Spirit Time
There are two timelines: the one the world runs on, and the one your soul moves through.
This essay names the tension between them—and what becomes possible when we stop forcing human time onto spirit work.
Cederberg Mountains in South Africa.
Photo Credit: Vallerie Mwazo
There are two timelines in our world: Spirit time and human time. Unfortunately, these two timelines are not in harmony. In Spirit time, things often fall apart so that we can discover who we are and our purpose here.
Human time, on the other hand, focuses on the details of our lives. This can involve asking ourselves questions such as: Am I making enough money? Is this the right relationship for me? Should I go to grad school? Should I buy that house? Should I quit my job? Is this the person I want to spend the rest of my life with?…
Ironically, the only way to answer these questions is through Spirit time. Otherwise, these decisions are made from a place of fear, anxiety and societal pressures. It is more beneficial to us when these decisions come from a place of aligned knowing.
The lack of harmony between our spirit and human timelines is detrimental to us individually and collectively. Spirit time helps us understand how and why the stories we tell ourselves daily continue to shape our existence, consciously or unconsciously.
It allows us to connect with our essences and guides us to live more fulfilling life paths. It helps us understand the energetics of our traumas as individuals, the broader nature of the human condition, and the energetic integrity and imprint of our individual and collective consciousness.
It is a lens which helps us recalibrate and reorient ourselves towards our dreams and goals with assuredness and agency over our lives. Spirit time helps us find the middle path, honouring that we are simultaneously physical and spiritual beings.
Our world, however, is not interested in Spirit time. The incompatibility of Spirit time and human time is not accidental but by design. The world we inhabit, the one of human time, is cacophonous, distracting and deeply rooted in materiality. Spirit time eliminates things, people, places, and behaviours inconducive to the Spirit’s growth during our time here.
Spirit time facilitates “pequeños muertos,” little deaths that completely alter our trajectories, perspectives, and identities. These deaths challenge us deeply and fundamentally, requiring us to surrender and realign with what is truly important.
Our human time does not particularly like change or the uncertainty of Spirit time. As such, we have constructed a world that constantly demands our attention and keeps us busy and restless. One could hypothesise that we are a collective consciousness of runners, solely focused outwards on our ambitions and material goals, and looking inward is the most terrifying monster we imagine. We are afraid of who we will see when we look at who we are, who we have been, and who we are becoming. Thus, we continue to construct worlds and realities that disassociate us from our bodies, hearts, and Spirit.
Allowing the natural rhythms of Spirit time to inhabit our integral existence on this planet would dramatically change our world systems and perspectives. Spirit time invites us to be kinder, compassionate, and more in tune with ourselves and others.
Our foundational and collective systems are built on unconscious, disassociated, and inhumane beliefs and perspectives. That is to say, our world and many realities are divorced from our hearts and humanity.
Spirit time would allow us to change our world. We cannot undergo the process of metamorphosis and remain the same. e know-how of how to navigate with one foot in this world and the other in the spirit world. We have lost our ability to recognise the signs of the spirit world and soul work, but we are regaining these tools slowly but steadily.
Many traditions understand that being here means having one foot in the Spirit world and the other in the human world.
Some of us are more versed in this conversation and, therefore, serve as guides during times of transition. The roles of shamans, sangomas, wughangas, midwives, doulas, and elders are to assist us through the “pequeños muertos” essential to Spirit Time. They help us die without physically dying and support us as we surrender our old selves to become who we need to be for the next stage of our lives.
We need these bridge holders more than ever. It is imperative to understand that death is a part of life and always has been. We cannot live in past realities or construct different futures without surrendering our old selves. The future asks us to engage with death, let go, and eliminate beliefs that hinder our future.
We are collectively in a phase of transition. Our individual lives reflect that of our broader reality. Not only are we feeling the uncertainty and instability on a global scale, but we are also facing it in our private lives. Confusion, rage, and chaos are simultaneously invoking fear and awakening many of us to the reality of this world.
As a collective consciousness, we are experiencing a collective death that is both literal and metaphorical, a grim awakening that is shaking the foundation of our existence.
The gap between Spirit time and human time has been stretched far too wide. Denying and ignoring the true nature of our existence, which is comprised of both human and Spirit time, has led and continues to lead us into pointless wars and suffering.
Living as we do, disassociated and disconnected from our bodies, hearts and Spirit, permits us to commit atrocious and heinous acts of terror towards one another in the name of securing safety and power for a select few. The narratives we use to justify these acts reflect our disconnect from ourselves, each other and the planet.
Part of the invitation for this time is to surrender old truths that no longer reflect us collectively or individually. We have little choice but to change at this time. Unlike human time, Spirit time does not operate in ways we can fully comprehend. What may seem like a divertive path might be a corrective one, and what may seem absurd might very well be the catalyst to a new beginning.
The workings of Spirit time do not illuminate the future nor the potentials it contains during the metamorphosis process. There might be glimpses and visions of what it holds, but not more. To arrive at that potential future, we must shed our old skins, beliefs, thoughts, people, places, and things that are incongruous and incompatible with its existence.
Spirit time is not guided by morality, our beliefs of right and wrong; it lives in a parallel time where anything and everything is possible. It can take everything away from us and give us everything in return.
By silencing and erasing the role of bridge-holders in our societies, we have forgotten that gaining and losing is how Spirit invites us to change and transform ourselves, and how life unfolds on this planet.
We have managed to suppress this natural balancing system with one that always rewards the winners and tramples the losers. There are no “equalisers” in this system, but rather, it sustains a never-ending system of subjugation and oppression for most of the world.
Our future cannot support the inequality and injustice of the present. The intersection we find ourselves in is potent, chaotic, and difficult. There is no way to justify the deaths of innocents, nor the hatred towards anything and anyone who is and presents differently than the norm.
At such a crossroads, we find many who would much rather retreat to the past, to a notion of safety and security that only exists at the expense of others, denying others their right to exist and live as they wish. These voices sing a chorus full of hatred and grip too tightly to realities that deny the inevitable; we must change.
We cannot retreat to the past nor hide ourselves within the comforting arms of ignorance and arrogance. Spirit time is here for all of us to make significant changes to our individual and collective realities.
Spirit time is also urging us to recognise that we are collectively interdependent on one another. We cannot sustain a world in which many are oppressed and living in impoverished conditions, whilst a minority few exploit the luxuries of this world.
We rise together, and we sink together as a consciousness. The riches of the few are entirely dependent on the energy output of many.
It is those who toil day and night to ensure raw materials are sourced, factories are operational, goods are packaged and delivered, and systems are dependable that assure the wealth of a few. Many seem to mistake wealth-building as an individualistic endeavour, but in fact, many invisible hands that never gain recognition play a role.
Additionally, wealth is built entirely upon energetic exchanges before they are monetarily compensated. We seem to think that money equates to another human’s time, thought, presence, intelligence, participation, ability, willingness, and most importantly, their energy. We bestow upon each other in our work and businesses our life energy and vitality. If we truly understand that the energy we exchange and give to one another builds our world, it would be unthinkable to exploit one another for our own gain.
Exploitation means having little regard for the welfare of others. It means dismissing and devaluing the life energy of another, and yet it is this gift of life energy that results in wealth.
Spirit is time is asking us to consider our systems of value and compensation. It is no longer tolerable within our consciousness for many in the world to earn so little for the energy output they offer to the world. We need to understand that we are in service to each other and the planet.
When we can honour life energy and appreciate its value, we raise the consciousness of our humanity.
These times are challenging and heartbreaking. At the same time, however, it is an opportunity to shed what no longer serves us individually and collectively. What is this potent Spirit time inviting you to? What behaviours, patterns, people, and places can you surrender? What fears and stories are holding you back?
I invite you to lean into this collective Spirit time to welcome change. Allow yourself to be in the discomfort of uncertainty and process it one day at a time. Change requires patience, trust, and maybe a little fear and worry. No one ever said that changing was easy, but take that leap of faith and know that you are not alone; we are all in this together.