by Berenice Andrews
“Unclean! Unclean!” For thousands of years, the leper’s warning cry has triggered fear and revulsion in the minds and hearts of people.
Even in this 21st century, the physical, emotional, and mental suffering associated with leprosy has remained essentially unchanged. Although much reduced in numbers (the disease can be cured most of the time, if properly treated), the stigma remains. Describing the 18th century Parisians who sat watching the guillotine at work, Charles Dickens noted that “the leprosy of unreality disfigured every human creature in attendance.” (A Tale of Two Cities). Thus, even the word “leprosy” itself can trigger revulsion. What a long-lasting affliction!
The Leper
The first three gospels of the New Testament each tell of the healing encounter between Jesus and a leper.* Although the setting of each story differs slightly, the message is profoundly the same…
A lone figure—ragged, filthy, and diseased—hovers at a safe distance from the crowd. Having heard that Jesus is nearby, the leper is deeply determined to encounter him.”Unclean! Unclean!” He is calling out the warning and furtively inching forward. While the people surrounding Jesus flee in panic, he stands waiting quietly. Like a wounded animal, the leper slowly approaches…until he comes within touching distance. Then he falls to his knees. Looking up, he implores: “If you will, you can make me clean.” The response is immediate: “I am willing…be clean.” And Jesus gently touches the leper. He is cleansed, not instantly, but very soon thereafter. Then Jesus carefully instructs him to inform the priests in the Jerusalem temple and to offer a sacrifice, as testimony.
There the stories end, and, as usual, they provide us with a wonderful learning opportunity.
The “Mind” of the Heart
Like the long-ago leper, here we are in need of healing…physically, emotionally, mentally. (Isn’t that what those gospel stories are all about?) And here is our transcendent consciousness…our Christ Consciousness…quietly waiting. (Didn’t Jesus the Healer/Teacher live out his brief ministry demonstrating those energies?)
But, at that time, and for centuries thereafter, most people weren’t ready to learn.
We had to evolve into a greater awareness—a heart awareness. It’s a knowing about the connective power of the heart bridge, the transformative power of the heart crucible and the transcendent power of the heart cave—the birthing place of the Christ Consciousness—in us. It was only after the 18th century “enlightenment” and the advent of science were we really ready. Then, the next three centuries were an amazing period of learning!
Now, within the last 15 or so years, the scientists at the HeartMath Institute have demonstrated pretty convincingly that a human being’s physical heart is a neurological construct with much the same properties as a human brain with which it is linked in a profoundly interactive relationship. (See Joseph Chilton Pearce, The Biology of Transcendence and The Heart-Mind Matrix.)
Thus, in addition to what we can already know about our creative centers of consciousness (chakras), we can become aware that we possess a brain/mind “in-formed” by intellect and we possess a heart/mind “in-formed” by intelligence.
But neither of those “minds” is guaranteed. And while our (masculine) brain/minds have received much attention, especially in the North American cultural setting, our (feminine) heart/minds have been woefully neglected throughout the ages. That lack of awareness has probably triggered most (if not all) the “diseases” of our “bodies.”
And why is that?
In the creation/evolutionary process (Spirit-in-action), which always in-forms us, we are required to interact correctly with the “environment” within and around us. And there are certain life-giving signals that we must always heed and obey. This we have often failed to do. With a greater awareness of heart-mind, we can become better able to pay attention.
A Healing Protocol and Process
So here we are, at last ready (perhaps) to continue our creation/evolution. We tap into our own heart/mind and, thereby, start to actualize what Jesus demonstrated so long ago. It’s called “the healing encounter with my Christ Consciousness.” Although it’s a deceptively “simple” protocol, it’s a process that will stretch us to the limits. Yet, we’ll discover with each stretching that our capacities will grow and enlarge. Meanwhile, because we are holistic beings, all the “steps” of the protocol will virtually happen at the same time.
Acknowledge
Like the leper of the story, we must summon up the courage to take the first step on what will become a cyclical path. We “open the way” by setting an intent to deal with our affliction. Once we do that, we can ask for help from our inner Christ. The response is always immediate. Then, with trust in that consciousness power, we venture into the truth that we might have been trying to hide (and protect) ourselves from, for years.
We set to “work” by using our brain/mind. Its fuel…intellect…is our consciousness energies of cognition. With them we identify and “put the right words to” our reality. At the same time, we call forth our slowly developing willpower to help us stay focused. As we inch along, we remember that while this brain/mind action includes the “work” of our solar plexus chakra and the consciousness energies of our mental body, there are always the spiritual undercurrents sustaining us.
During that ongoing acknowledgement, we become increasingly aware of our inner and outer environments. In this thought-full-ness, we focus not only on ourselves but also on the “others” impacting upon us. And as we journey along the cyclical path and “come into being,” those environments gradually expand. We slowly realize that these are the energy “field” in which we live, move, and have our “being.”
Meanwhile, we’re on the next part of the cycle. We “enter within” and gradually make deep connections with the “memories” of the events, situations, circumstances of our lives. They are the innumerable energy “traces” that constitute what we have become. While doing so, we slowly realize that physically, emotionally, and mentally we are a unique “i-am” configuration.
In this probing, we discover first that we are multidimensional beings with some almost impenetrable layers and, second, that we are not only life-serving/life-affirming but also life-destroying/life-hating consciousness energies. In other words, we are an incredibly complex combination of light and darkness.
Meanwhile, there have been the ongoing spiritual currents sustaining us. And we have been making use of our other “mind.” It’s the heart/mind. Its fuel is intelligence…our consciousness energies of love. They are helping us to “find wisdom.” Although at first that might be pretty sparse, we can remind ourselves that as holistic beings we have already been receiving help from our heart/mind loving energies.
And while we continue to acknowledge each of our “layers” and probe ever more deeply into our “i-am,” we are also acknowledging with increasing certainty that “i-am becoming clean.”
In the final analysis, it’s the only acknowledgement we require…
Accept
For all along, we have been “working on” accepting what has been coming into our lives. And because most of us are inclined to make only “positive affirmations” and to attempt to tell the Spirit what to do, we can often find the “work” of acceptance very difficult. In the unfolding of what is amounting to our Sacred Story, there can often (invariably?) be times when our acceptance…just like our acknowledgement…must be, like the leper’s, based on intent and trust.
Involved in that slow change is the sacral chakra center of our emotional body consciousness. It has come in from past lives (and has likely created the major part of our affliction.) And, despite the sometimes gloomy “evidence” to the contrary, we continue to trust the Spirit-in-action.
With our heart/mind we accept that in all of this there is a “divine right order.”
While that idea often doesn’t appear to be very logical, we remind ourselves that in the cave of the heart, where we are opting to live, there can occur another kind of “logic.” It’s called “serendipity” or “accident” because it’s nudging us into using our intuition. As our journey continues, that capacity increases dramatically, with the happy result that we find ourselves becoming amazingly aware.
Happily, we note that we can actually think and formulate plans more clearly than before. At the same time, we can patiently watch what’s unfolding. Increasingly, in our brain/mind-heart/mind interaction, we can accept the paradox that effect can sometimes (apparently) precede cause. In short, we find that we are actually manifesting something new in and around us…
Allow
…because we are “clean” enough that our root chakra survival center of consciousness is now receiving the gifts of both brain/mind and heart/mind. And that’s because two cleansings have been happening in the ongoing cycle: first, a lot of fear has been replaced by the loving wisdom we are now extending towards ourselves and others; second, the kundalini energies of transcendence have been “opening the way.”
Located at the root chakra but directly connected with the third eye, the kundalini force is raising our vibratory frequency.
And what we can increasingly know is this: In our healing encounter, the “will” referred to by Jesus (and the leper) is the “soft” will. It’s the will surrendered to the heart/mind intelligence that has often been overwhelmed by the “hard” will of the brain/mind intellect. But now, by acknowledging and accepting, we have increasingly been “coming into being” without expectation and simply allowing what could take place. In that healing encounter, we are allowing ourselves to return, again and again, to an acknowledgement and acceptance of the Spirit “at work” in us, as us and through us.
But there is a further requirement. We must acknowledge our indebtedness to the macrocosmic Consciousness Energies out of which we were created. With that act of obedience, we can know and allow the transcendent Source of the cleansing. Then we can say along with Julian of Norwich (and the healed leper) that “all is well and all is truly well.”
Conclusion
Will that mean that we have been restored (or brought into) glowing physical health? It might. But the story of Jesus’ encounter with the leper means much more than a miraculous recovery from a serious illness or other “life-threatening” situation.
The word “healing” comes from the root words meaning “whole,” as in “wholesome” and “wholeness.” And these imply a coming together of disparate parts into a smoothly functioning unity. As that unity, “the healing encounter with my Christ Consciousness” means that we, who are a microcosm of the macrocosmic Consciousness Energies, can finally stop rejecting who we are. And we can cease doing it to the rest of the world. At last, we can know what Jesus knew about the leper: that this “filthy mess” is an unacknowledged aspect of the Divine. By acknowledging, accepting, and allowing our own divinity, we can finally know this about ourselves and the people in our world. And we can start living that way.
* The Gospel of Matthew 8, 1-4, the Gospel of Mark 1, 40-45 and the Gospel of Luke 5, 12-16, in George M. Lamza, The Holy Bible: From the Ancient Eastern Text translated from the Aramaic of the Peshitta.
Berenice Andrews is a shamanic teacher/healer and a regular contributor to this magazine. To explore further into the ideas presented above (in addition to the world’s sacred writings and its myths and tales), see Pagan and Christian Creeds: Their Origin and Meaning, by Edward Carpenter and the biased but informative The Golden Bough, by James G. Fraser. To learn more about power animals, see Animal-Speak: The Spiritual &Magical Power of Creatures Great & Small, by Ted Andrews.
To find out more about Berenice and her teachings, please refer to her articles in back issues of Transformation Magazine and to her book: Rebirthing Into Androgyny: Your Quest for Wholeness…And Afterward. If you are interested in becoming her student, see the thestonecircleclassroom.com.