2024 a year of sacred memory, dreaming dragons, and original prayer

Week 43--in which we remember two antidotes to fear

Friends, soul writers, mystics, witches, and lovers of prayer,

In today’s Notes from the Field, I planned on telling you another story about my annual The Lotus and the Lily prayer intensive opening on November 12. But that didn’t feel in sync with the moment.

So here’s the newsletter I didn’t know I would write.

I want to start by acknowledging what is happening. Then, offer two powerful ways to stay calm in the storm.  And for once, I don’t mean a hurricane. I’ve been through two of those, but this is something far bigger and far more dangerous.

How are you feeling right now?

If you’re an American, you probably feel like your toes are clinging to an edge. If you’re not American, you may well be staring across the pond, wondering if everyone over here has lost our minds. Can this really be happening? Is hate really going to win?

photo by Lane Smith from Unsplash

It feels scary out here on the ledge. How do we step back? How do we tap down the fear, remember who we are, and create a life filled with love and hope, kindness and possibility?

I think I have an answer. Because I have stood on this precipice. Several times.

And each time, I have been guided gently back by a powerful sacred feminine Voice. Sometimes the guidance came as a request. Sometimes as a radical but wildly effective new prayer. Sometimes it came as a flat-out command to stop being afraid and REMEMBER who I am.

Each time, I listened. And obeyed. Even though I had no idea how something so crazy could work.

And each time, without fail, my life has changed radically, sometimes almost instantly. When I follow my body’s innate gut intelligence and my soul’s mystical wisdom, I find myself waking up in a life that is sweeter, kinder, way more magical, and even richer than the one that left me teetering on the edge.

And yet—confession time—when the next traumatic thing happens, I can forget.

Hurricane Milton, for example. When I returned from evacuation, I found Uncle Milton had left me his calling card: water stains and a leaking window. And, bingo, I slipped right back into fear, afraid that I couldn’t find a contractor or the money for repairs.

And then, if that weren’t enough to worry about, the polls in the presidential race keep getting closer and closer and, bingo, I drop into fear. This is a fear I know entirely too well. You see, I was raised in the original lunatic fringe rightwing by parents who never met a conspiracy theory they couldn’t love. So when I hear what is being said right now, I recognize the language and the intent. And I feel sick. Literally sick.

And that’s when I hear Her call me to STOP panicking and REMEMBER:

• I am a mystic witch.
• I am a prayer artist.
• I create powerful prayer intensives that transform people’s lives.
• I know how to step away from the abyss.
• I know two massive antidotes to fear.

And so, I stopped writing the newsletter I planned in order to remind you that you, too, know the two antidotes to fear. You just might have forgotten them in the foment of fear swirling all around us. Don’t feel badly about forgetting. It goes with being human. Especially being human in a time of patriarchy that feeds on fear and suffering. Patriarchal religion and culture and politics need us to stay in a perpetual state of fear. Because people who are afraid are easy to control. And patriarchy, at its core, is all about control.

So it matters. It really matters that we know how to slip out of fear and into…what?

What is the opposite of fear?

You might instinctively say love. And surely, it is. But I’m wondering if there isn’t something underneath the condition of love? Something that comes first? What gives us the power to step into love? To become love?

And, next question: what gives us the courage to take off the fetters and step outside the culture of control?

What gives us the confidence and power to say no? No, you can’t make me do that. Or think that. Or wear that. Or say that. Or believe that. You can’t tell me who to hate. You can’t force me to stay on the treadmill working for someone else’s profit. You can’t mold me into a compliant pawn. I’m not a pawn. I’m a queen.

These are two massive questions.
That call for two massive answers.

I didn’t find these answers in a book. I didn’t learn them from anyone. I learned them the hard way, the real way, perhaps the necessary way. At 50, I fell exhausted off the corporate treadmill, lost everything in a violent divorce, and out of sheer desperation stumbled upon deep soul writing. In that precious moment, 27 years ago, a sacred divine Voice met me on the page and ushered me into a whole new way of life. A mystical life filled with possibilities I didn’t know existed. And joy. So much joy.

The two answers are prayer and creativity.

Please know that when I say prayer, I am not talking about the dictionary definition. That limited patriarchal prescription tells us that prayer is: supplication of an external god figure following a formula.

As a prayer artist, I’ve spent the last six years redefining and reinvigorating prayer. I won’t go over all seven definitions today, but here’s one: Love Songs! Real prayers are intimate ecstatic delicious love songs. For a deep dive into prayer, watch for my December sale and purchase the third intensive in The Witch Sequence on Original Prayer.

So what kind of prayer has the power to pull you back from the ledge?

I could suggest many, but I'm going to give you my daily go-to. This is the prayer that pulled me off the ledge of bankruptcy fourteen years ago and pulled me off the ledge of political fear this morning.

It’s a gift from the Buddha, funny enough.

On January 1, 2010, after four weeks of intense deep soul writing trying to fend off bankruptcy, I picked up You Are Here by Thich Nhat Hanh and came to a full stop when I read: “The Buddha said…when conditions are sufficient, there is a manifestation.”

I was shocked. And thrilled. In one sentence, the law of attraction and its gazillion teachers flew out the window. Because they had it all wrong. It’s not about focusing on what you think you want. It’s about getting clear about how you are going to live so that you become fertile soil for the life that wants to be lived.

Everything clicked into place in that moment. I grabbed a pen and asked my divine feminine Voice: What are my conditions? They came quickly and I’ve chanted them every day since. My cue to start singing is when the clock shows eleven minutes after the hour. This past week I’ve seen 2:11, 3:11, 4:11, 5:11 and the biggee 11:11 every day, so I’ve been singing this prayer a lot!

And it pulls me off the ledge every time.

These are MY conditions. They create MY life. So don’t copy them. You want YOUR conditions. The commitments that will welcome the life waiting in the wings for YOU and only you. I offer mine just to give you a feel for the power of heart-generated prayer.

1. I am conscious surrender to Sophia’s Voice
2. I chant my prayers out loud and hear Sophia’s Voice
3. I create in sacred space, swimming in Sophia’s Voice
4. I love our holy work, merging voice to Voice
5. I serve the mystery of Sophia’s Voice
6. And I have a grateful. I am a grateful heart

Are you noticing that the second antidote to fear is cooked right into my conditions chant?

Every line is about creativity. I actually can’t unravel prayer from creativity or creativity from prayer. Creativity is prayer and nothing is more creative than prayer.

As I chant these lines that my heart knows so well, I hear them again as if for the first time. It’s a call from deep within my soul and from my beloved feminine Voice to get to work. Create something beautiful. Something holy. Something that sets my soul’s purpose on fire. And awakens in others their own soul spark.

Create, and fear will dissapate into the ethers.
Create, and you cannot be controlled.

Would you like to know and chant your own conditions prayer all next year? And watch in awe as you become fertile soul for the life that is waiting for you? Then register for The Lotus and the Lily.

Please know that The Lotus and the Lily always fills to overflowing. And it's only available for registration between now and the end of November.

We open Tuesday, November 12 for six Tuesdays at 6p, eastern. I also host a watch party on Thursdays for friends in Europe or anyone who can't be with us on Tuesdays. Everything is recorded. Details on the landing page.

The Lotus and the Lily
Harvest 2024 Seed 2025

to the fearless joy of praying and creating 

Janet

website: janetconner.com

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