Wholeness of Selfhood

Nicola Mary Christensen-Johnson

An Odyssey with Wholeness

Meandering on the Pathways to Selfhood

A Bittersweet Desire

On our journeys of spiritual maturity, most of us will experience coming up to an edge where our bittersweet longing swells in our heart and the ‘desire to die’ unexpectedly shows up. These moments present themselves as major turning points within the odyssey, a culminating moment when we can finally let go of all our experiences of unrequited love to feel only the thrust of unconditional love pulsing through us, summoning us to become love.

In the silent and benevolent presence of death, in all its forms and guises, we quietly begin to befriend death and, paradoxically, we are called to a fullness of life, offering ourselves completely and wholly to the mystery of life. Like Odysseus, confined on the island of Calypso, allowing the powers of our deepest longing to overcome us reminds us of who we are in wholeness of selfhood, our purpose in this lifetime and how short our time is.

The ‘desire to die’ will not be a unique experience in the middle of the darkest of dark nights of the soul. These unexpected encounters with death will ambush us, surprise us even, and most likely bewilder us and throw us off kilter. Their purpose is to guide us faithfully through the journey of the second half of life, and the highest forms of awakening threaded into our odyssey, taking us to the liminal space where life and death merge to become one.

In Recognition of Sovereign Selfhood

Meandering on the Pathways to Selfhood is a guided itinerary for the pilgrimage of identity and purpose shepherding us to the crowning experience of the ‘desire to die’ where we claim ourselves as living and fully conscious expressions of absolute love. The travel plan also includes looking at all the catalytic events we collide into, because these thunderbolt experiences, often followed by highly dramatic inner earthquakes and shakiness, are forebearers of change and deep inner transformation. Catalytic experiences provide us with crucial upsurges of creativity which impel us to reclaim our sovereign creatorship dwelling in wholeness of selfhood.

The guided itinerary honours the big existential questions which flow, like a river of love, irrigating and fertilising our pilgrimage of identity and purpose. Who we are meant to be? What is the next dispensation in our life? What are the new forms of participation in world waiting for us to show up? What is our gift, the one or two things we do really well? How do we offer ourselves graciously to the mystery of life’ What is our path of service in the greater arc of life?

Listening to the prophetic voice offering answers to these questions helps us recognise the streams of wisdom and the great traditions which form and inform our inner voice and inner guidance, in other words our inheritance which we are also invited to unapologetically claim as ours. Befriending death, courageously engaging in catalytic experiences, and nesting in the darkness both engender are all part of our journey of becoming fully human. These life-changing experiences reveal the deep truths that run through our lives like a subterranean river irrigating the landscapes of our histories and stories. We learn to uncover and bring them to the light. We learn to give voice the truths which are ours to behold, thereby restoring the flow of life where it has been obstructed. We learn to stand up against oppression and social injustice, to fight the battles which are ours to lead, and to walk the path of peace which is ours to disclose.

The approach converges towards the We Story and the ways, as collectives, we apprehend the cosmology of consciousness which binds together the pathways to selfhood. Through the framework woven into the pathways, we shift our perception of reality and surrender to a higher order of consciousness providing us with new understandings of the indwelling presence of love and the experience the indivisible reality of love. Here we recognise that our individual growth, in terms of higher consciousness, reflects the evolutionary thrust of consciousness unfolding unto itself, life living itself in us

A Course for Mapping your Odyssey

Based on the materials collated in Book Two. Pathways to Selfhood I invite you to allow me to join your odyssey with wholeness so that we may walk together on the shores of your life, using the map I have logged to chart consciousness unfolding unto itself. The accompaniment offers to follow your progression from the egoic consciousness of the personality to the unitive consciousness upholding sovereign selfhood, and to provide some insights and bearings for moving through the inner changes that you are being invited to receive and endorse.

The guided itinerary does not follow the movements in the same order as they are presented in Book Two. I chart the route by attuning to your questions, and whatever it is that you want to know at this time of your life, clearly and lovingly. My inner guidance, received from my own sovereign selfhood, then informs me of the specific course we are invited to take as we meander together on the pathways to selfhood. We might be invited to pause and reflect on one of the eight larger sweeping movements, and their relevant pathway, or we might be encouraged to dive into one of the inner movements for an in-depth exploration. Whatever the itinerary we will pause to reflect on the qualities summoned and the capacities developed at each phase of the odyssey with wholeness.

 

A Map Leading to Wholeness of Selfhood

First cycle of expansion: Cleaning-Up

Choosing. The Emerging Pathway: Abiding – Cleansing – Opening Up

Consenting. The Devotional Pathway: Turning In – Witnessing – Engaging

Second cycle of expansion: Growing-Up

Expanding. The Pathway of Introspection: Exploring – Stretching – Affirming

Shifting. The Pathway of Metanoia: Sensing – Stoking – Discerning

Third cycle of expansion: Waking-Up

Awakening. The Pathway of Conscious Love: Trusting – Aligning – Partaking

Surrendering. The Pathway of Kenosis: Dismantling – Embracing – Letting Go

Fourth cycle of expansion: Showing-Up

Enacting. The Pathway of Essential Nature: Offering – Manifesting – Voicing

Inditing. The Pathway of Collective Nature: Pruning – Emanating – Cohering

Format of Guided Itinerary

Meandering on the Pathways to Selfhood is an itinerary composed of eight 60-minute online calls and/or in-person meetings based on a customised travel plan introducing you to the materials in Book Two. Pathways to Selfhood.

Online calls are done on the videoconferencing platform Zoom. In-person meetings take place in my home on the island of Bornholm in Denmark, or elsewhere if I happen to be travelling and in your area.

The guided itinerary can be done alone or with a companion.

Planning your Guided Itinerary

Let’s start with a complimentary 30-minute call to explore what is moving you towards wholeness of selfhood. I am particularly interested in listening to the ways the materials presented in the pathways to selfhood can support you on your path of spiritual growth. Click on the button below: send me your request with a few options as to when we can meet. I’ll get back to you confirming a date and time, and provide you with a generic Zoom link.

After the exploratory call, the guided itinerary is confirmed after payment. I issue you with a personal Zoom link and we then plan the sessions. I highly recommend that we settle for a structured approach providing you with the appropriate accompaniment for your customised odyssey: meeting on the same day and time, and at regular intervals, that is not too spaced out. You choose the day of the week, the time and the frequency: every week, every two weeks, or every three weeks, not more.

Pricing

 

Please take some time to read my Terms of service: you will find out more about me and how I work.

You can also look at my Philosophy of Accompaniment which details how I accompany people on their odysseys with wholeness and oneness.