This Pulse of Spirit is dedicated to a revelation of our primal spirituality. This is the spirituality we were born with. It is the spirituality that is innate. It is how we are made.

We were born into this world with a profound spiritual connection. And then something can happen that clouds that experience. Culture, as it is, can invade consciousness. It can obscure the field of power, presence, and inner wisdom that is natural to us. So, we are getting back in touch with that field within you and me.

This article is an exercise in that reconnection. I hope what I write here is insightful and makes sense to you. But I have a larger purpose: to actually share something of our primal spirituality.

The word primal simply means “first.” It is the spirituality before religion and behind all religion. Primal spirituality is improvisational spirituality, as opposed to dogmatic spirituality. It expresses itself spontaneously through us all if we let it.

I Need Thee Every Hour is a traditional Christian hymn. The words were written by Annie Hawks in 1872. She was from Brooklyn, New York. It is believed that the hymn was translated into more languages than any other hymn of its day.

In last week’s Pulse of Spirit, I addressed how a person’s perceived needs can motivate them to live in a way that compromises their primal spirituality. Whether or not the need is real, the arbitrary attempt to fulfill it for oneself can lead a person to self-destruction.

I Need Thee Every Hour. The hymn expresses the greatest need of all in human experience—to stay connected to the realm of power, presence, and wisdom within us.

We need that. And we need all that this connection brings.

And what does it bring? It brings Love. This great power moves through the heart particularly. It is the power of Creation.

I quoted Karen Pritchard last week, saying Get God in ya. Of course, we don’t stuff God into ourselves. The point is that the greatest need of all is for a person’s latent power, presence, and inner wisdom to become activated and alive in consciousness. And when it is, it enters the depth of our soul. It comes into us and acts as us.

I wouldn’t bother writing about this if this greatest of all needs were fulfilled for people, generally speaking. Suppose I walked down Fourth Street in Loveland, Colorado, where I live. It is not as if I’d witness everybody experiencing a powerful spiritual presence, inspiring them, carrying them onward, and making them healthy. In human culture, there are blockages in consciousness that prevent this from happening. Hidden beliefs, emotional wounding, and prejudices tend to prevent a reconnection to our primal spirituality.

Love, the power of Creation, is one of the primal forces that comes into us when we reconnect to our primal spirituality. Here is another: Truth.

If Love were the only primal force we received, our hearts might be loving, but the pattern of our lives wouldn’t change.

Truth is the pattern of Creation. It is the inner wisdom that is available to us.

The real Truth is not mine or yours. It is not necessarily what anyone says it is. It can be expressed in a book, but it is not the book itself.

Truth is the Code of Creation. It is the Divine Intelligence that is behind it all.

This higher intelligence informs us as to what our life is about right here and now and what we should do. It offers us a higher direction to come through us and guide us. Do we need that? If you look at the world we live in, does it need that guidance?

When we observe the world at large, we see it acting in ignorant ways. When viewed from the perspective of one faction of people—a political party, a nation, or any other group—it looks like contention among competing interests. Looking at what is transpiring for us as a species—as the whole human race—there is so much we do that is self-destructive. Our species is injuring itself.

The higher intelligence we know as we reconnect is largely missing in the world. And how about us in our own life? There are huge questions that come up—I know there are for me. What do I do about this? What do I do with that? Where do I go from here?

We need a big download, a big reconnection with the higher intelligence available to us. And if Love moves primarily through the heart, higher intelligence moves through conscious awareness, particularly our mind. We must be willing to think the thought born from higher intelligence for that to happen.

This is inspiration. Part of what allows for inspiration is a person’s willingness to think the thought they have not been willing to think. Sometimes, that takes admitting to yourself that you have been unwilling to think the thought—the thought that contains information that is the guidance for your life.

No, I won’t think that. I’ll sit here and try to figure out my life and worry until the cows come home. But I won’t think a new thought that may challenge my current reality.

Reconnection to the realm of power, presence, and wisdom happens in the present moment or not at all. The lyrics to the hymn contain this impassioned prayer:

Come quickly and abide.

The word quick is from an ancient word meaning lively and animated. To quicken can mean to revive, kindle, or stimulate. 

To live with power, presence, and wisdom, we have to reconnect now—quickly. We must allow ourselves to think the thought now and feel the feelings of Love now. Or else we will fall prey to one of the oldest of human habits—to put it off to tomorrow. And as they say, tomorrow never comes.

My experience is that I cannot always believe the first thought I think. Not every idea I have is genius, even though I would like to believe it is! So it has to be considered.

We are rational people, so we consider the thoughts that come through. We let a stream of thought paint a picture. And we try to understand what that picture is telling us.

But still, you have to be willing to think the thought. Once you begin, there is the first thought that comes into your mind, and there is another thought after it. It is not just an isolated thought. A full download containing the future of our lives is lying there, waiting for us to tap into it.

But will you think the first thought? If you don’t, the download never comes.

A person might hope to be inspired. But if their mental space is preoccupied by worry, how can they have room to think a bold, new, daring thought? If they are unwilling to entertain an idea that goes beyond the framework that they have set for their life, there is no inspiration. There is no quickening.

So right now, let’s allow whatever it is that is blocking us to be removed. I say this right now for myself, and perhaps you will join me:

If there is something that is stopping me from loving my world and the people in it, let it be gone. Let it be gone right here and now. If I have a block about thinking the thought that is my future and the future of my world, let it be gone now. Let the download of Love come into my heart quickly. Let the new thought come to mind quickly. Let the vision of who I am and what I am to create in this world come. Let the awareness of who we are together and what we are to create in this world download into me now.

As this download transpires, we become aware of the Life Code. Somehow, we have lost that Code as human beings. The download of power, presence, and wisdom brings the Life Code into us and into our world. It guides our life. We find ourselves in the circle of life, living our primal spirituality together.

Does that automatically mean that your neighbor will share that experience with you? Or even your friends, your family, or your government? Are they going to instantaneously have that experience just because you do?

There is a far greater chance that the people around you will experience their primal spirituality if you do. But just because it has come quickly for us doesn’t mean it will for them. There are blockages present in human culture and possibly in the person’s consciousness. And there is human choice involved.

So what do we need?

For ourselves, we need to be a person who endures that ignorance. What else would we do? Try to combat it? Concede to it?

It is said that Love endures all things. It endures the ignorance. But something else happens when a person is experiencing the power, presence, and wisdom from within. Love is doing its perfect work in our world.

The word endure is from the same root as durable. The root of these words is to be firm, solid, and steadfast. Love is all these things. It is durable. Knowing Love, we easily endure.

The line from the hymn speaks to this.

Come quickly and abide.

It is not enough for the power, presence, and wisdom from within to come quickly and then leave. So we invite it to stay, to live in us, to abide.

When Love abides, we endure the ignorance of the world in which we live.

The founder of Emissaries of Divine Light was Lloyd Arthur Meeker. He wrote and taught using the name Uranda. In 1936, he published the booklet Lighting the Way in You. It contains these words: 

Every “kick” becomes a true “boost,” and the world has no power to hurt in any way. 

As we know the download, Love endures in our experience. The actions born of ignorance in the world around us give us an opportunity to join ever more closely with the power, presence, and wisdom within.

Not only do we need endurance for our own positive experience of life—this world needs people who endure; people who know Love and know that Love is here to stay.

And so we pray:

Come quickly and abide.