Incarnational Spirituality Overview

What is Incarnational Spirituality?

When we think of incarnation, we usually think of taking on and having a body. But it is more than that. Incarnation is the means the soul uses to connect with this world in order to create a mutually productive and beneficial relationship of wholeness with it. As such incarnation is more than just embodiment. It is the whole range of interactions and engagements that we create and experience as we go through life. Rather than the event of taking on a body, incarnation is an ongoing process.

     To be embodied is to just be part of the environment to which that body belongs. A physical body makes me part of the physical world. A "body" of being an employee of Microsoft makes me part of the Microsoft world. American citizenship and residency is a "body" that makes me part of the United States.

     Incarnation, though, is more than just embodiment. It is the dynamic process of connectedness and interaction that not only makes me part of something larger but enables me to be a participant in its unfoldment and wellbeing. I become a co-creator, helping that environment achieve a state of optimal performance and being that I call wholeness.

     In essence, incarnation is the art and process of creating wholeness. That process, I call holopoiesis or wholeness-producing.

But what is wholeness?

Wholeness is a state of connectedness that exists between things. If I am whole in myself, it means the various elements and parts that make me up, such as my organs, my thoughts, my feelings, my spiritual qualities, are in an integrated and coherent relationship. If I am whole in a relationship, then a state of integration and coherency exists between me and the other.

     One characteristic of wholeness is that energy flows freely within and through and around it; energy is not obstructed or impeded or cut off or diminished in its flow. Thus life is enhanced and the dynamic possibilities and capacities of the whole system are intensified. In particular, the emergence of new potentials can take place; new forms can be born. The system that is whole can function with minimal resistance, with grace, with power, and in a way that benefits itself and all around it. It is a system that is blessed and that blesses.

     We would say that wholeness is a boundary condition (that is, it exists in relationship between two or more elements at the point of connection where they meet). It is a boundary condition that fosters flow, connection, integration, coherency, and emergence. From a spiritual standpoint, it creates a condition in which sacredness may manifest.

     Both incarnation and wholeness are manifestations of love.

     Within this context, incarnation is the art of creating wholeness. This is wholeness between spirit and matter, soul and personality, self and others, the individual and the world, being and sacredness. Incarnation is the art of holopoiesis.

     Incarnational Spirituality, then, is the study and practice of this art. It is the skillful means for enhancing the loving and wholeness-making functions of incarnation wherever found: in ourselves, in others, in relationships, in the world, and in partnership with the realms of spirit beyond. It is the practice of holopoiesis in all ways possible wherever life is found, and that is everywhere.

Incarnational Spirituality Core Elements

There are seven elements that make up Incarnational Spirituality and the skills it offers to an individual.

• PHILOSOPHY: Incarnational Spirituality offers a philosophy of life based on sovereignty, freedom, partnering, collaboration, co-creativity, and the sacredness inherent in all life. It’s a philosophy that distinguishes between embodiment—the fact of having a body—and incarnation as a process of connection, engagement, participation, and emergence.

• COSMOLOGY: Using techniques such as contemplative perception and clairvoyance, Incarnational Spirituality explores the processes by means of which the soul manifests on earth and consciousness takes form. One result of these processes is the creation of specific spiritual and energy resources within each of us that are the product of the incarnational act itself.

• PRINCIPLES: Incarnation is a natural process defined by the activity of four principles: Identity, Boundary, Engagement, and Emergence. Incarnational Spirituality teaches how these principles are discovered and creatively applied in all aspects of one’s daily life.

• PRACTICE: Incarnational Spirituality teaches practical means for accessing the spiritual resources that arise within us as a result of the incarnational process. It teaches practices of blessing, manifestation, and inner attunement for using these resources in personal development and creativity, in relationship with others, and in service to the world.

• CREATING WHOLENESS: A key element of Incarnational Spirituality is the art of holopoiesis or “wholeness-making.” This is a capacity within us and within the work we do to create wholeness in our world. Wholeness is defined in this context as a state of potential in which something new may emerge that offers more than just the sum of its parts.

• WORKING WITH SPIRITUAL FORCES: Incarnational Spirituality recognizes the non-physical or spiritual realms as part of the larger wholeness and coherency of the world and teaches methods of forming alliances with spiritual forces that can enhance and promote this greater wholeness for the blessing and benefit of all.

• BLESSING, ENERGY ACTIVISM AND WORLD WORK: Another key element of Incarnational Spirituality is training and participation in the healing and wellbeing of the world through acts of blessing and energy activism, in addition to outer acts of service. 

Why Incarnational Spirituality Matters

Incarnational Spirituality is part of a larger emerging worldview that is very much needed in our time.  Inspired by contributions from ecology, science, and contemplative spiritual insights, this worldview is one of the interconnectedness and interdependency of all parts of the world, both organic and inorganic. Called the holistic paradigm, this worldview emphasizes the need to recognize, understand, sustain, or create wholeness within ourselves, in our relationships with each other and in the world at large. The crises of our time, from global climate change to the depletion of critical resources, from pollution to terrorism, from economic failure to social upheaval, may all be seen at root as failures to understand, maintain, or create wholeness.

     Incarnational spirituality is a specific application of this holistic paradigm. It defines incarnation not simply as embodiment, but as an intentional act of connection and engagement with a particular environment in order to create or sustain wholeness. Wholeness in turn is defined as the set of healthy, coherent and collaborative relationships both within and between living systems that allow for optimal expression, the fulfillment of potentials, evolution and the emergence of new possibilities. 

     Thus, the human soul incarnates into the physical world so that through a body it may connect to this world in ways that promote and further wholeness and evolution. That, in fact, our lives so often fail in this intent and create obstruction, disintegration, conflict and a lack of wholeness is not due to the evil of the world. It comes from our inadequacy in fully understanding the holistic paradigm and the principles of incarnation itself as a process of holopoiesis or wholeness-making. Without this, we fail to use the talents and capacities of the incarnational process to bless ourselves, each other and our world.

     Years ago, David Spangler mentioned to a spiritual being who was one of his non-physical colleagues that many people seemed to feel that humanity’s problems arose from being too material and too caught up in incarnation and the earth. This being responded wryly, “The problem with humanity is not that you’re too incarnated; it’s that you’re not incarnated enough!”

     A desire to understand this comment more deeply led David to undertake a spiritual research project into the nature of incarnation using the talents and capacities of collaboration with the spiritual worlds that he had developed over many years of contact and clairvoyant perception. This research, which is ongoing and constantly evolving as more and more people take part and contribute their insights and discoveries, resulted in incarnation theory. Incarnational spirituality is a specific application in the area of spiritual practice and personal consciousness development of the findings of incarnation theory.

     The value and importance of Incarnational Spirituality lie in the following:

• It is a direct response to the need for wholeness and healing in our world at this time;.
• It is an application of the emerging holistic paradigm in the area of spirituality and personal development;
• It offers specific, practical tools and insights that enhance an individual’s “talent” for incarnation, leading to greater personal happiness, creativity and wholeness;
• It offers specific, practical tools and insights in creating wholeness through our connections and engagement with the world, thereby addressing the comment of a non-physical being that we “are not incarnated enough;”
• It is a spirituality that focuses upon the sovereignty and uniqueness of each individual and the value this holds for the world and the creation of wholeness.At a time when the world is filled with such large problems, challenges, organizations and philosophies that an individual may feel lost and powerless, Incarnational Spirituality both affirms and gives practical tools to unfold the spiritual and creative powers within each of us;
• It is a spirituality that affirms connections, collaboration, co-creativity and partnership as essential elements in crafting wholeness in our world;
• It is a spirituality of partnership and collaboration with nature to restore and nurture the ecological wholeness of the planet;
• It is a spirituality that affirms the reality of the non-physical worlds and the existence of spiritual allies. We believe that creating wholeness in the world includes collaboration across the veil between the physical and non-physical halves of the earth's ecology. Incarnational Spirituality offers practical and safe tools for partnering with spiritual forces in the creation of wholeness.
• It is a spirituality of service and the development of an “energy activism” to use resources of consciousness and spirit for healing and blessing within the world.

Incarnational Cosmology Essays

The research into Incarnational Spirituality and incarnational theory has resulted in new ways of looking at the world, at its complementary non-physical realms—the “Second Ecology”--and at the relationship between them.  It has also produced a specific outline of the process by which a Soul takes incarnation.  Although this process is highly individualized, there are generalized patterns which form around the four basic principles of Incarnation:  Identity and Intentionality, Boundaries, Engagement, and Emergence

     Much of this cosmology and process is presented in specific Lorian classes such as the Path of the Chalice or The Second Ecology. In addition, Self-Directed Study Modules contain classes that you can use at your own pace and without time constraints. Check the What’s New page to see the current classes or workshops that may be occurring in your area.

     Here you will find essays about the Incarnational Cosmology.

Incarnational Theory

by David Spangler

Incarnational theory is the study of the processes of intentionality, spirit and energy that create incarnation. Specifically these are the processes by which the soul of an individual manifests and engages with the physical world, but more generally it is about the means by which any idea or consciousness takes on form and expression within a particular environment.

Incarnational theory deals with the relationship between the physical and non-physical domains of the world as part of a larger wholeness of consciousness and being. To research and develop this theory requires engagement with the metaphysical side of life using transpersonal and supersensible means. These include clairvoyance, contemplative perception and inquiry, intuition, dreams, visions and communication with non-physical beings as colleagues. The information so gained is tested through practice and experimentation in daily life and through peer review. 

Click here to read the rest of Incarnational Theory.

Incarnational Principles

by David Spangler

DNA uses four constituent molecules, called bases, which can be sequenced in innumerable ways to carry an organism’s specific genetic information. In an analogous way, the process of incarnation is an interrelationship between four principles: Identity, Boundary, Engagement and Emergence. 

Identity gives purpose and intent; it names what is seeking to incarnate and is the generative source which initiates the incarnational process. It sets up the basic organizational matrix or structure that will determine the nature of what incarnates.

Click here to read the rest of Incarnational Theory.

The Four Faces of Home

Homesickness
When my daughter Kaitlin was sixteen years old, she went to Thailand for a year as a Rotary Club-sponsored foreign exchange student.  As her parents, Julie and I were cautioned not to contact her for at least two months.  “Homesickness is the greatest problem at first,” we were told, “and contact with her family will only make it worse.”

     It could be said that humanity suffers from a case of planetary homesickness.  Particularly in the technological societies of the West, we seem to be seeking someplace else to be other than where we are.  For some that other place is beyond this world in a transcendent or spiritual domain; for others, it’s in some technological utopia or even physically beyond the planet in colonies on other worlds around other stars.  The evidence of our homesickness lies in the sickness of our planetary home and the ecological crises that confront us.  We act towards the world, towards the land and the seas, the rivers and the air, and the creatures that share this planet with us as if they were all strangers, disconnected from us and our human interests, not part of our tribe, not part of our home.
Click here to read the rest of The Four Faces of Home.