Orienting Toward Unity
Started in June, the Gene Keys Golden Path virtual retreat begins a new six-month voyage — the Venus Sequence. It is a deep inward journey of remembering who we are, using relationships as both mirror and pathway of healing and transformation.
Each month we focus on a sphere — a topic in our soul’s curriculum — and the pathway that leads to the next. Much like traveling from one destination to another on an external trip, these spheres and pathways form a map for the inner journey. By confronting the Shadow and using them as a doorway into the Gift and Siddhi frequencies, we open our heart to Love.
Coincidentally, this month I traveled to China with my daughter to take part in an oral history project in the rural area, led by a non-profit research group. In eight days we moved through eight cities and towns. It felt like a whirlwind.
What made the trip special was not just its format, but its synchronicity with the Venus journey. It felt like the initiation of a new creative endeavor: to weave together inner and outer journeys, and to share what deeply moves me along the way.
The theme of June in the Venus journey is Purpose, and particularly how our life purpose is fulfilled not in isolation but through relating with others
Purpose is not what you do. It is the core frequency of who you are. It lives in your body already. The Siddhi of your Purpose sphere is the codeword for that frequency. Your highest purpose therefore, is simply to embody the Siddhi of your Purpose.
My sphere of Purpose is Gene Key 2 (Dislocation–Orientation–Unity), Line 3 (the Adventurer). It naturally gave rise to the intention for the outer trip: to pay attention to people of significance; to notice the shadow of dislocating from my core; o cultivate a presence that orients myself and others toward Unity; to keep an open heart at all times; and to notice and invite in Love.
The undercurrent of life moves us through space and time in the physical world, bringing people to us along the way. Through travel we experience our Dharma.
I met many people on this trip who brought me light and inspiration.
A dear friend of mine was leading the trip. She moved from the US to China twenty years ago, left corporate life, and has devoted herself to philanthropic work. We hadn’t seen each other much over the years. Yet traveling together, it felt like yesterday. There is a purity in her that comes out of selfless service. And she showed me what it looks like to follow ones true passion.
The young researchers — university students and volunteers of local charitable organizations. They grew up in the same rural regions and moved to cities for college and work. They found a shared passion in using oral history to tell the stories of ordinary people. In going back to listen to the villagers, perhaps they are also learning to tell their own stories in new ways.
A retired schoolteacher beamed when she saw us enter the shack where she worked with a few other women. The conditions were poor, but in the dark corner of that room she emanated light.
A woman who became a Buddhist after a tragic loss. Impaired in one eye, her gaze was unmistakably loving. Her best friend came too, a Christian, rare in that kind of village. Their warm, peaceful presence together lingered in me long after we parted.
A self-made historian in a village in Wuxi. He keeps a private museum in his home with collections telling stories of local history. It takes extraordinary devotion to discover, collect, preserve, and study items that otherwise would have been lost. In him I saw, again, life trying to speak through the unique lens of a human being.
The anchoring theme of this trip is storytelling.
Each of us is a unique filter through which life flows and forms a unique story. By creating a space for others to tell their stories, both the witness and the witnessed fulfill their purpose.
Even though the external itinerary was intense, the internal one was slow and spacious. The Gene Keys journey calls for patience, contemplation, and gentleness rather than speed, action, and result. At times I felt I was moving between two dimensions and timelines. The internal orientation gave me a sense of stability amidst all the movement, rooted in the trust of myself, others, and the process.
When the inner journey becomes our primary orientation, the outer journey no longer sets the pace. Life begins to unfold with greater ease, following our own natural rhythm.
Next stop… Sphere of Attraction.