Being a Priestess is not only working to merge the energies of As Above So Below for all of humanity in an energetic manner, it is also working in a practical, heart centred and tangible way with all sisters and brothers on this earth plane.

When I first began my spiritual walk it was in the school of Christian Mysticism. I spent three years in solitary study, prayer and meditation. I started to see the 3D matrix for the illusion that it was, I began to know that the problems and discords of this realm were but a third dimensional dream and not based in reality. When the people around me were suffering I would diligently turn my attention inward and know the truth for them. This was a potent practice and I have taken mystical principles into the spiritually that I practice now, a practice I have coined 'Lunar Mysticism'*. The Christian was switched to Lunar, not because of any issue I have with Christianity at the root of what the Christ intended it to be, but because of the dry hard edges that began to arise within myself the further I dove into that path. Lunar means moon and the moon rules the emotions, energy in motion, I had begun to loose my connection to this essence within myself. In all honesty I wonder if Christ wasn't practicing a more Lunar Mystical approach to life Himself.

When I began to turn towards a Lunar path it was because, though I was filled with Spirit and awe in my study and practice of mysticism, I felt barren in my heart and womb, I was not able to access a sense of personal love towards my sisters and brothers and I was loosing a connection with the juicy essence of my personal passion and sensuality. If being truly enlightened means being so detached from my juice and others that I feel only neutrality, then enlightenment isn't for me.

However, what I have found is that there are as many paths to enlightenment as there are expressions of enlightened beings. Rather than being a stiff and restrained student of the Way, I wanted to be like the Christ that wept for the people around Him, like Amma who heals through embracing those that come to her, like Mother Teresa who immersed herself with those who needed her the most, like Mama Gaia Herself whose love seeps through Her soil, waters, flame and winds.

I had a lot of programming to sift through as I began my shift, and it took a long time on my Priestess journey to get to a clear understanding of what it was that I believed in rather than just what I felt compelled to offer.

You see, it is in the 'spiritual' community that I learnt truths such as "you didn't cause it, can't control it and can't cure it," and "nobody can make you feel anything," and I learnt that people who were suffering had their own karma to work through, were lost in the 3D illusion of the matrix, that I ultimately couldn't save or change anyone because each person is responsible for their own path's unfoldment. 

All of those truths are in fact truths. Stopping there as a Priestess, or any other follower of the way however, leaves our earth a cold and harsh place to be, for if we can't turn to those that have found their way and their connection to a benevolent Creator for some compassion, understanding and love, then where can we turn? Expecting those that are suffering in any form to be able to find their path on their own is cold and cruel. I needed to know those truths in my soul while still remaining open and compassionate in my heart.

I can't control anyone, but I can influence them, the tricky area, the grey area is the hidden intent. If I am attempting to utilize spiritual truths or energy to change or control another person it won't work. When my attempt to influence to change doesn't work I will only reaffirm all of the truths above, that I have no power to change another and become justified in focusing solely on me. However, if I am coming from a place full of Divine love and choosing to shine and share an overflowing, limitless love that I have tapped into from within, then how that love affects another, whatever they do or don't do with it is of little consequence to me, I am full in my shining and sharing of Divine love and my presence becomes an influence in the world. In this manner I am connected to love, I am full of compassion, simply because I am connected to my Source, how that flows and what it creates is out of my human hands. 

During my darkest days as a suicidal teenager there were many people that crossed my path and seemingly had no affect on me. They came in and offered compassion, wisdom, a kind ear, and yet still I clung to the predator that had me in his clutches, still I spent my days and evenings in chemical hazes, still I crashed through life as a time bomb ready to implode. If any of those people had given up on me, shut their hearts to me and left me to my own illusion I'm sure I wouldn't be here.

One person that I remember fondly is my best friend's father, he was mayor of our city and a larger than life Leo. He wasn't around a lot because of being the mayor and while he made me laugh when he was around, him and I didn't talk often and he seemed to know relatively little of my life or my then shadowy existence. 

One day I stumbled to my friend's house knowing that it would be empty and unlocked, I seeped in too many toxins to get to class and passed out on her couch, planning on leaving before anyone returned. As I lay on the couch I heard the front door of the house open, I pretended to be asleep, frozen in fear of being in trouble and questioned for being uninvited in their home. Her dad came into the room, saw me and covered me with a blanket, quietly he left me to sleep and get my head back together. That tiny gesture has stayed with me my entire life, during a time in my life when the adults surrounding me were toxic and unsafe and men in particular were abusive and often predatory in nature a strong and successful man being tender and safe filled me somewhere in my heart. 

He moved me deeply one other time during this shadowy phase of life, one night after drinking under age at the bar I was walking home in the dark and he pulled over to offer me a ride home. I got in and we sat in complete silence until we turned onto my street , 

"Could you drop me off at the path across from my house please?" I asked him, when he asked me why I told him honestly that I wanted to have a cigarette before going in and I wasn't allowed to smoke on my property.

"I'll drive around while you have a smoke," he offered, I was nervous and insecure about smoking in front of a parent, but I didn't want to stand in the dark alley and smoke so I said okay and silently smoked my cigarette while he drove around the block. "You know Candise," he ventured, "I see what's going on in your life and it's not right, what's going on in your house is not okay."

"Thanks," I muttered. That was it, a mumbled thanks, zero eye contact, nothing to continue the conversation, I got out of the jeep shortly afterwards, we said nothing short of my mumbled "thanks for the ride," and I went inside. When I was inside I felt as if I could fully breath for the first time in years,  the gift of validation that he gave me offered me a sense of life in that moment, I wasn't crazy, someone else, an adult, a successful adult saw me and my life and agreed that it wasn't okay. Someone else saw and someone else noticed me, I mattered.

Those two instances are but a few that I have in my memory of people reaching out to me in a genuine, heart felt manner when I was in the depths of my despair, nobody sobered me up, nobody gave me the light, but each gesture, each kindness, each act of warmth carried me forward and contributed to my ability to change my life.

The key component is that they were genuine and heart felt, when I did find my path and stepped onto it, it was sentiments like the one shared with me in the jeep that night and actions like putting a blanket over me and leaving me to rest rather than yelling and punishing or worse violating and abusing me that were a foundation of strength as I found my wobbly legs in the beginning. 

Once I began to experience a new life, it didn't feel right to cut myself off from those who were suffering, I could relate to where they were and I knew that I could in the very least, notice, acknowledge, validate and extend love. As a Priestess I extend this love in the spirit realm by beholding each person I meet as a vessel for the Divine Being that they house within, and I do this by meeting them in the emotional realm where they are in each moment. This may mean offering a shoulder, extending a hand or sharing a shed tear, it means feeling for and with them and arresting this archaic belief that to feel is to devolve into a state of spiritual ignorance.

It seems as though a newer trend in the new age sphere is focusing on just how high everyone is presently ascending, and while I don't disagree with that idea, what is often included in these accession shares that people are giving as a symptom of their ascension is a lessening of care towards the suffering of others. There is a fine line between detaching with love, wearing the world like a loose garment, being in the world but not of it and becoming cold and distant to the suffering of humanity. The Christ wept, Amma embraces and Mother Teresa nurtured, I cannot give up my compassion in pursuit of holiness, I can't or else I loose my heart and if it isn't for love, then what is it really for at all?

Because while we can't control, we can influence and we can only influence when we let go of the desire to control and fully come into who we are as radiant beings, as happy as we can be in the moment, as authentic as we can possibly be. Together we can be reaching those beings that come into our experience and seeing how each person is touching another person. Beholding the fine web of love that is interwoven as each of us as One Divine Being interacts with different aspects of ourselves housed in seemingly separate bodies, as I love you I truly love myself. As we connect to each other's hearts, go deep with them and allow our walk to impact another person's walk, then together, the two of us can be what neither of us could ever have been apart.

This is my vision of the new world, this is my path to ascension, Priestessing love into the 3D dream matrix as we awaken together, sisters and brothers, influencing the world through love and joy in a wholly open and free manner.

Grace Be With You,

Priestess of Grace,

Candise Soaring Butterfly

image taken from: https://stranger-collective.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/about-amma1-600x642.jpg