Those constant temptations...

What is the meaning of Lent for your soul?

In the cycle of the Inner Year, the first quarter of the year is spent working with your relationship to yourself:

Inner Epiphany celebrates and deepens your sense of the purpose living in your existence.

Imagining Your Contribution addresses the evolving needs and expressions of that purpose. 

Then comes Inner Lent, the time of facing the possibility that you may be tempted to forego your purpose for more immediate and seductive powers and pleasures.


365 days a year, I succumb to little temptations. Don’t you?

There is always some voice urging me to turn a stone to bread, leap off some high perch trusting the angels to rescue me before I crash on the ground, and the great temptation to be right, to know it all.  And I succumb...dumb!

A stone is not bread and never satisfies my appetite.

Angels come to my side when I walk firmly on the ground, but laugh at my ridiculous attempts to magically fly through the day or the deed. The sound of angels laughing at my foolishness is an absolutely cringing sensation.

And being right, has nothing to do with being alive and in the moment. The sense of being right relates to a past and very dead moment.  Being right has no lasting power. If I arrogantly attach my life to a story of the past, time, the world and real joy pass me by.

Inner Lent is the time when my inner learning, my self-knowledge, focuses on my relationship to temptation.

Won’t you join me?

Inner Lent, like all of the Inner Year programs, offers archetypal imaginations and questions that guide and support you in your very unique and ,just right for you and only you” awakening and understanding of your soul’s unfolding.

I’ve made a recording of some thoughts on the first questions of Inner Lent. I look at the landscape of inner isolation and the experience of inner fasting. I describe why Inner Lent is connected, not to Inner Easter, but to the experience of Inner Baptism. 

As I write this, I keep struggling with the third temptation. I keep wanting to rerecord and make my thoughts perfect, so right that I would stand in glory above the world. Yuk, yuk, yuk!! 

Listen to my imperfect thoughts.  In spite of their imperfection you may find encouragement and inspiration for you own Inner Lent.
Click here to listen...

Then consider engaging in a deeper look at your relationship to each of the three temptations and their appearance in the modern soul (that’s our souls) as addiction, fantasy and prejudice. This is the Inner Lent program of three webinars and a bunch of great materials. 
You can click here to go to my “store” to register for the Inner Lent program. (I’ll be sending out at least one more email next week sharing more about the content of the webinar and how you might find real value in it.)

One reason to signup - to keep you focused on your Inner Lent, as our daily lives are so filled with temptations that distract us from the work of self-knowledge and our inner development.  It is so sad to let these rich inner seasonal possibilities slip by.  Yes, we can work on our addictions, fantasies and prejudices at any time of the year, but we do so without the support of the cosmos.  Now is the time when the cosmic design where the human soul finds alignment with divine intention and the course of the sun and the greatest amount of light shines down on these inner questions.

Inner Vacation

In the lazy, hazy days of summer, I hope you have a sweet restorative inner vacation - full of fun and full of meaning.

I just looked up the definition(s) of vacation and found some real inspiration for self-awareness and some yummy food for thought.

Vacation is

1. an extended period of recreation.
2. a fixed holiday between terms as in school or law courts
3. the action of leaving something once occupied.

In thinking about these definitions I came up with some thoughts on the meaning, purpose and significance of vacation.

As children we learn that vacation means play and fun. Many of us continue with that picture of vacation but a vacation can be so much more. Using the three definitions above (in reverse order), I share some deeper perspectives on what a vacation can mean to us as we live our lives.

Vacating an Occupation

A vacation occurs when you leave a state or occupation of existence, activity, familiarity, identity, sameness, competency, ordinariness, and experience something different or new. A sacred vacation provides a new way of knowing yourself, your world and your future. Some part or all that has occupied your inner or outer life is left behind either temporarily or permanently. Do you need to leave something behind? Do you vacate and take a break from the “givens” of your life? Do you need permission to let go?

Between Terms

A vacation is a fixed time between terms. Do you have a fixed time or times of between-ness? This is a regular and committed time of reflection and rest or a time of adventure and inspiration? Do you take these kinds of break once a year? once a season? once a month? once a week? once a day? Is the duration of the vacation also fixed - 5 minutes? 5 days? 5 weeks?

This kind of vacation consciousness also asks us to be aware of the terms of our lives. When does a natural “between” occur in your year? or your month? or your day? How do you design an inner or outer vacation between the terms of your life that restores you and returns you to your commitments with new energy or new perspectives?

Re-creation

A vacation is an extended period of recreation. Of re-creation! Do you ever take time to re-create yourself, your world or your future? It is the school year of our childhood that teaches us, imprints us with the notion of summer vacation. We leave our school work for play. School gives us an education when we are young. As adults we leave work for vacation but instead of play, vacation might be education - educare is the bringing out of the deeper self - of what lives within. Education can be the re-creation of ourselves.

Who We Are in the World

In the work of the Inner Year, late summer is a time of educating or awakening ourselves to a deeper sense of who we are in the world. Beginning on July 27, I will be offering an intensive teleseminar program of four 90 minute sessions devoted to

The Mysteries and Questions of Personal Contribution.

What do you contribute to the world?
What do you long to contribute to the world?
What is your special talent?
How do you find personal fulfillment through your work?
How do you break free from a life of dissatisfaction?
Can you vacate what has occupied your life, but not occupied your spirit?
How can you re-create your life?

If your heart does not sing in the world or if you would like your heart to sing with more strength, register for this teleseminar. You may or may not find answers during the four weeks, but you will find new and meaningful questions. Take a vacation with eleven other people and educate your soul’s intentions around your unique contribution.

Working with the insights from this teleseminar, Questions of Contribution, you will

• develop ways to make the right choices and changes for your career.
• find your true reasons for volunteering and for learning new skills.
• give yourself permission to end an activity or begin an activity.
• learn how to liberate yourself to the demands and limitations that inhibit your self-expression.

Registration is limited to 12 participants. Participants receive a private 20 minute consultation with me to discuss specific issues about their life of contribution. Sessions are recorded and materials are sent out via email.

Register here!



Please add any comments or questions.