Honoring the 20th Anniversary of The Dialogues

As the Visionaries we Are

On October 8, 2001, I completed The Dialogues of A Course of Love. It makes me so happy to invite you to the awe I still feel when I read such passages as those I’ve prepared for you (below), or share ideas inspired by them (even better). This is especially true when I remember the climate in which ACOL was received twenty years ago. (Twenty years! That’s still mind-boggling to me.) The mind, in 2001, was so primary! To have not only a new “Course” but one calling for the end of learning, was shocking! Then . . . Dialogue! Then a Way of Mary! Twenty years ago! I swear, this is what thrills me the most sometimes—realizing just how revelatory of “the new” this all was—and still is! We’re continuing to be turned toward a new era and it all started as this new century was beginning. 

I’ve been attracted to the word “consecrate” recently. (Give me the “old” or the “new” and I seem to feel happier than in “the current” language.) The meaning of “consecrate is perfect for us. It speaks of being together with the sacred, being devoted. To “consecrate one’s life”  means (to me) that we give our all to whatever it is we’re here to do or be: to art, writing, or, for some . . . works such as A Course of Love, ACIM, a church, a child, or our own expanding consciousness. I don’t think this kind of dedication can help but find us honoring one another as, together, we witness new ways coming into being.

It can be such a little thing. I’m going to be part of a group of women getting together on the 17th (of October) through the Center for Contemporary Mysticism. Originally (and I don’t think he’d mind my sharing this), the poster that was developed called we women “teachers.” “Joe,” I said, (Joe Irwin from the Center) “I don’t think any of us call ourselves teachers. How about visionaries?” He spoke with the others and made the change. I was so thrilled! (Thanks Joe Irwin!) Really, it seems to me that the future we will create is about “new vision,” a knowing we might call “inner” vision that springs forth on a current of energy.

This unitive creative energy of expanded consciousness arises from the center of our being. The “unitive” (another old word) is that which tends naturally to unite. Accepting the “energy” of Christ-consciousness, is accepting that which cannot be destroyed, that which is constant, yet can be converted into new forms. The new form of Christ-conscious is “us” . . . becoming who we truly are and “from this starting point” creating who we are anew.

As I’ve worked on the newest book of the way of the Marys: Memoria, I’ve been amazed to rediscover the impact of memory in A Course of Love.  We exist together and are asked to absorb what was shared (in ACOL) “as a memory returned” to our reunited hearts and minds. “This is the beginning of our co-creation.” (T4:11.4-5) My sense of this, in my own life, is as finding a renewed creative energy. I know my creativity naturally expands the more I trust in being who I am, exactly as I am. Each of us, I’m sure, have our different ways we feel pressure to be different than who we are. I didn’t realize until I stopped giving in to that pressure, how hard it had been on me. Really, without being authentically and genuinely who we are, just about anything can become confusing and difficult. 

When I’m finding myself pulled by an expectation, it always helps me to take time alone. I’m very happy and often wise living like a hermit! Trust comes from “inner-site” another (like memory) under-spoken-of passages from ACOL (this time from The Dialogues) where you and I are invited to experience “Inner-sight.” When you or I have an “insight,” we don’t need to look for an external source. We can accept that we’re experiencing expanded vision from an “internal” source—a source “within.”

“Experiencing life without the insight of spirit was to experience external life. Life itself showed you the way, pointed you in differing directions, taught you what you needed to know. This was the external experience of life. Most of you have had well-examined external lives. You have looked for causes behind the direction in which life led you, but your life was not inner-directed because it was devoid of inner-sight. While you looked outwardly for signposts to guide you, the self-guidance of inner-sight was not developed. 

“Inner-sight made an appearance on occasion, showing up as flashes of insight. These flashes of insight might be thought of as brief views from the mountain. The obstacles confronted on level ground suddenly gave way and you saw clearly.” If only for an instant, our view, “expanded.” 

There are all kinds of ways to look at this, but I can tell you that I didn’t used to be very confident in myself, and having a lack of confidence is awful.  Trusting, now, in my “insight,” is not that different than revelation, because I have to trust to “receive” revelation too. I know so many, now, who shyly wonder if they may have experienced revelation. Revelation only gets to the “public realm” by starting in the private realm of individuals. The private realm is precious, and abundant in what it reveals. Sharing with friends who can talk of inner-site, revelations, or who put stock in their dreams—it’s all so affirming—particularly of our more private, feminine knowing (for both men and women). 

“Coming to know is not an aspect of the mind alone. It is not an aspect of the spirit alone. Coming to know is a quality of inner-sight, of wholehearted human experience combined with spiritual experience. You are and always have been both human and spirit, both form and content. Now you contain within you the ability to combine both levels of being through the experience of life. You have already been doing this. You are, in fact, becoming well-practiced.” Day 27:23-27

This is also called “expanded vision” and was spoken of early in ACOL: With expanded vision: “You will remember that for a moment your body did not seem to be a boundary that kept you contained within its limitations. Then you will remember that this is but a Course in remembering and that memory is the language of the heart. C:10.31

Memory is the major theme in Memoria, the (upcoming) second book of the Way of Mary trilogy. I wrote, in Memoria: “What happens within the psyche, the expanded consciousness, is what one draws to oneself and what is drawing each one. . .  Released from its captivity, this stream of memory meanders where it will, bringing up pieces of my life to be excavated in this glorious dark unfolding.” (With a little divine blessing “Memoria” could be out by the end of the year.) And with an even greater divine blessing, we’ll share our expanded consciousness with each other in ways that will create The New.

~Mari Perron