What is Spiritual Direction?  www.mysticpeace.com

Spiritual Direction or spiritual mentoring is first and foremost a relationship, a sacred relationship in God. Perhaps a better title, if there must be one, is Sacred Friend or as the Celtic heritage would speak, Anam Cara, or Soul Friend.
Many people approach a Spiritual Director because they feel they are lacking direction in their spiritual life – makes sense. In this way, the one guiding will help to find a pathway relevant to that soul through spiritual practices, reading and texts, and whatever else the Spirit inspires and reveals.
What is also important is the sacred conversation, the sacred silences, the transmission of energy that moves from one to the other. Initially it may seem that all the energy is coming from the one guiding, however, the reality is that it is a dance between the two people. The one guiding can only respond to as much as the one seeking guidance brings to the table, so to speak.

If you approach spiritual direction in that it is only about “getting something,” then you will quickly fall away from this relationship. For the true sacred friend will always be opening the door for you to recognize and realize the truth within yourself and who you are in God. In many ways when this realization begins to dawn, that is when the real development and richness of exchange in spirit begins, for when you have two beings coming together to “meet in the spirit,” who knows what may happen then?
Of course, we will often have questions as we come to this meeting and that is good and natural, but also simply abiding in the presence of God together does the soul so much good. There are many stumbling blocks to this relationship as there are in any relationship. To begin with you may be enamored by your soul friend and place them on a spiritual pedestal and correspondingly view yourself as on a lower pedestal. When we gather in the Spirit however,  there are no pedestals and we are all equal in God, though of course, there are some whose experiences are beyond ours and we do learn from these. The danger comes though, when you are unable to allow yourself to develop in your spirit and place all accolades on your mentor. Of course the other way is that you will need to pull your mentor down in order to build yourself up. Neither of these ways are effective or healthy. The all too common scenario of projection also enters the play in this relationship, those shadows we do not wish to admit are our own we readily project onto our mentor – this allows us to judge and distance ourselves from them. This can often occur when a spiritual breakthrough is about to happen and so we need to pull away through fear of where we will be taken, or what we will be asked to commit to in our life. It also brings up our great fear of intimacy, of transperancy, of being known totally for who we are, with all of our shades and shadows and also our great magnificence and beauty (often the latter is more difficult to own!).
Herein lies a great role of the Sacred Friend, being able to see all of this and completely love you in your totality. Often they see your gifts before you even know they exist. They also see all the shadows that equally you do not know exist. And they hold the true light of your being, while allowing you your own way of coming to know this light. They are the Keepers of the Flame.
The photo above is of Brighid holding the flame in her homeland of Kildare, Ireland. She and her sisters took over an ancient rite of keeping the flame eternally lit. That is what your Sacred Friend does for you; as you turn away from your inner flame of love/spirit and therefore begin seeking it (again and again), your Sacred Friend is there holding it in their gaze, knowing that it has never gone out, knowing that it never will go out, and knowing that it is present within you right now.

Next Post continues this theme of the Sacred Friend/Spiritual Direction