The Prosperity Secrets of the Bible Unity of Fairfax VA

I'll be talking at Unity Church of Fairfax, VA, on The Prosperity Secrets of the Bible at 7.30pm on Wednesday 23rd June. If you would like to come along, the contact details are below:

The talk will cover:

• Judaism, Christianity and their differing attitudes to money.
• The issues within spiritual people about being spiritual and wealthy.
• The all-important balance between giving and receiving (my cup runneth over).
• Charles Fillmore’s teaching on ‘Divine Substance.’
• How ‘Divine Substance’ and the Law of Attraction are demonstrated throughout the Bible.
• The prosperity teachings within the Ten Commandments.
• How to clearly understand the Law of Tithing.
• Jesus’ and St. Paul’s teachings on abundance and money and how they translate to a modern world of mortgages and bills.
• How to ‘Ask, believing’ so that you may receive.

Contact:

Rev. Sandra L. Butler
Associate Minister
Unity of Fairfax Church
2854 Hunter Mill Road
Oakton, VA 22124
703-281-1767 ext.102

Back to Basics — Clearing That Clutter

It’s been a long time since I included clutter-clearing in any of my workshops or articles because it’s what I was doing 15 years ago and nowadays it seemed to be so old hat. Surely everyone knows that ?

But no. I’ve been reminded this week that it’s still the most important first step there is to clearing space for new prosperity.

Many years ago, I had a brand new and extremely handsome boyfriend who was very hot on keeping things tidy. I wasn’t. One day he turned up unexpectedly and, seeing him through the window, I frantically hurled every bit of untidiness I could find into the cupboard under the stairs (on top of three feet of other stuff) and opened the front door to greet him.

He kissed me, came in and took off his coat. As I went into the kitchen to make some tea, he tried to put his coat away in the cupboard… The ironing board promptly fell on him weighted down with what appeared to be half a ton of rubble.

The relationship did not thrive.

So it’s an easy jump to realising that if we do get something new and good in our lives, existing clutter will destroy or at least damage it. And that applies to emotional clutter just as much as to the physical stuff.

Clutter and Adultery?

For years I puzzled over Jesus of Nazareth’s teaching about divorce (that someone who marries a previously married person commits adultery and causes them to commit adultery). But when I found that I loved Lion after the end of my previous marriage it started to make sense. The previous relationship was constantly trying to break through into the new one. Old habits, old beliefs, old possessions and memories from the previous relationship were like stains on a new, white blouse.

Even though we both knew that this was ‘the’ relationship we didn’t get married for four years in order to do all that we could to dissolve the old feelings and memories. And I’m very glad that we waited. But even now, the past can creep in. At Lion’s son’s wedding they had pictures of his late wife with candles. All right and proper and rather lovely but I did feel a bit odd about being there until Margaret’s sisters had welcomed me (we had never met before).

So if there is something new and good coming into your life (or you want there to be) then clutter clearing is vital … and it needs to be done regularly. The spiritual author, Stuart Wilde, suggests that we go through our address book and put an ink line through everyone who makes our heart sink when we read their name and a pencil line through the name of anyone who just makes you feel neutral. Then invite all those who make your heart lift out to lunch.

That might be a bit tricky if you are employed or have a family… however, you can move energy in the physical world and it will move through to other levels — ‘As above, so below’ works both ways.

Moving 27 Items

There’s a Feng Shui teaching that we should regularly reposition 27 items in our home — especially if there are 27 objects which haven’t been moved for a year (which, let’s face it, there are!)

Why 27? Because nine is considered the number of longevity in Feng Shui, and multiplying it by three, the number of growth, will invite a continuous string of auspicious changes into our life.

So I did it. Good grief! Firstly, about 22 of the objects found a new home in Oxfam immediately because I realised how useless they had become. Then Lion and I began moving furniture, giving away things we ‘were going to get round to using someday’ and even wearing different clothes. Then I felt inspired into doing a (long overdue) energy cleansing throughout the house.

Within 24 hours we received notification that the company supposed to be double-glazing the house could set a date for doing all the windows (this had been stalling for five months), a financial windfall arrived we decided to reorganize and even cancel some group meetings which weren’t thriving. And wow, do we feel better!

So clear that physical clutter, and by the Law of Attraction you clear good space for the new. And if only new clutter comes, do it again. And again. Until the new is clear and good and delightful. You know it makes sense.

Maria Vittoria Longhitano

Many congratulations to my fellow 'Old Catholic' priest Maria Vittoria Longhitano - Italy's first woman priest.

She's going to be referred to as 'Mother.' That certainly hasn't happened to me yet..

Wonderful news - details from the BBC

The Miracle Man - Cowell as Christ?

The forces of good and evil confront each other in a showdown after 21st century Messiah changes the world order

Houston, TX, May 17, 2010 - In The Miracle Man (O-Books), Maggy Whitehouse cleverly charts two years in the life of a modern-day Messiah who becomes a judge on The Miracle Mile (America’s Got Talent), living in the spotlight of the modern media where every move is splashed across newspapers, television and the internet, including his healing powers that are used to obliterate drugs, alcohol, gambling – all and any of the dangerous addictions prevalent in today’s society. The story follows the exact chronology of the four Gospels of the New Testament, featuring every major character, but giving them modern names and providing updates to each story that make it appealing to the secular world of today.

Josh Goldstone is the new Messiah; a quiet and unassuming man, married to a TV star and celebrity judge who is killed when their car crashes into a lake in Nevada. Josh vanishes – only to emerge transformed from the desert forty days later. When he becomes the replacement judge for his wife, he is launched into a celebrity-driven world where the demons that need to be exorcised are usually in the contestants!

Josh is adored by the masses he heals of their pain, grief and sickness but hated by fundamental Christians who see him as a threat to their faith. Worse, he is a threat to the economy; after all, nobody needs drugs, alcohol, tobacco, or any other vices when their hearts and minds are healed.

Josh’s real task is not for his own people but to help the Dalai Lama return to Tibet. The price of fame goes through the roof as he launches a celebrity-led peaceful liberation of Tibet and an extraordinary U-turn in Chinese policy, but his enemies only see that he is too much of a threat to the world order. Josh’s PR guru Jude (Judas) believes that the publicity coup of the year would come from a live, on-air assassination. After all, Josh will finish the story by rising again – or will he?

Maggy Whitehouse does a superb job of showing the world all the miracles that Jesus did but in a 21st century setting and in a way that she hopes will encourage people to read the Bible again and perhaps see Jesus differently.

Maggy Whitehouse is a minister in an independent Sacramental Christian Church, an expert on mystical Bible interpretation, an author whose many books have been published worldwide, and a journalist and broadcaster with more than thirty years’ radio and TV experience in her native England. Visit Maggy at: Amazon Author Central or on her websites at: http://www.maggywhitehouse.com www.m1racleman.com and www.maggywhitehouse.com

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TIP SHEET:

Jane Struthers of Bella magazine and best-selling author of Literary Britain and Ireland and Royal Palaces of Britain: “If you loved the Da Vinci Code you will fall on this book with cries of delight.”

Jacky Newcomb, TV Presenter, Multi-award winner, best-selling author: “Spellbinding; Josh Goldstone is an angel for the modern world.”

For the Difficult Times (in memory of Mr. Cat).

So, you’re doing the prosperity work (you are aren’t you?) whether it’s affirmations, EFT, meditation, visualization etc. etc.
And yet, some days just suck.

And if you’re anything like me you start beating yourself up for the fact that you’ve managed to create a difficult day. It must be your responsibility, right?

But wait a minute. Stop. Breathe. I’m going to tell you a secret:

Even if you are totally positive, holistic and spiritual, Stuff Happens. Stuff sometimes just IS.

Why Stuff Happens depends on what else is going on in your life but there is always going to be the potential for Stuff (and yes, feel free to change the word ‘Stuff’ for another beginning with ‘s’ if it feels better).

This month the cat belonging to one of my friends had to be put down. Now she can be as enlightened as she likes; she can be a committed positive-thinker; she can know for sure that Mr. Cat is happy in the heavenly armchair. But the truth is that she is wracked with grief. And she really, really doesn’t need to beat herself up at the same time.

Pet cats die. Dogs die. Mothers and fathers die. God forbid, but our children die too. Projects die. Dreams die. Relationships die. And when they die, we cry. And maybe we get angry or depressed.

And even if it isn’t anything like that, there are astrological transits, biorhythms, homeopathic miasms — not to mention relatives.

After a day or two we can probably get a grip on it; re-frame it; take the flower remedies; talk to friends; pick ourselves up. But please, never, ever, beat yourself up for the days when nothing works. Just let them be; rest and wait for tomorrow. Trust me, the real friends on the spiritual journey will understand that. They won’t think you weak or stupid for the days when you are a soggy heap on the floor.

The truth is that we never get it done. We never get ourselves totally cleansed; we are never without desire for it to be better. And that’s actually how it’s meant to be. A world without desire (even if it’s just desire to be pulled out somehow from being up to your armpits in very stinky Stuff) would be a pretty tedious place.

Yes, everything that happens is our responsibility. Of course it is. But we live in a world of duality where, if we choose to love, we will experience loss. Every time we imagine something wonderful, we simultaneously create the possibility of its not happening as well as its being amazing. Our energies contribute enormously to how things turn out but we wouldn’t be human if we were perfect; if we could manifest absolutely everything without hiccups along the way.

And if we choose to love a person or an animal or anything alive, we will also be choosing the certainty of loss.

After my first husband, Henry, died I found some unexpected wisdom inside me when people expressed their shock and horror that someone so young could be taken and that our marriage had been of such short duration. I would say, ‘Yes, but it was worth it.’

And, you know, I think that is still the best answer I can give to the bad days; the days when everything in the planets is shrieking at your natal chart; when you’ve dropped the casserole you were making for guests; when the slugs eat your lettuces; when the cheque is late; when the rent can’t be paid; when you wake up depressed for no reason; when everything just makes you want to scream.

This is life on Planet Earth. Some days suck but they are the price of life in a world based on duality. Here we are in light and dark, life and death, up and down, left and right, male and female, right and wrong. It just IS. And some days, some of it sucks.

But if you can let that be the case, and allow it … if you can just look around you at the beauty and glory of this world and remember in your anger or unhappiness, just one moment when you were truly, truly loved or if there is now just one person in your life to whom you can turn for a cuddle, then it is worth it. It is worth it because you did once have that glory no matter how short the time.

IT IS WORTH IT. And this too shall pass.

The Cracked Plate

Are any of these situations famiilar?

• You are asking for a new job and you get offered voluntary work.
• You want to work in TV and a film crew spends a day shooting in your street.
• You want your own horse and you find a stray dog in the street.
• You want a good relationship and you get chatted up by someone who’s married.
• You want a new dinner service – and you are given a cracked plate.

It’s very easy to get mad about the Universe’s seeming non-comprehension of what you want but stop before you do. Get grateful instead. “The Cracked Plate Syndrome” is a very clear message that you’re on your way but something still needs a little more (or maybe a little less!) attention.

It’s actually a wonderful thing when something borderline to your desire shows up in your life. No, you don’t have to accept what’s come as the final answer but you do need to acknowledge it as a step in the right direction.

I first came across “The Cracked Plate Syndrome” in Catherine Ponder’s Bible of creating abundance, The Dynamic Laws of Prosperity (De Vors). Catherine teaches that the cracked plate is a clear sign from the Universe that the dinner service you want is on its way. All you have to do is check the signals you’re putting out and start giving thanks that what you want is already yours and moving closer.

Checking the signals you’re putting out is important. Sometimes you’re not quite asking clearly. For example, asking the Universe for full healing for a sick person or pet could (to the Universe) mean taking them home to Heaven. Asking for full physical wellness for that animal is closer to the mark.

I once asked for love with a kind, funny loving man like my former boss (who was a cutie). Guess what? I started being asked out by married men. I’d forgotten the all-important stipulation of a single kind, funny, loving man. My boss was married so the Universe thought that was the complete package that I wanted. Remember, Universal Law is very literal.

Don’t panic; you don’t have to fret frantically over the exact wording for your desire – that’s exactly what the Cracked Plate Syndrome is for: to help you hone your request and clarify your desire.

However if you’re constantly getting cracked plates, it could be that you are actually asking for something that can’t come to you either because your energy simply isn’t aligned to it yet — or it’s something that wouldn’t do you any good if it did come.

And leading on from that, it may be that the cracked plate is what you do want after all.

For example: I want to do more interfaith work so I Googled ‘Interfaith teacher’ and came up with a Fellowship in the Interfaith Department at Cambridge University. Now, in the academic world I would appear not to have a cat’s hope in hell when it comes to being accepted as a Fellow at one of the UK’s top universities; I simply don’t have the academic qualifications.

Several of my friends thought I was crazy (and said so) but, within a week, I’d been offered lecturing work at Stafford University, a former polytechnic. So the Universe had marked my request and come up with the nearest cracked plate available. And I’m very grateful for it!

If you’re in any doubt about what you actually do want or whether what the Universe is offering you is the cracked plate or the Full Monty, the simplest answer is to get vaguer!

Every day give thanks for everything you have appreciated in the last 24 hours from stroking a pet, through having a cup of tea to not being run over by a bus. And then tell the Universe that you want to wake up happy tomorrow and to receive a wonderful, amazing and delightful surprise.

That makes it so much easier for you to create a life full of happiness – and the perfect dinner service. Because you may have been asking for white plates with an ivy pattern and the simple truth is that you are plain plate with a silver edging kind of person; you just don’t know it yet.

Asking for a lovely surprise frees up all parties in the Ask and Allow equation. You get what the Universe knows you will love and the Universe doesn’t get its hands tied in a knot.

Trust your Higher Self to know best. Trust the Universe to deliver. Just get happy; that’s really all it takes and if by the Law of Attraction you see a physical cracked plate in the next week, I bet you’ll laugh out loud.

The Sabbath

“I’m late. I’m late!” said the White Rabbit.

This article is late. Technically it should have been sent out on 28th February or 1st March. And the reason why it wasn’t is this month’s topic.

The Sabbath.

Despite the fact that guilt tried to gnaw me raw I didn’t write it yesterday. I didn’t check my emails. I didn’t answer the phone. I didn’t go on Facebook or Twitter; I kept my mobile turned off; I didn’t update my website which was suddenly (again!) totally out of date. I worked all weekend so Monday was my Sabbath.

“Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy” is the fourth of the Ten Commandments. If we are of a similar age and upbringing, you’ll remember deeply boring Sunday mornings in Church and Sunday afternoons with absolutely nothing to do apart from (in term time) the dreaded homework.

Nowadays, of course, it’s different. You can do pretty much whatever you please on the Sabbath, whether it’s Saturday or Sunday or any other day off if you are working at the weekend.

But do you? Especially if you work for yourself or as a freelance? Or do you still open up the computer and deal with emails? Do you succumb to Facebook or Twitter addiction? Do you scorn the idea of keeping a day separate and sacred? Do you have good intentions but get ambushed by family, colleagues or friends? Does the dreaded Should bite your neck?

It’s not easy to celebrate a Sabbath. In the fast-paced world there’s always the Blackberry, the mobile and the Internet. But I’d suggest you try.

The idea is not about being bored. It’s not even about stopping you from going shopping or having fun; it’s about slowing down enough to be able to hear the Daughter of the Voice.

The Daughter of the Voice is one of the names for Shekhinah, the Presence of God, also known as the Feminine of God. This is the part of Divinity which touches our Higher Self and which gives birth to us and receives us back at death.

It’s often said that prayer is talking to God and meditation is listening to God and a Sabbath is a whole day where we are meant to slow down enough to be able to hear our intuition — the Still, Small Voice. It can tell us where we’re going right and where we are out of kilter. But it can’t compete with the noise of constant action.

I worked both days of the last two weekends and the first temptation was to say that I didn’t need time off was everything I was doing was delightful and inspirational. I’d done two workshops and taught at the Interfaith Seminary and had had a ball on every occasion. So my ego was fairly emphatic that more fun was not required; what WAS required was administration, banking, accounting, answering emails, writing etc. etc.

And other people can’t be expected to know you’re taking a day off either. The phone rang these last two Mondays just as much as it always does. It’s not easy to let it ring and challenging for my husband to have to answer it for me and tell someone with a pressing enquiry that I’m not available when I’m obviously doing very little.

And apart from that, defining a Sabbath is pretty tricky. In essence it’s meant to be about not doing what you do every other day. Ringing the changes.

Should I go shopping? Should I phone my mother? Should I do the washing? Should I clean out the chickens? Should I do something worthwhile instead of blogging in front of the TV? Was it defaming the Sabbath to be blogging in front of the TV? Should I cook? Should I take just that one phone call? Should I send just one email in case someone’s worrying? After all, I haven’t been on the Internet since Friday so checking emails would be okay wouldn’t it?

No, it wouldn’t. Because it would be succumbing to the demon of Should.

Maybe that’s it. The Sabbath is a day off from doing anything that we Should.

That’s going to be a tricky one I know but I think that’s just the point. Our life is run by so many unacknowledged Shoulds.

One of the things I love about the Jewish faith is that debate about the laws is encouraged so there can always be a lively discussion about what’s appropriate. Even if the discussion is only inside our own head.

One thing I do know for sure. If we don’t take time out for the Still Small Voice then we’ll never be free of the Shoulds or the Hows or the Urgents.

Yes, today when I logged onto the internet there were five emails saying “Please confirm you received this…” because I hadn’t replied in three days. But I know the answer to that now because it came to me easily and peacefully yesterday as I sat with my feet up, a beagle on my lap and a good book in my hands. I can put an “Enjoying a Day Off” out of office auto-reply on my emails for just that one day a week. I can put a message on the answerphone. I can own up to the fact that I take a Sabbath. For me and for God. And without that, I can’t deal with you guys half as well as I do.

So this month, take a Sabbath just for fun, once a week. If it’s too much to ask, I’d respectfully suggest that’s the root of practically ALL your prosperity issues in just one go.

Bless you and have a wonderful March.