine way, not a high sort of way (of endorphins and adrenaline). As if we are taking up right space here. That is to say, we are living. Living in contribution to society, fulfilled, peaceful, also in the unknown, but creative, making new universes within the universe, moving with purpose.

Doing things and feeling meaning in every part of our day, whether it’s as menial as making our coffee every morning, preparing our child’s lunch every night for school, or as compelling as writing a novel, or traveling to faraway places. Falling in love, making memories, helping the world evolve — you name it.

There isn’t one thing that becomes more important than the other when we are living in right space. Instead, you start to realize every single thing you do on a daily basis is meaningful and imbued with Divine and Sacred purpose.

Each action is born as its own micro-universe, where you are the god of that universe. You are the creator, the co-creator, the animated, working in unification with Body, your temple, Mind, your identity, and Spirit, your truth, in holy sanctimony and worship to Source.

I hereby ask you now:

What is your truth? The truth of your Spirit? Take sacred action for it now.

Which moves us perfectly into my next section of the labyrinth. The realm of Sacred action, which upholds and works co-creatively with Spirit, your Truth.

{Photo credit: Kristi Stout}

This is an ongoing series by Kristi Stout. Tune in weekly for the next chapter in ‘The Labyrinth’.
If her art resonates with you, and you’d like prints, contact her through her website or Facebook.

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Kristi Stout

Kristi Stout

Kristi L. Stout is an artist, mother, and lover. She considers herself a Renaissance woman, in service of Love in its many forms. It is her belief that inside each of us is our own sacred, Wild nature -- a hidden instinct that is not forgotten as much as it is dormant, like leafless trees in winter. It is the part of us that is connected to all things. A knowing without knowing. The part deep inside that understands darkness is necessary for the moon to simmer silver, and recognizes that even if you’re lost in the middle of nowhere you can always find a sacred somewhere -- like an internal compass pointing true north to your heart center. Her passion project, work in progress, is She Is Wild. You can find more of Kristi’s work here or connect with her on Facebook.
Kristi Stout