friend. Feel its unconditional love as it gifts you life itself.
Now open your eyes and notice how you feel. Do you feel more hopeful, loving, trusting, strong? Whether or not you do, take heart: you’re already well on your way simply by initiating this practice. You’ll learn how to connect with your heart energy more fully in step one. Practice even now as you read these passages by keeping your heart energy open and engaged. This is your path. Trust your heart as your mind and spirit’s surest ally.
BRIGHT WAY ACTIVITY
First Love
Do you remember the moment you first fell in love and connected with your art (which could be anything from painting landscapes to baking cakes)? Do you remember getting lost in an activity, that thrill of total engagement? How did you feel about yourself? Did you feel strong, excited, or another intense sensation? Write down your memories from these moments, as emotionally and viscerally as possible.
There are many benefits to writing down your feelings and thoughts, from greater insight to increased follow-through. Keeping a creative diary will be one of our main tools on our journey, and you’ll learn more about this artistic ally in the “Bright Way Spiral” chapter. For now, write in whatever is handy, and we’ll collate your work in the diary shortly.
The Principle of Sacred Reciprocity
Your human creativity enables you to wield massive power, a power that affects almost every element and living thing today. How you use that power is up to you. Sometimes people fear that when they open the creativity floodgates, terrible things will be unleashed, as in the myth of Pandora’s box. They cite the creation of the atom bomb as one of the worst examples of this. They see it as the ultimate example of creativity gone wrong, of creativity in service to life destruction rather than life affirmation.
I understand this valid concern. I’m grateful when people bring it up because it ushers in a key principle of the Bright Way. There is a way to ensure you create from a place of positivity, heart-centeredness, and life affirmation rather than life destruction. It’s a technique I use every day to guide me toward creating with love, not fear. What is this creativity safety valve? It’s called Sacred Reciprocity. The energy of Sacred Reciprocity weaves through every page of this book.
Sacred Reciprocity is the force that seeks balanced relationship in all things so that healthy life can flourish.
Sacred Reciprocity is a South American wisdom philosophy with parallels in most other cultures and eras. In a nutshell, Sacred Reciprocity is the force that seeks balanced relationship in all things so that healthy life can flourish.
Figure 1. The Flow of Sacred Reciprocity
Sacred Reciprocity represents an equal exchange of energy that is healthy and helpful for all parties involved. You’ve probably heard the phrase “everything is interconnected.” What does this actually mean? Sacred Reciprocity is an elegant way to grasp and act on the aim of honored interconnection in everyday life. The famous Golden Rule, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” echoes the tenets of Sacred Reciprocity. The more you look, the more you’ll find messages pointing you toward Sacred Reciprocity, hidden in plain sight. Let’s look more closely.
We discussed the miraculous power of creativity to reconnect the creator with herself and the world at large. But do all connections lead to life affirmation? What about connections that are toxic? According to Sacred Reciprocity, these are not true connections. Instead they are one-way drains. Sacred Reciprocity is the most reliable tool I know of to assess whether you are in healthy connection.
Sacred Reciprocity is nonjudgmental and clear. It offers this simple yardstick. Ask yourself, Am I choosing love or fear? When we are in Sacred Reciprocity we make decisions from a place of love and enthusiasm. And marvelously, an equal balance of love and enthusiasm will return to us in the big picture.
The scope of Sacred Reciprocity, also known as right relationship, allows it to deal in multiple currencies. That is, time and money are not the only ways to get in balance with our creative work — or anything else, for that matter.
For example, if you volunteer at a hospice center, your work benefits the patients, staff, and visitors. You benefit from the love you receive and the opportunity to practice your skill in a low-pressure environment, to name just a few of the possible gifts you receive in turn. Your volunteer work, then, satisfies a core tenet of Sacred Reciprocity, that the exchange be equally valuable to all participants. Only you can determine what equal exchange is for you. We’ll learn more about this when we discuss the practice of honoring your direct experience.
The scope of Sacred Reciprocity allows it to deal in multiple currencies.
If you have a job you hate, one that drains your soul, no amount of money will make up for this. Why? Because you’re giving away too much of yourself to be in a healthy balance. Further, you’re operating from a place of fear (“What will happen if I give up this soul-crushing job and the steady paycheck that comes with it?”), fear being an additional drain.
There are many permutations of how energy comes into balance. Sacred Reciprocity gives voice to these many dimensions, freeing you up to honor what makes sense for your life both right now and in the long term.
Wisdom traditions of the world have many ways of describing what happens when Sacred Reciprocity is not respected. The original Greek and Hebrew Biblical words for “sin” are amartano and chata, respectively, which also translate as “missing the mark.” In other words, true connection has not been made, and where there is no connection, there is no love. In Hinduism the concept of karma explains how the quality of connection we make leads to either positive or negative outcomes in life. Buddhism takes this perspective: “Every action, good or bad, has an inevitable and automatic effect in a long chain of causes.” Pagan spirituality’s law of return states that what you put out into the world returns to you threefold — emotionally, physically, and spiritually — recognizing many dimensions, Sacred Reciprocity style.
Finally, you don’t have to have a spiritual outlook to live in Sacred Reciprocity: “Humanists believe that this is the only life of which we have certain knowledge and that we owe it to ourselves and others to make it the best life possible for ourselves and all with whom we share this fragile planet.” Sacred Reciprocity applies everywhere, a clear guide for our complex times.
BRIGHT WAY ACTIVITY
Sacred Reciprocity
Take a moment to consider how Sacred Reciprocity plays into your life right now. As we walk this path together, you’ll learn more about this overarching life philosophy; for now, let’s start with a brief environmental assessment.
Think about the three people who are closest to you. Are you in Sacred Reciprocity with one another? If so, your relationships will feel healthy and strong on the whole. (It’s good to remember, though, that perfection isn’t part of Sacred Reciprocity, as relationships are always changing and rebalancing.) If your relationships don’t feel healthy, what currencies might bring these relationships into balance for all parties? Using the Five Love Languages from Gary Chapman’s book by the same name can be a fun place to start: Do you need to add more words of affirmation to the relationship? How about quality
