What Is a Sacred Visitation?
By Ceci Miller
Sacred Visitations
Gifts of Grace That Transform the Heart And Awaken the Soul
Once you know that nothing never happens, and that everything is a teaching, you're fully prepared to recognize a sacred visitation when it comes. Just for a moment now, remember a time when for some reason your mind . . . stopped . . . thinking. Remember what that's like, the open spaciousness, the simplicity of a moment in which all your thoughts are emptied out.
Suddenly you are left with nothing but right now in front of you, behind you, above you, and below you. Into that moment something inserts itself. It is definitely something, even though nothing seems to be happening. That something is a call to go deeper. When you answer, you say yes to God. You say yes to spiritual awakening. It doesn't matter whether in that moment you are asleep and dreaming or staring at the wall or baking cookies or washing your car or singing your child to sleep or even arguing with your husband. In that moment when your heart says yes, you have drawn back the curtain on life's mystery. You must watch closely and listen, alert to everything that happens, every detail you are shown.
Some visitations are truly "visits" in the most literal sense. In the book Sacred Visitations, I shared how my own spiritual awakening occurred during a meditative sleep state. In my case, a guide actually appeared and took me to a beautiful, pastoral place where I met people who later showed up in my life playing very important roles. But the most significant thing about that sacred visitation was that it transformed my heart in an instant. Before the experience, I was down on life and myself, deeply uncertain whether there was any sense at all in seeking God. After the experience, when I woke the next day, I was changed. Everything looked different and brighter and, most of all, I was absolutely certain that I, my life and everything in it, belonged to God. I understood that I was involved in an essential process of returning Home.
This change of heart is the acid test of a sacred visitation. Such visitations are gifts of grace. They may be dramatic, outrageous, and exciting, or they may consist of a quiet inner nudge that emphasizes all that we deeply know, a message that prevents us from ignoring our own wisdom any longer. The purpose of a sacred visitation, or spiritual experience, if you like, is to change us, to move us deeper into living as our true Self. Some people call this project spiritual progress. We're saying yes to God. We say yes to God first by accepting that the sacred experience we have just had is both real and significant—and then by taking the time to unfold its mysteries. When we take this second step toward understanding, we're saying yes to a transformation of the heart. We say yes to our soul's illumination. We don't even have to know why we're saying yes. We simply find ourselves trusting in that Divine Something we've Always Known but Couldn't Quite Pin Down. We begin listening to its subtle inner directions, and we keep going. In this way, step by sacred step, we make our way to divine freedom.
Ceci Miller is the author of Sacred Visitations: Gifts of Grace That Transform the Heart And Awaken the Soul, endorsed by Chicken Soul Author Marci Shimoff, Mars/Venus author John Gray, and bestselling author John Bradshaw. The book's touching, often magical, stories guide readers beyond mere memoir into the profoundly personal world of their own sacred experiences. Ceci's workshops teach the 5 Steps of Sacred Awareness. A student of meditation since 1976, Ceci's heartfelt stories of spiritual experience and contemplation--shared in articles, books, and public talks--have inspired meditators and seekers throughout the world.
 
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