The Bright Way. Diana Rowan

creative life reflects your whole life, and your whole life reflects your creative life. Understanding this principle alone can give you great control over your life, allowing you to become its director instead of a passive watcher.

       BRIGHT WAY ACTIVITY

       As Above, So Below

      Start noticing the coincidences, synchronicities, and connections in your daily life, reflecting the concept of As Above, So Below. For example, how does your approach to learning reflect your approach to doing? How does your health affect your thinking? How does your mind affect your body? How does a painting or a piece of music affect your mood? These are all examples of how As Above, So Below can play out in your life.

      You don’t have to be an alchemist to walk the Bright Way. On this journey you are simply borrowing these time-honored tools and concepts to heighten your learning and creative experience.

      Likewise, when you harmonize with yourself in step one (much more about this later), you might recognize centering and meditation techniques used in many Asian cultures. You don’t have to take up Zen philosophy or start practicing Hinduism to benefit from the process of centering. This tool and others that you’ll encounter on our journey have corollaries across many cultures and time. All are chosen to be flexible enough to fit into your belief system, whatever it may be. Some of these tools are so common that we find them used in everyday life. I initially heard about centering through sports psychology and was charmed to unearth its ancient roots later!

       As Above, So Below

      Along your Bright Way journey, work with and morph all terms and symbols to fit your personal ethos. Your heart-centered truth, the purpose that you’ll uncover during step one, will be your ultimate guide. Father of modern physics and dedicated alchemist Isaac Newton said, “Plato is my friend — Aristotle is my friend — but my greatest friend is truth.”

       Present Illumination

      As you know, your direct experience is key to your Bright Way journey. It’s now time to go deeper and connect your direct experience, your “instant illumination,” to mysticism. Mysticism is a direct connection with source energy, no intermediary required. Mysticism is heart- and spirit-knowing, intelligence that can’t be captured by rational terms alone. It is intelligence of such depth that it is indispensable to leading engaged, creative lives.

      Each person experiences mystical energy differently. It runs the gamut from religious experiences to a deep respect for life, from the humanist perspective to psychedelic encounters. You cannot understand this energy simply by reading about it, attending a lecture about it, or hearing someone else’s story about it. You can only feel this energy by living it. You must engage directly in life by opening your heart in order to experience what I call present illumination. The mystery will only be revealed to you through your direct participation in life.

      I have experienced mystery in the form of direct insights such as when I found my internal flame and when I realized how interconnected everything really is (first I had to connect with myself before I could connect with everything else, a theme you’ll find throughout our journey together). I’ll be sharing more experiences with you on our path. I rely on intuition to make daily decisions, ranging from artistic choices to whether or not to send that email. Some things can only be decided by the heart, not the head; this is mysticism. As pioneering seventeenth-century French mathematician Blaise Pascal said, “The heart has its reasons which reason knows nothing of. . . . We know the truth not only by the reason, but by the heart.”

       The mystery will only be revealed to you through your direct participation in life.

      Mysticism is close to the ground and happens in everyday life. It’s not some flighty, detached state. Quite the opposite, as Sigmund Freud agreed: “When making a decision of minor importance, I have always found it advantageous to consider all the pros and cons. In vital matters, however, such as the choice of a mate or a profession, the decision should come from the unconscious, from somewhere within ourselves. In the important decisions of personal life, we should be governed, I think, by the deep inner needs of our nature.”

       BRIGHT WAY ACTIVITY

       Mysticism in Action

      Thinking back on the major decisions in your life, such as getting married or changing careers or taking up your art, was it your heart rather than your head that led you? If so, you were experiencing mysticism in action. Write down some of these memories and how you felt about them. How did you trust your intuition? How much do you rely on your intuition right now?

      Strengthened by your Bright Way foundation of past wisdom and present illumination, let’s now preview the steps you’ll soon be walking.

       The Bright Way Spiral

       Navigating the Spiral

      This chapter is your Bright Way System navigation plan. If you get lost or confused along the Bright Way steps, simply return to this chapter for reorientation.