On the Spiritual Journey…

Recently I’ve had a couple of people ask me…what IS a spiritual journey?

Since I’m a self-proclaimed Mom On A Spiritual Journey…a blog post to answer that question is most likely in order.

The BIG one – it’s Spirituality v. Religion – or is it?

Whilst being asked this kind of question I often also get asked ‘What’s the difference between Religion and Spirituality?’

That’s a good place to start to begin to understand the concept of a Spiritual Journey.

My personal definition of Religion

First of all I’d like to write out a definition of Religion as I see it. (And this is my humble opinion here…part of the Journey is that I’m not in the business of trying to change anyone else’s beliefs or preferences – simply stating my own).

I’m a fan of Maya Angelou’s words on this subject and continue to be inspired by this recent quote of hers on Oprah Winfrey’s excellent SuperSoulSunday series.

Religion is a map

If we were to view religious practice through this lens, then we have many choices of routes on our map.  We could take the low road, the high road or even perhaps Main Street.

Let’s imagine that this map has a common start point (birth) and a common ending point (aka the transition to whatever’s next after this life).

Each of us is given a map and whatever we intend to achieve in life, the agreement is that the start point and the end point are the same.

Now we can start to map out our journey

Religion offers us many routes to our destination with many different approaches to how we may get there.  Most religions include spiritual practice such as prayer, ritual and even meditation.  Most of the world religions have been ‘mapped out’ for more than a few lifetimes, so the way is pretty clear.

Many people love their Religious practice and live happy and successful lives as a result.

So that’s my definition of Religion in brief.

Back to the original title of this post – what is a spiritual journey?

Let’s imagine you get handed a map when you were born just like everyone else, but there are questions, so many questions that are left unanswered by the map.

Such as…

  • What is a soul?
  • Why is it that we all HAVE a beginning and an ending – who says?
  • Do I have to do it this way?
  • Most of the beliefs on this map don’t match with my belief system as I’m learning about this world – what can I do?

And more specifically in my case…

  • Why can I sense energies around people? The map doesn’t say anything about that.
  • How come I am able to remember Past Lives which are deeply meaningful to me – nothing on the map about that, either
  • I have experiences of energies, or entities visiting me
  • I have validatable spiritual experiences (the information received can be confirmed or clarified in some way)
  • Where do my talents, skills and abilities come from?

Where’s the map for that?  Ah, so THAT’s what the Spiritual Journey is!

The problem for me is…there is no map for that!  Not in traditional religious practice (as yet)…with perhaps the exception of the Unity Church movement in the United States.

So perhaps Spiritual Journeyers are the new map makers?  Maybe in 100 years time people will have evolved to the next Spiritual Journey…whatever that is.

Did you enjoy this post?  Feel free to sign up below for my bi-monthly Energetics Updates Emails.  You’ve receive information about my Online Practice at New World Energetics and spiritually healthy giveaways.

Republished from the Mom On A Spiritual Journey Blog.