Authors Note Introduction 12 Chapter 1 15

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Spiritual, Not Religious 15 Abandoned, Raped, Molested, and Pregnant at Thirteen 16 Chapter 2 22 Know Thyself 22 Chapter 3 31 Connecting with Spirit 31 Creating Sacred Space 32 Cultivating the Art of Inner Listening 36 Conscious Breathing Techniques 38 The Guided Meditation 42 Dealing with Distractions 43 Chapter 4 49 Liberating Yourself from Emotional Bondage Emotional Programs 50 Emotional Balance as a Rite of Passage 51 Five Main Sources of all Emotional Pain 52

49

The Energy Body 55 How To Heal Difficult Emotions 58 Chakra Clearing Mediation using Sacred Sounds 61 Flower Soul Therapy 68 Chapter 5 73 Freeing Your Mind 73 How Our Brain Processes Thoughts 75 How Our Thoughts Create our Reality 76 Spiritual Crossroads 77 Belief System Assessment Exercises 80 Creating a Spiritual Alignment Treatment 82 Chapter 6 88 Honoring Your Magick 88 Magic Mirrors 90 Mirroring Exercise Archetypes 92 91

The Sacred Science of High Magick 96 Imagineering Activity 99 Create Your Own Magical Symbols 101 Magical Chakras and Your Altar 103 The Art of Ritual Dreamwork 105 Chapter 7 108 104

Spiritual Empowerment 108 The True Nature of the Devil 109 Dispelling Negative Ego 113 Chapter 8 120 Spiritual Warrior Basic Training 120 Toxic Life Analysis Tool 123 Burning Bowl Ceremony 124 Cutting off Toxic Relationships and People who Drain You Cutting the cords in the Chakras exercise 126 Building Spiritual Strength 129 Chapter 9 131 Living in Harmony with Divine Law 131 Universal and Spiritual Laws 132 Law of Vibration 133 Raising your vibration through Spiritual Bathing 134 Law of Balance and Moderation 135 Law of Cycles 137 Determining Your Personal Cycles 138 The Law of One 141 The Law of Love 142 Chapter 10 146 Realizing Your Souls Purpose 146 Determining Your Life Path 148 Sankofa- Identifying the Patterns of our Life Lessons Spiritual Lessons of Love through Astrology 160 Chapter 11 162 Gathering Your Spiritual Support System Angels, Ancestors, and Guides 163 162 166

125

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Sacred Sounds to Deepen Activate Intuition

Perceiving wisdom 167 Oracles and Divination Chapter 12 175 Spiritual Freedom 175

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How to finally be free 181 Create your own Sacred Text for Living Chapter 13 189 Thirteenth Chapter 189

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Authors Note
I wrote most of Spirit Rising in 1999-2000 when my daughter was just 5 years old. She is now 17 and it is 2011so its taken me a while to publish it. I have grown so much since this book was first written, that by the time I was finished, I felt the information was obsolete. For me, it was more than 20 years old and I was on to something else. So, I held it back.only to find years later that there were some core ideas to spirituality and soul consciousness that many were still trying to understand. So many of my clients would ask where I got the information I use. Or, they would be curious as to how I learned to see the world as I do. Spirit Rising is the sum of my most fundamental teachings I acquired when I was coming into spiritual maturity. There are a host of even more insights that have evolved over the years but they are still built on these. Spirit Rising is intended for those who feel they have outgrown their rigid religious or societal doctrines but are not sure what to do next. It is also for those who would like to take what they know deeper into themselves. Soul searching would be a term that was appropriate. There is certainly some things that even those who have been on the path could benefit from. Ultimately it is for anyone who is searchingjust searching. Ayele Kumari, PhD

Introduction
Wake up! It is the rebirth of a new consciousness today. Put away all illusions and self limitations of self doubt and fear and allow a new mind and heart to emerge. You are a divine immortal being.

In this moment, you have the power to change your life forever. You have the power to be and express all of what you were created to be and express. Your past no longer matters. Your mistakes are gone. Whatever was done is now over and today your life is before you like never before. Stronger and wiser from the journey, you have already had, you now hold in your hands the instructions for empowerment and real self discovery. In this moment, your personal truth is unfolding as a flower blossoming in spring. Beloved, this is your path to real power from deep within your being. I know it wasn't an easy road. You may not even believe me right now. You may think to yourself, it has been so hard that you can't really be sure of anything anymore. You may have heard people, including yourself, doubt your abilities or disregard your real worth. There may have been people in your past who tried to hold you down and keep you stuck. There may have been situations where you felt victimized and abused, betrayed or forgotten. Dear one, I know there must have been times you felt incapable of making it through. Yet, you did. And right now your spirit is rising out of the dusty sandstorms of your situations and your past. The chains and shackles of oppression, hurt, and pain are falling away like thin paper chains from grade school. In the distance of your mind, if you listen carefully, you can hear the angels singing a melody of grace and peace. This day, is your new powerful beginning, and with it comes a glorious new light emerging. Peeking through the dark night of yesterdays journey, is the sunrise of a new day bubbling with the potential for greatness. Yes today, your sun is on the horizon and changing the view to a brighter more evolved truth from your soul. Who you really are is being born out of the rubbish of your illusions and transforming your world. Welcome. This new journey will take you deep inside to discover and uncover your deepest most authentic self. Deep inside you probably have always known there was something special about you. Something that was just beneath the surface waiting to be awakened. You may have sensed it as a child or just known that there was something mighty powerful within you that, if brought out, could and would change everything. This journey is about uncovering that special something. It is about realizing what lies beneath the surface on a soul level. It is not just a read about it though. Just because it is there doesn't mean that you automatically know what to do with it. This journey, however, will teach you what tools are there and HOW to use them in a way that empowers your life and changes how you experience your life forever.

This is the journey of spirit rising. That is, my spirit and your spirit rising to a higher level of consciousness and understanding. It is intended to inspire our spiritual evolution from our human world of limitations into or back to our spiritual nature of infinite potential. This book is also a summary of many lessons and memoirs crossed on my own journey of self-discovery. Some were very painful while others were only noticed in retrospect. All were valued. As you read further, I hope that you, the reader, can identify with some of these struggles. It is my fervent desire that some may even benefit from the lessons of my struggles. I have chosen to share a significant portion of myself in this book. It is my intention to let you know that you are not alone. In that same spirit, I have chosen to include personal development exercises throughout the book for your own self-empowerment. These exercises have evolved out from my personal exercises and workshops that I have done on the same topics. You may use the pages provided in the book to document your experiences. Or, you may have a journal of your own that you would like to use and build upon. Scrapbooks and binder notebooks are great. Whatever you use is fine. There is only one rule. Be honest and loving with yourself. This is where you will find your truth. One last point. Many of you may notice throughout the text that I refer to God as the higher power, Divine, Sacred Spirit or just Spirit with a capital S. The reason I have chosen to refer to the Source in such a manner is so that all people could identify with the infinite truth of this presence. All too often, names and religions divide us rather than unify us under one divine power. Ultimately, we are all creations of the same being no matter what you choose to name it. It is time to release such stagnating perceptions and labels on what is limitless, omnipotent, and omniscient. We must begin to realize that it is our own limited understanding, not Spirit that separates and divides people. The wars and conflicts over religion areas much like children fighting for the love of a parent. If we put our need to be right aside and just allow us to connect in love instead of judgment, we could accomplish so much more. Let us come together in the same spirit of love, put aside our eternal differences and focus on the oneness within all of us. As you read this book, take your time. Let the words crepe into your spirit ( your own divine potential) and fill you. As you read the words on the pages, close your eyes and feel the messages coming forth inside of you. Explore your own spirit and expand your horizon. May your spirit rise. Namaste.I honor the divine in you.

Ayele Kumari, PhD

Excerpt 1
Spiritual Crossroads

As children we develop our belief systems based on what we are told and experience. We fully accept these things as true regardless of what else is shown to us. We base our entire lives on so called facts that may only, in truth, be opinions. In our lives, however, we are challenged to grow. That growing causes us to attract situations that will force us to grow and evolve. It happens many times when we have reached a certain level of understanding about a particular topic. We become very confident in our knowledge and begin to believe that we have got it all figured out. Unfortunately, we find this to be the case often in religious and political circles where belief or opinion, has been repeated so often that people now think it is the unadulterated truth so much so that we are willing to fight and even go to war because of it. Then, we are blessed with a situation that tests what we think we know. You know the ones that test every part of our being. It may happen at home, in a relationship, at work, or with family. It may be a disagreement, or a choice that has to be made. However it happens, you can be sure that it happens to everyone. It is the point when what we think we know meets the unknown or when facts from our head seem to conflict with the truth our being. Welcome to the crossroads! When you meet cross purposes in your life and you dont know what to do. Or, when what you want to do conflicts with what your Spirit tells you to do. It is a situation that challenges us to grow beyond the limitations in our minds and live a higher truth. It is a time requiring mental clarity about whatever is facing us. Mental clarity is about engaging higher reasoning to our situations above and beyond our conditioned or expected responses. Clarity comes when we give up resistances to how we think things are or should be. It is accepting that it is what it is. When we hold on to outdated or burdensome belief system, we are prevented from moving forward. We start to take ourselves too seriously and we think that no one has problems but us. Or, that our problems are greater than everyone elses. When we take ourselves too seriously, and spend all our time trying to figure out our issues, it hinders the Divine from entering and resolving the situation. When we are so into our own little worlds, it is because we are identifying with our false selves, our characters or roles. We are seeing the situation from a limited perspective...only our own. Because we are not choosing see the situation from our higher selves, we become confused. It was necessary to address your emotional imbalances in the last chapter. This chapter calls for us to establish a clear and balanced mind. We do this by changing our core belief system. This is done through changing our perceptions from our limited perspectives to our infinite potential. This process begins in changing our vocabulary and how we choose to perceive what is happening in our everyday lives. We have learned in previous chapters about how we carry false perceptions of ourselves. These false perceptions influence every part of our lives. We shape how we see our world based on how

we see ourselves in our world. If in our minds, we tell ourselves that we are not good enough or that we are better than, then our world responds in kind. Another way to approach it may be that when find ourselves in challenging situations or crossroads, look at your core beliefs about it and how they may contribute to the apparent problem. Are you looking at the situation as a problem that has no answers or no choice, or are you looking at it as an opportunity to stretch your mind in new directions. When something is done to you, or an injustice has occurred to you, do you look at the situation as being a victim or as a victor. When choices have to be made, do you look for your outcome that will cater to your fears and issues thereby keeping you imprisoned to them. Or, do you look at possible outcomes with respect to what is right from a just and balanced view. When you make a decision, do you do it in reaction to an emotional trigger, or, do you make decisions from a calm perspective. When you give up what you think you know for what is truly there, your mind will be freed from its mental prison and you will attain clarity that is divine. One of the things that is required for this divine clarity is true honesty. We must be honest with ourselves as well as others. We need to be able to take an honest view of ourselves and our situations. Many times, we are clouded by inner conflict because we are not honest about our situations. We use justifications to excuse inappropriate behavior and we rationalized faulty perceptions. This starts us on the road to confusion because then confronted with the truth of the situation. Our false perceptions are challenged and we sink into despair. It is important to be honest so that when confronted with challenges, we can recognize them for what they are and overcome them. It has been said that a child shall lead them Arent children innocent in their initial perceptions. They are very honest. They carry the unadulterated truth. Their minds havent been contaminated yet by societies rules and too much language. To be led by a child is to be led by your child mind to an innocent place. That innocent place is a place where we have yet to develop perceptions about good or bad. Our innocent place allows us to explore the world with wonder and to perceive all of its possibilities. Adult minds have already developed their limitations of can be and cannot be. They have developed egos that must be protected. A childs mind, however, can fly to wherever they are taken. No fears have bound them to their own self-interest. It is with this attitude that you must release mental garbage. The following exercise will begin to shed light on your vocabulary and inner language. As you explore this activity, try to be honest with yourself. It is the only way that Truth can come.

Belief System Assessment Exercises

1. Which of the following statements apply to how you feel about yourself? Keep in mind, this is not about how you would like to feel or how you want others to think you feel. Be honest. 1. I am happy with my life and see life as a great blessing.

2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24.

My life is a constant struggle. I love the work that I do and am grateful for being able to do it. I hate my job, boss, coworkers, etc. My family is exactly what I need for my life. My family gets on my nerves. I am feeling very well. I am sick and tired of. I get all of the relaxation I need. I am stressed. I am prosperous in all of my dealings. I am always broke. I am tired of not having any money. My close relationships are rewarding and empowering. My close relationships are difficult and depress me. I trust the process of life. I am afraid of betrayal or the bottom falling out from under me. I know that all is well. I am afraid of what is going to happen. I am loved greatly. I dont feel that anyone cares about me. I can create what I will. I hope ______gets better. God/ Goddess/ Spirit answers all my prayers. Why doesnt God/ Goddess/ Spirit answer me?

The odd numbered statements reflect a more empowering self-image and belief system. The even numbered sentences reflect a negative self-image. If you have circled a sentence that reflected a negative statement, use this as a basis for the next exercise.

Creating a Spiritual Alignment Treatment

A spiritual alignment treatment is a way of transforming your mind from a limiting belief pattern to an empowered one. It is intended to actually align your thoughts and belief system to the truth of your being. The purpose is to change your reality by changing your thinking. As you begin to formulate your treatment, it is important that you take this seriously. I have found this to be a very powerful formula for eliminating addictive or negative thought patterns.

Law of Cycles

The cycles states that everything functions on cycles. Cycles and cyclical patterns are found in everything from the milky way to the tips of our fingers. Our bodies function in cycles. The earth, waters, moon, and planets have seasonal and other cycles. Our lives also function within cycles as well. This law of cycles is more like a circle symbolically. That is there is a starting point or birth, a rise growth, expansion, climax, decline, completion, eventual death, and then rebirth. This is how everything works and this law is the assurance of change. My mother used to say the only thing you can count on is change and that would be the case in the law of cycles. It shouldnt be approached from a point of dread though for while it is guarantees that things do and will always be in a constant state of movement , it also assures us that the opportunity for new starts and opportunities will also be there. Operating in our lives, it can be helpful to understand some of the patterns that we are functioning under. While the study of cycles can be extensive and impossible to evaluate even partially here, I can share with you some basic cycles that can help you understand what energy cycles you are most prone to on any given year. We find this pattern through numeric and birth cycles. Everything in the universe also functions on a numerical value and that includes your birth.
Determining Your Personal Cycles

To calculate your yearly cycle you will use the month and day of your birth along with the year of your last birthday. 1) Add the date of your birth month to your birth day. For instance if your birthday is January 25, you would calculate the following: January ( 1) + 25. This produces 26. You would then add the 2 and the 6 together to produce 8.

2) Now calculate the year of your last birthday. For instance, if your last birthday was in 2008. We would add 2 +0 +0 + 8. This would produce a 10 and 1 +0 = 1.

3) Next you would add the 8 from the first calculation to 1 from the second. This would produce 9.

5) Finally, you would add the 8 and 9 together to produce a 17. 1+7= 9.

This would mean that this person is in a 9 yearly cycle of their life. If we refer to our cycle chart below, we would find this to be a cycle of completion and letting go. During this time, we can expect to encounter some things to be transitioning out of our lives. Usually these are things that no longer serve our growth. Because it is a cycle of completion, it would not be a good time for beginning new long term projects. The following year would be a 1 cycle and would be much better for new beginnings. Choices made now should seek to maximize the energy present in the cycle. This means that it would be a good time to clean out stagnant areas of your life. Remove old things and or habits that have stood in the way of your achieving some goals.

Excerpt 2
The Law of One

At the core of our existence, lay a fundamental truth that we are all made of the same stuff. Way back when this universe was in its infancy, it consisted o f singular particles of what would become the building blocks of matter. These singular particles( now known as quarks), through magnetism seemed to draw together. Upon melding together, these groups of particles became strings of conscious intelligence and eventually grew into atoms. Atoms became the building block of all matter and the foundation of all chemical components. Since our bodies and everything that comes into the physical realm has a chemical component, this demonstrates that we fundamentally are the same. While this idea expresses in the physical realm, it also applies to synchronicities, time, etc. For instance, there is no coincidence that the moon is related to the waves in the ocean. When the moon is full, the waves in the ocean are highest. If we search deeper, we will find that our very psyches are impacted by the full moon. Anyone who works in the medical field can tell you the full brings out the very best in people. This is case because our bodies are 72-80% water. It is not a coincidence then that many woman start their menses on a full moon. Or, that when women are living together, their menses become synchronized. These are all because of our fundamental oneness with the environment and with each other. The law of one applies in our lives when we get down to how we interact with one another. If we see ourselves as separate and apart from everyone else, there is a tendency toward elitism and ego based actions. It becomes a matter of us vs. them or them vs. me. These tendencies build conflict and difficulty in working together and resolutions because there becomes the idea that someone has got to win and someone has got to lose. When we are able to drop the perception that I and my brother, sister, father, mother are separate and understand that we are really one, a spirit of cooperation can ensue producing more win-win situations for all involved.

The changes that are happening on the planet are now requiring us to be more conscious of the law of one. Whereas we used to function on the planet as individuals countries, races, and ethnicities, we are finding that we have more in common than we have different. In fact, we are being placed in situations where we have to work together for the common good of the planet as opposed to focusing solely on our individual agendas. In our personal lives, look to those you have conflict with, and seek out new ways to work together and find common goals. Offer an olive branch of good will and service to another and discover that together we are stronger.