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Creating Bridges: The Spiritual & Philosophical |
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Teachings from the Western Mystery Traditions:
The Esoteric "Paths of Return"
Sacrifice: The True Meaning of the Word
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by Jacquelyn Small
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The word 'sacrifice' comes from the root word 'sacer,' which means "to make holy." Making something we've experienced holy, then, can be known as a sacrifice. But how do we experience making something sacred or holy?
When we first commit to the spiritual path, we have no idea what's in store for us. We expect that our lives will get better because we've decided to be spiritual, to give ourselves to the God of our understanding in service to the world. However, it doesn't turn out to be that way. And our innocence is quickly shattered as we begin to see that anything in our way of being that is "shadowy" or negative or just plain over, rises right up in our face to be recognized and dealt with. Dr. Carl Jung said it plainly: When you enter a spiritual path, the first thing that comes up is your shadow. You shadow is all those unconscious parts acting out through you that you've never faced or integrated.
The first stage of releasing anything that's holding you back from fulfilling your higher calling, is to recognize it. It may be a bad habit, or an addiction, or some behavior that is harmful to you or to the others in your life. Or it could be something a bit more subtle, such as hanging on to some old way of seeing something that is long dead. It can even be a dead relationship or career.
Once recognized, you usually start telling your friends what you need to change or let go of in your life. And usually, they will agree with your decision, having seen quite clearly for some time that this is truly an issue in the way of your advancement. Then, the really hard work comes of stopping the behavior, of really letting it go. So next will often come a period of vacillation. There will be much contention between the warring opposites within you. You'll stop smoking, for instance, then start again. You decide to walk away from something dead, then you say, "I'll give it one more chance." Or you'll declare that you are no longer going to obsess about an old relationship, but find yourself talking about it every chance you get. The difference during this stage is that your conscious self is awakened to what it is you're needing to release. So you notice. You can no longer get away with just doing it day after day unconsciously.
Then, one day -- usually while you are looking the other way -- you will realize you have truly committed to carrying out the needed sacrifice. Something in you has truly changed. So now a full surrender process has taken hold, and if you do not block it, it will move you on through. You may grieve or feel scared or lost, but you have mentally built your determination to persevere.
Now you will start to implement the change you have been seeking, usually one small step at a time. And once the process gets this far along, you will experience the real purpose of "sacrifice." You will see the meaning that this old issue had held for you. Recognizing and honoring its meaning and sacred purpose in our lives is how we make things holy. It's how we truly sacrifice.
Everything we experience in life has a sacred purpose. Though most people never even realize this. Many people, quite frankly, are not "on the path" of choosing to awaken. Therefore, life is happening to them, rather than seeing that one has conscious chioices. When we consciously choose to go through this process of sacrifice, miracles and synchronicities tend to occur that both surprise us and please us greatly. This is because when we make a real "let go" it frees up energy that was just sitting there awaiting its chance to activate.
This has happened in my life several times, so I've learned that it is truly the way spirituality works. Here's one example I'll give you, to make this statement more understandable:
Several years ago I inherited the business side of our mental health healing and training program. I'd always been a teacher and therapist, never having focused on knowing how to be a good business manager. Consequenty, it didn't take me long to drive our national healing program into the ground financially. I took us heavily into debt, justifying it as being "a spiritual work," and doing a lot of magical thinking. Then, one day my CPA told me I had to declare bankruptcy.
After much anguish and fearful resistance, I finally went through a process of a real honest-to-goodness let-go. I said goodbye to the work we'd been doing, and simply stopped thinking there was some way to save it. I set up a meeting with my attorney, our CPA, and business manager to discuss this issue. My son, a business consultant for a large business firm in Houston, called to ask what was going on, and said he wanted to come to the meeting. This was a total surprise, as he'd led his own life for years and traveled so much, he hardly had any spare time. So he came, and soberly, we convened in my lawyer's office and heard the news that we now owed nearly $100,000 in bills that were due. And my lawyer was giving us the details about how the bankruptcy would work. And out of the blue, my son said, "No. My mother is not going bankrupt. This is not just a business; this is her life's work. How much does she need to get started again?" And he wrote a check for the amount needed to put us back on track!
Such love, such joy and relief spread through that room. It was as though a phoenix had miraculously arisen from the ashes.
Since that time, I've had ample opportunity to make other sacrifices. And now I've learned to trust this miraculous process of surrender, knowing that the word 'sacrifice' is truly a sacred word that lives by its own loving rules. Whatever we must die to, we must thoroughly do it. For, a rebirth is always right under the horizon awaiting its time to come forth. And until the nighttime is complete, daylight is put on hold.
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Jacquelin Small,
Spiritualist, Clairvoyant Psychologist
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JACQUELYN SMALL, LMSW, is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Texas at Austin with degrees in human psychology and clinical social work. She is a licensed non-denominational minister and a licensed psychotherapist who works with both spiritual and psychological concerns.
Jacquelyn is a popular presenter and consultant in academic settings, new-thought churches and new paradigm conferences and mental health settings, known for her easy-going, self-disclosing, humorous style of intimate relating with her audiences.
She has a long history in addiction counselor training, consulting and counseling, and trains all kinds of health professionals in the emerging field of spiritual psychology. She is one of the teachers who has been selected by Unity Church for their national TV ministry. She served as the Director of Training for the Texas Commission on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse for nine years, and served on the adjunct faculty of the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology in Stanford, California for four years.
Jacquelyn has authored eight books about soul-based psychology and the process of personal transformation, some of which have become classics in the counseling and consciousness fields. She is represented by the Tom Grady Agency. She has many audio tapes as well through Eupsychia's publishing company, Eupsychian Press.
Her published books are:
* Becoming Naturally
Therapeutic (Bantam)
* Transformers, the
Artists of Self-Creation
(DeVorss & Co.)
* Awakening in Time
(Eupsychian Press)
* Embodying Spirit (HarperSanFrancisco
/Eupsychian)
* Rising to the Call with
co-author Mary Yovino (DeVorss & Co.)
* Becoming a Practical Mystic (Quest Books)
* Psyche's Seeds-The 12 Sacred Principles of Soul-Based Psychology (Tarcher/Putnam
/Penguin)
Jacquelyn is a regular columnist for Science of Mind Magazine and is featured often in other magazines. Among the many conferences and programs for which Jacquelyn has keynoted or presented programs, include:
* The Association for Humanistic Psychology
* Association for Transpersonal Psychology
* Omega Institute
including their Body &
Soul Conferences
* Tracor and Texaco, Inc.
* Church of Religious Science Annual
Conference
* Great Lakes Addiction Conference
* Whole Life Expo
* The College of William & Mary's Annual Addictions Conference
* Most major universities
in the United States
* U.S. Department of Heath, Education and Welfare
* Omega Institute's
Body & Soul Conferences
* New Age Magazine's Bahama Teaching Cruise
The ConferenceWorks!
She has been featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show, America's Talking, Wisdom Television and Radio, New Dimensions Radio, NPR's People's Pharmacy and a CNN's series on Alternative Healing and continues to make regular guest appearances for radio and television.
Jacquelyn Small serves on the Advisory Board of the International Psychosynthesis Association, the National Council on Codependence, and The Holistic Alliance of Professional Practitioners, Entrepreneurs and Networkers, Inc.
She is the Founding Director of Eupsychia (pronounced u-si'-ki-a) Institute which means "good psyche" or "well being" in Greek, a not-for-profit professional training and healing program in Soul-Based Psychology and Integrative Breathwork. With her staff of dedicated, experienced spiritual therapists, she conducts workshop intensives throughout North America on a regular basis.
Eupsychia Institute
PO Box 151960
Austin, TX 78715-1960
(800) 546-2795
Local (512) 327-2795
Fax (512) 327-6043
eupsychia1@aol.com
Contact Webmistress
www.eupsychia.com
New Event!
Healing Into Wholeness:10 Day Wellness retreat For Emotional Healing and Spiritual Awakening with Jacquelyn Small
June 16- 26
Central Texas Hill Country (near Austin)
Contact:
Eupsychia 800-546-2795
eupsychia.com/well.html
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