What does Mastery look like?

Some of you may recall that in January, I mentioned how 2010 is a 3 year (2+0+1+0=3), and I also mentioned how each quarter of the year would hold the vibration of one of the threes in the Tarot.

Well, we are in the 2nd quarter and I have yet to reveal which three is up.  I actually wrote a blog entry about it a couple of weeks ago, but never posted it.  It just didn’t feel right, so I waited.

And then today, I figured out why.

2010 is a 3 year, but April is a 4 month and spirit wants me to talk about four first.  Notice how last week’s blog was about the 4 of Pentacles.  Well this week, we’re going to talk about an aspect of four.

Within the vibration of 4 is mastery and perfection.

Even as I write that sentence, I am reticent.  If you look at the first edition of A Fool’s Journey, you will notice that I did not include those words within the description of the number four, even though I kept hearing them from spirit.

I resisted them because it didn’t make sense to me.  Why would mastery be four?  Four is not even halfway through the cycle! Four, as I understand it, is the end of linear growth, but there is still more growth beyond it.

And...?

That was spirit again.  I guess their point is that mastery is not the end of the cycle.

Mastery and perfection are two highly misunderstood words in spirituality. As similar as the words are, I am just now realizing how, despite understanding one of them, I was still way off on the other.

To explain, spirit has been showing me the Perfection of the Universe for a while now, and I get it. I really get it.  I see perfection everywhere, when I’m paying attention.  In fact, I see perfection more easily when things go wrong.  Why?  Because I’m able to see how my thoughts created the "failure” in the perfect way.  Where I fail to see perfection is when things don’t happen at all, but that is a whole other story. LOL

So, in understanding the Perfection of the Universe, I stopped looking for things to be perfect (the old definition of the word).  Perfection is not when the whole world reaches peace and harmony.  Perfection is right now, when the whole world can think differently and create exactly as they think. 

Perfection is when one can have everything that they desire even in the presence of others who do not.  Look around, do you not see rich people traveling throughout a world where poor people exist, healthy people moving among the infirm, fit people running past the rest of us.  All conditions exist on this little blue planet.  We do not need every person to think like us to find our happiness.

So, why did that new definition of perfection not get me to a better definition of mastery?  Up until this morning, I thought of mastery as the old style perfection in action.  I thought to be a master, you had to have already created everything you desired successfully.  I thought your life had to be evidence of success, proof of spirituality, a demonstration of abundance.  I would ask myself, “How can I be a master when I’m not accomplishing half of what I desire?”

For a long time, I hesitated to teach metaphysical classes.  I figured, who’s going to listen to me talk about creating higher vibration relationships when I’m single and have been for most of my life?  Who’s going to follow the guidance I’ve received about creating abundance when my income has been insignificant for 5 years now?  How can I help people find happiness when my sad days keep coming back?

And today I got it.

In a reading I received on Sunday, a man says to me that I am doing the same work that Moses did.  I am leading others out of the desert.  And that planted a seed within me.

Moses was in the desert too!

He didn’t have a magical map telling him the way out, but he could hear his guidance, and it came one day at a time for 40 years.

What clenched this concept for me was a dream that I woke from Monday morning.  All night long, spirit showed me one master and then another.  In every case, that master was working on a key to unlock their own chains.  That’s all they were doing.  They weren’t free; they weren’t done; they didn’t even see the evidence of their success; they were just working away following guidance and learning as they went.

Who better to lead you out of addiction than one who has been addicted?  Who better to lead you into marriage but one who is trying to get there himself?  Who better to teach you how to love yourself but the one who has never really loved himself?

The masters, as we used to think of them, have been here on this planet, or so we believe.  Most religions say they will return and save us from this quite imperfect and harsh reality.  But what if that’s not the way it is meant to work?  What if there are masters everywhere and each is discovering their own mastery in their own time?  What if all of us can benefit from what the others around us are working on?

Did Jesus look like a master?  Was he adorned in jewels and rich fabrics?  Was the Buddha?  And why not? Did they not know about abundance back then?

It is easy to look back at the memory of a man or woman and say, “There went a master,” but it is much harder when you can see their humanity at the same time.

Tiger Woods was called a master in his art once, and then the world got to see his “imperfection” and “hanged” him for it.  They put him on a pedestal and then tore him off of it too.

I am sure that all of you have heard it said, “The eyes are the windows of the soul”.  Notice that they don’t say, “The eyes are the cameras of the soul”!  The eyes are biased.  They see as they were taught to see.  We can only read languages we have been taught to read; the others are merely Greek.

Mastery is not what is seen with the eyes.  It is not what is understood by the mind.  It is what is felt by heart, but only when the heart is open.

Mastery, like genius, is only felt by those who are close to their own.

The Fool is a master, yet he looks like a fool.  He is misunderstood by the masses, but he pays them no mind.  He sees them, but gives them no power over his journey.

Now I understand why they wanted me to talk about the Mask, the Shield and the Sword before this post.  As long as we hide ourselves from others for fear of not “looking like masters”, we prevent our true mastery from showing through.  We are not supposed to be Jesus and Buddha.  We are not meant to be perfect and flawless.

Mastery is not the end of the cycle, but rather the middle. Mastery is about awareness and acceptance.  It is when we catch a glimpse of a greater version of ourselves and then continue on the journey towards it.

Accept your mastery and let’s all find a way to our own version of paradise, one sandy step at a time.