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You are here: Home / Blog series / Entering the Pathway to Self

Entering the Pathway to Self

May 21, 2018 by Margaret Duarte

Bam! Life throws you a slider. What do you do? Criticize? Suffer through it? Despair? Or do you take a different route by finding meaning in the experience, considering it a transpersonal moment, a pathway to self?

“Whenever something negative happens to you, there is a deep lesson concealed within it.” ~Eckhart Tolle

The Pathway to Self

“There are places in this world that are neither here nor there, neither up nor down, neither real nor imaginary. These are the in-between places, difficult to find and even more challenging to sustain. Yet they are the most fruitful places of all.” ~ Thomas Moore

Consider some names for places that are neither here nor there, neither real nor imaginary:

  • The Between
  • Betwixt
  • Psi field
  • The Zone
  • Quantum field
  • Collective Unconscious

These places–these pathways to self–are invisible ones that can’t be forced, controlled, or willed into existence.

One must first create a channel between the conscious and unconscious to the place where guidance can be found.

But how?

Entering the Pathway to Self

The channel leading to the place of inner knowledge and breakthrough experience goes by many names, including:

  • Portal
  • Veil
  • Gateway
  • Hole in the fabric of reality
  • Crossroad
  • Threshold
  • Mind’s Gate

And this channel/gateway/threshold is not limited to geniuses and visionaries.

With practice, anyone can push the gate of the mind ajar and peep through the door of their being via:

  • Relaxation
  • Visiualization
  • Meditation
  • Art
  • Journal-keeping
  • Surrender

When we let go of our task-oriented, controlling self and follow our impulses moment by moment, magical, threshold experiences occur.

Crossing the Threshold

Between Will and Surrender: Chapters Ten-Eleven

In chapters ten and eleven of my novel, Between Will and Surrender, my protagonist, at the suggestion of her psychologist, goes on a retreat—away from her town, away from her home, away from all that distracts her.

She checks into the Carmel Valley Inn with the intention of slowing down and following some blind alleys. No plans. No commitments. Time to live the questions instead of seeking the answers. How hard can that be?

Slowly, curiosity takes the place of fear toward the spiritual turmoil in her life.

But no sooner does she clear her mind and allow her heart to lead the way than she begins feeling out of her element, as though she has crossed a threshold from which there is no return.

Synchronistic events start to occur: signs, whispers from the Universe, connections that she can’t explain as chance.

Synchronicity

According to Gregg Levoy in his article, Synchronicities: A Sure Sign You’re on the Right Path, “Synchronicities are minor miracles, little mysteries that point to a bigger one, perhaps a central one, of which we are all a part.”

Join me next post to see how magical threshold experiences start showing up in Marjorie’s life, experiences that match the events going on within her.

In the meantime, if you’d like to read up on synchronicity, check out David Wilcock’s “The Synchronicity Key.”

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Filed Under: Blog series, Book Talk, For Readers, Visionary Fiction Tagged With: Between, Between Will and Surrender, Carl Jung, collective unconscious, Gateway, Margaret Duarte, Pathway to self, Quantum field, Synchronicity, the zone, Threshold

About Margaret Duarte

Former middle school teacher, Margaret Duarte, lives on a California dairy farm with a herd of “happy cows,” a constant reminder that the greenest pastures lie closest to home. Margaret earned her creative writing certificate through UC Davis Extension and has since published four novels in her “Enter the Between” visionary fiction series: Between Will and Surrender, Between Darkness and Dawn, Between Yesterday and Tomorrow, and Between Now and Forever. Her poem and story credits include SPC Tule Review; The California Writers Club Literary Review; finalist in the 2017 SLO Nightwriters Golden Quill Writing Contest; First Place winner for fiction in 2016, Second Place winner for fiction in 2018, Honorable Mention for fiction in 2019, and Gold winner for fiction in 2020 NORTHERN CALIFORNIA PUBLISHERS AND AUTHORS Book Awards Competition; 2019 California Author Project winner for adult fiction.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Vic says

    May 22, 2018 at 8:39 am

    Good stuff, Margaret. Enjoyed both your Between Will and Surrender and Wilcock’s The Synchronicity Key. Reaching that zone where synchronicity takes over from willfulness is a life adventure well worth the effort.

  2. Margaret Duarte says

    May 23, 2018 at 12:49 pm

    Thanks, Vic. “Zone where synchronicity takes over from willfulness.” Well said.

  3. rea nolan martin says

    May 24, 2018 at 12:10 pm

    Love this description of threshold experiences, Margaret! Have not read Wilcock’s book, but loved yours!

  4. Margaret Duarte says

    May 24, 2018 at 4:41 pm

    Thank you, Rea!

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