by Berenice Andrews
Although teaching has been my life-long “calling,” it took on new meaning after I encountered my own shaman healer and teacher. For months, I had been enduring a psycho/spiritual crisis that left me in tatters. Then, Spirit led me to a Wise Woman who was tuned into the cosmic energies of this world and the Otherworld. I studied and healed with her for two years. During this period, my “calling” became a passion for living the path of shamanic spirituality and developing the cosmic “knowing” (gnosis) that becomes one’s true being. The interconnected healing modality on this path is working with the inherently androgynous human energy system. This structure’s microcosmic centers of consciousness originate in the Spirit, the macrocosmic One Consciousness/Creative Energy.
If we are open and willing to receive healing at this level, we can be transformed by “knowing” the Spirit expressed “As, In and Through” us. Thereby, we can heal our wounds and recognize what we truly are: multidimensional, androgynous energy beings—Souls—joyfully aware of that truth about ourselves.
Traveling the Path
While continuing along the path of becoming a shamanic healer and teacher, I had my second life-altering experience. I traveled to the moors in Northern England and encountered Long Meg, a monolithic stone “head” and the mighty matriarch of an ancient stone circle. When I walked into that sacred enclosure and felt its embracing energies, I knew that I was at home. I also had an inkling of where Spirit was leading me: There were more inner changes to come.
I was drawn to further my studies in metaphysics, wisdom teachings, Biblical scholarship, psychology, philosophy, mythology, folk tales and quantum physics. Then, one sunny August morning in 2007, I awakened “knowing” that I would now start to write a book. During the five and a half years that it took to manifest Rebirthing Into Androgyny: Your Quest For Wholeness, And Afterward, it evolved into a textbook presenting a series of teaching/healing lessons in the sacred space of a stone circle classroom to soul searchers (people who yearn to “know” who they are and why they are here).
The Fundamental Concept
Understanding that we are souls manifesting Spirit, the One Consciousness/Creative Energy, we can address the fundamental concept of my teachings: Form Follows Consciousness. You do not see because you have eyes; you have eyes because you can see. Under this premise, we can use our own energy system to identify and heal damages to the Soul’s structure. These wounds include the forms we, as individuals, create out of consciousness energies (soul substance), such as destructive physical, emotional and mental addictions, fear-based beliefs, false self-identifications, and raging inner conflicts.
A quest for androgynous wholeness takes us forward on four intense evolutionary “paths” that include spiritual disciplines and practices, and other healing therapies. The first path, that of “Opening the Way,” takes us into the East, the realm of beginning awareness, where Teacher guides help us to let go of fear-based beliefs and other forms that cause destruction and damage. The second path, that of “Coming Into Being,” leads into the South, the realm of multidimensional growth, where Warrior guides help us balance inner masculine and feminine forces. The third path, that of “Entering Within,” takes us into the West, the realm of healing maturation, where Healer guides help us to develop loving self awareness. The fourth path, that of “Finding Wisdom,” leads into the North, the realm of “endings,” where Visionary guides help us discern Truth. The quest then enters into its next cycle on the upward spiral of growth, again in the East, the realm of beginnings, but this time we start at a higher level of knowing.
The four evolutionary paths can help us purify, simplify and unify our energy structures and ultimately transform them.
When the cyclical paths have been followed and the gestation and labor are complete, Soul searchers are reborn into true “beingness.” Essentially, this is the rebirthing process taught by Jesus, the Teacher, to Nicodemus, the Pharisee, (Gospel of John 3:1-12) and symbolized by the Bethlehem Christ Child. In this familiar scene, the Bethlehem stable, which actually was a cave, represents the human cave-of-the-heart, (a Sufi teaching), wherein those who are newly reborn manifest the purity, simplicity and wholeness (holiness) of the evolved Self (the Christ Child/the Christ Consciousness). Then they start their next evolutionary journey sustained by their great androgynous, spiritual power (the Holy Partners), while evolving from their animal nature (the stable beasts). Thereafter, the reborn will “grow-up” while living wisely and lovingly in the company of the Spirit within themselves and within the world. It is the work of a lifetime, and I journey I am inspired to share!
Berenice Andrews is approaching her 79th birthday, and she continues to follow her bliss, remaining “in love” with her work as a shamanic teacher/healer and with the soul searchers she teaches. To learn more about her teaching and Rebirthing Into Androgyny: Your Quest For Wholeness, And Afterward visit thestonecircleclassroom.com.