Masters don't teach the truth; there is no way to teach it.
It is a transmission beyond words. It's energy provoking energy in you...
Truth is a radical, personal realization. You have to come to it.
- Osho

"THERE ARE TWO KINDS of teachers: those who take your power, and those who give your power back to you," says author Alan Cohen. "The inferior teacher tells you that something is wrong with you and offers to fix it. The superior teacher tells you that something is right with you and helps you bring it forth... A real teacher makes him or herself progressively more unnecessary." This is what having a spiritual mentor means to me, someone who can take my hand, walk me through my own walls of doubt and assist me in bringing my creative self into fullest expression.

These past five years, the significance of having a spiritual teacher has not been lost on me. I've typically thought of myself as someone who goes it alone, but have wised to the fact that yielding a heavy sickle and slicing a solitary trail is not the only way to traverse through life. Others can help us "cut tall grass" and clear a path to reveal higher, broader perspectives. Yes, we must ultimately find our own answers by Turning Within, yet I've come to realize that being in holy company every so often can catapult us faster and farther. Meeting someone who is at a higher level of mastery shows us that such a state is possible.

I've heard it said that enlightened teachers are really just survivors of the death of the ego. From this pure, high frequency state, the benefit of being in the presence of an advanced teacher - either in silence or through their words of encouragement - can serve to raise us up, as well. There are plenty of authentic and very studied teachers out there who provide a great service to many people. Yet, to know about something and to BE it are totally different. In the presence of a master, words are superfluous. In fact, some of my most powerful healings have come cloaked in utter silence.

THE DARK HAS WORK TO DO

The renowned psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, whose work I've always admired (her groundbreaking book, On Death and Dying, was the subject of my high school term paper, for goodness sakes!) once said: "People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within." Working with integrity-based healers - as well as discussing matters of deep inquiry with New Thought leaders and others who live in a state of refined awareness - has taught me that we are capable of so much more than we give ourselves credit for. It has also revealed to me that spiritual evolution is incremental and not without hazard. Along with the elation of hearing more clearly the divine echo inside me, I've discovered that there is great strangeness in the shadowed light of our soul world, and it's just as important, even desirable, to become conversant with that shrouded portion of our soul-light.

"It is not possible to get the blessing without the madness," writes Norman O. Brown in Apocalypse and/or Metamorphosis. "It is not possible to get the illuminations without the derangement." In other words, as we open to other dimensions, we open to everything, the light and the dark. So, it's important to be aware of what we're doing when we begin spiritual work in earnest; hence, the value of having a proper teacher to assist along the way. The goal, I've learned, is to encounter the darkness, when necessary, without having a negative experience. Actually, nothing is a negative experience; it is there to teach us, to show us what's missing. This polarity is how we come to really know ourselves. "...darkness holds it all: the shape and the flame, the animal and myself..." Rilke penned.

As we move deeper and deeper into the subconscious aspects of things - the cobwebby corners of our psyche - we can bring up longer-term issues we have with certain individuals who are closest to our hearts or have done things to us that are difficult to forgive. (Most difficult for me has been to bless those who have smote me creatively - this is how I know that helping others connect with their creative souls is my dharma. As Julia Cameron wrote, "Anger points the way, not just the finger.") At the same time, we're reaching the understanding more quickly that Everything Matters - and Nothing Matters. We're able to step outside ourselves, see things in a more compassionate light and understand the relevance of why situations are in our life at a particular time. This process is really quite astonishing. Salvation can actually be found in the center of a so-called negative experience because, as conscious beings, we can feel it softening us and enhancing our capacity to live through our hearts. Author Roger Housden offers this analogy: "The heart, like a grape, is prone to delivering its harvest in the same moment that it appears to be crushed."

It's reassuring to know that love overcomes all things in the end. "The dark and light are not equal energies," the widely studied channeled writings of Kryon explain. "If you have a dark place and light comes in, darkness does not creep away into another dark place. Instead, it is transformed. Of the two, light is the only one that has an active component and a physical presence. You cannot 'beam darkness' into a light place. It can only be the other way around. This is because they aren't equal. One is the absence of the other."

As I see it, we can use the light that we gather along the way to go a little farther into the darkness. (This is partly what I mean when I say the journey is vertical in nature.) And when we process "unhealthy" experiences with assistance from mentors and SFFs (Soul Friends Forever), we don't risk getting sucked into the abyss of our own darkness - we are able to shine light down on it and examine the darkness from above.

According to Edemir, the light and the dark work together in accordance with God's will. "There are those in the dark who work for the light," he said to me one day while explaining his model for understanding the energetic workings of the cosmos. "But there is a third kind of energy that is outside of the laws of God: the shadow energy. This energy wants to BE God. It is pure evil and works against God's will. As with the dark, we should not run from the shadow. We should acknowledge it, respect it, then work to transmute it." Sooner than expected, I would be testing his theory.

FINDING THE MENTOR
YOU ARE MEANT FOR

It's a million-dollar question: How does one find the right teacher? Of course, it isn't something you search for on Yellowpages.com. But you have the tools at hand. You can apply the philosophies outlined thus far:

• Have the Intention to manifest an appropriate mentor when the time is ripe.
• Continue to convene with the Divine through Daily Practice.
• Pay Attention so that you will recognize this individual (or group) when they show up.
• And when challenges cause you to feel alone in the process, find the clarity you need by Turning Within with a faithful posture.

The early phases of our spiritual progress are more educational in nature. This is a fertile time to acquire knowledge through reading books, attending public talks, joining groups that focus on consciousness studies, or even revisiting our religious roots to behold with fresh eyes the beauty inherent in its doctrines and ceremony. If we search for a mentor too early in the expedition, we run the risk of encountering individuals who may not be integrity-based or have our best interests at heart. (We are, in a sense, more susceptible to this, so it is good to be aware.) Let's say you hear about a particular teacher and want to know more. You cannot necessarily gauge the rightness of that individual for you based on others' experiences because the relationship he has with each student may be different. What's more, the same teacher can play varied roles within each of his student's spiritual quests. The bond between seeker and spiritual teacher can be, at times, emotionally delicate and psychologically complex - we may view our mentor as a best friend, parent, enemy, lover, demi-god and antichrist, all within an hour's time.

As we become more spiritually sophisticated, we're better able to intuit who is authentic and working for the highest good. When we team up with a suitable mentor during a period of time in which we are also maturing, our relationship with that person progressively deepens. In the final analysis, the only real barometer is our own intuitive reaction to the person - do we resonate with their philosophies? How do we feel in their presence? How do they treat those closest to them? None of us is perfect but now more than ever, I believe, those who do Spirit's work need to be impeccable in their motivations and serious about the responsibility inherent in the work.

Here's another caveat that I'd like to share: As you ascend intuitively and your vibration becomes more refined, be careful who you have work on you. I've seen people say yes without hesitation when an energy healer, practitioner or bodyworker offers them reiki, deeksha or other forms of subtle body work or transference of spiritual energy. Check with your internal guidance first! It's not the modality that's at issue here or even the intention of the person, which is probably based in love - it's about how your energy field resonates at that time with whatever new energy you are introducing it to. This is definitely something to consider. Unbalanced healers may still be at a level of greater wholeness than many clients who come to them but, as mass consciousness evolves and we become purer in mind-body-spirit, we should seek only the healthiest of healers.

Over the years, I've established an inner circle of practitioners and doctors whom I know and trust; even with those individuals, I tune in to discern how clear they are on the day I go for a chiropractic adjustment or other treatment. In some cases, I've respectfully declined healing work - especially in settings where the physical space has not been adequately prepared for sacred work. In a few other cases, I've gone against my instincts and allowed healers into my energy field, with damaging results to my psychic health. I don't mean to make you paranoid, just cautious. Have faith in others but trust your gut above all else.

Which brings me to this point: Our mentors, and the impact they have on us, are relative to where we are on the path. I'm thinking now of the person whom I consider to be not quite a mentor, but my first metaphysical teacher. She was extremely gifted as a healer and seemed to have the whole package: physical beauty, intelligence, warm heart, a loving family. I admired her natural gifts although, in retrospect, I can see that I relied a great deal on what she told me. In fact, I remember how fascinated I was that I could walk into a room and have her "read" my life so fluently. How amazed I was by that is a reflection of where I was, consciousness-wise, at the time. I suppose that I needed someone like her then to give me direct feedback, as she did. I hadn't yet considered that I could sharpen my own abilities to that refined a level. If I'd met Edemir in those days, we may not have clicked, as he is someone who has expected nothing less than for me to develop my own abilities with an eye towards self-reliance. In essence, by doing his job well, he has also made himself progressively obsolete in my life, as Cohen said. I'm thinking now of a simple yet profound comment made by the indigenous Peruvian/Mexican/Ramuri healer Maria Teresa Valenzuela, a very humble yet powerful medicine woman I had a chance to meet in 2007. She said, "The day of the teacher is over. We are all teachers. We are all students. We teach each other and learn from each other."

That says it all. Once we attune to our inner voice, we depend less and less on others to tell us about ourselves or give us answers. It becomes more about getting confirmation of what we intuitively know by aligning with those who are parallel on the path with us. Over time (and after years of Turning Within), we become primed from the inside out for a far more advanced level of learning. Ultimately we realize, yes, we are our own best healers.

As it seems, I was ready to work (at least for a while) with a mentor who could train me, the intuitive high-wire student, on two apparatuses. The first was my personal development, honing my capacity to leap from the flying trapeze into higher levels of consciousness, while knowing an All-Powerful Net was there to catch me, no matter what. The second was unexpected: being placed in an apprentice-type role of participating in client healing sessions, as well as enjoying the bounty of this teacher's wisdom outside the healing room. Working so closely with a mentor has been revelatory, a spiritual Cirque de Soleil of fascinating adventures that has propelled me into increasingly expanded realizations of what's possible.

That first year, in particular, flipped me upside down and inside out in ways that no single chapter of a book could even begin to describe, except to offer up a few examples in hopes that they would at least point in the general direction of my trajectory. What a trip! At times, I've felt like Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds - in other moments, a contortionist, a fire walker, a sword swallower, even a sideshow freak (projections of my inner archetypes, perhaps?). But when I received comments from these clients expressing how profoundly the healing work has impacted their lives, it's really gratifying. That's what spiritual work is all about, helping each other understand and interpret the contents of our lives so we can move more joyfully and completely towards our personal potential - physically, spiritually, emotionally and creatively. With that destination in mind, why would we ever want to scale back down the ladder to the three-ring circus that was once our daily existence?

CONTEMPLATION

Intend a Mentor
If appropriate for you, set an intention for the right teacher to enter your life at precisely the right time. Give gratitude for the appearance of the highest and best individual or group of like-minded others (see below), then release the intention into the hands of the Divine. It will happen - probably when you least expect it.

Manifest a (Creativity) Guide
At any time, you can ask for a guide or archetype to assist in your creative process and strengthen your own sense of identity. Go to your sacred space, enter meditation and simply ask for higher inspiration. Remember these words from novelist Stephen King: "Ideas seem to come quite literally from nowhere, sailing at you right out of the empty sky: two previously unrelated ideas come together and make something new under the sun. Your job isn't to find these ideas but to recognize them when they show up." Ask your creative guide to help you recognize them when they show up.

© Gina Mazza Hillier, 2008

Excerpted with permission from Everything Matters, Nothing Matters: For Women Who Dare to Live with Exquisite Calm, Euphoric Creativity and Divine Clarity (St. Lynn's Press, April 2008, ISBN: 978-0-9767631-8-5, $17.95) is available at bookstores nationwide and major online booksellers. Visit www.EverythingmattersNothingmatters.com.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Gina Mazza Hillier is nationally published freelance journalist, editor, writing consultant, dance enthusiast and advocate of living with creative abandon and full-frontal consciousness. She is known for being a source of inspiration - or, a muse - to others in their writing and in their spiritual-personal development. Gina is a partner and founder of Epiphany Works, LLC, an "inspired events" planning company that creates public entertainment and forums of inquiry to celebrate and integrate world cultures and spiritual traditions.

In addition to Everything Matters, Nothing Matters, she is the co-author of Romancing with Future (Findhorn Press, 2008) and The Highest and The Best (Xlibris, 2000). Gina can be reached at inspire@zoominternet.net. For more information, visit www.Ginawriter.com, www.epiphanyworks.org or http://museyoucanuse-gina.blogspot.com.