January 5th, The Twelfth Holy Night - the Inner Intention to Devote

   Thoughts  
Here we are at the Twelfth Holy Night and the twelfth message about inner intentions.

Tonight’s inner intention is to devote. When the soul experiences love, not as something to think about or feel about, but as something to do, it devotes its will to the nurturing of the other. Within our inner life of self exists the pure and powerful intention to devote - to intuitively put our thinking, feeling and willing at service to the other. This intention exists throughout our lives but manifests only in and for rare moments.

In those rare moments the great paradox occurs. In devotedly serving the other, we find our true selves. We become love. And this happens in all devotions. If you clean a toilet with devotion, you become love.  If you listen to a piece of music with devotion, you become love. If you draw a circle with devotion, you become love. If you birth a child with devotion, you become love.  If you look a stranger in the eye with devotion, you become love.

Do not make devotion a promise or a vow.  A promise or a vow is a picture that defines and confines.  Devotion is not a commitment nor is it sacrifice, it is a happening in the freedom of the moment. I do not diminish the goodness of making and keeping promises and vows, but I suggest that devotion is much more than either because there is not story or drama living in devotion. Promises and vows are the result of story - the picture we strive for.

The source of inner devotion lies deep in the unconscious realms of our souls where there is no sense of result or outcome. Devotion is the result of devotion. And that is more than enough.  Have confidence in your inner intention to devote.  Know that the intention is there in the core of your being and it will manifest in your will as it is meant to.

Another reassuring aspect of devotion lives in its growing strength and presence.  When you put aside thought pictures and emotions, devotion surfaces. With each moment of devotion, putting aside the thoughts and feelings becomes easier and devotion comes forward more gracefully. With this growing strength and presence, the moments of devotion begin to last longer and come more frequently and the oneness with love and freedom becomes more whole, real and permeating.

The Twelve Holy Nights are framed by Nativity, the innocent devotion of the newborn, and Epiphany, the profound devotion of the wise heart. The Holy Nights are devotional.  Reading these messages as devotional practice and seeking and finding what lives behind them (not my interpretive articulation, but the archetype I hope to point you toward) is what liberates and strengthens you for the coming year. Spiritual beings enter our will through the portal of our inner devotion during the Holy Nights.


Rudolf Steiner gave us an exercise that strengthens the will. Steiner asks us to chose a meaningless act, such as taking your watch off and putting it on your other wrist then returning it to the original wrist, and to perform this at a particular time of day, each day for 30 days.  If we fill this meaningless act with true devotion our capacity to devote strengthens.  

To give a practical illustration from my own life:  I really struggle with managing the financial administration of my life. My financial life feels very "other" to me. In our financial lives, we have a great chance to materialize spirit and spiritualize matter.  Once I engage with my finances, I feel the love and freedom of devotion.  But, I resist. I feel incompetent. I disregard.  I feel disgust for my failure. I fantasize.  These judgments create huge obstacles to the flow of my work and my life.  My main resolve for the coming year is become devotional in my financial life.

Having written these last five messages perhaps I need to begin with wonder. I have so much stuff clogging my inner emptiness with prejudice around financial management.  Or perhaps I should work in the other direction and ask myself about my gratitude for my financial life.  Ironically, I would have little difficulty in being devoted to another's financial management as caregiving is an easy devotion for me.

As you work with the inner intention to devote, remember the spiritual world responds to our devotion to personal truth. This response is why we feel called to reflect and consider just what is true about our lives at this sacred time of year.

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What area of your life shrivels from lack of devotion?

  2  
Do you trust in the presence of inner devotion in your soul?

  3 
Where in your life does devotion surface gracefully?

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Is it a greater struggle to devote your soul life to parts of your own existence, or to the existence of others?