Diana Page Jordan | Book Reviews and Inspiration

Growing Your Inner Light: A Guide to Independent Spiritual Practice

By Lara Owen

Published November 3, 2009 (Paperback) Beyond Words/Atria Books

More Info:  Lara Owen

Do you know what the fastest growing religion is?

It is “spiritual, not religious.”  Lara Owen grew up Catholic, but at age fourteen — jarred by the patriarchal-only leaders and the rough stance on sexuality — she joined that group.  Growing Your Inner Light is the culmination of Lara’s decades of seeking, and immersing herself in various cultures.  I had an odd experience as I read.

What she wrote was familiar.  Very familiar.  More on that in a moment.

I have a dear friend who gets very agitated if I refer to scripture and want to turn it on its head.  For example,  discussing how reincarnation could be explained.  He says you can’t treat the Bible like it’s a Chinese menu, picking some beliefs from one column but not the other.  And yet, I’ve known him six years, and I don’t think he’s ever opened a door to a church in all that time.  Nobody’s right.  Nobody’s wrong.  It is up to each individual to find what feels right.  That’s Lara’s opinion, too.  I’m a heretic.  Heretics, Lara reminds us, used to be burned as witches.  The root word for heretic is Greek for “able to choose.”

And she has a lovely array of choices, planted in thirteen chapters, because there are thirteen lunar months in a year.  The first two chapters concern Creating Sacred Space and Making Altars. My consciousness has been loudly telling me to clear out half my clothes, books, stuff.  Soon!  Soon! I do light the candles and I smudge.  As for altars, between my monitor and me, lies a gorgeous clear crystal bar, a crystal star, three hearts, coins, and a mirror turned upside down to reveal a picture of Patrick Swayze in the movie To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everyting! Julie Newmar, because at the top of the three-by-two inch rectangle, it says Attitude is Everything.  I learn in the book that clear crystal is especially effective near computers to neutralize the frenetic energy it puts out.  How’d I know that? We select shiny stones — beliefs — and tuck them within.

The third chapter has to do with Personal History.  What is your personal history with God? I had a troubled start.  If God is the Father, and my real father vanished when I was four, and disappeared forever when I was six, and my stepfather raped and traumatized me from when I was four-and-a-half, God is not going to have a fair shake with me.  Instead, I saw Light.  And I sensed the Divine in every creature.  No one knew, because I never spoke of these treasured images.   Those childhood beliefs stayed with me, and finally, after a lot of therapy, I love God.

Lara talks about Gratitude.  That act of being grateful, for me, was the catalyst to breakthrough from a turbulent inner life with an enormous number of false beliefs and angry, judgmental voices to a peaceful, delightful energy that permeates my entire being.  Oh, I’m not saying I don’t have a bad moment, but I can slide out of one quickly with dance, journaling, or connecting with someone.  All of which Lara espouses.  She also has a chapter on meditation.

And money.  Or Spiritual Practice and the Material Realm, as she calls it.  How does money come to you, she asks.  It is worth meditating upon.  A pink post-it note is adhered to the bottom of my monitor, and in my writing, it says “I receive benefits joyfully for my services – money comes to me joyfully.”  And it does.  Intention is vital.

ThankYouThankYouThankYou.