Runestones & trusting in the present moment

Intuitive counsellor Deanne Mineau shows us her runestones, discussing their use in divination, and talks about how trusting in the moment can help reveal a deeper understanding of our lives.

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Aleksandra On Spiritual Life

Aleksandra talks with Carol about her experience and learning on the spiritual path, the benefits of the spiritual life and living the right life for you.

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Medicine Wheel Path

” ..when you’re in the center of the circle, which is the place of creator in that system, you are the human being that’s at the cross-point between the life and death earth-walk and spiritual beings that can come through our experience of this earth walk; there is a point of integration of those two, and we can embody that.” Judy Evaski continues her conversation with Carol Sill, discussing the Medicine Wheel and its meanings.

Read the transcript of this conversation.

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Open Pathways

“And so we in Edmonton, Alberta, did a ritual by a sacred spring that we were lucky enough to find. And that was all simultaneously done. There were people, I know, as far south as Patagonia in South America. There were people in England and Europe as well as North America simultaneously doing ceremonies, lighting sacred fires.” Judy Evaski talks with Carol Sill about the paths she has explored through her spiritual journey, through Christianity, Sufism, Buddhism and the Native traditions.

Read a transcript of this video here.

Invocation

This little introduction video includes many of the sacred words, themes, and memes we’ll be exploring in this Open Source Spirit project. Thanks to wordle!
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First Conversation

“Spirituality really appears to want to express itself, it seems to be popping out everywhere. Indeed, the whole world that we live in is just a particular experience and expression of spirituality in its totality.”

An early online conversation between Jim Van Wyck and Carol Sill on Open Source Spirit.

J: Carol and I are here to talk about a new project we have called “Open Source Spirit”  and Carol what would you like to tell us about Open Source Spirit at this time?

C: I think the best thing to say is that we’re applying the principles of open source to the spiritual life, which, actually, that’s been going on for centuries. It has always been part of the spiritual life, but it ends up getting codified and taken into particular streams and “marketed” that way through religious teachings.

J: Yeah, brilliant. Now what I think about open source is that it means that interesting combination between collaboration and individual effort. So that “Open Source” means that the subject, in our case, Open Source Spirituality, is available to all of us and shared between all of us in an open way, and yet individually expressed, and different people can make changes to the source code. The source code in this experience is their individual reflection and their individual expression of the Divine.

C: That’s exactly it. Each one of us is doing this experiment all the time, especially if you’re awakening your intuition or being in touch with some guiding spirit within, you start to develop yourself innerly and find resonance outside yourself that shows the collaboration of others who’ve gone before and use that to work more on your own interior self-development.

J: The way Carol and I have originally thought of this is that Open Source Spirit would have two sides. We have OpenSourceSpirit.org, which is a website and a place for collaboration which is and will always be free and non-profit, and for some of the contributors, or any of the contributors who wanted to promote their products or their seminars or their books or their sacred candles or whatever, there is a place for that at OpenSourceSpirit.com. Now I haven’t really talked with you about this Carol, but there is a lot of information about spiritual paths, the great holy texts that have been secret in many traditions for all the years, where do you think we should put all those texts – on OpenSourceSpirit.org or .com? We haven’t even talked about that, but we do want to republish many of the sacred texts, right?

C: I think we should point to everything in the .com, making it available to everyone for free of course, because it is already available to everyone. That’s what I think would be great: all the sacred texts, all the holy study that’s been done for centuries should be brought together in one place be made available – which it is in the great mind that we all share, you know, it already is all available to us.  As far as the .org side goes, I see that as a place where people are hearing what they are doing, what their development is, asking questions, working within this idea of a greater community of seekers of truth.

J: Yeah. One of my real hopes is to have really a lot of video; video talks, video things. Part of our change in consciousness is a shift more from the written word to visual expression. Just as most of the great spiritual teachers never actually wrote a book, they talked and then their followers later on, perhaps 150 years in the case of Jesus, or 300, 400 or 500 years in the case of Buddha, or really right away in the case of Mohammed, they wrote those things down. But Mohammed, Jesus, Buddha never really wrote a book. So I think that we can move back to, move forward actually to a different expression, by having people talk about their spirituality rather than write about it, although I think the internet is still a written medium but moving towards the visual. What do you think, Carol?

C: I think every medium has its own particular message. Marshall McLuhan was really aware of that. What we’re doing by taking this way of thinking out of the private realm of written language only and bringing it out into the video realm is really an experiment. Because the oral teachings were done face to face where you actually shared the vibration of the individual, of the whole, and of the whole audience while that was being given

J: Yes

C: Whereas now with video, video tends to flatten the energy. So we’re experimenting here to see just how much can be conveyed.

J: Of course. What happens is that I think what is conveyed is the same thing in a different way. Anyways…you are the McLuhan and media expert here and I think that’s great. Now you wrote a wonderful thing, to me, about “this is for you if…” and we should talk a little bit, I think, Carol, about who we would like to join us. So you wrote, “This is for you if you’re awakening intuition, seeing life beyond the material world…philosophical questions.” You wrote some other wonderful things, who do you think should join us. Who is this for?

C: I think anybody who just catches it and says, Open Source Spirit: that’s it. Obviously that’s who it’s for. There’s something a little bit inspiring in the name and I think that each person resonates it in their own way. There’s so much “open source” out now, there’s “open source sewing” for heaven’s sake. Everything is available “open source” now because we know, we recognize that everybody has something to give and contribute to the grand experiment.

J: Yes, those words are interesting: “open” – I think the key word is open. The other ones are grand and have their own resonance but I think openness is where we will find our friends. What do you think?

C: Yes but also there are others that are looking for the source, so that’s a big one.

J. Yes.

C: And the unseen, the fact that there is spirit involved, has to be acknowledged. Because we are going towards that which is unseen or unknown or not perceived by the senses.

J: Spirit, spirituality has this great urge to express itself. It may be the phenomenal world that we feel is just merely a spiritual expression, of spirit. What do you think, Carol?

C: Could you say that again?

J: I said: Spirituality really appears to want to express itself, it seems to be popping out everywhere. Indeed, the whole world that we live in is just a particular experience and expression of spirituality in its totality.

C: Yes it is. And we don’t have to do anything else other than experience that aspect of it. But nonetheless because we’re human and because we can’t see everything all the time and because we are part of this game we have to play hide and seek. That’s the fun of it and that’s the tragedy of it too. But there is art involved in that too. So the idea of playing with the concepts of open, source, and spirit is something that can really – I mean it really inspires me. I just feel like this gives a great model, a lot more scope.

J: Now if you’re looking at this video, and you’d like to contribute, please write. There’s a space right down here below the video somewhere for you to write your comments. Also there’s a spot there to email either Carol or I so that perhaps we can talk to you via the internet, via webcam, and perhaps make a little video interview like this.
Carol, in the bigger sense, what do you think we’re doing here? What’s your purpose for playing here in the world of Open Source Spirit and to help create it?

C: Actually, I don’t know what it is. I want to discover that. That’s why I’m doing this. I just had the concept and I thought I have to follow this through. I don’t know how far it goes, or really where it leads but I’m very willing to find out. I think there’s something really fascinating going on here, and I like the idea of being able to pull all these threads together, just to see how far we can go with it.

J: Great. Well, let’s call it a call here, Carol…

C: I have one more thing to say…

J: If you have a thousand more things to say… we have time.

C: The other thing to say is that everybody makes a difference. Every individual makes a difference. The real purpose of this is to create a basket or a capacity where everyone who is involved in a spiritual path, whether it’s acknowledged exteriorly or it’s an interior path that you only know yourself, everybody has an opportunity to express themselves within this. And this is a huge capacity, a great basket that will help us connect with one another in another way.

J: That’s a wonderful way to end.

First Video Conversation

In our first video conversation, Jim and I are exploring the very beginnings of the Open Source Spirit project.

“Spirituality really appears to want to express itself, it seems to be popping out everywhere. Indeed, the whole world that we live in is just a particular experience and expression of spirituality in its totality.”

Link here for a text version.