The year is about to be over…done…finished…gone. How do you say goodbye to 2017? How do you discover the inner meaning of 2017? How do you prepare for the Holy Nights?

Advent is the time to review your year of thoughts, feelings and deeds and contemplate the unfolding of a new you.

Looking back at the year seeking, not your stories, but your soul's activity can feel daunting and confusing. Participating in Inner Advent makes the whole process clear and creative and results in a beautiful and meaningful closure for the year.

Inner Advent is an practice of recollecting, reviewing and releasing your soul's experiences of the just-lived year. 

Inner Advent prepares you for the new birth of self, the renewal of creative innocence, and the awakening of compassionate wisdom during the Twelve Holy Nights. 

The Inner Advent process really celebrates your soul’s year and prepares your soul for the very special time of Inner Christmas and the Twelve Holy Nights.  Your inner life becomes richer and your relationships to all the other aspects of your life through the course of the new year have more vitality and beauty.

Inner Advent is the most popular course I offer with so many participants coming back year after year.

2009 was the first year I offered Inner Advent. The focus of the program was to recollect the thoughts that led you to find your truth, the feelings that led you to know beauty, and the deeds that brought goodness into the world. This inner work prepares the soul for the inspirations of the Holy Nights.

But there is another kind of Inner Advent, one that, with reverence, objectivity, and self-compassion, guided me to recollect my shadows, my sorrows and my sufferings.  

By going through a four stage/Sunday Advent process of recollecting, reviewing and releasing the darker aspects of my soul, I would arrive at Christmas and the Holy Nights prepared in a very courageous and humble way.

This Year

2017 has given all of us as world citizens a very dark, challenging set of shared shadows, sorrows and sufferings. Earthquakes, fires, hurricanes, floods in nature. The social/political life has been filled with polarization and hatred. Terror and violence have been paralyzing and the homelessness of being alien and a refugee has broken hearts.

That is the difficult global year. What has your intimate year been like?

When, if not now, should the human soul walk through the valley of shadows, sorrows and sufferings and fear no evil? When will we find the light of meaning in our souls and the warmth of equanimity in our hearts?

It also feels to me following the months, weeks and days of 2017 in the world contexts of so much darkness that the more of us as world citizens do this deeply personal work that more spiritual light will shine into the planet and all the peoples that inhabit it during the Holy Nights. Each of us will be holding open the heavy veils that have fallen in our souls and the world soul over the year.

Your Choice

If you want to do the work of Inner Advent this year, you have a choice: The Advent path through the light of your soul over the year or the Advent path through the dark of your soul over the year.  (Or you could do both.) Either Advent path offers a profound preparation for the Holy Nights and the ongoing challenge of self-knowledge and inner development. Trust your heart to make your choice.

The original Inner Advent:

 The Path through the Light of Your Year

Learn more and register here.

Inner Advent: Your Shadows, Sorrows and Sufferings

 The Path through the Darkness of Your Year 

Learn more and register here.

Thoughts on Traditional Advent Practices

I also want to invite you to listen to my audio describing the traditional Advent practices…they are all beautiful and meaningful. I recommend this to those with young children. 

Do you wonder how to prepare for your Inner Christmas?

Are you curious about the meaning of traditional Advent Rituals?

Would you like to imagine new ways of celebrating traditional Advent?

Are you curious about Inner Advent and want to know more before you register?

In this free audio, I will share many perspectives on both traditional and Inner Advent. 

Advent – A Beautiful Preparation. Listen here.

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Any questions about Inner Advent. Ask me by replying to this post.

Men go abroad to wonder at the heights of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motions of the stars, and they pass by themselves without wondering. St Augustine