Mysticism: Aligning with the Divine

I grew up Catholic but never understood how some put blind faith in the church.

“Whatever the church says, goes.”

I don’t subscribe to that school of thought and prefer a healthy bit of skepticism from time to time. I mean, thank god for separation of church and state. Remember Martin Luther and his 95 theses?

To me, mysticism represents a personal connection to the divine; having the ability to manifest our desires, and living our most authentic life.

A connection with the divine doesn’t have to include a religious group or church affiliation, but it does entail the acknowledgement of a higher power. We can decide to keep things simple by choosing to pray to figures we all know and love. With the existence of thousands, if not millions of deities, gods, and spiritual figures with roots from all over the world, the possibilities are endless. Like mentioned in one of our recent podcast episodes with our very own Love Yourself Foundation teammate Juan Quetzal, cultural appropriation in the spiritual community is real. An effective guideline when choosing deities to work with is choosing those from our own heritage and background.

Through thoughts and prayer we can connect with spirit. It’s the easiest and the best way to get the ball rolling. Prayer can be our entire spiritual practice or we can add additional tools as our connection grows and gets stronger. We can start to add special dates, holidays, traditions, whenever you feel called to do so.

Having a firm belief and stance on a higher power is the first step to living in alignment with the divine. After setting a firm foundation with a spiritual practice in place, the fun begins.

It’s time to create the life of our dreams.

Manifestation tools:

Astrology

Your birth chart is essentially a map of the sky at your exact moment of birth. Never seen your birth chart? No problem. Astro.com is a widely used website for populating your chart. On your birth chart, there will be several little glyphs and numbers. These symbols represent the planets and the degrees these planets are stationed in your chart. Somewhat overwhelming at first, there are many resources to learn what these symbols all mean.

Astrology is a great tool to use when manifesting for timing purposes. Some days are better than others for certain things. Furthermore, at any given time the planets are moving across the sky in their natural orbit through the different zodiac signs. These planets influence us by transiting or making a passage through our birth chart. For example, Mercury will be going retrograde on May 29, 2021 in the sign of Gemini. My first house is in the zodiac sign of Libra, making me a Libra Ascendant native, which means my 9th house is in the sign of Gemini. When Mercury goes retrograde, it will be moving through the 9th house in my birth chart. The 9th house represents learning, higher education, religion and long distance travel. This transit may influence me to rethink my plans regarding the topics ruled by the 9th house, however, it may not be the best time to initiate any new plans or take new actions due to Mercury being retrograde. A planet in retrograde is interpreted as having a somewhat negative influence. During this time I would not want to begin any new goals or manifestations concerning the 9th house. This is just one example of how we can use astrology to decide the timing of new goals, projects, and manifestations.

Knowing how to read your birth chart and understanding what current transits symbolize, can tell you what areas of life are currently active for you, what cycle(s) of life you are currently in, and therefore give a rough guideline of what you can and should be manifesting in your life.

Law of Attraction Knowledge: The Secret

The Secret is a documentary about the Law of Attraction produced by Rhonda Byrne. The Law of Attraction is the theory that our thoughts and emotions create our reality. The documentary also explains how this theory is a well

known idea in affluent communities but is kept a secret from the rest of society. At the time of writing, The Secret is available for streaming on Netflix. The Secret is also available in paperback format.

Dream boards, scripting, intense visualization

The secret ingredient to manifestation is emotions. When you’re making a dream board, tap into how happy you’ll feel when you’re actually living in the apartment of your dreams, working at your dream job, surrounded by all the things you love.

Use scripting to write out the life of your dreams. Use intense visualization to see yourself living out your dream reality. Feel all the feels.

Creative activities

Another method for manifestation is using creativity. The word creativity comes from the Latin word “creare” which means to create, to make. When we express our creativity we are in a special zone connected with ultimate reality. We

are the creator at this moment in time. Art and creativity are widely known methods to manifest our desires. If we want a happy life with lots of friends, we can create a painting of ourselves surrounded by friends and abundance. Again, while you’re creating this painting, imagine how excited you are to meet new people and live the life you’ve always wanted.

Creativity is powerful.

Raise your Vibration

Before a manifestation session, a good way to prepare is being in the highest vibrational state possible. Immediately before a manifesting session, we can move our bodies to give us a boost of energy. Any light, feel good exercises like jumping jacks, jump rope, or any light exercise you enjoy is perfect. We can also raise our vibration by participating in activities you enjoy which can include doing our self care routines, eating our favorite foods, watching our favorite movies, or going to our favorite restaurant.

Really the choice is yours.

Whatever you enjoy, try to partake in these activities any time before a manifesting session. Doing these activities on a regular basis is a great way to raise your vibration for the long term. When your vibration is high, manifestation is easy.

Manifestation Tips

Now a few things to keep in mind. The best practice I’ve found to manifest is using a method like above to get into a creator energy then taking practical steps toward making our desires become a reality. We can “manifest” all we want, but if we don’t take practical steps to make things happen, chances are that things won’t manifest that easy. To help with taking these practical steps, when manifesting you want to aim for a life of your dream that feels realistic to attain as well. Finding this balance takes some practice. When starting out, it can feel like you’re “doing it wrong”. Don’t sweat it! Like everything else in life, manifesting takes practice.

Authenticity

There’s nothing more powerful than living the life you are meant to live, however, due to societal pressures, our upbringing, and our current lifestyle, many times we aren’t living our most authentic life. The changes needed to live our most authentic life aligned with our highest good can seem drastic and unrealistic. It takes courage to go against what our peers say.

For this reason, having a firm spiritual practice is important. First and foremost, to tap into creator energy we need to be connected with the divine. Following this idea, to get the strength and courage to live an authentic life, again we need a connection with spirit.

In Conclusion

At the core of mysticism is the belief in a higher power. On its own, this journey can be complex and taxing. It can take years to finally come to a consensus of what spirituality means to us on a personal level. Whatever this stance may be, be proud of yourself for going through this process.

When we have a firm understanding of ultimate reality, it’s understood that our very being is magical and of god. Connecting with the divine then makes the transition into creation, manifestation, and authenticity a more manageable process. Mysticism doesn’t have to be mystifying, it’s our very own nature.

You are the creator of your own reality.

Learn More:

The Protestant Reformation

The Love Yourself Foundation Podcast

How to read a birth chart

About the Author:

Jamie Rauda-Sanchez is a Senior Psychology major at UNLV and a Blog/Newsletter Intern for LYF. In 2019, Jamie started her journey towards bettering her mental health and increasing her self love. With firsthand experience on the healing power of art, music, and writing, she now hopes that sharing her experiences will help others in their journey. After graduation she hopes to pursue a career in mental health counseling.