In last week’s Pulse of Spirit, I addressed the relationship between our words and actions and the field of energy we generate. Here is an excerpt from it:

There is a powerful relationship between the creative expression of an individual or group and the field of energy they create. One feeds the other. Creative expression feeds the energy field. And the energy field feeds the creative expression.

The nature of our expression determines the field we generate. The more a person expresses something positive and uplifting in what they say and do, the more they generate a vibrant, rockin’ energy field. And the more they complain and shut down, the more their energy field shrinks—it becomes contorted and strained.

You might remember the Peanuts character Pigpen. He walks around in a cloud of dust. That’s symbolic of what happens when people generate a negative energy field around them. Instead of generating a head of steam that powers them through life, they generate a storm cloud.

In my book Becoming a Sun, I address this phenomenon on a global level:

There has been a dark cloud hanging over humanity. It might sound ominous to say so, but it is true, nonetheless. Sometimes when we speak about a dark cloud looming, we are talking about the expectation that something bad is going to happen. When there is a dark cloud in human experience—when the atmosphere surrounding a person or a group of people carries negative energy—it doesn’t bode well for the future.

It is easy to identify activities on the world stage that are feeding the dark cloud and acting out of it—war, fascism, human trafficking, and much more. And it is not hard to perceive that dark cloud hovering somewhere over one’s own world.

Just as creative expression feeds a positive energy field, dark expression feeds the dark cloud. And the dark cloud feeds negative expression.

The energy field contains memory. That memory sets patterns in the field so that the energy it transmits follows those patterns.

We tend to think of memory as being in our brains. But our brains are tapping into the field we share with others. Sometimes we call it culture. There is race memory and layers of that memory among the peoples of the world.

Here is the pivotal question for anyone to answer in life. What part of that field of memory do we want to tap into and live out of? The dark cloud? The dark cloud contains the memory of the horrible things human beings have done over millennia. Or The cloud of light? The cloud of light contains the memory of every noble deed, every inspiring word, and every courageous act of people for millennia. Another name for the cloud of light is The Cloud of Glory.

Looking at the issue consciously, this choice is easy. I don’t imagine there are any readers of this blog who are saying to themselves, I want to tap into the dark cloud.

In the energy field surrounding us, there is a memory of the past. That is true for us as individuals, for any group of people, and for our race. In that field, we touch elements of culture. Are we to just give it all expression? Every last thing that has ever happened in our collective race memory? Never mind the memory from our own life. Do you want to tap into some awful event from years ago and relive the feeling memory of that, and then launch those feelings into the world?

We sanctify our life when we become consciously aware of these things and review which cloud we are relating to and how, and when we consciously choose to connect to The Cloud of Glory and feed it with our words and deeds.

This process of sanctification creates sanctuary—a wholesome field that supports and surrounds people and connects them to the source of all creativity. A sanctuary in form is thought of as a safe place protected from the menacing forces of the world. This sanctuary I am speaking of is a reality in the field surrounding a person or group. It is this field that makes a physical location feel like a sanctuary.

What is sanctuary? It can be a physical place with a certain feel to it. You go to that place—a church, a grove in the woods, or somewhere else—and you have a feeling about the place. You can feel an energy; it is somehow nourishing. It reminds you of what is sacred, what is holy about life itself. A true sanctuary does that.

I have lived in intentional communities for most of my adult life. What has become so apparent to me is that every community needs a mother. That might be embodied in an individual woman. And we, as men, sometimes look to a woman to be a mother for the group of people who we are with. But the true qualities of motherhood include bringing sanctuary to a community, and anyone can do that.

There is a heart-touching song in the musical Peter Pan that is sung when Wendy comes to Neverland to join Peter and the Lost Boys. These lyrics are from the song:

PETER PAN:
Oh what pleasure
She’ll bring to us,
Make us pockets and sing to us,
Tell us stories we’ve been longing to hear,
Over and over!

She’ll be waiting at the door,
We won’t be lonely anymore,
Since Wendy,
Lovely Wendy’s here to stay.

(Whistling)

PETER PAN AND THE LOST BOYS:
We have a mother,
At last, we have a mother!

Sometimes a person is a sanctuary. You go to be with them, and you are in their field; their field of energy extends out to you, and it is a wonder to be with that person. They are a sanctuary for you. And maybe you are aware that there are people for whom you are a sanctuary.

Sanctuary is spiritual home. We become a sanctuary when we sanctify ourselves and our human experience. What does that mean? It means you tune in to the finest essences available for you to give expression to.

Sanctify. Do not just give expression to any old thing. There are a lot of elements in the field. Our individual field is not discrete, meaning our energy and consciousness is not separate from other people or from the world at large. We feel things from that larger field, and there may be negative elements in our own field. So, sanctification is not about expressing every last thing that might be sitting there in our field, either individually or collectively. We sanctify our life when we choose to live from The Cloud of Glory. Then we bring sanctuary to the world.

Sanctuary is the Holy Mother, present in the field, surrounding all her children. And so there has to be a Mother for any community, brought by people who know who that Holy Mother is, what the qualities of the Holy Mother are, and who give it expression. Because what we express ends up in the field, the more the qualities of the Mother are given expression, the more there is sanctuary, and the more the surround of the Mother’s love is felt in community. The qualities of the Mother land in the sanctuary, in the field, in the energy, in the love shared in the culture of a community.

Humankind is lost without the qualities of the Mother. I am not talking about “smother love” or some kind of unhealthy dependence. I’m talking about sanctuary available to humankind.

We, as the human race, have created something else, have we not? Over millennia, there has been a lack of sanctification. Therefore, the field we share in common as humankind is not a sanctuary. It’s not that there is no Cloud of Glory present. But you have to find it. You have to relate to it. You have to feed it for it to become real.

Our Creative Field Project at Sunrise Ranch is sanctuary. Emissaries of Divine Light are sanctuary. We are that for ourselves, and we are that for the world. For all of you who come to this community, my goal is for this community to be a sanctuary for you. And for you to be a person who offers sanctuary yourself.

May all the places we live and meet be a sanctuary. May any human being on the face of the earth be able to find sanctuary because we are here.