Raney-Mills Turner, LPC, ATR
Guest Blogger
As a therapist and a lightworker, I want to give some perspective on how you might protect your own light, nourish it, and simply be a light in a world that feels so crowded with darkness, especially with the holidays around us. What better time to discuss this topic than the season of holy lights.
This is powerful work; and if you are open to it, it can change your life. You do not have to have money or status or community to decide to be a lightworker; but oftentimes, these securities arrive as you attract more light in your life.
“As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being,” stated the late, great psychoanalyst and king of the archetypes, Carl Jung.
What is a lightworker?
My definition of a lightworker is someone who consciously connects to the Source and wholeheartedly arrives in their day with the intention of sharing their light. They work their light by intentionally facing their own darkness, the Shadow, and bear witness to the darkness around them, all the while staying “clear” and connected with whatever comes up for them, in order to keep doing the lightwork. They are divinely guided by this vision to vibrate at a higher frequency in order to move close enough to the darkness and remain safely connected to their truth. What is the Source, you ask? It is whatever said lightworker believes to be the Source: God, the Sun, a light grid, specific gods or goddesses, Nature, Creativity. It honestly does not matter that much as long as you can connect to it clearly and with your most attentive, fiery heart.
Let us first be still and tune into your light before we go further. Close your eyes, if you are in a safe enough place to do so, or create a soft gaze at the floor in front of you. Now take three deep breaths in and out. Let your body as a whole container soften into the pull of gravity. Place your hands on your heart. Sit and breathe for at least 1 minute while imagining a light in your heart center, a light fed by something greater than you. It may be the size of a tea light candle or a hearty nourishing fire. Just be still until you sense it is there.
Now that I’m connected, what’s next?
Your Higher Self, your most wise, clear, stainless version of you, is always connected to Source and always right there to help you. Do you listen? Do you allow for those quiet messages or do you prefer the louder, more abrasive messages from Fear? Does being a lightworker mean that you ignore the news and never feel deeply angry? No. It means, you stop, you feel the feeling, and you let it move. This is a daily practice of pausing and ritualizing the day.
But the world is so dark and horrifying right now!
In energy work, we ask the “energetic contagion” we received (from the internet, from the photo, from the person who hurt us) to “return to the Source with forgiveness.” We must stay informed, and we must take action to help the causes; and we must do it with intention, precision, and light. As the artist, feminist, writer, magic maker, Sarah Gottesdiener states,
Most clients in my office appear before me, discussing their own personal darknesses, and I am privileged to bear witness to this courage. Lately, I see clients then feel guilty for having any personal darkness when there are “bigger things” going on in the world. I, too, experience these feelings. All of this is valid, but guilt is a low vibrational energy. You working on yourself actually vibrates at a higher frequency and affects the whole world, believe it or not! David Hawkins is a scientist who calibrated emotions on a range of zero to seven hundred. Harkins research shows that“shame” ranks at 20 Hertz. “Gratitude” and “Joy” around 400-600, and “Enlightenment” is 700. According to Harkins, vibrating at 700 is said to affect 70 million people on the planet. It does not help anyone to stay drained or feel as if you must create suffering for yourself because others are suffering. But by tuning into your own light, your heart-focused kindness can actually change the world.
Joy Harjo is a feminist, Indigenous poet, activist, and served as the United States Poet Laureate from 2019-2022. In her poem, “Once the World Was Perfect,” she writes:
Then one of the stumbling ones took pity on another
And shared a blanket.
A spark of kindness made a light.
The light made an opening in the darkness.
Harnessing the Holy Season of Lights
Whether you celebrate the Winter Solstice, Hanukkah, Christmas, Diwali, Eid al-Fitr, Festivus or your
personally created version of the BahHumbugery, it is impossible not to notice the environmental focus on light this time of year. The days are darker and shorter, and people use candles and string lights to bring more dazzle to this darker time of year. The origins of the Winter Solstice involved practices such as placing candles around your home or hanging circularly sliced oranges in your windows to call in the Sun, to remind it to return and give us the light our plants (and ourselves) need to experience the rebirth and seed growth of the spring. Adding light to your life while meditating on your soul’s light is one way to connect and harness the light around you so that you, too, can shine a light wherever you go and maybe even keep it going at those family holiday gatherings.
What if I feel like my light is going out?
The concept of choosing Oneself and one’s peace is a radical act; however one must choose Peace first, protect it, practice it, over and again, in order to remain lit up. The universe will assist you in this process if you let it; but we humans love control and power. Therefore, it is not easy to relinquish attachments to ideals and societal norms in order to live a more connected pure life. It sounds selfish, after all! That is the trick. It is selfish initially, but the practice of lightwork will keep you steady and alive for those around you who need you.
The world needs your light. In Denmark, the Human Library was created - This organization is an international non-profit in 85 countries with the amazing mission to destigmatize stereotypes and help others see and experience hands-on someone who is different from them. The book “is a person that volunteered to represent a stigmatized group in the community...and can answer questions from readers to help challenge what is being said/told/understood. To help shed light on the facts as you know them.” What if we were all books of light, open to the person in front of us, without judgment, without agenda.
I want you to ask yourself what your spiritual life is like today. I want you to look at if your values are aligning with your behaviors. I want to ask you if you spend more time with your phone than loved ones. I want to ask you if you hate your job but you are staying anyway because of fear. I want to ask you if your “friend” is draining your energy but you allow it anyway.
How do I nourish my light?
Make more art. Sing louder. Be kind to strangers. Burn something. Practice healthy detachment and stop attaching to specific outcomes. Do not take everything or anything personally. Observe what is going on in the world, take action where you can, donate, protest, and then reconnect to your light. Allowing the internet to lower your own vibration is not helpful to those suffering in the world. It is not helpful to you or to anyone, in fact. I challenge you to take a social media cleanse this holiday season. “What drains your spirit drains your body. What fuels your spirit fuels your body.” states mystic Caroline Myss and brilliant author of, Anatomy of the Spirit.
Find an energy worker in your area. Take a Reiki 1 course and learn it yourself. Go to a safe, inclusive church or temple. Explore your spirituality. Stop scrolling and lean into what brings you life.
Take a little time to become aware of who you no longer want to be.
Then:
1. ‘Think about who I want to be when I open my eyes.’
2. ‘What thoughts do I want to fire and wire in my brain?’
3. ‘What behaviors do I want to demonstrate?’
-Dr. Joe Dispenza, DC, neuroscientist, Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself
You cannot be a lightworker unless you are fanning the flame of your own light with all the seriousness it takes to keep a newborn alive. Welcome to the practice. It is not easy, but it is a better life indeed. The greatest gift you can give humanity is a healed life.
Before you head into the holiday gatherings, I suggest you pause, tune into your light and imagine that light is encircling you in a bubble about arm’s length around your whole being. In this bubble (also your aura), you are in charge. Whatever tries to get in there, you can ask it to go. Try not to take anything personally. Collect your power and notice where the power is leaking. Be the light.
Now, go light a candle for yourself, and another one for the world. We need all the light we can get.
Resources:
For more study on the Holy Season itself, I recommend with Caroline Myss and Richard Holden: Reflections: Holy Season of Mystics
Joy Harjo’s full poem “Once the World Was Perfect” can be found here: Once the World was Perfect
To order Sarah Gottesdiener’s Many Moons Planner, a great tool for tuning into your own light in 2024: Many Moons Calendar Planner
For more information on Denmark’s Human Library, in case you want to be a book: https://humanlibrary.org.
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