By Walter Lacey
Portals, from a spiritual perspective, have been getting a bad reputation lately. In horror movies and ghost-related TV shows, they’re usually blamed for undesirable things that happen to unsuspecting people. We’re told that “the unnatural,” “demons,” and “dark forces” can enter our world through portals if someone mistakenly “opens the door” and lets them in.
But I believe portals are, more often than not, wellsprings of spiritual nourishment intended for our growth. We are the keys that unlock portals when we become aligned with them. That is to say, when a portal has something positive to offer and we’re willing to accept it, we are aligned, enabling a transmission to take place. Not every portal has something to offer for everyone, but when there’s a match, we can either accept what’s being offered, gaining something invaluable, or ignore it to our detriment.
For much of my adult life, I chose to ignore. My negative focus started by turning away from my dreams and progressed from there. I did my best to block strange visions I would sometimes have. This, after all, was the time in my life when I was supposed to “get real,” “buckle down,” and batten down the hatches in preparation for leading a conformable life in the society that I lived.
The desire for a more authentic course was always there, although it may not have been a conscious one.
Thankfully, those committed to my progress were tireless in their persistence. After a 25-year hiatus from tending to my spirituality, I found their presence and guidance in my life had resumed as if it were only yesterday.
It’s now easy for me to see that from 2007 to 2010 the course of my life had shifted substantially. What first appeared to be subtle changes became more apparent through a journal I kept. In it, I would record any noteworthy dreams or extraordinary events that happened to me during this time. Reading through it two years later, I could plainly see how great the magnitude of change had been and how that change was sometimes just a reflection of me at a much earlier period in my life.
My worldview, behavior, and pursuits had all taken a turn for the better. I became open to new ideas, less prone to anger, more trusting of myself and others. I started pursuing ways to increase my awareness as my dreams again intensified in substance and clarity. My intuition, sense of patterns, and synchronicity all became increasingly pronounced.
In April 2007, I found myself standing in the attic of an empty house. My wife, Nieves, and I were searching for a new place to call home. She was standing at the opposite end of the attic with two women, the buying and selling agents, discussing the niceties of a partially finished attic.
I was looking out a window overlooking a big yard. At its edge, where the grass ends and a wooded area begins, standing very still, just staring at the house, was a large doe.
I called the women over to the window where we could all marvel: “Ooo…it’s so close,” “aah…it’s so cute!” I always thought that small event was a good omen. We bought the house a month later. I told Nieves I decided to go along with the purchase because of the deer that had come out of the woods.
It seemed to have swayed me in the right direction because my transformation started sometime after we moved into the house. I felt like I was being pulled out of the woods, so to speak, and placed on a new path.
During the summer and fall, I would watch deer visit our yard. I watched coyotes chase down chipmunks, hawks looking for field mice, and wild turkeys looking for anything they could eat. This became my favorite side of the house while the weather stayed warm. I eventually had a deck built there so that I could sit, watch the wildlife, and meditate on the trees and sky.
I began to remember things from long ago, a time when I was open, adventurous, and willing to consider possibilities outside the norm.
It didn’t matter to me what anyone else believed. The house was built near a portal and I had accepted what it had to offer.
Walter Lacey lives with his wife, so,n and daughter in Massachusetts. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin, Madison where he attended the School of Journalism. His book Ways to Navigate (Balboa Press) is a collection of true and fictional anecdotes describing a spiritual journey resumed after many years. It’s available through Balboa Press, Amazon, and B&N. Contact him via email at wj42@msn.com.