Praying the Directions
Praying the directions is a devotional practice of shadow work, suited well for morning and evening times, but applicable anytime.
“Shadow work” is the subconscious side of a person. The instinctive motives, forgotten memories, and psychology that a person is not directly conscious of (yet), but lives with. These are subconscious mental, emotional, and spiritual programs and cycles woven deep into the psyche by life and past-life experience.
The “shadow” may make someone say things like, “I know it isn’t right, but I can’t help myself” or “I didn’t mean to be hurtful.” Often, other people are able to see the shadow of a person more clearly than a person can see their own. This is why shadow work, like praying the directions, can be so significant. It is especially true when being engaged at energetic levels, meaning, putting in the energy it takes to speak and present yourself prayerfully, with loving sincerity. This takes no pomp nor circumstance, but just sincerity of spirit, mind, and heart alone.
Humans made up language. The language God speaks is from before words are uttered or even formed in thought. The language of God is the present moment. Prayer can be seen as genuinely and openly presenting ourselves to the present moment.
Praying the directions is a discipline of looking behind us, ahead of us, to the sides of us, above, below, and within and acknowledging a Light of the Divine, even in areas where we don’t believe it shines or where we hide and turn our back to it.
Living life from the subconscious is living life as a slave to chemical reactions, impulses, and being manipulated by fears of the future or past. This is all a distraction, an overshadowing, of what is the right-relationship every person is designed to have with internal intuition, eternal Love, and Peace.
Jesus once said, “No one lights a lamp and puts it in a place where it will be hidden, or under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, so that those who come in may see the light.
Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are generous, your whole body also is full of light. But when they are stingy, your body also is full of darkness. See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness.”
– Luke 11.33-35
Praying the directions is not a script to be followed, but an awareness to participate with.
Bring yourself to a physically and internally calm place, face a direction attentively and prayerfully, and pray what comes out of you.
It’s recommended to start with the East, since that’s where the day begins, but experiment freely.
Turn prayerfully to face each of the four directions, then face upward to the Heavenly Father, downward to Mother Earth, and finally, within to the kingdom of God.
Below is an example, but words being recited are far less important than the condition of the heart. Open your heart and be generous with the Light inside you. Make the world a brighter place with the way you allow yourself to see it, and shine light on it.
