Halloween, All Saints. All Souls. It's the time of year to focus on evolving our relationship to Spiritual Beings.

Are they for real? Do they matter?

Until I was in my early forties, spiritual beings didn't really matter to me.  I certainly had beliefs about their existence - Sunday-school-meets-New-Age beliefs, but I had no understanding and no active relationship to spiritual beings. I thought they were probably real, but I didn't think they really mattered to me.

Actually, I hadn't given it much thought because I had never been introduced to the reality and the significance of spiritual beings. I didn't know what they did and how they related to my life. I had no concept for spiritual beings. No context for understanding why and how they mattered. My immature and vague beliefs were reassuring when I felt existential dread, but they were more a cloak I wrapped around myself to keep off the chill, then a ground for being.

And I did not feel any companionship with them, although I am a spiritual being. Human beings are spiritual beings. And there is what I called God, the all-encompassing name for the undefinable divine. In between, above, below, behind, what was there to connect with, to engage with? Were there other, more distinct forms of spiritual being, with purpose, task, even personality, that I could interact with?

And what does that interaction look like, feel like, develop into? How do I converse with spiritual beings? How do they converse with me?

Finally another question for serious consideration: If there are spiritual beings, am I real for them? Do I matter to spiritual beings?

Over twenty years of studying Rudolf Steiner's cosmology gave me a conceptual framework for understanding spiritual beings, made them real and showed me how they mattered. But it wasn't until I was called to teach and guide the Inner Year programs that I found a way to experience and encourage a warm intimacy, an engaged companionship between the human being, you and me, and the myriad beings of spirit.

I do love the benefits of the cyclical focus of the Inner Year.  Each year at this time, when the cosmos opens the human soul to the knowledge of spiritual beings, I find more engagement with them, full of creativity, surprises, comfort, challenge, and real delight. There is a relaxed wakefulness in the engagement.  Real companionship has grown over the course of the year to be crystalized with deeper attention.

Spiritual beings do not all look alike, sound alike or feel alike.  I can make distinctions and discern subtleties now. My life is blessed with a conscious attention to the unique qualities of both the spiritual beings and my relationships with them. 

I am not special in this capacity.  Each of us is part of this spiritual company, this amazing fellowship. We just need to give it attention and tenderly we cultivate, nurture, and mature the awareness of our constant companionship with all our fellow spiritual beings from the grand Seraphim, to the nature spirits dwelling in the tree outside our windows, to our guardian angels, and to the beings that we knew as our grandfathers and grandmothers during their earthly lives.

ENGAGING YOUR SPIRITUAL COMPANIONS